Top-Value Cheeses for Tight Times

May 24, 2022 janet@janetfletcher.com

Cheese board with great-value cheeses — Left to right: Piave Vecchio, Taleggio, La Dama Sagrada, Point Reyes Toma, Bleu d’Auvergne

Seems like everything’s going up but the stock market. My neighborhood bakery just hiked the price of my favorite loaf by 33 percent. Ouch. That’s serious inflation. Cheese is hardly immune, and the stresses in the grain market guarantee more sticker shock to come. We cheese lovers just have to shop smarter. The values are out there. I’ve rounded up a few well-priced favorites for these inflationary times. There aren’t many cheeses that make me think “Is that all?” when I see what I’ve spent, but these dozen do.

It’s a Cheese Marathon

January 21, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com

One of these years, I’m going to take a clicker to the Winter Fancy Food Show so I can count exactly how many cheeses I sampled. Sixty? Seventy? My self-discipline melts like hot mozzarella at this three-day extravaganza. I’m looking for trends and the next big stars, so I soldier on. Eighty cheeses?

Trivia But Not Trivial

February 27, 2018 janet@janetfletcher.com

I always learn so much from Pat Polowsky. This graduate student is half my age and twice as knowledgeable about cheese, especially if we’re talking chemistry. In that case, it’s more like a factor of ten. Ever wondered how salt gets to the middle of a wheel when it’s only applied to the outside? (You didn’t?) Did you think the crunch on the rind of Taleggio comes from salt? I did, but it doesn’t.

Ten Under $20

January 3, 2017 janet@janetfletcher.com

(l to r): Raschera, Taleggio, St. George, Campo de Montalban, Chevre in Blue

Yikes. Does your credit-card balance look like mine? I know January sends many of us into fits of austerity, but cutting back doesn’t have to mean cutting out. Keep eating cheese! I prowled my local cheese counters for tasty options under $20 a pound and had no trouble assembling a list of worthy contenders. These ten selections deliver amazing value and most of them are in shops year-round.