Making American cheeses (Polish and EU ones are terrible!)

Yep, can't disagree with you there.

That stuff is nasty, its in the snack aisle. It shouldn't be considered cheese.:(

I doubt anyone is jealous of plastic processed "cheese" and "cheese" that comes out of a can. We eat real food here, not stuff mass produced in factories. Try coming to Europe sometime, we can introduce you to small scale cheese makers, and you can accompany it with bread produced by small bakeries and wash it down with local wines. Even Poland has some excellent wines on offer.


Keep on eating canned cheese!

I don't doubt that America has great products available that are comparable to what Europe has, but there's also a tremendous amount of utter garbage on your shelves.

I had heard that they were good, too, but I wasn't expecting them to be THIS good. So much variety, too. Try local artisan cheeses form your part of the country. I think you might be surprised, too, to find that great cheeses are made in your own neck of the woods. They're worth the price.

The point is, Johnny, that the Polish deli is/was head and shoulders above some cheap-ass bodega offering more than half what the Poles were chargin'!!

Not being bigoted, simply truthful, that's all:-)

The Europeans often do do it better. As far as Wisconsin, the Scandinavian influence is almost as strong as the ethnic Polish of Chicago, therefore, one can be assured of the quality....NOT VELVEETA!!!

Oh, you are talking about the "imitation cheeses".
I doubt so either but what you are jealous of is that in the united States of America you have endless choices from low quality to top quality.

America also has endless imports from almost ever country in the world to choose from.
There is Scotland where you are from it is basically chocolate and vanilla to choose from.
That is just one reason why you feel so inferior and jealous of the Great U.S.A.
I don't need to come to Europe to find a small scale cheese maker, America has more of them does Europe have.
The State of Wisconsin ALONE makes more cheese (not the imitation cheese that you are talking about) then all of Britain does as a country.

America has small bakeries in just about every town and in every city that I know of.
Wine, America produces many World Award Winning wines, does Scotland have any at all ?
You really have been brain washed with propaganda to what you read in the tabloids in Europe.


I don't think cheese comes in cans. I know "imitation" cheese come in cans. Is that what you are referring to ?


Can't disagree as there are substandard products on shelves throughout Europe also.
Another fact is that America has FRESH produce year around grown in it's Southern States or imported from our neighbor Mexico.
Something Poland does not have the luxury of.
Nothing worse then a soggy salad without fresh fruits and vegetables or no salad at all because it is out of season.
I have found Poland's food is bland and heavy without much flavor unless you put cheese on it.

Food in colder countries naturally will be blander and heavier than in more southerly countries, where strong spice is often needed for salt, as in Mexico, India etc. and the much warmer weather is less conducive to big, stick-to-your-ribs portions.

Polish food, much like German cooking, will typically be hearty (not necessarily healthyLOL), simple and basic, with little piquancy or sauce needed to either enhance or disguise the overall flavor! Polish cuisine can stand on her own; give me my zurek, bigos and kielbasy any day of the week:-)

From what I have read, cheeses are often different even with the same name. I read that Monetery Jack in the UK isn't actually the real deal but it is similar. I guess I'll try this though. I really hope it is because this is my favorite kind of cheese.

I usually got high-quality American cheese from the deli. Just because it is reprocessed cheese doesn't make it somehow worse than "normal" cheese. I hate the myth that all American cheeses are terrible "fake cheeses" or somehow loaded with dangerous chemicals. The anti-American cheese crowd is very ignorant of the reality of American cheeses It is like Europeans think American cheeses are inferior just because they aren't from Europe. Which I guess would be a very American attitude to have? The typical Brit is just as arrogant as the typical American, so I'm not surprised by the view in the UK. I guess "father like son." The same over-processed "fake" stuff is made in Europe too, just usually isn't as tasty...

delphiandomine, I guess you are British...

@jon357
Thanks for the advice! I don't have a cool room, but maybe the basement would work...

@delphiandomine
haha the funny thing is, is that the mature cheddar at Biedronka is the ONLY cheese I regularly buy, except for renamed parmesan! It is great but it isn't good for cheese dips and some other uses.

@DominicB
I am from Chillicothe, OH. I used to even use Crisco for grilled cheeses. I hate the lack of peppers and hot sauces, but at least I have jalapenos. I wish I could find cilantro too though.

What makes them poverty food? I never heard it called that. Beans are kind of expensive. We had beans at every major family gathering (Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc). Many family members have unique recipes to make homemade baked beans. I bought a can at Carrefour yesterday and just ate the whole can. I really miss American baked beans. They are better than the British flavors I can get here. I want to find all the ingredients for them too.

@Lyzko
I definitely agree that 95% of fresh foods, like apples, are MUCH better in Europe. Yet Poles still can't figure out that corn comes in this fancy, green pacakging and doesn't need to be shucked and put in plastic. Poles have some great foods, like pierogi, krokiety, placki z gulaszem, and more. I'd still say good American food is more flavorful than good European foods. Why? Well, we have people from all over the world bringing the best foods to America! In the US, you can get low quality, cheap garbage of everything, even pierogi. This might be a big reason as to why Europeans look down on American food so much.

@TheOther
Every "special" cheese from Carrefour or even Tesco has been a bland piece of rubber. I don't know why European cheeses are so bland and rubbery. I gave up trying to get anything from the deli, except cheddars.

@johnny reb
You've got that right! Europeans are missing out ;)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processed_cheese

Isn't even cheese at all.

It maybe the same colour, but lets not mix up the two.

@peterweg
If you define cheese in such a way that modifying it after it is in a cheese wheel, then American cheese isn't "real" cheese. But that is honestly a stupid argument just used by snobs to attack high-quality American cheese.

@zagadka314

It's more a matter of ignorance. The best cheeses produced in the US are not exported. And definitely not to the EU, which has almost a blanket ban on the import of dairy products of any kind. Dairy over-production has long been a severe problem that causes significant friction between the countries of the EU as it is. So Europeans are generally not aware that high-quality cheeses are produced in the US.

Oh man, how would anyone make home made salsa without cilantro !


Baked beans recipe from my Polish Grandmama.

10 cups of water
2 cups of dry navy beans
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of molasses
1 teaspoon of salt
6 slices of bacon, crispy cooked and crumbled
1 medium onion, chopped (about a 1/2 cup)
3 more cups of water

Heat oven to 350*.
Put the first 10 cups of water in a dutch oven with the beans and boil
Boil uncovered for two minutes
Mix in the rest except the last 3 cups of water
Cover and bake 4 hours stirring occasionally
Add remaining 3 cups of water and bake uncovered for at least 2 more hours stirring occasionally, until beans are tender and of your desired consistency.

See what you learn here zagadka314.
Welcome to the Polish Forum

"I wish I could find cilantro too though. "

Lidl, Tesco, Biedronka sell it from time to time, its called kolendra here.

Because I am always cooking asian food we grow corriander on the window sill, it is really easy to do and if you sow seeds into small pots every two weeks you will always have some to hand.

Are you sure you can't find it? As Dolno says it's called 'kolendra' in Poland (coriander in English). Both the fresh herb and the dried coriander seeds in packets are widely available in Warsaw anyway.

All big supermarkets have it. It wasn't used much here however not it's more and more available, rather like rocket.

No way, I love polish cheese! Especially cottage. Yum! It's like heaven. I'm from Australia and I would never say the cheese is better here. But in saying that, all cheese is amazing.

I live close to a big Polish supermarket and their deli has a separate cheese section with practically every kind of cheese from Europe.
Although, they have pretty tasty versions nothing compares to Wisconsin cheese. Its Americas Dairyland its what they live for, and Bratwurst! LoL


I take cottage cheese mix in green peas and bacon bits, sounds weird but try it:)

Take a small tub or cottage cheese, lightly sprinkle a little salt and pepper, drop some roasted sesame oil and then top off with some light soy sauce.

Don't stir, but move the spoon through the mixture. It sounds weird, but is very yummy.

Mix 2/3rds cottage cheese with 1/3rd pineapple chunks. (American)
Chop up sweet onion with black pepper and mix with cottage cheese. (Polish)

Not sure you can judge European cheese by what's available in Poland. Unfortunately the selection of cheese in Poland is very poor compared to Europe as a whole, you go into a major supermarket in Poland and the cheese quality will pale in comparison to what's available in a small corner shop in France for example. Back when I first moved to Poland, you couldn't even get cheddar, there were just lots of differently named plastic like cheeses that I am sure were identical. Think yourself lucky that the range has improved.

That being said, grilled Oscypki are amazing!

There is (or was) a great French cheese shop in Kraków, run by a maniac who seems to think about cheese 24/7.

Yes they are :-) although there are lots of imitations purporting to be Oscypek. My friend's father who lives close to Zakopane makes it and I got to try it when I stayed with them last year.Gołka is another cheese I really like.

I was staggered at the OP's comments that EU cheeses are terrible! Maybe they are too strong tasting in comparison to bland American cheese is all I can think.

It's the only thing I can think of. The fact that they mentioned that foul tasteless "American cheese" as superior to Polish cheese very much suggests that.

"I was staggered at the OP's comments that EU cheeses are terrible!"

Comparing American artisanal cheeses to EU mass-produced cheeses might result in such an idea (or simply the familiar and not-so-good being more wanted than the novel and unwanted).


Real, qualtiy American cheeses don't make it to Europe (and casual visitors to the US won't know about better local varieites) so European prejudice is easy to understand.

Have you even had real American Cheese? Not that crap that you get inside a plastic wrapper either.

Or you just talking out you A$$ as usual, because you haven't got a clue what real American cheese is!

I know this is just another one of your biased attempts to discredit anything American, because you're a dick!

Well Joker, I would take you back to Mafektis' post (for some reason I can't quote). Good American cheese (like good American beer a good few years back) doesn't get exported. All you get is the mass market dross. That being said, the OP made the claim that cheese in Europe is not as good as the US, based on experiences in Poland, where the cheese selection is poor...at best!

There are strict rules about importing dairy products from outside the European Union.
Each batch of dairy products that you import may have to:
enter the EU through a Border Inspection Post where veterinary checks must be carried out $$$
come from a country authorised by the European Commission (EC) to export this type of product to the EU $$$
Remember that general Polish regulations may also apply. $$$
Dairy products include milk, butter, cheese, etc.
Making it very doubtful if these jealous loudmouths have ever even tasted real American cheese.

I agree, maybe not with the beer part...LoL


It`s the same claim as DD`s theory about America food, its all contrived upon internet ramblings and not factual.

Indeed. Just like the best Danish cheeses and beers are never exported.

When I lived in Poland, I used to visit Cieszyn on the Czech border frequently, and we would stock up on great Czech cheeses that were simply sublime. There are some signs that an artisan cheese industry is in its infancy in Poland, though, just like with craft beers. I've tried some rather decent artisan cheeses at fairs in Poland. And look around for the cheese called Bursztyn. It's the only commercial cheese in Poland that is worth buying. I was quite impressed. I'm sorry that I never got a chance to try the other cheese made by that producer, Safir and Rubin.

As for now, Poland is still a black hole on the European cheese scene. Most Poles strongly dislike good cheese. They have been conditioned to actually prefer bad bland cheese. The image of cheese in their mind is what they see in the store, and anything that deviates from that is "weird". They don't even like the idea of good cheese, and are extremely hesitant event to try it. I took one of my Polish students, a relatively adventurous foodie, on vacation to Bornholm once, and getting him to try the best Danish cheeses was like pulling teeth. He did fall in love with them once he tried them, though. So artisan cheese makers in Poland have a tough row to hoe in terms of overcoming consumer resistance.

It's like with kiełbasa, bread or beer in Poland. They can be excellent, but the commercial stuff is primarily cheap commercial cr@p. It takes some looking to find the good stuff, but it's worth it. Even in a city as large as Wrocław, finding good bread was a challenge. There is only one small bakery that makes great bread, but it is worth making the trek across town for.

I was there last weekend, and there's now an excellent bakery in the heart of the centre that produces some truly fantastic bread on-site from scratch.

Craft beers are huge here now. They've really taken off since you left. For people like me who prefer 'ordinary' ones, it can actually be quite irritating.

For cheese, improvement is slow. There are a lot more varieties (blue kinds are more and more popular) though still mostly from factories. The only real craft one is Korczynski which isn't very complicated (you could easily make it at home with the right sized pans) but is still good. In fact it won a prize several years ago.

One thing holding back cheese in Poland is local tastes. You mentioned that people prefer bland - this is key to it. Cheeses high in tyramine (like a lot of the best ones) aren't popular here.

I always bring four types back as presents. Tangy Lancaster, made on a hill farm, Creamy Lancaster (ditto), Shropshire Blue (made in Hawes, Wensleydale) and White Stilton. All except for the Creamy Lancaster a little strong for mass market tastes here but some people like them. French friends sometimes bring back Chaource - closer to Polish tastes but not produced in enough quantity for much export.