To Find Out Who You Are, Peer Into the Cheese Ball!!!

[elleng]

'A cheese ball is the culinary equivalent of a Rorschach test. How you regard the creamy orb depends very much on where you were raised, how you were raised and — especially when facing one of the lesser examples — your emotional fortitude.

A colleague suggested that a cheese ball is one of those things her European parents would point to and say, “Americans will never understand food.” They are clearly not from the Midwest, where cheese balls are as much a part of the culinary lexicon as fish fries, hot dish and brats.

“I can’t imagine you would go to a cocktail party and not see one,” said Robin Davis, who works for the mayor of Columbus, Ohio, and for years was the food editor of The Columbus Dispatch, that city’s daily newspaper.

Part of the appeal is history (more on that in a moment) and part of it is practicality. A cheese ball demands very little of a cook. “It’s not a culinary commitment,” Ms. Davis said, “and it travels well.”'>>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/dining/cheese-ball-recipe-snack.html?

[PoliticAverse]

1. And then there's fruitcake... n/t

[elleng]

2. :rofl:

[Warpy]

3. I've never done a cheese ball or log in my life

but I used to make a damned good party cheese in a crock that was the same idea: cream cheese, another sharp and very assertive cheese or two (crumbly was best), lots of garlic and freshly cracked black pepper. Nothing else was necessary but the little cheese knives to get it from crock to cracker or bread or raw veggie.

A good time was generally had by all.

[pscot]

4. Nothing says sophisticated dining

like a complimentary cheeseball and a basket of rolls.

[Phentex]

5. It's been a holiday tradition for years...

appetizers for Xmas eve while waiting for my mother-in-law to burn the sweet potato biscuits.

I make a chili pepper cheese ball and it always gets gobbled up.