Hello, my friends! This week, with a little help from my sponsor Whole Foods Market, we’re celebrating Pi Day. What is pi, you may ask? It is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, or C/d. No matter what the size of the circle, that ratio is always the same. It’s an irrational number, so that (literally) endless stream of numbers after the decimal point of π are never-ending and never-repeating. If you want to read more about π, check out piday.org.
But while we’re here, we might as well talk about PIE. They’re round, but you eat them. There are pizza pies and fruit pies, meat pies and hand pies, mince pies and ice cream pies. Only fairly recently, I learned that people eat cheddar cheese with apple pie, so I had to try it for myself! I thought about making my own apple pie, but since I’ve never made an apple pie, I thought that baking my first for a blog post might be a little risky! Instead, I picked up an apple pie at Whole Foods as well as a few cheddars—all from England and Ireland. Here are the cheddar pairings I tried with pie:
Montgomery’s Cheddar
Raw, cow, traditional rennet, England
A true traditional cheddar, this cheese is a monger and customer favorite. Wrapped in muslin cloth, made in 60 lb wheels, Montgomery’s is a visual and gustatory stunner. This was the strongest cheese of the bunch with well-rounded, complex flavors with notes of brambles, earth, artichoke, meat, and more meat. This is one cheese I would recommend eating after you’ve finished your pie, since the pie actually drowned up many of the cheese’s flavors.
Mossfield Singleton
Pasteurized, cow, vegetarian, Ireland
This cheese from the organic Irish farm Mossfield was a new one for me! With a soft, smooth, tongue-coating texture and layered, hay-infused flavors, what a lovely discovery it was. Amazingly, the cheese shone even brighter with the apple pie, as the pie brought out an extra brightness and depth in the cheese (all at once!). I give this one two thumbs way up.
Lincolnshire Poacher
Raw, cow, traditional rennet, England
With slight earth and hay notes toward the finish, but bright and tangy up front—this is a crowd-pleaser for sure. Together with the apple pie, this was a great match. The cloying pie sweetness disappeared thanks to the cheese, and the cheese’s brightness was tempered a bit by the pie.
Melted Cheddar
I figured I might as well try melting cheddar over the pie to see if that made any difference, so I grabbed some Tillamook sharp cheddar and drizzled a melted stream over top. . . . I don’t think it necessarily added to the pie-eating experience, but it was not unpleasant.
Whole Foods is having a sale to mark the occasion! They are taking $3.14 off their large Whole Foods Market pies and Take and Bake pizza pies at all their locations, so you can grab some for yourself.
Thanks so much, Whole Foods Market, for partnering up with me again! Are you marking Pi day? How? Let me know in the comments!
This post was sponsored by Whole Foods Market. I received payment and product. All opinions are my own.
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