Cheese in the US

Thanks for raising this OP. It is a matter which bugs me enormously and has provided no end of entertainment when confronted with US cheese "conoisseurs".

Wisonsin and Vermont produce lots of "cheese" and "cheddar". Americans think they have "cheddar". They do not. US cheese = space cheese. I would dearly love to find one which would make me think otherwise but the tendency is to have ill-matured, rubbery and salty products. In fact they basically only exist to be melted to provide another condiment.

I do have strong feelings about this topic, and do feel very glad that I can just wander into Paxton's and find an array of top quality stuff. We are very lucky here in the UK as we have fantastic cheese and we also can easily get hold of the top notch French stuff too.
 
Voltar said:
Thanks for raising this OP. It is a matter which bugs me enormously and has provided no end of entertainment when confronted with US cheese "conoisseurs".

Wisonsin and Vermont produce lots of "cheese" and "cheddar". Americans think they have "cheddar". They do not. US cheese = space cheese. I would dearly love to find one which would make me think otherwise but the tendency is to have ill-matured, rubbery and salty products. In fact they basically only exist to be melted to provide another condiment.

I do have strong feelings about this topic, and do feel very glad that I can just wander into Paxton's and find an array of top quality stuff. We are very lucky here in the UK as we have fantastic cheese and we also can easily get hold of the top notch French stuff too.
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You just haven't been to the right places, I can walk into my local supermarket and find a cheddar as good as anything that I have eve purchased in the UK, in fact i would go as far as saying it is perhaps easier to get high quality, mature cheddar than in the UK.

Cheddar is one thing the Americans do well and is easy to get. Yes, almost everywhere and everyone buys processed plastic rubber that they believe is cheddar, and even when you buy supposed "extra sharp" it is nothing more than rubber, there is still an abundance of very mature cheddar cheeses.

My local supermarket has a cheese selection that resembles the best supermarkets of Switzerland and France, and where most of the common cheeses are found. I can source Gorgonzola, multiple maturities of gruyere, true ementaller, port salut, vacherin, Roquefort, stilton, raclette, various goats cheeses, Munster, pecorino, Camembert, Brie, etc. etc.

The main difference for me having spent many years in Switzerland is the market places don't have many cheese stalls and the cheese selections are not that extensive or special in the markets. But in that regards it is really no different to any markets I have been to in the UK. In Switzerland. You would get all sorts of special cheeses, limited additions, non pasteurized, small batch made, extra mature cheeses etc.


No cheese is certainly not a problem in the US. Far more limiting is the terrible selection of salamis and preserved meats. ok you have pastrami and corned beef but good pfefferbiesser or gendarmes are hard to find. Again, the UK is not particularly great in that regard either. You go into a French supermarket and look at all the saucissons, that is what I really miss
 
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As far as I am concerned French and British cheese are the gods of the cheese world. Well matured cheddar, stilton, brie and Mont d'or (a.k.a. Vacherin du Haut-Doubs) all available extremely fresh. The world of unpasteurised cheese is something the Brits and French have easy access to and it is an outstanding and uncompromised selection of cheese.
 
I think its a cultural thing more than anything.

Cheese and biscuits has been a staple of cuisine, especially as a dinner course here and in France forever. In North America, I think cheese has often been just viewed as a condiment more than anything, which is why it has become so popular in bottle squeezed versions and very bland mild cheeses.

I believe America has embraced finer dining over the past decade, so likely the cheese selection has got much better as people demand better from the suppliers.

When I lived in Canada, I remember the cheese selection wasn't great. The irony is though that I love a bit of mature Canadian Cheddar which I often buy over here, but couldn't find any in IGA, Nesters or Marketplace supermarkets that resembled it.
 
American's do have some nice cheeses, the *jack cheeses are quite nice, as are the italian ones... But yes, "American" and liquid nacho cheese (which isn't actually cheese from what I recall from some show on Discovery) are rather junk-foody... But tbf, I love it. Can't beat a Cheese Wiz sandwich, or how Wiz melts into a Philly Cheesesteak!
 
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