Low-fat cheese: whey to go.There's a revolution going on down at your supermarket's cheese aisle. The bries and Camemberts and Roqueforts are still there in all their fatty glory. So are the full-fat Swisses and cheddars and mozzarellas. And so are the reduced-fat or reduced-calorie cheeses--the ones with about a third less fat and 25 percent fewer calories. But these dinosaurs are being elbowed aside by a new generation of cheeses that use skim milk skim milk n. The milk from which the cream has been removed. skim milk the residue from whole milk after the cream has been skimmed off. In today's usage it is the residue after the butterfat is removed. and gums to slash the fat--in some cases down to zero. (We're calling them "cheese," even though, legally, most of them don't have enough milkfat to use the name.) And while many have thrown out much of their taste and texture along with the fat, a few have not. GUMS OR BUTTER It's a good thing cheese is so gummy gummy an old sheep that has lost all of its incisor teeth. . That way, you're less likely to notice all those (safe) vegetable gums that are replacing the butterfat butterfat globules in the milk of all species. It can be separated to make butter. The nutritional value and the price of milk are judged on, among other things, the butterfat content of the milk. these days. Pick up any of the new cheeses and you'll find guar or carrageenan car·ra·geen·an or car·ra·geen·in n. Any of a group of closely related colloids derived from several red algae, widely used as a thickening, stabilizing, emulsifying, or suspending agent in pharmaceuticals. , xanthan or locust locust, in botany locust, in botany, any species of the genus Robinia, deciduous trees or shrubs of the family Leguminosae (pulse family) native to the United States and Mexico. bean in the list of ingredients. Cheesemakers began substituting gums for grease a few years ago. That's how they got the nine grams of fat in an ounce of regular cheese down to "reduced" cheese's five or six grams. But now they've added more gums, and the fat has shrunk to three grams, two grams, or even less. Even niftier is the reduction in saturated fat saturated fat, any solid fat that is an ester of glycerol and a saturated fatty acid. The molecules of a saturated fat have only single bonds between carbon atoms; if double bonds are present in the fatty acid portion of the molecule, the fat is said to be . An ounce of full-fat cheddar, for example, contains six grams of saturated fat--about a third of your daily allowance. A new-generation cheddar like Lifetime Natural Mild has just two grams. And, since most of the lower-fat cheeses are made largely with skim milk, they're very low in cholesterol. NO-FAT, NO MELT If lower-fat is better than full-fat, no-fat should be better than lower-fat. Right? On paper, maybe. But when we tasted and melted (or tried to melt) a dozen no-fat cheeses from Lifetime, Alpine Lace, and Kraft, we were disappointed. Most tasted too bland, rubbery, or salty to all but the "I'll-eat-any-cheese" lovers. They also refused to melt. Heat them and they congeal con·geal v. con·gealed, con·geal·ing, con·geals v.intr. 1. To solidify by or as if by freezing: "My aim . . . was to take the Hill by storm before . . . into a thick-skinned blob that looks and feels like plastic when it cools down. MOO-LESS IN PARADISE? Cheese without milk? NuToFu, Soya Kaas, Soyco, and White Wave make their cheese out of soybeans. No milk means less saturated fat and no cholesterol, but not necessarily much less total fat. An ounce of NuTofu has six grams of fat. So does an ounce of whole milk mozzarella moz·za·rel·la n. A mild white Italian cheese that has a rubbery texture and is often eaten melted, as on pizza. [Italian, diminutive of mozza, a cut, mozzarella, from mozzare, . And vegans (vegetarians who eat no dairy products dairy products dairy npl → produits laitier dairy products dairy npl → Milchprodukte pl, Molkereiprodukte pl ) should read the label carefully before buying any soy cheese Soy cheese is an alternative that is relatively new to most markets. Obviously, as the name implies this cheese is made with soy milk. Usually, soy cheese does not contain casein anymore, as it is mostly manufactured for vegan consumers. . Most use small amounts of casein casein (kā`sēn), well-defined group of proteins found in milk, constituting about 80% of the proteins in cow's milk, but only 40% in human milk. , a milk protein, to help them melt (although White Wave Soya Melt Fat-Free, despite its name, didn't). THE BIG CHEESE-OFF Here are our picks for the lowest-fat-and-sodium cheeses that also tasted good to us: * Cheddar. It was no contest. The folks at Cabot Creamery have been making cheese for more than 70 years. Their Sharp Vermont Reduced Fat Cheddar Product tastes rich and has that wonderful cheddar tang. In fact, we couldn't tell the difference between it and full-fat cheddar, even though it has just two grams of fat per ounce. Regular cheddar has nine grams. (Be careful, though. Cabot's "Reduced Fat" cheedse has two grams of fat, while it's "Low Fat" cheese has five grams. Those claims should be reversed. When you look at any cheese label, ignore the claims and look for the number of grams of fat.) Cabot's Reduced Fat Cheddar is one of the first to use Simplesse, the safe fat substitute from the NutraSweet company that's made with milk and egg protein. Simplesse isn't supposed to melt well, but we thought the cheese did just fine on toast under the broiler broiler a young (about 8 weeks old) male or female chicken weighing 3 to 3.5 lb. . Macaroni macaroni: see pasta. and cheese might be another matter. If you can't find Cabot's cheddar, ask the company (802-563-2231) to mail-order you some. * Swiss. Jarlsberg Lite (the "J" is pronounced like a "Y") uses skim milk (and no gums) to get regular Swiss' eight grams of fat down to four. The cheese looks, slices, tastes, and melts like full-fat Swiss. * Mozzarella. There's not much taste to sacrifice with this bland-to-start-with cheese, so try fat-free Alphine Lace Free 'N Lean Natural. If Alphine's too blah for you (unlikely, since it's got almost twice the sodium of regular mozzarella), give Lifetime Natural a shot. It has two grams of fat per ounce. Sorrento, [TABULAR DATA OMITTED] at three grams, is a great melter. Regular mozzarella has six grams, and even part-skim mozzarella has five. If your lower-fat mozzarella has trouble melting, try grating it. We even got shredded fat-free Alpine Lace to Melt. * Processed. We didn't try too many processed cheeses, but Kraft Light American tasted just like a full-fat American. And that's pretty good, since the Kraft has less than half the fat (four grams per ounce, vs. nine). Unfortunately, they're typically American in the sodium department, with 420 mg per ounce. * Non-milk. "Nauseating" was one of the kindest things our tasters had to say. Singled out for particular abuse was Soya Kaas, although samples of each of the soy cheeses ended up in the garbage. |
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