Posted by Jamie Forrest, September 3, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Cheese lovers everywhere should run to their nearest newsstand to pick up a copy of this month's Wine Spectator magazine, whose oversized cover boldly declares what's to be found inside: 100 Great Cheeses.
A wine magazine covering cheese is a dicey proposition, but I have to say they've done it right. The coverage is spread across several articles, which include a background piece about the recent ascendancy of fine cheese in America, an article that presents four suggested cheese plates along with their respective wine pairings, a bunch of tasty-looking recipes, and, as the cover promises, a detailed description of 100 of the greatest cheeses in the world.
All of this great content is interspersed with very thorough introductions to some of the different types of cheese (alpine, washed rind, blue), as well as tons of spectacular photographs of cheese, each one more beautiful than the next.
One problem I have with the article is the glaring lack of ratings. For a magazine that places such a focus on giving a score to a bottle of wine, it is a bit disingenuous to produce a list of 100 great cheeses without offering ratings for them (or even so much as an explanation for the lack of ratings).
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, August 26, 2008 at 2:30 PM
With only a few more weeks left of summer foods, it's time to start preserving the bounty of the season before the cold dark months to come. One of the simplest and most delicious things you can do is marinate a good sheep or goat's milk feta in olive oil and fresh herbs, an ingenious combination that can last throughout the winter and beyond.
Taking inspiration from David Lebovitz, here's a simple guide to marinating feta:
Fill a Ball jar, or similar glass jar, with two-inch cubes of feta. Add some fresh herbs of your choosing: oregano, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, mint, red chili flakes, and/or fresh pepper. You can really use your imagination here.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, August 12, 2008 at 11:15 AM
No, we're not talking about Eddie, Herman, and Grandpa, we're talking about the sumptuous cow's milk cheese whose beautiful rust-orange rind surrounds a supple, creamy center. But like the family on TV, not all Munsters are the same. In fact, the differences can be so great as to make one variety boring and bland, and another perhaps one of the greatest cheeses on earth.
Alsatian Munster
Munster is a pungent washed-rind cheese with historical ties to the ancient monasteries of the Vosges mountains in the Alsace region of France. It is named after the French village of the same name, but in fact the word shares a common root with the word monastery. Munster grew out of the monastic tradition via the Rule of St. Benedict, which said that "two kinds of cooked food are sufficient at all meals; so that he who perchance cannot eat of one, may make his meal of the other. Let two kinds of cooked food, therefore, be sufficient for all the brethren." It also said, "Let all except the very weak and the sick abstain altogether from eating the flesh of four-footed animals." Given these requirements for a varied, vegetarian diet, it makes sense that the monks would so heavily rely on cheese. Real Alsatian Münster is an exquisite cheese, supple in texture and stinky to say the least, but earthy and rich, even chocolaty. A far cry from it's German and American cousins.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, August 5, 2008 at 2:45 PM
Photograph from Rhian vK on Flickr
First universal health care and now this: The government of Quebec announced last week that it will legalize the sale of raw milk cheeses. This is important and welcome news for North American cheese lovers, especially those like me who live in the Northeast United States and own a car—and several big duffel bags.
Like the U.S., Canada allows the sale of raw milk cheeses aged over 60 days, for the widely held belief that any harmful bacteria will have perished before that time. But now, in a move that is sure to stir up the age-old French-English tensions, government officials in Quebec have legalized the sale of raw milk cheeses aged fewer than 60 days, citing evidence that says raw milk cheeses produced under proper conditions are no less safe than pasteurized cheeses.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, July 29, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Photograph from mjkmjk on Flickr
Carr Valley Cheese won big at this year's American Cheese Society competition, held in Chicago last weekend. The renowned Wisconsin company, family-owned for more than a hundred years, won Best in Show for their Snow White Goat Cheddar, along with 17 other awards including third runner-up overall. Second place went to Virginia's Meadow Creek Dairy for their incredible washed-rind Grayson, a cheese similar to Taleggio or Livarot.
Down a bit from last year's record-breaking 1,209 entries, this year saw 1,149 cheeses in the competition. Thirty tireless judges tasted each one, evaluating aesthetic criteria (taste, texture and aroma), and technical criteria (how well the cheese is made).
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 24, 2008 at 11:30 AM
If Van Halen wasn't talkin' 'bout love in their 1978 hit song, maybe they had cheese on the brain? On this plastic container of cheese chunks found by our friend Homesick Texan at a New York market, the band's famous lyrics appear above the barcode. "I've been to the edge, and there I stood and looked down / lost a lot of friends there, baby, I got no time to mess around."
Clearly, the lyrics refer to the edge of the grocery aisle, where they lost their pals after buying feta. The song was known for being very raw; much like this "assorted" pack of uncooked cheese.
Posted by Jamie Forrest, July 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM
One of the most common food themes is stuffing delicious cheese into something else equally delicious (such as filo dough stuffed with feta cheese). These dishes play with texture and flavor in a satisfying way. But whose idea was it to turn this notion on its head and stuff delicious things right into the cheese itself?
The most egregious example here is Sottocenere al Tartufo, an otherwise bland, white cow's milk cheese from Italy, studded with black truffles. Truffles, of course, have an amazing flavor, but why chop them up finely and embed them in an unmemorable cheese?
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, July 15, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Beer photograph, Pink_Fish13 on Flickr; cheese photograph, Cwbuecheler on Flickr
There's a little-known secret that's actually not so secret anymore: beer pairs better with cheese than wine does. Sure there are some matches made in heaven with wine and cheese, like Champagne paired with a Triple Crème. But there are also lots of potential pitfalls; try a blue cheese with a big, bold red and you will see what I mean. Beer, on the other hand, is a much more forgiving complement to cheese. People often use similar terms to describe the flavors of both beer and cheese: nutty, caramelly, earthy, and tangy, to name a few. Many beers and cheeses also share a similar origin in the farmhouses and monasteries of medieval Europe.
Whereas your chances of finding a wine and cheese pairing that falls flat is rather high, most pairings of beer and cheese are rather serviceable, and many are sublime. Following are some tips for increasing your chances at beer and cheese pairing success.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, July 8, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Fans of David Rosengarten and cheese, rejoice! Devour.tv, a new website featuring videos on food, drink and other fun things, has posted a series in which David offers a Cheese 101 course on video.
You can learn, for instance, what it means for a cheese to have a washed rind, or why pairing wine with cheese can sometimes be a challenge. You can even catch a whiff of David's cheese-induced madness when you watch him break open way too many bloomy-rind cheeses in search of one that's even the least bit runny.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, June 24, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Like wine, olive oil, and lots of other serious eats, there are so many varieties of cheese in the world that it is often all one can do to find just one that they really like. And despite one's best efforts to branch out and discover new tastes, often the risk of veering off course is too high (especially with the current wave of rising food prices) and we end up sticking with what we know. If you feel like you're in a cheese rut, here are some easy upgrades that will get you going again.
Upgrade Cheddar to Lincolnshire Poacher
There's Cheddar, the cheese, and Cheddar, the place, but there's also cheddar, the verb, which refers to the back-breaking process of cutting and stacking blocks of curds during manufacture. This process aids in the draining and acidification of the cheese and is what gives cheddar its unique tangy flavor and crumbly texture. A similar process is used to make the delicious English cheese Lincolnshire Poacher, but the latter is fruitier and nuttier than most cheddars, making it a worthy next step if you enjoy Cabot Extra Sharp and the like. More upgrades, after the jump!
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Is the IT guy more likely than average to get his fingers caught in the mousetrap? Wired magazine has asked its readers to vote on whether nerds like cheese more than most people. There's no way these results could possibly be objective, considering the magazine's readership, but so far the poll indicates that cheese, with all its enzymes and microbes, is more of a nerd thing. What's your verdict?
Posted by Jamie Forrest, June 17, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Photograph of San Francisco's Cowgirl Creamery from Neeta Lind on Flickr
Supermarkets aren't the best place to buy cheese. For many reasons, cheese requires more individualized attention than most supermarkets can afford. Some cheeses are quite fragile unless stored, handled and presented properly. Other cheeses suffer when the wheel is pre-cut and wrapped long before they're purchased. You will also fare better in a real cheese shop, where a knowledgeable cheese monger can help guide you through the sometimes overwhelming selection to a cheese that well suits your taste, or to the wines and foods you've chosen for your meal.
To this end, below are 10 things every cheese shop should have; if a cheese shop nails these, you're in good hands. What do you look for in a great cheese shop?
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, June 10, 2008 at 11:10 AM
Photograph from sabotrax on Flickr
This week is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which celebrates the Jews receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai. The holiday is perhaps most famous for its connection with eating dairy foods, a tradition whose origin is usually traced to a line in Exodus (3:17) that refers to Israel as a land "flowing with milk and honey." It is fitting, then, that one of the most prominent dairy foods Jews eat on Shavuot is cheesecake, one of the greatest expressions of the beautiful marriage between sweetness and cream.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, June 3, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Late last week, the FDA announced a voluntary recall of Caseificio Voglie di Latte Burrata (only those packages with an expiration date of May 24, 2008) because of possible contamination by listeria.
This particular brand is available in California from the distributor Fresca Italia, and although the news is certainly not positive, it is nonetheless evidence that burrata, an extraordinarily delicious fresh cheese originally from Southern Italy, is truly beginning to enter mainstream consumption in this country.
Burrata was created as an ingenious way to make use of the small curds left over from the production of fresh mozzarella. These curds are mixed with fresh cream ("burro" is Italian for "butter") and then wrapped in a thin pouch of fresh mozzarella. The pouch is then wrapped in leaves of the Asphodelus ramosus (an herb with leaves similar to leeks).
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, May 27, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Roll down this hill and you too may be victorious! Photographs courtesy of cheese-rolling-co.uk
Leave it to the Brits to come up with an annual event as nuts as Cheese-Rolling: every year on the Monday that corresponds with the American holiday of Memorial Day (Spring Bank Holiday in England), dozens of crazy people line up on a steep slope in Gloucestershire, England and propel themselves head-over-heels downhill, chasing after a wheel of cheese. Whoever makes it down the hill first wins. And what is this lucky winner's prize? Cheese!
According to the BBC, which has also published an amazing video of the event, the tradition of chasing after a rolling wheel of hand-made Double Gloucester is centuries old, which just means to me that these folks will never learn.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 15, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Ever eat a slice of cheese but stop at the rind, unsure of whether or not it's safe for human consumption? Zoe Brinkley of New York City-based cheese shop Murray's Cheese reassures you that yes, you should try eating the rind ("Do you like it? Then eat more. Do you have wax and shreds of cloth in your teeth? Don't eat that one"), before going on to identify different rinds and why they exist. Look at the Affineur's Concept Map to get a quick glance at cheese taxonomy.
Related
Of Curds (and Whey)
A Cheese for the Season: Vacherin Mont d'Or
Can You Handle the Stink?
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 Robyn Lee, April 11, 2008 at 2:00 PM
As I tend to like fresh cheese in spherical form, I was instantly drawn to Marianna's homemade labneh, a creamy, fresh, Middle Eastern cheese made from strained yogurt and preserved in olive oil. Follow Marianna's directions to make it at home; it's part of a typical Middle Eastern breakfast!
Previously
Photo of the Day: Mshalalé Cheese
Hard Labor: A Look At Cheesemaking
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 Robyn Lee, March 27, 2008 at 12:00 PM
God knows that if I had a 1200-pound block of cheddar cheese lying around, I'd be tempted to carve it into something. And by "something" I mean "a mangled lump," not a detailed replica of the Statue of Liberty—I don't quite have the skill of champion cheese carver Troy Landwehr, who made his cheese statue over the course of four days.
Watch 35 hours of cheese carving condensed into two minutes, after the jump. [via CurdNerds]
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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 Erin Zimmer, March 11, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Cheese from Durrus Farmhouse, Gubbeen House, and Ardagh Castle Cheese.
With a name like Erin, it's hard not to have family in Ireland. Last month, I was on an Aer Lingus flight to County Cork to see the Irish brethren, and along the way stopped at some cheese farmhouses. Most are teeny-tiny, with more sheep and cows than actual humans on property. Hardly any have formal visiting hours, but given the country's push for high-speed broadband net services, most farmers actually have email and are happy to orchestrate mini tours! (Fresh, free samples—what?)
In honor of St. Patrick's Day next week, here's our guide to the best rural cheese farmhouses in County Cork, Ireland.
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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 Robin Bellinger, March 4, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Saturday night I went out to dinner with two friends, one who does not have children and one whose daughter just celebrated her first birthday. The former suggested that I might want to order a certain salad, but the new mother said, “No, she can’t have feta! You can’t eat soft cheese when you’re pregnant.” Sheepishly I thought of the occasional salads with pasteurized feta I had been enjoying at home and asked, “Isn’t it okay if it’s pasteurized?” Granting that her doctor is very conservative, she said she had been told to avoid soft cheeses like feta altogether. The week before at a dinner party, another friend (who is a little farther along in her pregnancy than I am) had mentioned her doctor’s opinion that anything pasteurized was safe.
Understanding what is and is not likely to give me listeriosis has been vexing. There’s a lot of conflicting information out there because there aren’t "safe foods" and "unsafe foods"—just relative levels of risk. My two biggest questions have been, "Can I eat pasteurized soft cheeses? And can I eat raw milk cheeses if they are hard and aged, like Parmigiano Reggiano and Gruyère?" I think I’ve finally worked it out, at least well enough for myself.
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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 Robyn Lee, February 21, 2008 at 5:30 PM
When I first saw this photo of "mshalalé" cheese on Marianna's blog, Swirl and Scramble, I thought it was a bundle of pasta. Marianna explains that the name of the cheese means braids/braided. The cheese, which is from the Middle East around Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, is usually served drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with nigella seeds. She describes the taste as, "not too strong, slightly stronger in taste then mozzarella, firmer and a bit saltier too."
Posted by Robyn Lee, February 19, 2008 at 6:45 PM
Is Pacman made out of cheese? John Watson proposes such a possibility.
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 Robyn Lee, February 10, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Never before had I seen anything so marvelous that involve melted cheese product until the the nacho cheese fountain graced my monitor. DJ Grocery, creator of the mind-blowing General Tso's Philly cheesesteak, couldn't resist the temptation to fill his wife's chocolate fountain machine with cheese. I hear ya, man...I hear ya.
It turns out cheese fountains are acceptable alternatives to chocolate fountains, along with barbecue sauce fountains and egg nog fountains. However, I'd rather believe that the ideas behind these non-chocolate fountains come about because while staring quizzically at the ornamental food display contraption someone thinks, "Well, I'm gonna fill this with [insert questionable liquifiable food product], and no one's going to stop me."
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 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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Posted by Jamie Forrest, December 18, 2007 at 11:00 AM
A couple weeks back, on a blustery morning at the Union Square Greenmarket, I had a very interesting conversation with Karen Weinberg of 3-Corner Field Farm. A small dairy sheep farm on New York's border with Vermont, 3-Corner Field produces outstanding farmstead sheep's milk cheeses and yogurts. If you can get your hands on their luscious, showstopping bloomy-rind cheese called Shushan Snow, you will not be disappointed.
On this particular Wednesday, Weinberg was also selling a couple of aged Pyrénées-style cheeses, one of which was perfectly smoked by the Monks of New Skete. As we stood teeth-chattering among her hanging sheepskins, the topic of vegetarian cheese came up, and I discovered that Weinberg has some really interesting, if contrarian, ideas about the subject.
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"I don't know what I want. I usually like Kraft cheese—do you have any of that kind?" Ask this question to Stephanie Vander Weide at artisanal cheese shop Cowgirl Creamery and she will bust your ignorant ass. Not really. But she will be justifiably annoyed.
Posted by Jamie Forrest, December 11, 2007 at 9:00 AM
The holidays are a great time to serve cheese at all of the 46 parties you're planning to host, but it's also a great excuse to give cheesy gifts to all the curd nerds in your life. And it doesn't just have to be a cheese of the month membership either. Here's our guide to the best in cheese-related holiday gifts, which range in price from ridiculously affordable to stunningly opulent. (Prices don't include shipping unless otherwise noted.)
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, December 4, 2007 at 10:15 AM
Clearly someone at Kraft Foods has given the inmates the keys to their asylum. In the latest example of Web 2.0 gimmickry, the company famous for its American pasteurized prepared cheese product has launched a MySpace page calling for video submissions that demonstrate "the simple joy that comes from enjoying a grilled cheese sandwich." The contest, oddly named "Have a Happy Sandwich," lets MySpace users vote for their favorite videos, with the highest vote-getter winning a $50,000 grand prize.
While I love grilled cheese sandwiches as much as the next guy, I just don't see how a campaign like this is will induce me (or anyone else) to buy more Kraft Singles. Then again, the page has attracted more than 2,000 "friends," so what do I know? For me, though, the proof is in the videos, some of which are just too painful to watch.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, November 27, 2007 at 10:45 AM
Photo from Shellie Raney on Flickr.com
True Italian mozzarella is made from the sweet, rich milk of the water buffalo. Not to be confused with the American bison, the water buffalo has its origins in Asia and, according to Wikipedia, was introduced to Europe in the Middle Ages by returning Crusaders. Many good cheese shops carry mozzarella di bufala that is flown in fresh from Italy every day, since the shelf life of this wonderful cheese is only 24 to 48 hours. At present there is only one domestic producer creating fresh mozzarella from water buffalo milk: Woodstock Water Buffalo in South Woodstock, Vermont.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, November 12, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Cheeseheads unite! Late last week the Senate began discussing the $286 billion Farm Bill, and reports are surfacing that the current bill includes a plan for increased spending on, among other things, artisan cheeses. The provision, co-sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy of America's artisanal dairyland, Vermont, would help support this "promising new sector of the dairy industry."
Unfortunately, the bill will probably not be passed in its current form, as the White House has threatened to veto it without significant amendments. Republican Senator Judd Gregg (NH) said, "I'm not sure many Americans would agree that stress assistance programs for farmers or artisan cheese centers are a good use of their hard-earned dollars."
Hmmm, I guess he's not counting me!
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, November 6, 2007 at 10:45 AM
Two weeks back, Fort Collins, Colorado, was ground zero for goat fanatics from all across the country. It was the site of the annual American Dairy Goat Association conference, where every year a competition is held to choose the best goat cheeses in the country. This year's winner was Redwood Hill Farm's California Crottin. Modeled after the Loire Valley's Crottin de Chavignol, California crottin is a tangy, crumbly goat cheese with a pearl-white paste and a subtle, earthy flavor.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, October 30, 2007 at 11:15 AM
Last week officials from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, along with local police, arrested a California couple on "felony cheese manufacturing charges" after they were found with 375 pounds of illegally-manufactured soft cheese at a market in San Bernadino County.
"Bathtub cheese," as it is known on the street, is made by unlicensed cheesemakers (whether in a tub or in a stockpot) and can cause some serious food-poisoning (listeria, E. coli, salmonella) if manufactured under less than sanitary conditions.
The cheeses seized included panela, queso fresco and queso oaxaca, and in fact "bathtub cheese" is quite common in Latin American communities. In fact over the years there have been several outbreaks of food poisoning associated with homemade Mexican cheeses.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, October 23, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Like that of wine, the world of cheese can be very intimidating to the newcomer. So many varieties to choose from, representing a host of different regional specialties, milk types, pasteurization methods, etc. It helps to have a good book to guide you on your cheese explorations, and to that end there are two new books that ought to provide some clarity.
Janet Fletcher writes a weekly column on cheese for the San Francisco Chronicle. In her column, called The Cheese Course, she introduces a new cheese variety every week, complete with tasting notes, historical info, and beverage pairing tips. Her new book, Cheese & Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing and Enjoying, is an encyclopedic guide to pairing cheese with wine, and includes a section that details general guidelines for doing so.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, October 16, 2007 at 10:30 AM
If you want to try your hand at making cheese at home, the easiest one to start with is Ricotta. Ricotta is traditionally made with the whey left over from making mozzarella. In fact, the word ricotta in Italian means "recooked" and refers to the fact that the whey is cooked and curdled again after the first batch of cheese is made. However, it is also possible to make ricotta directly from whole milk, and even store-bought milk works well (whereas with most other cheese, store-bought milk will not curdle properly).
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, October 9, 2007 at 12:00 PM
The story of Stichelton is the story of a couple of brave entrepreneurs trying to reclaim a tradition of English cheesemaking that went the way of so many other traditional foodways. In 1989, England suffered an outbreak of gastrointestinal illnesses that was blamed on raw-milk Stilton, a cow's milk blue cheese made in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire. Subsequently, Stilton cheesemakers decided to switch to using pasteurized milk, and in 1996 the European Commission granted the cheese the status of “protected designation of origin” (PDO). From that moment, if a cheesemaker wanted to create a raw-milk Stilton, he would be legally obliged not to use that name.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, October 2, 2007 at 1:15 PM
Last weekend the small, medieval town of Bra, Italy, about 50 miles south of Torino in the Piedmont, played host to the Slow Food's biennial cheese festival. The festival features cheesemakers from around the world, with special attention given to those producers crafting old recipes and local specialties (as part of Slow Food's Presidia program). The focus of this year's festival, which attracted an estimated 150,000 visitors over four days, was on the cheeses of Eastern Europe.
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Posted by Ed Levine, September 26, 2007 at 5:30 PM
Some interesting raw-milk cheese news from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Hoping to head off regulation that might make their products illegal, several prominent American dairies, including Redwood Hill Farm in Sebastopol, have formed the Raw Milk Cheesemakers Association.
The association aims to ensure the safety of domestic cheeses made from unpasteurized milk by helping members implement safe manufacturing practices.
For consumers with a taste for these cheeses—among them Redwood Hill's goat feta and Jasper Hill Farm's Constant Bliss—the new group may help keep their favorites available. And for raw-milk cheesemakers eager to make the safest product possible, the RCMA could provide expertise.
Is this necessary?
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, September 18, 2007 at 11:15 AM
Huddled in the Champlain Valley, between the Adirondack Mountains to the east and Vermont's Green Mountains to the west, Dancing Cow Farm is producing outstanding raw-milk and organic cheeses after only two years in business. Founded in 2005 by former computer software engineer Steve Getz and his wife Karen, who moved to their 243-acre Vermont property from Eastern Pennsylvania, the farm is so called because of a little dance that their 18 Guernsey and Jersey cows do when they are enjoying a fresh, ungrazed pasture. In fact, all the cheeses they make have dance-related names, like Menuet and Sarabande.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, September 11, 2007 at 1:00 PM
About the author: Jamie Forrest publishes Curdnerds.com from his apartment in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives with his wife, his daughter, and his cheese.
American Artisan Cheese Plate. Counter-clockwise from left: Point Reyes Blue, California; Jasper Hill Bayley Hazen Blue, Vermont; Uplands Cheese Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Wisconsin; Bellwether Farms San Andreas, California; Cato Corner Hooligan, Connecticut; Haystack Mountain Red Cloud, Colorado; Nettle Meadow Kunik, New York; Vermont Butter & Cheese Coupole, Vermont
Ed's post from yesterday got me thinking about locally made cheeses, and how lucky I am to be in New York City, close to the prolific cheese-producing areas of the Northeast. The Hudson Valley is filled with cheesemakers, and more open up every year. Coach Farm in Pine Plains, New York, has been around for almost 20 years and makes wonderful fresh and aged goat cheeses, as well as goat milk and yogurt.
Relative newcomer Nettle Meadow Farm in Thurman, New York, makes an amazing triple cream Camembert-style cheese called Kunik that's buttery-rich, tangy, slightly grassy and is made with goat's milk and Jersey cow cream.
There's also Sprout Creek Farm, Mecox Bay Dairy, Three Corner Field Farm—all are producing excellent cheeses all within about 200 miles of New York City.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, September 4, 2007 at 2:15 PM
Labor Day has just passed, of course, but we should bear in mind the difficult, ceaseless work that goes into making cheese. It requires intense amounts of backbreaking, sometimes tedious effort, from herding the animals to milking them twice a day, from cutting and stirring the curd to flipping the wheels during aging. Cheesemaking also represents an ongoing sanitation challenge; since milk is a veritable feast for bacteria of all kinds, every piece of cheesemaking equipment that comes into contact with it must be diligently washed. Mateo Kehler of Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont has even gone so far as to call cheesemaking "glorified dishwashing."
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, August 28, 2007 at 10:30 AM
Last week, English-language culture site The Norway Post published an enlightening article on a rare Norwegian cheese called Gamalost. The name literally means "old cheese," and, according the article, dates back to Viking times, when it was used to "enhance sexual prowess." The cheese, whose odor has been described as reminiscent of an old sock, is, perhaps predictably, losing favor among Norway's youth.
From the article:
"Phewww! That stuff is nasty—smells like my dog's bed, but my Grandpa loves it!" was a typical answer when I asked some teens in Balestand, Norway, if they ate Gamalost cheese.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, August 21, 2007 at 10:45 AM
Wisconsin-based Sargento Foods, the giant industrial cheese producer known for its ubiquitous shredded cheeses, has announced a new line of products available next month called Artisan Blends. This line of bagged shredded cheese will come in six varieties, all of which feature "artisan" cheeses from Wisconsin and Italy: "Parmesan made with Zanetti imported Grana Padano (Italy); Parmesan & Romano made with Grana Padano (Italy); Whole Milk Mozzarella and Whole Milk Mozzarella & Provolone made with Burnett Dairy Whole Milk Mozzarella (Grantsburg, WI); Double Cheddar made using Sharp Cheddar from Maple Leaf (Monroe, WI); and Swiss Blend made with Roth Käse Grand Cru Gruyere (Monroe, WI)."
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, August 14, 2007 at 12:45 PM
Updating a story from last week, we talked to Rob Kaufelt, proprietor of Murray's Cheese, for some more details on the deal they struck with The Kroger Company to help expand the grocery chain's specialty cheese selections. Needless to say, we think the following exchange will provide some real excitement for cheese lovers in the Midwest.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, August 9, 2007 at 5:45 PM
Legendary New York City cheesemonger Murray's has just signed a deal with Kroger in which it will help expand the grocery chain's specialty cheese selections. From the press release announcing the pact:
"We're thrilled to be pairing with Kroger," says Rob Kaufelt, President of Murray's Cheese. "As one of the nation's largest retail grocery chains, this opportunity gives Murray's an unprecedented chance to fulfill our mission, which is, simply, to bring great cheese to everyone."
"Our partnership with Murray's allows us to build on their expertise as we expand our cheese offerings for our customers," said Jeff Burt, Vice President of Deli Bakery Merchandising for Kroger.
The Kroger Co. operates in 31 states, either as Kroger's or as one of many names you might already know. [via Curdnerds.com]
Posted by Adam Kuban, August 8, 2007 at 3:05 PM
Yesterday, Jamie Forrest told us about the the winner of the American Cheese Society's Best in Show cheese. Sasha Davies of the blog Cheese by Hand served on the society's judging committee and has an interesting peek into the judges' chambers:
Each cheese is marked with an alphanumeric code- you can see them on the stickers in the photo. This prevents the judges from knowing for certain what any individual cheese is, who it was made by, etc. Bob and I would taste each cheese together- discuss- complete our judging sheets separately and then move on to the next. A lot of people have asked me about spitting- I found that it didn’t make much of a difference because you’re not taking big bites or many bites of each cheese and spitting out a mouthful of food into a bucket just didn’t work for me. So I pretty much fully ate all of them.
