The Caseophile

We're Moving!

2009-04-19T19:07:00.002-04:00

I decided to move all future cheese-related posts over to my (soon-to-be) Cheese (and Tea) Shop's Blog: The Roquefort Files.

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?

So please come on over to The Roquefort Files! You will like it there.

Regional Cheese

2009-03-10T01:53:00.002-04:00

So 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?"
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!

***

Question: In your expert opinion, what region of what country produces the best cheeses?

Answer:
Ooh, I love these kinds of questions! Not just 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!

So on to the answer.

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.

I love many kinds, and here are some of the regions I think are putting out kick-ass cheeses.

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 terroir. 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.
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 per capita? Sure, Wisconsin and California have tons of cheesemakers, but too few of them are artisanal; most are on an industrial (read: factory) scale. So yay Vermont!
Look for anything made by Jasper Hill, Blue Ledge, Willow Hill and Twig Farm, to name JUST a few!

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?
Yes, that time is now and the place is Somerset, England, cheddar's ancestral home.
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.
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.
Of the PDO cheddars, my favorite is Montgomery's Cheddar.
In fact, it's one of my favorite cheeses in the whole world.
Neal's Yard is one of the more popular purveyors of Montgomery's.

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.
Barring Parmigiano-Reggiano, which is an absolutely genius 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.
So what's so great about these cheeses?
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.
Most halfway decent cheese shops will have La Tur, Robiola Bosina, Tuma de l'Paja, Rocchetta or Cravanzina.
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.
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.

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 multitude 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.

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.

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.

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 kept their goats, and their goat-cheese recipes! And now France - and not the Middle East - is known worldwide for having delectable chevre! Pretty clever of them.

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.

OK, I think that's enough.

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?

Oy. I could go on for-evah! And I think I have...

FOOD TIME on WFMU Tonight!

2009-02-23T13:43:00.001-05:00

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 here in the Internet.

Ok, enough writing in the third person. What is this, a Facebook status?

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!

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.

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.

Stravecchio's paper label is red. Regular Piave's label is blue.

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.

My New Cheese and Tea Shop

2009-02-17T01:02:00.001-05:00

Some of you might have heard I'm opening a cheese shop.
It's true!

But it'll be a tea shop, too, and a cafe where you can enjoy the cheese and the tea.

The location will be in Jersey City, NJ, a place that really needs a cheese shop!

Stay tuned for more information as it develops.

***Oh, and I'm looking for investors. Being an early investor has its perks. Contact me for more info.***

We Interrupt This Blog to Bring You...

2009-02-17T00:57:00.005-05:00

The 2009 WFMU Marathon.

See, I don't only love cheese, I also love good radio. And WFMU is what I consider good radio.

They don't take money from The Man. They don't do commercials.

So, they need your money.

Fork it over right here:

How This Works...

Support Freeform Radio!

Thanks!

We now bring you back to your regularly-scheduled cheese.

The Best Cheese... Part 2, and My Manifesto

2008-04-04T17:00:00.003-04:00

Well, 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.

Now I can't say whether my email to Mr. Kehler had anything to do with the store carrying the cheese.

And I can't say whether my ordering a wheel for myself had anything to do with the store carrying the cheese.

But when my cheese order finally came in, the department manager said he also ordered a few wheels for the counter.

I was very happy to pick up that sweet, little 3/4-lb stinker.

Problem was, I had just brought back another 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.

"Those were the dayyyyys!"

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, per se, 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.

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.

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.

Yes, I take this rather seriously.

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.

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.

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.

All in a day's work for The Cheese Snob.

Cheese Poetry

2008-02-17T12:42:00.007-05:00

G.K. Chesterton, in his 1910 essay, Cheese, 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.

If I was an adult in 1910 I'd probably find him and ask him to marry me.

If you'd like to read the entire essay, go here. I recommend it.

Not being much of a fan of poetry - not that I have anything against it, I just don't always quite get it, me being very much a prose person - I have no idea if the state of cheese in international poetry has improved since 1910. I can tell you, however, that cheese poetry in my personal correspondence has increased lately.

Before I regale you with the cheese poetry my friend and I wrote to each other, I will give you the back-story.

This year the American Cheese Society is holding its annual conference and competition in Chicago at the end of July. I'd really like to go.

My friend and fellow Cheesemonger, Mark Bello, proprietor of Pizza A Casa, spent many years living in Chicago and owns a futon store 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!

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 could 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.

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:

The Hilton
gonna be smellin' like Stilton

Stanky cheese in July

the floral centerpieces be wiltin'

Sometimes no good deed goes unpunished, so I wrote back with some poetry of my own:

July. Chicago.
Melty like Brie de Meaux?
Or hard, sweet like Asiago Pressato?
Never been there
I wouldn't know.
But if the Goddesses of money look kindly on me
this year, 2008, I will go.

If you'd like to give us poetry awards, please do so via this blog.

The Best Cheese You Can't Find

2008-02-13T19:35:00.005-05:00

Last week I was at Zabar's Cheese Counter. 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.

(In the interest of disclosure, I am a consultant at Zabar's. Not a current employee. So am I biased? 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.)

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.

I bought a piece of Mike Gingrich's award-winning Pleasant Ridge Reserve. 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.

I also bought a piece of Beecher's Handmade Flagship Reserve. 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!

But this article is really about the third cheese I bought: Jasper Hill's Winnimere.

Have you ever had Försterkäse? No? You poor thing.

Those of us who have had Försterkäse probably have fond memories of this delectably oozing, spruce-banded cheese.

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 terroir than that, my friends.

Now Försterkäse is not easy to find, but Winnimere seems even more difficult. It's not even mentioned on Jasper Hill's Website.

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 my brain, not my cellphone's. I'm that kind of nerd.) Turns out he doesn't carry Winnimere.

I had to go all the way to New York City to buy a Vermont cheese. Where's the justice in that?

Having only a little bit of money, but unable to resist my junkie-like need for fromage, 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.

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.

I opened it and it smelled awful, but in a really good way. We have Brevibacterium linens to thank for that. (For cool pictures of other Lactic Acid Bacteria, go to Utah State University's Microscopy Website. Thanks to them for this picture.) B. linens 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 Penicillium candidum, it causes the pâte 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.

Right, so back to Winnimere. It's cute and it smells bad.

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 that good.

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.

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.

I need more of this cheese!

Parmigiano-Reggiano

2008-02-13T19:16:00.002-05:00

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!

Parmigiano-Reggiano And What To Do With The Rind

Anyone who has ever been in a reputable cheese shop 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.”

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?

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.

Parmigiano-Reggiano is a DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta) cheese, which means its production - hence its authenticity - is guaranteed by Italian law. (For more information on Protected Designations of Origin, please see http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/foodqual/quali1_en.htm ) 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 Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano-Reggiano website, http://www.parmigiano-reggiano.it/. 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.

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.

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.

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.

CheeseSnobWendy’s Leafy-Vegetable Soup
Serves 6-8

For this recipe, you’ll need a blender, a big stock pot, and a big heat-resistant bowl (or another big stock pot)

2 bunches of leafy greens, such as collard greens, spinach, kale, or chard (choose two different ones if you like)
1 quart of chicken broth or stock (if you are vegetarian, use vegetable broth or stock)
2 yellow onions (not Spanish onions)
2 tablespoons of oil, such as olive, grapeseed, or canola (sesame won’t work here)
the juice from one lemon (don’t insult the soup and use lemon juice from a jar. squeeze a damn lemon, already!)
2 cans of white beans
rind from Parmigiano-Reggiano (I used rind from a ½-lb piece, and I cut about ¼-inch down, but your mileage may vary)
a small squirt of hot sauce
a sprinkle of dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Prepare the greens. Tear off the thickest part of the stems, on the bottoms of each leaf. Wash the greens thoroughly.
2. Peel the onions and slice them very thin.
3. On the stove, heat a big stock pot over medium heat. Add the oil.
4. When the oil shimmers, add the onions.
5. Let them cook for a few minutes until they become translucent and smell good.
6. Add the leafy greens. Using tongs or a spatula, flip them around a bit.
7. Add a sprinkle of dried basil and some salt and pepper
8. Put the lid on the pot, and let it cook for a few minutes.
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.
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.
11. When all the soup is blended, put it back into the stock pot, and heat over very low heat.
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.
13. Let the soup simmer. Stir occasionally.
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.

Cheese Snob Wendy is the proprietor of www.cheesesnob.com, where you can find everything about cheese except actual cheese.

Not A Gargantuan Grapefruit

2008-02-13T19:07:00.002-05:00

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.

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:

Not A Gargantuan Grapefruit, But A Pummelo

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.

Fear not. It’s just a pummelo.

To the botanical world, it’s known as Citrus maxima, an apt moniker, because it’s the largest citrus fruit 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.

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.

Most of the pummelos (also known as pomelos, pommelos, or Chinese grapefruit) 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.

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 food store is selling them, go for it, but Caveat Emptor!

Here are some shopping tips, regardless of where you buy your pummelos:

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 know it’s heavy, but bear with me here. 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.

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.

You will need a sharp knife 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 brie. 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.

After you’ve removed all of the pith, you are halfway there. Now you must remove the little juice 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 oyster or clam, and dig the juice sacs out with your fingers. Or your teeth.

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.

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.

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 cutting board, 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.

For more information on pummelos, please visit Purdue University’s horticulture website.

1/30/2007

I've Moved To Vermont

2007-07-06T19:21:00.001-04:00

Moving to New York City was a good idea. I learned a lot and met all of my major goals.

Now it's time to go home. No, I don't mean to my ancestral home (New Jersey), I mean my chosen home: Vermont.

On July 2nd I moved back to Brattleboro.

It makes sense for me to live in the state with the greatest number of artisan-cheesemakers per capita in the entire United States. It's time for me to expand my business, and, sorry New York City, Vermont will give me more opportunities.

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 cutting-edge - to improve and expand my business. But Vermont is 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!

Viva Vermont!
Viva la Queso!

I Eat Cheese For a Living

2007-02-05T18:55:00.000-05:00

One 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]?"

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.

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 eats cheese for a living?!"

I think I picked the right career path.

Freelance Cheese

2007-01-29T18:34:00.000-05:00

In 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.

In half-a-year, I accomplished a lot.

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.
I taught a series of cheese classes to the public, and constantly received excellent feedback.
I worked with the very talented manager, Olga Dominguez, to create useful marketing materials and some new cheese collections for the Website and catalog.
I started developing a training program for the department's supervisors.
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.
I redesigned and standardized the point-of-sale signs for the cheese counter, the (self-serve) cheese cases, and the olive bar.

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.

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.

Anyway, although I was having fun, I started getting a little, um... edgy. 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.

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.

But I fretted over the right way to introduce this topic to Olga.

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.

Perfect!

I told her what I had been thinking and we agreed I would continue working with her, but on a regular, yet freelance basis.

I will have my freedom but still enjoy the benefits of working with Zabar's.

So that was last July, and so far it's working out well.

The Cheese Goes On - Tasting Notes 10/03/06

2006-10-05T21:01:00.000-04:00

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.
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."
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 wunderbar German cheeses. And then there's the whole Alps thing, what with the cows enjoying such good pasturage in the summer months...
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.

Here are my tasting notes for October 3, 2006:

Le Puits d'Astier
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.

Tomme Agour
Basque cheese, from the French side. Mixture of pasteurized sheep and goat. Nutty, sweet, herby, clean, mild, friendly. A nice example of mixed-milk; exhibits the best of each milk. Semi-firm.

Jurassic
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. 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.

[Here are those two good German cheeses I promised.]
Allgauer Bergkase
Big Alpine mountain cheese. (Bergkase means "mountain cheese")Raw cow, aged 180+ days. Zingy at the start, zingy on the finish; in-between is nutty, sweet and tangy. Nice!
(You can see a few pictures of the production of this cheese at this website. Ja, it's all in German, but poke around anyway and look at the pretty pictures.)

Rougette
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.
(So it's not the most exciting cheese, but it was lovely in a sort of delicate way. Not boring.)

Tasting Notes - September 22-23, 2006

2006-09-30T20:26:00.000-04:00

Formaggio 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.

I brought my notebook last time I worked there and here are my tasting notes:

(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.)

9/22
Bergkase Unterwasser
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.

Pecorino di Pienza Stagionato di Fossa
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 Fossa cheeses...

9/23
6-Month Boerenkaas
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.

Black Diamond Cheddar
Canada. Triangular, black wax covered. Semi-firm, flaky, quite solid. Sharp, a little like vodka. yes, really. rather flat tasting. very sharp.

_________

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.

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.

Pascal Beillevaire and His Fabulous Cheeses

2006-09-27T16:27:00.000-04:00

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 Pascal Beillevaire. Every time she fills out the order sheet for the subsequent French container, 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.

M. Beillevaire doesn't make the cheeses he sends us, but he matures them in his caves. He selects specific cheeses, all handmade and most made from raw milk, from cheesemakers producing cheeses - some in danger of disappearing - in a traditional manner. It's not only an honorable quest, but a delicious one.

This past week Zabar's got in a huge shipment of Pascal Beillevaire cheeses and we had lots of fun opening the small boxes and discovering what was inside. Here are my tasting notes from September 26, 2006:

Barbeillon
Made by Madame Barbeillon in Pentu de l'Etang. Raw goat, shaped like a 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 who makes the cheese. Approx weight 9 oz.

Couronne Lochoise
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.

Blanc Bleu du Rizet
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!

Brique des Flandres
16 oz or so weight. raw cow. it's Mimolette orange. washed rind. semi-soft. mushroomy, pungent, fruity, tastes like melon. strong washed-rind, finish tastes of berries, and it's a little boozy. it's a crescendo of all flavors. 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.

Pentu de l'Etang
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 pepper on the finish.

Montrachet
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 sweet, tangy, a little salty, milky. this one is relatively gentle. rind is mild. Made in Bourgogne.

Rouleau de Beaulieu en Ardeche 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.

Mont Ventoux 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.

Mille Trous d'Ariege 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.

Abbaye de Timadeuc 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.

Timanoix pasteurized cow. Made in Aquitaine. small wheel. nut-brown rind, smells like toasted walnuts (hence the noix). tastes like walnuts and cheese. milky, a little tangy, creamy mouthfeel. walnutty without tasting artificial. washed with walnut brandy - well, that explains it!
___________

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 terroir and the slight differences in how they're made make for unique cheeses. I love that.

"Cheese"

2006-09-18T22:18:00.000-04:00

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.

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.

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.

Let's go right to the quotes:

"Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?"
- Job, speaking to God

(I guess the Bible is as good a place to start as any.)

"Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese -- toasted, mostly."
Robert Louis Stevenson

"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."
- Clifton Fadiman

"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."
- Harvey Day

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
- G.K. Chesterton

"Blue cheese contains natural amphetamines. Why are students not informed about this?"
- Mark E. Smith

"Stop calling me names you cheese head!"
- Michelle Tanner (played by Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen)

(Yeah, it's a Full House quote. I don't know what to say about that. "Sorry" doesn't suffice.)

"I don't want the cheese, I just want out of the trap."
- Spanish proverb

"The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."
- Unknown

"It's nice to get out of the rat race, but you have to learn to get along
with less cheese."
-Gene Parret, on retirement

And what would a post about cheese quotes be without Charles de Gaulle's
famous quote:

Comment voulez-vous gouverner un pays qui a deux cent quarante-six
variétés de fromage?
(How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six
varieties of cheese?)

I've also found quite a few good cheese quotes in Steve Jenkins' "Cheese Primer."
If you are into cheese and you don't have that book, you aren't really into cheese.
And all your caseophile friends will know it and laugh at you, so get the book NOW!
So, since I'm getting these quotes from Jenkins, I'll cite 'em all...

"Cheese and bread make the cheeks red."
- German proverb (p. 422)

"Apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze."
- Old English saying (p. 311)

"Fromage et pain est medecin au sain."
(Bread and cheese is medicine for the well.)
- French proverb (p.125)

"S'il qui mange du fromage, s'il ne le fait, il enrage."
(He who does not eat cheese will go mad.)
- French proverb (p. 176)

"Clifton Fadiman wrote that cheese is like milk's leap toward immortality, which is witty, but untrue.
Velveeta is immortal, but it is not cheese; cheese is milk's leap toward a life of its own."
- John Thorne, Serious Pig (p.368)

"The spirit of a country, if it is to be true to itself, needs continually to draw great breaths of inspiration
from the simple realities of the country; from the smell of its soil, the pattern of its fields, the beauty of its
scenery and from the men and women who dwell and toil in the rural areas."
- Sir George Stapledon, as quoted in The Great British Cheese Book by Patrick Rance
[and then quoted in Jenkins' book, and then quoted in my blog...]

That last one really is a beautiful sentiment, and why I dedicate my life, in my own way, to farmhouse
and artisan-made cheese.

"I am grateful to have learned young that cheese has an important place in a menu. It isn't something to
serve with apple pie, and it isn't something to cut into nasty little cubes and serve with crackers. Early in
life I learned to see the beauty of great slabs of cheese or rounds of cheese on the table, and I still respond
to the sight of a well-stocked cheese tray properly presented."
- James Beard, Delights and Prejudices (p. 22)

I don't know at what age James Beard learned what he did about cheese (8? 13? 25?), but I started learning
about cheese, and I mean really learning about cheese, at the age of 21. And his quote above is what makes
me the Cheese Snob, and keeps me fighting the good fight, as it were. All in the name of Cheese.

Yours in Cheese,
-Wendy

Cheesemakers In Need

2006-09-10T11:39:00.000-04:00

**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.**

I just received an email from Sasha Davies, one of my Cheese Friends, and half of the team behind "Cheese By Hand." She sent out an email to all of her Cheese Friends to tell us about the Reads, a cheesemaking family 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.

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?

Yours in Cheese,
-Cheese Snob Wendy

The Cheese Snob Rewrites Zabar's

2006-09-08T18:08:00.000-04:00

So 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.
This project could take awhile. The spices alone could take me weeks...

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.

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.

Tasting Notes - August 29, 2006 - or, The Cheese Snob Changes Her Mind A Little

2006-09-01T22:44:00.000-04:00

I'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."

There are exceptions, of course. Fromi has a line of Brillat Savarins (these are frais, 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.

But most cheese with stuff in or on it is crap, in my opinion.

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?

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.

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.

This was one of those times.

Here's my tasting notes for August 29, 2006:

Castellot
Raw cow. Rennet. Big wheel. Mild, lactic, flaky sorta dry texture, salty, a little bit of caramel. It's just okay.

Emmi Swiss Alp Bellevue
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, not in the paste, but the cheese has a strong herbal flavor.

Emmi Swiss Alp Panorama
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.

_____

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!

What's The Cheese Snob Eating Now?

2006-08-26T23:46:00.000-04:00

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 the radio, 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.

So I'm enjoying a bit of Teifi, an unpasteurized cow's milk cheese from Wales.
Here are my tasting notes:
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.
speaking of mold - there's a bit of blue that's traveled throughout the holes in the paste. not a defect. it's fine.
dry texture, toothsome
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.
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.

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.

Yours in Cheese,
-Wendy

Tasting Notes - August 22, 2006

2006-08-25T19:08:00.000-04:00

A 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.

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.

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.

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 affineur* 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 aw shucks 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.

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.)

Pascal Beillevaire's Pitchounet
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.

Pascal Beillevaire's Clacbitou
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.

Pascal Beillevaire's Grise de Volcanes
raw. cow. rennet. Tangy, sweet, nutty, earthy - very Alpine. Floral, nuanced, very nice. Cross in flavor between farmhouse Cheddar and Appenzeller. Semi-firm, solid, tight texture like Cheddar.

Montgomery's Cheddar
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!

Delft Blue
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.

Rogue Creamery Oregon Blue
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!

Rossini Blue
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.
__________

*Affineur - 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.

Back Behind the Counter Again

2006-08-10T20:23:00.000-04:00

So 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.

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.

Secrets of the Cheesemongers

2006-08-07T00:18:00.000-04:00

I recently received a bunch of English farmhouse cheeses from my cheese-friend Jayne Rockmill. They're all from The Fine Cheese Company, and I'm trying them so I can write some articles on English cheese.

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.

I'm not including information here on the cheesemaker, animal, rennet, etc. Only my tasting notes.

Sharpham Rustic
even a small slice gives off an intense aroma of cave: damp, musty, clean earth.
like my old dirt-floor cellar.
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.
moist & flaky.
solid.
dense.
earthy, milky, lactic tang (like young goat cheese), nutty, lightly astringent, not strong, rustic flavor and appearance.
texture is mouth melting, like cold butter, but a little more chewy.
rather refreshing - good in summer, perhaps with berries.
herbal notes hide out in the background.

Monk's House
natural rind, velvety stone-colored rind with white moulding.
wheel has a curved top edge.
mostly solid paste with some crumbling and fissures.
aroma is earthy.
taste: buttery, but salted butter. hint of toasted nuts and caramel, finish of brown butter.
faint metallic notes on the finish.
nicely balanced.

Oak-Smoked Cerwyn
springy, semi-soft paste, solid.
mold-covered natural rind.
smells of woodsmoke - obviously!
earthy, woodsy, tangy, creamy, melting mouthfeel, Autumn dried leaves.
the tangy taste evaporates rapidly as the paste melts in my mouth.
the smokiness isn't an overwhelming distraction.
rather, it ties nicely to the melting-in-the-mouth experience.
clean finish.
pleasant table cheese.
far nicer & more rustic than many smoked cheeses out there.

That's all for now.

Yours in Cheese,
-WML

How To Wrap Cheese

2006-07-31T17:30:00.000-04:00

Melissa wrote in asking about wax paper. Specifically, can wax paper be used to wrap cheese.

This question brings me to one of the greatest points of contention and causes of anxiety in the cheese world: how to wrap cheese.

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.

Plastic is evil, albeit a necessary evil.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Here's how I store my cheese in the refrigerator:
1. If it arrived in French cheese paper, I leave it in the French cheese paper.
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.
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.
4. Blue cheese can be wrapped in aluminum foil.

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.

And that's about that for now.

Yours in Cheese,
-Wendy M. Levy

Errata, Or: I Hate Being Wrong

2006-07-23T16:24:00.000-04:00

I found out the other day that the Bedford Cheese Shop was never owned by Frank. It's always been owned by two guys named Jason. Hmm. Where did I get this information? How could I have been misled so easily? Oh well.

Frank doesn't work there anymore. Apparently he's in Seattle. Maybe he's a Cheesemonger there.

In any event, the Bedford Cheese Shop is still a place to go for excellent cheese, and this week I may go check it out again.

That's all for now. I think I need to go hang out on my roof for an hour or so, while it's still nice outside.

Yours in Cheese,
-Wendy M. Levy

An Assortment

2006-07-18T19:55:00.000-04:00

Howdy.

There's a lot going on, so each segment will be short-ish. I'll try to go in chronological order.

The Fine Cheese Co.
Tuesday at the Fancy Food Show brought me in touch with Anne-Marie Dyas, owner of The Fine Cheese Co.out of Bath, England. She's been cheesemongering for 20 years now, and she sources some FINE cheese. Anne-Marie is one of the ambassadors of UK farmhouse cheese, and if you give a rat's ass about traditional foods, history, and the preservation of artisanal cheesemaking, you'll support her at every opportunity.
I had a lovely time talking with Anne-Marie at the food show; she's opinionated and incredibly knowledgable, but diplomatic at the same time. Yes, the cheese was fantastic, but I want to bring her English Pickles to your attention, specifically the Onion Pickle and the Tomato Pickle. As I ate them, I thought: "Goodness, I really want a grilled cheddar sandwich right now, with this stuff slathered all over it."

Mary Quicke
Anne-Marie encouraged me to walk over to see Mary Quicke, Managing Director of Quicke's Traditional Ltd., makers of such fine cheeses as... Quicke's Traditional Cheddar. Mary is one of the few cheesemakers still producing traditional, farmhouse cheddar. Most are industrial these days. Her cheddar is quite rustic: it's wrapped in muslin during aging, and the flavor is definitely sharp, but not acidic whatsoever, and there's a rich earthiness to it that one will never find in factory-made cheddars. One of the things that gets me all riled up is the state of Cheddar in the world today. So many Americans think Cheddar comes in vac-packs and that sharp = acidic. NO!!! Anyway, Mary Quicke is a delightful woman. Very sweet and friendly, with a warm, energetic personality. I hesitate to use the word "cute" for fear of offending her (some people don't like to be called "cute") but she's adorable! And her cheese is worth seeking out. Murray's carries it, and if your neighborhood cheesemonger doesn't, go to the store and SCREAM REAL LOUD until you get what you want.

Newsfeed
My friend Chris Hall wrote and informed me that a newsfeed of my blog is available. I don't even know what that means, but he's convinced me it's important. So, I fudged some html, of which I know nothing about, and made a section in the right-hand column where you may obstensibly obtain the newsfeeds, either through rss or atom. Since I know nothing about this, I am relying on you, Gentle Readers, to let me know if it's working. Thanks! Now you can stay up-to-date on CHEESE.

The Continuing Adventures Of...
As I am writing this, I just received an email from Felix, our friend at MS Selection Export. As you recall, he's the man who set up an excellent cheese tasting for me last week at the food show. He wrote to thank me for writing, but I think he might be a little embarrassed at the attention he's getting from my blog post. He said next time he wouldn't talk so much, to which I said, "No, talk more!" So hopefully we'll get some more good cheese info and stories from our friend Felix.

Promotions
Yesterday I met with a friend who has a huge amount of experience managing musical acts and acting as an agent for performers. He gave me a lot of very good advice on promoting myself, and he helped me to make some very important realizations about myself and where I want to go with this cheese thing. So, in the next few days, I'm going to revamp almost everything, from my press release (still in production, not sent yet) to my approach, to my philosophy, to my website (pending), to EVERYTHING. Stay tuned.

The Cheese Hour, With Wendy M. Levy
I have a production company interested in creating/filming a television show about cheese, and guess who will be the star? No, not Ronald McDonald. ME! We're going to start storyboarding it so we can begin shooting a few demo episodes. Then we'll sell it to the Food Network, if they know what's good for them. The show is going to be very informative, but very amusing and entertaining. My personality is too large to be contained anymore. I will be the Cheese Queen of All Media. Sorry, Howard Stern. I can't tell you any more about it because I don't want to give away the store. So again, stay tuned.

Cheese On The Radio
Tomorrow I'm going to WFMU to do my weekly volunteer gig. While I'm there, I'll be stopping by Kenny G's show, Intelligent Design, to do my weekly cheese report. Kenny takes radio, puts it in his mouth, lets it settle onto his palate, spits it onto a plate, and then feeds it back to you. Just like what I do with cheese. Except I don't make you eat cheese I've already put in my mouth. Anyway, tomorrow, at some point from 3-6 pm, you can hear me and Kenny talking about this week's cheese, as well as other stuff we think of at the moment. So tune in to WFMU either on the internet or at 91.1 FM in the NYC area.

Dairy In The Garden
My friend Anne Saxelby, of Saxelby Cheesemongers, is hosting a benefit party on Saturday, and you should get tickets and attend! Anne has nominated the Evans Family, of the Evans Farmhouse Creamery, to the Terra Madre Slow Food Expo in Italy. To help them get there (because we all know farmers aren't the wealthiest folks in the world), she's throwing a big benefit garden party/tasting event, with delicious food prepared by some of the finest of the fine in the LES, and all recipes use Evans Farmhouse Creamery dairy products. Tickets are only 20 bucks, and include a fantastic presentation by an organization called "Added Value," based in Red Hook. I'll be there helping to take money and dish out the dairy. I hope you will be there, too. It's going to be in a community garden! What better place to be in the summer.

That's all for now.

Yours in Cheese,
-Wendy M. Levy, Caseophile

The Fancy Food Show - Part One

2006-07-10T22:59:00.000-04:00

It's hot outside, the moon is full and bright yellow, and July 4th is over.

Other than the full-moon part, that means only one thing:

It's time for the NASFT Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center!

This is my 3rd time going. The first time was in 2001, when I was working for a specialty food distributor in Vermont. I was completely overwhelmed, but in a good way.

The second time was in 2004, when I went with my Dad and Step-Mom. Yes, this is our type of family outing.

Last year I didn't go.

But this year, for the obvious reasons (new freelance career, decision that THIS is my life's work), I decided to go.

It was still overwhelming, but fun. A lot of it was frustrating and superfluous. Call me bitchy, but does the world really need more spice rubs for meat, or marinades for meat? Why not just better-quality meat, then we don't have to dump a bunch of crap all over it. And I am disillusioned with so much second-rate, processed food hiding under the umbrella of "gourmet." What the hell does "gourmet" mean, anyway? It's a meaningless term at this point, and I have all but excised it from my vocabulary.

One more rant about cheese, and then I'll get to the fun parts. Haven't we had enough Manchego?! As I walked through the Spanish aisles, eagerly anticipating discovering some cool Spanish cheeses I had yet to try, or at least chatting with folks who bring in such favorites as Ibores, Torta del Casar, Monte Enebro, Roncal, Campo del Montalban, etc., the only thing I found was Manchego. Manchego. Manchego. Manchego in wheels with brown wax, Manchego in wheels with yellow wax, Manchego cut up into triangles and shrink-wrapped onto little trays. Is there really such a demand for Manchego that every Spanish cheese importer feels the need to sell only that cheese?! Feh!

Okay. I'm better now. Thank you.

So here was one particularly fun highlight of the day:
I was wandering through the French aisles, and I happened upon the MS Export booth. I was looking into their case, thinking to myself, "Where's Felix? When will one of these aproned guys stop talking to people so I can ask them where Felix is?" I'm deep in this though when someone YELLS my name from behind me and scares the pants off me (oh wait, I don't wear pants). It's Felix!

When I get frightened, I sometimes laugh, so I laughed for a long time. Then we had a cheese tasting, just Felix and I.

Oh, but who is Felix? He is one of the sales reps for MS Export, and he's a very cool guy. He recently moved from France to NYC, and I know him because at my most recent f/t cheese job, he would bring cheeses to my manager to try to get her to carry them. She would invite me in on the tasting. Even though I had no official authority over what the place sold, my manager came to value my opinion (thanks, Olga!) and I think in some indirect way, I had a pretty big influence on her decisions. That makes me happy. So, once Felix understood how much of a cheese snob I am, he started bringing in cheeses he knew I'd like, with the hope that I'd give Olga a favorable review of them.

He and I really hit it off. He's probably about my age, and we both love cheese. 'Nuff said.

So, we were happy to see each other at the show. Felix knew I was no longer employed by the last place, but he still made me sit down for a private cheese tasting. There really was no business benefit to that; I'm in charge of purchasing for exactly nowhere. So his generosity and hospitality are even more thoughtful.

Here's what we ate:
Coeur Gourmand with Fig: This is one in a line of fresh goat chevres with a jam-filled center. Along with fig, there's also apricot, chestnut, and a few others I can't think of at the moment. These are made in Perigord, France, where most folks have fig and chesnut trees in their backyards. This is also the part of France where one can find truffles.

Coeur Gourmand are hand-made: a layer of curds are hand-ladled into the molds, then a spoonful of jam is placed in the center, then more curds are hand-spooned around the jam and on top of the jam, forming a nice little puck, probably about 4-6 oz. There is no rind, and the cheese is bright-white. It has a very clean taste; it's mild, sweet, and lightly buttery. No goatiness, but there's a hint of grassiness at the finish that says, "this is made from goat's milk."

I remarked to Felix that this would make a delightful breakfast cheese, and he literally jumped up off of his chair he was so happy to hear me say that. He explained that all during the show, when he'd sample this cheese to people, telling them of its suitability as a breakfast cheese, they wouldn't believe him and get a sort of disgusted look on their faces. What is wrong with these people?! This is why I have enjoyed talking with most French people I've met: we seem to understand each other when it comes to food. My Great-Great-(Maternal) Grandmother was French; perhaps this explains it. My Great-Great-(Maternal) Grandfather was Spanish. Perhaps this explains why I'm so pissed about Manchego. And I'm more German than anything, which explains everything else.

Next we tried Fromagerie Soreda's Gourmandise Soreda, which has absolutely nothing with "Gourmandise," the processed, cherry-flavored cheese from France (no, I'm not making that up). These are delightful fresh chevres from another Perigord chevre producer. Most fresh French chevre comes from the Loire Valley, as that's where the Saracens left their goats about eleven-hundred years ago. However, Perigord has some nice goat cheeses. These little chevres are molded into tiny balls and leaves. No rind, very fresh.

We tried one sprinkled with tarragon, which in French is "estragon." My goodness, it's as if tarragon and fresh chevre were made for one another. Last night I was reading an essay in Jeffrey Steingarten's second book, "It Must've Been Something I Ate," about why and how MSG works, and he said that there are many foods in the world that are like natural forms of MSG; they perform some sort of synergy, and enhance the savory qualities of other foods. Some seaweed falls into that category, as do sun-dried tomatoes and Parmigiano cheese. I say tarragon and chevre have that sort of relationship, as the tarragon magnifies all that's good about a very fresh chevre.

Next we tried one dusted with curry powder, which is another excellent companion for fresh chevre. It has the same effect, but not as synergistic (but pretty damn close); and whereas the curry powder provided a warming synergy, the tarragon gave it a cooling effect. This was a really fun discovery, and it still makes me happy to put something in action that I read only last night.

Next, Felix cut into a big, 500 gram wheel of St. Patrick. No, it's not Irish, and as far as I know, it does nothing to rid a land of snakes. It's a triple-creme from Bourgogne. Whereas most triple-cremes are covered with a bloomy rind, this one is fresh and naked. (Sounds like some of my old boyfriends. Oops!) This would make another delightful breakfast cheese, especially for those who believe the day should begin with protein and fat. It's creamy but not goopy, and rich but not heavy. I tasted a sort of minerally thing in the beginning, and that was followed by a lactic astringency, and the second-to-last flavor was faint horseradish, finishing with a balanced, salty tang and the slightest hint of mushroom. Nice.

Felix also broke out the Ossau-Iraty (AOC), this one is called Fromi. It's raw milk (Felix said he knew better than to bring out an aged, pasteurized cheese for me - aw, shucks!), and as is appropriate to its appellation, is from the Basque country. The Ossau-Iraty cheeses are one of my favorite cheese types: regardless of their age, so many of them have such a beautiful balance, delightful complexity, and a combination of flavors that creates a whole new flavor that I can't give a name to. Fromi was no exception.

Next up was Tomme du Fedou, another raw sheep cheese. In a perfect display of the difference terroir makes, this one was vastly different from Fromi. Fedou is from Causse Mejean, located between Roquefort and Auvergne. It's on a high plateau, and the terrain is better suited for shepherding than cattle-farming. Perhaps because it comes from a high elevation, I thought this cheese was almost like a grassier Alpine cow's milk cheese - it had very similar organoleptic qualities. Pretty amazing, considering it's sheep.

Felix told me the story of Tomme du Fedou: nine "back-to-the-land" sheep dairy farmers had been selling their sheep's milk to a dairy, where it was blended with inferior milk. These folks knew how special their sheep's milk was, so they decided to keep it and begin making cheese. Good choice, I'd say.

Next up was Langres, a classic French washed-rind from Champagne, covered in an orange, bloomy rind. Unlike most washed-rind cheeses, Langres is never turned during affinage, so the bottom stays moist and heavy. It's quite creamy and thick, not runny like many washed-rind cheeses. It's not mild, but its pungency is gentle enough that folks just starting out on washed-rind cheeses will find it easy to love. Langres is identifiable by the divot in the top, with a shape and size appropriate for holding a golf ball. That's not recommended; rather, custom dictates slicing an "x" into the concave divot, pouring a bit of Champagne into the cheese, and baking it for a few minutes. Goodness, I can only imagine.

The last cheese Felix presented was Gres de Vosges, a really fruity, beefy washed-rind from Bourgogne. It's made by a small producer who also makes Munster cheese and Gewurtztraminer wine. This one is oblong, and is covered with a sprig of fern, making a beautiful presentation. It's stronger than Langres, with a higher moisture content, making it run easier.

So in addition to all that other cool stuff, I learned something really awesome from Felix. Many of you are familiar with Tete de Moine, and the tool used to cut it into "flowers," the Girolle. Well, Felix told me that in French supermarkets, one can order Tete de Moine by the piece, or by the flower. Yes, they will make cheese flowers for you. But it gets better: Girolle is a name for a flowery-looking mushroom, just like the way the cheese looks when it's cut with the Girolle.

Next time I'll tell you how I met Ihsan from Formaggio Kitchen and Max McCalman - two cheese superheroes in one day!

Yours in Cheese,
-Wendy M. Levy

An Homage to Henry The Cheeseman

2006-07-07T23:31:00.000-04:00

Awhile back I promised more on my cheese mentor, Henry Tewksbury, aka Henry The Cheeseman. In some circles he may be better known by his nomme de cinema, Peter Tewksbury.

If you look him up on the imdb website, you'll see he wrote, directed, and produced quite a few movies and tv shows during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

But our story begins not in California, but in 1995, in a pleasant Vermont town called Brattleboro, in a pleasant food co-op known as The Brattleboro Food Co-Op. This place is not where I was born (NJ is where I'm from), but it is where The Caseophile was born, as it was there that I had my first cheesemonger job. Henry Tewksbury was the head of the cheese department at the time, and although I'm not sure if he ever understood the entirety of his meaning to me, Henry was, is, my mentor. I've learned a ton about cheese since then, but none of my friends, bosses, fellow cheesemongers, etc., have meant as much to me as Henry. Dondi Ahearn holds spot number 2, but for all Dondi's sweetness, passion, and wisdom, Henry will always be The One.

When I first started working for Henry, someone told me of his Hollywood past. I had no idea. Being a naturally blunt and curious person, I went to work and asked him about it. Now, Henry generally was a cheerful fellow, able to smile through, or ignore, quite a bit. A few things rankled him, though. At that point, I learned one of them. When I inquired about his Hollywood life (and at that point I hardly knew any of the details), he got very gruff, and answered me rather shortly: "That's in the past!"

Oh. Sorry.

A few years later, however, he could no longer hide his horrible past. The New York Times, of all people, came to do a story on him, specifically about an early-1960s TV show he directed that had achieved cult status: "It's A Man's World." The lid was off, and the article, appearing on January 14, 2001 (the Sunday edition, for those of you keeping track at home), outed Henry as the Hollywood ex-pat he was. Now it was out. The Elvis movies, My Three Sons, Father Knows Best, Disney...

Our Henry? Our good-natured Cheeseman? He hardly seemed like the Hollywood asshole type. Perhaps that's why we had him, and they lost him.

Once the article appeared, I suppose Henry decided to roll with it, because he became much more chatty about his past. Now he still played it close to the vest regarding his personal life, (for instance, twice I asked him how many children he had, and here were the answers I received: "Too many," and, "A whole basket-full." The actual answer is 6.) but from then on, you could ask him and not get a growling refusal. In fact, once he offered, with no prompting, a story about what a good time he had in Germany filming "Emil and The Detectives," a Disney t.v. film released in 1966.

I asked him how he got from there to here, and the answer is pretty simple: he wanted out of the Hollywood life, and through various adventures, he found his way to Brattleboro. Although he was rather private about his life, he was still a good storyteller who often couldn't resist, and even before his horrible past was revealed, he seemed to take delight in telling me of his "16 careers," including running a school, providing voice acting for cartoons, raising cows, being a sportscaster on the radio (pre-television), and I think selling furniture, if my memory serves me.

Henry was someone who seemed to need a project, who couldn't stand to be bored, and this, in addition to the passion he brought to cheese, is what makes him my mentor, even though it's in absentia, because we lost Henry in 2003.

At the time I began working for him, the Vermont artisan-made cheese movement was just starting. This was 1995, when Cindy and David Major had only been making VT Shepherd for 2 years. (wow.) A lot of the cheese we carried is what I now consider to be commodity cheeses, as they are mass-produced in factories. But then, that was pretty much all we had, and it was all new and exciting to me.

But, whenever there was word of a new local cheesemaker, Henry made sure to sell their cheeses. And whenever there was word of something exciting coming from abroad, Henry made sure we had it.

I had only been working at the cheese counter for a few weeks when one night, an hour or two before closing, two fellows from Neal's Yard Dairy showed up to talk to me about farmstead cheese. They probably wanted to talk to Henry, but I was the only one there, so in-between helping customers and cutting and wrapping Finlandia Swiss, I looked at big pictures of cows and delighted in cheese-related conversation with charming Englishmen. At the time, I thought we were just having a nice visit. In hindsight, this was one of those pivotal moments that hooked me, because there were stories behind these wheels and blocks of cheese. (I was a Sociology major. I needed stories to make sense of the world.)

Henry was perhaps the first authority figure in my life who displayed a strong sense of fairness, compassion, and patience. We weren't his employees. We were human beings who had families, school, health concerns, and a need for full lives. He understood when "something came up" and I couldn't be at the cheese counter. Because when I was there, which was for the better part of 8 years, I was more "there" than anywhere else I'd been in my life. I wanted to taste every cheese. When I was cutting something, I leaned down and smelled it. This was during the days before mandatory gloves, and I wanted to touch every cheese, to understand its texture. (Henry hated gloves, and fought very hard to exempt us from having to wear them. His arguments are valid: people follow less strict sanitary practices when they are wearing gloves, because gloves give off the sometimes false impression of cleanliness. Frequent hand-washing is a better practice. Alas, he lost that battle.)

Henry wasn't a mean person, and he was perhaps the best-known and -loved person in the area because of his bright and friendly nature, but he would not take any bullshit whatsoever, and when a voice needed to be raised, he'd raise it. But those were rare occurences, and when they happened, we who were under him whispered about it for weeks. Usually the outrage was directed toward the co-op's upper management and their ill-advised mandates. This only made us cheesemongers appreciate Henry further. He had unmistakable leadership qualities, but he himself seemed to have little respect for self-proclaimed authority figures who had done little to earn that power.

I don't want to get too much into Henry's passing, because it's still hard for me to deal with. I was on the road to New Orleans at the time, and I missed his funeral. I am still having a hard time forgiving myself for not turning around and driving back up to VT to pay my last respects.

But I did pay my respects at the Society of St. Anne's March to the Mississippi River on Mardi Gras Day, during a yearly ritual for that very thing: to remember those who we've lost in the past year. I had one copy of Henry's last Weekly Cheese Bulletin with me - when I heard Henry died (but before his funeral was announced), I frantically went into the co-op to see if I could get a copy of it. I got one, because I knew I was going to New Orleans and I knew I was marching with St. Anne's, and I knew I might have only had that opportunity to pay my respects to Henry.

I wrote him a little note on the back of his last bulletin, the one where he complained about having to type the thing with one hand because something had gone wrong with the other hand. (The problem with his hand was the result of a stroke. It took more than that to keep Henry from doing what he loved.) When we went to the River, I got up to the front of the line, so I was as close to the river as the bottom step would allow me. I took the paper from my bag, I read it to myself one more time, and I placed it on the surface of the water. The River carried it somewhere. Hopefully somewhere where Henry could read it.

I didn't take two copies of Henry's last bulletin. That's another regret I have.

Yours in Cheese,
-Wendy M. Levy

Trips and Quick Cheese

2006-07-06T23:45:00.000-04:00

Cheese Excursion

Today I visited three more cheese-related places.

Murray's on Bleecker St.
I used to work there. If anyone happens by either shop (Bleecker or Grand Central), go in and read the signs; I wrote the copy for 98% of them, cheese and non-cheese, give or take a few. The way you can tell which ones are mine is very easy: the good ones are mine, the "eh" ones were written by someone else. haha.

I may do some freelance work with them in the near future. That would be fun. I miss a lot of things about that store. I appreciate and respect their contributions to the world of cheese, and I'd love to work with them again, but on a consultant/freelance basis, as that is my life now. I also miss some of the people who work there. I had a lot of fun with my co-workers, and I'd love to see more of them. Just not every day. Ah, the life of the freelancer.

Right now Murray's is doing a really cool "Tour de France" promo: they are following the Tour's progress vis-a-vis cheese. How's that? Well, they promote a daily cheese that comes from the current location of the Tour. Are the bicyclists in Bourgogne? Then Murray's will feature Epoisses, et al. I think it's a cute idea. I don't see it on the website, but you can find it in the store.

Balducci's
I finally went to see what all the fuss is about at the new Balducci's store on 8th and 14th. The store is very nice. The space is weird, though. Since it's in the old bank building, it has HIGH vaulted ceilings. The square footage of the store isn't small, but the height of the ceiling makes the sales floor seem smaller than it really is. It's a weird effect. Check it out and let me know if you feel it, too.

Anyway, it's a lovely store - almost cathedral-like in its light and air. They have some interesting food items that I haven't seen anywhere else. The meat case looked fresh and well-maintained. The cheese department was fairly comprehensive, but I wanted it to be a little more imaginative. Mind you, I'm The Cheese Snob. I wanted to see cheese I'd never seen before. But that's a lot to ask considering my pedigree. So, I mean that as no slight at all. Most folks who shop there are probably very happy with their selection, as it is pretty big. I'd just like to see more artisan-made cheeses and less of the commodity basics. I'm so jaded. I know.

Their signage needs help. They need me. More on that later.

Whole Foods - Union Square
Yes, it's taken me this long to go there. Part of my reason has to do with my support of the Union Square Greenmarket. And I haven't even been there this year! (Hello, new schedule. Hooray, new schedule.) Anyway, I wanted to see what they were up to, because I know most Whole Foods have a decent cheese department.

My friend Brian works at the Chelsea Whole Foods (stop by and say hello to him), so I've been to that one quite a few times. I hate to break the news to Brian, but the Union Square cheese department is MUCH nicer. The selection is better, and the cheeses look better taken care of.

Their signage is pretty good. I might go back and grill their counter people to determine if they know enough about cheese. If they don't, I will swoop in.

Quick Cheese Quotes

Last week I received two very funny cheese-related comments.

The first was from my former co-worker, Larry Zilko. He's the Computer Commander at Zabar's. As seems to be with most Computer Commanders, he is odd and funny. If there is an odd question that stumps me, Larry has usually asked it. We were talking about lactose intolerance, whey, and ricotta cheese. I was explaining that when cheese is made, the curds clump together and the whey drains off. Larry asked me what happens to the whey, and I told him some people drink it, it's sometimes reheated to make ricotta, or it's thrown away. So, here's Larry's million-dollar question that made me laugh so hard I promised I'd put it in this blog:
"Is it called 'whey' because you throw it away?"

Later on that day, I was talking on the phone with my friend Marc Kehoe, an incredible artist and designer. We were talking about our respective states that day, and both of us were feeling rather sleepy. Marc is given to making almost lysergic pronouncements now and again, and this was his offering on that tired day:
"I wish I had a nap pillow filled with Gorgonzola. It would have a straw coming out of it, so when I wake up from my nap, I could have Gorgonzola cheese go right into my mouth."

I can't top that. So I won't even try.

Yours in Cheese,
-Wendy M. Levy

Exploding Cheese

2006-07-05T21:02:00.000-04:00

Cheese on Vacation
I'm back from vacation. Of course I brought cheese with me. I didn't eat it all, because I wanted to make sure I had something to eat when I got home.
Here's what I brought:

Aged Gruyere - classic Alpine from Switzerland. Raw cow's milk. Nutty, fruity, with a little barnyard for good measure.
Pecorino Crotonese - one of those Italian sheep's milk cheeses that needs to get as much, if not more, attention than Pecorino Toscano and Pecorino Romano. Robust and savory, with a tanginess that reminds me of the smell of tomato plants.
Fromagerie Soreda Taupiniere w/Paprika - not all French chevres come from the Loire Valley. This one is from Perigord; yup, that's truffleville. Nice fresh chevre shaped like a mole hill, dusted with paprika. It's one of those fresh chevres that will make you swear off the acrid, vac-packed mush that passes for chevre in too many places.
Monte Enebro - lots of cheesemongers list this Spanish goat as one of their favorites. Sadly, it was unavailable for about 6 months. I need to learn more about its seasonality - was that the issue, or was the FDA being a pest again? Anyway, this is a semi-aged goat cheese, in the shape known as pata de mulo (leg of the mule), is covered with a beautiful array of molds, giving it a dry, piquant flavor and a striking appearance.
Chabichou - speaking of the Loire Valley, this is one of those French chevres that serves as a reliable standby for cheese snobs. This time of the year they get good (starting in late-Spring, really), as the goats are on the browse and out of the barn, where all they ate was blah silage all winter. Chabichou is a thin barrel, just a few inches tall. The exterior is a wrinkled, ivory-colored rind, looking sort of like brains. As it matures, the flaky, moist paste firms up, and turns from fresh and lactic to assertive and minerally.

I think that's it.

***

Cheese Excursion
Today I took a trip down to Essex St. Market on the LES of NYC. I had never been there, but I had three reasons for going today: cheese, cheese, and cheese.

1. Cheese: My friend and former co-worker, Anne Saxelby, opened Saxelby Cheesemongers a few months ago.

Anne and I worked together at Murray's, and she and I both went out on our own to do big cheese-related things. I had yet to visit her, and since going to the beach was out of the question today (thunderstorms and sunbathing are a bad combo), I decided to see what she was up to.

What a great shop she has! Anyone who thinks American cheese consists solely of orange slabs individually ensconced in plastic needs to take the F to Delancey and hop over to see Anne. Her store offers the best of artisan-made American cheeses.

Hey people, yesterday was Independence Day! Isn't that reason enough to see Anne and get some USA fromage?

No? Okay, how about Square Cheese from Vermont's Twig Farm: an aged goat tomme (yes, it's square-shaped) with a rind just like Garrotxa. Anne and I could think of no other cheese with that rind anywhere in the world, and we're puzzled by how Twig Farm did it. Think of the just-sprouted antlers of a young deer, and the short-napped fur surrounding those antlers, and that's the feel of the battleship-grey, moldy rind surrounding Twig Farm's Square Cheese. It's damn savory, too, tasting as if the goats got into the onion patch.

Anne also has dairy products from the Evans Family Farm, organic since 1999. Go to her website for more info on a benefit she's putting on to send The Evanses to the Slow Food convention in Italy. And go to the benefit party! I'll be there.

2. Cheese: Essex St. Cheese Co. is the creation of Daphne Zepos and Jason Hinds.

Cheese cognoscenti may recognize Zepos from her previous post as Director of Affinage at Artisanal. Anyone who has ever enjoyed farmhouse cheeses from the British Isles should give thanks to Hinds, as he directed the export division of Neal's Yard Dairy. Not a bad pair, eh?

They've teamed up to bring fantastic Comte to the USA. Comte is one of the most popular cheeses in France, and it's made only from the raw milk of Montbeliard cows. It's in the Alpine family - think nutty, sweet, savory, fruity, milky, mmm - and it's close cousins with Gruyere. I believe Essex St's Comte is aged about 18 months. Daphne and Jason are selling it retail and wholesale out of their shop at Essex St, but when I went there, they were closed. Maybe they were in Jura. I'll go back again and see them.

3. Cheese: My friend and former co-worker, Chris Munsey (another caseophile), told me that Ihsan, the owner of the formidable Formaggio Kitchen (Cambridge, Mass.) is opening a cheese shop at Essex St.

I wasn't sure if it was open, and when I got to Essex St., I found out that not only was it open (about 2 weeks now), but it also is in today's NYTimes Food Section. Max Shrem, the manager of the Essex St shop, is shown in the picture, towering over the cheeses.

The shop has an excellent Laguiole, a Reggiano only they import (it's explosively fruity, like perfect, ripe berries), and a lovely cheese I've never heard of called Vermont Ayre. It's cow's milk, and reminiscent of Tomme de Savoie. Very nice. It's made in Whiting, Vermont, which is in Addison County, and is located sorta kinda by Middlebury. (An aside: I left Vermont in 2003. Since then, there's been an explosion - yes, there's that word again - of artisan cheesemakers in the state. Every time I turn around, there's a new farmstead cheese from a new Vermont farmstead cheesemaker. I'm so happy! Go to The Vermont Cheese Council's webpage and track down every single one of those cheeses. Yes, that's an order.)

Max is very friendly, sweet, and helpful. He'll let you try all sorts of cheeses, and I even got a sample of German Speck while I was there. No, it's not cheese, it's cured meat. The shop is small, but well-maintained, and their variety of fine cheeses and other hard-to-find foods is impressive.

***

Cheese Explosion
Cheese really is exploding. Not as in "bomb" but as in "rocket." Per capita consumption in the US is hovering somewhere around 31 lbs. per year. (Some perspective: in France, it's about 50 lbs per capita.) The trade papers report that not only is there an increase in cheese consumption in general, but there's an increase in consumption of imported and artisan-made cheeses.

This is good news for The Caseophile and my ilk. This is a good time to be in cheese, especially in NYC. In the past few years, I've met a handful of passionate, dedicated cheese people, many of them around my age (32). There's definitely an Old Guard and a New Guard, and lots of cheese-related wisdom is being passed down from the Old Guard, and a lot of passion is being passed up from the New.

I think it's time for us NY-based Cheesemongers to band together. I propose forming The New Amsterdam Cheesemonger's Guild. What will our purpose be? To promote excellent cheese, to provide a support network, and to have a hell of a good time doing it. Who's with me?

Yours In Cheese,
-Wendy

Shameless Self-Promotion

2006-06-28T01:28:00.000-04:00

Hi Cheese Pals,

I haven't forgotten about you and the cheese. I've been heavily involved in a major volunteer project, and work. I work with cheese, so it's okay.

Anyway.

Kenny G posted an entry about my cheese party on the WFMU "Beware of the Blog." Please follow the link and check it out. And make sure you listen to Kenny's show, Intelligent Design. And make sure you listen to the archive of my cheese party show!

I might not have too much time to post until next week, so don't be sad. Eat more cheese and read Steve Jenkins' book "The Cheese Primer" between now and next Wednesday. It'll prepare you for what's to come.

And a BIG thank you to Monica, Alex, and Ben for commenting. I will address your comments soon.

Yours In Cheese,
-Wendy

p.s. - If you click on the title of this entry, it will take you to the WFMU blog entry. If you click on the title "Cheese + WFMU + Me = Fun" or whatever it is I wrote, it'll take you right to the archive for the show. I just figured this out, so I thought you might not know.

Cheese + WFMU = Fun

2006-06-23T00:18:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday, I not only kicked off summer, but I kicked off my new venture as proprietor of Caseophile Creative Services, by making a special appearance on Kenny G's show "Intelligent Design" on The Freeform Station of the Nation, WFMU. Kenny's show is 3 hours, and I was on during the last hour. Listen to the whole thing, though. There's good stuff in there.

Kenny is an enthusiastic caseophile himself, and he hosted the show while many members of the WFMU staff (and friends) stopped by for what is probably the first cheese party to ever happen on the radio.

(If it's the "first" of something, especially the first of something cheese-related, I want to break it in, so I owe a BIG "thank you" to Kenny for inviting me to be on his show.)

Station Manager Ken Freedman provided engineering services, and a few people even called in with questions.

For some reason, lots of people wanted to know if cheese can be made from human milk, and the milk of all sorts of animals whose milk is not normally used in cheesemaking. The answer is simple: if it's a mammal, you can milk it. If you can milk it, you can make cheese. Of course some animals' milks are better suited to certain types of cheesemaking, depending on the quality of the protein, fat, etc., but it's certainly possible to make cheese from any milk.

Someone asked, "What about snakes?" and I think it was Station Manager Ken who reminded us that milking snakes involves drawing the venom from the snakes' fangs. I added that this would not only not make cheese, but not make good cheese, as it's essentially poison.

I had a great time. I love being on the radio (I used to be on radio free brattleboro a long time ago), and I think this might be the first time I mixed radio with cheese. Oh wait, that's not true. Once, on my old show, "Phrenology Today," a listener called in and said she liked to eat Cambozola with potato chips. Makes sense when you think about it.

Anyway, please follow the link to Kenny's archive of the show, and while you listen, you can play along at home by going out and getting the following cheeses and eating them in this exact order. I brought 9 cheeses, and I tried to bring a good sampling of different varieties, not just representing different animals and countries, but different categories, such as Ossau-Iraty, Alpine, thistle-renneted, etc. The order was a little tricky, especially with that many cheeses, but here they are, in order of appearance:
Paglietta
Capra Valtellina
Monte Enebro
Pleasant Ridge Reserve
Comte 18-Month
Izarou, Ossau-Iraty
La Serena (The Spanish one, not the California one)
Abbaye de Belval
Bleu du Bocage

Pretty soon, Kenny is going to post a story about our cheese party on WFMU's "Beware of the Blog." So when that happens, I'll post the link. Then you'll get the descriptions of all of the cheeses, too, so you can listen, eat, and read along. I told you I'm a full-service Caseophile.

Thanks again, Kenny G!

Yours in Cheese,
-Wendy

An Introduction Is Always Good

2006-06-22T00:16:00.000-04:00

After a great deal of prodding by supportive friends and colleagues, I am finally starting my own Cheese Blog.

I've seen some food blogs out there. Some are interesting and funny; however, I haven't seen any written by actual food professionals. Is it because we're all too busy to sit down and write? Pshaw! I'm a writer. If I can't sit down and write a cheese blog, there's something wrong.

So here's my story:
September 1995, Brattleboro, Vermont. I'm about to go back to school after my summer break. (For those of you keeping score at home, I graduated from Marlboro College.) I need a job. All summer, I'd been working in the produce department at The Brattleboro Food Co-Op. There weren't enough hours for me there, so I asked my manager what I should do. Her answer: "I hear Henry needs some help in the cheese department." So, I go to Henry and say: "Hi Henry, I hear you need some help in the cheese department. I need some hours. I know nothing about cheese other than I like to eat it." Henry's response: "Well, My Dear, there's no better place to start."

From then on, I was hooked. See, I'm a nerd. And all nerds need something about which to be nerdily obsessed. I didn't like computers back then (I didn't even really know what they were), Science Fiction burned my fingers, there weren't enough record stores in town to satiate that lust, and my math skills are excellent up until Algebra. Oh, and I am not really into Star Trek. What's a nerd to do? I found cheese.

A few months after I began working in the cheese department, I was, uh... in bed with a boy I was... uh, "seeing." (I'm trying to keep this clean, okay?) After we were... uh, I mean, when we were just, um, lying there, I started talking to him about all the exciting new cheeses I had discovered. Yes. In bed with a hot boy, talking about cheese. That's me. He was very nice about the whole thing. I think he liked it.

Anyway.

Since September 1995, I've tried working at other, non-cheese-related jobs. It never worked. I always had to at least put a few hours per diem in the cheese department, like when someone was sick or on vacation. Eventually I'd give up the non-cheese job completely, and return to my Casa de Queso, my home in the cheese department. For some time, I even ran my own cheese department in another store, and that took some hard work, because when I took it over, it was a whole lotta nuthin'. But I poked and prodded, and when I left, the department had the second highest sales of all departments in the store, second only to the wine department. (And this was Vermont - what else were people doing other than boozing it up? haha.)

And it was at that job that I discovered how much fun it is to write about cheese. I had no full-service case (it was a small-ish store), and I was bringing in a lot of new cheeses, so I needed to find a way to tell everyone what they were all about. I had a good relationship with a salesman at one of our distributors, and he was a caseophile, too. He would give me lots of information about the cheeses, and what he couldn't tell me, I looked up in Steve Jenkins' book, "The Cheese Primer." Using this information, as well as what I already knew, I wrote a weekly (or so) Cheese Bulletin. I listed new cheeses, including information and uses. I also brought up one cheese-related topic every week, such as raw vs. pasteurized, different categories of cheese, etc. I put them in a stack in front of the cheese case, and the store's cashiers put them in people's shopping bags. The staff read them, too. And people enjoyed them, asked when the next one was coming out, and voila, my sales went way up. It was a fun time.

There's more to the story, but "make them wait, make them come back for more" is not only a good philosophy for aging cheese, but a good philosophy for life.

Next time I'll tell you about Henry. I mentioned him earlier in this post, so if you are thinking "Henry who?" then you haven't read carefully enough. Go back and re-read this post so next time you are prepared.

Thanks.
Yours in Cheese,
Wendy