tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-300763582024-03-07T22:27:59.481-05:00The CaseophileAnother cheese blog?
Here's the difference:
I'm not just a fan, it's how I earn my living.
Trust the professionals.
Trust The Caseophile.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-76876666899136090252009-04-19T19:07:00.002-04:002009-04-19T19:10:45.483-04:00We're Moving!I decided to move all future cheese-related posts over to my (soon-to-be) Cheese (and Tea) Shop's Blog: <a href="http://theroquefortfiles.blogspot.com/">The Roquefort Files</a>. <br /><br />It makes sense for me to do this. The Roquefort Files is a good place to not only write about the progress I'm making on putting my shop together, but also to write about cheese in general. After all, I'd say anyone who wants to read about what I'm doing with my shop also wants to read about cheese, right?<br /><br />So please come on over to <a href="http://theroquefortfiles.blogspot.com">The Roquefort Files</a>! You will like it there.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-32664321069572494452009-03-10T01:53:00.002-04:002009-03-10T01:58:24.698-04:00Regional CheeseSo I'm on an online community, and there's a meme going around claiming March as "Question Month." Those who post this meme entice their friends by writing, "Is there anything you've ever wanted to ask me?" <br />This is the first year I've offered this up to my friends, and of course my first question was about cheese. I thought it would be a good entry for this here cheese blog, so here it is, slightly edited to serve the purposes of this blog and my readers. I hope you enjoy it!<br /><br />***<br /><br />Question: <strong>In your expert opinion, what region of what country produces the best cheeses? </strong><br /><br />Answer:<br />Ooh, I love these kinds of questions! Not <em>just </em>because they are about cheese, a subject about which I can speak and write for about two hours (or so I've estimated) without the use of any notes or research materials. I love these kinds of questions because there are no simple or easy answers!<br /><br />So on to the answer.<br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a>There is not one region or one country I would say produces the best cheeses. There are MANY, depending on what kind of cheeses you love the most.<br /><br />I love many kinds, and here are some of the regions I think are putting out kick-ass cheeses.<br /><br />First, let's keep it somewhat local and talk about Vermont. Anyone who has been there or lived there knows it's gorgeous, and what makes it gorgeous is its relative cleanliness and lovely terrain, and that adds up to great <em>terroir</em>. The soil feeds the plants that feed the animals that give the milk that feeds the cheese vats that make the cheese that feed you and me. <br />The world knows all about Vermont cheddar, and that's just fine, but lots of Vermont isn't all that well suited to raising cows. Hilly, scrubby terrain makes sheep and goats happy, and a farmer also needs far less land - field or scrub, flat or hilly - on which to raise sheep and goats. So some enterprising folks in Vermont have been raising sheep and goats and milking them to make cheese. This has been going on here and there for about 30 years (at least), but the last decade has seen an explosion of small-scale cheesemakers in Vermont, and most of them are milking sheep and goats, and they are making FANTASTIC cheese. Did you know that in all of the USA, teeny tiny Vermont has the highest number of artisan cheesemakers <em>per capita</em>? Sure, Wisconsin and California have tons of cheesemakers, but too few of them are artisanal; most are on an industrial (read: <em>factory</em>) scale. So yay Vermont!<br />Look for anything made by Jasper Hill, Blue Ledge, Willow Hill and Twig Farm, to name JUST a few!<br /><br />Speaking of cheddar, we all know there's a plethora of shitty cheddar out there. So, other than the Vermont varieties, where in the world does good cheddar come from? Was there ever a time and place where cheddar was consistently awesome?<br />Yes, that time is now and the place is Somerset, England, cheddar's ancestral home.<br />I've not been to England, but Somerset must have some gorgeous pastures because the cheddar that comes from there can only come from happy cows.<br />The EU recently assigned just a few Somerset cheddarmakers with a PDO status, which means "Protected Designation of Origin" - if you are into French food and wine and know what AOC means, PDO is the same thing. This PDO means the specific cheesemakers are making cheddar in its ancestral home (as I said before), using the same traditional recipes and methods used since cheddar was first developed. If you buy PDO cheddar, you are getting the real deal.<br />Of the PDO cheddars, my favorite is Montgomery's Cheddar.<br />In fact, it's one of my favorite <em>cheeses </em>in the whole world.<br />Neal's Yard is one of the more popular purveyors of Montgomery's.<br /><br />Another region I'm quite fond of, and this has been somewhat of a recent discovery, is Northern Italy, specifically the Alps, Piedmonts, the Alta Lange, the Po River Valley, etc.<br />Barring Parmigiano-Reggiano, which is an absolutely <em>genius </em>cheese, many of the Northern Italian cheeses are quite delicate, especially compared with such Southern Italian favorites as Provolone and Pecorino Romano. Hell, even all the Tuscan Pecorinos seem like ball-busters compared with the lovely Northern Italian cheeses.<br />So what's so great about these cheeses?<br />Many of them are small, hand-made on a very small scale, very young (i.e. fresh, not aged long at all) and gentle. Not dull, but made in a way that allows the nuances of the very good milk to come through. They are also quite rich.<br />Most halfway decent cheese shops will have La Tur, Robiola Bosina, Tuma de l'Paja, Rocchetta or Cravanzina.<br />Harder to find are the cheeses made by Cora. These folks are crazy with their handmade cheeses - wrapping them in chestnut leaves, cabbage leaves, etc. Cora cheeses are PRICEY, but abso-motherfucking-lutely worth every penny.<br />Another Northern Italian cheese worth mentioning is Fontina Val d'Aosta. I'm sure most of you are thinking of the shitty industrial "Fontina" made who-the-hell-knows-where. Well, they are not even supposed to be called "Fontina" at this point because the REAL Fontina Val d'Aosta is a DOP (same as PDO and AOC) cheese so no other cheese is allowed to call itself "Fontina." Anyway, Fontina Val d'Aosta is a gently pungent, fruity and nutty cheese which, if it were aged longer and were a little more firm, would remind you of the best of the Alpine cheeses such as Gruyere, Appenzeller and Hoch Ybrig.<br /><br />Speaking of which, the Alps! Swiss, Italian and of course French. Grasses and flowers grow in the Alps that grow nowhere else, and the air, soil and water is so pure up there, only a gorgeous cheese could be borne from that terroir. Lucky for us, a <em>multitude </em>of gorgeous cheeses come from the Alps, so nobody has to do without! In addition the three I listed above, also look for Beaufort d'Alpage (made only with summer milk), REAL Emmentaler and Comte. With Comte, the longer it's aged, the more balanced and less acidic it gets, BTW.<br /><br />The Basque region - the Pyrenees - of France produce one of my favorite types of cheese. It has one official, AOC name, but many dairies make it. That cheese is called Ossau Iraty. Always always always demand a raw milk Ossau. There's no reason to accept a pasteurized version. I would say Ossau is the perfect cheese. It is probably the best balanced cheese in the world, and by that I mean the various nuances of flavor come together in such a way that no one flavor stands out. It's aged at least 6 months and made from sheep milk, and something about it is so perfect. There are so many flavors in there I run out of words to describe them. F'real. It looks rustic, it tastes rustic. Find it. You won't be disappointed.<br /><br />Oh, back to Italy. I know Tuscany is sort of cliche at this point, but they make some kick-ass Pecorinos. I'm not talking about the cheese everyone calls "Pecorino" which is really Pecorino Romano. See, Pecorino just means "sheep cheese" in Italian, and the second name often refers to its provenance. Hence, P. Romano is from Rome, right? (Well, it used to be, but now most of it is made on Sardinia, an island with waaaay more sheep than people.) Anyway, Tuscany makes verrrry delicious sheep cheeses, and whether they are aged for just about a month or a year or more, I like every single one of them. Yes, it's true. I have never met a Pecorino Toscano I haven't liked.<br /><br />Back to France again! I'll briefly mention the Loire Valley, because that's where all those lovely goat cheeses come from. You know the ones: Sainte-Maure de Touraine, Valencay, Crottin (which means horse dropping)... Yes, the Loire Valley makes all those fresh, young goat cheeses. Some with ash on the outside, others are naked. All are so damn good. So why does this specific region of France have so many goats anyway? Thank the Arabs! Specifically, the Moors. When they invaded Spain a kazillion years ago (I know, I could look up the dates, but I'm trying to write this whole thing without having to look ANYTHING up - I consider it a personal challenge), they brought with them their goats. Well, they continued north into France's Loire River Valley and hung around for awhile. Eventually, the French kicked their asses out, but they <em>kept </em>their goats, <em>and </em>their goat-cheese recipes! And now France - and not the Middle East - is known worldwide for having delectable chevre! Pretty clever of them.<br /><br />Oh, and Spain and Portugal. These are relatively new regions to us cheese lovers here in the USA. It's only been, oh, maybe 10 years or so since any recognizable amount of cheese has been coming from the Iberian peninsula, and Spain has definitely taken the lead in popularity. but watch out for those Portuguese, because they have some fascinating cheeses. I know everyone loves Manchego, but at this point it's so damn mass-produced it's really hard to find a good source for handmade Manchego. Stick with Roncal if you want a good aged sheep cheese from Spain. Also, check out Spain's goat cheeses (thanks again to the Moors): Monte Enebro will make you pee your pants it's so good. Neval is a big cloud of goat love. Mmm... For folks who like a little bite in their queso, look for any cheese that's thistle-renneted. Torta del Casar is one that comes to mind.<br /><br />OK, I think that's enough. <br /><br />This list is by no means comprehensive or exhaustive, although you might be getting pretty damn exhausted reading it har har. I didn't mention Flanders and Burgundy and Champagne - regions that produce incredible washed-rind cheeses. I also didn't mention Corsica, an island that produces crazy herb-encrusted sheep cheeses. And what about all the blues from near the French coast?<br /><br />Oy. I could go on for-evah! And I think I have...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-57745989711307071162009-02-23T13:43:00.001-05:002009-02-23T13:43:49.210-05:00FOOD TIME on WFMU Tonight!So your pal Wendy will be appearing as her alter ego, The Cheese Snob, on "Safe and Sound" with Trent, tonight on WFMU 91.1 fm or on <a href="http://www.wfmu.org/">here </a>in the Internet.<br /><br />Ok, enough writing in the third person. What is this, a Facebook status?<br /><br />Anyway, yeah, tonight from 8-11 pm (eastern time), tune in to Trent's program for a special FOOD TIME event. There will be WFMU DJs and other friends of the station (like me!) presenting our favorite recipes, foods, etc. Cooking will happen LIVE on-the-air, and so will eating!<br /><br />I will be presenting on cheese, of course, and I'm bringing one special cheese to share with Trent and to share with YOU. If you want to play along at home, go to your neighborhood cheesemonger and buy a piece of Piave Stravecchio.<br /><br />It should not be regular Piave. It's not that I have anything against it, but it's not aged as long as Stravecchio so there will be some differences.<br /><br />Stravecchio's paper label is red. Regular Piave's label is blue.<br /><br />So yeah, my slot, "Cheese Chat," is scheduled for 9:50pm-10:00pm, right after Bethany Ryker's "Fine Wine Time." How apropos! But folks, this IS live radio, so the times may not be exact. You'd be safe (and sound) to tune in to the ENTIRE program.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-30028313308392010512009-02-17T01:02:00.001-05:002009-02-17T01:04:32.147-05:00My New Cheese and Tea ShopSome of you might have heard I'm opening a cheese shop.<br />It's true!<br /><br />But it'll be a tea shop, too, and a cafe where you can enjoy the cheese and the tea.<br /><br />The location will be in Jersey City, NJ, a place that really needs a cheese shop!<br /><br />Stay tuned for more information as it develops.<br /><br />***Oh, and I'm looking for investors. Being an early investor has its perks. Contact me for more info.***Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-7227043447594478862009-02-17T00:57:00.005-05:002009-02-17T01:02:33.928-05:00We Interrupt This Blog to Bring You...The 2009 WFMU Marathon.<br /><br />See, I don't only love cheese, I also love good radio. And <a href="http://www.wfmu.org/">WFMU </a>is what I consider good radio.<br /><br />They don't take money from The Man. They don't do commercials.<br /><br />So, they need your money.<br /><br />Fork it over right here:<br /><br /><!--WFMU insta pledge banner. v2/28/06 by Ken Garson--><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="color:black;"><br /><tbody><tr><td bg="" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);" valign="middle" align="center"><br /><span style="font-family:verdana,arial,geneva;"><a href="http://www.wfmu.org/"><img src="http://wfmu.org/marathon/images/lenklogo.gif" alt="WFMU" width="156" border="0" height="55" /></a><br /><b><a href="http://wfmu.org/marathon/insta_help.shtml" style="color: purple;">How This Works...</a></b><br /></span></td><br /><td bg="" style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);" align="center"><b><span style=";font-family:verdana,arial,geneva;color:blue;" ><br />Support Freeform Radio!<!-- 800-989-9368--></span></b><br /><br /><form action="https://www.wfmu.org/marathon/pledge.php?ps=ib" method="post"><span style=";font-family:verdana,arial,geneva;color:yellow;" ><br /><b>Your Name</b><input name="pledge_name" size="25" type="text"><br /><br /><b>Your Email</b><input name="pledge_email" size="25" type="text"><br /><br /><b>Your Pledge $</b><input name="pledge_amount" size="5" type="text"><br /><input value="Pledge!" type="submit"><br /><b><a href="http://wfmu.org/marathon/insta_banner.php?show=1" style="color: purple;">Add this banner to your site!</a></b><br /></span><br /></form></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><!--End WFMU insta pledge banner--><br />Thanks!<br /><br />We now bring you back to your regularly-scheduled cheese.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-41265510839090573012008-04-04T17:00:00.003-04:002008-04-04T17:32:09.069-04:00The Best Cheese... Part 2, and My ManifestoWell, after all that, my local cheese shop decided to carry Jasper Hill's Winnimere, or "Winnie," as cheesemaker Mateo Kehler called it in response to an email I wrote to him asking where I can find it.<br /><br />Now I can't say whether my email to Mr. Kehler had anything to do with the store carrying the cheese.<br /><br />And I can't say whether my ordering a wheel for myself had anything to do with the store carrying the cheese.<br /><br />But when my cheese order finally came in, the department manager said he also ordered a few wheels for the counter.<br /><br />I was very happy to pick up that sweet, little 3/4-lb stinker.<br /><br />Problem was, I had just brought back <span style="font-style: italic;">another </span>wheel from Zabar's... Oh well. That just meant I had to invite more friends over to help me eat the cheese. I also delivered a half-wheel to my dear friend Laura, as she has been a big influence in my culinary development, and she was there with me when I was a novice cheesemonger.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Those were the dayyyyys!"</span><br /><br />I'm not certain the aforementioned store had much success in selling those few wheels of "Winnie." The staff knew nothing about them, the wheels stayed wrapped in their original paper (not a bad thing, <span style="font-style: italic;">per se</span>, but not great when there's no info on the labels), and each wheel cost just under twenty bucks. That's a lot of money to ask someone to pay for a mystery cheese.<br /><br />My standards are high when it comes to cheese departments. I ran my own cheese department way back when. I've worked at a few of the finest cheese counters in the country, and done plenty of training of cheesemongers at those same counters. <br /><br />I'll admit it: I take it personally when cheese is being neglected. Love and effort and resources went into making those fine little wheels. It's wasteful to not give them their due, which in this case, is making sure someone will eat them and love them.<br /><br />Yes, I take this rather seriously.<br /><br />This is why I do what I do: consult with those who run cheese counters and shops. I do it to earn part of my living, but I also do it because there's a lot of work that needs to be done out there to get the beautiful cheeses to the people. <br /><br />I mean no slight against the person who runs my local cheese department. Most managers, including him, are up to their necks in ordering, scheduling employees, dealing with the store's upper management, trying to stay within budget, etc. I know how hard it is to keep it all together, let alone keep on top of new and exciting cheeses.<br /><br />So I'm here in my Cheese Cave, as it were, waiting for the Cheese Signal to appear in the sky, via the telephone, or in my email's inbox. Then in I swoop, ready to help the cheese department manager in distress. <br /><br />All in a day's work for The Cheese Snob.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-64705193569014825512008-02-17T12:42:00.007-05:002008-02-17T16:27:30.226-05:00Cheese Poetry<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">G.K. Chesterton, in his 1910 essay, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >Cheese</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">, asserts "Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese." He then goes on to exalt cheese not only as a ripe (natch) subject for poetry, but as a substance nearly deserving of worship.</span><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/968/mountrushmorecheesesffwqe5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/968/mountrushmorecheesesffwqe5.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">If I was an adult in 1910 I'd probably find him and ask him to marry me.</span> <span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><br />If you'd like to read the entire essay, </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/%7Emward/gkc/books/cheese.html">go here</a><span style="font-family:georgia;">. I recommend it.</span> <span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><br />Not being much of a fan of poetry - not that I have anything against it, I just don't always quite </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >get it</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">, me being very much a prose person - I have no idea if the state of cheese in international poetry has improved since 1910. </span> <span style="font-family:georgia;">I can tell you, however, that cheese poetry in my personal correspondence has increased lately.</span> <span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><br />Before I regale you with the cheese poetry my friend and I wrote to each other, I will give you the back-story.<br /></span> <span style="font-family:georgia;"><br />This year the </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.cheesesociety.org/">American Cheese Society</a><span style="font-family:georgia;"> is holding its annual conference and competition in Chicago at the end of July. I'd really like to go.<br /><br />My friend and fellow Cheesemonger, Mark Bello, proprietor of </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.pizzaacasa.com/___________HOME.html">Pizza A Casa</a><span style="font-family:georgia;">, spent many years living in Chicago and owns a </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.rightonfuton.com/">futon store</a><span style="font-family:georgia;"> there. (His pizza business and his furniture business are not connected; though if you buy a futon from him and have him at your house to teach you to make pizza, you will connect the two yourself and probably make him very happy.) Mark also happened to take the photograph of me that stares you down when you approach this cheese blog. While I consider myself rather adorable, I don't usually like pictures of me, so Mark not only had his work cut out for him, but he exceeded my expectations. Thanks, Mark!</span> <span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><br />I emailed Mark to ask him if he had any friends in Chicago who would like to host a clean and friendly Cheese Snob for the ACS weekend. I <span style="font-style: italic;">could </span>be wealthy by then, but I'd rather stay with a friend of a friend who will show me around town than in a hotel, even though I really love hotels. </span> <span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><br />Mark sent a reply email and asked where the ACS was holding the conference. When I answered him - it's at The Hilton - he wrote back with this charming poem:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" ><br /><br />The Hilton </span> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" ><br />gonna be smellin' like Stilton</span></span><div style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Stanky cheese in July</span></div><div style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">the floral centerpieces be wiltin'</span><br /><br />Sometimes no good deed goes unpunished, so I wrote back with some poetry of my own:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">July. Chicago.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />Melty like Brie de Meaux?</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />Or hard, sweet like Asiago Pressato?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Never been there</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I wouldn't know.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />But if the Goddesses of money look kindly on me</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />this year, 2008, I will go.<br /><br /></span><span>If you'd like to give us poetry awards, please do so via this blog.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="font-family:georgia;"></span> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-14179627666039938812008-02-13T19:35:00.005-05:002008-12-10T05:40:15.954-05:00The Best Cheese You Can't Find<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Last week I was at </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.zabars.com/cheese-department/CHEESE_DEPARTMENT,default,pg.html">Zabar's Cheese Counter</a><span style="font-family: georgia;">. Have you been there lately? Their selection might be the best in NYC. Probably the best in the United States. If there's a better cheese counter in the USA, I would like to know where it is and who will buy me a train ticket so I can go there. Maybe in some other post I'll discuss the relative merits of every cheese counter in NYC, but this article is about a particular cheese.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">(</span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" >In the interest of disclosure, I am a consultant at Zabar's. Not a current employee. So am I biased?</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" > Yes. Definitely. I'm one of the most opinionated people I know, but my opinions are educated. I'm sure yours are, too. Anyway, keep reading.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">I wanted to buy three small pieces of cheese to take back to Vermont with me. We may have a good cheese counter here in my little town, but they cannot offer what Zabar's can.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: georgia;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvW4gGsmgsy4j4bSDyyRDQM6tT9tNTrMLfQiVpypcy1FPe0VRN9g3MYR2BDHwpO8qgwXfZNwYDvUYMjPHAUxFY9qN6Tt05Qx5nHD86-hhVuyWEgT04_zhrmhyHh-XipuK7NoI7BQ/s1600-h/logo-noshadow.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 244px; height: 140px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvW4gGsmgsy4j4bSDyyRDQM6tT9tNTrMLfQiVpypcy1FPe0VRN9g3MYR2BDHwpO8qgwXfZNwYDvUYMjPHAUxFY9qN6Tt05Qx5nHD86-hhVuyWEgT04_zhrmhyHh-XipuK7NoI7BQ/s320/logo-noshadow.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5166632290310758338" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: georgia;">I bought a piece of Mike Gingrich's award-winning </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.uplandscheese.com/">Pleasant Ridge Reserve</a><span style="font-family: georgia;">. It's been one of my favorite American artisan-made cheeses ever since I first tried it. Although it's been compared to Gouda or an Alpine cheese, I find it is unlike any other cheese I've tasted. While it is not like the Basque Ossau-Iraty cheeses at all, what both have in common is that perfect combination of flavors that results in cheese synergy: the sum is far greater than the parts.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: georgia;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIJtoVSzYSufZC1_bl2KIjHtBCAdveB4Mr7Li5Fbu6DASile4KbbVNyS3l1DPAaGgdCC_M3Obp-k7HN9FjNOCxby5eSNfIjAcLzb0q-1G6oeh6uWL4PM-qbSsC4QhagQXy4hJsHA/s1600-h/Reserve_bellyband.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 175px; height: 164px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIJtoVSzYSufZC1_bl2KIjHtBCAdveB4Mr7Li5Fbu6DASile4KbbVNyS3l1DPAaGgdCC_M3Obp-k7HN9FjNOCxby5eSNfIjAcLzb0q-1G6oeh6uWL4PM-qbSsC4QhagQXy4hJsHA/s320/Reserve_bellyband.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5166634171506434002" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: georgia;">I also bought a piece of </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.beechershandmadecheese.com/library_ar_ACS2007.php">Beecher's Handmade Flagship Reserve</a><span style="font-family: georgia;">. This cheese is of very limited production. Olga Dominguez, the incredibly talented cheese buyer at Zabar's, managed to score this award-winning Cheddar when she met one of the cheesemakers at the most recent American Cheese Society conference, where the cheese won 1st Place in the Aged Cheddar category, and 2nd Place in the Best in Show category. Wow! Good work, Olga!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">But this article is really about the third cheese I bought: Jasper Hill's Winnimere. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Have you ever had</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;font-family:";font-size:100%;" > Försterkäse<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" >? </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">No? You poor thing. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Those of us who have had</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;font-family:";font-size:100%;" > Försterkäse<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> probably have fond memories of this delectably oozing, spruce-banded cheese.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Well, that favorite washed-rind from Switzerland was the inspiration for Winnimere. Both are made from unpasteurized milk, but Jasper Hill's is a smaller wheel, made from the milk of the Kehler's herd of Ayrshire cows and washed with Brewmaster neighbor Shaun Hill's wild-yeast beer, Agathe. It doesn't get much more </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" >terroir </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">than that, my friends. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Now</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;font-family:";font-size:100%;" > Försterkäse<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> is not easy to find, but Winnimere seems even more difficult. It's not even mentioned on Jasper Hill's Website. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">So when I spotted a stack of wheels at Zabar's cheese counter I knew I had to get some. Wondering if it had just been released and was waiting for me back at my neighborhood cheese counter in Brattleboro, I whipped out my cellphone and called the manager there. (Yes, I have their phone number in my memory, and I mean </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" >my </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">brain, not my cellphone's. I'm that kind of nerd.) Turns out he doesn't carry Winnimere. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">I had to go all the way to New York City to buy a Vermont cheese. Where's the justice in that?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Having only a little bit of money, but unable to resist my junkie-like need for </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" >fromage</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">, I bought half-a-wheel. Lest you think I'm some sort of Trust Fund Kid, keep in mind Winnimere weighs slightly more than three-quarters of a pound. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Last night I finally opened it up. It had been out of refrigeration since about 9:30 a.m. on Monday. "It should be ready for eating about now," I thought to myself.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: georgia;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCr8HEY-5dy0oU31W4Xx0_C3Lp8ywCEZ-KSVeM_M4o98OmzbRxYzI4bkuNgM70lOBNcNUYdHlEdysj85Kd0KxfsteZEokwb0nuyNCCa6vb_JmrAsbkT6sOisqbf-YRhSpHnMDU2g/s1600-h/brevibacterium+linens.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 208px; height: 156px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCr8HEY-5dy0oU31W4Xx0_C3Lp8ywCEZ-KSVeM_M4o98OmzbRxYzI4bkuNgM70lOBNcNUYdHlEdysj85Kd0KxfsteZEokwb0nuyNCCa6vb_JmrAsbkT6sOisqbf-YRhSpHnMDU2g/s320/brevibacterium+linens.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5166645321241534434" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: georgia;">I opened it and it smelled </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" >awful</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">, but in a really good way. We have </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" >Brevibacterium linens</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> to thank for that. (For cool pictures of other Lactic Acid Bacteria, go to </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://bioweb.usu.edu/microscopy/Research.htm">Utah State University's Microscopy Website</a><span style="font-family: georgia;">. </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-family: georgia;">Thanks to them for this picture.</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">) </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" >B. linens</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> is the beneficial bacteria that's encouraged to grow on washed-rind cheeses. It changes the character of the cheese in many ways: it turns the rind sticky and pinkish-orange; it gives the cheese a pungent odor; and, like </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;">Penicillium candidum</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">, it causes the</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: georgia;"> pâte<o:p style="font-style: italic;"></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">to soften as it ripens. Many washed-rind cheeses may smell awful, but their bark is usually worse than their bite: their taste is rarely a fraction of the intensity of their odor. So, don't breathe. Eat.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Right, so back to Winnimere. It's cute and it smells bad.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">And when I took a little taste... Well... I remembered exactly why I'd been searching for this cheese for so long. The spruce band holding it all together imparts a "green," astringent flavor to this yeasty, eggy cheese, especially as you eat close to the band. The texture is milky, smooth, and seems to melt right into my palate. There's a little sweet fruitiness in there, and a pungent but not obnoxious finish. Last night I only ate a little because I knew I would want some today. Rationing is key here. It was really difficult. I could eat a half-wheel in one sitting, and while it's not a heavy cheese, it's pretty robust and filling. It just tastes </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;">that </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">good.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Dammit, I just finished my little half-wheel of this cheese. I scraped as close to the outer edge as I could, but eating spruce bark isn't my thing. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">I tried calling Jasper Hill Farm earlier today to ask how I can get some more of this cheese without having to schlep to NYC. Nobody answered and there's no answering machine. I got the number from my American Cheese Society directory. Maybe it's wrong. So, I sent an email to Andy Kehler, one-quarter of the Kehler's cheesemaking clan. I hope it works. I hope he writes back.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;">I need more of this cheese!</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-46850833883453564822008-02-13T19:16:00.002-05:002008-02-13T19:20:04.751-05:00Parmigiano-Reggiano<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;">It must be "Greatest Hits" week because I'm posting another article I wrote last year. This one is about our favorite 80-lb Italian cheese: Parmigiano-Reggiano. For those of you who have been looking for something to do with that thick, waxy rind, I include a recipe I made up myself. Enjoy!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">Parmigiano-Reggiano And What To Do With The Rind</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Anyone who has ever been in a reputable </span><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="klink">cheese shop</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> or Italian food store has undoubtedly seen hulking wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano, their 80-lb bulk sometimes acting as tables to display more diminutive cheeses. Upon inspection of the “grating cheese” section of the shop, confusion often abounds. In addition to Parmigiano-Reggiano, one might also find lower priced facsimiles, such as Reggianito, and “parmesan.”</span></span> <p style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">So, if Parmigiano-Reggiano sells for, say, $13.99/lb; Reggianito for $6.99/lb; and parmesan for even less, why should anyone spend the extra money, especially when Parmigiano-Reggiano has a thick, gnarly looking rind attached to most of the cut pieces?</span></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Because Parmigiano-Reggiano is the real thing, whereas the others are imposters. It’s not mere snobbery that should guide your decision, but flavor and tradition. Reggianito and parmesan have little of the burst of complex flavor that Parmigiano-Reggiano has; they are mostly salty, often oddly acidic, and lack character, requiring far more cheese to register on your tastebuds. So, yes, Reggiano costs more per pound, but you will use less of it to get more flavor than the ersatz “parmesans.” Try them side-by-side; you’ll see.</span></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Parmigiano-Reggiano is a DOP (<i>Denominazione di Origine Protetta</i>) cheese, which means its production - hence its authenticity - is guaranteed by Italian law. (For more information on Protected Designations of Origin, please see <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/foodqual/quali1_en.htm">http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/foodqual/quali1_en.htm</a> ) No other cheese in the world may use the name “Parmigiano” or “Reggiano.” This is why Argentina calls its aged cow’s milk cheese “Reggianito,” and various cheesemakers across the world make “parmesan.” To learn more about Parmigiano-Reggiano, it is worth visiting the <i>Consorzio </i><i style="">del <a href="http://www.xomba.com/parmigiano_reggiano_and_what_to_do_with_the_rind" target="_top"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Formaggio</span></a><span style=""> Parmigiano-Reggiano</span></i> website, <a href="http://www.parmigiano-reggiano.it/">http://www.parmigiano-reggiano.it/</a>. The English version is not translated very well, but there are beautiful pictures, and you’ll get some sense of why this cheese is so special.</span></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Now, onto that gnarly rind. Chances are, when you buy a piece of Parmigiano-Reggiano, one edge will have the rind still attached. Although some die-hard caseophiles eat the rind, most people will find its hard, waxy texture disagreeable. So do you just throw it away? That would be a waste of good cheese, let alone money. If chewing on it isn’t your style, do what many Italians do, and cook with it. </span></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Although the rind feels waxy, it’s not made of wax. It is actually cheese, but it’s been rubbed and oiled to the point where it no longer resembles food. But it is, as I found out this evening, when I added a nice piece of rind to a soup I was cooking that needed a little extra something. You can add it to stews, stocks, sauces, or anything that contains enough bubbling liquid to melt the cheese down. Try my recipe and let me know what you think. It’s very easy. </span></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>Please note: I learned to cook from my Mother, and measurements are rarely Standard Cookbook English. “A squirt” and “a sprinkle” are really just that. If your squirt and sprinkle aren’t the same as mine, the recipe should still taste as good. The food I cook is more of an art than a science.</i></span></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">CheeseSnobWendy’s Leafy-Vegetable Soup<br /><i>Serves 6-8</i></span> </p> <p style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">For this recipe, you’ll need a blender, a big stock pot, and a big heat-resistant bowl (or another big stock pot)</span></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">2 bunches of leafy greens, such as collard greens, spinach, kale, or chard (choose two different ones if you like)<br />1 quart of chicken broth or stock (if you are vegetarian, use vegetable broth or stock)<br />2 yellow onions (not Spanish onions)<br />2 tablespoons of oil, such as olive, grapeseed, or canola (sesame won’t work here)<br />the juice from one lemon (don’t insult the soup and use lemon juice from a jar. squeeze a damn lemon, already!)<br />2 cans of white beans<br />rind from Parmigiano-Reggiano (I used rind from a ½-lb piece, and I cut about ¼-inch down, but your mileage may vary)<br />a small squirt of hot sauce<br />a sprinkle of dried basil<br />salt and pepper to taste</span></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">1. Prepare the greens. Tear off the thickest part of the stems, on the bottoms of each leaf. Wash the greens thoroughly.<br />2. Peel the onions and slice them very thin.<br />3. On the stove, heat a big stock pot over medium heat. Add the oil.<br />4. When the oil shimmers, add the onions.<br />5. Let them cook for a few minutes until they become translucent and smell good.<br />6. Add the leafy greens. Using tongs or a spatula, flip them around a bit.<br />7. Add a sprinkle of dried basil and some salt and pepper<br />8. Put the lid on the pot, and let it cook for a few minutes.<br />9. When the color of the greens becomes brighter, add the entire quart of broth or stock. Put the lid back on and let it cook for a few more minutes.<br />10. Then, a little bit at a time, put some greens, onions, and liquid into the blender, and blend on low, until the solids are pretty well chopped up. (Don’t try to blend too much at a time, or you’ll make a bad mess and burn yourself. It took me about 8 trips to the blender to puree this soup.) As you blend a batch, put it in the big bowl or other pot.<br />11. When all the soup is blended, put it back into the stock pot, and heat over very low heat.<br />12. Add lemon juice, a small squirt of hot sauce (this is not for heat, but to marry and brighten the flavors), the Parmigiano-Reggiano rind, and some more basil, salt and pepper if it needs it.<br />13. Let the soup simmer. Stir occasionally.<br />14. The soup is done when the greens are the color you like and the rind has partly dissolved. This really does vary. Then, just before serving, stir in the two cans of white beans, and simmer just enough to heat the beans. It won’t take long.</span></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>Cheese Snob Wendy is the proprietor of </i><a href="http://www.cheesesnob.com/"><i>www.cheesesnob.com</i></a><i>, where you can find everything about cheese except actual cheese.</i></span></p> <span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-70865809536879957822008-02-13T19:07:00.002-05:002008-02-13T19:11:33.311-05:00Not A Gargantuan Grapefruit<span style="font-style: italic;">We're taking a slight departure from cheese here to bring you an article about one of the finest citrus fruits known to man: The Pummelo. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I wrote this article about a year ago, and here we are in Pummelo season again. In honor of it, and of Chinese New Year, I present to you:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Not A Gargantuan Grapefruit, But A Pummelo</span><br /><br />If you are lucky enough to have a Chinatown in your city, or at least a decent Asian grocer, you may have come across a behemoth in the produce aisle. Lurking amongst the demure oranges and tiny clementines are what looks to be props from some lost 1950s B-movie whose plot involved an evil scheme to expose grapefruits to radiation so they would grow to thrice their normal size and crush major cities. <p>Fear not. It’s just a pummelo.</p> <p>To the botanical world, it’s known as <i>Citrus maxima</i>, an apt moniker, because it’s the largest citrus <span class="klink">fruit</span> known to man. Not all pummelos are huge; some are merely the size of a large grapefruit. But for me, the most fun is had in buying the biggest one I can find – usually 5-6” wide. There’s something satisfying about carrying home a fruit that will scare people on the subway.</p> <p>I think it’s far sweeter, and has less of an acidic edge, than grapefruit. It’s also unrepentantly juicy. I am not a fan of winter, but with the coming of late-autumn, I know pummelos are on the way. They are one of my favorite fruits.</p> <p>Most of the pummelos (also known as <i>pomelos, pommelos, or Chinese grapefruit</i>) we find in the Northern Hemisphere are grown in Florida. My Father, a life-long citrus broker, tells me some pummelos are grown in California, but they are quite bitter. Because pummelos are related to grapefruit – they are the latter’s main ancestor – the best of both fruits can be found at the same time: November until early spring. </p> <p>Although gourmet supermarkets occasionally sell pummelos, I find they are usually overpriced and under-sized. This fruit is popular amongst Southeast Asian people, as China, Thailand, Malaysia, and surrounding areas are its original source. Thus, trust those who know the fruit best: buy them in an Asian-run shop. If you have none in your area, and your local high-end <a href="http://www.xomba.com/not_a_gargantuan_grapefruit_but_a_pummelo" target="_top"><span class="klink"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">food store</span></span></a> is selling them, go for it, but <i>Caveat Emptor!</i> </p> <p>Here are some shopping tips, regardless of where you buy your pummelos:</p> <p>Size doesn’t always matter. However, nearly every time I’ve purchased a pummelo, they were sold “by the each” rather than per pound, so take that into consideration. Other than making sure you are buying Florida fruits, in season, the other two crucial characteristics to note are heft and aroma. Take the pummelo in your hands. (You may want to shop with a muscular friend if you are not very robust.) Does the pummelo feel heavy for its size? Like all other citrus fruits, this is a good indicator of its juiciness. Once it’s passed that test, keep it in your hands. <i>I know it’s heavy, but bear with me here.</i> Bring it to your nose. Inhale deeply. Does it smell deliciously sweet and floral, like citrus should? Yes? Buy that one. Do you smell nothing? Put it down and try another.</p> <p>Once you finally schlep it home, you’ll want to dig in. And here’s where you should take notes, because dissecting a pummelo isn’t as easy as peeling a tangelo, but you’ll be duly rewarded for your efforts. </p> <p>You will need a <span class="klink">sharp knife</span> with a serrated blade, such as a steak knife. The skin is tough. I find it’s easier to peel it first, rather than slice it into sections. Make a horizontal slice to cut off the very top, and start from there. You’ll notice the pith is very thick and fluffy, like cotton batting or the mold found on <span class="klink">brie</span>. It’s not meant to be eaten, but I like to tear it apart and examine its structure while I squish it between my fingers. </p> <p>After you’ve removed all of the pith, you are halfway there. Now you must remove the little <span class="klink">juice</span> sacs from the sections. Unlike oranges, or even grapefruit, the skin separating the sections should really not be eaten; it’s awfully bitter. But liberate the actual fruit and you’ll find a sweet treat. It’s not easy, and expect a juicy mess. The easiest way I’ve found to finish the job is to make a slit up the middle of each section, pry apart the section as you would open an <span class="klink">oyster</span> or clam, and dig the juice sacs out with your fingers. Or your teeth. </p> <p>Although I can’t recall the exact circumstances surrounding my first taste of pummelo, I know it must have made quite an impression on me, because the second time I had pummelos, I was in possession of an entire case of them. It was around Thanksgiving in 2001, and my Father had a fruit-grower friend of his send a box from Florida to Vermont, where I was living at the time, because I expressed how much I liked them. I shared them with my co-workers at the co-op store where I was managing the cheese department at the time. None of them had seen, let alone tasted, such a magnificent fruit, and I was happy to introduce them.</p> <p>This past New Year’s Eve, I went back to Vermont for the long weekend. I had recently purchased one of the biggest pummelos I’ve ever seen, with the express purpose of bringing it from New York City’s Chinatown to my cold-weather friends. When I presented it to my hosts, we decided this festive fruit would be part of our New Year’s Day snacking. Neither Cyndi, Jude, their son Zeke, nor Cyndi’s Dad Harold had ever tried a pummelo, and a New Year calls for a new fruit.</p> <p>As I contentedly eviscerated the pummelo on the first day of 2007, at my friends’ dining room table, with juice running up to my elbows and thick pieces of peel fanning out from the <span class="klink">cutting board</span>, Cyndi remarked, “You’ve been taking that thing apart for the last half-hour!” Yes, it’s true. But as she popped a cluster of sweet, juicy, sublime fruit into her mouth, she understood why.</p> <p><i>For more information on pummelos, please visit <a href="http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/pummelo.html">Purdue University’s horticulture website</a>.</i></p> 1/30/2007Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-52618046748823861362007-07-06T19:21:00.001-04:002008-02-13T19:30:39.317-05:00I've Moved To Vermont<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Moving to New York City was a good idea. I learned a lot and met all of my major goals.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Now it's time to go home. No, I don't mean to my ancestral home (New Jersey), I mean my chosen home: Vermont. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">On July 2nd I moved back to Brattleboro.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">It makes sense for me to live in the state with the </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.cheesesociety.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=22">greatest number of artisan-cheesemakers <span style="font-style: italic;">per capita</span> in the entire United States</a><span style="font-family: georgia;">. It's time for me to expand my business, and, sorry New York City, Vermont will give me more opportunities.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Isn't that funny? I moved to NYC for more opportunities, and now I'm moving back to VT - a state not necessarily known as </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" >cutting-edge</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> - to improve and expand my business. But Vermont</span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;font-size:100%;" > is</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> cutting-edge, especially when it comes to the appreciation of local, small-production, artisan-made and -grown foods. We may not have beaten Alice Waters to it (maybe we have, I wasn't alive then), but we certainly were doing this local thing here in VT before all the Big City chefs discovered the Union Square Greenmarket!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Viva Vermont!</span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Viva la Queso!</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-81739258415898637082007-02-05T18:55:00.000-05:002007-12-06T16:44:13.511-05:00I Eat Cheese For a LivingOne of the great things about my consulting gig with Zabar's is I get to try some incredible cheeses. Sometimes Olga and I sit there in her office - which is noisy and cold because it's barely a little annex located just off the receiving area - and try new cheeses. Every once in awhile one of us says, in-between mouthfuls of whatever just arrived, "Man, this job is SO HARD. I don't know how we stand it. Mmm, could you pass a little more of that [whatever delicious cheese we are eating]?"<br /><br />And I have to try EVERY cheese that comes in to the store. I'm the only person who writes cheese descriptions, so if I don't try the cheese, I can't write about it. And if I can't write about it, the staff may know nothing about it, and the customers definitely won't know anything about it. And Olga keeps ordering some pretty rare and esoteric cheeses, many of which I've never even heard of and I've been working with cheese for over ten years. So if I don't know it, most customers won't, either.<br /><br />Last month I was visiting some friends in Vermont and they were asking me about my work life. I admitted that essentially I eat cheese for a living. This impressed their teenage son and made him a little envious. (Maybe he'll grow up to be a cheesemonger! That would be cool.) During my whole visit, every time a friend of his or his parents came over, he'd say, "Did you know that Wendy <span style="font-style: italic;">eats cheese</span> for a living?!"<br /><br />I think I picked the right career path.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-71469317668062314072007-01-29T18:34:00.000-05:002007-12-05T18:54:58.885-05:00Freelance CheeseIn July of 2006 I stopped working for anyone as a regular employee and embarked upon a career as a freelance cheesemonger. Currently, my biggest client is Zabar's Cheese Department, and I am very happy about that. I started working for them as a regular, full-time employee last January.<br /><br />In half-a-year, I accomplished a lot. <br /><ul><li>I created a database of all their cheeses; each cheese has such information as country of origin, cheesemaker, type of milk used, whether it's kosher or organic, and a full description of the cheese, for use on point-of-sale signs or on the Website. I also made a database and catalogued all of the olives for the department's olive bar.<br /></li><li>I taught a series of cheese classes to the public, and constantly received excellent feedback.</li><li>I worked with the very talented manager, Olga Dominguez, to create useful marketing materials and some new cheese collections for the Website and catalog.</li><li>I started developing a training program for the department's supervisors.</li><li>When new cheeses (or cheeses brought by vendors for consideration) arrived, Olga would have me try them and give my opinion on whether we should carry them, or continue carrying them.</li><li>I redesigned and standardized the point-of-sale signs for the cheese counter, the (self-serve) cheese cases, and the olive bar. <br /></li></ul>I got hired at this job to only write descriptions of cheeses for the Website, and I think the hiring team thought it would take me a long enough time to do that to justify long-term full-time employment, but I finished that project in a matter of weeks! So I had to figure out ways to keep my job, and that involved taking a look at the department and seeing where I could make improvements, whether that meant redoing something or adding something new.<br /><br />It was a challenge for me, but I was having a lot of fun with it. Olga was (and is) very receptive to my ideas. While she didn't go for every single one of them, she always listened and respectfully offered feedback. She's been running this department for the better part of thirty years, so her feedback means a lot to me.<br /><br />Anyway, although I was having fun, I started getting a little, um... <span style="font-style: italic;">edgy</span>. As much as I am enthusiastic, energetic and passionate about cheese, and I am always looking for more work to give myself (crazy, I know), I am not the best employee. I don't like regular schedules and I set standards for myself and others that usually really piss other people off, especially the standards I set for them. I'm not saying I'm right or I am proud of my pig-headedness, but I know myself well enough to know how much of a fascist I can be. And the schedule thing really bugs me. Really.<br /><br />I wanted to see if I couldn't take my act on the road a bit. But I didn't want to lose my relationship with Olga and Zabar's. I'd already enjoyed the opportunity to work with such an esteemed and established place, and to stretch the boundaries of my professional experience and expertise, and I knew there was way more potential there.<br /><br />But I fretted over the right way to introduce this topic to Olga.<br /><br />Well, she did it for me. One day she sat me down and asked me what I thought about my future with Zabar's. Turns out she was not sure she could justify keeping me full-time, because even though I had contributed a lot to the department, my pay rate was pretty high to keep me full-time. She didn't want to let me go completely because she appreciates my knowledge and passion for cheese.<br /><br />Perfect! <br /><br />I told her what I had been thinking and we agreed I would continue working with her, but on a regular, yet freelance basis. <br /><br />I will have my freedom but still enjoy the benefits of working with Zabar's.<br /><br />So that was last July, and so far it's working out well.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-91616393147055253742006-10-05T21:01:00.000-04:002008-12-10T05:40:16.774-05:00The Cheese Goes On - Tasting Notes 10/03/06<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">It's a mystery to me why nearly all the German cheeses we get in the United States are boring. And we hardly get any German cheeses at all; but when we do, zzzz... They are all factory cheeses. Pasteurized. It's so sad.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">Are the Germans keeping all the good cheese for themselves? Is there a surfeit of awesome cheeses made in little villages or huts all across Germany, but we will never see them here because the cheesemakers are saying [cue whatever German accent you prefer here] "American idiots. What do they know about good cheese? It's bad enough we have to send them our well-engineered automobiles. They are NOT getting our cheese! Let's only send the Americans the crap we would never eat. Bwah hahaha."</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">There is no reason Germany shouldn't have good cheese. They are neighbors to Belgium, Switzerland, Holland and France - all countries with rich cheese histories (and rich-cheese histories, too). Considering the borders between countries moved so much, and culinary influences often know no borders, there should be plenty of </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >wunderbar </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">German cheeses. And then there's the whole Alps thing, what with the cows enjoying such good pasturage in the summer months...</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">Well, my wish for at least two interesting German cheeses came true during my most recent cheese day at Zabar's. And of course there were a few nice French cheeses and a few blecch cheeses I won't even list here.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">Here are my tasting notes for October 3, 2006:</span><br /><a style="font-family: lucida grande;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTzihpbRyP5qPPpJ2RN7ewPWHyLTt6DdYmJfIA0ha5z4dHD6t06rXvRi9K8uj-X7lpTU8Oz9JQ70b4Ao8FMunnl9tfF1uo0tC1dQ26AoNJr37pFZnO-2YMxwsPwgjhz5_aVRRQ2Q/s1600-h/3143+puits+d+astier+copie.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTzihpbRyP5qPPpJ2RN7ewPWHyLTt6DdYmJfIA0ha5z4dHD6t06rXvRi9K8uj-X7lpTU8Oz9JQ70b4Ao8FMunnl9tfF1uo0tC1dQ26AoNJr37pFZnO-2YMxwsPwgjhz5_aVRRQ2Q/s200/3143+puits+d+astier+copie.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142537857989058530" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >L</span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >e Puits d'Astier</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">Big, rough, rustic flat cheese with a hole in the center. Rough white pebbly rind with yellow mold. Runny, semi-soft center with some small eyes. Pasteurized sheep. Sweet, oniony, vegetal, rustic, pungent, musty. Strong, zingy finish. I think we're getting this one from Fromi. It's French; from Auvergne.</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Tomme Agour</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">Basque cheese, from the French side. Mixture of pasteurized sheep and goat. Nutty, sweet, herby, clean, mild, </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >friendly</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">. A nice example of mixed-milk; exhibits the best of each milk. Semi-firm.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: lucida grande;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvvdFqirhIFFCDVws7XS7oEku_2dsFbeLkSQs5PSCqgmoPqJFCuBpFntPrHwTt1DZD9lcFDh1Orw3RiBjDHAw6lRN2vzaKZ1AWLxNJLho84VYAcE6q-a4BQnGuvIF0e5wn8XQq5g/s1600-h/jurassic.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 144px; height: 124px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvvdFqirhIFFCDVws7XS7oEku_2dsFbeLkSQs5PSCqgmoPqJFCuBpFntPrHwTt1DZD9lcFDh1Orw3RiBjDHAw6lRN2vzaKZ1AWLxNJLho84VYAcE6q-a4BQnGuvIF0e5wn8XQq5g/s200/jurassic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142548402133770258" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Jurassic</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Dummy, this has nothing to do with that overblown movie (or the book, for that matter). The book and movie were named for a period in the earth's geologic timescale. And the Jurassic Period was named for the Jura Mountains, the provenance of this cheese. </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: lucida grande;"> Semi-firm French. Made from the raw summer milk of cows grazing in the Jura Alps. Sweet, nutty, fruity, medium-robust. Good Alpine cheese - you can taste the summer milk: flowers, grasses. Nuanced, blossoms on the palate. Really nice.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: lucida grande;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Wdsesu4levaiZGPKyz6pdJssVGMGTLtlCB3Vjb08vC0lWJsvNANshQlzF8ZD2zXs1KfF83kP9EZS1IO4Rg7s8LpyMTuVRAiiX7CeoOtug4_DHb-sC-t9pmneuFmnVhsYIMayNg/s1600-h/allgauer+bergkase.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 169px; height: 127px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Wdsesu4levaiZGPKyz6pdJssVGMGTLtlCB3Vjb08vC0lWJsvNANshQlzF8ZD2zXs1KfF83kP9EZS1IO4Rg7s8LpyMTuVRAiiX7CeoOtug4_DHb-sC-t9pmneuFmnVhsYIMayNg/s200/allgauer+bergkase.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142543965432553458" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">[Here are those two good German cheeses I promised.]</span><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Allgauer Bergkase</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">Big Alpine mountain cheese. (</span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Bergkase </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">means "mountain cheese")Raw cow, aged 180+ days. Zingy at the start, zingy on the finish; in-between is nutty, sweet and tangy. Nice!</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">(You can see a few pictures of the production of this cheese at </span><a style="font-family: lucida grande;" href="http://www.allgaeuer-bergkaese.de/">this website</a><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">. </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Ja</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">, it's all in German, but poke around anyway and look at the pretty pictures.)</span><br /><a style="font-family: lucida grande;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguayQPykUPSl54mDQxc8BAbDO-hc6oEl5a35d4UvjKPInxy2yOdYlXuBpZ-WTiIpfU0L1sDtpwouAA-zSmgmIxFXnwGv4T3yfv6c6l5cA8kbEaJH3h4yKhbAZBV9DIdySZMcRhRA/s1600-h/rougette.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 149px; height: 149px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguayQPykUPSl54mDQxc8BAbDO-hc6oEl5a35d4UvjKPInxy2yOdYlXuBpZ-WTiIpfU0L1sDtpwouAA-zSmgmIxFXnwGv4T3yfv6c6l5cA8kbEaJH3h4yKhbAZBV9DIdySZMcRhRA/s200/rougette.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5142545052059279362" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Rougette</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">Washed-rind. A little bloomy and puffy in the rind. Semi-soft. Paste is the color of hay, texture is creamy-melty. Caraway notes (no caraway in it, though), rich, smooth, melty, very mild and not pungent. Reminiscent of very good cultured butter. Mushroomy/earthy notes from the rind. Mild and buttery. Made of cows' milk.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">(So it's not the most exciting cheese, but it was lovely in a sort of delicate way. Not boring.)</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-53002405134029161012006-09-30T20:26:00.000-04:002007-12-06T20:37:38.435-05:00Tasting Notes - September 22-23, 2006Formaggio Essex, where I've been putting in a few hours each week helping out behind the cheese counter, doesn't have tons of cheeses, but what they do have is carefully selected and often somewhat rare. A good selection doesn't have to be a gigantic collection, and other cheese shops could learn something from this example.<br /><br />I brought my notebook last time I worked there and here are my tasting notes:<br /><br />(You'll please pardon my lack of umlauts and accents; this blog program doesn't allow me to add them, as far as I can tell.)<br /><br />9/22<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bergkase Unterwasser</span><br />Alpine cheese. cows' milk raw. semi-firm, solid with some medium eyes and cracks. pale straw color. From Eastern Switzerland. Sweet, lightly pungent, grass/hay, nutty, milky, robust, a little barnyard on the finish. Exclusive to Formaggio Kitchen/Essex.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pecorino di Pienza Stagionato di Fossa</span><br />Buried in limestone caves in Emilio-Romagna. Semi-firm crumbly, plae, white, pungent, sour, acidic, numbing the tongue. Lingering cabbagey aroma. Can't say I'm a fan of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Fossa </span>cheeses...<br /><br />9/23<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6-Month Boerenkaas</span><br />Cut from 250-pound wheels. yellow solid semi-firm with medium-sized eyes. smells milky and nutty. texture a little grainy mostly smooth. creamy mouthfeel. milky, sweet, a little sharp, full-flavored.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Black Diamond Cheddar</span><br />Canada. Triangular, black wax covered. Semi-firm, flaky, quite solid. Sharp, a little like vodka. yes, really. rather flat tasting. very sharp.<br /><br />_________<br /><br />Well, the vodka notes on the Cheddar were interesting, but as you may have gathered, I didn't love that cheese. I'm really picky about Cheddar, and so should you be. <br /><br />Although the story behind the Formaggi di Fossa is cool - being buried in limestone caves and unearthed on St. Catherine's Day - I just don't really like the cheese much, and I've tried a fair handful of that type. I find them far too acidic, almost acrid. Are they placed in plastic before being buried? Is the Italian government requiring this now to satisfy modern sensibilities/ paranoias about sanitary practices? Because the cheese certainly tastes like it's been aged in plastic. Maybe I need to figure out how to get to Italy in November and try some there that I can see hasn't been matured in plastic bags, only limestone holes-in-the-ground.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-84187542128784371772006-09-27T16:27:00.000-04:002008-12-10T05:40:18.056-05:00Pascal Beillevaire and His Fabulous Cheeses<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">Olga Dominguez, the manager and buyer for Zabar's cheese department, and more or less my boss there (I'm freelance), has been going nutty over the cheeses aged by <a href="http://www.pascalbeillevaire.net/">Pascal Beillevaire</a>. Every time she fills out the order sheet for the subsequent French container</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">, she chooses a bunch of cheeses unfamiliar to her because she knows they will definitely be good; we've gotten no duds from M. Beillevaire yet. So, when the cheeses arrive, they are a big surprise because many of them are completely new to us.</span> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;"><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">M. Beillevaire doesn't make the cheeses he sends us, but he matures them in his caves. He selects specific</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"> cheeses, all handmade and most made from raw milk, from cheesemakers producing cheeses - some in danger of disappearing - in a tra</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">ditional manner. It's not only an honorable quest, but a delicious one.</span> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;"><br /></span><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">This past week Zabar's got in a huge shipment of Pascal Beillevaire c</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">heeses and we had lots of fun opening the small boxes and discovering what was inside. </span> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;">Here are my tasting notes from September 26, 2006:</span> </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8X9oYNHvpph1ZX_Cowt81cCvZ71DdSpORk8SC_Ca3dR-7fULIJYtcTo0q3VjzfnAC2awZ0wq1i2Bpg_p6itkLGSXT3mhrJ9hv6VbWwaljvymYa0q3ZbH6b1yFNboEzvb3b2uCxw/s1600-h/barbeillon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 136px; height: 101px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8X9oYNHvpph1ZX_Cowt81cCvZ71DdSpORk8SC_Ca3dR-7fULIJYtcTo0q3VjzfnAC2awZ0wq1i2Bpg_p6itkLGSXT3mhrJ9hv6VbWwaljvymYa0q3ZbH6b1yFNboEzvb3b2uCxw/s200/barbeillon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141360006157803362" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Barbeillon</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;"><br />Made by Madame Barbeillon in Pentu de l'Etang. Raw goat, shaped like a </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">big Hershey's kiss, mold-covered. Runny beneath the rind. Good goat! Tangy, smooth, milky, flinty, complex, robust, sweet, more pungent in runny part and rind. Named for the woman</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"> who makes the cheese. Approx weight 9 oz.</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_gAx-Pi8Glgy9WUPa89drgby_83vbRNgKjDuVCLHQimCnL4D4O1GGgteNnafnbXry9pI0aJ_UxcBOV9GfcqL50lyDcEzveKWcpsfTMGsJTs-jqnVNDY5mB698IaNyTXZ4hEErOA/s1600-h/couronne+lochoise.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 135px; height: 101px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_gAx-Pi8Glgy9WUPa89drgby_83vbRNgKjDuVCLHQimCnL4D4O1GGgteNnafnbXry9pI0aJ_UxcBOV9GfcqL50lyDcEzveKWcpsfTMGsJTs-jqnVNDY5mB698IaNyTXZ4hEErOA/s200/couronne+lochoise.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141363442131640194" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Couronne</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Lochoise</span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"><br />From Loire. Goat doughnut. raw milk. covered in crinkly moldy rind. chalky center. mild, savory, saline, not as sweet and more piquant than Barbeillon. Astringent. About 7 oz.</span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Blanc Bleu du Rizet</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;"><br />raw goat. big barrel of chevre, covered with crinkly almond rind, white and blue-gray mold. Made in Auvergne. Balanced salinity, tangy, earthy, astringent, lite barnyardy, milky mouthfeel, minerally. Nice! </span> </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Brique des Flandres</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;"><br />16 oz or so weight. raw cow. it's Mimolette orange. washed rind. semi-soft. mushroomy, pungent, fruity, tastes li</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">k</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">e melon. strong washed-rind, finish tastes of berries, and it's a little boozy. it's a crescendo of </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >all </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">flavors.</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"> brick-shaped. white/orange rind. texture of chilled butter. made in Flandres, near Belgium. That explains the washed-rind thing, since many w/r cheeses were made or influenced by Trappist monks.</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6MRZ0ORkLMarwIYQllCojErJ6OXMSU1rN53D6cUkdijJOnjYigRqFwatPVGI9KxA28x3khyphenhyphenO9l11CMJMWt1RSjxDW0BS5afgdkweq-YW8fYERFDgrhyphenhyphentmVu5X-y0a4SYdA6cqwA/s1600-h/pentu+de+letang.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 126px; height: 107px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6MRZ0ORkLMarwIYQllCojErJ6OXMSU1rN53D6cUkdijJOnjYigRqFwatPVGI9KxA28x3khyphenhyphenO9l11CMJMWt1RSjxDW0BS5afgdkweq-YW8fYERFDgrhyphenhyphentmVu5X-y0a4SYdA6cqwA/s200/pentu+de+letang.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141364009067323282" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Pentu de l'Etang</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">Made by Madame Barbeillon in Pentu de l'Etang. Ashed, wedge-shaped raw goat, weighs about 9 oz. looks like a door stop. mold-covered, white and gray. savory, really blossoms, a little barnyardy, sweet, mineral - a little bit, warming, a little hint of white</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"> pepper on the finish.</span> </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPA_24OaZLH6C6T15riZLOgjnnEaIFAIg_PEZi8xsOlJJ0CS6w0RRsDTjcyQuttcAK2fpkuxSmEzKpJQlMIYSe04rjNSPRazVwQ1hI5KzpOFL_RMmbHcoG6gFHjiP9udZzbyEmpQ/s1600-h/montrachet.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 126px; height: 88px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPA_24OaZLH6C6T15riZLOgjnnEaIFAIg_PEZi8xsOlJJ0CS6w0RRsDTjcyQuttcAK2fpkuxSmEzKpJQlMIYSe04rjNSPRazVwQ1hI5KzpOFL_RMmbHcoG6gFHjiP9udZzbyEmpQ/s200/montrachet.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141365336212217762" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >Montrachet</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">semi-firm, raw goat, weighs about 7 oz. squat barrel wrapped in chestnut leaf and a strip of raffia. crinkly almond rind. some blue mold on a fluffy field of white. a little heady at first, then </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">sweet, tangy, a little salty, milky. this one is relatively gentle. rind is mild. Made in Bourgogne.</span> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ6ZL0Yx7QDc55x3t6HQHxobNSjwOcFlZoAlhmrQ8BNvCWoF_gp0SrJP2HR2Juqq0uaaRYoLTsNYFizXsr0I9zqMuYBQlU2zEyQExT-vYGyAW3vFd76r5bjjOc_YZBNxS25e_DWA/s1600-h/rouleau+de+beaulieu+en+ardeche.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 122px; height: 91px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ6ZL0Yx7QDc55x3t6HQHxobNSjwOcFlZoAlhmrQ8BNvCWoF_gp0SrJP2HR2Juqq0uaaRYoLTsNYFizXsr0I9zqMuYBQlU2zEyQExT-vYGyAW3vFd76r5bjjOc_YZBNxS25e_DWA/s200/rouleau+de+beaulieu+en+ardeche.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141365705579405234" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;" ><br />Rouleau de Beaulieu en Ardeche</span> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;">semi-firm raw goat weighs about 4 oz. Made in Ardeche; Rhone-Alpes. Looks like a tiny Saint-Maure, with stick and mold and all. Ashed. Milky sweet, lightly piquant, astringent, dry. Clean finish.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;" ><br /><br />Mont Ventoux</span> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;">raw goat, weight about 2 oz. Tiny cone rolled in herbs, over blue and white molds. Tastes like fennel. Minty "green." Nice! Not salty, on the sweet side. Mixes nicely with the sweet/savory herbs. Milky, mild, pleasant. Not barnyardy, very clean. Lactic, a little meaty. Made in Provence.</span><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;" ><br />Mille Trous d'Ariege</span> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;">raw cow and goat. 1.5-2 kilo wheel. brown natural rind, a little roughly textured. springy, semi-firm paste. small eyes. milky, pungent, barnyardy, sweet, lactuc, nutty, a little punchy, fruity. creamy mouthfeel. very nice! slight garlicky notes.</span> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7OHeRfZLWC_-To2xCr24z5mqVxZJdtNBcqqPtgtsTj31VjhyphenhyphennKA9xcGOQBxcvwYvFrrr0DfkvLRC29yZMOn71j1XPhAc7OA7pEMJ6MePlnwOljDJD3pubsfPkcFw3z-p_iTEOig/s1600-h/abbaye+de+timadeuc.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 118px; height: 88px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7OHeRfZLWC_-To2xCr24z5mqVxZJdtNBcqqPtgtsTj31VjhyphenhyphennKA9xcGOQBxcvwYvFrrr0DfkvLRC29yZMOn71j1XPhAc7OA7pEMJ6MePlnwOljDJD3pubsfPkcFw3z-p_iTEOig/s200/abbaye+de+timadeuc.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141366010522083266" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;" ><br />Abbaye de Timadeuc</span> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;">raw cow. Made in Bretagne. 1 kg wheel. washed-rind. pretty. monastery cheese, orange-pink rind, not too sticky. pungent, garlicky, sweet milk, very smooth for a washed-rind. not offensive. nice balance. garlicky finish.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;" ><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhePNELiYwtSITk8zab3uWfKh6b_crY6xcVLVQ3HVVeqIF-KWkb0Lt7g1L5JmW-ESZzQPvYkGddU0PPApNl5j4ahWCrC7ul6-urnLxDuFOgGoQfpizP4yhUuHOyszcszaMcrW3jBQ/s1600-h/Timanoix.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 128px; height: 101px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhePNELiYwtSITk8zab3uWfKh6b_crY6xcVLVQ3HVVeqIF-KWkb0Lt7g1L5JmW-ESZzQPvYkGddU0PPApNl5j4ahWCrC7ul6-urnLxDuFOgGoQfpizP4yhUuHOyszcszaMcrW3jBQ/s200/Timanoix.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141366341234565074" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;" >Timanoix</span> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;">pasteurized cow. Made in Aquitaine. small wheel. nut-brown rind, smells like toasted walnuts (hence the </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;" >noix</span><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">). tastes like walnuts and cheese. milky, a little tangy, creamy mouthfeel. walnutty without tasting artificial. washed with walnut brandy - well, that explains it!</span><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;">___________</span> <span style="font-family:lucida grande;"><br /><br />Wow. I finally counted, and we tried eleven new cheeses, all from the same affineur, all in one day! And I liked every one of them. Some may be tricky for our retail case, especially the tiny ones, because they are going to dry out quickly between leaving the caves and arriving here. But they are all so wonderful and special in different ways, and it's a lot of fun to taste the differences in the goat cheeses. They are all made with similar recipes and aged for about the same amount of time, but the differences in </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;" >terroir </span><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">and the slight differences in how they're made make for unique cheeses. I love that.</span> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-1158635877579582782006-09-18T22:18:00.000-04:002007-03-04T21:53:13.983-05:00"Cheese"<span style="font-family:lucida grande;">For some reason, which I won't get into here, I was doing an internet search on cheese quotations. Well, I guess, considering it's ME, that's probably not too much of a surprise.<br /><br />I didn't find too many, but I found some good ones. Of course, they each appeared on about 10 different websites. I'm noticing that in internet-land, everyone just repeats what everyone else has already written. So why change a good thing? Here's my contribution.<br /><br />Anyway, since each quote appeared so many damn times, I feel relieved from the obligation to give the websites credit, as it does not seem to be due. So take that, copiers! I will, however, give credit to the person who said or wrote it, when known.<br /><br />Let's go right to the quotes:<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:lucida grande;font-size:100%;" ><i>"Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?"</i><br />- Job, speaking to God</span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"><br />(I guess the Bible is as good a place to start as any.)<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese -- toasted, mostly."</span><br />Robert Louis Stevenson<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:lucida grande;font-size:100%;" ><i>"A cheese may disappoint. It may be dull, it may be naive, it may be oversophisticated. Yet it remains, cheese, milk's leap toward immortality."</i><br />- Clifton Fadiman</span><br /><p style="font-family:lucida grande;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>"People who know nothing about cheeses reel away from Camembert, Roquefort, and Stilton because the plebeian proboscis is not equipped to differentiate between the sordid and the sublime."</i><br />- Harvey Day</span></p> <span style=";font-family:lucida grande;font-size:100%;" ><i>"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."</i><br />- G.K. Chesterton<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;" ><br /></span><span style=";font-family:lucida grande;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;" class="huge">"Blue cheese contains natural amphetamines. Why are students not informed about this?</span><span style="font-style: italic;">"</span><br /><span class="bodybold">- Mark E. Smith</span><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"> </span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:lucida grande;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">"Stop calling me names you cheese head!"</span><br />- Michelle Tanner (played by Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen)<br /><br />(Yeah, it's a Full House quote. I don't know what to say about that. "Sorry" doesn't suffice.)<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"I don't want the cheese, I just want out of the trap."</span><br />- Spanish proverb<br /></span> <pre style="font-family:lucida grande;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">"The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."<br />- </span><font>Unknown</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><font><font><font><br /><br />"It's nice to get out of the rat race, but you have to learn to get along<br />with less cheese." </span></span></span></span><font><font><font><font><font><font><br />-Gene Parret, on retirement<br /><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">And what would a post about cheese quotes be without Charles de Gaulle's<br />famous quote:</span><br /><span style=";font-family:lucida grande;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span><span style=";font-family:lucida grande;font-size:100%;" ><i>Comment voulez-vous gouverner un pays qui a deux cent quarante-six<br />variétés de fromage?</i><br />(How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six<br />varieties of cheese?)</span><br /><span style=";font-family:lucida grande;font-size:100%;" ><br />I've also found quite a few good cheese quotes in Steve Jenkins' "Cheese Primer."<br />If you are into cheese and you don't have that book, you aren't <span style="font-style: italic;">really </span>into cheese.<br />And all your caseophile friends will know it and laugh at you, so get the book NOW!<br />So, since I'm getting these quotes from Jenkins, I'll cite 'em all...<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Cheese and bread make the cheeks red."</span><br />- German proverb (p. 422)<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze."</span><br />- Old English saying (p. 311)<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Fromage et pain est medecin au sain."<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span>(Bread and cheese is medicine for the well.)<br />- French proverb (p.125)<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:lucida grande;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">"S'il qui mange du fromage, s'il ne le fait, il enrage."<br /></span> (He who does not eat cheese will go mad.)<br />- French proverb (p. 176)</span><br /><span style=";font-family:lucida grande;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;" >"Clifton Fadiman wrote that cheese is like milk's leap toward immortality, which is witty, but untrue.<br />Velveeta is immortal, but it is not cheese; cheese is milk's leap toward a life of its own."</span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">- John Thorne, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;" >Serious Pig</span><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"> (p.368)</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;" ></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;" >"The spirit of a country, if it is to be true to itself, needs continually to draw great breaths of inspiration<br />from the simple realities of the country; from the smell of its soil, the pattern of its fields, the beauty of its<br />scenery and from the men and women who dwell and toil in the rural areas."</span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">- Sir George Stapledon, as quoted in </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;" >The Great British Cheese Book</span><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"> by Patrick Rance</span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">[and then quoted in Jenkins' book, and then quoted in my blog...]</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">That last one really is a beautiful sentiment, and why I dedicate my life, in my own way, to farmhouse<br />and artisan-made cheese.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;" >"I am grateful to have learned young that cheese has an important place in a menu. It isn't something to<br />serve with apple pie, and it isn't something to cut into nasty little cubes and serve with crackers. Early in<br />life I learned to see the beauty of great slabs of cheese or rounds of cheese on the table, and I still respond<br />to the sight of a well-stocked cheese tray properly presented."</span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">- James Beard, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;" >Delights and Prejudices</span><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"> (p. 22)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">I don't know at what age James Beard learned what he did about cheese (8? 13? 25?), but I started learning<br />about cheese, and I mean </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:lucida grande;" >really</span><span style="font-family:lucida grande;"> learning about cheese, at the age of 21. And his quote above is what makes<br />me the Cheese Snob, and keeps me fighting the good fight, as it were. All in the name of Cheese.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">Yours in Cheese,</span><br /><span style="font-family:lucida grande;">-Wendy</span><br /><br /></span><b></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></pre></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-1157903572038918312006-09-10T11:39:00.000-04:002006-09-10T11:57:44.826-04:00Cheesemakers In Need<span style="font-family: lucida grande;">**No, I did not fall into a giant vat of cheese. I've been working hard on my website, soon to be launched, and other food-related endeavors. More on those later.**</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">I just received an email from Sasha Davies, one of my Cheese Friends, and half of the team behind </span><a style="font-family: lucida grande;" href="http://cheesebyhand.com">"Cheese By Hand."</a><span style="font-family: lucida grande;"> She sent out an email to all of her Cheese Friends to tell us about the Reads, a </span><a style="font-family: lucida grande;" href="http://shepherdswayfarms.com">cheesemaking family</a><span style="font-family: lucida grande;"> from Minnesota who have suffered a particularly upsetting bout of bad luck. It's one thing to make a mistake and learn from it, or make a mistake and not learn from it. But these folks were victims of a malicious act, and now they get to clean up the mess. Read their story and learn what they are doing to restore their dairy - which once supported multiple farm families - to the profitable operation it once was and what you can do to help.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">If you think you are a total dunce and couldn't help your way out of a wet paper bag, read their story anyway. If you are reading this blog, you are interested in cheese. And Shepherd's Way Farm makes cheese. See the connection?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">Yours in Cheese,</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">-Cheese Snob Wendy</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-30524720111494582042006-09-08T18:08:00.000-04:002007-12-05T19:06:50.360-05:00The Cheese Snob Rewrites Zabar'sSo this doesn't totally have to do with cheese, but it's a cool project nonetheless. The head of Zabar's Mail Order Department wants me to pretty much rewrite their Website, at least the on-line store portion. They are going to redo the on-line store's layout and functioning, and she thinks this is a good time to rewrite the product descriptions. I should say so. Most of them are pretty awful.<br />This project could take awhile. The spices alone could take me weeks...<br /><br />I'm excited. Not only is it decent money, but I get to research things about which I am only slightly familiar but would like to know more. Things like nuts, caviar, smoked fish, tea and the aforementioned spices.<br /><br />I know it's not cheese, but I am a total nerd about food, and this will give me the opportunity to know as much as possible about interesting foods.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-60737766732798691522006-09-01T22:44:00.000-04:002007-12-05T23:04:21.355-05:00Tasting Notes - August 29, 2006 - or, The Cheese Snob Changes Her Mind A LittleI'm not generally in favor of cheeses with "stuff" in them; by "stuff" I mean fruits, nuts, booze. Sometimes I even think herbs are too much. It's gimmicky. Why not just let the cheese "stand alone"? A good cheese needs no embellishment. A mediocre cheese is still a mediocre cheese, even with the addition of "stuff."<br /><br />There are exceptions, of course. Fromi has a line of Brillat Savarins (these are <span style="font-style: italic;">frais</span>, with no bloomy rind) from Bourgogne that are rindless and covered with herbs, schnaps-soaked raisins or mustard seed. They are actually quite lovely, and the mustard seed - an addition unusual even in this mustard-loving country of ours - has a nice spiciness that combines well with the creme-fraiche- enriched cheese. The two foods balance one another.<br /><br />But most cheese with stuff in or on it is crap, in my opinion.<br /><br />And every once in awhile, at Zabar's, I have to try a cheese that sets off my snob alarm and I think to myself: What's this foolishness?<br /><br />So when Olga gave me three new cheeses to try, and two of them were Swiss with herbs pressed into the rind, I thought: Oh, they must have made these inferior products for export to the US only.<br /><br />Once in awhile it's good for this Cheese Snob to experience a little humility, to be proven wrong. Not often, mind you, but once in awhile.<br /><br />This was one of those times.<br /><br />Here's my tasting notes for August 29, 2006:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Castellot</span><br />Raw cow. Rennet. Big wheel. Mild, lactic, flaky sorta dry texture, salty, a little bit of caramel. It's just okay.<br /><br />Emmi <span style="font-weight: bold;">Swiss Alp Bellevue</span><br />Herbs pressed into the rind. Looks like Gruyere, but with herbs on the outside. Sweet, thyme, savory, basil. Mmm! The herbs add a nice flavor to the sweet, nutty, fruity cheese. Herbs are on the rind, <span style="font-style: italic;">not </span>in the paste, but the cheese has a strong herbal flavor. <br /><br />Emmi <span style="font-weight: bold;">Swiss Alp Panorama</span><br />Herbs pressed into the rind. Eyes. Is it Emmentaler? More sweet and lactic than Bellevue. Herbs are not as dominant as in Bellevue, but still makes a difference in the flavor. nice! Herbs bring out caramel sweetness on finish. Thyme, basil. <br /><br />_____<br /><br />So I was pleasantly surprised, Olga ended up keeping the Bellevue, and I ended up bringing it to a party. It's a nice cheese!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-1156651227551324232006-08-26T23:46:00.000-04:002006-08-27T00:00:27.560-04:00What's The Cheese Snob Eating Now?<span style="font-family: lucida grande;">I'm catching up on emails before I go to sleep. It's one of those Saturday nights where I'm more content to stay home, listening to <a href="http://www.wfmu.org">the radio</a>, and eating cheese than I would be going out and getting into non-cheese-related trouble. Not very NYC of me. Maybe I need to move to a farm. A CHEESE FARM. <br /><br />So I'm enjoying a bit of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Teifi</span>, an unpasteurized cow's milk cheese from Wales. <br />Here are my tasting notes:<br />this one is on the aged side. I've seen it much younger. It's semi-firm, and there are a handful of small eyes in the almond-colored paste. natural rind, very nubbly and covered with white and gray mold.<br />speaking of mold - there's a bit of blue that's traveled throughout the holes in the paste. not a defect. it's fine.<br />dry texture, toothsome<br />tastes milky, sweet, little bit lactic, vague woodsy/smokiness - like fall leaves burning. rich, buttery. a little cavey. this is an excellent table cheese - nothing offensive or challenging about it - but not boring or flat, either. far better than I remember Teifi. maybe I had it too young or not aged properly because I remember it being boring. <br />this is a good cheese for a rainy day. or maybe I am saying that because today was rainy and this cheese is good. I'll have to try it on a sunny day and see what I think then.<br /><br />oh, and I've seen this cheese compared with Gouda, but I don't get that one at all. this is nothing like Gouda. I hope I am not insulting the cheesemakers here if that was their intention. This cheese is very nice, but Gouda it ain't. It's better than most Goudas people can get in this country, and, in comparison with the good Goudas we get, well, it's still different.<br /><br />Yours in Cheese,<br />-Wendy<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-69293549772364093202006-08-25T19:08:00.000-04:002008-12-10T05:40:18.829-05:00Tasting Notes - August 22, 2006A few months ago I bought myself a handy Moleskine(R) notebook. Not only is it pretty damn classy looking, it's very useful, and the pages are made of paper that takes ink nicely.<br /><br />I bought it because it's a good idea for any person working with food to keep a tasting notebook. Hell, even if you just really like eating food and want to remember some remarkable things you've tried, it's worth keeping a tasting notebook.<br /><br />For me, it's a little more than a tasting book. I also take notes there from meetings I've had with clients, potential clients, advisers, etc. And sometimes I just take notes, things I have to remember, etc.<br /><br />This past week I was at Zabar's doing my usual cheese gig and a few nice cheeses came in. A few are completely new to me, from an <span style="font-style: italic;">affineur* </span>in France named Pascal Beillevaire. One cheese is an old favorite, but I haven't seen it at Zabar's for awhile and a description needed to be written for it, so <span style="font-style: italic;">aw shucks </span>I had to eat it. And then there were the other usual grab-bag cheeses from all over the place because Olga is such an intrepid cheese buyer.<br /><br />Here are my tasting notes, more or less verbatim, from August 22, 2006. (I don't include the end result - my fleshed-out written descriptions - because those more or less belong to Zabar's. Plus, I think the notes hold interest because they are my raw, unfinished, on-the-spot organoleptic impressions of the cheeses. I hope you agree.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bIBehhoIS_CMfn_btWC7YftjgpTgtseYsjYXU8RgI5GNOo5m1kprQH7luZVvYSTfwNGTXKEy0Qy4ONbY4vsEaYuJO8PzeDJVB1PThQO685zsCMbc8AKgsmS25qW_rzrooH773Q/s1600-h/pitchounet.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bIBehhoIS_CMfn_btWC7YftjgpTgtseYsjYXU8RgI5GNOo5m1kprQH7luZVvYSTfwNGTXKEy0Qy4ONbY4vsEaYuJO8PzeDJVB1PThQO685zsCMbc8AKgsmS25qW_rzrooH773Q/s200/pitchounet.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140652616454217490" border="0" /></a><br />Pascal Beillevaire's <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pitchounet</span><br />raw. sheep. rennet. 13 oz, give or take. Tall disc - like a wider Chaource. Covered with dusty white mold, dalmatian spots of gray. Smells like a cave. Paste loosely curded lots of small eyes. Soft, earthy, savory (herbs), saline, complex, nuanced, rich.<br /><br />Pascal Beillevaire's<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcCKjqVIQE1A0_M9XJy4BG8ma4KAi_3sQzkww6MoikEXrygxBKXSYcMrDf3pirPdAz9AN63garuENODOing453_teGR3mt3mijKr9dKwZO13h4d4ViRecHAuPtNeFMmb9Mys2_3Q/s1600-h/clacbitou.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 152px; height: 110px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcCKjqVIQE1A0_M9XJy4BG8ma4KAi_3sQzkww6MoikEXrygxBKXSYcMrDf3pirPdAz9AN63garuENODOing453_teGR3mt3mijKr9dKwZO13h4d4ViRecHAuPtNeFMmb9Mys2_3Q/s200/clacbitou.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140653441087938338" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Clacbitou</span><br />raw. goat. rennet. 9 oz, give or take. Shape of Charollais or Chabichou - tall barrel. Covered with rough, almond-colored rind, white mold. Belt of raffia around its waist to hold it together. Smells earthy and tangy. Thick layer of creamy ivory beneath rind, center flaky white. Mmm. Tangy, rich (esp for a goat), minerally, astringent, milky, complex, lingering, light citrusy.<br /><br />Pascal Beillevaire's <span style="font-weight: bold;">Grise de Volcanes</span><br />raw. cow. rennet. Tangy, sweet, nutty, earthy - very Alpine. Floral, nuanced, <span style="font-style: italic;">very </span>nice. Cross in flavor between farmhouse Cheddar and Appenzeller. Semi-firm, solid, tight texture like<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh12DinO0kEvZ0LYE2r9HVswOB5VKU3tNnPw7RwluYTTLqUi34flbVcI5YjC8xvH8ZDfrFovayf-c004A_ifyA84DCd35046lMCamUYAIbiwTzcNFz0EtXLOTYqJW0ajBqpbPui0A/s1600-h/montgomery's.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh12DinO0kEvZ0LYE2r9HVswOB5VKU3tNnPw7RwluYTTLqUi34flbVcI5YjC8xvH8ZDfrFovayf-c004A_ifyA84DCd35046lMCamUYAIbiwTzcNFz0EtXLOTYqJW0ajBqpbPui0A/s200/montgomery's.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140655588571586386" border="0" /></a> Cheddar.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Montgomery's Cheddar</span><br />From Neal's Yard Dairy. Clothbound, cave-aged traditional Cheddar. Semi-firm, fairly solid, some flake and fissures. Sharp and fruity, sweet with a little caramel, earthy and cavey near the rind. The best!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Delft Blue</span><br />Holland. Goat. Bright white with gray-green mold. aka Blue de Graven. pasteurized. from the Schie River between Rotterdam and Den Hague. rindless. semi-soft paste. sweet very sweet, caramel, fruity, tangy assertiveness but not a strong blue. pleasant and surprising. a little but of crunch, creamy melting mouthfeel.<br /><br />Rogue Creamery <span style="font-weight: bold;">Oregon Blue</span><br />pale ivory color. lots of blue-green veining. crumbly and semi-soft. assertive tangy milky bitey garlicky toasty complex and superb. you can tell it's hand-made!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Rossini Blue</span><br />Italy. washed with red wine. ivory paste. TONS of blue-gray veining. smells like grape candy. tastes like sparkling grape juice. whoa! tangy bite comes next, smooths out a little to a fruity finish. a little crunch. leaves a tingle on the tongue. pasteurized. made in the mountains and valley pastures of the Arrigoni Valtaleggio.<br />__________<br /><br />*<span style="font-style: italic;">Affineur </span>- A French term, adapted into English use, for a person who ages and cares for (usually) artisan-made cheese. This person is not the cheesemaker and does not usually make any cheese at all, but is a craftsperson highly skilled in maturing cheese, including washing and brushing the rind (if necessary), turning the wheels, and monitoring each cheese's progress. An affineur will work closely with the cheesemaker to ensure the cheesemaker's intentions for the cheese are met. There are not many affineurs in the United States; most artisan-made cheeses are made and aged by the same person or group of people.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-36166337150434364282006-08-10T20:23:00.000-04:002007-12-06T20:26:11.341-05:00Back Behind the Counter AgainSo I'm going to start working at the newest cheese shop in the LES (as far as I can tell) - Formaggio Essex. It's the southern outpost of the venerable Boston-area cheese shop, Formaggio Kitchen, and its managed by a very personable and enthusiastic fellow named Max Shrem. I really like him, and I like the shop.<br /><br />There are cheeses there unfamiliar to me, and that's exciting. I haven't worked behind a cheese counter in a little while so we'll see if my back holds up.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-1154925329947830382006-08-07T00:18:00.000-04:002006-08-08T14:47:21.506-04:00Secrets of the Cheesemongers<span style="font-family: lucida grande;">I recently received a bunch of English farmhouse cheeses from my cheese-friend Jayne Rockmill. They're all from </span><a style="font-family: lucida grande;" href="http://www.finecheese.co.uk/">The Fine Cheese Company</a><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">, and I'm trying them so I can write some articles on English cheese.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">I offer you a very special gift: a glimpse into the secret world of the cheesemonger. Specifically, the cheese taster. As I tried these cheeses, I took detailed tasting notes, and I'm going to print them pretty much verbatim. I hope you enjoy them, but keep yer dirty paws off! Don't crib my notes for your own cheese descriptions. If you want to be taken seriously in this world, you must actually taste the cheese on your own and write your own damn descriptions.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">I'm not including information here on the cheesemaker, animal, rennet, etc. Only my tasting notes.</span><br /><br /><u style="font-family: lucida grande;">Sharpham Rustic</u><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">even a small slice gives off an intense aroma of cave: damp, musty, clean earth.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">like my old dirt-floor cellar.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">shaped like a cross between a spaceship and a big, puffy apple pie. covered in dusty white mold. the paste is the color of French butter.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">moist & flaky.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">solid.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">dense.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">earthy, milky, lactic tang (like young goat cheese), nutty, lightly astringent, not strong, rustic flavor and appearance.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">texture is mouth melting, like cold butter, but a little more chewy.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">rather refreshing - good in summer, perhaps with berries.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">herbal notes hide out in the background.</span><br /><br /><u style="font-family: lucida grande;">Monk's House</u><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">natural rind, velvety stone-colored rind with white moulding.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">wheel has a curved top edge.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">mostly solid paste with some crumbling and fissures.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">aroma is earthy.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">taste: buttery, but salted butter. hint of toasted nuts and caramel, finish of brown butter.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">faint metallic notes on the finish.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">nicely balanced.</span><br /><br /><u style="font-family: lucida grande;">Oak-Smoked Cerwyn</u><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">springy, semi-soft paste, solid.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">mold-covered natural rind.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">smells of woodsmoke - obviously!</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">earthy, woodsy, tangy, creamy, melting mouthfeel, Autumn dried leaves.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">the tangy taste evaporates rapidly as the paste melts in my mouth.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">the smokiness isn't an overwhelming distraction.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">rather, it ties nicely to the melting-in-the-mouth experience.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">clean finish.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">pleasant table cheese.</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">far nicer & more rustic than many smoked cheeses out there.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">That's all for now.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">Yours in Cheese,</span><br /><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">-WML</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30076358.post-1154385233632838632006-07-31T17:30:00.000-04:002006-08-01T23:11:17.146-04:00How To Wrap CheeseMelissa wrote in asking about wax paper. Specifically, can wax paper be used to wrap cheese.<br /><br />This question brings me to one of the greatest points of contention and causes of anxiety in the cheese world: how to wrap cheese.<br /><br />Most Cheesemongers are rather stoic when it comes to plastic. "No! Don't wrap in plastic!" they say. And with good reason. But most Cheesemongers, working in a retail setting, wrap their cheeses in plastic for the display case, or in backstock. When they cut to order, they may not wrap the piece they hand the customer in plastic, but look around: plastic everywhere. <br /><br />Plastic is evil, albeit a necessary evil.<br /><br />Plastic is not good for cheese because it seals the cheese in an air-tight environment, thus not allowing for any gasses or moisture to escape. Cheese is a living thing, and it's very important for living things to breathe. With some cheeses it's not a huge issue, but with most cheeses it is. Any cheese with a natural rind, a bloomy rind, a washed rind, and most blues will get icky being in plastic for too long. Goat cheeses, especially those chevres with the crinkly rind, get absolutely disgusting when wrapped in plastic. Fresh goat cheeses get yucky, too. <br /><br />Even with hard cheeses, the surface sitting next to the plastic will taste like plastic (to someone with a sensitive palate, at least), because the cheese absorbs the chemical aroma and flavor off-gassing from the plastic. When I buy cheese to order, and the wheel is wrapped in plastic (as it usually is), unless I've just seen another piece cut from that very wheel, I will ask the Cheesemonger to trim a slice from the cut surface that's been next to the plastic before cutting my wedge. <br /><br />So why is plastic necessary? Because the cheese will dry out. Unless the cheese shop has enough bell jars to house each cut wheel, the cut ends do need to be protected from the air, which is often not humid enough to properly sustain the cheese. (Cheese needs humidity.) Also, customers have this funny idea that they have to see the cheese before they buy it. Can't blame them, I suppose. <br /><br />So when you get your piece of cheese home, depending on the shop, it may be wrapped in plastic, French cheese paper, butcher paper over wax paper, or stuffed into a zip-lock plastic bag. <br /><br />What is French cheese paper? It's a double-layered wrapper made for wrapping cheese, and it comes from France. Last time I checked, the French still rule the cheese world. Don't argue, you know it's true. Anyway, the outer layer is thin paper, usually with some nice pictures printed on it, or the logo for the cheese shop. The inner layer is very thin plastic with microscopic holes. This allows the gasses and a little moisture to escape, but not so much that the cheese dries out. It's genius stuff.<br /><br />Here's how I store my cheese in the refrigerator:<br />1. If it arrived in French cheese paper, I leave it in the French cheese paper.<br />2. If it arrived in butcher paper over wax paper, I might throw it into a plastic bag, and fold it over loosely. Don't seal the bag or wrap it tightly; you want to approximate the effects of the French cheese paper.<br />3. If it arrived in plastic, I wrap it in a layer of wax paper or parchment paper and do the plastic bag thing as stated above.<br />4. Blue cheese can be wrapped in aluminum foil.<br /><br />Wax paper is a fine wrapper for cheese, but it lets too much moisture out, so it needs another layer of heavy paper or the plastic bag trick.<br /><br />And that's about that for now.<br /><br />Yours in Cheese,<br />-Wendy M. LevyUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3