Cheese
is an excellent ingredient, as it performs countless
functions when cooked. Among its many uses, cheese acts
as a topping, as a flavoring agent and as a stuffing
and a filling in dishes. Cheese also thickens and flavors
soups and sauces, improves the smoothness of certain
dishes and can act as a buffer by neutralizing acidic
flavors.
Because
so many varieties exist, it is hard to apply any hard
and-fast rules to cooking with cheese. There are, however,
a few tricks of the trade that chefs and home cooks
use when developing recipes with cheese.
•
Cheese
melts more easily and evenly when first diced, crumbled
or shredded.
•
When
cooking with more than one cheese, work with the hardest
version first (Parmesan and Romano) and grate. Next,
add shredded firm cheese, followed by semi-soft, soft,
then fresh.
•
Use
'sharp' or 'strong' tasting cheese when incorporating
them into a dish. The cheese should have enough flavor
to stand up to the taste of the other ingredients.
•
Always
cook cheese slowly and over low heat. Otherwise the
proteins and fat will separate and the cheese will become
hard and lumpy.
•
Today,
soups and sauces are thickened by reduction. However,
if a cheese soup or sauce needs binding or thickening,
remove it from the heat and whisk in an egg yolk. Make
sure the pan is off the burner or the yolk will cook
and separate.
•
When
incorporating cheese with alcohol, lemon juice, apple
juice or any acid-based ingredient, such as in a fondue
or sauce, always cook over medium
to low heat and stir constantly until all ingredients
are well incorporated.
•
Hard,
well-aged
cheese (Parmesan, Romano) can tolerate more heat, but
take longer to cook in order to smooth their grainy
texture.
•
Taste
the dish before flavoring with salt, as cheese is salty.
•
When
making a sauce with Brie or Camembert, add the rind
for additional flavor. Strain the sauce to remove lumps
of rind before serving.
•
Cheese
that can easily develop ammonia aromas and flavors (Brie
and Camembert) do
not work well with the iodine in fish and can create
an unpleasant taste.
•
When
using fresh cheese in pastries and desserts, mix the
sugar and cheese first before combining with other ingredients.
Sugar absorbs some of the cheese's liquid, thus acting
as a binding agent.
