On Bacon Cheese...

We, the cheese-consuming population, are always searching for novel ways to enjoy our cheese. Having said that, we are also fond of familiarity and will often resist trying new and exotic cheeses except on special occasions. In day to day life I rarely encounter anything outside of Cheddar, Wensleydale, Stilton, Brie, Edam, Emmenthal, Parmigiano, mozzarella or the branded processed cheeses you can buy in the supermarket, including cheese in a tube.

Therefore, the ongoing challenge is to use your brain and palate to experiment with concoctions of the above cheeses with each other and/or with other food in order to find your own personal cheese combination holy grail. I refer you for instance to one idea proposed by the creators of The Fast Show:



Often, early pioneers have done most of the work for you already. I regularly buy one of the presets in my favourite local sandwich shop at uni consisting of Brie, bacon and chicken on a white bread panini, the so-called BBC, but the lovely staff still question my motives when I upgrade the above sandwich by dropping out the bacon and adding sausage, tuna and chicken in a Cajun sauce. (This can then serve as the day's sole meal when the canteen isn't open at the weekend!)

Now last year, two good friends of mine went on a road trip round Scandinavia and flicking through their photos of the trip on Facebook brought up the following image,

underneath which Pete had written: "How does bacon/cheese in a tube work? We did not dare discover..."

I was immediately jealous of the opportunity they had spurned and posted in response: "OOOOOMMMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGg - my life would be virtually complete if I found that..."

Of course, we are all capable of a little hyperbole and silliness in Facebook comments! (Aren't we?)

Nevertheless, Pete returned triumphantly from his second visit to Sweden this week with a tube of BaconOst! Which he presented to me today!!

I am of course overjoyed. Primula only dared make squeezable ham and cheese, not ballsy (or Nordic enough) to go the whole hog *cough* and make squeezable bacon and cheese! Initial tasting sessions were positive - I look forward to putting some BaconOst on my sandwiches tomorrow, and experimenting over the weeks to come with BaconOst in combination with other savoury delights!

Tack, Pete! Mitt liv är nu lite mer komplett!