Fake 139

BH was reading the Surrey Downs magazine over breakfast this morning, a freebie which turns up from somewhere, all about fake cheese, in particular fake cheddar. She managed to catch my attention, and a little while later I checked with reference 2, an online shop which is certainly vegan, but does not appear to offer anything that I would regard as cheese. Looked more like dips, the sort of thing that you get in restaurants with an eastern Mediterranean flavour, for example in 'Kibele' of Great Portland Street.

Turning to Bing, I get the snap above. This cheese seems very cheap, a lot less than I pay Neal's Yard Dairy. But then it comes ready grated and it is to be had from Sainsbury's. I wonder whether I will ever give it a try?

I associate to hearing on the 'Today' programme on breakfast time radio, half a century ago, about a machine which could make milk out of anything green and leafy, for example nettles. My memory says that the machine emulated what goes on inside a cow and that what you were getting out of it was something fairly close to real milk. No idea whether it was close enough to be able to make cheese from it. But I don't think the machines ever caught on, so perhaps the milk they made cost a lot more than the real thing.

PS 1: I have not checked, but the magazine comes from Sheengate Publishing, possibly headquartered not far from where BH spent part of her childhood, that is to say East Sheen. And there is a Sheen Gate opening into Richmond Park. And I notice for the first time, that the street where she used to live, Medcroft Gardens, is quite near a Thornton Road - with my having been brought up near the Thornton Road outside Cambridge.

PS 2: Wednesday morning: BH has now bought a packet of the Sainsbury's own brand version of the cheese above, looking very similar and quite possibly made by the same people. Biggest ingredient water, next biggest coconut oil. Then potato starch, maize starch and so on and so forth. We will see how we get on. Will it toast? In the meantime BH observes that there is a pretty good sprinkling of free-from products of various sorts through the store. Including Polish cooked meats made out of turkey rather than pork. Never!

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/12/fake-138.html.

Reference 2: https://lafauxmagerie.com/.

Reference 3: https://www.sheengate.co.uk/.

Reference 4a: https://www.buteisland.com/. The home of Scheese.

Reference 4b: Bute Island Foods Ltd, The Creamery, Townhead, Rothesay, Isle of Bute, United Kingdom PA20 9JH. At least the Bute bit of their name is for real.