TASTING ?

 

To enjoy your cheeses in optimal conditions, remove them from the refrigerator a little less than one hour before serving to allow them to reach room temperature slowly.

 

In this way you will benefit from all their aromas.  When tasting several cheeses, start with the mildest cheeses (fresh goat cheeses) and grow through the flavour range to finish with blue cheeses.

 

 

 

 

 

CHEESE AND PREGNANCY ?

 

Two illnesses dangerous for the fetus can potentially be transmitted through food.

 

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic infection generally transmitted through the mouth when toxoplama gondii cysts are accidentally eaten. The cat is the most common host. Congenital transmittance from mother to fetus can also occur. Traces of toxoplasmosis have been found in goat meat.

 

Listeria is a bacteria that can be found in the soil, resistant to cold but not to heat. It may develop in some foods such as raw or insufficiently cooked meat, fish, shell fish as well as in delicatessen such as potted meats and also in (some) cheeses. Listeria can infect raw or pasteurized soft, bloomy rind cheeses. For the pasteurized milk cheeses the contamination occurs in the refrigerator.

 

*  Cooked paste cheeses (Comté, Beaufort ..) are safe to eat. Listeria does not develop in cheeses older than 3 months because they no longer contain enough humidity. All the better because they are the richest in calcium.

* Yoghurt, cream cheese and mozzarella are safe to eat.

*  Cooking kills listeria and you may indulge in cooked paste cheeses, raclette or fondue.

* If you are not immunized against toxoplasmosis we advise against goat cheese

 

 

 

 

Rinds, should one eat them ?

 

The answer depends on the cheese and the situation. Most rinds are edible and intensely tasty. The cheesemonger has invested all its passion and know-how to obtain the finest rind. The soft cheeses with a bloomy rind (Camembert- and Brie-type cheeses) or washed rind (Munster- or Epoisses-type) as well as the veined cheeses and some non-cooked pressed cheeses with soft rinds (raclette) are best enjoyed with their rind. Unless you prefer without rind. Individual taste prevails.

 

Nonetheless, the non-cooked pressed cheese, the rinds covered with a thin layer of wax or paraffin wax (Gouda) are not edible. Others are not unfit for consumption but are too hard to be eaten, such as the cooked pressed cheeses and more generally the very large hard cheeses.

 

…

 

 

 

THE "HOLES", WHERE ARE THEY FROM ?

 

The ripening begins once the cheese is moulded, after pressing and salting.

That is when it all begins.

A very specific fermentation begins: the Propionibacterium develops under the effect of heat and produces carbon dioxide gas which is trapped in the cheese to form bubbles. They are called “holes” or “eyes”. This explains why the cheese rounds, originally flat, bulge while ripening.

 

The propionibacterium is to be found in all cheeses. It converts the lactic acid into propionic acid and acetic acid to produce the character taste specific to hard cheeses. Bacteria love heat: the higher the temperature in the ripening cellar, the more eyes/holes in the cheese. Ripening of hard cheeses take place in fresh cellars (10-14°C). Warmer cellars (17-24°C) are optimal environments for the development of Propionibacterium. These hard cheeses spend on average 5 weeks in the warmer cellars.

Hence, eyes/holes result from the choices made by the Fromager.

 

By the way, there are no 'eyes' in Gruyere cheese. You will however find them in Emmenthal (and Leerdammer)…

 

 

 

 

 

ALLERGIES or INTOLLERANCE ?

 

Although some digestive symptoms may be similar the similarity stops there. Because everything else separates the milk protein allergy from the milk lactose intolerance.

 

The allergy to the milk protein is mostly common in children under 6 years of age. The solution is to ban all dairy products and replace them by a special infant milk. In most cases this allergy disappears spontaneously and milk and dairy products may again be eaten.

 

Lactose is a specific carbohydrate of milk. Our bodies produce an enzyme, lactase, which splits the lactose molecule. Those who are lactose intolerant lack the necessary amount of the lactase enzyme in their digestive system. Instead, bacteria in their colon ferment the lactose which causes much of the discomfort associated with lactose intolerance. Total absence of lactase is extremely rare and most individuals retains the capacity to digest cheese to a certain extent. The approach must hence be individual.

 

 Advice

 

Only milk, fresh cheese (cheese strainer, fresh cheeses,..) and other fresh milk products contain lactose.

Recent research finds that 80% of people intolerant to lactose digest easily up to 12gr of lactose per day, the equivalent of a glass of milk. Each individual must test his intolerance level. Good to know: milk is best digested when full-fat, flavoured, in smaller quantities or incorporated in ready meals.

 

To eat fermented milk products :

 

• There is almost no lactose left in ripened cheeses because it is eliminated during drainage. The remaining traces of lactose is pre-digested by bacteria during ripening.

• Butter doesn’t contain any lactose.

• Fresh cream contains some lactose but as one usually consumes a small amount of it, it has no significant impact on digestion.

• Yogurts, natural or flavoured, contain lactose but lactic ferments improve digestion.