BS: Food and wine tasting....

Subject: BS: Food and wine tasting....
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 07:17 PM

Picked this up on the Daily Telegraph.

I was once given a bottle of 'baijiu' a sort of legal Chinese potcheen that remineded me of musty books with and overlay of bostick glue...

Any other pertinant food and wine descriptions ????/

A fine cheese 'with a whiff of baby vomit'
By Catriona Davies
(Filed: 22/02/2005)

While wine connoisseurs have a rich and varied vocabulary at their disposal, cheese lovers have had to make do with comparisons to feet or just plain old "smelly".

Now, at last, researchers have given cheese appreciation a whole language of its own.

Scientists have compiled a dictionary of definitions to go with 43 types of French cheese which were tasted by a panel of food technicians under strict laboratory conditions.

Whether cheese producers will be delighted with the descriptions is another matter.

Bleu d'Auvergne, for example, is described as being animalic - meaning "aromatics associated with farm animals and the inside of a barn", sweaty - meaning "reminiscent of perspiration-generated foot odour found in unwashed gym socks and shoes" and musty/dry - meaning "associated with closed air spaces such as attics and closets".

Chevre is musty/earthy - "associated with raw potatoes and damp hummus" and goaty - "reminiscent of wet animal fur".

Among the characteristics given to Camembert was sauerkraut - "associated with fermented cabbage".

Munster was defined with a damning description - "reminiscent of baby vomit" and morbier was ashy/sooty - "associated with a cold campfire". While discussing the descriptions, the five researchers at Kansas State University - or "descriptive sensory panelists" as they called themselves - tasted 1.5cm cubes of each cheese, interspersed with apple and bread to clean the palate.

The cheeses included five different types of Camembert, five bries, two reblochons and one Roquefort. Some cheeses had both raw and pasteurised versions.

The research was published in the journal Food Quality and Preference. The British Cheese Board, which represents cheese producers, said that it supported the concept of finding defining words for home produced cheeses, although not always in the terms used by these researchers.

Nigel White, the secretary of the British Cheese Board, said: "The wine industry has done a really good job of coming up with consumer-friendly terms that people can associate wine with.

"In the cheese industry I don't think we have done a particularly good job over the years.

"The idea of coming up with vocabulary that is unique to cheese and easily understood by the public is great.

"However, there's no point in using phrases which are, in my opinion, insulting or a complete turn-off.

"Phrases like 'fermented cabbage' or 'chemical' are words that we in the cheese industry would use to describe faults rather than positive characteristics."

Subject: RE: BS: Food and wine tasting....
From: mack/misophist
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 11:46 PM

It's a good thing they didn't try any Limberger. Truly delicious with onions on rye bread with a good mustard.

Subject: RE: BS: Food and wine tasting....
From: Amos
Date: 23 Feb 05 - 12:19 AM

"This Lindburger, now, is a fine outstanding example of the art, replete with a finish reminiscent of a Rangoon sewage spill...."

Subject: RE: BS: Food and wine tasting....
From: Emma B
Date: 23 Feb 05 - 05:52 PM

Oh thanks SHC - those WERE 3 of my favourite French cheeses.

Subject: RE: BS: Food and wine tasting....
From: GUEST,Skip
Date: 23 Feb 05 - 05:56 PM

I challenge the french to make cheese called "skipys socks"!

Subject: RE: BS: Food and wine tasting....
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 Feb 05 - 07:35 PM

And those descriptive terms are supposed to aid people in appreciating the cheeses? Are we sure the whole thing isn't a conspiracy on the part of American makers of bland fair like Colby and Monterey Jack to make their more fragrant European competition sound disgusting?