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This page contains an archive of all entries posted to 365 Cheeses in the B category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
A is the previous category.
C 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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B Archives
"What's the difference between Buffalo milk mozzarella and cow milk mozarella?" That's not the set up to a joke, at least not any one I know, but somethingI wanted to know and decided to find out. First let's make the distinction between fresh mozarella and the other kind. Fresh mozzarella is fresh, as in recently made. It has a pretty short shelf life like fresh milk. It is formed into gumball to baseball sized globes and kept in a watery brine. Fresh mozzarella is bright white and seeming formed of layers of fresh cheese. "Plain mozzarella", the stuff sold in bricks and found topping most pizzas is dryer and yellower. It tastes more like cheese whereas fresh mozzarella tastes like milk.
So what's the deal with these Buffalos? Well, first think water buffalo, like the Flintstones' Loyal Order of the Water Buffalo, and not like "tatonka" in "Dances with Wolves". Their milk is creamier, has a higher fat content than cow milk, I have read. I have never drunk any as of this writing, but I have tasted the cheese.
I bought the fresh mozzarella the day before trying it. There was no produced by date and only a mysterious "Use by" date that seemed to lack enough digits to be a date, so I do not know how fresh it really was.
Fleming and I agreed that the fresh buffalo mozzarella was softer that other fresh moz. "Softer, but that doesn't mean creamier," she noted. "The taste is so much stronger but the texture is so much softer". Other fresh mozzarella I have tried was softer outside than in, absorbing water from the brine. This was just the opposite, softer in the middle.
It tasted like slightly sour milk, "lemony", but with no after-taste. Pleasant, clean flavors. I don't know if the slight sourness was typical or due to shelf life. When I try it again I will follow up.
If you're making a Caprese salad I think the real buffalo milk cheese would play well with tomatoes' acidity and basil's spice. Great on its own too.
Name: Mozzarella di Bufala
Type of Milk: Buffalo, Pasteurized
Type: fresh
Produced in:
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/4/2006
Date Eaten: 11/5/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $15.99/lb.
I searched through every book I have on cheese but couldn't find any reference to Rocastin or Berger or any form of Le Berger de Rocastin. That is telling.
Berger means "shepherd" in French. Rocastin is made from sheep's milk, creamy smooth, and sold in neat little triangles. Other than that it is not really an interesting cheese. The flavor is not strong and the texture seems too processed, maybe too pasteurized. Not awful but I don't think I will buy it again.
Name: Berger de Rocastin
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: France
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/17/2006
Date Eaten: 11/18/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $16.99/lb.
Bruder Basil (Brother Basil) kind of sounds like he might be a monk and the cheese he makes probably a Trappist-style, raw milk monastery cheese of complex, delightful flavors. Alas, he is the Aunt Jemima of the cheese world, a corporate invention to try to fool consumers into thinking something common and cheaply produced is rare and special.
Ok, so that said, I don't hate Bruder Basil or Aunt Jemima for that matter. Both will do in a pinch. Bruder Basil is a rectagular, smoked semi-soft cheese. The flavor: smoke. Texture: a little soft and creamy. Totally munchable. Pairs well with ham on a sandwich or a frosty German lager. Don't seek it out but if you are served it at a party, give it a try.
Name: Bruder Basil
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Germany
Date Purchased: 12/08/2006
Date Eaten: 12/16/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $7.99/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 Borough Market is London's oldest farmers' market, selling organic produce, artisinal food products and farmhouse cheeses. This wonderful Stilton from Neal's Yard Dairy is named after and often sold in that market. Like all Stilton, Borough Market is a blue cheese made from cow's milk curd that have been injected with Penicillium cultures of mold to produce blue-green-gray veins. The texture of the cheese itself is firm and almost cheddar-like, though not too dry. Like other blues, this one pairs perfectly with sweet white wines, walnuts, and arboreal fruit. Stilton is the King of British Cheeses and like the magi traditionally sows up around Christmas. Hope you find some Borough Market Stilton in your Christmas stocking beside the fruit and nuts.
Name: Borough Market Stilton
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: England, Neal's Yard Dairy
Date Purchased: 12/22/2006
Date Eaten: 12/25/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $11.99/lb.
When one of my local cheese sources was out of Stilton before Christmas, they immediately suggested an alternative blue cheese, Whitestone Windsor Blue Cheese from New Zealand. It is is soft, almost creamy cheese with blue-gray tubes of mold. A really delicious cheese, though a bit expensive. Save it for a special occassion or for when your shop is out of Stilton.
Name: Whitestone Windsor Blue Cheese
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: New Zealand
Date Purchased: 12/22/2006
Date Eaten: 12/25/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $26.99/lb.
After a bite Fleming said, "Wow! This is now my favorite blue cheese!" I can't say Rogue Creamery's Smokey Blue cheese knocked off my title holder but it is a strong young contender. Last week I heard Steve Jenkins mention this cheese on the radio so I put it on my shopping list and sought it out.
The first bite for me was wonderful but ambivalent. "Is it smoked blue cheese or a blue smoked cheese?" Smoked cheeses are particular favorites of mine since the flavor is usually a single note--smoke. Smokey Blue is different. The blueness, the tang of piquant blue mold and the rich creamy cheese create a harmonic of powerful flavors. Smoked over burning hazelnut shells the cheese has a great balance between the forces of smoke and mold. This cheese has a kick but it is well-worth finding and tasting.
Name: Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft blue
Produced in: United States of America, California
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $19.99/lb.
Limburger is synonymous with "stinky cheese". When I was young I remember old cartoons and shorts in which strong smells of any kind were symbolized by this pungent cheese. If you ask someone what the worst smelling cheese is, possibly even the worst smelling anything, odds are they will say Limburger. Odds are also that many people who name it haven't even tried it.
And yet...
Limbuger is far from the stinkiest cheese I've come across. Munster
beats it by miles. Many other rind-washed cheeses are just as bad. But Limburger has the reputation over the decades for foul smells and unless ripened cheese catch on in the United States will probably hold on to it a few more years.
So why is Limburger smelly? Limburger and other rind-washed cheeses are fermented by a bacterium called Brevibacterium linens, the same bacterium found on human skin which is responsible in part for our bodily odor. Aside from the smell this bacterium provides the orange-brown color to the rinds of these cheeses.
Limburger originated in Limburg, Belgium but today it is also produced in Germany and the United States. The Limburger I tried today was labled "bayerischer Limburger" or Bavarian Limburger and was wrapped in copper-colored foil. The smell upon unwrapping was strong but not overpowering. Maybe, I've gotten used to strong smelling cheese but the aroma was not awful. Butting through the brownish rind revealed the soft cream color of the inner cheese. The taste was surprisingly mild, almost overprocessed. This was a pasteurized, factory produced cheese so there was not much exciting about it.
Name: Bavarian Limburger, German Limburger, Bayerischer Limburger or Limburger
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Germany
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $/lb.
It looks like Taleggio and could easily be mistaken for it in a dark nightclub. Both come from the Lombardy region of Italy, though Brescianella comes exclusively from the province of Brescia for which it is named. When ripe ("stagionata" means aged or ripened) Brescianella is oozingly runny with a pungent aroma, an orangish white rind on its way to blue, and a creamy center. The taste is sweet and creamy with a hint of funk.
I once was served a Taleggio risotto so I tried to make a similar dish with Brescianella. I made a traditional Risotto alla Milanese with arborio rice, garlic and chicken stock which I finished with dollops of Brescianella. The cheese melted well giving the rice a smooth, silky sheen. It was wonderful.
Name: Brescianella Stagionata or Aged Brescianella
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $16.99/lb.
The name "fougerus" makes me think of the French word for "werewolf" -- "loup-garou"-- as they sound nearly the same. Like a werewolf, Brie Fougerus wears a bit of a disguise. Decorating a rather ordinary looking wheel of Brie cheese are green fern fronds from which the name is derived ("fougére" is French for "fern"). When brought to the peak of ripeness or affinage, this Brie will begin to ooze at room temperature and has a smooth buttery finish with a hint of mouldy twang. Really a delcious cheese!
Name: Brie Fougerus or Fougerus or Le Fougerus or Le Fougéru
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: France, Ile-de-France
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 1/11/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $16.99/lb.
In the United States most people think of blue cheese as a white cheese spotted with veins of blue mold. Some of my favorites are the orange blue cheeses like Blacksticks Blue. Smooth and spreadable as opposed to the crumbly blues, Blacksticks goes well with warm baguette or melted into warm buttered pasta. The orange cheese is creamy and the blue mold is piquant but not overpowering. A real treat.
Name: Blacksticks Blue
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft, blue
Produced in: England, Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses
Date Purchased: 01/11/2007
Date Eaten: 01/13/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $13.99/lb.
The name of this raw milk cheese changes depending on the country it is being sold in. In the English-speaking world it is called Beech Tree Mountain, named for the Beechtree Mountain of central Switzerland, and is produced by the Von Mühlenen family cheese business. Beech Tree Mountain lack the lingering tang of a sharp Gruyère but has other complexities of flavor that make it an interesting guest at your next cheese party. The raw milk flavor is distinct. You also may taste the fresh hay flavors found in many cheeses from Switzerland. Spectacular flavors.
Name: Beech Tree Mountain or Bucheggberg Schlosskäse or Buckschlosskäse or Buchschlosskaese or Mont Buchegg or Monte Buchegg
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized, part-skim
Type:
Produced in: Switzerland, Solothurn region, Von Mühlenen
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $19.99/lb.
Straight on the heels of my last post for a raw milk cheese from Switzerland, comes Bergblumenkäse, another Swiss cheese with a mountain in its name. Instead of a geographic hill this "Berg" is a Mountain Flower (" Bergblumenkäse" literally translates to "Mountain Flower Cheese") and different in flavor from other Swiss cheeses. You get a sense of what the cows ate as you eat this cheese. The taste reminds me of grass and hay and pleasant barnyard aromas. Wheels of Bergblumenkäse are aged in herbs and straw for six months which imparts an unusual but delightful taste. It will probably be hard to find and expensive if you can get it but for a rare treat give it a try if you can.
Name: Bergblumenkäse or Bergblume or Mountain Flower
Type of Milk: cow's, 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: $22.99/lb.
The French epicure Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once compared a meal without cheese to a beautiful woman with one eye. I might compare a meal with the cheese named after Brillat Savarin (pronounced "bree-ya sav-a-ran") to a beautiful woman with all her body parts intact, enhanced to perfect proportions. Like Explorateur and Saint André
, Brillat Savarin is a triple cream, rich and buttery. In a bling taste test I don't know if I could differentiate one from another but I doubt I would care. All are outstanding.
At first glance the cheese appears deceptively solid but as soon as it enters your warm mouth it begins to melt and release its ripe flavors.
Name: Brillat Savarin or Brillat-Savarin or Brillat Savarin, Affinage or Brillat Savarin Affiné
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: France, Ile de France
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $22.99/lb.
American cheeses can be as good as any in the world and the good folks at Bellwether Farms in California's Sonoma County do their part to make sure of it. Carmody Reserve is their aged raw cow's milk cheese that lies between gouda and cheddar in the flavor profile. Produced from unpastuerized milk of true Jersey girls this cheese has the buttery, grassy notes that make the cheeses produced from it so beloved. The extra four month aging of their Reserve cheese dries the cheese slightly making it sliver when cut, crunch when bit and melt when meeting with the taste buds. A really great and fun cheese.
Name: Bellwether Farms Carmody Reserve or Carmody Reserve
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard/hard
Produced in: Date Purchased: 2/25/2007
Date Eaten: 2/27/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $/lb.
What exactly is "bread cheese"? It is not made from bread or even meant to be served with bread. Think of it as a bread, or better, toast replacement. Traditionally bread cheese comes from Finland where it is called "Juustoleipa" ( Hoo-stah-lee-pah - Finnish for 'Atkin's Diet'). It starts out similar to squeeky cheese curds or rope cheese and is pressed into a block the size of a slice of bread. The cheese is then toasted until golden brown and cooled.
This version of bread cheese comes from Wisconsin and Carr Valley Cheese. I tried the cheese three ways: cold, warm and warm with raspberry jam. Cold was not impressive. It was decent but would not wake me up on any day of the week. Heated is when this cheese starts to sing. Though shpaed like a piece of bread I would not recommend putting it in a toaster you want to keep for a while. The oil that drips out will probably smoke and eventually catch your toaster on fire. Heat it up flat in a toaster oven (on a tray) or under a broiler (also on a tray). Warm, bread cheese opens up to rich, cheesy flavors that are just the thing on a frozen Finnish or North Carolina morning. Finns will dunk the cheese in their morning coffee which I did not attempt but I did spoon on some jam and it was a great way to start the day. One slice of bread cheese was a lot of cheese for one person, even me. Cutting it into finger sized slices is probably a more reasonable portion. A fun way to start the day.
Name: Carr Valley Bread Cheese or Bread Cheese
Type of Milk: cowt's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: United States of America, Wisconsin, Carr Valley Cheese
Date Purchased: 6/2/2007
Date Eaten: 6/6/2007
Purchased Where: United States, Murray's Cheese, online order, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $6.99 each
I don't hate Bianco Sardo di Moliterno but it is not anywhere near my favorite cheeses. The initial taste is somewhat vegetal. Asparagus, maybe. I don't like the taste of asparagus especially in asparagus when it has a strong asparagussy taste and now I can say I don't like it in cheese either. The texture is a little weird too--dry but waxy. When cut the pale straw colored cheese turn white on the cut edges almost immediately. The outside of the cheese is marked by the reed basket the cheese ages in. Maybe that is the source of the unpleasant flavor that will make me pass on Bianco Sardo if I see it again.
Name: Bianco Sardo di Moliterno or Canestrato
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 6/16/2007
Date Eaten: 6/20/2007
Purchased Where: United States, online, Artisanal Cheese
Price: $13.50/lb.
An Italian blue cheese that's not gorgonzola, Blue del Moncenisio is a cow's milk cheese from the northwestern most corner of the Piedmont. Slightly firm with rich pungent punch this is a very good cheese but overshadowed by its superiors. I liked it but the flavor was not memorable a few days after tasting it. Like most blue, pair it with a sweet dessert wine like a still or sparkling Moscatto or a stronger Nebbiola that withstand its force.
Name: Blu del Moncenisio
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: blue, semi-soft
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 6/16/2007
Date Eaten: 6/20/2007
Purchased Where: United States, online, Artisanal Cheese
Price: $23.75/lb.
When the word "geography" comes up in conversation about cheese it usually has to do with where a cheese is produced or where it originated. But the geography of Borough Market Cheddar can be found within a wedge of this remarkable cheese. There are different continents of flavor in this cheese. Areas closer to the center have a pure, raw, sharp English Cheddar flavor, slightly complex with lingering aftertastes that continue to please. Moving closer to the dark, cloth-wrapped edges the cheese itself gets darker, more complicated in flavor but still easily enjoyable. As you almost reach the cloth binding that restrains the outer limits, rivulets of blue-green oniony mold spring up but do not flood their banks into the Hinterland and truly add a wonderfully exotic note to this cheddar's chord.
If you think you know what cheddar tastes like by only eating American supermarket version, do yourself a favor and seek out this amazing Cheddar from Neal's Yard Dairy's Borough Market shop in London. Comparing it to most American cheeses of the same name is like comparing something really sophisticated and beautiful to something plain and unimaginative.
Name: Borough Market Cheddar
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: England
Date Purchased: 7/3/2007
Date Eaten:7/4/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $15.99/lb.
Some cheeses like garden vegetables are seasonal, coming around only at distinct times of the year. Graskaas from the Beemster cheesemakers is a gouda-style cheese made from the first spring milking of the season. Literally meaning "grass cheese" Graskaas has a fresh, rich flavor missing in so many other "gouda" named cheeses. The color is golden with a semi-osft texture with a pleasing chew. Truly delicious but sold for a limited time at the beginning of summer. Seek it out while you can.
Name: Beemster Graskaas or Beemster Gras or Gouda Graskaas
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: The Netherlands, Beemster
Date Purchased: 7/3/2007
Date Eaten:7/4/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $13.99/lb.
Brie is a region of France outside of Paris and cheese produced there is called Brie. Being over 5000 square kilometers in size there are subdivisions of the region and the Brie cheese form. Brie de Nangis hails from the town of Nangis just as Brie de Meaux, perhaps the most famous Brie cheese, comes from the town of Meaux. Most people recognize any white disk of soft yellow cheese as "brie" or "camembert" and they would stand a good chance of identifying Brie de Nangis correctly.
The flavor is buttery and creamy with an earthy, mushroom aroma. Having endured two long voyages, one from France and another from New York to North Carolina, my cheese held up fairly well, suffering only from mild temperature changes and being a few days past its prime.
Name: Brie de Nangis
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: soft, bloomy rind
Produced in: France, Brie, Nangis
Date Purchased: 9/28/07
Date Eaten: /9/30/07
Purchased Where: online, www.artisanalcheese.com
Price: $14.25/lb.
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.
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.
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