The rubbery and soft stuff in the strainer is the "milk plastic," called casein, an essential part of cheese-making.
Enjoy eating cheese as part of a cheese platter.
Soft-ripened cheeses are different; the rind is part of the cheese.
( If the cheese is too cold, then during the time it takes to cook, the outer part of the cheese will melt but the inner part will still be too solid and not melted. And if kept in the oil longer to get the inside melted, then the breading will burn ).
When part of the cheese industry moved towards pasteurisation (a move fiercely and successfully resisted by Hodgson and many of our finest artisan cheesemakers), Colston Bassett ditched its unpasteurised stilton.
For the first time in the UK you can now try this raw variety of the cheese as part of a Scandi cheese plate at London cheese emporium La Fromagerie, but for a lighter, more caramel version I always pick up Synnove Gudbrandsdalsost when in Norway.
This is a normal part of melting the cheese stick.
These are usually served as part of a spread of cheeses and cured meats, but the vegetables are your healthiest bet (and avoid the salami slices, which tend to be fatty and processed).
(Indeed, any cheese aficionado will consider this the best part of a well-aged cheese).
WEEKEND The Weekend Miser column on Friday, about a competition to find the best grilled cheese sandwich in New York, misstated part of the name of the cheese that Brian Keyser, proprietor of Casellula Cheese & Wine Café in Manhattan, said he would use in his entry.
Indeed, Harbutt's eyes probably wouldn't have lit up quite as brightly as James's when told by the Evenlode cheese maker Peter Humphries that the naturally occurring mold in his part of Somerset turns some cheese fluorescent under ultraviolet light.
