Oh my… today’s cheese was not good.
Either our tastes are changing, last year’s novelty of the Cheesy Christmas has worn off, or they’re just sending us collectively worse cheeses this year, but this cheese scored the worse of any cheese that we tasted last year or to date this year…
Reminder / Disclaimer
Just a reminder that for days 11-16, as I mentioned on Day 11, while the posts appear in order on the blog there was actually an interruption for a couple of days. Today’s cheese was tasted on day 16, and I’m posting about it a couple of days after that to get caught up.
Here’s what our little cheese tray looked like on Day 16. We had mandarines to snack on between each cheese as a way of cleansing the palete so that the taste of one cheese didn’t distort the flavour of the next.
Frankly speaking… we would’ve been glad for any-thing to distort the flavour of today’s cheese. But I get ahead of myself… 🙂
Day #14: Gaperon
- Name: Gaperon
The name comes from the old Auvergnois-French word “gape” which was used to designate buttermilk. Originally, that’s how this cheese was made – although buttermilk is no longer used today. In those days it was customary for farmers to simply mix herbs, pepper and garlic into the milk along with curdled milk or whey, drain it, then hang it from the kitchen rafters to dry. It was said that the number of gaperons hanging in the kitchen was a reliable indicator of wealth at the time (Though we wouldn’t give you 10 cents for it now… oops, I said the quiet part out loud). - Region: Auvergne
Here’s another cheese from the mountainous center of France. - Milk: Pasteurized Cow’s milk
- Our Score: 0.2/5
Want to play a game of “Never have I ever…?”
Never have we ever given such a low score to one of our Cheesy Christmas cheeses. Four people around the table gave it a “0/5” and I gave it a “1/5”(mostly out of pity), meaning that the average was 0.2. They say that younger gaperons are more mild tasting while the older ones have the stronger taste. If that’s the case, ours was likely made sometime shortly after the Second World War. There was such a taste of garlic, that it was like chewing on a raw garlic clove, with no water, or milk… nothing to wash the taste away. I was honestly still experiencing throat burn hours later.
Wise counsel: If you ever have a chance to pick up some Gaperon cheese…. DON’T!
Cheese quote of the day
Today’s quote comes in the form of a poem by Angelica Banks, in her book “Finding Serendipity”.
“Figs are delicious with soft cheese and ham,
Toast is quite scrumptious with butter and ham,
Eggs are improved by parsley and salt,
But milkshakes are best with strawberries and malt.”
Happy Cheesy Christmas….
See you tomorrow for cheese #15
AIM Long 