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Tiny Cheeses

Lately tiny cheeses have been making me happy as an inexpensive and low commitment indulgence. My friend Leslie introduced me to the concept of tiny cheese, which are the smaller odd bits and ends of cheese left over when a grocery store has portioned out and packaged chunks off of a larger wheel. There is usually a small basket of cheese ends tucked in the display case, most for $1 or $2. These tiny cheeses had always been there in grocery stores but for some reason I had never noticed them, so thank you Leslie! Just in case you overlook them too consider this a gentle nudge to have a peek next time you pass them. This past summer the tiny cheeses have provided me with timely moments of fresh mozzarella, queso fresco to accompany a few grilled peppers for dinner, parmesan when I only needed a small portion as I’d be leaving on a trip in a few days. You get the idea, tiny cheeses are great.

This small collection of cheese cost me under $7 and include:

· comments [12] · 10-28-2014 · categories:uncategorized ·

12 responses so far ↓

  • 1 LauraVW // Oct 28, 2014 at 2:13 pm

    Pretty picture! And Long Clawson is only a few miles from my house. It’s a small world.

  • 2 megan // Oct 28, 2014 at 2:19 pm

    That is delightful! It was very good cheese and I’m hoping they have a wedge of it in the not-tiny form when I next go shopping for cheese.

  • 3 whitney // Oct 28, 2014 at 3:18 pm

    I love the tiny cheeses! (I frequently buy bits of Muenster cheese this way.) Also, that Long Clawson is one of my favorites!

  • 4 Leslie // Oct 28, 2014 at 3:20 pm

    I’m so excited about this post. What a lovely slate little serving platter for your tiny cheeses!

    I like Cotswold too, although I’m always wishing it were Tintern (which if you haven’t had is similar but has shallots and seems sharper). They kept getting bad Tintern at my store (cheese gossip) and stopped carrying it, so it’s only Cotswold for me now.

    And the Buenalba was one of the first tiny cheeses tinycheesed! (At link in name.)

  • 5 megan // Oct 28, 2014 at 4:32 pm

    So much more delightful!

    I will add, I love the tiny cheeses because it means I am so much less likely to find a good but now moldy cheese in my fridge – or worse a Too Stinky For Description cheese that I’m reluctant to chuck because it cost me $20.

    (Whitney this very thing happened to me when I lived in Menlo Park, which is when we first met! The cheese sample in the store was delicious but, oh man, too stinky for the apartment kitchen.)

  • 6 megan // Oct 28, 2014 at 4:55 pm

    Leslie – I’m so excited over the coincidences, and I know that we don’t share the same local grocery chains as our local stores so it’s even better.

  • 7 amy // Oct 29, 2014 at 7:50 am

    Count me as another tiny cheese fan! Love getting these small bits when I just a have friend or two over- looks so posh to have so many different kinds but it’s so inexpensive!

  • 8 Corrin // Nov 12, 2014 at 5:47 am

    We call that orphan cheese!

  • 9 Ehme // Nov 17, 2014 at 7:03 pm

    my local cheese shop calls them “cheese orphans”.

  • 10 megan // Nov 17, 2014 at 7:38 pm

    Amy – agreed! I have a shameful history of lovely cheese hunks that have gone past their prime in my fridge.

  • 11 megan // Nov 17, 2014 at 7:39 pm

    Corrin and Ehme – Jinx! I love the term cheese orphans. If tiny cheeses wasn’t already burned into my brain I’d totally adopt that phrase. (See what I did there?)

  • 12 Anna B // Nov 23, 2014 at 6:57 pm

    I call them the cheese orphans! Love ’em. It’s how I get my fancy cheese fill without wasting food and breaking the bank!

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