Crusted Cheese Pie

Well. It’s Pie Month again. Where better to find a suitable pie than in the classic Make A Meal Of Cheese? Yes, the recipe book that gave us the abject horror of the Hollow Cheese Loaf. Good idea. There’s no way that could go wrong. Here’s the instructions:

Cheese Hollow Loaf

Hello! It’s Alix! It’s been months! Sorry about that! Enough exclamation marks now, on to the recipe! (!)

Party Pyramids

Another of my contributions to the canape party – this comes from our old friend Make a Meal of Cheese. Is it just me or do the prawns in the picture below look kind of weird? Like…too pink?

Welsh Eggs

Yes ladies, you heard right, that’s Welsh Eggs.  These are a new one on me, and the internet is not very forthcoming on the subject . This recipe is another from the disturbing Make a Meal of Cheese. Predictably it is not the cheese which makes them Welsh (no prizes for guessing that it’s cheddar again here). I’m not entirely sure what does make them Welsh, to be honest. Lack of meat? The internet is unclear on the subject – here the Welsh Egg involves lamb mince, and here it involves ramekins. And leeks. This recipe features none of those things. (To be fair, who knows what makes a Scotch egg Scotch? Who are we to judge?) Anyway, onwards to the eats:

Macaroni Mushroom Toss

This is from Make a Meal of Cheese, published in 1973 by the Cheese Information Service (no,  really, it’s a thing). The introduction briefly outlines the history of cheese and describes a few UK specialities such as Stilton, Cheshire, Wensleydale, Derby, Dunlop, Caerphilly etc.  Ignoring, as this book does, the wealth of foreign cheeses, it was with some surprise I read the following ‘All the cheese referred to in the recipes is of the hard-pressed type, usually Cheddar, because this variety is most suitable for use in cooked dishes’. C’mon! A cheese cookbook where they only use Cheddar? This is demented. So it was with some trepidation that I browsed the recipes, and rightly so. I would like to add at this point that I love cheese, and will eat it in many divers, varied and challenging contexts. Make a Meal of Cheese goes too far. Perhaps at a later date I will be brave enough to try the Somerset Cake – a sponge cake with a raspberry jam and grated cheddar filling, but right now just reading this recipe destroys any appetite I may have. There’s also Savoury Welsh Surprise (anyone who’s thinking this might be one that features a Welsh cheese rather than Cheddar must steel themselves for disappointment). This dish is leeks rolled in ham, baked in a cheddar sauce. Horrifyingly this recipe ends with this tip: For a change, try substituting bananas for the cooked leeks. An exciting combination.  Dangerously exciting, if you ask me.