Grana Padono Oro, Smoked Cheddar Brick, and Aged English Cheddar Taste Testing Review

 For this month, Mom and I bring back another exciting episode of Dragon Ball- wait, wrong subject.

Seriously, this month, we tasted some more cheese, ordered from Murray's in New York. Like always, it shipped well packed with adequate ice and it was undamaged and in good quality.

Here's how our taste testing went.

Grana Padono Oro 20 Months

In my earlier post about Pecorino Romano, I mentioned that cheese is very gritty and grainy. Well, Grana Padono Oro, while a relative of that cheese, it goes through a different cooking process than Romano, resulting in a much less dry texture and it's more flaky than grainy. This is ironic, because "Grana" means "Grain".

Grana Padono Oro is an Italian cheese that has enjoyed Denominazione d’Origine Protetta (Protected Designation of Origin) status since 1996. It's produced using raw cow milk from two separate milkings. This milk is then partially skimmed, the curd is given two cooking periods, then it's bathed in a salt brine before pressing. It also includes egg whites, which help with its flakier texturing and buttery consistency.

The result is a taste similar to Parmigiano Reggiano, but it has a different texture with a flaky, buttery consistency. This makes it more pleasant and less gritty going down than Romano and Parmigiano and thus can be flaked or shredded finely over dishes for a gentler taste from those two cheeses. It also tastes fine eaten on its own as a snacking cheese.

A final interesting note is that Grana Padono, like many Italian cheeses that can be grated, is a lowlands cheese that combines techniques used in making alpine cheeses, which gave birth to the trademark taste one expects from many traditional Italian cheeses suited for grating and drying for long-term preservation.

The taste test we did basically confirms the above, and while I enjoyed snacking on Pecorino Romano on its own, I found the Grana Padono Oro takes less time to get used to the texture on one's palate.

Aged English Cheddar

Aged English Cheddar is a cheese that comes from Dorset, England, and its origins go back to the Middle Ages. It's something of a medley of contrasting notes mixed with the traditional cheddaring of the curd, resulting in a fine cheddar worthy of its laurels.

Unlike the more sharp texture and taste of clothbound cheddars, this cheddar is gentler and sweet tasting, though still has a tangy aftertaste.

Mom and I tried some slices of it. I was struck by its rich consistency yet sweet, caramel-like flavor, and Mom noted how the tangy aftertaste makes savoring the flavor on the way down a treat. We would both recommend it for a snack cheese or used in any cheese dish you might prefer.

Smoked Cheddar Brick

Now, this is an American cheese from Wisconsin. Brick is a cheese with a basis in white cheddar, but it uses a different cooking time to achieve a different density of milk fat and texture. It also incorporates some concepts from the making of Mozzarella, leading to a cheese that is something of a hybrid of cheddar and mozzarella in texture.

Our taste testing barely proceeded before the piquant and pleasant aroma of well smoked (with hickory wood chips) cheese hit our nostrils. Upon tasting the cheese, it melted delightfully and creamily on the tongue yet had a firm smoky cheddar flavor. It was quite pleasant to chew and would make an excellent melting cheese for dishes of that nature.