Two questions for Orbo, Magnifulent:

[OneCentStamp]

1. What's with the name change?

2. Is this cheese something you really see in Ireland? I love this stuff; it's like a cross between cheddar and Parmesan, and it's one of the biggest stumbling blocks on any diet I undertake. I would eat it anyway, but is this really Irish or am I being bullshitted?

[The Original An Gadaí]

1. Spring cleaning

2. Yeah that's Irish. It was originally (IIRC) Dubliner Irish Cheddar, but they changed it to Dubliner Irish Cheese, probably because it isn't really all that cheddary by comparison with its local competitors, Kilmeadan, Mitchelstown et al. It doesn't carry the Kerrygold branding here (although it is a brand here for other goods) but I suspect they're all owned by the one company, Glanbia anyway. So yeah, 'tis Irish as Orbo.

[OneCentStamp]

Oh, good. I love the stuff, and as an Irish-surnamed American (a notoriously pretentious bunch), it will be nice to enjoy my cheese without the twang of discordant falsity such as the one I feel anytime I drink a brewed-in-Canada-by-Labatt Guinness.

[The Original An Gadaí]

Here's what it looks like in Ireland:

[Cluricaun]

Kerrygold has a ton of dairy related products on the market here in the US. They also sell big rectangles of foil wrapped butter that cost double what normal butter costs for no good reason except that it's Irish butter.

And then if you really feel like spending foolish amounts of money, you go to the Irish Crap Store to do some grocery shopping at a place like Winston's and spend two or three times what things are worth to get Irish stuff.

Though they do make their own sausages and puddings which are pretty decent and not that expensive. Just stay the hell away from the imported stuff.

[OneCentStamp]

Kerrygold has a ton of dairy related products on the market here in the US. They also sell big rectangles of foil wrapped butter that cost double what normal butter costs for no good reason except that it's Irish butter.

The cheese is pretty reasonable; it's like $6 for a 7oz. block at my local grocery, which makes...*checking*...$13.70 a pound. I consider the "overpriced" line for cheese to be Parmigiano Reggiano, which is $17.99/lb everywhere here.

I've seen their butter. How can it be worth that?

[The Original An Gadaí]

We mainly use Kerrygold butter and it is delicious but I hear it is a tad overpriced in Los Estados Unitas.

[Cluricaun]

The cheese is pretty reasonable; it's like $6 for a 7oz. block at my local grocery, which makes...*checking*...$13.70 a pound. I consider the "overpriced" line for cheese to be Parmigiano Reggiano, which is $17.99/lb everywhere here.

I've seen their butter. How can it be worth that?

First off, the butter is not worth that. It's good butter, but it's not $7 good.

Secondly, my darling dear found a recpie that she wanted to make that required a large amount of gouda. I strolled by the Surely You're Kidding imported cheese aisle at the local fine food store and I shit you not, they wanted what worked out to $25 a pound for it.

Not that I'm a stranger to paying insane amounts of money for what is really just milk and mold, but for $25 a crack I want ancient crystal filled cheddars or small batch artisanal buffalo mozzarella. I certainly do not want commercially produced plastic wrapped "You're paying for the prestige" shit that the local Fancy Yuppie Mart charges to make up for having to throw away most of their produce because it has a blemish.

Yeah, I bought it. Love knows no price.

[OneCentStamp]

Secondly, my darling dear found a recpie that she wanted to make that required a large amount of gouda. I strolled by the Surely You're Kidding imported cheese aisle at the local fine food store and I shit you not, they wanted what worked out to $25 a pound for it.

Yeah, that's insanity.

The reason why $17.99/lb is the proverbial line in the sand for me is that anytime I am tempted to pay more than that for a cheese, I remind myself that I can get grass-fed, hand-cut, dry-aged ribeye steaks for that much. Sorry, milk-and-mold.

[Cluricaun]

For $25 I can get a handle of Jack Daniels. A handle.

Bastards.

[Feirefiz]

Secondly, my darling dear found a recpie that she wanted to make that required a large amount of gouda. I strolled by the Surely You're Kidding imported cheese aisle at the local fine food store and I shit you not, they wanted what worked out to $25 a pound for it.

Ouch. Here low end crap Gouda would cost about $2.50 a pound and better Gouda about $6. I've noticed before that for some reason cheese seems to be horribly expensive in America.

[OneCentStamp]

Ouch. Here low end crap Gouda would cost about $2.50 a pound and better Gouda about $6. I've noticed before that for some reason cheese seems to be horribly expensive in America.

Cheese that we make can well ourselves is pretty cheap. You can get very good aged cheddar, for example, very reasonably. Anything we have to import is brutally expensive. Gruyere, Gouda, Emmentaler, Parmigiano - they're all as expensive as fine cuts of steak.

[Cluricaun]

Correction: the cheese in my story was Gruyere. I knew it was a "g". The gouda was probably priced in a similar fashion however.

Oddly enough, I have the leftover heel end of a nice slice of smoked gouda in my fridge that was left at our house after a wine tasting party that's got to be going on 8 months old and there have been zero changes to it in that time. It's impervious to aging.

[OneCentStamp]

Oddly enough, I have the leftover heel end of a nice slice of smoked gouda in my fridge that was left at our house after a wine tasting party that's got to be going on 8 months old and there have been zero changes to it in that time. It's impervious to aging.

Considering it probably spent three or four years in a cave before it ever made it to the store where you bought it, I suppose that shouldn't be surprising. It's not that it's impervious to aging, it's that anything that was going to change already has.