Six ways to save money on . . . cheese
Cheese, you don’t need me to tell you, is expensive these days. And, like many other products, a good deal more expensive - roughly 25% - than it was last year. But for many people, especially vegetarians, it’s a staple source of protein, never mind one of life’s great pleasures.
So how can you cut back the amount you spend? I snooped round my local Sainsbury’s to check out what they had to offer but my conclusions apply to other supermarkets too.
Forget about cheese boards
Do you really need to serve 4 or 5 different kinds of cheese when you have people round? You don’t serve 4 or 5 different kinds of desserts or starters. You’re not a restaurant. Just buy one good cheese, preferably one where you can easily use any that’s left over, and serve it with some good bread or biscuits and home made onion marmalade (easy and delicious to make - I’ll give you the recipe later this week)
Ready prepared cheese selections are poor value too. often being assembled from cheaper cheeses but sold at a higher unit cost. The Sainsbury’s Continental Cheese selection sells for £5.20 for 480g (£10.83 a kilo) Edam, one of the cheeses in the selection, sells for just £4.25 a kilo.
Look at less fashionable cheeses
For example Pecorino, a similar grating cheese to Parmesan sells for considerably less - £12.99 a kilo compared to £17.99. (Grana Padano, available at Tesco for £9.90 a kilo is even cheaper)
Quark at 58p for a 250g tub is cheaper than ricotta at 79p. Crumbly white British regional cheeses such as Wensleydale or Caerphilly can be substituted for more expensive and fashionable Feta. See here for a recipe.
Sadly, if you can’t tolerate cows milk you don’t have this option. Goats’ and sheeps’ cheeses are pricey. But you could possibly cut down the amount you eat. The recommended size for a single portion of cheese is 30g. Many of us eat a lot more.
Switch to Stilton
If you’re a lover of blue cheese Stilton is a real - and incomprehensible - bargain. How come Britain’s most highly regarded cheese is just £5.79 a kilo (for the cheapest version), cheaper than Danish Blue and Dolce Blue (presumably what used to be called Dolcelatte) at £9.67 a kilo? Let alone Roquefort at £22.90. You can buy a chunk of Stilton for just over £1 which is incredible value. You can find a simple recipe for leftover Stilton here.
Avoid flavoured cheeses and convenience products like ready grated cheese
The latter is obvious, admittedly. Back to the parmesan example - you pay £23.90 a kilo for grated parmesan compared to £17.99 for a block. But just look at what you pay for medium cheddar slices flavoured with black pepper -£12.50 a kilo compared to £5.98 for a standard block of medium cheddar! Or for Wensleydale cheese with cranberries - £7.10 a kilo compared to £5.50 a kilo for unflavoured Wensleydale.
Try the basic ranges
You may find they’re not sufficiently full-flavoured for you and there is an argument for buying stronger cheeses, particularly for cooking, as you need to use less of them. But it’s worth giving them a try. I bought a pack of Sainsbury’s ‘Basics’ Mozzarella for just 57p* instead of 75p for the standard mozzarella which wasn’t bad at all. A bit blander and more rubbery than good mozzarella but fine once you’d seasoned it. Tesco’s ‘Value’ and Asda’s ‘Smart Price’ mozzarella are even cheaper at 48p.
(*but note 99p for the same amount of Mozzarella ‘pearls’ or balls. Don’t pay for gimmicks!)
Use up leftovers
While freezing cheese is not generally recommended it’s better than chucking it away. And fine for cooking. Hard cheeses such as Cheddar can be grated and stored in a plastic box or bag. Apart from the obvious uses - cheese sauces, macaroni cheese, crispy cheese toppings - you can also use it for baking scones, breads and muffins. And Parmesan - or Pecorino - rinds will add real flavour to a soup.