Cheddar-Beer Spread Part 1

Guten tag und willkommen to the first of two posts on Cheddar-Beer Spread!

We always read through our recipes before starting to make sure there aren't any wild cards, such as in this recipe where Grandma's Cookbook instructs us to seal the spread with paraffin wax and keep refrigerated for several weeks…. Wait… What?! We have to wait several WEEKS to sink our crackers into this?! Unacceptable.  So we looked into other similar recipes online, and without variation the instructions were to leave the spread (sans wax) in the fridge overnight.  The conclusion we came to was that we simply had to make two batches (there's no such thing as too much Cheddar-Beer Spread, right?) and, for the sake of authenticity, try the paraffin wax method as well as the overnight method and compare the difference.  What a delicious experiment! In Part 2 of this post, we will let you know how the aged spread turns out.
 

We think, as with any simple recipe, the key is to use high-quality ingredients so the flavors really shine.  We also look for pasture-raised and humanely treated animal products, so our version was not exactly cheap, but we both agree the expense of using a high quality German beer and Kerrygold cheddars was totally worth it. Kerrygold, you ask?  Isn't that Irish?  Well, we couldn't find any German cheddars, which we're pretty sure Germany is NOT known for, so we thought to ourselves, "Irish cheddar will do!"  And Kerrygold's website assures us that all cows are raised on lush, green Irish pastures.

Yay, happy cows!

Since we were making a double batch, we needed two 7oz blocks of cheese. We decided to try a little mix and bought Kerrygold's Reserve Cheddar and Red Leicester Cheese. On a side note, while perusing the cheese counter we witnessed a young man without a cart or basket walking around the store creeping on unsuspecting female shoppers. 

Oh, LA.

Afterwards, we went to our favorite local beer store to pick out a German beer (or three) and that was its own adventure. Make sure to look for our future posts on this awesome store and it's massive German beer selection!

Now that we have our ingredients all that's left to do is start mixing, so get your bowl and spoon ready!

This is a fairly simple recipe to throw together, but the flavor is everything you could ask for and more out of a cheese spread - at least the way we made it. The first batch went over so well we had a hard time not eating the entire jar in one sitting! 

Stay tuned for part 2 ...