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© 2008 Kirk Samuels
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Cheese Type Archives
Mario Batali and others call it "the undisputed King of Cheeses"--Parmigiano Reggiano. I would not agree with the undisputed part--I do know some Frenchmen and this cheese isn't French--but I do say yes to its royal pedigree. Most often used grated or shredded because of its granular texture, grana, parmigiano is great shaved thin to top salads and pasta or broken into small shards for a cheese plate.
The first comment I thought I would write about this majestic cheese is the taste of salt. After all, it is used time and again to punch up other tastes with its saltiness. But tasting parmigiano again and alone, I was surprised that salt was not the first flavor on my tongue. First comes the texture. The peaks of the granules brush the tongue and the sides of my mouth. Then the taste buds around my tounge perk up. I sense the sweetness of milk. Then the tang of a cheese like Swiss Emmentaler followed by a slight nuttiness. Only then does the saltiness emerge. Occassionaly my tooth will hit a grain of saltier, harder cheese tucked into a larger bite.
Like a lot of Americans my first experience of "parmesan cheese" came out of a green cardboard can with a yellow smiling top. When my family had spaghetti with store-bought sauce we always topped it with the yellowy-white cheese. I liked it but then I didn't know any better. After tasting the real thing I could never go back. (That's not 100% true. I promise I will never buy the stuff but if I am visiting my parents and we eat spaghetti at home, there is a nice nostalgic comfort in the combination of Ragu and Kraft Parmesan, much like the affection I will always have for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner--not the best of its kind but a comfort from childhood.)
I have tried Argentinian "parmesan" and it can be an adequete substitute in cooked dishes. But its texture is worlds apart from the true thing. It lacks the marble-like layers of grana that flake away when cutting into real parmigiano.
Try the big PR, Parmigano Reggiano. Truly one of the world's best.
Name: Parmigano Reggiano
Type of Milk: Cow, Part Skim, Unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy, Emilia-Romagna
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: $15.99/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.
"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.
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.
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.
The United States produces some amazing cheeses. Award-winning Humboldt Fog is one of them. Named for the morning vapor rising from the ocean in Humboldt county of Northern California where the cheese is produced, Humboldt Fog is first and foremost a chevre or goat's cheese, with the distinct characteristics of a dry, chalky, ghost-white young curd and slightly acidic goat milk tang. Immediately identifiable by its medium-sized wheel, center vein and outer rind of ash, and ripening white goat curd from the outside in, Humbodlt Fog can be quickly picked out of a line up (at least I am yet to see its Doppelgänger). The riper this chese gets, the more the drier inside becomes soft, creamy and runny. Ripe is good. Ripe is more flavorful, more complex, more pungent. Humboldt Fog is one of my favorite goat cheeses and one of my favorite cheeses, period.
Name: Humboldt Fog
Type of Milk: Goat, Pasteurized
Type: soft ripened
Produced in: United States of America, California, McKinleyville, Cypress Grove Chevre
Date Purchased: 12/22/2006
Date Eaten: 12/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $19.99/lb.
If Parmigiano-Reggiano is the King of Cheeses, Parmigiano-Reggiano Vacche Rosse is the Emperor. Made from a once near-extinct breed of red dairy cows, the Reggiana, Vacche Rosse tastes the way the cheese did in the days before World War II, richer, higher butter-fat content grana cheese produced in smaller batches. Can I taste the difference between modern Parmigiano-Reggiano made from more productive black and whites and the red cow product? It is hard to say. Red cow is damn fine. As wonderful as every other properly handled Parmigiano. Yes, I will say it is better. But...
Red Cow is expensive. I mean the most expensive cheese I've ever paid for, and there weren't any truffles or Sauterne inside. At Christmas time sales I found it for $31.99 per pound, well twice what I'd pay for a standard Parmigiano-Reggiano. Unless it's a very special occassion, like Christmas or the day I win the lottery, I will stick to the normal Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Name: Parmigiano-Reggiano Vacche Rosse, Parmigiano-Reggiano delle Vacche Rosse, Red Cow Parmesan Reggiano
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in:
Date Purchased: 12/22/2006
Date Eaten: 12/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $31.99/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)
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.
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.
In the United States most people think of blue cheese as a white cheese spotted with veins of blue mold. Some of my favorites are the orange blue cheeses like Blacksticks Blue. Smooth and spreadable as opposed to the crumbly blues, Blacksticks goes well with warm baguette or melted into warm buttered pasta. The orange cheese is creamy and the blue mold is piquant but not overpowering. A real treat.
Name: Blacksticks Blue
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft, blue
Produced in: England, Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses
Date Purchased: 01/11/2007
Date Eaten: 01/13/2007
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.
From time to time someone will say to me, "You must meet a friend of mine. You two will really hit it off." On a rare occasion, we clash like tartan plaid and pastel polka dots when we meet. When this happens I always have to ask myself if the person is really crass, overbearing and foul or did I just catch him on a bad day. These thoughts occurred to me when I tasted Vacherin Fribourgeois for the first time. Right now the two of us can't stand being in the same room together.
Tales of the cheese's youth are glowingly recounted on the label with words such as "grass", "Alpine pastures" and "butter". No trace of these qualities remained in the cheese I tasted, like a beauty pageant winner who has not aged gracefully. The overwhelming flavor of the Vacherin I tasted was funk, the foul bacterial stench of bodily odor.
Vacherin Fribourgeois is a semisoft member of the raclette family, made from unpasteurized cow's milk in the Swiss canton of Fribourg. The Fribougeois will use it in fondue alongside Gruyère from the same region make a moitié-moitié, half-and-half. Either they use a younger cheese or are more accustomed to the taste.
Name: Vacherin Fribourgeois
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semisoft
Produced in: Switzerland, Fribourg
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, Online Order, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $26.99/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
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
Supposedly Valdeón is often confused with its more famous relative Cabrales. Both are Spanish blues, aged in caves. Both cheeses were wrapped in the leaves of the Spanish Sycamore Maple, though Cabrales has now shed its leaf from more modren aluminum foil. Valdeón is more blue in color compared to the grey tones of Cabrales which are one of its distinguishing characteristics. I will speak more of Cabrales soon but now the spotlight is on Valdeón.
Valdeón comes from the northwestern mountain region of Spain outside of León. Though mainly produced from cow's milk alone, some producers will add goat's or sheep's milk to the mix. The blue cheese is salty and sharp and to my mind, wonderful. The texture is semi-soft but still firm, meaning it crumbles readily. Delicious with crusty bread or fine sherry.
Name: Valdeón or Valdeon or Picón de Valdeón
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semiosoft, 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: $18.99/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.
I don't know what Saint Agur is the patron saint of, but if it is soft creamy blue cheeses he was a good choice for the job. The eponymous cheese is a member of the gorgonzola family, a rich creamy French blue veined cheese that has become one of my favorite blues. I couldn't stop eating it. The buttery cheese is a perfect balance to the sharpness of the blue mold. I ate almost an entire baguette with this awesome cheese.
As a side note I believe the saint in question is the prophet Agur of the Old Testament who supposedly wrote the 30th chapter of Proverbs which has a lot to say about eating and sin.
Verse 8: Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.
Verse 20: Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.
Verse 33: Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.
Name: Saint Agur or Saint-Agur or St. Agur
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft, blue
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: $16.99/lb.
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
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.
From the sheep that bring us Merino wool comes a lovely ewe's milk cheese from Portugal that makes us feel as warm as a sweater. The taste is nutty and milky with the right amount of age and salt. One of my favorite Portuguese hard cheeses.
Name: Nisa
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Portugal, Alentejo
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where:United States, Online Order, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $21.99/lb.
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 first taste of Grazalema transported me back to the best Spanish meal I ever had. The flavors shout out in Spanish with a Castilian lisp. The texture resembles others in the Spanish family but the taste is a unique blend of the sheep's milk richness and sweetness and the goat's milk earthiness and grass. Add it to the list of really good cheeses of Spain.
Name: Grazalema
Type of Milk: goat's and sheep's, pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Spain, Andalucía
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $/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.
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.
The first lady of Dutch cheeses may have an Italian name. Prima Donna belongs to the gouda family and bears enough age not to be silly yet is young enough to leave you wanting more of her. It comes at a decent price and the flavor it offers can be put to use in a variety of dishes from pizza to pasta to eggs to potatoes. I like it.
Name: Prima Donna
Type of Milk: cow's milk, pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: The Netherlands
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $11.99/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.
The French epicure Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once compared a meal without cheese to a beautiful woman with one eye. I might compare a meal with the cheese named after Brillat Savarin (pronounced "bree-ya sav-a-ran") to a beautiful woman with all her body parts intact, enhanced to perfect proportions. Like Explorateur and Saint André
, Brillat Savarin is a triple cream, rich and buttery. In a bling taste test I don't know if I could differentiate one from another but I doubt I would care. All are outstanding.
At first glance the cheese appears deceptively solid but as soon as it enters your warm mouth it begins to melt and release its ripe flavors.
Name: Brillat Savarin or Brillat-Savarin or Brillat Savarin, Affinage or Brillat Savarin Affiné
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: France, Ile de France
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.
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.
"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.
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