High on life, I have a $50 blue cheese wheel!
Look what I have here:
This is a wheel of Maytag Blue Cheese. Each wedge costs $12.29 yet weighs only 8oz.
Please don't confuse the Maytag Blue Cheese company with the Mayfield dairy company, nor with the Maytag appliance company, for those two businesses only hawk cheap wares to the masses and quite frankly I am above them.
Maytag Cheese Company, however, makes a high quality product suited to someone such as myself. Some brands that cost a lot aren't worth the extra cost, you're just paying for a brand name. Other brands that cost a lot are actually worth it because there's a world of difference. This is one of those.
Here's what Wikipedia says about the company:
"The process for making Maytag Blue Cheese was discovered and patented by two Iowa State University microbiologists, Clarence Lane and Bernard W. Hammer. Roquefort, another type of blue cheese, had been made for a number of years in Europe, but attempts to manufacture a similar cheese in the United States had thus far been unsuccessful. Difficulties encountered in making these types of cheeses produced a less than satisfactory product, and quality control would have been disastrous.
The problems encountered with producing Roquefort type cheeses in the United States for distribution were the lengthy time required to develop the artisan flavor, the mold growth not being uniform, the quality being below average for numerous lots produced, and the color of the curd being too dark.
The process begins with homogenizing the milk that will be used for the cheese. In making Maytag Blue Cheese, the cream is separated from the milk, homogenized and then added back into the now skim milk. This would typically occur between 80o and 100o Fahrenheit and 2000 to 3500 pounds of pressure. This would allow for proper fat hydrolysis, which affects the flavor of the cheese.
There is a ripening period prior to adding rennet (an enzyme that coagulates milk into curds and whey) to the cheese. A typical usage would be to add 3 ounces of rennet per 100 pounds of milk, allowing it to set in a temperature range of 85o to 86o degrees Fahrenheit. Better results were achieved using 4 ounces of rennet per 100 pounds of milk and setting in a higher than usual temperature range of 90o to 92o Fahrenheit.
According to Lane and Hammer's records, their alterations caused the cheese-making process to speed up from this point forward, with the time in between setting, cutting and dipping nearly cut in half. Also, after dipping the cheese and allowing it to cook in hot whey, the draining time was cut from 20-30 minutes to 3-5 minutes.
Penicillium is then added to the finished product, which produces its characteristic green veins.
After the rounds of cheese are made by hand, the cheese is aged in specially designed caves where they are exposed to high humidity and cool temperatures.
The company still uses the same time-consuming method of hand making cheese, using milk only from local dairy farms."
I don't like most kinds of cheeses. I hate any kind of melted cheese because of the texture, except when it's on pizza or some kind of Italian dish where it solidifies some by the time you eat it. I LOVE blue cheese though, and this is the best kind in the world. It tastes SO GOOD!
Before I discovered Maytag I was getting a cheaper brand and there really is an immense gulf between the two in terms of quality and taste. With the cheap brand I didn't really care if I ate it or not. With this, it's so good that I could unwrap one and eat it by itself like a candy bar.
I've actually got five 8oz wedges of it right now. I had a sixth, but I've already eaten it. I made tomato and blue cheese sandwiches out of it and it was so good.
This is a wheel of Maytag Blue Cheese. Each wedge costs $12.29 yet weighs only 8oz.
Please don't confuse the Maytag Blue Cheese company with the Mayfield dairy company, nor with the Maytag appliance company, for those two businesses only hawk cheap wares to the masses and quite frankly I am above them.
Maytag Cheese Company, however, makes a high quality product suited to someone such as myself. Some brands that cost a lot aren't worth the extra cost, you're just paying for a brand name. Other brands that cost a lot are actually worth it because there's a world of difference. This is one of those.
Here's what Wikipedia says about the company:
"The process for making Maytag Blue Cheese was discovered and patented by two Iowa State University microbiologists, Clarence Lane and Bernard W. Hammer. Roquefort, another type of blue cheese, had been made for a number of years in Europe, but attempts to manufacture a similar cheese in the United States had thus far been unsuccessful. Difficulties encountered in making these types of cheeses produced a less than satisfactory product, and quality control would have been disastrous.
The problems encountered with producing Roquefort type cheeses in the United States for distribution were the lengthy time required to develop the artisan flavor, the mold growth not being uniform, the quality being below average for numerous lots produced, and the color of the curd being too dark.
The process begins with homogenizing the milk that will be used for the cheese. In making Maytag Blue Cheese, the cream is separated from the milk, homogenized and then added back into the now skim milk. This would typically occur between 80o and 100o Fahrenheit and 2000 to 3500 pounds of pressure. This would allow for proper fat hydrolysis, which affects the flavor of the cheese.
There is a ripening period prior to adding rennet (an enzyme that coagulates milk into curds and whey) to the cheese. A typical usage would be to add 3 ounces of rennet per 100 pounds of milk, allowing it to set in a temperature range of 85o to 86o degrees Fahrenheit. Better results were achieved using 4 ounces of rennet per 100 pounds of milk and setting in a higher than usual temperature range of 90o to 92o Fahrenheit.
According to Lane and Hammer's records, their alterations caused the cheese-making process to speed up from this point forward, with the time in between setting, cutting and dipping nearly cut in half. Also, after dipping the cheese and allowing it to cook in hot whey, the draining time was cut from 20-30 minutes to 3-5 minutes.
Penicillium is then added to the finished product, which produces its characteristic green veins.
After the rounds of cheese are made by hand, the cheese is aged in specially designed caves where they are exposed to high humidity and cool temperatures.
The company still uses the same time-consuming method of hand making cheese, using milk only from local dairy farms."
I don't like most kinds of cheeses. I hate any kind of melted cheese because of the texture, except when it's on pizza or some kind of Italian dish where it solidifies some by the time you eat it. I LOVE blue cheese though, and this is the best kind in the world. It tastes SO GOOD!
Before I discovered Maytag I was getting a cheaper brand and there really is an immense gulf between the two in terms of quality and taste. With the cheap brand I didn't really care if I ate it or not. With this, it's so good that I could unwrap one and eat it by itself like a candy bar.
I've actually got five 8oz wedges of it right now. I had a sixth, but I've already eaten it. I made tomato and blue cheese sandwiches out of it and it was so good.