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© 2008 Kirk Samuels
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Pasteurized Archives
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
Sa Canova is a Spanish cheese from the Balearic Island of Minorca. At first glance the orange rind and pale center may cause one to mistake the cheese for Port Salut. They are however quite different. Sa Canova like the best Spanish cheeses is made from sheep's milk. The cheese is less soft, easier to crumble apart that Port Salut. The rind of Port Salut is thick and plastic. Sa Canova's is easier on the palate.
Other than that I don't have much to say about it. If you were serving a cheese plate of Spanish cheeses you could include Sa Canova and not be disappointed as long as the other cheeses were really great.
Name: Sa Canova
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in:
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/09/2006
Date Eaten: 11/15/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $10.99/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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cacio de Roma is a solid, all-purpose, every-day sheeps milk cheese. It's good for sandwiches or munching. "Cacio" means cheese in regional Italian. This cheese of Rome has athe texture of a young provolone and clear flavors of sheep's milk. Though not the best cheese in Italy, it gets a solid B/B+ in my grade book. Still better than Sargento any day
Name: Cacio de Roma
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 12/04/2006
Date Eaten: 12/05/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $8.99/lb.
Plassas is an odd cheese. It is either very new to the cheese world or not highly thought of, since I found not a single mention of it in any of the cheese books I own nor did the Internet turn up much other than a photo of the cheese on the manufacturer's web site. If the cheese is not well thought of I understand why.
First off Plassas is the opposite of salty, which mainly means "bland". It taste like some kind of cheese that was specially designed to be good for you, possibly made out of yoghurt or tofo, but the label assures us it is made from normal pasteurized cow's milk. The texture is dry and chewy. I really didn't like this cheese. If it was made to be healthy it won't help since I don't plan on eating it again. Maybe that was the intent.
Name: Plassas
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy, Santa Marina Formaggi
Date Purchased: 12/8/2006
Date Eaten: 12/9/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $12.99/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.
"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.
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: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Germany
Date Purchased: 12/08/2006
Date Eaten: 12/16/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $7.99/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.
Yes, it LOOKS like brie. No, it is not brie. Yes, in many ways, especially appearance, it is very similar to brie. No, if you mistake it for brie as most people will do I will not throw a hissy fit(I'm not sure I could tell which was which in a strictly visual lineup). Fromage d'Affinois is a little softer and creamier than a brie of the same age, due mainly to the extra cream added to enrich this flavorful cheese. We sampled it alongside several other cheeses, one being the triple cream Explorateur. And yes, triple cream is creamier than double, but Fromage d'Affinois holds it own. Spread it on a great cracker or some fresh baguette.
Name: Fromage d'Affinois
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: soft ripened, double cream
Produced in: France
Date Purchased: 12/22/2006
Date Eaten: 12/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $/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.
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