Choosing good cheeses is not always easy or straightforward if we are lucky enough and have the budget. To live near a cheese maker, we can obviously benefit from the advice of a professional who will know how to guide us in the best way towards the right cheeses according to your our desires and our wallet. He will also be able to inform you about the origin of the cheese, the type of milk used, the duration of the ripening, etc. On the other hand, it is a little more complicated in the supermarket when you find yourself facing the huge shelf offering dozens and dozens of product references.
We often wonder if it is possible to find good cheese in supermarkets or hypermarkets or if the best cheeses would not ultimately be reserved for specialist cheese shops. The answer may be surprising, but yes, you can find good cheese in the supermarket, provided you know how to decipher the labels a little, know the quality labels and to know how to thwart some classic commercial traps of mass distribution. And to pay more too, let’s be honest. If, in addition, your supermarket has a cut-away section and gives pride of place to a regional range and raw milk cheeses, you’ve won. Here are some tips and tricks to help you navigate it.
Prefer Raw Milk If You Are Looking For A Cheese with Character
Raw milk does not undergo any heat treatment, that is, it is not heated during the Welsh Cheese making process. This keeps all the aromas and all the richness of the flora of the milk. Pasteurized milk is heated for 15 seconds at 72 ° C: this treatment destroys any pathogenic microorganisms in the milk. Its conservation is therefore simplified and it is this milk which is used in particular for industrial cheeses.
If you like cheeses with a lot of taste and character, opt for raw milk cheeses: they are available by the cut, but also packaged on the shelves. Be careful, however, for pregnant women and immunocompromised people, raw milk is not recommended to avoid any potential health risk. The Ministry of Agriculture also now recommends avoiding giving these products to children under 5.
Locate the PDO and IGP Quality Labels
Official sign of quality, the PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) standard guarantees the consumer that all stages of cheese production have taken place in the delimited geographical area of the appellation, from milk production to refining. Today, 45 cheeses are labeled PDO in this country. It is a real guarantee of quality for a cheese, so do not hesitate to look for its small logo on the packaged cheeses or to ask for it when cut.
Another less well-known label: the IGP (Protected Geographical Indication). Less drastic than the PDO standard, it guarantees that at least one of the cheese-making stages has been carried out in the geographical area.
Choose a 100% sheep’s milk feta
Watch out for imitations. If you want to taste a real feta conforming to the PDO standard, you will have to choose a composition with 100% sheep’s milk. You can possibly add a little goat’s milk in its production, but the majority milk must be sheep’s milk. But beware of “sun cubes”, “cheese slices” and other imitations made from cow’s milk that do not bear the name “feta” on the packaging.
