Top 8: Supermarket cheddars put to the taste test for school lunches
Favourite Cheese: A Universal
Cheddar cheese makes the best of Irish milk and is loaded with nutrients. A 100g portion supplies more than our daily requirement of calcium, half the protein we need, almost half the zinc and vitamin A, two-thirds of our vitamin B12, one-fifth of selenium, a quarter of the iodine and a fifth of the folate needed by pregnant women.
While we think about the benefits of bone-building calcium, let’s not forget the benefit of protein (also found in eggs, meat, fish and many pulses and nuts), keeping hunger to a minimum from meal to meal. Once curdled with rennet or a vegetarian culture, most cheddar has nothing but a little salt added and some natural colouring.
Cheese makes good starters for parties. I often rasp it with a cheese parer or vegetable peeler and serve it alongside breadsticks. As a cheese course, have Irish honey to hand to drizzle over vintage cheddar. Remove cheese from any plastic wrapping and store covered in greaseproof paper rather than clingfilm. During the winter, if you can find a cold spot in the house, keep it cool in a wooden box rather than the ´fridge. Cheese can also be frozen.
With children’s lunches in mind, we included some mild, inexpensive, and pricier vintage cheeses in this week's selection.
Beautifully balanced with a saltiness that adds interest, this was a firm favourite, especially in a baguette with chutney. Available freshly cut from a large round, this vac pack had a handy use-by date of six months, so can be refrigerated. Its new Ballinvarrig mature cheddar is also deliciously full-flavoured. Made in Whitechurch from milk on the farm there. We bought in On the Pig´s Back, Cork.
9.5
Full flavoured and interesting, made from buffalo milk, this is a welcome addition to a cheeseboard. For the sophisticated palate and perhaps not for young children´s school sandwiches, its crumbly texture suits pasta dishes, vegetable fried rice dishes and pancakes.
We bought in The Real Olive, English Market, Cork.
9
A first time for us, this little wedge was well worth trying. Quite tangy and interesting, it is made from raw milk and matured nine to 12 months. This showed in its deep flavour with the right amount of saltiness. From the Cooney family farm in Co Tipperary, we bought in Iago, Princes St, Cork.
9
Good flavour with a mild tang that makes it moreish. Well balanced overall flavour, it has just the right amount of dryness which turns to creaminess in the mouth. Tasters liked it for toasties.
8.25
Crystals resulting from the transformation of calcium to calcium lactate, often found in aged cheeses, gives this mature cheese an interesting texture and bite. Full flavoured, it was liked by tasters of all ages. Made with vegetarian rennet.
8.5.
Busy parents should consider buying a decent block of cheese. You will be amazed at how quickly it will disappear. It saves on shopping and it will come to the rescue for main courses of a cheese and potato omelette, pasta with cheese and olives, burritos and tacos fillings. We bought in The Chicken Inn, English Market Cork.
8
Good flavour with a little bite that pleased tasters. Good texture too with a little dryness. Useful for school lunchboxes. An attractive low price, which was echoed in a few supermarkets, but this one worked best for tasters on the day.
8
Mild yet flavoursome, this went down well with younger tasters. Made with Irish milk, this cheese is produced by Kerry Group, now owned by multinational Pilgrim´s Pride.
7.75