Cheese Expert Guesses More Cheap vs Expensive Cheeses | Price Points | Epicurious

I'm Liz Thorpe and I'm a cheese expert and I'm back hmm I could just eat the entire thing okay so maybe these are Brie certainly they look like Brie what I can say definitively is that in the world of cheese we would call these bloomie rind in cheese's brie is a plumie rind camembert is a bloomie rind any cheese with this white soft edible skin or rind is a bloomie rind when you make the rind on a brief style you introduce mold to the cheese and that white mole traditionally is added to the milk during the cheese making process those mold spores that are present in the milk come into contact with oxygen and start to grow or bloom on the outside of the cheese and it takes about 2 to 3 weeks turning patting flipping of the cheese to kind of take that bloomie mold and get it to form a cohesive skin the other way of doing it is take a wheel cheese and you spray mold on the outside and you immediately get an insta rind it's generally thicker it's chewy it tends to have a taste that's a little bit bitter if one of these cheese's were bright white with no brown at all I would immediately guess that that one was made the faster cheaper way they're both white with some brown modeling so I'm not entirely sure let's cut them open three styles are very sticky so I want a knife that's got holes or a really skinny blade you don't want to rip a piece of the cheese off because it's sticking to your knife so this first one is definitely firmer it is nice and sticky though the first one is got a little bit of a mushroom you smell that's really typical for a brief style let's see what's going on over here the second cheese is creamier a little bit moister it's harder to get out it's sticky okay well this one is definitely different classic traditional French aroma profile which is very intense mushroomy notes and like cooked cruciferous vegetables cabbage or cauliflower or broccoli it's got like a farty smell to it frankly that's really typical for a traditional French breeze that is starting to make me think we have something going on over here that is a little bit more unique I want to taste them two three styles run the flavor gamut on the mild end like butter cream milk and then on the extreme end more of those you know cauliflower broccoli notes so this first one is milder buttery it's like mushroom butter it's got flavor to it it's not bland mmm the second one is like broccoli cheddar soup so that is to me like classic French traditional flavor profile this is really pretty hard actually I'm gonna guess that this one is more expensive based almost entirely on its flavor and aroma let's find out [Music] haha okay it's like satisfying when I'm right this one is eight dollars more pound which is not insignificant I will say that when you find a bloomie rind that has this very intense mushroom and broccoli aromas and flavors definitely it will be a more traditional maker generally a smaller cheese maker look for that thinner browner mottled rind versus that sick white chewy runt the cheapest breeze are milder they have a thicker rind it's more about buttery melty cheese than it is about the great nuance of complexity and flavor I feel very very confident that I'm looking at two Cheddar's I'm also very confident that there are significant differences in the way that they are aged which is gonna have a huge impact on their final price let me tell you what I see on my right I have a block of cheese it's hard so I know that it's aged it doesn't have a lot of water in it it's not soft and creamy on my left I have a big triangle that came from a bigger piece of cheese and it too is hard and aged aged cheese's are going to be more expensive than younger cheese's what I see and the cheese on my right is that it doesn't have any rind to agent for a period of time but to have no rind on it means that it was made and aged in a really specific way that Jesus actually put into a plastic bag essentially the air is sucked out and then it is put into a cold environment and matured for two months or five months or in the case of this one here I'm guessing like nine or ten months but she's on the left has something that is really cool it looks like a brown rind but actually it's cloth it's actually got two layers of cloth on it this is a cheese that was made and it was wrapped in cloth and then it was aged and that's really where the major price difference is going to come from I think Cheddar's can be made in one of two ways the traditional sort of American style cheddar that most of us grew up with was mild medium or sharp and it came in a block found cheddar is it cheese that's been made wrapped in cloth and then matured for generally nine to twelve months you take these big wheels of cheese and you put them in a temperature and humidity-controlled aging environment over the course of weeks and months those cheese's grow different molds on the outside of the cloth they are turned they're brushed flipped and all of that work is done manually it is a very time-consuming and labor-intensive process that's why I'm guessing cloth bound is gonna be our pricier cheese okay let's cut into these when I'm working with harder cheese's I generally choose a knife that has a bigger wider stronger blade so I like the hatchet cuz I can kind of just dig into it so right off the bat it's really dense and really hard to cut into and it's got a really intensely perfumed smell it's like toasted nuts so this is a really delicious cheese it's like toast did not send a bit like brown butter I can tell it's been aged cheese B it's kind of hard to dig a piece out but also dense also firm the rind is this cloth layer the cloth is permeable the air can get through it and over time what happens is the smells of the cheese are very much developed by the aging environment it smells kind of like wet wood this was something that was aged on wood boards it smells like being in a root cellar I love how it smells mmm earthier more like potato skin or celery root at the end of the day it's just a ton more labor-intensive to make a cloth bound cheese that's it he is my guest B is definitely more expensive let's see if I'm right [Music] hey that was a gimme I really want to stress that block cheddar is not bad cheddar there are fantastic block Cheddar's this is one of them you should also know that you're probably gonna love the complexity of a clothbound cheddar at the end of the day they cost more money because they are developed over many many months in an open-air aging environment rind lifts Jesus a rind list cheese compared to a rind in cheese is is always going to be cheaper it's not about which one's better it's just about what is it really cost to make a piece of cheese and in this case it's more work and so it's more dollars [Music] what do we have here they both have wax on the outside their rind is wax a is it's a little bit springy so it's firm and texture but it's not rock-hard either and it's smooth and buttery yellow I don't really see any air bubbles or any crystals B on the other hand I would call this rock card it's very dry you can see it's kind of flaky and most importantly for me thinking about age it's got these little white amino acid crystals you don't see those in cheese before 9 or 10 months minimum this is definitely older that wax rind that is characteristic of Gouda Gouda or coda is traditionally a Dutch cheese but now is made in the United States as well and it's a really tricky cheese because there are young ones and there are aged ones and they are radically different in flavor and in texture and in use I think that's what we're looking at here I'd like to cut them and taste them ok so let's start with a yeah see this is an awesome knife for cheese B but a is so creamy it sort of sticks to the knife blade a is really really creamy even though it's firm and it smells like cultured butter if you've ever smelled that it's like rich fatty buttery but a little bit tangy and again it's like eating a pad of cold butter I would love to melt this over any kind of vegetable now I want to go on to taste babe I like this knife because I can actually kind of gouge the cheese you get this beautiful little nugget which is such a great illustration of what's going on here with age there's almost no moisture left in this cheese it's very dense very hard and it has this amazing smell it smells like butterscotch and the taste is like a savory version of a butterscotch candy what's really interesting when you taste this cheese is that while it's really hard when you chew it it's got a creaminess and a roundness to the texture something else about that butterscotchy flavor profile that's a very very typical flavor profile for aged Goudas that are made out of cow's milk but you can actually make Goudas out of sheep milk or goat milk as well I believe that B is gonna be more expensive because it is considerably more aged than a so let's see if I'm right yes see it's more than twice as expensive you're paying for time you're paying for flavor development intensity and complexity prepare to spend a little bit more but be rewarded for your dollars this is a good one here's what I see right off the bat these are both mozzarellas these are rind lifts cheeses that's gonna be true of any mozzarella mozzarella is not extremely aged it's always a younger cheese this is the fresher mozzarella because it's wet it's squishy and it's got little droplets on the board and all over the cheese whereas this one is firmer its drier this could be cow's milk or it could be buffalo milk a lot of fresh mozzarella are actually made from water buffalo milk which is higher in fat higher in protein a lot harder to find and a lot more expensive first I need to figure that out and I can't do that until I taste I'm gonna use this knife because it's got a thin skinny blade which is always a good thing when you're cutting a softer wetter creamier cheese there's less surface area for the cheese to stick to so I'll get a clean cut instead of ripping my whole piece of cheese apart just goes right through this is a really great thing to see mozzarella is what's called a pasta falaka cheese it means pulled curd it is actually pulled and stretched as part of the cheese making process you can see right here a mozzarella typically has the texture of like a poached chicken breast it shreds a little bit and you want that stretchy elastic but still creamy texture those would all be characteristic of fresh or higher moisture mozzarella so what I'm wondering here is is this cow milk or is this buffalo milk buffalo milk has a very distinctive grassy aroma and flavor it's like getting a whiff of a newly mown lawn and when you taste it that grassiness carries through into the flavor so this tastes like sweet fresh nope it's cow's milk and it's gonna be cheaper over here looking at the inside the texture of this one doesn't have that shreddy appearance but that's not surprising because this one's got a lot less moisture in it doesn't really smell like very much and well kindly I will say it's mild in flavor it's salty that's basically it this is really made for cooking it's made for melting I have made my decision but my reasoning may not be what you think it's gonna be I believe that this mozzarella is less expensive not because it's not fresh I think that this is actually cheaper because most block mozzarella is made from partially skimmed milk and you're actually buying a cheese that's made with more water and less solids that's a lot cheaper to make so my bet is this one is cheaper and this one is partially skimmed let's find out yeah see look it's two and a half times as expensive to sum up here's what you need to know mozzarella is going to be cheaper if it's made of partially skimmed milk and more expensive if it's made of whole milk if it's made of buffalo milk it's gonna be the most expensive just because fresh mozzarella comes packed in water or sold in a different part of the store if both of them are made with whole milk they're actually going to be very comparable priced what you really need to ask yourself is do you want something that's creamier milder sweeter that would be the fresh water packed style or do you want something that's drier saltier and it's gonna give you that super even gooey brown on top melt if you're making pizza or flatbread or whatever it really has to do with the raw material that's going in and in this case skim milk versus whole milk is what's driving the price difference everyone always asks what my favorite cheese is and while I don't have a single favorite I have a favorite style and it's here on the table in front of me my favorite cheese's are what are called the washed-rind cheese's and that's technical term for a cheese that's been washed in salt water after it's made when you wash the rind of a cheese you help to cultivate a very specific kind of bacteria which is called B linens makes the rind of the cheese orange and it gives it kind of a sticky tacky texture it makes a cheese really stinky and it makes the cheese taste really really delicious so she's definitely a washed rind and I can tell because of that moistness and because there's that variation in color she's B on the other hand while it's orange has this totally uniform color so there's no variation to it and it's also bright orange like safety cone there's a big difference between those two orange rinds I think to verify that though I want to cut into them and smell and taste once again I'm cutting into creamier soccer cheese's so I want to make sure that I'm using a small bladed knife so that I don't have a bunch of cheese that sticks to it actually with a I mean it's like pudding I mean look at this it's like mmm stretchy let's see here yeah sometimes cheese smells really bad and that's a good thing with this style of cheese you can expect really strong aromas you should know that when you bring the bag home but they're gonna smell kind of like diapers kind of like socks believe it or not that actually is edible it's what makes the cheese taste amazing if you're someone who likes salty flavors and kind of meaty bacony flavors so mmm this I could just eat the entire thing that to me is like meat butter it's just awesome I don't know what B is but I'm feeling like it's gonna be a lot milder and it doesn't really smell like anything at all I mean it smells a little bit like milk this is sort of like tangy butter it reminds me of the flavor of Havarti or a young Gouda maybe but it's got no real saltiness and it doesn't have any of the stinky meaty flavor and aroma that I associate with washed rinds this is a straight-up case of just because of cheese is orange doesn't mean it's a washed rind you've got to go for the aroma and ideally the flavor as well knowing all the work that goes into a washed rind the repeated washing and knowing that this is a small cheese which means it's been a lot more work for a littler piece I'm guessing that a is definitely gonna be more expensive and I'm gonna go so far as to say that I think a is gonna be a lot more expensive let's see Wow okay yeah that's really expensive what goes into all those dollars between 44 and 17 I mean really it's about making cultivating a rind versus not cheese B while it's orange on the outside basically has just had a coloring added to it to make it pop in the cheese case the washed rinds are extremely labor-intensive these cheeses are washed in salt water they're turned and flipped and that process happens multiple times a week for six to eight weeks or more sometimes and a small cheese has all that work put into it but at the end of the day it's maybe only eight ounces or ten ounces so that really really is a major contributor there are many different washed rinds and they aren't all $44 a pound they're so good so I really really encourage you to check them out the next time you're shopping for cheese I hope you'll remember that more dollars means more time to age that cheese more work to make that cheese and probably more of a living wage for the person who made the milk I also don't want you to get sticker shock cheese is priced by the pound and that's enough for 14 to 16 people you can cut that number in half and know that you're gonna have plenty of cheese for whoever you need to feed at your next party [Music]

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 4,260,871

Rating: 4.8725462 out of 5

Keywords: cheap cheese, cheap cheeses, cheese, cheese expert, cheese taste test, cheeses, expensive cheese, expert, most expensive cheese, price points, taste test, cheap vs expensive cheese, cheese tasting, cheap vs expensive, cheese reviews, cheese comparison, cheese review, cheese price, cheese testing, testing cheese, expensive cheeses, cheap vs expensive food, cheese test, cheese taste, cheese making process, how to make cheese, epicurious

Id: myXB74CONsE

Length: 18min 50sec (1130 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 24 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/DasND]

Maybe it's because it's late and I have work to do, but I found this very captivating.

[u/sadiegoose1377]

Hey there cheddar, not much of a bloomy rind on you..

[u/seycyrus]

They should test her on the cheeses based on the smell and taste (alone) of prepared sections of the cheeses.

[u/DigiAirship]

Maybe I'm just a plebian, but the way she described the tastes and smells of the more expensive cheeses just made me want to choose the lesser priced option every time. Broccoli, wet wood, and used diapers doesn't sound very appetizing to me.

[u/witty_]

This one tastes like the cow got into an onion patch.

[u/noisyturtle]

I wish she'd covered goat cheese, but that was still very informative.

[u/jooes]

These videos are neat and informational and all, but I really wish they'd give the people more of a challenge.

"Here's a Ferrari, and here's that rusted piece of shit car that's been rotting in the field behind your grandpas farm for the last 50 years, which one is worth more?"

Half the time, they're like 2-3x as expensive, and pretty much every time it's immediately obvious from looks alone which one is the more expensive cheese. It's like they're not even trying.

I'm all for the learning and everything, but sometimes it's just kind of insulting. Like that knife video was a complete joke.

[u/fnot]

Interesting video. I love cheese but learned some new stuff. Did not know about the dry Mozarella. I wished she’d also talk about mold cheeses like Roquefort, Stilton etc. The best cheeses are the ones which are so strong they give me a mild headache after tasting. Long aged (36 mo+) hard cheeses are also nice, like an aged Cheddar with a balanced salty/sour taste and lots of umami flavor.

[u/fickit1time]

I can't stand the stupid random dinging sound throughout the video.