Cheese King

Denver headquarters of Leprino Foods, sells mozzarella to Pizza Hut, Domino's, and Papa John's. It also sells cheese for ham-and-cheddar Hot Pockets, Stouffer's lasagna, and Smart Ones baked ziti, cheese cubes like pear flavor with nuts or Gorgonzola with pretzels. It even sells a dessert salted-caramel-flavored mozzarella wrapped in hot dough, rolled in cinnamon sugar. The company's lactose and whey powders are used for protein bars, Yoplait yogurt, Pillsbury Toaster Strudel, and baby formula. In fact, Leprino Foods sells more than a billion pounds of cheese a year.

Cheese May Prevent Nightmares

In case your birthday is close, there is a way to not have nightmares about it. According to research conducted by the British Cheese Board, no study subjects reported having nightmares after eating cheese, but blue cheese consumption had a tendency to make dreams a bit odd. Filed under another odd study, but it seemed to fit.

Six Cheesy Names

Monterey Jack takes half of its name from a place where Franciscan friars around Monterey, CA, crafted a mild white cheese throughout the 19th century. The second part comes from Scottish immigrant David Jack, who started marketing his own version of the cheese.

When Jack first came to the US in 1841, he worked as an army contractor, and he eventually became so successful that he owned most of the real estate in Monterey County. The rapid expansion of his land holdings left him owning shares in a number of dairies and he began mass-marketing the friars’ cheese recipe, first under the name Jack’s cheese and later as Monterey Jack.

Colby cheese is another American invention. In 1885 Wisconsin cheese maker Joseph F. Steinwand started varying his production process for cheddar by washing the curds with cold water. The washing process cut down on the acidity of the cheese and gave it a milder flavor than regular cheddar. Steinwand named his creation after the nearby town of Colby, WI. Longhorn Colby refers to the size and cylindrical shape of the block the cheese comes in.

Pecorino comes from Pecora, the Italian word for sheep and this family of hard Italian sheep milk cheeses derives from it.

Hanne Nielson created Havarti cheese at her family’s farm in Øverød, just north of Copenhagen, during the mid-19th century. Nielson decided to create a Danish equivalent to Switzerland’s tasty cheeses and the buttery Havarti was the result of her experimentation. She named the cheese after the family’s farm, which was known as Havarthigaard.

Mozzarella takes its name from the diminutive of the word mozza, which in Neapolitan dialect means cut. Mozza in turn derives from the verb mozzare, which means to cut off. It refers to how the cheese is produced by cutting the curds and shaping them into the familiar ball shape.

American cheese gets its name from the British. When British colonists first came to North America, they brought their knowledge of cheddar production with them and began making cheese cheaply and in great volume. Colonists would ship the cheese back across the pond and sell it at discount prices. British shoppers did not love the quality of this 'Yankee cheddar' or 'American cheese', but since it was cheap, it sold well. By 1878, Americans were sending over 300 million pounds of cheese back to England every year.

Americans called it either yellow cheese or store cheese. During 1916 James L. Kraft patented a pasteurization process that stabilized cheese to allow for easy transport over long distances. The name American cheese stuck to to Kraft’s processed cheeses.

Cheesy Facts

The root of the English word cheese comes from the Latin caseus, which also gives us the word casein, the milk protein that is the basis of cheese. In Old English, caseus was c?ese or c?se, which became chese in Middle English, finally becoming cheese in Modern English. Caseus is also the root word for cheese in other languages, including queso in Spanish, kaas in Dutch, käse in German, and queijo in Portuguese. Caseus Formatus, or molded (formed) cheese, brought us formaticum, the term the Romans employed for the hard cheese used as supplies for the legionaries. From this root comes the French fromage and the Italian formaggio.

Cheese consumption predates recorded history, with scholars believing it began as early as 8000 BC, when sheep were first domesticated, to as late as 3000 BC. It is believed to have been discovered in the Middle East or by nomadic Turkic tribes in Central Asia, where foodstuffs were commonly stored in animal hides or organs for transport. Milk stored in animal stomachs would have separated into curds and whey by movement and the rennet and bacteria naturally present.

monks were responsible for inventing some of the classic varieties of cheese we know today. According to the British Cheese Board, Britain has approximately 700 distinct local cheeses. It is thought that France and Italy have perhaps 400 each. The varying flavors, colors, and textures of cheese come from many factors, including the type of milk used, the type of bacteria or acids used to separate the milk, the length of aging, and the addition of other flavorings or mold.

The United States is the top producer of cheese in the world, with Wisconsin and California leading the states in production. Although the US produces the most cheese, Greece and France lead the pack in cheese consumption per capita, averaging 27.3 and 24.0 kilograms per person in 2003 respectively. In the same year, the average US citizen consumed around 14.1 kg, although cheese consumption in the US has tripled since 1970 and is continuing to increase.

Mice and Cheese Myth Debunked

Mice do not really like cheese and they will even actively shy away from certain types of cheese.

According to Dr. David Holmes of Manchester Metropolitan University who recently did a study on whether mice liked cheese or not, while hungry mice will pretty much eat anything (even cardboard), most types of mice strongly prefer grains, fruits, and sweet things. Certain types of mice will also eat insects and other small animals.

Basically, they like to eat what they have been accustomed to eating since before humans started making cheese around 10,000 years ago.

Many mice also like peanut butter and sweet chocolate. Interesting to know that mouse urine glows under florescent light.

Potato Facts

One of the ingredients of almost all Thanksgiving and other holiday meals is the potato. The starchy, edible tuber was introduced to the world around 400 years ago from regions around the Andes. Originally they were grown almost 10,000 years ago in Peru and Bolivia and are now found growing in most countries around the world, although the Andes continues have major production.

Currently potatoes are the fourth largest food crop in the world and there are more than a thousand different types. They are versatile and can be enjoyed baked, boiled, or fried. They can be mashed, sliced, chopped, diced or eaten whole. They can be eaten cold or hot, raw or cooked. I will need some chips to hold me over until next Thursday and mashed potatoes with cheese and bacon. Mmm!
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Donut Bacon Burger Breakfast

This is a great twist on an old idea. Southern Californian burger chain Slater’s 50/50 now offers a Donut Burger on its weekend breakfast menu during regular season football.

It consists of two glazed donuts which sandwich their 50/50 half bacon, half beef burger with a sunny side up egg and cheese. It comes with a side of strawberry jelly. Mmmm.

Six Uses for Butter

Butter isn't just good for topping toast and popcorn. There are plenty of other things it is useful for, such as:

Swallowing pills: Coat the pills with a thin layer of butter to make them go down easier, especially bigger pills and ones that have no coating.

De-stress cats: If you're moving or throwing a party, your cat can get a bit stressed by the sudden change in the environment. Put a little dab of butter on the top of her paws. She'll be distracted by cleaning herself.

Prevent cheese mold: Put a thin coat of butter on the cheese after you cut it so it won't get too hard or start molding, especially harder cheeses.

Preserve onions: If you cut an onion in half and decide to leave the other half in the fridge, coat the exposed side with a bit of butter to keep it fresh longer.

Say Cheese

The Center for Retail Research claims that cheese is the world's most frequently stolen food and it has been labeled a "high risk food." There is growing interest in the more expensive cheese such as Parmesan. Next in line as most stolen are fresh meat, chocolate, alcohol, seafood, and infant formula.

Overall, retail 'shrinkage', which includes theft is up to $119 billion in 2011, up 6.6% since 2010. 35.9% of retailers reported that actual and attempted shoplifting rose last year and 24% had higher employee theft. Shoplifters are highest in the Asia pacific and Europe. Organized crime theft is highest in the US.

Almost four percent of the world's cheese supply ends up stolen, putting cheese on top of the list. Shoplifting rates as a whole are going up, because of the current economic situation. Now we can say with certainty that shoplifting is a cheesy crime.

Cheese and Cooking Spray

To prevent low-fat cheese from turning to rubber in the microwave, spray your nachos with a quick blast of cooking spray, like Pam, before putting them in the microwave. Also, spray the inside of a grilled-cheese sandwich before you toss it in the frying pan. This adds just enough fat to make the cheese stay gooey and creamy as it slowly melts.

Cheesy

We all know that cheese is cheese and made from sour milk, but if you look at some packages, you find cheese products and cheese food. Here is the difference.

Cheese food is somewhere between 51 percent and 99 percent cheese. It is a food product made from regular cheese, and almost always with the addition of whey, emulsifiers, milk, salts, preservatives, and food coloring. Processed cheese is also known as “process cheese”, “prepared cheese”, and “cheese food”. American cheese and some 'squirt cheese' are cheese foods. James L. Kraft created the first commercially available sliced processed cheese.

Cheese product is composed of less than 51 percent cheese. More than half the product is made up of ingredients like emulsifiers, carrageenan (seaweed-extract stabilizer) and flavorings, like citric acid for that cheesy tanginess. Cheez Whiz and some varieties of Velveeta are cheese products.

Average Americans eat about 30 pounds of cheese a year.

A great cheese slicer when yours is in the dishwasher, use unwaxed dental floss.

New From KFC

It's "Double Down" bacon and cheese sandwiched between two pieces of fried chicken. Even KFC is getting in on the bacon phenomenon. Even calorie conscious Subway has a double bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich.

Cheese is not Green

Cheese of any type, made from the milk of cows, or goats, or sheep has a significant impact on the environment compared with other food products according to some "researchers." According to them, sheep cheese is especially bad.

Environmentalists are saying cheese may do as much harm to the environment as some kinds of meat. Based on figures from Sweden, the production of a 1.5 ounce serving of cheese might be expected to produce around 16 ounces of carbon dioxide equivalent. Depending on which study you consult, a 2 - 3 ounce serving of cooked, boneless chicken meat should yield between 4.3 and 31 ounces of CO2-equivalent, although you get about the same number of calories from each.

According to them, raising a milk-bearing animal puts out a significant amount of greenhouse gases, thanks in large part to the methane the animals emit. Feed production also contributes to global warming, and animal waste has implications for both water and air quality.

Steve Zeng, a dairy researcher at Langston University, says feta cheese is one of the best options in terms of processing impacts and notes that Chèvre, Brie, and Camembert are also pretty green. John Beck, from Papa Murphy's, will be pleased to know that mozzarella is also on the 'green' list, since it doesn't require aging.

Sheep cheese is going to be worse for the planet than cow or goat varieties according to researchers from MTT Agrifood Research, Finland. They estimated that greenhouse gas emissions per unit of cheese would be roughly the same for cows and goats, but sheep might emit twice the amount of methane as a cow or a goat, per unit of milk produced.  Soon we may all be required to eat grass. Wait, that is what causes methane emissions from livestock. I think we need to tell these "environmental researchers" to get a life! Next I am expecting a study that compares which is worse - cutting the cheese or making cheese.

Speaking of Cheese

I just saw a New York Times statistical map from the latest data in 2008 that shows Americans spend more (.3% of their income) on cheese than  (.2%) on computers. Cheese spending was up 12.5% for the year, while spending on computers went down 12% for the year. It comes from an interactive diagram of all spending.  LINK