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This page contains an archive of all entries posted to 365 Cheeses in the United States category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
Switzerland is the previous category.
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
© 2008 Kirk Samuels
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United States Archives
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 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.
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.
I received this cheese as a birthday present. A nice gift! Carr Valley Cheese Co. of central Wisconsin has produced a beautiful cheese blended from the the milk of cows, goats, and sheep. Menage won the 2005 1st place prize in its category from the American Cheese Society.
On first glance, the cheese is unimpressive. A pale, smooth texture in an ugly green wax rind does not draw the diner in. What captures your attention is the taste. Nice tangy bite. Beautiful blend of indeterminate milky flavors. A delight.
Name: Carr Valley Menage
Type of Milk: Cow, Sheep and Goat, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: United States, Wisconsin, Carr Valley Cheese Co.
Date Purchased: 12/08/2006
Date Eaten: 12/16/2006
Purchased Where:Birthday Gift
Price: ?
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.
I have to admit that I mistakenly called Fiscalini San Joaquin a Spanish cheese right up until I googled it a few minutes ago. Fiscalini sounds like an Italian accountant but is Fiscalini Farms in Modesto, California and the saint name comes from the San Joachin Valley in central California.
The cheese is wonderful with a buttery baked potato color and gratable firm texture. The flavor resembles the grana cheese like parmesan but hints of the softer fontina.
Name: Fiscalini San Joaquin Gold
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: United States
Date Purchased: 12/22/2006
Date Eaten: 12/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $14.99/lb.
After a bite Fleming said, "Wow! This is now my favorite blue cheese!" I can't say Rogue Creamery's Smokey Blue cheese knocked off my title holder but it is a strong young contender. Last week I heard Steve Jenkins mention this cheese on the radio so I put it on my shopping list and sought it out.
The first bite for me was wonderful but ambivalent. "Is it smoked blue cheese or a blue smoked cheese?" Smoked cheeses are particular favorites of mine since the flavor is usually a single note--smoke. Smokey Blue is different. The blueness, the tang of piquant blue mold and the rich creamy cheese create a harmonic of powerful flavors. Smoked over burning hazelnut shells the cheese has a great balance between the forces of smoke and mold. This cheese has a kick but it is well-worth finding and tasting.
Name: Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft blue
Produced in: United States of America, California
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $19.99/lb.
Does the name of Midnight Moon come from the pale white disk surrounded by an inky purplish black exterior? Perhaps, but by any name Midnight Moon is a delicious cheese. Texture is firm with a slight salty grana. Flavor is nutty with a very wonderfully goaty tang.
Name: Midnight Moon
Type of Milk: semi-hard
Type: goat's, pasteurized
Produced in: United States of America, California, Cypress Grove Chèvre
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $17.99/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.
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.
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.
I have been holding off writing about Carr Valley Wildflower Cheddar for a few weeks now. A while ago I saw this cheese in my local Whole Foods, purchased it, took it home, photographed it and enjoyed it. It was a really good cheese. When time came to research it and find out more details I hit a road block. I couldn't find out anything online or in books, not even a mention on the Carr Valley Cheese web site. Was the info on the label correct? Did it really come from Carr Valley or someone else? It would not be the first time a cheese shop had printed inaccurate information on their labels. I needed to do more checking.
My sleuthing has discovered that the cheese does in fact come from Carr Valley Cheese in Wisconsin. I saw half a wheel of the cheese with the name clearly displayed. It's also clearly a pastueurized cow's milk cheese like most of this producer's other cheddars. Its rind is an azure blue wax, the color of some fresh field wild flowers.
The flavor is a departure from most typical cheddars. Lacking bite, Wildflower Cheddar is a young, mild cheese with sweet grassy notes and subtle flavors of fresh milky curds. Well worth a taste.
Name: Carr Valley Wildflower Cheddar, Carr Valley Wild Flower Cheddar
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: United States of America, Wisconsin, Carr Valley Cheese
Date Purchased: 5/6/2007
Date Eaten: 5/6/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $16.99/lb.
Mobay is an award winning American cheese from my good friends at Carr Valley Cheese in Wisconsin. I've never met them but anyone who makes cheese as good as they do are friends of mine. Inspired by the French cow's milk cheese Morbier, Mobay is a double-stacked cheese of goat cheese and sheep cheese separated by a layer of grape vine ash. Each half is distinct in flavor and a winner on its own. Taste them together and you have a phenominal flavor experience. The ash does little more than keep the two cheeses apart and does not impart much flavor but there is so much here between the goat and sheep cheeses that it doesn't really matter.
Name: Mobay or Carr Valley Mobay
Type of Milk: goat's and sheep's, pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: United States of America, Wisconsin, Carr Valley Cheese
Date Purchased: 5/18/2007
Date Eaten: 5/27/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $16.99/lb.
You might make the mistake of calling it "string cheese" but once you taste it you may come to the realization this is not your four-year-old's noontime snack. Don't get me wrong. Farmer's Rope Cheese, a part-skim mozarella from Wisconsin's Crave Farmstead, will not win any prizes but it has something that grocery store mozarella completely lacks--the slightest flavor. It's solidly decent with no pretense of grandeur but still striving ambitions to rise above the less-than-modest state of cheese for kids while still looking like an albino serpent about to strike. Fun.
Name: Crave Farmstead Farmer's Rope Cheese
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: United States of America, Wisconsin, Crave Brother's Farmstead Cheese
Date Purchased: 6/2/2007
Date Eaten: 6/6/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $4.99 each.
What exactly is "bread cheese"? It is not made from bread or even meant to be served with bread. Think of it as a bread, or better, toast replacement. Traditionally bread cheese comes from Finland where it is called "Juustoleipa" ( Hoo-stah-lee-pah - Finnish for 'Atkin's Diet'). It starts out similar to squeeky cheese curds or rope cheese and is pressed into a block the size of a slice of bread. The cheese is then toasted until golden brown and cooled.
This version of bread cheese comes from Wisconsin and Carr Valley Cheese. I tried the cheese three ways: cold, warm and warm with raspberry jam. Cold was not impressive. It was decent but would not wake me up on any day of the week. Heated is when this cheese starts to sing. Though shpaed like a piece of bread I would not recommend putting it in a toaster you want to keep for a while. The oil that drips out will probably smoke and eventually catch your toaster on fire. Heat it up flat in a toaster oven (on a tray) or under a broiler (also on a tray). Warm, bread cheese opens up to rich, cheesy flavors that are just the thing on a frozen Finnish or North Carolina morning. Finns will dunk the cheese in their morning coffee which I did not attempt but I did spoon on some jam and it was a great way to start the day. One slice of bread cheese was a lot of cheese for one person, even me. Cutting it into finger sized slices is probably a more reasonable portion. A fun way to start the day.
Name: Carr Valley Bread Cheese or Bread Cheese
Type of Milk: cowt's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: United States of America, Wisconsin, Carr Valley Cheese
Date Purchased: 6/2/2007
Date Eaten: 6/6/2007
Purchased Where: United States, Murray's Cheese, online order, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $6.99 each
I bought Tia Anna's Queso Fresco on a whim. I was in Whole Foods planning the evening's meal and looking for a nice cheese to incorporate into a chicken burrito. In the packaged cheese section I came across this new product, a locally produced fresh queso. What the heck, I thought, I'll give it a try. My previous experiences with queso fresco have not been impressive. Earlier cheeses have been bland, bland, bland with a rubbery, boring texture. After the first taste of Tia Anna's I said, Hey now, this is something to pay attention to. The overwhelming flavor impact is freshness not complexity. It tastes fresh, like cold bright, new, whole milk straight from the cow herself. The texture is crumbly but soft. It is refreshing over a salad of greens and delicious in my chicken burrito. Unlike many American-made, factory produced quesos frescos Tia Anna's melts well making the perfect choice for stuffed chiles or baked enchilladas. I will difinitely buy it again.
Name: Tia Anna's Queso Fresco
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: fresh
Produced in: United States of America, North Carolina, Gibsonville, Callico Farmstead Cheese LLC.
Date Purchased: 6/2/2007
Date Eaten: 6/6/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $9.99/lb
Coupole is one of a few artisinal cheeses made by the Vermont Butter and Cheese Company, a company in Vermont that makes butter and cheese. The name comes from the French word for "dome" and pictures of the cheese on the producer's web site show
a rounded top to the cheese which did not survive in the mail order shipment. Produced from pasteurized goat's milk and sprinkled with ash Coupole starts out slightly firm and sliceable. As it ages the cheese softens and takes on a creamier, even runny texture.
I bought two of these little domes/disks trying one four days after the first. In that time Coupole took on an oozy edge with a still firm center.
The flavor is delicious--fresh with a mild goaty bite. The older version is creamier, almost as if melted. The taste was much like one of my favorite cheeses, La Tur, a blended milk cheese, but being strictly goat, Coupole packs a bit more bite and lacks some of La Tur's smoothness. Despite that it is a great goat's cheese and can convince people who think they don't like goat cheese to reconsider that opinion.
Name: Coupole or Vermont Butter & Cheese Company, Coupole
Type of Milk: goat's, pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: United States of America, Vermont, Vermont Butter and Cheese Company
Date Purchased: 6/8/2007
Date Eaten: 6/12/2007
Purchased Where: United States, Online, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $11.99 each
One of the most photogenic cheeses I've encountered in a while, Mona from the Wisconisn Sheep Dairy CoOp is a delightful blend of equal parts sheep and cow milk. Aging for at least six months produces a firm, granular bite, a nutty mellow flavor,and marbled striations of color. The cow's milk curbs some of the sheep's milk earthiness imparting flavors of a medium aged Gouda. If you like Parrano you will appreciate Mona.
Name: Mona or Wisconsin Sheep CoOp, Mona
Type of Milk: sheep and cow's, pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: United States of America, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Cooperative
Date Purchased: 6/2/2007
Date Eaten: 6/12/2007
Purchased Where: United States, online, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $18.99/lb.
Sometimes the most interesting person in a room can be overshadowed by the most beautiful. After tasting Cobb Hill Farm Ascutney Mountain Cheese among a group that included Coupole, I remembered very little of what Cobb Hill was like. When I tasted it by itself a few days later I couldn't understand how I could possibly have underappreciated it. The raw cow's milk provides the base for a host of flavors of grass and earth, milk and fungus, that remind me of some of the best cheeses of Switzerland but produced here in the U.S.. A really remarkable cheese.
Name: Cobb Hill Farm Ascutney Mountain Cheese
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semihard
Produced in: United States of America, Vermont
Date Purchased: 6/10/2007
Date Eaten: 6/12/2007
Purchased Where: United States, online, http://www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $21.99/lb.
Crater Lake Blue is a bit like the baby bear of blue cheeses. Not too hard. Not too soft. Not too strong. Not too mild. To say it is just right makes it sound a tad mediocre when I mean it as a superlative. This award winning blue is much an unsmoked version of Rogue Creamery's Smokey Blue, a cow's milk blue not complicated by the smoking process but still an amazingly delicious blue. Great crumbled over a salad or warm pasta. Delicious with a sparkling or sweet dessert wine.
Name: Crater Lake Blue or Rogue Creamery's Crater Lake Blue
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: blue, semi-soft
Produced in: United States of America, Oregon, Rogue Creamery
Date Purchased: 6/14/2007
Date Eaten: 6/10/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $15.99/lb.
One of the best things about Cayuga Blue from the Lively Run Goat Dairy of upstate New York is that it is two cheeses in one. Yes, it's a blue with rich veins of punching power. But it is also enough room between the blue streams to allow one to appreciate the raw goat cheese on its own. A bit firm but not crumbly or hard the texture has a smooth finish while the flavor is rich but not overpowering like some others of the same breed. The name comes from Cayuga Lake, the longest of New York's finger lakes which one can imagine in the geography of this cheese's surface.
Name: Lively Run Cayuga Blue or Cayuga Blue
Type of Milk: goat's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft, blue
Produced in: United States of America, New York, Lively Run Goat Dairy
Date Purchased: 6/16/2007
Date Eaten: 6/14/2007
Purchased Where: United States, online, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $26.99/lb.
Yes, it's a cute little white pyramid, pleasingly packaged in bleached waxed paper, calling out from behind the glass display cooler with puppy-dog eyes that say, "Take me home." But this is not just a cute pound puppy, it's a rich pedigree of traditionally hand crafted cheese of the finest order.
Unwrapping the cheese from it's paper, you discover not a pure white coat (unless you are taking it home very young and fresh, maybe a little under-ripened) but a palette of white and grays, tans and creams, painting the bloomy rind. Do not cut into the cheese until it has had some time out at room temperature. Ten to fifteen minutes should do. Once warmed up a little cut off one of the pyramid's four sides to expose the golden treasure of the pharaohs. The flavor and texture show the age of this adolescent goat cheese. Ripe, it will run a little around the edges and have a little sweetness on its way to richer depths. A very good cheese and for the price worth buying often. Try slices of this delicious chevre with crisp apples or even on top of a burger off the grill. Can pair well with Sauvignon Blanc if you favor drier wines or a Riesling if in a sweeter mood. Cypress Grove Chevre are the same folks who bring us another of my favorite cheeses, Humboldt Fog.
Name: Cypress Grove Chevre's Pee Wee Pyramid or Pee Wee Pyramid
Type of Milk: goat's, pasteurized
Type: bloomy rind, soft
Produced in: United States of America, California, Cypress Grove Chevre
Date Purchased: 7/2/2007
Date Eaten: 7/4/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $7.99 each
or "Dairy of a Mad Goat Lady"
And by "mad" I mean crazy enough to try to make a fresh camembert from North Carolina goats. And by "crazy" I mean crazy successful! Chevre Camembert is such a rare treat in the United States. Soft and buttery, young and slightly mushroomy, this young camembert-style cheese with an edible white rind represents the best of this style of young bloomy cheeses, alive with rich flavor. From a small goat dairy in Randolph county North Carolina producing a handful of small-batch artisinal chevres, Goat Lady Dairy Chevre Camembert stands out even among cow's milk cheeses of the same type. The goatiness is subtle but the camembertiness stands out. Seemingly pricey by the pound, $24.99, a disk is less than half that weight at around $10.00 each making it comparable in price to many lesser cheeses. It quickly became a favorite.
Name: Goat Lady Dairy Chevre Camembert
Type of Milk: goat's, pasteurized
Type: bloomy rind, soft
Produced in: United States of America, North Carolina, Climax, Goat Lady Dairy
Date Purchased: 7/3/2007
Date Eaten:7/4/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $24.99/lb.
The Spanish name hides the origins of this wonderful American-made cheese from Colorado. Produced by Haystack Goat Cheese outside of Boulder the name refers to the handmade quality of this fantastic cheese. Queso de Mano is the first raw milk goat cheese by these producers and it is as good as any produced in Europe. I have been recommending a lot of goat cheeses recently but do so without hesitation. Goat's milk cheeses can be just as amazing as any great cow's milk cheese and Queso de Mano is that good. Nutty and rich this cheese has delicious flavor and can pair with almonds or membrillo or fruity wines.
Name: Haystack Goat Cheese Queso de Mano
Type of Milk: goat's, unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: United States of America, Colorado
Date Purchased: 7/12/2007
Date Eaten:7/14/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $24.99/lb.
Part of my job of finding great cheese is done for me by shopping at places that do most of the work for me. Sometimes it can even get a little boring writing about good cheese after good cheese. Mostly it is still great fun to taste something I love, cheese, made by people who really care about what they do, trying to make the best product they can. Lamb Chopper is a super sheep's milk cheese by people who specialize in goat's milk chevre. The cheese is mild but not lacking in flavor. The texture is also of a young cheese, semi-soft and pliable making it ideal for melting on pizza or baked tomatoes.
Name: Lamb Chopper
Type of Milk: sheep's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: United States, California, Cypress Grove Chevre
Date Purchased: 7/12/2007
Date Eaten:7/14/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $20.99/lb.
I've held off on writing about Celebrity Dairy goat cheese for a while. It is the most famous of the locally produced cheeses of the Triangle area of North Carolina and maybe that is why I thought it deserved special mention and careful review. I also knew it was a cheese I could readily obtain so I would wait until my options for cheese purchases narrowed and it would mark the point in the journey where my job of finding great and unique cheeses got a lot harder.
I have been familiar with Celebrity Dairy cheese for many years but to be honest I have not tried it for some time. It was one of the first goat cheeses I tasted and it really helped me enter the bigger world of cheese outside cow's milk. But now I come back to it after having tried some of the best goat's milk cheeses of France and Spain, Portugal and Italy, Vermont and California. The experience of those cheeses made coming back to Celebrity Dairy Chevre a little less welcoming.
Do not get me wrong. Celebrity Dairy Chevre is a wonderful cheese, a fresh goat cheese like many of the best of similar style in France. But compared to a Humboldt Fog or a Coupole goat cheese, chevres like Celebrity Dairy are prepubescent sisters of the buxom college coeds. A lot of people of talked to think they do not like goat's milk cheeses. My guess is the only ones they've tried are those like Celebrity Dairy chevre. It can be a little acidic, the tangy bite of goat's milk singing through. To the uninitiated this is a new experience that their history with cow's milk cheese does not prepare tem for. It really can be an acquired taste.
But one thing Celebrity Dairy Chevre is great for is as an ingredient in other dishes. I baked a Leek and Goat Cheese Tart with a pastry crust, sauteed leeks in butter and thyme, a mixture of sour cream, egg and heavy cream, and good-sized chunks of Celebrity Dairy Chevre. Accompanying the tart was a salad of mixed greens, pinenuts, thyme and chevre in a balsamic vinegrette. Served with a cold Pilsner beer or crisp Riesling it was a great summer dinner.
Celebrity Dairy Chevre comes in different flavors: plain, confetti - a mix of different pepper corns, party - the everything bagel of goat cheese, and dill. I didn't find the herbs and spices necessary and think they tended to mask a lot of the chevre's charm. Still, I am lucky to have access to this local treat.
Name: Celebrity Dairy Chevre
Type of Milk: goat's, pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: United States of America, North Carolina, Chatham County
Date Purchased: 7/14/2007
Date Eaten:7/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raliegh, Whole Foods
Price: $16.99/lb.
Fresh cheese. Certainly not something we come across too much in in the U.S., even in higher-end food outlets like Whole Foods. So when I saw the sign for Chapel Hill Creamery's New Moon that noted the cheese had been aged for only "9 days" I told my dred-locked cheese monger to wrap one up. New Moon viewed from the top has a bloomy white rind resembling a full moon on a cloudless night or as Fleming described it, "about the size, shape and color of an albino Ding Dong". Upon getting it home I couldn't wait to cut into the fresh creamy goodness. Major disappointment followed.
I screwed up in leaving the store without first inspecting my purchase closely. Had I given it a thorough exam of smell and touch or at least asked the cheese seller to do the same, I would have spotted that this New Moon was on the wane. Bloomy white rind cheeses like Brie, Camembert and New Moon can go through a similar transformation: from firm and underage, to softening and almost ripe, to soft and starting to ooze, to super-soft and really oozy, to hardening from the outside in, to hockey puck. If cared for improperly, some cheeses can skip the soft-stage all-together and go straight into an awful childhood of aromas of rotten-mushrooms. The cheese I took home hadn't been abused but it certainly was well past the 9 day mark. The rind was chalky, the center dry and unappealing.
Knowing the temperamental nature of some cheeses and the demands of retail, as well as wanting to support my local cheese producers, I decided to give New Moon another shot. I went back the following week and saw the same sign describing the youthfulness of this cheese. This time I asked the cheese seller when the small white disks had come in. "I'm not sure," he said. "I know it wasn't this week because we didn't get any this week." I asked him how they looked and if they were ripe. He bent down, peering into the case, and shook his head. That was all I needed. I passed on New Moon that day.
Eventually almost two months later I decided to seek New Moon out again. This time I had better luck and better cheese. Again I asked the right questions but the answers I needed to hear. The New Moon was ready to take home. Still a little young I kept it cool in my cheese fridge for a day before bringing it out to breathe two hours before dinner. I could tell from the pale peach fuzz mold, the soft center and the milky aroma that the New Moon was ready. As the knife cut through the center I could see it was perfectly ripe, at least to my liking. The edges still had some solidity while the center flowed like honey. The taste was good. Not as rich as a camembert but buttery with a hint of grass.
New Moon appeared in full form on the menu again just last night at a local food bloggers’ dinner in Durham, NC with special guest Michael Ruhlman, author of some of my favorite books on the craft and careers of passionate chefs, The Making of a Chef, The Soul of a Chef, and The Reach of a Chef. He announced a new work available soon titled The Elements of Cooking, modeled somewhat after Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, the bible of writing well. It reminded me of a quote by, I think, George F. Will who said wanting to meet a writer because you like his work is like wanting to meet a cow because you like her milk. If her milk made great cheese I’d want to meet her too.
Name: Chapel Hill Creamery's New Moon or New Moon
Type of Milk: cow's, pasteurized
Type: soft, bloomy rind
Produced in: United States of America, North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Date Purchased: 7/22/07, 9/15/07
Date Eaten: 7/22/07, 9/15/07
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $5.99 each
If I had paid for it I would like it just as much. Bartlett Blue came as a free extra in my last order from Artisanal Cheese and I cannot thank them enough. It is one of the best blue cheeses I've had this year. The texture is semi-soft, slightly crumbly but not brittle. The cheese is modeled after Wensleydale and captures the charm of that cheese at its finest. The producers of Bartlett Blue are Jasper Hill Farms of Vermont and they know how to craft complex and delicious cheese.
Name: Bartlett Blue
Type of Milk: cow's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft, blue
Produced in: United States of America, Vermont, Greensboro, Jasper Hill Farms
Date Purchased: 10/09/2007
Date Eaten: 10/11/2007
Purchased Where: online, www.artisanalcheese.com
Price: $22.00/lb.
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