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This page contains an archive of all entries posted to 365 Cheeses in the A category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
B is the next category.
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
© 2008 Kirk Samuels
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A Archives
The difference between young provolone and aged is the difference between Beaujolais Nouveau and ten-year-old Port, between an '87 Mustang and a '64, between Brittany Spears and Ella Fitzgerald. Age and experience can be wonderful things. This aged provolone, labeled "piccante”, is not so much spicy or sharp like an aged cheddar but piquant in the tangy sense.
The name "provolone" may be derived from the Naples’s dialect for "globe" since one of the traditional shapes for this cheese was a round ball. Now it is most often seen in a large sausage-like shape. The texture has concentric onion-like layers that you can peel away, much like a fresh mozzarella ball. This is not surprising since provolone is the older brother of the mozzarella family. Take a fresh ball of mozzarella, hang it by string in a cool, dry room and rub the surface with salt water for the first few days. After a few months you have provolone. Auricchio, the manufacturer of this cheese, has been making it since 1877.
Serve it sliced or in chunks on an antipasto platter.
This is a wonderful cheese for cooking. It makes a great addition to a grilled cheese sandwich or to top salads or pasta.
Name: Auricchio Provolone
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in:Italy, Auricchio Company
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $14.99/lb.
Soft and creamy are the first words to come to my mind when tasting Asiago Fresco. The cheese has havarati like holes (small, flat, plentiful) and a delicate flavor. Unlike older, drier Asiago (Asiago d'Allevo) Asiago Fresco Pressato is great on sandwiches or panini. It is good with salami and cold cuts. A very nice, every day cheese.
Name: Monti Trentini Asiago Fresco Pressato or Asaigo Ppressato Monti Trentini
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Italy, Asaigo, Casearia Monti Trentini
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/26/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $9.99/lb.
Named for the town in the Italian alps, Alta Badia is another of the northern Italian cheeses that more closely resemble those of Switzerland and Germany than those in Parma or Rome. With nutty, straw-like flavors and a slightly firm texture, the cheese is made only from whole milk of a few cattle herds. Alta Badia melts well and and pairs delicously with warm, fresh bread.
Name: Alta Badia
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy, Alta Adige
Date Purchased: 12/08/2006
Date Eaten: 12/19/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $16.99/lb.
The name "Appenzeller" can refer to the people of the Appenzell region of Switzerland, or, like Entelbucher, a breed of Swiss cattle herding dog (the Appenzeller Sennenhund), or a 700 year-old type of Swiss cheese. Along with Emmentaler and Gruyere, Appenzeller stands in the triumvirate of Swiss cheeses. Over 70 Swiss dairies produce versions of this cheese and it appears in many fondue recipes, either by itself or alongside its partners.
The age of a particular Appenzeller can often be determined by its name or the color of its label:
- A silver label, like the one I tried, designates a cheese aged three to four months before shipping and may be labeled "Classic".
- A gold or wheat colored label, named "Surchoix", French for "top choice", is the penultimate level of aging, from four to six months.
- Appenzeller aged longer than six months will bare a black label with the word "Extra" imprinted on it.
(Note that these terms for aging apply only to Appenzeller. For example "Surchoix" for the Gruyère from Roth Käse Diary in Wisconsin is aged nine months.)
The more age Appenzeller has the sharper and stronger the flavor.
We used it in fondue on New Year's Eve and its was delicious.
Name: Appenzeller
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Switzerland
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $14.99/lb.
Tomme Aydius is a farmhouse goat's milk cheese from the French Pyrenees named for the small town of Aydius.The cheese has a pasty pale color often with odd shapes interior air holes but rich buttery nut flavors. Though it is made from unpasteurized goat milk it does not have a strong goat's milk flavor. If I didn't know I might mistake it for a cow's milk cheese. Tomme means "cheese" in regional French and this tomme has a granular texture like parmesan of the outer edges but the interior is softer and more elastic.
A delicious cheese.
Name: Tomme Aydius or Tomme d'Aydius or Tomme de chèvre d'Aydius
Type of Milk: goat's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: France, Pyrenees
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $15.99/lb.
Saint André is not for anyone scared of fat. It's a triple cream cheese like Explorateur, made from cow's milk enriched with whole cream giving it a butterfat content of at least 75%. That sounds pretty darn good to me. Saint André taste darn good to me too. With its white bloomy rind Saint André resembles brie and it is in the same family, though it is the fat rich uncle to the light young relative.
The name is French for Saint Andrew but refers more to a French administrative region, Saint-André, than the patron saint of Scotland.
Name:Saint André or Saint-André or St. André
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: France
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $12.99/lb.
I love the way this English Cheshire from Neal Yard Dairy crumbles. Not like a cheddar with large curd, Appleby's Cheshire has curds like a cottage cheese--small pressed orange lumplets that cling to each other for dear life. The color is an uneven pale, natural-looking orange. The flavor is complex but not difficult to munch on. An easy snack cheese made by master cheesemakers, the Appleby family. Check out the great photos on the cheesemaker's, Neal Yard Dairy, web site.
Name: Neal Yard Dairy Appleby's Cheshire or Appleby's Cheshire
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: England
Date Purchased: 1/11/2007
Date Eaten: 1/16/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $18.99/lb.
A smoked cheese has to be special to stand out among the other cheeses in the smoke-filled back room of the cheese shop. Carr Valley Applewood Smoked Cheddar is special. First is the paprika. Not pimenton, the Spanish smoked chile powder, or even hot paprika but a sweet and mild spice. The paprika is applied after the smoking process so it does not carry smoke flavor itself.
Next is the balance of the cheddar to the smoke. The cheddar is not sharp and the smoke is not strong. This creates a surprisingly mild cheese whose first taste sensation is an unusual blend of cheddar and smokey tastes that combine for a new taste all their own. Worth seeking out.
Name: Carr Valley Applewood Smoked Cheddar
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: United States of America, Wisconsin, Carr Calley Cheese
Date Purchased: 1/28/2007
Date Eaten: 1/30/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $16.99/lb.
The name of these cheese tells you a lot about it if you can translate from the Portuguese. I will try my best. "Amanteigado" means "buttered up" and the cheese has a rich, buttery aroma and flavor. "Cardus" is a type of thistle traditionally used in Portugal as a vegetable rennet to coagulate the milk and start the cheese-making process.
The small golden round also came swaddled in gauze bandages requiring it to be unwrapped like the Invisible Man before eating.
The washed rind gives this soft, almost runny cheese a tart yet creamy flavor. A nice and rare find.
Name: Amanteigado Cardus or Cardus or Amanteigado Mini
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: washed rind, soft
Produced in: Portugal
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, Online Order, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $7.99 each
Finding La Serena at the peak of ripeness is a real surprise. Between the first and second tasting of this cheese it went from a firm cheese of muddled flavor to a real oozer that was rich, creamy and packed with flavor remniscent of mushrooms sauteed in white wine and butter. If you are lucky enough to have an entire wheel of this sheep's milk cheese from Spain's Extremadura region at its peak of oozingly rich ripeness, cut off the entire top side and spoon out the inner softness onto warm bread or fried potatoes. Delicious!
Name: La Serena or Queso de la Serena
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: semisoft
Produced in: Spain, Extremadura
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, Online Order, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $17.99/lb.
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