Aussie Bloggers

I’ve taken a fancy of late to cheese. Those of you who grew up on cheese and vegemite sandwiches will remember, as I do, the yellowish rindless, 8 oz. blocks of unprocessed (’natural’) cheddar in packets of pale blue. In the 1950s Kraft fed the entire country with these rectangular blocks of strangely bland and chewy cheddar. It was familiar, it was easy to make, and it stored and carried well. If you were a person of exotic taste or a recent European migrant or, very commonly, both, you could get yourself a bit of gouda if you persevered.

Now you can hardly turn a corner without bumping into another little deli full of gourmet cheese from boutique cheeseries. They spring up overnight, both the delicatessens and the cheese dairies.

Artisan cheese-makers are turning out surprising stuff, cheeses with names we’ve only read about and cheeses with names we’ve never heard before. Raclette, a cheese traditionally eaten hot, appenzell, leblachon, quark, mild paneer for Indian cooking, mutschli and the incredible sfogliata, a slab of soft cheese you fill with whatever you want and simply roll up! There’s cheese from sheep, cheese from goats, buffalo milk cheese and biodynamic, organic cheese from heritage-listed rainforest.

Plenty of these little artisan cheeseries introduce you to the delicious labours of the ancient craft of cheese-making, they take you round the dairy and the cheese rooms, through the creamery and they show you where they pack the pungent product. Make sure you get a taste along the way.

And then - the sheer enjoyment from a simple wedge of crumbly red cheddar or a sharp shaving of tart parmesan. Think of that tangy, salty feta, crumbly and rindless, and the pure bite of pecorino romano. Or the Tasmanian Heritage Traditional Camembert, organic Kervella goat cheese from Gidgegannup, the lemony taste of Manouri, the sweet Kasseri, velvety Gippsland Blue, King River Gold with its pink rind, the incredibly nutty Pyengana Cheddar, and the creamy Seal Bay Cheese, an extravagant, triple cream cheese made from fresh King Island milk, enriched with pure cream. (Goodbye waist).

How can life be bad when there is the anticipation of lunch — crusty bread, a handful of fat black olives and a creamy rich, buttery brie with its smooth, downy rind and that faint after-taste of earthy mushroom?

There’s a lot more to cheese than the homogenised supermarket variety. Fair dinkum.