A little rant about nothing really...

K

karennoca

Well-known member
I don't get mozzarella cheese! There, I said it...

Tried it in many recipes, fresh, brined, pre-sliced, all blah! Came across a nice salad recipe from a chef I follow using mozzarella pearls. Salad was great but with a good Fontina chunks. I did find mozzarella pearls this week in a local deli, cute little balls in a brine. Came home and made my usual lunch salad. This one had smoked sun-dried tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, marinated artichoke hearts, thinly sliced radish, and green onions, with a champagne vinegar vinaigrette. I added moz pearls and they were totally bland, added nothing to the salad that I could see. Had a salad earlier this week and used a chipotle white cheddar that was so much better and added a punch. BellaVitano Sartori is especially full flavored, love the Black Pepper variety for my lunch salads.

:Latest irritant is that for years, I have been looking for a good commercial meatball. I keep homemade eggplant meatballs in my freezer, but sometimes when I am out I'd like to have a commercial grab and go meatball.. All the ones I checked out this week had a calorie content for 3 to 4 meatballs in the 250 to 350 range. Really! I had no idea meatballs had so many calories!

I never used pork in mine and the ones I see in the stores usually have some pork or sausage...perhaps that is the culprit.

Anyway, thanks for listening, just needed to do a good rant this morning, as I sit in front of my computer, eating a fresh orange picked from our tree, and a Momofuko egg, while watching the yard couple trim some overgrown shrubbery. A chore I have happily released from my list.

 
Just watched Cook's Country do a recipe that called for a Wisconsin cheese that...

...is, evidently, similar to mozzarella but has more flavor and tang. Since that cheese is only (commonly) available in the upper mid-west, the cooks used Monterrey Jack and NOT commercially available mozzarella. They basically made the point that mozzarella is tasteless and Jack had a tang that mimicked the cheese available in the upper mid-west.

 
That is great and I do like jack cheese and have it and extra sharp cheddar on hand at all times

along with Fontina, Havarti, Gouda, Emmentaler, goat cheese, Chevere, Fresh Parmesan Reggiano, Romano, and a slew of others to try.. Can you tell I love cheese I do love trying all the fusion types with, jalapeno, caramelized onion, chives, rosemary, garlic and so on.

 
I agree! Not into mozz either smileys/wink.gif

We much prefer sharp cheddar, parm and Swiss, but have cut way back on cheese and need ones with more flavor for less fat. Colleen

 
Hey, a question: Down here, in S. Cal, you used to be able to get a nice, buttery Jack cheese . . .

but all to often the Monterey Jack I find tastes more like a mild cheddar. Why is it so hard to find? This applies to mass market cheese--I probably just gave myself the answer, the jack I usually see is the mass market, or store brand cheese. Mass market used to be buttery but is not so anymore.

Sonoma jack is the kind of jack I like to eat and I love the stuff. Nice and buttery, good non-cheddar texture.

Right now if I want something mass market for a good, buttery melting cheese I buy Muenster by the chunk. I use El Pato Enchilada sauce (a tomato/chile sauce) and strips of Muenter to make too-die-for pans of enchiladas.

 
Can you still get Teleme Cheese in SoCal? I used to buy it a lot then it disappeared from here

Buttery, really tasty melting cheese. I think possibly a goat cheese but I'm not sure. Wonderful cheese.

 
I have had this experience here in Redding (N0 CA)

A product I love, including a local unsalted Butter disappears, I check with store manager or corporate office or store staff only to be told it has been discontinued...that is all they say. Last episode of this was an unsalted butter made by a dairy near my home town of Eureka CA in Humboldt Co. I called the dairy and they said absolutely not . I went back to the store and told them this, and in a few days there was the unsalted butter back in the cold case. I called the dairy again, and for my efforts and letting them know, I was sent 4 VIP coupons for free unsalted butter. Four pounds of free butter, it was well worth the effort. Many times it is the store distributor who cancels the distribution of a product and I am tired of it. I complain.
I do not want the whomever's controlling what I can and cannot buy and will fight for it.

 
My latest “oh, no!” Was Costco discontinuing the country French,or whatever it’s called, bread.

I love it and it is hard to find good bread here.

I also like De Cecco pasta, especially the orrechiette. I will have to pay a dollar more a box for it at Whole Foods as the only major grocery store here has discontinued it. I think I’ll do as you did and ask for it.

 
Cathy, that cheese made the cover of the Sunset Italian Cookbook I bought back in the 70s.

I could never find it back then, even though I lived in southern California. It was "pre-internet" and I was a teenager with no real connections or mentors in the foodie arena, but I really tried to find it.

It wasn't until many years later that I learned it was a specialty cheese made by a single manufacturer in California.

See the link below.

Michael

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleme_cheese

 
No. Way! This cover photo is one of my most favorite cannelloni recipes ever.

Veal and Chicken Cannelloni is the recipe. I used to love that book but loaned it to a friend years ago and never got it back. Then luckily found the cannelloni recipe again in the Sunset's All-Time Favorites edition (posted the recipe here in 2009 -- at the link).

But get this....just last month I found the Sunset Italian Cookbook you pictured while on vacation in Hawaii and was happy to add it back to my collection. Do you still have the book yourself, Michael? Do you still make recipes from it?

As for the teleme, I wasn't always able to find it back in the late 70s and early 80s when making that cannelloni dish I loved so much and had to substitute other cheeses.

https://www.finerkitchens.com/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=106004

 
This is uncanny. I have that cookbook and that Cannelloni recipe is where I found Teleme

Hah! I love that cookbook, have cooked for years from it. The Canneloni is my favorite too, Pat- and that is where I was introduced to Teleme Cheese. I remember first seeing the cover, Michael. I HAD to dive right in to making the Cannelloni and I remember thinking at the time "what a shame to grind up this lovely cut of veal" to make it. The results knocked my socks off and made me dig deeper into that book and I cooked almost every recipe in it. I have nearly every Sunset cookbook in that series and they are ALL good. What fun to realize others had the same feelings.

 
Crazy. Such a small world. smileys/smile.gif

Cathy, you'll like this. In the lobby of the condo where we were staying in Hawaii last month there was a "take a book/leave a book bookshelf". I was blown away to find this cookbook there. Have searched for the book for years and never had any luck finding it and had given up. Was so happy to see it.

Guess I shall have to start doing more cooking from it. smileys/smile.gif

 
My first husband DID build one in the 70s, Michael. Still in operation today

 
Thanks for the muenster mention. I recently bought some Finlandia muenster and was surprised at how

much it tastes like Monterey Jack. I was at Costco and wanted some sliced cheese for ham sandwiches and of course, two lbs was the smallest size. It cost about as much as half lb of Boars Head at a deli counter so I bought it and was happy to see your mention of using it as a melting cheese. I make a ham and spinach bread pudding and think it would sub nicely for the fontina called for in the recipe. I also found a couple of enchilada recipes in my collection that call for it.

 
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