Going to Intermarché this morning I was presented with a large notice stuck to the door. ‘Arrivage. Cheddar…’
‘Ooh good!’ thinks me, visions of ploughman’s lunches racing through my head. What a treat to be able to satisfy that occasional Cheddar craving.
Then I saw the rest of the notice,
Quoi?
Resisting the temptation to do a John McEnroe I went to the cheese counter and asked the assistant if the ‘authentic Cheddar’ was really made in France.
She confirmed it was and I pointed out that in that case it was about as authentic as Brie made in l’Angleterre. I know that there’s a Somerset Brie but Brie de Meaux it ain’t. I rest my case.
The assistant looked most surprised to learn that Cheddaire is an English cheese. Or was, as it seems to be made pretty well everywhere but not, as far as I know, in la belle F up until now. To be honest French cheesemakers may be the best in the world but they don’t seem to have got the hang of Cheddaire, their version was dry and crumbly and definitely wouldn’t grace any self-respecting cheese board. And though it costs 18€ a kilo it tastes like the cheap stuff in packets, quite tasty but not 18€ tasty. It looks like the master cheese makers in the Cheddar Gorge have much to worry about.
And I’m just so pleased that my friend Mary is in England at the moment and is going to bring me back a lump of proper Cheddar.
Leader Price have a new line on their shelves: Mature Cheddar. It’s made in Scotland, but it is really very good indeed. with a nice bite. The French may have more varieties of cheese than the British, but for what it’s worth I find many of them taste the same and slightly soapy, and none compare to Cheddar. Furthermore, I think we make far better cakes. So there.
We’ve got a Leader Price in Langon, will have to take a look. I agree there’s nothing like a good Cheddar – or Stilton for that matter (I’m from Leicestershire so it’s my cheese so to speak) but I love Brie de Meaux, and good Camembert, and Brebis, and Roquefort… in fact I’m rather keen on cheese!
I tend to agree about cakes.
You poor thing – If only I had known, all our Carrefour supermarkets stock Cathedral City Cheddar here in Rouen, both mature and extra mature. I could be your French suppler of La Vraie Cheddar Authentique!
It might be worth looking in the Carrefour in Bordeaux, thanks for the tip.
Allo, non mais allo quoi!
That’s a bit much coming from the defenders of their blasted AOC everything from champagne to andouillette….
There used to be an abomination for sale in my local Leclerc…Elizabethan cheddar.
Shaped like an Edam, covered in red wax but singularly failing to match an Edam for taste or texture – cheddar it was not!
I won’t mention the cheese here….words don’t fail me – they are all too abundant but unacceptable in polite society.
I think Cheddar lost their right to an AOC because they left it for too long without challenging immitations calling themselves Cheddar, I know there’s a Canadian Cheddar but it surprises me that the French feel they need to make a version of an English cheese.
There are many Canadian cheddars, and cheddar is our basic cheese in Canada. I am sure you would love the taste of Balderson or Perron cheddar for example, and these might be available in France. As a French Canadian, I have noticed the sudden love of French food bloggers for anything American (burgers, cupcakes, brownies…) and they often call cheddar the orange processed cheese slices wrapped in plastic!
I hate to say Catheriine that one of my daughters spent an Erasmus year in Montreal and she never stopped complaining about the cheese! Though of course as a student she may only have been buying the very cheapest!
Your blog makes me drool….
Cheddar was one of the few things the boyfriend and I had major cravings and nostalgia for when we were living in Paris, that and proper tea bags! Turns out Les Francais don’t do either very well! This sounds like the Lipton teabag of the cheese world :-D
Funnily enough it’s much easier to find good loose tea around here than it is to buy coffee beans, even our tiny little local town has a tea shop selling forty diffferent teas. No coffee though. But I do agree about the tea bags.
‘ I know that there’s a Somerset Brie but Brie de Meaux it ain’t. I rest my case.’
hello there!
It looks to me like you don’t know this cheeese’s name is Brie, from the Brie, la Brie in french.
There are many Brie’s (de Meaux, de Melun, de Nangis…) but unless made in Brie they can’t be… Brie.. I can’t remember Somerset being in Brie.
Somerset Brie or ‘chai-dar’ français what’s the difference?
Et voilà!
All countries are the same: people there eat what they like, it’s irrelevant to judge if it is to one’s taste, or not. We all have different tastes, and food culture… When in England I can’t find a proper paté de campagne, a decent saucisson, even a basic bread or croissant…
The things you don’t like, don’t eat them, the ones you don’t find import them, and share them as I think most of the French are open to discovering new food.
Being different we add to each other, and that’s always nice I think.
Bonne soirée
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brie
Yes I did know that Brie comes from Brie,just like Cheddar originated in Cheddar. And just like “Cheddar” “Brie” is not a protected name, the only AOC Bries are Brie de Meaux and ,Brie de Melun (currently there is only one protected variety of Chaddar – West Country Farmhouse Cheddar).
So we have “Cheddar” made in Argentina, Canada, the Untied States, Belgium and now France among many others, and “Brie” is also made all over the world including Wisconsin Brie and Somerset Brie, which has a good reputation but as Ii said is hardly authentic.
Absolutery! And that was my point..There is no more confusion in calling the cheese a Brie or a Cheddar when it’s not coming from Brie or Cheddar, and I had the feeling you thought there was… My apologies then…
About the coffee beans I am surprised you can’t find them, as almost any make will have both “café moulu” (ground) and “café en grains” (beans),,available.
For example the widely sold in French supermarkets “Carte Noire”…
grouded:
beans:
Maybe it’s the very similar packaging can cause a confusion?
What is more difficult to find, I agree, is a ‘torrefacteur” (coffee roaster) shop…
It’s a pity I know, but everybody does their shopping in supermarkets these days so there is not much room left for the “artisans”!