365 Cheeses - Cheese

Tuesday

23Oct2007

157. Bartlett Blue

Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 05:15AM

If I had paid for it I would like it just as much. Bartlett Blue came as a free extra in my last order from Artisanal Cheese and I cannot thank them enough. It is one of the best blue cheeses I've had this year. The texture is semi-soft, slightly crumbly but not brittle. The cheese is modeled after Wensleydale and captures the charm of that cheese at its finest. The producers of Bartlett Blue are Jasper Hill Farms of Vermont and they know how to craft complex and delicious cheese.

Name: Bartlett Blue
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft, blue
Produced in: United States of America, Vermont, Greensboro, Jasper Hill Farms
Date Purchased: 10/09/2007
Date Eaten: 10/11/2007
Purchased Where: online, www.artisanalcheese.com
Price: $22.00/lb.

Kirk |

27 Comments |

Blue,

Vermont

Sunday

21Oct2007

156. Quicke's Cheddar

Sunday, October 21, 2007 at 09:11AM

Divas can be a handful. They can reach heights of beauty and produce outrageous joy. Divas also are demanding, tempermental, fickle, and hard to care for. Quicke's Cheddar is a diva. But so again is most any raw milk cheese worth its salt. Tasting it the day it arrived I found the flavors, oniony and chive-like. The next day after a two-hour airing, the flavors became less harsh, but still complex and brilliant. I sensed hints of celery. Quicke's required planning and attention to taste the cheese at its best. Wrapping the cheese in breathable paper, storing it and cool but not cold temperatures, and keeping it apart from other harsh flavored foods were only the start to getting this cheese at its peak. Quicke's Cheddar like most farmhouse cheeses has a labratory of microbes working on it, changing it, pushing it to evolve in the new directions. One wheel can taste different from another made with the same milk, and cheeses of different milkings and seasons can vary even more. If you want consistancy, these are not the cheeses for you. If you want the possability of greatness but are willing to deal with occasional disappointment, this cheese is worth the gamble. The texture is more moist. less brittle than Montgomery's but the same opportunity for a great experience.

Name:Quicke's Cheddar or BMF Quicke's Cheddar
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard, cheddar
Produced in: England, Devon
Date Purchased: 9/21/2007
Date Eaten: 9/22/2007, 9/23/2007, 9/28/2007
Purchased Where: online, www.artisanalcheese.com
Price: $17.25.00/lb.

Kirk |

4 Comments |

Sunday

14Oct2007

155. Montgomery's Cheddar

Sunday, October 14, 2007 at 02:58PM

Montgomery's Cheddar is a tradtional farmhouse cheese from southwest England's Somerset, home of the town of Cheddar. The Montgomery family are one of the last producers to still use calf's rennet to separate the curd from whey of the unpasteurized milk. Aged over 14 months the cheese has a brittle texture producing shards instead of clean slices.
This is an amazing cheddar. Fleming said this is one of her favorite cow's milk cheeses. Because of the active cultures the flavors can vary greatly from cheese to cheese and from tasting to tasting of the same cheese. Worth finding and keeping and tasting over and over again.

Name: Montgomery's Cheddar
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: England, Somerset, North Cadbury, Manor Farm
Date Purchased: 10/1/07
Date Eaten: 10/4/07
Purchased Where: online, www.artisanalcheese.com
Price: $30.00/lb.

Kirk |

1 Comment |

Sunday

07Oct2007

154. Parmigiano Reggiano, Cravero

Sunday, October 7, 2007 at 01:54AM

Imagine, if you will, a school. An elite school. In the northern Italian countryside, this school takes in the children of only two families. But this school is even more exclusive than that. Not every child of these two families is invited to attend. Only the best and brightest are accepted and not all of students will make it through the rigorous process to graduation. The school is G. Cravero in the town of Bra in Piedmont and the students belong to the cheese families Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano. (No jokes about the milk products that come from Bra or I will keep you after class.) G. Cravero was named in 1855 after the founder Giorgio Cravero whose descendants keep the "G" in the family by naming a son Giorgio or Giacomo, alternating with each generation. They do not produce the cheese; they select the best and mature it in ideal surroundings until it has reached its height.

I have written about Parmigiano Reggiano twice before (cheese no. 1 and 53). How does Cravero's Parmigiano Reggiano compare to others I've tasted? First the texture is the perfect texture for PR. Not too dry so that it still has a great mouth feel but still aged enough so that it shreads well over pasta. The taste was not like other PRs I've encountered. To say it tasted a little like pineapple may sound pretentious, like a wine snob comparing a glass to a everything but grapes, but that was the first word that popped in my head at first bite. Slightly sweet with a detectablt level of acidity. Pineapple. One of my favorite fruits and a welcome flavor here. Pineapple is a symbol of hospitality afterall. For a price between the average PR and the top-of the-chart PR Vacche Rosse, Cravero was my favorite of the three.

Name: Parmigiano Reggiano, Cravero or Cravero Parmigiano Reggiano
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 9/28/07
Date Eaten: 10/01/07
Purchased Where: online, www.artisanalcheese.com
Price: $20.00/lb.

Kirk |

9 Comments |

Cow's Milk,

Favorite Cheeses,

Hard,

Italy,

Pasteurized

Thursday

04Oct2007

153. Coulommiers

Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 04:53AM

It could be called "Brie de Coulommiers" and people would have an easier time identifying this cheese. Going by only it surname, Coulommiers, after the town in Brie, where it is produced, has all the characteristics of other Brie cheeses: white disk of bloomy rind; buttery, pale yellow center; softening to a gentle ooze as it ages. I was served Coulommiers in a bistro in Denver recently and it was one of the best things I ate that evening, thought that owes more to the quality of the other courses than any inherent qualities of the Coulommiers.

Name: Coulommiers
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: soft, bloomy rind
Produced in: France, Brie, Coulommiers
Date Purchased: 9/28/07
Date Eaten: 9/30/07
Purchased Where: online, www.artisanalcheese.com
Price: $15.25 each

Kirk |

1 Comment |

Bloomy Rind,

Cow's Milk,

France,

Pasteurized,

Soft