Posted by Jamie Forrest, May 15, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Photograph by the Seattle Cheese Festival
For all you Seattleites and those from neighboring areas in the Pacific Northwest, the 2008 Seattle Cheese Festival starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday afternoon. Held outdoors every year at the wonderful Pike Place Market, the fourth annual Seattle Cheese Festival is open to the public, has a suggested admission of $1, and represents one of the largest gatherings of cheese aficionados in the country.
On display (and available for sampling) are hundreds of cheeses from around the world, and for the more serious turophiles, there are seminars and panels, cooking demonstrations, a wine garden and a children’s scavenger hunt. (Seminars, panels, and the wine garden have additional admission fees.)
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, May 6, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Photograph from iwona kellie on Flickr
Our Quebecois cousins to the North may speak a different language and enjoy the solace of universal health-care, but when it comes to comfort food their North American tendencies peek through in the form of poutine, a fancy word for cheese fries with gravy.
OK, well they're a little more involved than that. The cheese is really a helping of fresh cheese curds, made soft by the heat of the fries, and the gravy is Canadian-style barbecue chicken gravy, which is quite different than traditional American gravy—dark, thick and vinegary. Last weekend the Boston Globe profiled Chez Ashton, a chain of Quebecois fast food restaurants that many consider as serving the best poutine around.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, April 29, 2008 at 9:30 AM
A reader of my blog wrote me recently with an interesting question:
I work at a Whole Foods in SoCal, we are debating which cheese is rightly called the "King of Cheese." My boss says Reggiano. I disagree, but not in whole. Most sites say Stilton is the "King of Cheese," more so than Reggiano (internet search). However, Stilton is called "the King of English Cheeses" at some sites as well. Would this make Reggiano "the King of Italian Cheeses?" Maybe you can point me in some direction to get this debate settled for me, either way.
I have seen each of these cheeses referred to as the King of Cheese, but I have also seen others as well: Comté, Gruyère, Roquefort. Legendary gourmande Brillat-Savarin apparently dubbed Époisses de Bourgogne the "King of Cheese." Truly, there is no end to the number of cheeses we turophiles are willing to elevate to royal status. But which cheese is the real King of Cheese?
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, April 22, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Last year, the New York Times reported about the battle in Normandy over how its beloved Camembert could be made. It was a classic David-meets-Goliath tale of cheesy proportions: on one side you had large dairy operations lobbying the French authorities to allow them to call their cheeses Camemberts even if they had been made with pasteurized milk; on the other side you had the small-scale traditional Norman cheesemakers, still making the cheese from raw milk, ladling every scoopful of curd by hand, trying to fight this change to the decades-old A.O.C. legislation.
Well, the Guardian reported this weekend that David was victorious: A.O.C. Camembert must still be made with raw milk.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, April 15, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Don't ask me why, but April is National Grilled Cheese Month, and to celebrate, the Food Network ran Bobby Flay's exciting Grilled Cheese Throwdown this past weekend. Flay took on New Jersey's own Pop Shop in a sandwich battle for the ages.
The Pop Shop, which offers 31 different grilled cheese variations on their menu, put up a good fight with their sandwich called "The Calvert"--jack cheese, roasted turkey, bacon, avocado, and house dressing (balsamic mayo) on foccacia. Flay countered with his delicious-sounding Grilled Brie and Goat Cheese with Bacon and Green Tomato sandwich. In the end, Flay's sandwich won by a hair, with the judges saying it was a tough decision and that there were no losers.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, April 8, 2008 at 10:45 AM
With the housing market tanking, financial companies imploding, and the dollar weaker than a gin and tonic on the rocks, some are finding it hard to cough up the small fortune required these days to buy even the most basic artisanal cheese plate. Add to that the stress of Uncle Sam breathing down your neck this time of year, and you'll end up deciding to avoid cheese altogether.
After all, cheese can be quite expensive, and is one of those foods whose quality generally increases with the price. Small dairies cannot take advantage of the economies of scale afforded by a large herd, but, all else being equal, a small dairy will usually make a better cheese, since the farmers and cheesemakers are better able to control quality across the entire operation. So what's a turophile to do during these tough times? Get your hands on Vermont's own Grafton Village Cheddar.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, April 1, 2008 at 10:15 AM
As an American kid the phrase "curds and whey" entered my vocabulary at a bizarrely early age, though I had no idea what it meant. If cheese was a slick square-shaped orange sheet wrapped in clear plastic, then curds and whey must certainly have been some strange agrarian relic of a bygone era. So I was really shocked to learn, from Mr. Wizard of all people, that curds and whey was simply a stodgier term for a very normal food: cottage cheese.
I have always been fond of cottage cheese, an admittedly simple food whose milky sweet taste almost plays second billing to its texture: chunky curds bathed in rich, smooth whey. And even though it pains me to admit it, I can say without irony or apology that there aren't too many food pairs better than cottage cheese and cantaloupe. So when this month's Saveur magazine published a recipe for Ayib Be Gomen (Ethiopian Collard Greens and Cottage Cheese), I felt I had to revisit this versatile staple of the supermarket dairy case.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, March 25, 2008 at 10:00 AM
With advent of spring comes the start of cheesemaking season, heralded early on by the births of the year's first kids. Unless they are tricked into doing otherwise, goats breed and give birth seasonally: Mating occurs from late summer through early winter, and the kids are born about five months following that. About two weeks after kids are born, the mothers can be milked so that cheesemaking can begin. What does this mean for you? Now's the time to start savoring some fresh goat cheese.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, March 18, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Not long ago, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission began a program to outfit all yellow cabs with a backseat multifunction TV screen, one that can track the cab's location with GPS, show up-to-the-minute weather reports, and broadcast clips from local news shows. I kind of hate these screens because they make me nauseated (as does reading in cars), but the other day when I happened to see a short clip from ABC news about a local ricotta cheese making operation, I just had to watch.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, March 11, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Despite its status as a tired, dowdy party trick, Fondue remains a seriously delicious way to enjoy cheese. Artisanal Bistro has undoubtedly revived the lost art, offering two regular choices on their menu as well as a fondue of the day, all of which highlight the cheeses themselves in a deeply satisfying way. The classic blend features a mixture of Swiss Alpine cheeses Gruyère, Emmental, and Appenzeller, but this week the Associated Press published a recipe for a low-fat Cheddar and ale fondue that promises to mimic the creamy texture of the real thing using puréed white beans. Curious indeed.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, March 4, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Photograph from jslander on Flickr
The humble mac and cheese—that staple of American wholesomeness—is experiencing somewhat of a renaissance as of late. From authoritative recipes to a survey of the 20 best places to get mac and cheese in New York City, to a segment on Good Morning America featuring cheese, bacon, garlic, noodles, Emeril Lagasse, and a well-meaning North Carolinian, everything's coming up cheesy noodles in 2008.
Then again, did the dish ever go out of style? As has been mentioned here before, the New York Times stirred up controversy two years ago by publishing a widely popular recipe that flagrantly snubbed béchamel lovers everywhere. Still, a fundamental question goes unanswered: what are the best cheeses to use for this classic dish?
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, February 26, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Photograph from Fresco Tours on Flickr
The ongoing revolution in American artisanal cheesemaking really had its origins in the "back to the land" movement of the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1979, Laura Chenel began teaching people in this country that cheese didn't have to be made from cow's milk. Even before that, in the fall of 1975, Mother Earth News ran this wonderfully detailed story about farmstead goat cheesemakers in Andalusia, Spain—an article that I happened to stumble upon this week thanks to the wonders of the web.
I'm assuming this article was aimed at hippie homesteaders experimenting with "off the grid" communal living, but for us plugged-in 21st-century cheese lovers, it offers an amazing glimpse into some truly regional and traditional foodways.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, February 19, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Well it's only February, and 2008 is already living up to its title as the Year of the Cheese Cave. According to an article in last week's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Fermo Jaeckle, one of the founders of legendary Wisconsin cheese company Roth Käse, has purchased an underground cave that used to be the site of a huge marijuana-growing operation 40 miles northeast of Nashville. Jaeckle, of course, plans to age some serious cheese down there beginning in 2009.
The cave is more than five football fields long, and at 100 feet below the surface of the earth, with stable temperature and humidity, is a perfect place to age cheese. The property was auctioned off last year, and Jaeckle's winning bid was for $285,000, a price he says is well below what he might've paid for it otherwise.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, February 12, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Literally speaking, tomme is French for "wheel of cheese." Unsurprisingly, this not-so-descriptive term is used to refer to a wide array of cheeses, many of which are of medium size and weight and made in the mountains of the Haute-Savoie in France. Across the border, the Italians make a related cheese that has a similar name: toma. But can we get any more specific? Do tommes share any unique qualities that separate them from other varieties?
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, February 5, 2008 at 11:00 AM
One of the pitfalls of being a curd nerd in New York City is the brutal reality of having to transport your purchases home from your favorite cheese shop via the always crowded, chronically curmudgeonly subway system. Obviously I don't have the luxury of having a cheese shop anywhere near where I live, and since I never leave a cheese shop without at least one real stinker, this is a chronic issue for me. I have cleared out subway cars as if I haven't bathed for weeks. But I like my cheeses as stinky as they come, and I'm not going to let a little social awkwardness deter me from perfection.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, February 1, 2008 at 11:00 AM
The Super Bowl only comes around once a year, and you've otherwise been doing really well sticking to your New Year's resolution to eat healthier, so why not go a little crazy and make a killer blue cheese dip for your Super Bowl party? The key, of course, is choosing the right blue cheese.
Zoe, the affable affineur at New York's Murray's Cheese, helped me narrow down the selection to a few great contenders. I tested three very different blues with the same base, and it may be surprising but your choice of cheese really does matter.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, January 22, 2008 at 10:15 AM
On Friday Emily posted a news story about a disease outbreak in water buffalo that threatens the supply of D.O.P. buffalo-milk mozzarella. Scientific American, meanwhile, is reporting that sales of the Neapolitan mozzarella had already plunged 40% in recent weeks because of an ongoing garbage crisis in the city. Yikes! What's going on?
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, January 15, 2008 at 10:30 AM
In their latest newsletter, New York's famed Murray's Cheese has boldly dubbed 2008 the "Year of the Cave." In addition to their regular selection of cheese education classes, they have begun offering tours of their five aging caves to the general public. What a great chance to see some of the skill and magic that go into the practice of affinage, or cheese-aging, from some of the country's most renowned affineurs.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, January 8, 2008 at 10:30 AM
I'm not much a fan of winter in New York. The farmers' market in Union Square is all but shuttered, the weather tends more toward wintry mix than winter wonderland, and night falls even before the local news has kicked off. But there's one thing I look forward to every winter, something that's only available when the temperature drops below 60. I'm speaking of course of Vacherin Mont d'Or, also known as Vacherin du Haut Doubs—a pungently delicious washed-rind cow's milk cheese from the Jura mountains of Switzerland and France.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, January 3, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Michael Claypool and Sasha Davies started Cheese By Hand way back in the spring of 2006 with the mission of visiting American cheesemakers large and small and conducting audio interviews with them about "their craft and their lives." Over the course of that summer they took a cross-country trip starting in Vermont, posting a ton of blog entries and some rough audio files about such esteemed American cheesemakers as Rogue Creamery in Oregon and Crave Brothers in Wisconsin. Yesterday they posted the first completed interview, a conversation with Mateo Kehler of Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont.
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