Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

OK..I am soooo done...we are getting screwed left right and centre by the food conglomerates...i could go in all sorts of directions on this cuz the examples abound but i'm picking cheese this time...first off, let me say, I LOVE cheese....all kinds, well, there are limits..lol.but generally its a food group all on its own to me...so there...anyway, I have come to the conclusion that those bricks of material wrapped up in fancy plastic in ever decreasing sizes for ever increasing cash outlay offered by Black Diamond and Cracker Barrel are NOT real cheese anymore....it doesnt melt right..it turns into a crappy curdled mess when trying to make a cheese sauce..it tastes off...no matter whether you choose mild, medium or old...and don't even get me started on whether they have managed to modify the criteria for aging...what they call "old" is definitely not proper old cheese....oh yeah, perhaps i should clarify that I am talking about cheddar...MJ grew up on a dairy farm not far from the village of Forfar, which had a long history of having an award winning cheese factory which of course got caught in the whey disposal quandry (another conspriacy which i believe but cannot prove)...she worked many teenage years in that factory and was there when we met...the cheese was real, made every second day, aged properly ....the curds were to die for...OMG!!!! take me back please...lol...anyway, we bought a small block of old cheddar from Balderson the other day...just opened the wrap today and gave it a try...it was a small block, close to half the size of the 'stuff' we had been buying...and almost twice the price...now, I am not trying to promote Balderson cheese, they just got picked at the deli counter among several offerrings...we will try the others...but the taste and texture took me back..it was delicious...i am not going to buy the "almost cheese" again..I just can't..i don't trust it anymore and the corporations do NOT deserve my money as they are doing everything to deceive me...just my thoughts...sorry for the rant and ramble...i write as my mind flows...lol

SPOT ON! I don't eat as much cheese as I once did but when I eat it I want CHEESE...not oily gloop! Like you I have gone to buying artisan cheese, that costs more...but boy it is worth it.

Ahh but the little guy (veggie burger) fame from A&W says they’d now using REAL cheddar cheese on their burgers not processed . Could he be wrong . Sadly another myth broken . Yu think .
Oh well , knee op pre admit tests tomorrow morn guess I better study . Till next time . I’m with yu Tomk

Well, that explains why the "real cheese" (not cheese slices) I have been buying just doesn't melt very well in a grilled cheese sandwich.
Any good real cheese does come at a price; it has always been expensive.

Good luck with the tests Ross..fingers crossed

Kimchick..yup...exactly...people are saps..they (I think) just want to believe it's all good...but it's not...i'm thinking soylent green before too long

Oh Tom, if I had the time I could tell all sorts of stories about how the dairy industry has ruined good cheese....

After working in a small Artisan dairy and at a 114 yr old cheddar dairy (bought out by Gay Lea and closed), I now work for one of the biggest diaries in not just Canada but the world and wonder if we’ll lose even the few good cheeses still out there. It’s a race to the bottom and to make the cheapest product possible. With the various trade deals now in place, it will only get worse and dilute the protections that were in place to inform consumers of the variety of ingredients now used in Cheesemaking to make it cheaper but certainly not better, and make it harder for smaller dairies to compete with subsidized foreign products.

One of the main ways of telling if it’s a better product is to read the label - if it has the new Blue Cow logo it will be made from fresh Canadian milk with no modified milk ingredients. It should have a simple ingredient list: milk/cream/skim milk, bacterial culture, rennet/microbial enzyme, salt and maybe herbs or spices if flavoured.

Oh how I miss getting the fresh cheddar curds out of the vat!

I haven't bought Cracker Barrel or Black Diamond in ages either. I hasn't been real cheese for a while, and from the sounds of it is getting more artificial. I really enjoy Balderson from time to time, and occasionally splurge on real Gouda and Edam cheese from the Dutch Import store. In the last few years we have been getting most of our cheese from a (fairly) local farmer who makes his own cheese.

Best of luck, Ross! Hoping it's a success for you.

I'm lucky, I live near the Wilton Cheese factory! We stay away from the big name cheese guys in favour of supporting local. Costco has been importing some excellent cheeses from the UK lately. Whenever we can, Cabot cheese from Vermount is on the cross border shopping list.

I have always adored cheddar cheese, starting with NZ cheddar when I grew up in England. I preferred it to the English cheddar (heresey, I know!) Then we discovered Cabot cheddar, made in VT. I ate tons of that when I lived there and we still buy some whenever we go to the US. It's still under $10 for a two pound block! I tried Balderson's and it's ok, but not as good IMHO (and it is WAY more expensive ).

Sorry @TomK I was very disappointed with Balderson when I tried it at Xmas. I still try to get imported UK cheddar but I don't cook with it LOL! I second the Vt picks they are quite good. I first realised something was wrong when I had cheese sauces go runny with some cheeses. Now for a "commercial" cheese I tried the Selection Aged Cheddar from Food Basics came out IMO better than Balderson. Goodness knows what will happen now to our dairy farmers with the new free trade deal. @Kbr42 is the WIlton factory still small production then?
Correction to the above. This is the Irresistibles Artisan Cheddar aged 2 years from Food Basics - it has the blue cow too which I notice Baldersons didn't on my block?