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© 2008 Kirk Samuels
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Cow's Milk 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.
I had never heard of Crucolo before buying it. After tasting it I was glad I picked it up.
One online source describes the flavor "resembling Parmegiano-Reggiano" but "with a creamy texture". In my mind it was closer to an Emmentaler or mild gruyere in taste and texture, not really creamy at all. Nice tang. It has a milky pale color and small holes throughout.
A delicious cheese.
Name: Crucolo
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in:Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige
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: $17.99/lb.
The difference between young provolone and aged is the difference between Beaujolais Nouveau and ten-year-old Port, between an '87 Mustang and a '64, between Brittany Spears and Ella Fitzgerald. Age and experience can be wonderful things. This aged provolone, labeled "piccante”, is not so much spicy or sharp like an aged cheddar but piquant in the tangy sense.
The name "provolone" may be derived from the Naples’s dialect for "globe" since one of the traditional shapes for this cheese was a round ball. Now it is most often seen in a large sausage-like shape. The texture has concentric onion-like layers that you can peel away, much like a fresh mozzarella ball. This is not surprising since provolone is the older brother of the mozzarella family. Take a fresh ball of mozzarella, hang it by string in a cool, dry room and rub the surface with salt water for the first few days. After a few months you have provolone. Auricchio, the manufacturer of this cheese, has been making it since 1877.
Serve it sliced or in chunks on an antipasto platter.
This is a wonderful cheese for cooking. It makes a great addition to a grilled cheese sandwich or to top salads or pasta.
Name: Auricchio Provolone
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in:Italy, Auricchio Company
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: $14.99/lb.
Eating mold can be a tricky thing. There is a fine blue line between a perfectly ripe cheese and one that has gone on to wilder pastures. Cheese is a living food--not the kind with a heartbeat but one that ages and changes and goes through a life cycle. I tasted the cheese I'm writing about today, Fourme d'Ambert au lait cru, twice. Not different pieces either but the same chunk. Each time was at a different stage of the cheese's life and a vastly different experience.
The name is a little pretentious if you don't know French. "Fourme" comes from the Latin word for "form", a in which the cow's milk curds were held or pressed. The Italian word for cheese itself, "formaggio", has the same origin. In some French dialects "fourme" simply means cheese. So Fourme d'Ambert is cheese that originated in the town of Ambert. "Au lait cru" means "from raw milk" or unpasteurized. It is a blue cheese, a moldy molded cheese of France.
Fourme' d'Ambert is often called French Stilton. The grayish-green veins of blue mold run thick throughout. When I bought it, the cheese was cut to order (a good sign) and wrapped in cheese paper instead of plastic (a very good sign). When I opened it the next day after bringing the cheese to room temperature for an hour the texture was moist but still crumbled when cut. Spread on a cracker it was creamy and sweet yet pungent with the blue cheese flavor. Strong but not overpowering. It was a delicious cheese. My fiancée Fleming and I ate half of it then I wrapped it in plastic and returned it to the refrigerator.
Three days later I took the cheese and a few crackers with me to work for my lunch. By the time I unwrapped the cheese it had been at room temperature for a few hours. The smell, fungal and overpowering, almost knocked me out my chair. This was not the same cheese I had eaten days before. Undeterred by the pungency I cut of a chuck and spread it on a cracker. Even before it reached my mouth I could feel the fumes of something--mold maybe--entering my nose. The creaminess and sweet milk flavors were gone, consumed by the living cultures that had taken over. I ate the last of it but it left a bad taste in my nose and mouth.
Lesson: Cheese or any great food product must be taken care of properly and prepared and served at the peak of ripeness or freshness. Buying in bulk, even a bulk of two servings, may be fine for some ingredients, but not all and especially not some really great cheeses.
Name: Fourme D'Ambert Au Lait Cru
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: France
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006, 10/30/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $9.99/lb.
You either love or hate blue cheese. I love it. I love it by itself. I love it on bread. I love it cooked or baked with other cheeses. Neal's Yard Dairy Colston Bassett Stilton does not disappoint.
The colors of this blue cheese are not milky white with bluish streaks but a gradation of brown to buttery yellow speckled with gray to green pocks of mold. The cheese crumbles into large pieces making it great for bread or salads. We ate it last night in a green salad with pear and walnuts, a classic pairing for blue cheese. The cheese was wrapped in plastic from the store and when unwrapped the Stilton had an overpowering odor that I mentioned in the Fourme d’Ambert article. But this time I let it sit out unwrapped by itself for about 20 minutes and the obnoxious smell had evaporated and the cheese tasted great.
This leads to my general rules for the best storing and serving cheese:
1) Whenever possible store firm cheeses in paper instead of plastic. Cheese needs to breathe and plastic wrap can suffocate a cheese. I don’t always follow this rule, in fact, paper wrapped cheese is currently the exception in my fridge but I can see the difference in how well it works.
2) Allow cheese to come to room temperature before serving. Unwrap the cheese and let it sit out. Ten to twenty minutes is usually enough. Cold cheese hold on to its flavor instead of releasing it in your mouth. If the cheese gets too warm, fat may come to the surface or it may dry out. Unwrapping the cheese lets any built up odors or “cheese exhaust” escape and should return the cheese to a state of balance.
Overall the Stilton from Neal’s Yard Dairy Colston Basset had a great flavor and texture and when properly cared for, produced great results.
Name: Neal's Yard Dairy Colston Bassett Stilton
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft, blue
Produced in: England, Colston Bassett, Nottinghamshire, Colston Bassett & District Dairy, by Richard Rowlett & Billy Kevan
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006, 11/5/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $17.99/lb.
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.
Wensleydale is one of Wallace and Gromit favorite cheeses. Wensleydale is also the name of the store owner in the Monty Python "Cheese Shop" sketch. The cheese itself is good. It has a pale yellow color. The texture is crumbly but not physically dry. The flavor is milky like fresh cheese curd and very pleasant. Wensleydale has a fresh balanced taste.
Name: Wensleydale
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: England, Yorkshire, Wensleydale
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $10.99/lb.
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.
Port Salut is what I call a breakfast cheese. Soft, mild, inexpensive but still fresh tasting, it is not a great cheese but it is a great way to start the day. I love a slice with toast and jam (raspberry is my favorite).
Port Salut has a distinctive orange rind beneath an orange paper label. This is edible (the rind, not the paper) but don't. Stick to the white, milky soft cheese. The name comes from the trappist abbey of Notre Dame du Port du Salut (Our Lady of the Port of Salvation). I don't think this cheese will get you into heaven but it will keep you satisfied until lunch.
Name: Port Salut
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: France, Brittany
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/04/2006
Date Eaten: 11/08/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $7.99/lb.
I once heard Parrano described as a Dutch cheese with an Italian accent, or maybe it was an Italian cheese with a Dutch accent. Either way, it's an accurate description for a cheese from the Netherlands named for an Etruscan village. Think Gouda mixed with Parmesan. Parrano is a versatile cheese that I reach for when I want flavor for not a high cost. After reaching for the cheese I usually reach for the grater.
Ways I use grated Parrano:
Macaroni and Cheese
Grilled Cheese (two no brainers)
Omelets
Topping Duck Confit, Roasted Garlic and Arugula Pizza
Name: Parrano
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Netherlands
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/04/2006
Date Eaten: 11/08/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $7.99/lb.
Hoop cheese is cheese curd that has been pressed in a round hoop-like mold. Depending on the curd it is either fresh, white, moist and unsalted or firm, orange and cheddar-like. North Carolina Hoop cheese is the latter, fresh cheddar curds pressed in molds then covered in red wax. The flavor and texture is like fresh cheese curds, even a little squeaky. It used to be sold in country stores next to the cracker barrel. It was cut to order by a device called a hoop cheese cutter, a round pedestal with a blade that swung out and down to cut off a measured amount of hoop cheese.
North Carolina Hoop cheese locally is a good price. Compared to factory cheese in the grocery store aisle it is incredibly more flavorful and tastes, well, like cheese. This may sound strange, but most cheese hanging in bags in the dairy aisle is insipid, tasteless, rubber.
Name: North Carolina Hoop Cheese
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in:
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/9/2006
Date Eaten: 11/13/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $6.99/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.
There's a story about how St. Marcellin, a cheese from a remote region of France, became popular, at least as popular as French cheeses go.
The dauphin, the prince who would be King Louis XI, was out hunting in his lands in southeastern France called the Dauphiné. (Incidentally "dauphin" literally means "dolphin" and goes back to a guy named Guy VIII, the French count of Vienne who had dolphins on his coat of arms.That has nothing to with cheese except that dolphins are mammals and might produce a wonderfully rich dolphin cheese if you could find a short stool to milk them.) The prince got lost in the woods and was attacked by a bear. Two local woodsmen rescued the prince and brought him back to their cabin in the woods where he was revived by peasant bread and local cheese. The prince recooperated and never forgot the two men whom he later gave lands and title nor the cheese called St. Marcellin that afterward became famous throughout the land.
The cheese is soft and when brought to room temperature, runny. Sold in a small ceramic pot St. Marcellin is wonderful. I reuse the pots in my kitchen for mise-en-place. The flavor is nutty and slightly fungal, slightly acidic, but very creamy.
Per pound the price of St. Marcellin seems high but it is I bought my 100g (~1/4 lb.) crock for $4.99. Plenty to serve a party of four. Unless they're really hungry. Or French.
The only way I eat this cheese is on a fresh baguette. Incredible.
Name: St. Marcellin
Type of Milk: Cow, 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: $22.45/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.
Here is an American Gruyère, made in Wisconsin that's as good as any produced in France or Switzerland, Roth Käse’s Grand Cru Gruyère Surchoix. I think of Gruyère as "the other Swiss cheese". Swiss-style cheeses tend to be either like Emmentaler (big holes, easily melting, mild flavor) or Gruyère (pungent, firmer, packed with flavor). Together they make a perfect, traditional fondue.
Aged at least nine month's Gruyère Surchoix ("surchoix" means "top choice" in French) is a great tasting cheese. It has a bit of funk to it and I mean that in the best possible way. Some cheeses tickle the roof of your mouth with pungent flavor without being sharp like an aged cheddar. This cheese does that. There are some other flavors I can only describe as tannic, but also in a good way.
It is wonderful with apples or fresh bread, walnuts or arugula salad.
Name: Grand Cru Gruyère Surchoix
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: USA, Wisconsin, Monroe, Roth Käse
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/17/2006
Date Eaten: 11/18/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $12.99/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.
I bought this cheese because it was different and because I didn't think I would like it. Not liking it would give me more to write. What made this cheese different and something I thought I would not like? Pine.
Chapel Hill Creamery's Hickory Grove cheese is a monastery-style (unpasteurized) cheese that has been flavored by pine needles. The faint green imprints of them can be seen on the hardened rind. Pine? In cheese? Made me think of Pinesol, not parmesan. But I gave it an honest try.
I liked it. Hickory Grove has a unique flavor. Slightly vegetal. Milder than I expected. A little tangy. It reminded me a little of retsina, the Greek wine flavored with pine resin, but not as strong. I has a pleasant unique flavor and will make a great addition to a holiday cheese tray.
Name: Hickory Grove
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: USA, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Creamery
Date Purchased: 11/17/2006
Date Eaten: 11/18/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $17.99/lb.
Here is a wonderful cheese from the Italian Alps, Fontina Valle d'Aosta. Another of my favorites. True fontina has great natural flavor, the good tastes and odors of the farm--hay, grass, milk, straw, air. The alpine Italians have been producing it for hundreds of years. Look for the name on the cheese paper or the blue Matterhorn stamp to get the real thing.
Fontina Valle d'Aosta melts well (think baked pastas or on warm bread) but is delicious at room temperature with a hearty red wine and sliced salumi.
Name: Fontina Valle d'Aosta, DOP
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 11/23/2006
Date Eaten: 11/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $14.99/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.
Piave is named after the Piave River Valley of northern Italy where it is produced. It is made from part-skim pasturized cow's milk like many other hard cheeses. The cows are milked twice daily. Whole milk from the first milking is used as well as milk whose cream has been skimmed from the evening milking. Piave when aged is a sweeter cousin of the parmesan family. Look for a waxy rind and the "PIAVE" name imprinted on the edges.
Like other hard Italian cheeses it can be grated over pasta or vegetables or shaved on salads or bread. It may be a poor man's Parmesan but that poor man will not be deprived and will eat well tonight.
Name: Piave, Aged
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in:
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $7.99/lb.
Nostrano, a cheese from the town of Fiavè in the Trentino region of Italy, has a unique flavor that makes it a nice addition to any Italian cheese tray. The cheese has an Emmental-like texture. The taste has a hint of gruyere but with some other subtle flavors I find difficult to describe. I would serve it with mild hams or mortadella so as not to overpower it.
Go ahead an try it. I'm not saying it will become your new favorite cheese but it will be a nice change from the norm.
Name: Nostrano Fiavè
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/28/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $11.99/lb.
Spressa is one of the oldest cheeses of Europe. Spressa Fiave is a dry cheese but not as granular as parmesan. Compared to to hard cheeses it is a little chewier, more elastic. I guess the way I would describe it is "not unpleasantly rubbery". Salty. Tangy. Complex flavors. The appearance has marked striations, almost layers, as if the cheese were pressed. The name itself is derived from the word for "press"
A note on names: Spressa delle Giudicarie DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta) is a protected designation of origin, i.e. only cheese produced in the region can call itself Spressa delle Giudicarie. There is also a Spressa Pinzolo presumably from the town of Pinzolo, also in Trentino. The label for this cheese has it as Spressa Fiave (not Fiavè) as with Nostrono.
Name: Spressa Fiave
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/28/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $13.99/lb.
Grana is one of the best cheeses in the world. I would go so far as to say that I prefer it to Parmigiano Reggiano. I love it. I eat it by itself more often than dilluted in recipes. Seek out this cheese and buy it. It may not be a staple of your cheese shop but often during the holidays, especially those celebrated large by Italians around the world, the special cheeses are brought out. I first had it a dozen Christmases ago at the home of an Italian friend. Her mother brought/smuggled it from Italy and my first thought was, "Wow, this is the best Parmigiano I've ever had!" Turned out it was Grana Padano and this year I saw it in my local store for the first time. This is a special cheese.
Name: Grana Padano Trentino
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/28/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $16.99/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.
Strelvio is an Italian cheese with a German accent. Coming from Alto Adige or SüdTirol, depending on whether one uses the Italin or German names for the most northern alpine province of Italy, Stelvio resembles more the cheeses to its north than its southern compatriots. The texture is soft and buttery. The taste hints of butter and nuts. It is really a delicious cheese that can be served like many other alpine cheeses, with fruit on a summer hike or with warm bread and wine on a chilly winter night.
Name: Stelvio
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy, Alto Adige
Date Purchased: 12/08/2006
Date Eaten: 12/09/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $14.99/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.
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.
Comté is a delicious cheese from eastern France. It is a French Gruyère which is to say, a French Swiss Cheese. Comté has wonderful unique flavors of the Gruyère family, that sharp twang of Swiss that tingle the roof of your mouth. Nice nutty flavors. Center cuts are the best value. Look for only two of the six faces to have inedible rind. I found it on sale for the holidays so look for it in your local food marts.
Name: Comté or Comte or Gruyère de Comté
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: France, Franche-Comté
Date Purchased: 12/04/2006
Date Eaten: 12/05/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Food
Price: $10.99/lb.
"Tête de Moine" is French for "monk's head" (not to be confused with "Têtes des Moines"-- "Des Moines heads"). I have heard three possible origins for the cheese's name. One story claims that when the inventory of cheese was done at the Bellelay abbey where the cheese is made, it was counted out as one per monk, one per monk's head. The second story states that the abbey paid its taxes with its only valuable good, its cheese. Like all taxes these were thought to be rather high and rather than say they cost "an arm and a leg" they said the cost was a whole monk's head. The third tale is of Napoleon's army moving through the town and thinking the round cheese with its missing top resembled a monk's tonsure. They called the cheese "Tête de Moine". It's possible one, none or all of these stories are true. Names are tricky things.
Traditionally Tête de Moine is served via a device called a Girolle. Think if a round wooden board with a long nail through the center. The nail punches through the center of the cheese and then has a handled blad attached that shaves away the top of the cheese. When done slowly and with enough pressure, florettes of cheese, also called Girolles, are produced.
Of course, you can serve Tête de Moine without purchasing a Girolle and the cheese will not suffer for it. If you don't use a Girolle, use a cheese plane or a very sharp knife to shave off thin slices from the cheese straight out of the refrigerator. Cold cheese assures thinner slices. One of the delights of this cheese comes from being served wafer thin. A whole wheel of the cheese weighs 1.5 to 2 pounds but your cheesemonger should be able to cut it to any amount desired.
The flavor resembles many other Swiss cheeses. Not too sharp. Pleasant. A great cheese for a comfortable crowd of guests.
Name: Tête de Moine
Type of Milk: Cow Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Switzerland
Date Purchased: 12/13/2006
Date Eaten: 12/13/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $17.99/lb.
First thing I noticed about this Goosnargh Gold Double Gloucester cheese is how good looking it is. What a handsome cheese. It looks like a solid, fine, upstanding, leading-man cheese. The marbled brown outer rind fading into a rich orange, layered center. Nice.
Double Gloucester comes from only whole milk wheres his little brother, Single Gloucester is produced from skimmed milk and served a little younger. Both come from the English county of Gloucestershire and were originally made solely from the milk of Glouster cattle, a breed that almost went extinct.
The taste is delicious. Earthy, complex, but still mild.
Name: Goosnargh Gold Double Gloucester
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: England, Gloucestershire
Date Purchased: 12/08/2006
Date Eaten: 12/09/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $/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.
Bruder Basil (Brother Basil) kind of sounds like he might be a monk and the cheese he makes probably a Trappist-style, raw milk monastery cheese of complex, delightful flavors. Alas, he is the Aunt Jemima of the cheese world, a corporate invention to try to fool consumers into thinking something common and cheaply produced is rare and special.
Ok, so that said, I don't hate Bruder Basil or Aunt Jemima for that matter. Both will do in a pinch. Bruder Basil is a rectagular, smoked semi-soft cheese. The flavor: smoke. Texture: a little soft and creamy. Totally munchable. Pairs well with ham on a sandwich or a frosty German lager. Don't seek it out but if you are served it at a party, give it a try.
Name: Bruder Basil
Type of Milk:</ |
