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This page contains an archive of all entries posted to 365 Cheeses in the C category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
B is the previous category.
D 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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C Archives
I had never heard of Crucolo before buying it. After tasting it I was glad I picked it up.
One online source describes the flavor "resembling Parmegiano-Reggiano" but "with a creamy texture". In my mind it was closer to an Emmentaler or mild gruyere in taste and texture, not really creamy at all. Nice tang. It has a milky pale color and small holes throughout.
A delicious cheese.
Name: Crucolo
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in:Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige
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: $17.99/lb.
You either love or hate blue cheese. I love it. I love it by itself. I love it on bread. I love it cooked or baked with other cheeses. Neal's Yard Dairy Colston Bassett Stilton does not disappoint.
The colors of this blue cheese are not milky white with bluish streaks but a gradation of brown to buttery yellow speckled with gray to green pocks of mold. The cheese crumbles into large pieces making it great for bread or salads. We ate it last night in a green salad with pear and walnuts, a classic pairing for blue cheese. The cheese was wrapped in plastic from the store and when unwrapped the Stilton had an overpowering odor that I mentioned in the Fourme d’Ambert article. But this time I let it sit out unwrapped by itself for about 20 minutes and the obnoxious smell had evaporated and the cheese tasted great.
This leads to my general rules for the best storing and serving cheese:
1) Whenever possible store firm cheeses in paper instead of plastic. Cheese needs to breathe and plastic wrap can suffocate a cheese. I don’t always follow this rule, in fact, paper wrapped cheese is currently the exception in my fridge but I can see the difference in how well it works.
2) Allow cheese to come to room temperature before serving. Unwrap the cheese and let it sit out. Ten to twenty minutes is usually enough. Cold cheese hold on to its flavor instead of releasing it in your mouth. If the cheese gets too warm, fat may come to the surface or it may dry out. Unwrapping the cheese lets any built up odors or “cheese exhaust” escape and should return the cheese to a state of balance.
Overall the Stilton from Neal’s Yard Dairy Colston Basset had a great flavor and texture and when properly cared for, produced great results.
Name: Neal's Yard Dairy Colston Bassett Stilton
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft, blue
Produced in: England, Colston Bassett, Nottinghamshire, Colston Bassett & District Dairy, by Richard Rowlett & Billy Kevan
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006, 11/5/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $17.99/lb.
I bought this cheese because it was different and because I didn't think I would like it. Not liking it would give me more to write. What made this cheese different and something I thought I would not like? Pine.
Chapel Hill Creamery's Hickory Grove cheese is a monastery-style (unpasteurized) cheese that has been flavored by pine needles. The faint green imprints of them can be seen on the hardened rind. Pine? In cheese? Made me think of Pinesol, not parmesan. But I gave it an honest try.
I liked it. Hickory Grove has a unique flavor. Slightly vegetal. Milder than I expected. A little tangy. It reminded me a little of retsina, the Greek wine flavored with pine resin, but not as strong. I has a pleasant unique flavor and will make a great addition to a holiday cheese tray.
Name: Hickory Grove
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: USA, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Creamery
Date Purchased: 11/17/2006
Date Eaten: 11/18/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $17.99/lb.
Though it looks a little like a roast pork loin, Smoked Ricotta Crotonesa, is a smoked sheep's milk log from the Italian town of Crotone. Smoked cheeses almost all have the same flavor, smoke, so one has to look for other features, mainly texture, to distinguish them. The smoking process has not completely dried out this cheese. It still has a fairly moist texture but will not keep long . The ends of the log, dark from the smoking process, are a little dry and as Fleming says , "are to be avoided".
It is a very inexpensive cheese and for the price, worth checking out.
Name: Smoked Ricotta Crotonesa
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/28/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $3.99/lb.
Cacio de Roma is a solid, all-purpose, every-day sheeps milk cheese. It's good for sandwiches or munching. "Cacio" means cheese in regional Italian. This cheese of Rome has athe texture of a young provolone and clear flavors of sheep's milk. Though not the best cheese in Italy, it gets a solid B/B+ in my grade book. Still better than Sargento any day
Name: Cacio de Roma
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 12/04/2006
Date Eaten: 12/05/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $8.99/lb.
Farmhouse cheddars are some of may favorite cheeses. "Farmhouse" typically means two things: the milk is unpasteurized and comes from the milking herd of a single farm. This kind of cheddar produces complex flavors with distinctive farmyard flavors. It is hard to really describe "farmyard flavors" if you've never set foot on a farm but if you have and try this cheese it will bring back many different sense memories. Milk, of course. Hay, straw, grass. Earthy tones. Musky, leathery cow aromas that are not unpleasant to the initiated.
The cheese I recently tasted had some onion- and chive-like flavors that are supposedly not a good sign according to the cheese books. Still I did not think it spoiled the taste and and just added to the layers of complex flavor. Fleming commented that this cheddar packed a ""one-two punch, both punches equally delicious".
I recommend this cheese though serve it in small amounts. A little goes a long way.
Name: Goulds English Farmhouse Cheddar
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: England, Somerset, EFJ Gould & Co.
Date Purchased: 12/08/2006
Date Eaten: 12/09/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $13.99/lb.
Comté is a delicious cheese from eastern France. It is a French Gruyère which is to say, a French Swiss Cheese. Comté has wonderful unique flavors of the Gruyère family, that sharp twang of Swiss that tingle the roof of your mouth. Nice nutty flavors. Center cuts are the best value. Look for only two of the six faces to have inedible rind. I found it on sale for the holidays so look for it in your local food marts.
Name: Comté or Comte or Gruyère de Comté
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: France, Franche-Comté
Date Purchased: 12/04/2006
Date Eaten: 12/05/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Food
Price: $10.99/lb.
I received this cheese as a birthday present. A nice gift! Carr Valley Cheese Co. of central Wisconsin has produced a beautiful cheese blended from the the milk of cows, goats, and sheep. Menage won the 2005 1st place prize in its category from the American Cheese Society.
On first glance, the cheese is unimpressive. A pale, smooth texture in an ugly green wax rind does not draw the diner in. What captures your attention is the taste. Nice tangy bite. Beautiful blend of indeterminate milky flavors. A delight.
Name: Carr Valley Menage
Type of Milk: Cow, Sheep and Goat, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: United States, Wisconsin, Carr Valley Cheese Co.
Date Purchased: 12/08/2006
Date Eaten: 12/16/2006
Purchased Where:Birthday Gift
Price: ?
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.
Would you like to sample one of the finest cheeses produced by France, a raw cow's milk, young soft ripened cheese from the historic mountain of gold? For a taste of the legendary cheese, Vacherin Mont D'Or, you will have to leave the United States. Vacherin and all unpastueurized cheeses soft cheeses are prohibited from import into the U.S. To fill the void left by that ban comes l'Edel de Cleron, a pasteurized version of Vacherin, sometimes referred to by cheese snobs as "faux Vacherin". There is nothing faux about htis cheese. Though it may not be made from raw milk, it has a delcious flavor not to be missed.
First glance at the cheese reveals two things: it is a round white mould covered disk ("Ah, Brie!" many will say) and the ring of woody bark that surrounds it. Unlike Brie, l'Edel de Cleron has a more complex flavor. Many bries sold in the United States taste ultra-pasteurized, heating to high temperatures for short bursts of time to kill any microorganism within regardless of its desirability to flavor. The wood on the outer rind is red spruce known in French as a "sangle", meant to impart a woodland intensity to the cheese. While not permeating to the center, the wood does give the cheese closest to it a slightly smoky, slightly piney flavor. Do not eat the wood and do not chew on it either unless you are a beaver.
Name: L'Edel de Cleron or Edel de Cleron
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: $18.99/lb.
According to a book on Italian cheese titled Italian Cheese, Caciotta Toscana is one of the most popular cheeses in Tuscany. Made from a blend of cow and sheep milk, the cheese is soft and pleasant. Sampling first only the center I thought the cheese okay but nothing extraordinary. Next I cut a bit of the washed white rind to taste along with mild center. It transformed the flavor entirely. The Tuscans know a thing or two about cheese.
Name: Caciotta Toscana
Type of Milk: cow and sheep, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Italy, Tuscany
Date Purchased: 1/24/2007
Date Eaten: 1/25/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $13.99/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
Cantal is one of the oldest cheeses of France going back to pre-Roman Gaul. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder mentions it in his Historia Naturalis. Despite its age and heritage Cantal is a deliciously simple cheese. Its flavor is subtle yet satisfying. Not too sharp. Not too strong. Not too salty. Just the right thing for a farmer's lunch or a midafternoon snack. A great value too.
An unpasteurized version is alos availalbe and supposedly has stronger flavors. I will seek it out and report back.
Name: Cantal or Fourme du Cantal or Cantal Salers
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: France, Auvergne
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $9.99/lb.
I would love to tell you that Campo de Montalban is brought to us by the same man who brought us Captain Kirk's nemesis in Star Trek II and fine Corinthian leather, but it would not be true. Instead I can tell you honestly that this cheese from central Spain is a blend of cow's, sheep's and goat's milk much in the style of its neighbor cheese, Manchego. Both cheeses have dark, waxy herringbone rinds and light butter colored centers. But the blend of milks in Campo de Montalban produces a more complex flavor that is worthy to try.
Serve it with other Spanish cheeses and wines.
Name: Campo de Montalban or Campo de Montalbán
Type of Milk: cow's, sheep's and goat's, pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Spain, La Mancha
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $12.99/lb.
One of the first things I ever heard about Cabrales was.... Well, let me bury the lead on this one and come back to that.
Cabrales is one of the finest blue cheeses in the world. The flavor is literally exciting. The rich, cheese curd, the tangy blue molds, the little crystals of sharp flavor, the powerful kiss of age around the rind all excite the particles on the tongue. Cabrales (pronounced "ca-brall-es") comes to us from Spain where it is matured in the caves of the Asturias region. Though sometimes made from a mixture of cow, goat and sheep milk, my selection was the exclusive product of cows.
The blue of Cabrales is not the semi-uniform veins of blue mold found in many others but a more mottled, natural dispertion of the Penicillium mold. Instead of injecting the cheese curd with mold, the seperated cheese curd of Cabrales is exposed to the natural molds of limestones caves and them mixed together to disperse the mold through the cheese. After another two to six months in the caves the blue permeates the cheese. It is then wrapped in foil (not leaves like Valdeón and sent to market. A wonderful cheese.
Oh yes. The first thing I ever heard about Cabrales, while working in the cheese shop of a gourmet market, was that a really good Cabrales was "con gusano" meaning "with worms" or containing maggots. Supposedly while in these caves Cabrales cheese can be visited by certain bugs that lay their eggs in the rich nutrients of the cheeese. Supposedly this is a delicacy. Supposedly. I really can find no more than urban or rural legend that this is true though it makes sense. My father when he was young worked for a major cheese company that started with KR and ended with AFT. His job was to cut out cheese mites that has infested the cheese. So if bugs can invade a semi-sterile cheese factory I do not see why they would not alos be living in wild caved. Whether the Spanish consider these fly larvae a delicacy as some say, I do not know, but will ask the next Spanaird I meet.
Name: Cabrales
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft, blue
Produced in: Spain
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $24.99/lb.
Castelbelbo is brought to us by Caseificio dell' Alta Langa, the same folks who make one of my favorite cheeses, La Tur. It is not nearly the same quality as that fabulous cheese but no slouch compared to most you will find. Castelbelbo is a bloomy rind, soft cheese made from a blend of three milks. Light and creamy but not complex Castelbelo is a decent everyday sort of soft, spreadworthy Italian cheese. I served it on some great rosemary crackers that have become my new favorites for uncomplicated cheeses.
Name: Castelbelbo
Type of Milk: cow's, goat's and sheep's, pasterurixed
Type: soft
Produced in: Italy, Bosia, Caseificio dell' Alta Langa
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $14.99/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.
Instead of washing the rind in wine or a bath of helpful bacteria, the Cistercian Trappist monks of Chimay wash certain handcrafted cow's milk cheeses in their other famous product, Chimay beer. If you want a cheese that pairs nicely with a rich, heady beer, this Chimay would be a good choice. Can you taste the beer? Not really. The rind is stronger than the center of the cheese but the notes of hops and wheat are long gone. It tastes like your standard semi-soft washed rind cheese.
Washed rind cheeses, Chimay being one of them, are not my favorite cheeses in general. I find many either too bland or, if overripe, too pungent. At their best most are pleasant but not memorable. Sure, Chimay knocks the pants off your average variety supermarket cheese but for the price I can find many other cheeses that deliver more flavor and appeal.
Name: Chimay met bier, Chimay with Beer, Chimay
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft, washed rind
Produced in: Belgium
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $19.99/lb.
I have been holding off writing about Carr Valley Wildflower Cheddar for a few weeks now. A while ago I saw this cheese in my local Whole Foods, purchased it, took it home, photographed it and enjoyed it. It was a really good cheese. When time came to research it and find out more details I hit a road block. I couldn't find out anything online or in books, not even a mention on the Carr Valley Cheese web site. Was the info on the label correct? Did it really come from Carr Valley or someone else? It would not be the first time a cheese shop had printed inaccurate information on their labels. I needed to do more checking.
My sleuthing has discovered that the cheese does in fact come from Carr Valley Cheese in Wisconsin. I saw half a wheel of the cheese with the name clearly displayed. It's also clearly a pastueurized cow's milk cheese like most of this producer's other cheddars. Its rind is an azure blue wax, the color of some fresh field wild flowers.
The flavor is a departure from most typical cheddars. Lacking bite, Wildflower Cheddar is a young, mild cheese with sweet grassy notes and subtle flavors of fresh milky curds. Well worth a taste.
Name: Carr Valley Wildflower Cheddar, Carr Valley Wild Flower Cheddar
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: United States of America, Wisconsin, Carr Valley Cheese
Date Purchased: 5/6/2007
Date Eaten: 5/6/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $16.99/lb.
Mobay is an award winning American cheese from my good friends at Carr Valley Cheese in Wisconsin. I've never met them but anyone who makes cheese as good as they do are friends of mine. Inspired by the French cow's milk cheese Morbier, Mobay is a double-stacked cheese of goat cheese and sheep cheese separated by a layer of grape vine ash. Each half is distinct in flavor and a winner on its own. Taste them together and you have a phenominal flavor experience. The ash does little more than keep the two cheeses apart and does not impart much flavor but there is so much here between the goat and sheep cheeses that it doesn't really matter.
Name: Mobay or Carr Valley Mobay
Type of Milk: goat's and sheep's, pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: United States of America, Wisconsin, Carr Valley Cheese
Date Purchased: 5/18/2007
Date Eaten: 5/27/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $16.99/lb.
One definition of "Capraesque" from the online American Heritage Dictionary is "promoting the positive social effects of individual acts of courage". Capra Valtellina, then, I will call Capraesque since the making this cheese in an industrial age is courageous and eating it promotes a better society. I could also call the cheese "capricious" but that would be going a little far with the wordplay. "Capra" is an Italian word for "goat" where the milk of this fine cheese comes. "Valtellina" is the Valtelline Valley of Italy's Lombardy.
The cheese is firm and great for grating over a summer salad. It has a light, milky and generally pleasant flavor for a goat cheese. Not too strong or overpowering.
Name: Capra Valtellina
Type of Milk: goat's, pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 6/2/2007
Date Eaten: 6/6/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $15.99/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
Coupole is one of a few artisinal cheeses made by the Vermont Butter and Cheese Company, a company in Vermont that makes butter and cheese. The name comes from the French word for "dome" and pictures of the cheese on the producer's web site show
a rounded top to the cheese which did not survive in the mail order shipment. Produced from pasteurized goat's milk and sprinkled with ash Coupole starts out slightly firm and sliceable. As it ages the cheese softens and takes on a creamier, even runny texture.
I bought two of these little domes/disks trying one four days after the first. In that time Coupole took on an oozy edge with a still firm center.
The flavor is delicious--fresh with a mild goaty bite. The older version is creamier, almost as if melted. The taste was much like one of my favorite cheeses, La Tur, a blended milk cheese, but being strictly goat, Coupole packs a bit more bite and lacks some of La Tur's smoothness. Despite that it is a great goat's cheese and can convince people who think they don't like goat cheese to reconsider that opinion.
Name: Coupole or Vermont Butter & Cheese Company, Coupole
Type of Milk: goat's, pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: United States of America, Vermont, Vermont Butter and Cheese Company
Date Purchased: 6/8/2007
Date Eaten: 6/12/2007
Purchased Where: United States, Online, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $11.99 each
Sometimes the most interesting person in a room can be overshadowed by the most beautiful. After tasting Cobb Hill Farm Ascutney Mountain Cheese among a group that included Coupole, I remembered very little of what Cobb Hill was like. When I tasted it by itself a few days later I couldn't understand how I could possibly have underappreciated it. The raw cow's milk provides the base for a host of flavors of grass and earth, milk and fungus, that remind me of some of the best cheeses of Switzerland but produced here in the U.S.. A really remarkable cheese.
Name: Cobb Hill Farm Ascutney Mountain Cheese
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semihard
Produced in: United States of America, Vermont
Date Purchased: 6/10/2007
Date Eaten: 6/12/2007
Purchased Where: United States, online, http://www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $21.99/lb.
Crater Lake Blue is a bit like the baby bear of blue cheeses. Not too hard. Not too soft. Not too strong. Not too mild. To say it is just right makes it sound a tad mediocre when I mean it as a superlative. This award winning blue is much an unsmoked version of Rogue Creamery's Smokey Blue, a cow's milk blue not complicated by the smoking process but still an amazingly delicious blue. Great crumbled over a salad or warm pasta. Delicious with a sparkling or sweet dessert wine.
Name: Crater Lake Blue or Rogue Creamery's Crater Lake Blue
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: blue, semi-soft
Produced in: United States of America, Oregon, Rogue Creamery
Date Purchased: 6/14/2007
Date Eaten: 6/10/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $15.99/lb.
One of the best things about Cayuga Blue from the Lively Run Goat Dairy of upstate New York is that it is two cheeses in one. Yes, it's a blue with rich veins of punching power. But it is also enough room between the blue streams to allow one to appreciate the raw goat cheese on its own. A bit firm but not crumbly or hard the texture has a smooth finish while the flavor is rich but not overpowering like some others of the same breed. The name comes from Cayuga Lake, the longest of New York's finger lakes which one can imagine in the geography of this cheese's surface.
Name: Lively Run Cayuga Blue or Cayuga Blue
Type of Milk: goat's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft, blue
Produced in: United States of America, New York, Lively Run Goat Dairy
Date Purchased: 6/16/2007
Date Eaten: 6/14/2007
Purchased Where: United States, online, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $26.99/lb.
It came as either a gift or a mistake. I received a shipment of seven cheeses from an online order at ArtisanalCheese.com although I had only ordered six. The additional cheese was this wonderful French sheep's milk cheese, Carles Roquefort. No note to say they had thrown it in for free but if I remember right, I may have gotten an extra cheese on a previous order too. It was a little less than perfect in appearance. The thin edge of the wedge had been crushed a little, maybe even before shipping. Still it had its charms of appearance. I tasted this cheese, served it with green salad, spread it on warm bread, and enjoyed it immensely. Only when I started to write about it did I find out the retail price for this treasure, $43.00 a pound. Holy blue cows, Batman! That's Wagyu beef prices. When time came to review a Roquefort I may well have paid that amount and bought as small of a piece as would photograph well. It is the granddaddy of amazing blue cheeses. Is it worth $43.00 a pound? Maybe no, but it is worth $10.75 a quarter pound for a blue cheese experience to ground you in great blue cheeses.
Name: Carles Roquefort or Roquefort Carles
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: blue, semi-soft
Produced in: France
Date Purchased: 6/16/2007
Date Eaten: 6/20/2007
Purchased Where: United States, online, Artisanal Cheese
Price: $43.00/lb.
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.
Yes, it's a cute little white pyramid, pleasingly packaged in bleached waxed paper, calling out from behind the glass display cooler with puppy-dog eyes that say, "Take me home." But this is not just a cute pound puppy, it's a rich pedigree of traditionally hand crafted cheese of the finest order.
Unwrapping the cheese from it's paper, you discover not a pure white coat (unless you are taking it home very young and fresh, maybe a little under-ripened) but a palette of white and grays, tans and creams, painting the bloomy rind. Do not cut into the cheese until it has had some time out at room temperature. Ten to fifteen minutes should do. Once warmed up a little cut off one of the pyramid's four sides to expose the golden treasure of the pharaohs. The flavor and texture show the age of this adolescent goat cheese. Ripe, it will run a little around the edges and have a little sweetness on its way to richer depths. A very good cheese and for the price worth buying often. Try slices of this delicious chevre with crisp apples or even on top of a burger off the grill. Can pair well with Sauvignon Blanc if you favor drier wines or a Riesling if in a sweeter mood. Cypress Grove Chevre are the same folks who bring us another of my favorite cheeses, Humboldt Fog.
Name: Cypress Grove Chevre's Pee Wee Pyramid or Pee Wee Pyramid
Type of Milk: goat's, pasteurized
Type: bloomy rind, soft
Produced in: United States of America, California, Cypress Grove Chevre
Date Purchased: 7/2/2007
Date Eaten: 7/4/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $7.99 each
or "Dairy of a Mad Goat Lady"
And by "mad" I mean crazy enough to try to make a fresh camembert from North Carolina goats. And by "crazy" I mean crazy successful! Chevre Camembert is such a rare treat in the United States. Soft and buttery, young and slightly mushroomy, this young camembert-style cheese with an edible white rind represents the best of this style of young bloomy cheeses, alive with rich flavor. From a small goat dairy in Randolph county North Carolina producing a handful of small-batch artisinal chevres, Goat Lady Dairy Chevre Camembert stands out even among cow's milk cheeses of the same type. The goatiness is subtle but the camembertiness stands out. Seemingly pricey by the pound, $24.99, a disk is less than half that weight at around $10.00 each making it comparable in price to many lesser cheeses. It quickly became a favorite.
Name: Goat Lady Dairy Chevre Camembert
Type of Milk: goat's, pasteurized
Type: bloomy rind, soft
Produced in: United States of America, North Carolina, Climax, Goat Lady Dairy
Date Purchased: 7/3/2007
Date Eaten:7/4/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $24.99/lb.
I've held off on writing about Celebrity Dairy goat cheese for a while. It is the most famous of the locally produced cheeses of the Triangle area of North Carolina and maybe that is why I thought it deserved special mention and careful review. I also knew it was a cheese I could readily obtain so I would wait until my options for cheese purchases narrowed and it would mark the point in the journey where my job of finding great and unique cheeses got a lot harder.
I have been familiar with Celebrity Dairy cheese for many years but to be honest I have not tried it for some time. It was one of the first goat cheeses I tasted and it really helped me enter the bigger world of cheese outside cow's milk. But now I come back to it after having tried some of the best goat's milk cheeses of France and Spain, Portugal and Italy, Vermont and California. The experience of those cheeses made coming back to Celebrity Dairy Chevre a little less welcoming.
Do not get me wrong. Celebrity Dairy Chevre is a wonderful cheese, a fresh goat cheese like many of the best of similar style in France. But compared to a Humboldt Fog or a Coupole goat cheese, chevres like Celebrity Dairy are prepubescent sisters of the buxom college coeds. A lot of people of talked to think they do not like goat's milk cheeses. My guess is the only ones they've tried are those like Celebrity Dairy chevre. It can be a little acidic, the tangy bite of goat's milk singing through. To the uninitiated this is a new experience that their history with cow's milk cheese does not prepare tem for. It really can be an acquired taste.
But one thing Celebrity Dairy Chevre is great for is as an ingredient in other dishes. I baked a Leek and Goat Cheese Tart with a pastry crust, sauteed leeks in butter and thyme, a mixture of sour cream, egg and heavy cream, and good-sized chunks of Celebrity Dairy Chevre. Accompanying the tart was a salad of mixed greens, pinenuts, thyme and chevre in a balsamic vinegrette. Served with a cold Pilsner beer or crisp Riesling it was a great summer dinner.
Celebrity Dairy Chevre comes in different flavors: plain, confetti - a mix of different pepper corns, party - the everything bagel of goat cheese, and dill. I didn't find the herbs and spices necessary and think they tended to mask a lot of the chevre's charm. Still, I am lucky to have access to this local treat.
Name: Celebrity Dairy Chevre
Type of Milk: goat's, pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: United States of America, North Carolina, Chatham County
Date Purchased: 7/14/2007
Date Eaten:7/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raliegh, Whole Foods
Price: $16.99/lb.
Cambozola and I have had a strange past. Something about the pre-printed Bavarian-blue cheese label seemed too processed, a little too contrived to me. The name had a fake, manufactured quality to it. I thought of it as a stuck up girl in the cafeteria who had no real grounds for her airs. With that prejudice I avoided even approaching her to find out if my assumptions were correct. Finally, having taken out all the other local girls and needing a date for Sunday night I decided to give Cambozola a try. We hit it off swimmingly.
Labeled as a triple cream, this cheese bears more of the qualities of enriched camembert-like cheeses than of its blue relatives. It is mild for a blue and may be a good starting point for anyone who thinks they do not like blue cheeses. Germany is not famous for its cheeses, sitting at the foot of the great Swiss cheeses to the south. Many might find Cambozola too processed but I really enjoyed ev |
