# Cheese spreads



## blissful (Jul 23, 2017)

I've made cheese spreads and cheese sauces for years. One of the things I could never recreate was the taste of Merkt's Swiss Cheese Spread, and I love it.

With Cheddar cheese spreads, I usually shred the cheddar, put it in the food processor, add cream cheese, maybe salt, maybe garlic, and to give it a kick I might add a little blue cheese because that really sharpens the flavor. If I want it softer, I may add sour cream.

With Swiss, I could never get the taste just right. It doesn't taste like baby swiss, it is stronger. It doesn't taste like Emmentaler or Jarlsberg, though I like those flavors. When I was tasting my Gruyere cheese, THAT is the flavor I'm going for to get it like Merkt's. It is a strong flavor but not a sharp flavor. My gruyere isn't fully aged, so it will have to wait.

I must have googled 'copy cat merkts swiss' for 6 years, and I searched for the 'swiss flavor', trying to figure out what it was I liked so much.

Does anyone here have a recipe for a swiss cheese type spread that they like?


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## Sagittarius (Jul 24, 2017)

Blissful,

The ingredients are listed on this website:
www.merks.com/contact-us.aspx 

Then there is a website: 
www.merks.com/recipes

I hope this is helpfuL.


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## msmofet (Jul 24, 2017)

Sagittarius said:


> Blissful,
> 
> The ingredients are listed on this website:
> www.merks.com/contact-us.aspx
> ...



Neither one of those links work for me


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## Dawgluver (Jul 24, 2017)

I get the same thing, msm.


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## blissful (Jul 24, 2017)

I get 'page not found' too. 
Has anyone ever made a swiss, or swiss almond type cheese spread that they like? I'm crazy about Merkts Swiss Almond.


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## CharlieD (Jul 24, 2017)

Sorry, off-topic. What kind of cheese spread is commonly used for cheese danishes in America? As as I understand it is not straight cheese, or am I wrong.


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## blissful (Jul 24, 2017)

Cheese danish filling: cream cheese and sugar.
Cheese danish filling recipe: includes, cream cheese, vanilla, egg yolk, confectioners sugar, salt.


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## CharlieD (Jul 24, 2017)

thank you. I guess the only difference with Russian danish is the Farmer's cheese instead of cream cheese.


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## bossman150 (Jul 24, 2017)

blissful said:


> I get 'page not found' too.
> Has anyone ever made a swiss, or swiss almond type cheese spread that they like? I'm crazy about Merkts Swiss Almond.



I wonder if Merkts is similar to Hickory Farms?  Hickory Farms use to have an amazing swiss cheese log that I have not been able to find for years.  I really miss it!


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## Dawgluver (Jul 25, 2017)

bossman150 said:


> I wonder if Merkts is similar to Hickory Farms?  Hickory Farms use to have an amazing swiss cheese log that I have not been able to find for years.  I really miss it!




We can find Merks spreads at grocery stores here.  It's pretty good.


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## CraigC (Jul 25, 2017)

Not a spread, but Papillon, black label roquefort is excellent spread over toast points or crackers with a drizzle of honey.


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## blissful (Jul 25, 2017)

I'm going to give this one a try when my cheese is ready. I don't think I'll add the onion or worcestershire sauce.

Swiss Almond Cheese Log | Eat Wisconsin Cheese

4 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup butter (2 oz)
1 cup shredded swiss cheese (4 oz)
1 cup shredded white cheddar (4 oz)
1 t. onion powder
1 t. worcestershire sauce
1 and 1/2 cup toasted almond slices

I'll probably put my ingredients in the food processor, and eye ball the amount of almonds to put in, to make a spread. At least I have a plan now! 

I think the strength, sharpness of the flavors of the cheddar and swiss could be all the adjusting I'll need to do, to get the flavor I'm looking for.

Now my mouth is watering......


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## Sagittarius (Jul 25, 2017)

*Msmofet*



msmofet said:


> Neither one of those links work for me
> 
> View attachment 27339



Apologies Dear. 

I wrote them correctly. I had re-checked.  

Do you need the ingredients of récipes or do you need just what is in the récipe without measurement  ?


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## Sagittarius (Jul 25, 2017)

*Post:  Blissful - Swiss cheese dip / spread*



Sagittarius said:


> Apologies Dear.
> 
> I wrote them correctly. I had re-checked.
> 
> Do you need the ingredients of récipes or do you need just what is in the récipe without measurement  ?



There is a website online for an almond Swiss cheese spread on the Merck webpage ..

I posted the 2 links however,  Msmofed said they did not function .. 

Apologies. I copied down correctly.   Best to just google directly.


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## blissful (Jul 25, 2017)

Merkt's is the brand.
Sagg--the links show 'no page found' and it says merks not merkts. I don't know why it doesn't work in north America, but it doesn't, for some odd reason.

I'm open to recipes or ingredient lists, as I haven't started the grand swiss almond spread experiment here yet.


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## Dawgluver (Jul 25, 2017)

One of the popular Merkt's/Merks around here, especially during the holidays, is the port wine spread.


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## Sagittarius (Jul 26, 2017)

*Blissful*



blissful said:


> Merkt's is the brand.
> Sagg--the links show 'no page found' and it says merks not merkts. I don't know why it doesn't work in north America, but it doesn't, for some odd reason.
> 
> I'm open to recipes or ingredient lists, as I haven't started the grand swiss almond spread experiment here yet.



Apologies .. 

I  live in  Barcelona. 

I shall look in a few  of my International & Swiss Cheese Books !  If something is apropriate, I shall write it here .. 

Have a lovely day ..


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## Sagittarius (Jul 26, 2017)

I found 2 that sound amazing .. 

1)  Swiss with dried apricots, raw pistachios peeled and feta ! 

This récipe is on:   Pistachio and Apricot Cheese Ball - Create-Celebrate-Explore



2) This Swiss Cheese recipe is in  French Only, so here are the ingredients in English: 

1 Cup shelled raw pistachios 
12 ounces of cream cheese
16 ounces of Swiss cheese or Swiss or French Emmenthal 
1 / 2 cup milk
1 / 2 onion powder 
1/2 tsp White pepper 
1/ 4 tsp minced fresh dill 
2 tsps  of fresh minced parsley 


Very versatile too ..  Can use hazelnuts or walnuts or almonds or other dried fruits like dried figs or dates .. 
Good luck ..

They both sound amazing ..


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## Rparrny (Jul 27, 2017)

blissful said:


> I'm going to give this one a try when my cheese is ready. I don't think I'll add the onion or worcestershire sauce.
> 
> Swiss Almond Cheese Log | Eat Wisconsin Cheese
> 
> ...


consider subbing gruyere for the swiss, increasing to 1 1/4 cup and reducing the cheddar to 3/4 C.  I think the swiss or gruyere would get lost half and half with white cheddar.  I might even consider 1 1/2 cup gruyere to 1/2 cup white cheddar.


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## blissful (Jul 27, 2017)

Well yes, gruyere is a type of swiss. I'm pretty sure that the strength and the aging of the swiss and the cheddars will have an impact on the flavor. So, I'll wait until my swisses and yellow or white cheddars are strong enough to give some impact to the cheese spread. It's kind of an art really, how many months or years to let them age to get the flavor that is most pleasing. If you were going to make a recipe out of bought cheeses, then, I'd probably choose a year old gruyere and almost a year sharp cheddar, to get the job done. And which company's cheese? It's mind boggling to get it to good. I'm fond of the vermont cheddars, and really there are no domestic swiss types that will do the job due to US regulations.


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## Rparrny (Jul 27, 2017)

blissful said:


> Well yes, gruyere is a type of swiss. I'm pretty sure that the strength and the aging of the swiss and the cheddars will have an impact on the flavor. So, I'll wait until my swisses and yellow or white cheddars are strong enough to give some impact to the cheese spread. It's kind of an art really, how many months or years to let them age to get the flavor that is most pleasing. If you were going to make a recipe out of bought cheeses, then, I'd probably choose a year old gruyere and almost a year sharp cheddar, to get the job done. And which company's cheese? It's mind boggling to get it to good. I'm fond of the vermont cheddars, and really there are no domestic swiss types that will do the job due to US regulations.


Ah didn't realize you made your own cheese...good for you.  I took a class with Ricki Carrol years ago in her home in MA or PA...don't remember.  All the steps in the making and aging of cheddars overwhelmed me and I never attempted them.  I do like making goat cheese, mozzarella and ricotta though...much easier for me...I guess I'm one of those instant gratification kinda girls...


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## blissful (Jul 27, 2017)

It's a fun hobby to get into. We love cheese so it's part of our cooking now, more fun.


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## Rparrny (Jul 27, 2017)

blissful said:


> It's a fun hobby to get into. We love cheese so it's part of our cooking now, more fun.


Back when I took the classes, I had no source of raw milk which Ricki feels makes a huge difference.  Every once in awhile I think about attempting an aged cheese...and than I remember all the work and time and let it pass....


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## Rparrny (Jul 27, 2017)

Rparrny said:


> Back when I took the classes, I had no source of raw milk which Ricki feels makes a huge difference.  Every once in awhile I think about attempting an aged cheese...and than I remember all the work and time and let it pass....


How long did you find was your learning curve?  I heard about a lot more disasters than successes in the beginning.


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## blissful (Jul 27, 2017)

I've just started learning. I jumped in with both feet and fast learning from gavin webber's youtube video recipes and reading like crazy. In the time, this past 6 months I've made 50, approximately 4 gallon batches only using store bought pasteurized and homogenized milk. I haven't thrown away any cheeses that I made so far, though I have favorites and average. I had one batch that foamed and curds floated badly, looking very out of character, and most likely the milk was contaminated, so I tossed that. If you have the equipment, the press, mold, the cheese cave for aging, things don't go bad overnight, if you pay attention, wash the cheese, or wax it, or vac pac it, sterilize everything before beginning each time, you get cheese. Some is just better than others. So a learning curve, I learned as I went. In March I made 12 hard cheeses, April 15, May and June another 11, add soft cheeses, curds, motz, cottage, ricotta. There is a cheese making thread in the dairy area..somewhere, you can read about it. It's awful fun, really.

I took on the headset of doing what dairys and shepherd families have done for thousands of years, using milk in a way to preserve it, to feed their families.


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## Rparrny (Jul 27, 2017)

I have the pots, thermometer, muslin...beef rennet is out for me but vegetable rennet is okay.  I don't have any molds, presses or caves and if I remember back when I was thinking about it...they were quite costly.
Has anything changed in the past 15 years that make novice cheese artisans more successful?  Better techniques or some new equipment?


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## blissful (Jul 28, 2017)

Well, yes. We built a press, but they can be made for $50 or just fashion up some weights and you can do that for little money. There are all kinds of designs for presses, check out youtube. I use a food grade bucket ($7), two, drilled holes for draining to use as molds, fashioned followers with cut food grade cutting board pieces. The biggest change is the external thermostats, which used to be expensive, can be bought now for $28 on amazon, and put on any old refrigerator (free to $100).  For vegetable rennet you can purchase dry rennet tablets, or liquid which may last a year. ($7) The biggest investment is time.


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## Rparrny (Jul 28, 2017)

blissful said:


> Well, yes. We built a press, but they can be made for $50 or just fashion up some weights and you can do that for little money. There are all kinds of designs for presses, check out youtube. I use a food grade bucket ($7), two, drilled holes for draining to use as molds, fashioned followers with cut food grade cutting board pieces. The biggest change is the external thermostats, which used to be expensive, can be bought now for $28 on amazon, and put on any old refrigerator (free to $100).  For vegetable rennet you can purchase dry rennet tablets, or liquid which may last a year. ($7) The biggest investment is time.


I just took a look at one of the youtube videos you referenced...yeah it looked all pretty much the same.  I think I'll just keep thinking about it...


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