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This page contains an archive of all entries posted to 365 Cheeses in the E category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
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© 2008 Kirk Samuels
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E Archives
Schwing!
Entelbucher Schwingerkäse comes from the Swiss town of Entelbuch in the Canton of Lucerne. Entelbuch is probably most famous for a breed of cattle dog called the Entelbucher Sennenhund or simply the Entelbucher. I'm not sure what the actual translation of "Schwingerkäse" would be in English, maybe "swing cheese". The verb "schwingen" means to swing or to beat or to oscillate. The name may come from some production process that involes beating or swinging the cheese around or may be named after someone named "Schwing". My research uncovered no origins for the name. "Käse", pronounced kay-za, is the German word for cheese.
The cheese is similar in flavor, color and texture to what we most think of as "Swiss cheese". It lacks the sharpness of a Gruyère or Emmentaler but has the same undertones of flavor and notes of fresh bread. The color is a very pale whitish yellow and there are only a few small holes.
It's a good cheese but the price is steep and not one I'd recommend when its equals can be found much cheaper.
Name: Entelbucher Schwingerkäse
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Switzerland, Tirol, Spezialitätenkäserei Doppleschwand AG
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $21.99/lb.
When most people think of "Swiss cheese" they most likely think of the original or some variation of Emmentaler, a pale yellow, semi-hard cheese with large air holes. The name and spelling can be a little confusing. You will often see it listed as emmental, emmenthal, emmenthaler and emmentaler (both capitalized and lower case). The Emme is a river in Switzerland. "Thal" or "Tal" means "valley" in German. The "h" is silent so both are pronounced the same and in modern usage the "h" is usually left out altogether. So the "Emmental" is the valley through which the Emme river flows. Someone or something from that valley, like a cheese, would be an "Emmentaler", capitalized because the river and the person are proper nouns and because ALL nouns in German are capitalized. So my perferred name and the name protected by denomination is "Emmentaler". ("Emmentaler Switzerland®" is the protected name.)
Emmentaler is a pleasant swiss cheese. Compared to most "Swiss cheese" found on supermarket shelves it is packed with flavor. Compared to so many other cheeses, say Gruyere or Leerdammer, though it is a little bland. I like it with fruit like apples or pears or for breakfast on toast with berry jam.
For economy-sake look for center-cut pieces, offering more edible center and less inedible hard rind. More holes may look nicer and you aren't paying for the air that fills them so if you like the looks, choose cuts that have them.
Name: Emmentaler or Emmenthaler or Emmental or Emmenthaler
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Switzerland
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/17/2006
Date Eaten: 11/18/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $7.99/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.
Steve Jenkins put it perfectly in his essential cheese book, Cheese Primer, "Explorateur is to cheese what Champagne is to wine." Explorateur is ultra-decadent. This triple-cream cheese oozes creaminess and effervesce. The tangy, mushroomy outer white mold plays perfectly with the buttery, light interior. It pairs well with Champagne. A brilliant cheese!
The name comes from the first United States satellite in space, Explorer I, launched in the 1950s shortly before the cheese was developed.
Name: Explorateur
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: Soft Ripened
Produced in: France, Petit Morin
Date Purchased: 12/22/2006
Date Eaten: 12/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $9.99 for 9 oz.(255g)
Modern Esrom is the reinvention of the cheese that went extinct in the 16th century. Named for an abbey in Nordseeland Denmark, the Trappist-style, raw milk cheese died out after the monastary that made it was closed in 1559. After the Second World War, cheese scientists somehow believed they had recreated it. Whether they had detailed recipes to produce it or had bits of 400 year-old cheese lying about to sample is doubtful. Most likely they had a short description of this pungent wash-rind cheese and came up with a suitable stand-in.
The taste is not my favorite. The smell is a little strong, like Limberger, but the flavor is less funky though still strong. A little oniony. The texture is semi-soft with holes like Havarti.
Name: Esrom or Esrum
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Denmark
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $8.99/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.
The French gastronome, Brillat-Savarin, called Époisses "roi des fromages", "king of cheeses". Though not the sole crown of European cheeses, Époisses deserves to sit on a throne. When sold in Europe this cheese is produced from raw cow's milk but the version for sale in the U.S. is pasteurized. This process kills some of the flavor but there is still plenty to go around.
The big argument I find when reading about this and other washed rind cheeses is "When is it at its peak?" Affinage is the French term for aging cheeses to their best ripeness, but when that precise moment occurs is a matter of taste. Époisses starts out semi-firm but softens with age to the point of runniness. Wait too long and the beneficial forces of bacteria that aided in the process turn against the cheese and leave it unedible. Some prefer the cheese soft but still a little firm but as John Cleese's character says in The Cheese Shop sketch, "I like it runny."
The cheese produced by the Berthaut company comes in a niffty wooden round box.
The rind gets its orange color from being washed with Marc de Bourgogne, a distilled pomace wine of Burgundy.
This is a great cheese! I cannot wait for my next trip to Europe to try the unpasteurized variety.
Name: Époisses or Époisses AOC or L'Époisses or Époisses de Bourgogne or Epoisses
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semisoft
Produced in: France, Burgundy
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chaple Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $13.99 a piece
The name makes me think of a large Finnish bird but in fact Etorki is a cheese from France. Some versions add cow's milk to the traditional sheep's milk, but the one I sampled was pure sheepy goodness. Alongside other traditional French cheeses Etorki stands out as black sheep. Its flavor resembles cheeses of northern Italy, Switzerland and Holland. If you're serving a cheese plate of French cheeses, throw in a little Etorki for variety. You won't be disappointed.
Name: Etorki
Type of Milk: sheep's, pastuerized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: France
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $16.99/lb.
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