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This page contains an archive of all entries posted to 365 Cheeses in the R 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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R Archives
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.
No, not "ricotta salad", as I first thought. "Ricotta salata" means "salted ricotta" or literally "salted re-cooked". Ricotta is the cooked down whey left over from the curd ("curds and whey") that went into making some other cheese. Often this is fresh and sweet and sold in small tubs to be used in lasagna, calzones or cheese dips. Ricotta salata is salted and pressed to form a firm, crumbly, death-white disk of cheese.
By itself ricotta salata is a little too salty to eat as is. Its saltiness pairs well with fresh fruit though and makes it a great ingredient in pasta dishes. In a traditional recipe of Orrechiette with Tomatoes, Garlic and Basil, ricotta salata is crumbled over the finished dish to add the cheesy components of salt and creaminess and a little sheepy tang.
Name: Ricotta Salata
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in:
Date Purchased: 11/23/2006
Date Eaten: 11/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $5.99/lb.
Pecorino Romano is one of the gratable, hard sheep's milk cheeses of Italy. Pecorino is devrived from "pecora", the Italin word for sheep. My go-to Italian sheep's milk cheese for pasta is Pecarino Locatelli, but the Romano stands up to it. The cheese has a nice sheep's milk flavor. It is a little more moist than Locatelli, but that may be the age of this particular piece. Its flavor is not as salty, not as sharp. The color is a paler shade of white. A good cheese. By the real thing. Buy it whole, never grated.
Name: Pecorino Romano
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $6.99/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.
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.
Perhaps the number one question I hear people ask when served a soft, ripened cheese is, "Should I eat the rind?" My answer is "Sure, if you want to. But if you don't want, that's okay too." Taleggio is one of those soft cheeses and its rind can be a little intimidating. Usually you will find it cut from a square cheese into triangular pieces, giving it two fresh-cut, exposed sides. As Taleggio ripens it will soften and "melt" from these sides. For the mildest cheese, cut off the cheese the seeps from the sides and spread it on fresh bread or apple or pear. If you’re more daring start at the exposed point and cut all the way into the cheese to get a sandwich of soft cream between crusts of white rind. This delivers more aroma and stronger flavors. If it proves too much, go back to scraping out the milder Taleggio interior. If you enjoy it, keep working toward the wall of white-orange-blue outer rind until you can go no further. Remember though, you should not eat the paper label or the synthetic rind or any cheese, unless you're an omnivorous goat.
Taleggio dates back to before the 10th century and may be one of the oldest soft ripened cheeses. I love it. It is available both in a raw milk (unpasteurized) form as well as pasteurized. In general a raw milk cheese is undoubtedly better, more complex, more interesting.
Name: Raw Milk Taleggio
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 12/4/2006
Date Eaten: 12/5/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $11.99/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.
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.
Coming on the heels of a phenomenal French cheese, Époisses, Roucoulons has its work cut out for it. In lesser company it might shine but in the brillance of a far better cheese it is hard to find its strong points.
Roucoulon is a bloomy rind, pasteurized cow's milk cheese. The name comes from the French verb "roucouler" meaning "to coo or to whisper lovingly." ("Roucoulons!" -- "Let us whisper lovingly!") The wrapping features a big heart and two love birds. Kind of dopey.
Compared to most cheeses Roucoulons is not bad at all. I recently had some Wal-Mart brie and compared to it Roucoulons is a blue ribbon winner. The flavor is pleasantly mushroomy and when sampled I don't think it has yet reached its peak of ripeness.
There are better cheeses out there but you can do worse.
Name: Roucoulons
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: France, Franche-Comté
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $9.99 a piece
Surrounded in coarsely crushed black peppercorns, Ribafria's interior is a mild, firm goat's cheese. A lot of black pepper. A lot! Is it too much? That depends on what you serve this Portuguese cheese with. The pepper, and cheese, pair well with bold or sweet red wines, bringing out the pepper notes of the bold and balancing the sweetness of the dessert or after-dinner wines.
Ribafria is commercially produced and packaged in vaccuum sealed disks.
A good little cheese but do not serve it alone. Pick her playmates carefully.
Name: Ribafria
Type of Milk: goat's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Portugal, Torres Vedras
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $12.99 each
All too often when talking about Spanish cheeses people will say, "It's kind of like Manchego." Yes, I too am guilty of this. But not today. For the rest of this article I will not mention the "M" word.
Roncal is a hard sheep's milk cheese from the Navarra region of Basque Spain. The flavor is both buttery and nutty, both milky and a little grassy a nd very different from other sheep's milk cheeses like most Italian percorinos. The saltiness is just right for thin slices of Roncal by themselves or alongside almonds or Spanish quince paste. Rocal deserves a place on your Spanish cheese board.
Name: Roncal or Farmstead Roncal
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in:
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, Online Order, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $21.99/lb.
The folks at Carr Valley Cheese in America's Wisconsin have yet to make a cheese I do not like. Their River Bend Sheep cheese is a literal winner with prize ribbons in 2004 and 2006 from the American Cheese Society. The flavor is buttery and sharp with a nice granular bite. The texture is firm and will almost crumble when sliced. Delicious.
Name: River Bend Sheep or Sheep River Bend
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: United States of America, Wisconsin, Carr Valley Cheese
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.
"This cheese makes me think of Italy," our friend Ann said. I understand her point. Robiola is not one of the spectacular cheeses that is brought out on special occasions. It is a cheese for every day.
In short Robiola is Italian cream cheese. Soft, spreadable and a little bland, it is a good cheese for breakfast to spread on a croissant and have beside your cappucino. There are different producers of Robiola and the one I found was definitely a commercial cheese factory turning out a lesser quality cheese. There are suppsoedly better examples out there.
It is not a great cheese but if you've breakfasted in Italy a few times it may bring back memories.
Name: Robiola
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $4.99 each
You might make the mistake of calling it "string cheese" but once you taste it you may come to the realization this is not your four-year-old's noontime snack. Don't get me wrong. Farmer's Rope Cheese, a part-skim mozarella from Wisconsin's Crave Farmstead, will not win any prizes but it has something that grocery store mozarella completely lacks--the slightest flavor. It's solidly decent with no pretense of grandeur but still striving ambitions to rise above the less-than-modest state of cheese for kids while still looking like an albino serpent about to strike. Fun.
Name: Crave Farmstead Farmer's Rope Cheese
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: United States of America, Wisconsin, Crave Brother's Farmstead Cheese
Date Purchased: 6/2/2007
Date Eaten: 6/6/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $4.99 each.
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.
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.
Rossollino is another cheese I can find very little information about. Usually that is not a good sign. Here's what I know. I bought the cheese in Chapel Hill at the cheese counter of A Southern Season. The store-printed label says "Rossollino semi-aged peccorino". I have not always found accurate information on these labels and I am a unsure if the spelling of the name with two "l"s is even correct. The sliver of label from the manufacturer stuck to the cheese's rind mentions "...ated in rind with tomato's extract..." and may account for the reddish hue of the rind and the "rosso" in the cheese's name. Basically Rossollino is a peccorino vecchio, an Italian sheep's milk cheese probably aged a year. It is on the salty side and not the best cheese of its type I've had. It's okay but not memorable.
Name: Rossollino
Type of Milk: sheep's, pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 7/10/2007
Date Eaten:7/14/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $18.99/lb.
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