Entries tagged with 'Serious Cheese'
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I was pleasantly surprised to hear one of my favorite radio shows, NPR's Science Friday, tackle the science of cheesemaking on its most recent show. The program featured Liz Thorpe, vice president of Murray's and author of The Cheese Chronicles, a new book about making and selling cheese in America....
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West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers The marketing geniuses behind CheddarVision.tv, the webcam that broadcasts a 24/7 feed of an aging wheel of English Farmhouse Cheddar, have outdone themselves with a publicity stunt that rivals some of the greatest achievements of mankind. Last week, the West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers launched a weather balloon in space, to which was hitched a slice of 18-month old West Country Cheddar. Their plan? To "mark the 40th anniversary of the first man on the moon and the first space flight undertaken by a piece of cheese." The device had an onboard GPS which was supposed to help them track the flight path of the cheese, as well as a camera to take pictures while in...
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Vermont's hills are alive with the sound of "Oma!" Brothers Sebastian and Dan Von Trapp (yes, they are related to those Von Trapps) have just released Oma, an amazing new cheese from the Mad River Valley in Vermont. A washed-rind raw cow's milk cheese, Oma's silky texture (soft and supple, but not runny) is perhaps its most unique feature. But its taste delivers too. The cheese is earthy, barnyardy, and buttery, and the raw milk makes for a complexity of flavor absent in most American cheeses of its ilk. "Oma" is German for "grandmother," and the cheese is named after Sebastian and Dan's Oma, Erica Von Trapp, who started the family farm 50 years ago. The farm has a...
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Photograph from WordRidden on Flickr Your first reaction to this headline might have been, "What do you mean, is blue cheese gluten-free? Isn't all cheese gluten-free?" Well, the short answer is yes. But blue cheese is a potential corner-case that needs some investigation. The reason is that there are steps in the production process of blue cheese where the potential for cross-contamination of gluten is definitely a possibility. Most people know that the blue in blue cheese is actually mold—penicillium mold to be exact, which during aging breaks down the fats and the proteins in the cheese to change its texture to a silky smooth, and to add depth and piquancy to its flavor. Originally the mold would have...
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"The more acidic the cheese, the less lactose is in there, and the more tolerable it should be for most people." Photo from Murray's CheeseIn the intervening weeks since the last post about my apparent lactose intolerance, not only have I been able to tolerate small amounts of dairy consumed infrequently, I have also spent a lot of time caring for a new baby in our family. All this to explain that a) I haven't yet seen a doctor about my sudden inability to enjoy vast amounts of gelato and Ukranian food, and b) I haven't had much free time in which to experiment with my new-found lactose intolerance. I have generally not shied away from dairy, however, even if...
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"On a couple of occasions I've been bold enough to try a bowl of cereal with one-percent milk." I have been humbled, surprised, and, frankly, a bit overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and advice in response to my post last week about my lactose intolerance discovery. You have shared many ideas, from the practical to the fanciful. Probably the best advice I received was to make an appointment with my doctor to get tested. Lots of folks said that gallbladder problems, dairy allergies, and celiac disease can all produce symptoms similar to lactose intolerance. I have heeded this advice and will be seeing my doctor soon. I have a feeling he'll send me straight to a gastroenterologist, so I...
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Our Serious Cheese columnist had an awful stomach attack after some gelato, which at first he thought (and on some level, probably hoped) was food poisoning, but later reasoned that it could be sudden-onset lactose intolerance. Gasp! Could the curd nerd really be lactose intolerant?
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Photograph from Balakov on Flickr For some reason the American kitchen is a breeding ground for useless gadgets, tools, and knickknacks. Do we really need a separate tool to make balls out of melons? (Actually, melon ballers are quite useful for many different tasks, but that's a subject for another post.) Living in New York City, where most apartments have tiny kitchens with only a handful of cabinets, I am forced to be ruthlessly Spartan with my gadgetry. This is why I am generally opposed to cheese knives. I tend to follow Alton Brown's golden rule: never own a kitchen gadget that has only one use. So what kinds of knives do work well with cheese? My suggestions, after...
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Photograph courtesy of Beehive Dairy Most people, when they hear the words coffee and cheese in the same sentence, wince at the thought of two such vastly different foods coming in such close contact. But Utah's Beehive Dairy is boldly cutting straight through that taboo with their coffee-covered Barely Buzzed, a blue ribbon winner in the 2008 American Cheese Society Awards. The first time I'd tasted it was back in March at Beecher's Cheese in Seattle. As I bit down through the cheese, the bitter nuttiness of the espresso and the caramel sweetness of the cheddar-style cheese made me realize this is a match made in some really quirky and hip corner of heaven....
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Photograph from wili_hybrid on Flickr There was an article in last weekend's New York Times that I found utterly fascinating. In a memoir-style piece, author Jennifer Mascia described the epiphany she experienced when realizing that goat cheese had made it to her East Harlem supermarket. To her, this signaled that gentrification was truly taking hold. When I read the story, I wondered why goat cheese—a very basic, rustic food—has become so symbolic of "gourmet" food in America, specifically the gastronomic revolution that has taken place in the last 30 years. One could even argue that goat cheese is more indicative of gentrification than even the supremely-yuppified arugula....
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