Golden Age Cheese

The cheesiest site around, nothing here but cheese and more cheese. Cheese news by email, even. Cheeses are catalogued by name, country of origin, textures and milk, there is a section for vegetarian cheeses which don't use animal rennet, and of course there are cheese recipes, cheese books... in summary, this is a fantastic site if you're interested in cheese, should you still be wondering. The site search claims not to need perfect spelling to locate a match, but didn't succeed in finding Roquefort when I entered Rockfort. Which would have led to me overlooking one of the finest of cheeses, had it not been for the alphabetical directory of cheeses which is the last resort if you don't find one by any other means. The directory spans 670 cheeses at the time of writing, including American Cheese, which is not legally a cheese at all except in America. Made from a mouthwatering combination of milk, whey, milkfat, milk protein concentrate, whey protein concentrate, and salt, it's orange and square and supplied in slices which remain exactly the same size and color even when melted and probably even when stuck to the outside of a space shuttle and sent back through the atmosphere. Thus it makes the perfect choice for cheeseburgers, which in any event mask the thoroughly unpleasant taste of the stuff. In many countries it must be sold as a "cheese analogue" or "processed cheese" or "cheese product", since it is only cheese under US Federal law and if I recall correctly they had to pass that one especially for it. While cheese.com lists American Cheese for the sake of completeness, it restrains itself from frightening American children with an analysis of the stuff they've just been eating on their macaroni: whey, milk protein concentrate, milk, milkfat, cheese culture, salt, sodium tripolyphosphate, sodium phosphate, calcium phosphate, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, citric acid, lactic acid and enzymes. Mmmmm. Mind you, fair's fair and Blue Stilton, that greatest of fine English cheeses is, after all, only blue because it's moldy. And it has been shown to give people "odd and vivid" dreams, a claim never made for American Cheese, which is so bland that it makes chicken soup look dangerous. So there you are, an insight into the wonderful world of cheese, and cheese.com is a great place to start exploring. To be honest I'm surprised that there are only 670 cheeses here, as somehow it seems there should be more of them. The French alone can field more than three hundred. But it's a good number to start with and by the time you get a craving for 671 you'll be as good a cheese expert as anyone. Enjoy!