from Sorrento, there is keen competition from Abruzzi, Apulian
Province and Molise. It keeps well and doesn't spoil when shipped
overseas.

In his _Little Book of Cheese_ Osbert Burdett recommends the high,
horsy strength of this smoked Cacio over tobacco smoke after dinner:

Only monsters smoke at meals, but a monster assured me that
Gorgonzola best survives this malpractice. Clearly, some pungency
is necessary, and confidence suggests rather Cacio which would
survive anything, the monster said.

Camembert

Camembert is called "mold-matured" and all that is genuine is labeled
_Syndicat du Vrai Camembert_. The name in full is _Syndicat des
Fabricants du Veritable Camembert de Normandie_ and we agree that this
is "a most useful association for the defense of one of the best
cheeses of France." Its extremely delicate piquance cannot be matched,
except perhaps by Brie.

Napoleon is said to have named it and to have kissed the waitress who
first served it to him in the tiny town of Camembert. And there a
statue stands today in the market place to honor Marie Harel who made
the first Camembert.

Camembert is equally good on thin slices of apple, pineapple, pear,
French "flute" or pumpernickel. As-with Brie and with oysters,
Camembert should be eaten only in the "R" months, and of these
September is the best.

Since Camembert rhymes with beware, if you can't get the _veritable_
don't fall for a domestic imitation or any West German abomination
such as one dressed like a valentine in a heart-shaped box and labeled
"Camembert--Cheese Exquisite." They are equally tasteless, chalky with
youth, or choking with ammoniacal gas when old and decrepit.

Cheddar

The English _Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery_ says:

Cheddar cheese is one of the kings of cheese; it is pale coloured,
mellow, salvy, and, when good, resembling a hazelnut in flavour.
The Cheddar principle pervades the whole cheesemaking districts
of America, Canada and New Zealand, but no cheese imported into
England can equal the Cheddars of Somerset and the West of
Scotland.

Named for a village near Bristol where farmer Joseph Harding first
manufactured it, the best is still called Farmhouse Cheddar, but in
America we have practically none of this. Farmhouse Cheddar must be
ripened at least nine months to a mellowness, and little of our
American cheese gets as much as that. Back in 1695 John Houghton wrote