"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.

Here's how I remember that Manchego, most famous of Spanish cheeses, is made from sheep's milk:
Manchego comes from the Spanish region of La Mancha of Don Quixote fame. Don Quixote through some form of senility or madness confused the windmills and flocks of sheep of his home with giants and armies. These sheep are where the famous cheese comes from.

It may seem a long way to go to remember two things, a name and an animal, but despite the fact or maybe even because I know so many things, I often need to figure out ways to remember new information. But knowing Manchego = sheep's milk and knowing what that cheese tastes like, I can use it as a basis for tasting other cheeses and figuring out if they too are made from the milk of sheep and if they are as good as this very good Spanish cheese.

Often I see sheep's milk cheese labled as "ewe's milk". I do not say ewe's milk as I do not say "nanny's milk" when talking of goats or "she-cow's milk" when talking of cows. A ewe is a female sheep and therefore the obvious producer. If it has horns it is a ram and do not try to milk it.

Manchego is often labled to indicate its age. "Fresco" is fresh, "curado" is three to six months old, and "viejo" is at least a year. I could not find what Manchego that is between six months and a year old is called. I assume it is not allowed to show itself in public.

Manchego viejo has a white baked-potato-like color surrounded by a dark wheat-ear patterned rind. The flavor is subtle but lovely. I love to shave it over salads.

Name: Manchego
Type of Milk: Sheep, pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in:
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/9/2006
Date Eaten: 11/14/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $13.99/lb.

"Ow, we want the funk.
Give up the funk.
Ow, we need the funk.
We gotta have that funk."
-George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic

Here is a cheese with funk. You will either love it or ask that it be removed from the room while you have the whole house fumigated to remove its foul stench. I lean toward the love side. My fiancée Fleming leans toward the hazmat suit. Petit Munster Géromé, "little Gerry" to his friends, is a complex cheese with complex flavors. Others have described it as “earthy” “with a strong farmyard aroma”. That is a polite way to put it. I can do little to fully describe it other than say it is reminiscent of certain bodily fluids.

The outer rind is an orangey slick paste that surrounds a four-inch disk. Inside is the pale yellow cheese that packs a wicked punch. I have found that many of the ripened cheeses have a noxious odor immediately after unwrapping them. Let them sit unwrapped for 10 to 15 minutes and let them breathe out this unpleasantness. Little Gerry still holds on to other odors but these can be your friends if you don't mind having French friends who smell like they never shower. Cut out a small wedge and spread it on some fresh bread. I enjoyed the complexity of flavors. Fleming said it started out good but had an evil finish.
Be bold and give it a try!

Name: Petit Munster Géromé
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: Soft
Produced in: France, Jean Rousset Fromager
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/17/2006
Date Eaten: 11/18/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $17.99/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.

I am wrapping up a fifteen-in-a-row Italian cheese spree with Montasio Vecchio. "Vecchio" is Italin for "old" and this cheese from Friuli gets better with age. (An even older form bears the name "Stravecchio".) Aged but not crumbly Montasio shares flavors with parmesan and cheddar but texture a little like aged provolone. The taste has a hint of smoke that may come with age or improper storage in its life but not to bad effect. A delightful cheese.

Name: Montasio Vecchio
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 12/06/2006
Date Eaten: 12/08/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $13.99/lb.

The first thing you notice about Morbier is the line throught the middle? What is it? It's not a blue-gray mold found in the bleu cheeses. It is a layer of ash. Ok, so what's the deal with ash?
Well, Morbier comes from the eponymous French village in Franche-Comté and traditionally was made in two stages. The first was from morning milk and the second was from the evening milking. To protect the morning cheese from flies throughout the day, a layer of ash was put on top. The ash has little or no flavor. The phrase "au lait cru" indicates the cheese is made from raw, unpasteurized milk.

Morbier has a distinct appearance and pleasing flavor. You taste the rawnees of the milk without it being too funky or strong. Nice creaminess and bite. A wonderful cheese.

Name: Morbier Au Lait Cru
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: France, Franche-Comté, Morbier
Date Purchased: 12/08/2006
Date Eaten: 12/19/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $/lb.