Wow. I’m a vegetarian and didn’t know about rennet. Thank you!
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I like Mercey Valley, Bega sharp and bites, extra sharp parmesan and brie. I buy Black and Gold cheap slice cheese to give my dog her tablets.
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Not wanting to sound like I’m promoting a product here but Nimbin (Norco) Cheese is a good one for vegetarians.
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I find Woolworths Select Tasty Reduced Fat Shredded Cheese 500G for $4.50 quite reasonable … I divide it into 4 and put 3 in the freezer… this way it lasts me for the whole month without going mouldy.
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I love Aldi’s 36 month Vintage Tasty which appears to come from Warnambool. They also stock a 24 month vintage tasty if I can’t get the 36 month version. For some reason Aldi does not put them side by side on the shelf. This maybe because it then becomes obvious that the pack size of the 36 month one does not match the 24 month size but the price of both is the same.
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[quote=“g.simos, post:46, topic:14809”]
[/quote] Must head up to Aldis and buy a few packs . Thanks for the heads up .
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Mainland Vintage 500g, Devondale Mozzarella block, Mil Lel parmesan, Pittas Haloumi, various Fettas, various brie etc but mainly King Island
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My choice is Kraft cheese singles.But now under a different name.But since the change over in that time i notice once again supermarkets are pushing another product out of the store.Notice Coles no longer sells any of the singles apart from Vegemite ones.And woolies still sells them but have noticed also since the change they have moved them up to the top shelf and not as many up for sale as their once was
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I think it’s really about time that we all realised that much of what we buy and how it is packaged is usually , these days , a board room decision . I’ve noticed what you say regarding the cheese too . I think it is a case of not what " we " want to buy anymore but what they want to present to us to buy with profitability being the main factor that governs all .
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Yes. There are a lot of products whose branded versions have disappeared from Colesworth shelves, only to be replaced by the Woolscole version. I suspect that in many cases nothing but that packaging has changed, but there are some items in which the quality is very obviously different.
My wife and I now buy all meat products from the butcher next to the supermarket. The difference in taste is obvious to us; the difference in price, less so.
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I have noticed that when Choice does product testing, Coles and Woolworths store branded products are reported differently to that of Aldi.
For example, Coles Australian Pizza Blend Shredded compared to Westacre (Aldi) Tasty Light Shredded Cheddar Cheese. For standardised naming convention, should it be ‘Aldi Westacre Tasty Light Shredded Cheddar Cheese’?
I also understand Hillview is a Woolworths store brand, but its naming is both different to Woolworths , Coles and Aldi products. Maybe this one should also be ‘Woolworths Hillview Tasty Shredded Cheese’ to be consistent?
Having a standard naming convention across all products also allows easier filtering…such as a particular store one may visit regularly, one can see how all that store’s branded products stack up.
I haven’t checked others but they might also need to be done.
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My wife likes Jarlsberg, Coon Cheddar and Coles Swiss Style Cheese Slices.
I like Coles Havarti Cheese Slices
We both like Jindi Triple Cream Brie, Warrnambool Heritage Lightly Smoked Cheese, Perfect Italiano Pizza Plus Cheese and Perfect Italiano Parmesan Cheese.
And our little dog loves all cheese.
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, I’ll see if we can make this easier.I note that the milder cheese styles like mozzarella generally rate higher than ‘tasty’. My guess (only that) is that it is easier to make a mild cheese that requires little maturation to a price and that marketeers view this part of the market as competing primarily on price. Would any cheese makers, providores or such like to comment on this?
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The Mozzarella cheese that I make only takes a bit over an hour, and just a few hours rest for the salt to fully diffuse throughout the mass of cheese. I expect mechanised production lines would be faster. No long term maturation and storage required. Some of the easier to make hard/tasty cheeses require a few months at 10C, others much longer, so I’d expect that to add to the cost.
I’m planning on making a new batch tomorrow - yield of about 880g mozzarella from 6 litres of locally produced milk. Works out at about $16/kg just for ingredients, but I’m paying over $2/litre for milk. It does work out a bit more expensive than buying Devondale mozzarella in the supermarket.
Cheaper supermarket milks are generally unusable for cheese making, due to the addition (adulteration?) of varying amounts of long life milk, used to match supply with demand.
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You must be blessed, Gordon.
/Obligatory Monty Python reference
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And here is today’s cheese, 920g from 6 litres of milk
I haven’t tried grating it, but with soft cheese you can harden it up in the freezer for a while to make it easier to grate
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An interesting observation in our household.
One shoppers preference is usually for imported European cheeses, even though the same types of cheese are available from Australian producers.
Apparently our cheeses don’t taste as good, compared to Danish Blue Costello, or a packaged Italian Gorgonzola, or Norwegian Jarlsberg (can’t call that one Swiss style).
It remains unclear if this is a what you were used to at an earlier age, marketing mind control effect, or simply a factor of Australian producers being second class and their cheeses being genuinely not as well flavoured. Something in the culture? I tend to agree, but nearly always purchase Australian made options when it is my turn.
For mozzarella, and feta mainly used in cooking it does not seem to matter that much, although traditionally made varieties always seem to taste better.
Given a choice Begga Extra Tasty and Cheddar are great, or Mersey Valley Classic Club Cheddar Cheese are all perfect. The King Island Brand Soft Cheeses, Brie etc are also great to my tastes.
P.s. great to see @gordon homemade mozzarella. We are always running out, although 6l of the local Maleny Dairy’s milk might be a good choice.
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For cheese platters I buy:
Bega Vintage Cheddar,
Heritage or King Island Camembert or Brie,
Castello Danish Blue,
Montefiore Ovolini.
As a base for dips and spreads:
Philly,
Floridia Ricotta.
To grate on Pasta, Pizza, etc.,
Perfect Italian Parmesan, Mozzarella.
For myself:
Any fat-reduced cheese on
special.
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