Ebay Auction for Breast Cancer

We are pleased to announce a cheese sampler that gives. As we all know October is breast cancer awareness month and this October we are supporting breast cancer by selling 6 of our best selling cheeses altogether in one package on ebay. The package is for 6 pounds of our best selling cheeses, and 5 old fashioned beef snack sticks.

In this package receive 1 pound each of our 2009 best web sellers:

• 1 Pound Plain Cheddar Cheese Curds
• 1 Pound Fresh Mozzarella Stretching Curd (see how to stretch this curd at: http://www.goldenagecheese.com/mozzarellastretching)
• 1 Pound Sharp Cheddar Cheese (Aged between 1-2 years!)
• 1 Pound Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese (Aged over 2 years!)
• 1 Pound Super Sharp Cheddar Cheese (Aged over 5 years!)
• 1 Pound Swiss Cheese
• Five Old Fashioned Beef Snack Sticks

If bidding reaches over $35 we will throw in 10 additional beef sticks ($10 value), and if bidding reaches $50 or more we will throw in the ten beef sticks as well as a stainless steel adjustable cheese slicer.

View the ebay auction HERE

Thanks for being a part and showing your support with us! Enjoy and Good Luck!

A Little Bit about Cheese Fondues

There are many people who love cheese fondue. Now, you might be wondering about what sort of cheese can be made into a fondue. The answer is simple; any sort of cheese can be turned into a fondue. This fondue goes well with a number of different items. There are many different recipes which makes it impossible to share them all with you.

Now that you know that there are so many different recipes, you can find them on a number of sites as well as in cook books. Wherever you can find recipes is where you can also find cheese fondue recipes to wow any crowd. There are many spices and other things that people add into these recipes to enrich the flavor.

What really gets people wondering is what sort of things go well with cheese fondues. There are many foods and these are the things that can be answered. What are some of these foods? There is quite a bunch that different people use.

Raw vegetables are one thing that goes well with cheese fondue. The three favorites that other people have used for their fondue were broccoli because let’s face it, who doesn’t love cheese on their broccoli. Cauliflower is another type of vegetable as well as carrots. One might use these or any of the other vegetables there are out there.

Some use crusty bread as something to dip in the cheese fondue. One doesn’t want to use fresh bread because it breaks off. Then they are left with a bunch of floaters which isn’t very tasty or appealing. The whole purpose of having cheese fondue isn’t only the flavor, but for looks as well.

Pretzels are another thing that many get to dip. They are salty and cheese adds just the right flavor to them. Many love this flavor. However, someone might go for a different approach when looking for something to dip. Some prefer to use things that most others wouldn’t even think about. One of those things that they have used are sour granny smith apples. If you want something else that is sour and that you can use then you might try dipping pickles in the cheese fondue.

There are also tips to making sure that your cheese fondue doesn’t burn and stick to the sides. Many don’t know about this. There are some who add a little white wine into it so that doesn’t do this. This is something that many don’t tell you about.

If you have any questions about cheese fondues, there are many sites that can help you with all that you need to know. It used to be that fondues weren’t all that popular. They are making a great come back nowadays and they are becoming better within time. So, find how you can make a success of any party with cheese fondue. Even if it’s a football party, cheese fondue can be pretty popular among the crowd. So find out what you need to create the recipe for your event.

-Written by Lilly Babineau

A Guide to Making Cheddar Cheese Soup

With the winter months coming, there is something that many of us are looking to make plenty of. It keeps us warm and goes down easy. It’s even something that is great when one is sick. With that being said, you might be looking for a new soup recipe. That is why you need to know how to make Cheddar cheese soup.

In order to make Cheddar cheese soup, you are going to need a few things. What are you going to need? You’ll first need one cup of milk. You’ll also need two medium carrots that you need to have grated. You’ll also need four cups of grated cheddar cheese as well as a cup and a half of potato flakes. One will need three slices of cooked bacon that has been chopped. You’ll also need five cups of either vegetable or chicken broth. Then you will need one clove of garlic and you’ll want to mince that. You’ll need a fourth of a teaspoon of black pepper and one teaspoon of dry mustard. You need one onion and you need to chop that. Then you’ll need a dash of salt.

Now, you need to take your garlic and your onion and with this, you are going to sauté these two. As you do that, you need to add your broth and your carrots. You will cook this for five or six minutes on medium heat.

As you do this, you will then add your potato flakes, dry mustard, pepper, and salt. This you will stir until it’s well blended on low heat. When you do this, you add your cheese and milk. You want to melt this cheese on low heat so as not to burn the cheese. You don’t want to allow it to boil as you will find that this will scald the milk. All you have to do from here is add your bacon. When you add the salt, it’s okay to salt it to your taste. There are some who like more salt then others. This is perfectly fine.

Once you are done with this, it’s time to ladle up. You can make quite a bit of this and freeze it and then take it out when you are ready for something that you don’t have to cook. There are many who do this and it’s just something that will make your taste buds come alive. Now, this is what’s cooking for dinner. It’s just one of the many things that you can do with cheese. It might even become your favorite soup. It became one of the leading soups for people who are soup people. There are other things you can add. You don’t have to use bacon. Some use sausage. There are tons of ways to make this your own signature recipe. These are just the basics that you’ll need in order to make this. Grab the items that you will need and make dinner for everyone. Add a cheese sandwich to it and you can have double the flavor of cheese.

-Written by Lilly Babineau

A Brief History of Swiss Cheese

Swiss cheese has always been a favorite kind of cheese. Not only does the cheese taste great but the large holes that are found in every single slice make it a visually stimulating cheese. The holes that make Swiss cheese so easy to identify are created during the production of the cheese. When the producer knows that they are going to be making Swiss cheese, they add some gram-positive bacteria to the starter culture. This particular type of bacteria creates carbon dioxide bubbles which are what gives Swiss cheese its famous holes. In addition to being responsible for creating the holes, the bacteria also helps give Swiss cheese its unique nutty yet sweet taste.

The general population is so accustomed to calling Swiss cheese, Swiss, that we sometimes forget that the name is not used all over the world. If you go into a cheese shop in the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand and order Swiss cheese you will get the cheese you are familiar with. However if you go anywhere else in the world it is difficult to determine exactly what type of cheese you will end up with. In Europe, if you want the holey mild tasting cheese you will have to ask for Emmental cheese. The use of the word Swiss merely refers to the cheeses origins, not its actual name.

Swiss or Emmental cheese was first produced in Switzerland. The cheese first appeared in the West Central region of the country, an area that has long been known has the Emmental area. This particular section of Switzerland has large rolling areas that are perfect for pastures. For thousands of years the local farmers have been using Emmental's pastures for grazing their dairy cattle. When the cows were milked, part of the milk was set aside to be turned into cheese.

The unusual appearance and incredible taste of the emmental cheese, combined with the sweet nature of the local dairy farmers inspired a writer to pen a series of novels that revolved around Emmentals cheese and dairy industry.

Historians believe that the farmers in Emmental first started to produce the Emmental cheese sometime during the 1300's. However it wasn't until the early 1800's that the cheese started to become popular with people who didn't live in the region. The reason for the increased popularity is because of the creation of Emmental's very first cheese dairies. The development of these dairies allowed Emmental's to finally produce a large enough quantity of the cheese to market it to other areas of the country and eventually the world.

Although Swiss cheese is currently being produced all over the world, the cheese you get when you visit Emmental is just a little bit different. The dairy farmers in Emmental are very careful about what their cows eat since this effects the cheeses final flavor. Emmental cows are never fed silage, and during the summer when they can graze in the pasture, the cows dine on herbs as well as the natural herbs. The average dairy farmer in Emmental only owns about twenty cows which better allows them to care for each animal in a way that means the cow produces top quality milk.

-Written by Lilly Babineau

The History of Mozzarella Cheese

Mozzarella cheese is a product which immediately turns our minds to Italy and the delicious pizza and pasta dishes the Italians have brought to us. It doesn’t necessarily make us think about the buffalo, which to most of us, is a very large animal that runs in herds and we know from our history books was hunted by the native American Indians for food and clothing. In our minds, we don’t often relate this wonderful fresh and delightful cheese with these animals.

Geographical Production of Mozzarella Cheese

The demand for this product continues to grow along with our interest and the increasing availability we have to international cuisines. It is now a $430 million a year industry, shipping 33,000 tons of their Mozzarella cheese product into the European Union countries and which is now expanding into Japan and Russia. The demand has raised so much that Mozzarella cheese is now produced in numerous countries throughout the world including the USA and the UK, but there is little doubt that the original birthplace was Averso, Caserta in Italy.

Italy with Bulgaria as a close second is widely recognized by the scientific community as the two best Mozzarella cheese producers in the world.

The Birth of Mozzarella Cheese

There are several theories, all of which are plausible, on how the buffalo came to be in Italy and how the subsequent production of Mozzarella cheese became a reality.

Perhaps the most widely known theory is that the Goths were responsible for the introduction of the buffalo to Italy towards the end of the Roman Empire rule. However, shortly after the end of the Roman Empire an outbreak of malaria caused the area to be cleared and it was not until the 18th century that people started to move back into the area. They were delighted to find that the buffalo had remained in the area and although now wild had multiplied during their absence. The buffalo soon became domesticated again and the milk from the buffalo was recognized as a suitable and profitable alternative to cow’s milk in the making of dairy products such as cheese and butter and the Mozzarella cheese industry known as Compania Cheese was born.

A second theory is that in the year 1000, the Normans brought the buffalo from Sicily into Italy and that Sicily had originally got them from the Arabs.

A third theory is that the Arabs introduced the buffalo into Mesopotamia and the pilgrims and crusaders brought them back to Europe and in particular Italy, following the Holy Wars.

A fourth theory put forward by archaeologists is that they have found fossil evidence which proves that the buffalo originated in Italy.

Whichever theory you choose to believe, the facts are that the buffalo being introduced and domesticated in the geographical area known as Averso, Caserta was responsible for the region becoming the main Mozzarella cheese production area in Italy. The production was and still is controlled by two main family producers and the region produces three main types of Mozzarella cheese.

• The first variety using the pasteurized buffalo milk;
• The second variety using the non-pasteurized buffalo milk (which is best eaten on the day of production as it is non-pasteurized);
• The third variety is using cow’s milk;

The constituents contained in the buffalo milk make it very rich and suitable for processing which takes four hours to complete the process from beginning to end. However, the production methods are still carried by hand make it very labor intensive, but the economies achieved by using the buffalo milk in place of cow’s milk make it cost effective for the producers.

For example, 1 pound of Mozzarella cheese requires roughly 8 pounds of cow’s milk, but only 5 pounds of buffalo milk is required for the same 1 pound of cheese. This benefit can also be achieved when producing butter ie. 1 pound of butter requires 14 pounds of cow’s milk, but only 10 pounds of buffalo milk.

Industry Growth

The industry has grown tremendously since its inception, which was as a small family business, whose original market was contained within a small area of Italy. Possibly the only health and safety regulations and food regulations which were recognized by the producers, were the ones they developed themselves, to ensure they didn’t poison their customers. The regulations were self-imposed because they relied on their reputation and repeat business to remain as a viable business.

Whereas, now it has now become a multi-million dollar industry and Mozzarella cheese producers are obliged to comply with all the various regulations on health and safety, food standards, employment legislation, etc as well as all the other red tape involved in producing a food product and getting it into the market place to sell. They also need to be aware and take account of the fact that different countries may have differing legislations which will affect their ability to sell into that market place.

Mozzarella cheese is fast becoming an everyday product in our supermarkets and stores and we expect to buy a quality product at a reasonable price and have it readily available when we want it. But how much though do we ever give to how it gets into our supermarket shelves or indeed what history lies behind the production of the Mozzarella cheese in the first place, or do we just take it home and enjoy it with our favorite recipes which are no longer restricted to the original Italian recipes of pizza and pasta dishes. The current day tends to experience different cuisines and to experiment more freely with our cooking have led to the inclusion of Mozzarella cheese in a much wider variety of dishes.

-Written by Ruslan K