Help, I accidentally bought a weird cheese

April 18, 2018 4:44 AM

I bought Yancey’s Fancy Maple Bacon Cheddar thinking it was just bacon cheddar. I put it on a cheese plate and everyone was pretty sad about it. What can I do with it?

Waste of a question? Or excellent use of a question?

It doesn’t taste *bad*, just weird. Like a McDonalds breakfast sandwich on those maple infused pancakes. It’s sweet and gives off a strong maple smell.

I don’t want to put it on or in or near eggs. That feels bad and wrong to me. What else can I do with it?

If it helps, I am the sort of person who dips their breakfast meat into syrup, so I sorta get it, just don’t know what to do once cheese is involved.

posted by OrangeVelour to Food & Drink (22 answers total)

Get a nice apple pie and melt the cheese on top.
posted by donut_princess at 4:55 AM on April 18, 2018 [15 favorites]

No hate to Yancey, I'm sure he did his best, but this doesn't sound fancy to me at all. To me it sounds like the perfect cheese to cube and snack on when watching a bunch of crap tv from the couch. Maybe with some Ritz crackers.
posted by phunniemee at 4:55 AM on April 18, 2018 [9 favorites]

How does it melt? I’d try it in a grilled cheese sandwich with lots of butter on the bread and pickles on the side.
posted by like_neon at 5:02 AM on April 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

I suspect this is a flavor profile you either like or you don't. By all means give donut_princess's apple pie suggestion a try, but if I discovered I had accidentally bought maple bacon cheddar instead of regular bacon cheddar I would just throw it out.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:03 AM on April 18, 2018 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Honestly that grilled cheese idea above sounds like a good one, especially if you mix it with a sharper cheddar and add in some bacon. Or put it on a bacon cheeseburger. Or, potentially, in scone or biscuit format?
posted by halation at 5:11 AM on April 18, 2018 [10 favorites]

Best answer: Shred it and make scones with some of it. If they are successful, throw the rest of the shredded cheese in the freezer and repeat later. If they are terrible, find a friendly dog to treat; the shredded cheese can just be sprinkled on top of food. (Though I have dogs and I would bake the fuck out of dog treats with that cheese.)
posted by DarlingBri at 5:42 AM on April 18, 2018 [11 favorites]

Maybe make some hash browns with sausage and mix it in with that?
posted by kevinbelt at 5:42 AM on April 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Dice it and mix with actual bacon (say, 1 part weird cheese to 2 parts bacon), encase in puff pastry and bake. I'd personally add quite a lot of pepper.

You would probably want something to reduce the presumable sweetness, which the pastry and bacon would do, and the pepper will take your mind off things. Chilli flakes might be nice too.

Might also go OK (with mozzarella) on a ham & pineapple pizza, if that's a thing that you're OK with.

(never heard of bacon cheese. that in itself sounds weird and avoidable to me)
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:09 AM on April 18, 2018

Grilled cheese with slivers of apples, maybe. I don't really know what this tastes like though; I would recommend you taste a little if it and see what else it makes you think of, then try combinations inspired by that. Like if it makes you think of dipping breakfast sausage in syrup, try it with some sausage perhaps. Or on a biscuit egg-mc-muffin style.
posted by Lady Li at 6:10 AM on April 18, 2018

I'd possibly have a go at making gougères with it (you say 'no eggs', but presumably baked goods are an exception).
posted by pipeski at 6:12 AM on April 18, 2018

I'd grate it and bake it into some enchiladas - if you weren't going for super-authentic, I think that might turn out nicely.
posted by greenish at 6:18 AM on April 18, 2018

I'd try cheese on toast or sliced in a bacon sandwich.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:31 AM on April 18, 2018

Throw it out or find someone who likes maple. I don't know why, but if someone puts maple into something it usually tends to taste horribly wrong to me. Maybe it is the smell, you can't ignore it unless your nose is utterly dead.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:44 AM on April 18, 2018

If it melts well, this would be a good fondue cheese with apples and savory bread.
posted by MandaSayGrr at 7:02 AM on April 18, 2018 [5 favorites]

Best answer: On a biscuit with jalapeño jelly? Coarsely grate it and make pimento cheese? Make a cheese ball?

Basically I'm thinking you need to add acid and/or heat to balance out the sweetness. A cheese ball would add more creamy fat that might also help minimize the maple flavor (and you could augment with a regular sharp cheddar for a more standard cheesy note). Jalapeño jelly is the lowest effort version of all of this, though.
posted by fedward at 7:04 AM on April 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

Crackers!
posted by rhizome at 7:19 AM on April 18, 2018

I have wasted much time, effort, and money trying to “save” food I didn’t like. It’s OK to give it away or throw it away.
posted by FencingGal at 7:25 AM on April 18, 2018 [6 favorites]

Throw it away? You're not obligated to find ways of eating things you don't like.

Or if that's too wasteful for you, then bring it into work and put it in a place that other people can try it. Or if you don't work somewhere, invite some friends over for a "try this weird cheese I bought on accident" party.
posted by xingcat at 7:55 AM on April 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks all. Baked goods for the win.
(Also regular bacon cheese itself is good, in a sort of American, easy cheeze, pub cheese sort of way)
posted by OrangeVelour at 8:17 AM on April 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Grate it and use it for homemade mac and cheese? You don't even have to confine yourself to that one cheese, you can go halves with any other kind of cheese you want (mac and cheese usually has a combo of cheeses anyway; my go-to involves cheddar, gruyere and parmaesan).

And mac and cheese also takes well to throwing in other flavors too - adding actual bacon is a thing people do, and Best Bar In The World threw in black truffle in their version for a while (and have now switched to adding beer). So if you don't dig the sweet element, you can throw in a little cayenne for some heat, or throw in actual bacon to play up the bacon, etc.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:19 AM on April 18, 2018

Nthing using it to make macaroni and cheese. Yancey's flavored wedges have sodium citrate in them (the magic emulsifier in velveeta), so you'll be able to melt it all down into a smooth sauce.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 12:09 PM on April 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yancey's Fancy is a line of processed cheeses. That'll give it a certain kind of texture and flavor that not everybody is going to like. I wouldn't get it for a cheese plate. That processing, however, means that it melts like, well, like processed cheese. In other words, it'll melt like gangbusters. Use it in a recipe, like a grilled cheese or a mac and cheese. Use it in a way that you would use a processed cheese, maybe not in a way you would use a traditional cheese.

If I had to use that stuff up, I would do a modified cubano-style grilled cheese. I usually make a cubano with a swiss and mustard combo then add in sweet bread-and-butter pickle chips. Since you already have a sweet element in the cheese, maybe I would slip in dill chips instead. Maybe add a bit of heat as well.
posted by Foam Pants at 10:48 PM on April 18, 2018 [1 favorite]