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This page contains an archive of all entries posted to 365 Cheeses in the L category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
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Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
© 2008 Kirk Samuels
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L Archives
Lancashire is called the "best toasting cheese in the world". It melts easily without dissolving into a pool of oil and curd. Its melting quality make it the traditional choice for Welsh rabbit, which to us Americans is simply melted cheese on toast. We can use it for grilled cheese to great results. It is similar to white cheddar in appearance a taste. The piece I bought was crumbly but not overly dry. The flavor was cheddary with fresh dairy flavors. A good cheese.
Name: Trotterhill Lancashire
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: England, Lancashire, Inglewhite
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $13.99/lb.
La Tur is one of my favorite cheeses. The best way to describe it is like butter with an attitude. At the proper temperature and ripeness it is soft, smooth and spreadable but still dense with pungent, ripe flavor. It is sold in small 4-inch disks about one inch deep placed in pleated paper like a cupcake. The outside has a light white undeveloped mold and the inside is the color of cream. It goes well with a warm French baguette. We also tried it with two condiments, a Spanish quince paste, Membrillo, and fig jam. The fig jam didn't work. It was not sweet enough to compete with the stronger cheese flavors. The quince paste was delicious though, sweet but not cloying, a little acidic, a little tart.
La Tur is a triptych blend of cow, sheep and goat milk. It is pastuerized but at the lowest temperature allowed by law which helps retain some of the flavors of unpasteurized cheeses. It is aged for about two weeks before being shipped around the world.
If you can find it buy it. Did I say it was one of my favorites? Yes I did.
Name: La Tur
Type of Milk: Cow's, Sheep's and Goat's, Pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: Italy, Alta Lange, Caseificio Dell'Alta Langa
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/4/2006
Date Eaten: 11/5/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $19.99/lb.
Leerdammer is one of my favorite Swiss-style cheeses. Big holes. Lots of flavor. Nice bite.
The cheese is named after the Dutch town of Leerdam and is a fairly new cheese, first sold in 1984. For the price it is a bargain for flavor.
Name: Leerdammer
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized, Part-skim
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: The Netherlands
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.
Locatelli is a brand of Pecorini Romano cheese distinguished by its dark brown rind, pale yellow color and sharp, salty flavor. It is my go-to grating cheese and one of two kinds I almost always have in the house (Parmigiano Reggiano the other). I almost always use it in combination with Parmigiano.
Name: Locatelli Pecorino Romano
Type of Milk: Sheep, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in:
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/28/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $10.99/lb.
Yes! This Red Leicester is a beautful cheese and so far my favorite new cheese I discovered this year. Not too sharp. Perfect bite. Lingering flavors of delicious cheese. Port wine flavors. "Addictive and distinctive" says Fleming. "Not a phony cheddar, it tastes like what cheese should taste like--really great cheese!" I agree.
Seek this cheese out this holiday season. You will be hooked.
Name: Rothbury Red Leicester
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: England, Rothbury
Date Purchased: 12/082006
Date Eaten: 12/09/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $15.99/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.
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.
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.
Leonora is a delicious cheese. A semi-soft goat's milk cheese with a rich cream-colored center and a gray ash rind, a little like a young Humboldt Fog with the ash on the outside. This one comes from Spain, the Spanish province and city of León. The labled indicated that Leonora is made from pasteurized milk but my experience shows that labels printed by small cheese shops are often wrong. Very often. Some online sites say Leonora is is unpasteurized but I can't find a definitive source to contradict the sticker.
Name: Leonora
Type of Milk: Goat's, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Spain, León
Date Purchased: 1/28/2007
Date Eaten: 1/30/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $22.99/lb.
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.
The simplicity of this cheese's appearance masks deep, rich flavors. Lagrein Weinkase is not a Swiss or Germanic cheese as its name may suggest but a formaggio italiano. A pale yellow curd that has been pressed and soaked in local red wine, Lagrein Weinkase ( Weinkäse is German for "wine cheese") has flavors of herbs and wine, soft notes of garlic and spice. The texture is soft and buttery with the squat holes of a Havarti.
Fleming called it "an awesome cheese that packs a surprise."
Name: Lagrein Weinkase
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Italy, Alto Adige
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $21.99/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.
Part of my job of finding great cheese is done for me by shopping at places that do most of the work for me. Sometimes it can even get a little boring writing about good cheese after good cheese. Mostly it is still great fun to taste something I love, cheese, made by people who really care about what they do, trying to make the best product they can. Lamb Chopper is a super sheep's milk cheese by people who specialize in goat's milk chevre. The cheese is mild but not lacking in flavor. The texture is also of a young cheese, semi-soft and pliable making it ideal for melting on pizza or baked tomatoes.
Name: Lamb Chopper
Type of Milk: sheep's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: United States, California, Cypress Grove Chevre
Date Purchased: 7/12/2007
Date Eaten:7/14/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $20.99/lb.
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