The Great Cheese Quest

A Year of Cheese Sandwiches

2009-03-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post. I had to share this! 52 weeks of gourmet sandwiches. That's right a whole year of gorgeous, cheese inspired, DIY delicacies. Thanks for the inspiration Fromagesdici.com!

Bush Leaves Nasty Cheese Situation for President Obama

2009-01-22T08:10:00.000-08:00

Politics and Cheese clash again. In his last week in office, George W. Bush was not as idle as you'd imagine. Au contraire! He had just enough time to triple the tax on Roquefort cheese imported from France. The UK Telegraph reports that José Bové has threatened to take symbolic action against America. Doesn't seem like much of a threat? Do you remember the 1999 incident of a McDonalds in France being dismantled bolt by bolt (ny times)? That was when Roquefort tax doubled. And yep, that was Bové.
French government has promised to take action; possibly in the form of a similarly symbolic coca-cola tax. But first, lets try a bit of bribery: The Obama's can expect a 4.5 pound package of the pungent cheese. "Michel Barnier, the Agriculture Minister, has urged Obama to reverse the roquefort decision and head off another French campaign against the symbols of US fast food. 'I hope that he will avoid mediocre little measures like the one just taken against roquefort,' Barnier said."(times online). Could that sentence even be said with out a French accent and a slight dismissive wave of the hand?

More Objects Covered in Cheese:

2009-01-19T11:21:00.000-08:00

Just a quick link-and-run...but this is follow up to my last post: cheese room. Isn't it weird how suddenly I'm seeing all sorts of things covered in cheese? Is this some new fad? Or is it like learning a new vocabulary word and then suddenly you hear it everywhere?

(comic from Subnormality)

Hotel Room Covered in Cheese

2009-01-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

It's called art (formerly known as cheese). This is an older piece by Cosimo Cavallaro. You may have heard of his "Chocolate Jesus" that gained a fair bit of infamy but "Cheese Room" and other works like the "Ham Bed" seemed to fall below the attention of major news networks.
Usually I'd be saddened by the waste of delicious dairy-ness...but this doesn't look appetizing at all. And if it is indeed the industrial strength cheese whiz it appears to be, then, in my opinion, it was never edible to begin with. In fact, Jesus may be the only consumable looking thing Cavallero has made out of food. His "Candy Chair" looks downright toxic. And the "Ham Bed"...makes my stomach roll. I'm not even linking it. If you're so desperate to get ill you'll have to google it on you own.

Ceramic Jar Blue Stilton

2009-01-12T08:44:00.001-08:00

I've got this incredible spread laid out in front of me...and darned if my camera isn't out of batteries. My lunch consists of a mini baguette, a handful of almonds, a stunningly aromatic tropical green tea and the pièce de résistance: Oxford Cheese company's ceramic jar Blue Stilton. (Thanks to my Aunt Meri for sending this gem from the UK)

It's a little clay crock decorated with an old fashioned blue etched landscape. Pop the lid off and there is a thick bit of wax sealing in cheese itself. This stilton has the familiar hard kicking tang, but it doesn't go straight for the tonsils. It's just classier than that. It makes me think of walnuts and lemons. And the texture is..frustratingly perfect balance of moist yet hinting about crubblyness. I'm thinking "Maybe its the compression of the pot environment?" but its hard to think because the spoon is back in my mouth and I'm drifting away on lemon tang again.
I'll post pictures of the pot when I get new batteries...I'm not guaranteeing they'll be any cheese left by then. In the mean time here is a picture of the Oxford Cheese Comapny shop, sole producer of this blue stilton.

President Brie Log

2008-12-23T06:12:00.000-08:00

So, I was asked to try out the President Brie Log...and I gotta say I was nervous. I mean, any food with the words "log" or "ring" bring frightening flashbacks of 1970's appetizers (take one pound of processed cheese food, add 1 can pimentos, shape and serve!!).
I picked a quiet morning; grabbed a pear, a knife, my cheese log, and settled in. After all, I've had regular president brie so I imagined I knew what to expect. But I took one bite and I lept straight up. It was good! No. It was fantastic! There was no way I could eat this by myself. (child development textbooks talk about toddlers "spontaneous sharing of enjoyment" response...guess that never goes away :). I immediately went into a mini frenzy of activity. I rewrapped the brie in wax paper and set it aside for the dinner guests that were, conveniently, coming over that night. And then I scurried off to get water crackers...Ooo and my mom's homemade peach chutney was a perfect match! I haven't been this excited about sharing a cheese since that irish cheese which involved having to recite a long tale about widows and rare cow breeds.
As dinner approached I got more whipped up. Would my guests find the President Brie Log to be everything I did? I mean, here I was, a certifiable cheese snob, serving a cheese that you can find in most supermarkets. (Ooo, but isn't that the holy grail of cheese hunting? Finding the cheese that both novices and gourmets can enjoy, that's resonably priced, and easy to find??) When they finally arrived it was obvious I had had nothing to fear. The brie log was the talk of the evening (lasting far longer than the cheese itself, which was entirely descimated in record time - by just the four of us!). I felt postively glazed in hostess-with-the-mostess praise.
So here's my advice: try this cheese! Creamy, immenetly approachable, absolute bliss to pair with other hors d'oeuvres... this cheese is fail safe. There just is no reason not to have this cheese. Hmm, on that note I better bring some for christmas dinner.
Link: President Cheese Website

Cheese Economy Troubles

2008-10-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

AHHHhhhh!! Quick, everyone panic! More economics crisis in the cheese industry! Parmigiano-Reggiano prices plummet below the cost to actually produce the cheese. And the proposed solution? According to Cookthink: "The Italian government has approved an OPEC-like plan that will let cheesemakers pull 100,000 wheels of cheese off the market in an attempt to drive the wholesale price back up."
Sigh. We already knew it time to tighten our belts... usually that means more pasta nights and less going out. But now even our mac and cheese will have less cheese. Well, time to scrap the plans for Lobster Mac N' Cheese. Time to get lean and mean with the cheese. Lovely photo of huervos rancheros...with like, a nano dusting of orange cheddar...

Australian Coon Cheese

2008-10-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what to say here... mostly because topics of this nature are really hard to phrase without sounding like you're a terrible person. But here I go: Coon Cheese, the processed sliced cheese that's a staple of Australian lunches, has come under fire because of its name.
I ran across this cheese a few years ago and had a quick giggle ('bout the same giggle as "tinned spotted dick" earned). But I kind of assumed that "coon" was not a bad word in Australian english because...well, that cheese has been around for a while and still sells off the shelves of respectable supermarkets. I guess I'm not up on my Australian racial slurs or current environment of racial equality/inequality. Here's a quick summary of the name debate from NBR.
Oddly enough this isn't the only racial food issue I've run across in the last week. A large number of mom-bloggers are getting riled up about the commercials championing high fructose corn syrup. For health reasons? Sure. (yes, i do have the facts) But the real rise comes from feelings that racial overtones are present in one of the commercials. See the commercial here. Black moms apparently have no problem feeding kids jugs o' sugar water. Does seem amusingly close to Dave Chapelle's grape drink riff...

Canadian Cheesemakers Suffer Financial Blow

2008-10-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

After a listeria outbreak Quebec's agricultural ministry went on a rampage confiscating and destroying thousands of pounds of locally produced cheese. Cheese producers and retailers suffered considerable financial losses and the government will not be compensating them because seizure was for public health and safety(aol news canada).
The outbreak began early September, with 1 death and 14 hospitalizations in Quebec and the Public Health Agency of Canada website said that, nation wide, there were 38 confirmed listeria cases, 20 suspected and 13 confirmed deaths (cbc news canada).
11 cheeses were recalled including:
Le Rang des Iles
Le 14 Arpents
Les Petits Vieux
Le Gédéon
Le Médard
Le Couventine
Le Cabrouet
Les Cailles
Le Fleur de Lysé
Le Fou du Roi
Le Rassembleu
Some claim that the government went overboard and some cheese was destroyed unnecessarily before being tested for listeria contamination. Quebec's ombudsman initiated an investigation into the handling of the listeria crisis.

(Side note: Remember listeria isn't just for the unpasteurized cheeses! Check out the 2006 US cheese recall.)

Pot O' Gold Grilled Brie

2008-09-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

I'm sooo hungry I can barely type. Look at this absolutely gorgeous idea from the Hostess with the Mostess. Grilled Brie with french bread ready to dip into the heart of the gooey circle.

Ingredients:

1 Baguette (French Bread), pide (flat Turkish bread) or ciabatta loaf (slipper-shaped sourdough loaf)
2 large cloves garlic, peeled
Small camembert or brie cheeses (1 per person), at room temperature

Directions:

1. Slice the baguette, pide or ciabatta and toast pieces over a barbecue grill rack. As they are done rub them, one at a time, with a whole garlic clove. Season with a little sea salt, then stack them one on top of the other and set aside.

2. Place the cheeses on an oiled grill rack over medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes or until lightly colored, then turn them over carefully and cook on the other side for a few minutes until cheeses feel soft and runny when gently squeezed around the waist. Carefully transfer cheeses to individual serving plates. To eat, make a shallow cut on top of cheese and party peel back skin. Dunk bread in melted cheese and go for it!

I Hate The Top Ten

2008-09-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

(Beware: Internet Jargon Ahead)
I hate "Top Ten" lists. They are just under researched bits of common clap trap shoved into an easy to scan bullet list with the primary goal of generating site traffic. "Top Ten Cheeses I Ate Last Week" "Top Ten Celebrity Snarks" "Ten Celebrities Who Snark About My Cheese Habit" Yuck! Who is filing up my internet with drivel??
However, thanks to the rise in social networks with link swapping agendas I can vote on things I believe to be unworthy of the net. So I do my best to Stumble "thumbs down", or "antiDigg" anything "article" that sports that lethal combo of trivial info and bullet points. Uh...except for this one: 10 Best English Cheeses of the South. I feel a certain chill in linking to a top ten list...(akin to the cold sweat I associate with forwarding a chain letter) but this list has got my attention.
Take number for 4 for example. Old Smales. I've never eaten. I just heard about it..."sits between Parmesan and an old Gouda" complete with crunch crystals (Oooo). And Mike Smales is a bit of locavore champion. He was awarded a grant in 2006 to champion local food to public sector organizations. A good cheese, a good story and a good cause. If the rest of this list that good, I maybe forced to eat my hat along with my cheese.

Kraft Turns Cheese Waste into Energy

2008-09-25T08:11:00.000-07:00

I just caught this article on Greenbiz.com Kraft is going to be converting the whey leftover from cheese making into an energy source that will provide 1/3 of their energy needs! Wow, I gotta say...whey-ta go Kraft!! You have my full support; I'll be having bagels and cream cheese for lunch. :)

The Cheese Calls to Me

2008-09-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the world drags me kicking and screaming back to the keyboard. I've tried to do other things. But cheese has a way of turning up and it's so hard to ignore. Its comic timing, its fascinating quirks... it curls its finger at me and I have to know: Ooo, what is that?
Occasionally I wonder if cheese is stalking me....
Walking home from work:

Looking for that drum kit app for my iphone:

Where did this picture even come from??:

And while watching TV; it was a cake design competition...and it was shaped like a cheese. Can I seek refuge in Movies? Nope, foam cheese hats (oo i want it!!) appeared in "Outsourced".
Alright! I give in! I will look at the cheesey goodness! I will cook the frighteningly good looking recipes on Rustico Cooking. I will try to make my own lemon cheese because how can I resist when someone casually says "oh I have a pasturizer in my basement". (Notice how that lemon cheese recipe is on a japanese cooking site, and that Japanese cuisine is not noted for cheese. More proof that cheese is stalking me.)
Of course, now that I've given in to the cheese urge again I suppose I'm doomed. I may as well see if theres more info on Klingon Minn'Hor cheese...

Passionate Cheese Writer

2008-08-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

No matter your passion, you should be able to find compatriots who's hearts also beat to the same drum. But it's a truly special day when some one says the words that encompass the high points of your particular obsession. Barry Neild rocked my world in his article "Cycling Tour de Cheese" particularly with this line: "This was vintage Cantal de Montagne: The putrescent spoil that is the dark destiny of all life on our planet perfectly rendered in cheese form."
My chin started to quiver. Here, yes, is someone who feels that cheese is more than just a knobby bit of dried milk. More than a quirky regional delicacy. More than a hunk of emerald found in the grocers banged up tin discount bin. Nield has managed to capture the magic in cheese; the stories that spring to mind while contemplating a bloomy rind, a weeping edge.
Sometimes eating cheese is like dating: close, closest, not chance...(Ooo, just this once for the experience!) Some cheeses are femme fetales that bowl you over with musk and hedonism, and others are orphan Heidis happy and pure in their alpine fields. Other cheeses wrench old memories from the smells of things I remember: cedar forrests, soft earth, hauntings, humid wool, burnt rice. Truly to eat cheese is to travel; bicycle not required.

American Cheese Sucks (And It's Europes Fault)

2008-08-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

Ever notice that "American Cheese" is synonymous with bland, plastic scented cheese? Could it really be that we, as a country, can not make processed cheese without destroying out all that is good and tasty? And if it's so bad... (and you know that it is) why do we keep making it? Well, apparently because it sells.
According to the Cattle Network (Ha ha, no, that's not social commentary on current television offerings), "January [2008] through June [2008] cheese exports were 156.5 million pounds, 48% more than a year ago". Why would anyone buy this terrible stuff, and in greater volumes than before?
Well, it turns out cheese made in America isn't as bad as "American Cheese". We are victims of slander dating back to the 1800's.
"Lesson of a bit of cheese", The New York Times: 8, December 9, 1878. "There are other important lessons which the fair closed on Saturday will suggest to the practical men. One of them is that the best grades of American cheese should enter the foreign market and our own with an American label, not as spurious Roquefort, Stilton, Swiss, &c. As it is, for the most part, only certain inferior grades of American manufacture enter the foreign market as American, to the great detriment of our reputation for fine production, though, possibly, to the present profit of middlemen and commission houses."
And there you have it. From our earliest days in the market our best cheeses have been relabeled as European, and our, um...shall we say lesser attempts, were left to drag the name of "American Cheese" into the mud.
Today "American Cheese" is a type in of itself and quite separate from the fabulous offerings that are often made in America. And all that cheese that we export? Yes, it is "American Cheese". Unfortunately, it seems that if you make something long enough, someone will grow to enjoy it. Top buyers? Mexico and Japan. So when you make that trip to Tokyo, at least the cheese will be authentic on your squid-mayo pizza.

Why Cheese?

2008-08-18T06:15:00.000-07:00

At a recent cocktail party I was asked "Why cheese?" Of all the subjects to write about, of all the hobbies, why cheese? This is the sort of question that practically renders me speechless. Suddenly vast amounts of information, experience and pure joie de vie are all battling for space in my voice box. Really, ask anyone to sum up their life's great passion in 30 seconds and you'll probably get stuttering, floundering nonsense.
After much thought, this is why I love cheese: Cheese is the history of modern man, wrapped up in a neat bundle, that you can experience with the five senses.
Cheese yesterday and tomorrow. Right now, cheeses are being made as they have been for centuries; poured by hand, patted with vegetable ash, stored in caves. And right now, cheese is being made in the most modern ways. It starts with artificial insemination, and moves on to mechanical milking, chemical rennet, factories, hair nets, pasteurized, processed, vacuum sealed and shipped to a shelf near you.
Cheese making began as simple way to store excess milk. But it has involved into so much more. At times it's an art form, a cultural identity, a high-brow pursuit, a way to get the kids to eat broccoli, income for Nepali nomads, sculpture, humor, and on and on. And all this in something that you can hold in your hand. You could smell the animal in it or the factory. It could be dyed orange, be moldy blue, or pure milky white. Taste the air of the alps; the acquired taste of pungent Belgian creations. Eat what monks ate centuries ago. Touch tiny leaf wrapped bundles, chase wheels of pitted rind cheese down hills, wrestling the crinkling plastic off individual slice cheese. Giggle while chewing "squeaky cheese". Listen to the snap of husks in the illegal maggot cheese. What other food can neatly set beside each other; modern and historical, adventurous and everyday, high end and low brow?

Truffle Cheese and Polenta

2008-08-01T11:18:00.001-07:00

Last post I mentioned that I ate Sottocenere with truffles out of the palm of my hand. Which is true, but it wasn't my first taste. This lovely meal pictured at left is what I had for breakfast before that. My husband cooked this up for me after I blithely tossed out that I'd love some polenta for breakfast. Can you believe this?? It's gorgeous. I sear without Alex I would eat like a caveman (most like a cheese caveman). It would be 24-7 singed meat and cheese out of the wrapper.
The cheese wussed out a bit incomparison to the tasty crispiness of the fried polenta. But the cheese texture was much improved in my book. :) And that was a darn fine way to start the day.

Truffle Cheese and Antigua

2008-07-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

Hi, long time no see! I've been off on vacation in Antigua. Lots to say about that, but I know you are all dying to talk about just the cheese... Slightly bad news on that front. I didn't have any local cheese. The resort seems to import everything they served. We got plums; not the mangoes that were for sale on every corner. We got Gorgonzola; and nothing from the roaming goats herd we saw.
I went to several local markets to search but the only out of the ordinary cheese I saw was canned. Canned cheese. Not aerosol cheese whiz, but tinned like tuna. Weird... Sorry, didn't try it. I was nauseous from a case of Caribbean Itch, besides it's canned. I can get it anytime. Survival stores online have an amazing selection of things you'd be surprised they can can (but can they can a Can-Can dancer? And if they could, would she get unemployment comp?). And just because they can, doesn't mean its good.
What is good? Truffles. Truffles in, on, around cheese? Even better! I had Sottocenere with truffles, very nice. For this cheese it's strong suit is aroma and the truffle dusted rind, otherwise very mild flavor, rubbery texture. As long as you don't allow it to get dominated by flavored crackers, you should be set up for a pleasurable eating experience. I ate mine out of the palm of my hand.

2007 World Cheese Awards and other cheese of note

2008-07-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some back reading - bit of research on subjects I've been meaning to get around to (oops dangling participle!). If you're in the mood for a bit of cooking, I highly recommend Black Salt. It's a food blog which I found when looking for a clean precise listing of the winners of the 2007 World Cheese Awards. Black Salt has a great open design, nice photos and a truly eclectic assortment of food subjects (lots of baking lately yum!)
However, if you're in the mood to follow me on my strange quest for cheese info... First stop: old news is good eats. Sometimes its hard to find an import of the hotest new cheese. Not to worry, there's plenty of hit cheeses from last year that I still haven't tried. This article is a bit dull (and the ads are glaring!) but the column on the right "cheeses worth checking out" is exactly what I need. Meadow Creak and Cypress Grove are on there - not suprised. Fab cheese. Cabot? Now that's kind of surprising. It seems unusual for a primarily supermarket cheese maker to popup as an award winner... Right. "clothbound cheddar" goes on my 'to do list'.
Onward! Bellwether farms...I've been hearing about them but I can't recall when... nice site. Ha, those photos of cheese look like paintings. Totally frame worthy. Tumalo Farms showcased "Rememberance" at the Seattle Cheese Festival. Looks like it has rosemary in it. Heehehe, I like the poetics of that name; must be a romantic fromageur. And another cheese festival goes by...I really should make a calander of these events so I can atleast try the award winners if not actually go there. Ooo look at that someone made a nice list of cheese events. Hmm not very comprehensive... *dig dig* Oh hey! Lunch time!

Best Cheese Review

2008-07-18T05:41:00.000-07:00

I was at wholefoods again scoping the new cheeses (wow, they have great turn over) and my eyes alighted on an unlabled white cylinder of cheese with a purple octopus like topping. Desperate to know what it could be. My heart actually kicked up a notch. And suddenly I remembered how much I love cheese; most importantly, the cheese chase. Finding new cheeses (new to me) is down right exciting. Each cheese promises not just a unique eating experience but the story of how it came to be here. Irish widows, passionate restaurateurs, goat herds manning cheese counters, cheese caves under big city streets, snotty jewish princesses gone cheese queens, weekend mozzarella do-it-yourselfers. I can't say it enough. I love cheese.
So back to the octo-cheese. Turns out its a simple goat cheese (carraviagio) that a couple of wholefoods stores are topping with wild hibiscus in syrup. Bottom line, unattractive and gimmicky thing to do to a cheese. I felt a bit bummed that I'd been gotten. What made up for it was the cheese guy who answered my questions. He seems to feel the same way but was the height decorum. He never bashed on the idea but said, with just a drip of disinterest, that other stores were doing it so... I asked if he had tried it. "a ha. No." He continued: "But that in your left hand, is a real gem. We just got that last week" The sparkle in him came out just like that; head up, eyes shining. I had just a tiny cube of cheese in my hand, he must have known what it was from just the washed rind showing. The cheese that moved the cheese guy? Meadow Creak Dairy Greyson And you know which cheese I took home with me :). How can you say no with a review like that?

The Power of Cheese: PC

2008-07-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

Shumpitron passed me an interesting link of a cheese wheel that apparently has a PC inside it. But I was surprised at the tone of the posting. It seems kind of down on the inventor of the cheese wheel computer. The author writes "Whatever — it’s all weird — maybe it’s supposed to be suspended from fishing line for all I know."
Well, I say: Snazzy! Hey, follow your cheesy dreams! Over on gizmodo they seem a bit more positive: "We're not sure what drives one to put a PC in a cheese wheel, but we're glad that such outlets exist for those who are so inclined. For what would man have done, say, 100 years ago if he wanted to run TurboTax from a pile of aging dairy product? He would have lived a sad life and died alone, his hands reeking of yogurt." Great! I totally agree. Um. Except for the bit about cheese.
First, thats not a "pile of aging dairy". Thats a perfectly molded, heavily researched, painstakingly crafted wheel of aging dairy. Next, the yogurt comment... if you're trying to say there would be no cheese wheel to put a nonexhistant pc in... well, you just don't know your cheese history. 100 years ago they had cheese recipes down pat. Hell, cheesecake debuted during the first Olympic Games held 776 BC.
On the other hand, if you're trying to say tinkered with cheese smells like yogurt. That's just low odds. I'd say only 5% of the worlds cheese types smells like yogurt. And that number gets lower when you put in the qualifier that the cheese must be in wheel form.
As for him dying alone... maybe. I'm the biggest cheese fan I know and I wasn't born 100 years ago.

Today's Headlines in Cheese

2008-07-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a follow up on the giant cheese sculpture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence: The tour dates and locations.

John Trumball (the sculptor) was also interviewed on Good Morning America. I'm keep an eye out for a clip of that. In the mean time, here's an awesome time lapse of a different guy cheese carving:

And dumb things to do with cheese... have it tattooed on you.

Giant Cheese Declaration of Independence

2008-07-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

My friend forwarded me this wonderful bit of news! "Big Cheese Carving Celebrates Independence Day" But wait... whaaaat?? I'ts in New York?? Why the *bleep* is this in New York??? My office is one bloody block away from freaking Independence Hall! The Declaration of Independence was signed here! I shouldn't have to travel to see a cheese sculpture of it!! All summer I have to avoid reenactments of colonial life. Wool clad actors harass me into chatting about ye olde Philadelphia of yore. Tourists call me over for directions to the nearest Houligahn's. I dodge throngs of teenagers being forced to learn, over enthusiastic fathers dragging bewildered toddlers, horse drawn carriages and cadres of drum-beating colonial soldiers. And you tell me I have to go to New York for my cheese sculpture??!?
Oh wait....2nd page. It's coming to Philly next!! Woohoo!

What do you do with Bread Cheese?

2008-06-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

So I ran across Carr Valley Bread Cheese at the supermarket. Image at left. (oddly when I image searched for "bread cheese" I initially got this <--not safe for work). What intrigued me was the back of the package, it suggested that I "dip it in coffee" and "be creative!" about how I eat it. Well, that got my attention. :)
For the first taste, I balanced my baby on one hip, and with my free hand used cooking scissors to nip off bits, spear and eat. Mmm cold, grainy, bit bland but not in an off putting way. And in an instant I knew how this cheese was going to be consumed. In a fit of mad genius (if i do say so myself), I tore a larger hunk of it out of the package, chucked it in a bowl and covered it in molasses. Wow. Heaven. Sweet, salty, sticky and tasting of ye olde days. I highly recommend it. And, hey, it couldn't be an easier recipe.

Mighty Mousse and The Cheese of Blue

2008-06-26T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here it is! My own attempt at blue cheese mousse! I used the recipe from my earlier post on the subject (blue mousse babe), and halved the recipe since I'm the only one in my house who eats blue cheese (poor poor deprived people). And it was everything I hoped for. Light, fluffy, creamy and blue without coming off like solidified salad dressing. (And it was surprisingly easy. Stir, chill, whip, fold, chill, eat).
This turned out to be the perfect lunch for blazing hot summer days. Rich enough to make you feel like a kept woman but small enough to keep your arm-trophy looks. For garnish, a few sprigs of thyme and colorful cherry tomatoes. I considered using a little white pepper on them but deemed it unnecessary. The real hero in this dish is the Vermont Creme Fraiche. Even though my fine bit of Gorgonzola was nothing to snear at I don't think this dish could have made it with a creme fraiche substitute. I fear it would come off -- upscale chip dip.

Blue Mousse Babe

2008-06-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

I went to Chima last night. It's a chain Brazilian steakhouse. Very nifty, very pricey. Dinner 50$ a person and for that you get access to the salad bar and all-you-can eat slabs 'o meat brought straight to your table side. Now really "salad bar" is a terrible understatement; this is more like "salad garden-of-delights". There's baby spinach, smoked salmon, calamari salad, wheels of gouda, prosciutto, roasted red peppers and on and on. Oo and there was this blue cheese mousse. Wow great concept! Needs a little bit of work... The texture was fantastic but the taste was bit like solidified blue cheese dressing. I'm betting that the cheese used was on the cheap side and that, with a quality blue cheese, that mousse could be stunningly good.
I went off looking for mousse recipes so that I could give it a shot. Hmm, okay people. Whipped cream cheese does not a mousse make. Yeesh. Anyway, here's a classic blue cheese mousse recipe. (The crème fraiche might be hard to find for most Americans, but you can make a substitute. ) I'll let you know how that goes :)
Note* The picture is beef carpaccio with capers and Parmesan cheese. Mmmm!

For the Cheese

2008-06-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Isn't it funny how a simple food like cheese has become a symbol of our wants and desires? Cheese was invented as a way to save excess milk for a rainy (hungry) day. But it blossomed. Cheese is now the point. It's a tidy, yellow, easily illustrated icon of purpose. Focus on the cheese at the end of the maze. Visualize your desire to become "the Big Cheese". Buy books on your career with cutesy titles like "who moved my cheese?" and "there is no cheese".
I keep rolling this phenomena around in my head. Are there any other foods to rise to such a height? Back in the day spice, especially salt, became synonymous with riches. But you don't need to be rich to get cheese. Cheese has little to do with cash, and a lot to do with the pursuit of goals. Perhaps its just a cultural/linguistic quirk, the "rat in the maze" analogy taken to the next level. However, English speakers are not alone in seeing cheese as a goal. In french: "Il a trouvé un fromage" , to find the cheese, means to find a cushy job. Sounds lovely to me.

Sexy Cheese?

2008-05-29T07:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long absence! I have been completely derailed recently. Such fascinating factors as: work crunch, sudden attack of the "i feel pudgy"s, and launching a new blog. But now that I've gotten everything back in balance, I have returned to my old love: cheese. A fellow contacted me through the cheese library and sent me a link to his own cheese focused blog: "I Like Cheese". Interesting post this week where he tries to drop sexy keywords to gather attention (don't worry it is safe for work). A fairly hard task for a cheese blog. Cheese isn't particularly sexy to anyone except the most hard core fanatics (sorry, fresh garlic is my aphrodisiac of choice. no, seriously). So can cheese and sex meet? Has anyone tried this ill-matched pairing? I couldn't find evidence as such... but I did run across a vegan strip club. Thats just hilarious to me. Wow, followed swiftly by a n italian pornstar's political campaign. But still no cheese.

At the Races (aka Mothers Day Part 2)

2008-05-15T10:22:00.001-07:00

So for Mother's day my family has a tradition of spending the day at the horse races. Not the track, but the cross country affair. We Picnic, and thats with a capital 'P' because we're quite serious about this. Sun dresses and hats, smoked salmon and champagne, white quilts spread on green lawns. That doesn't mean we're uptight though. We still serve from plastic glasses and there is a certain level of informality that occurs whenever you go some where with your extended family, dogs, babies and the occasional baby goat.
Anyway, my contribution to the picnic was cheese (of course). I brought two inoffensive offerings: a cheddar and an aged gouda. And then I picked for my own pleasure: Lazy Lady Filibuster and Drunken Hooligan. As soon as I heard those names I couldn't resist! Don't they just sound perfectly like race horse names? I had a bite of the Drunken Hooligan while I was at the shop (DiBruno Brothers) and the first thing I noticed was it's wicked bitter backtaste. I debated not getting it but I'm ever so glad I did because it pairs wonderfully with - who'd have guessed it? - alcohol! The Lazy Lady was soft and pungent too, but not so much that I was worried that it would melt or stink out the other picnic goers. It had a certain creamy meatiness that was just wow good. Too bad I bought the last corner of it available. I'd love to be able to eat more!

Cotswold Revisted (aka Mothers Day Part 1)

2008-05-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

Mother's day started perfectly this year. I woke up, after a full 6 hours of awesomely deep sleep, to find myself in a big warm sunbeam. My clock radio had been bumped off its usual annoying chat channel (i hate it, so i wake up. works like a charm) and was instead playing violin music. Not too sad, but not a jig either...it was just right. So I stretch lazily, roll out of bed and go brush my teeth. I step on the scale, and it shows I've lost weight. Awwwesome. Can it get better than this? Why, yes. There is cheese for breakfast.
Remember how that cheese market accidentally gave me Cotswold instead of Shropshire? Well, after the initial shock (ugh, never swig vodka and then take a big bite of heavily leek flavored cheese) I set about looking for a recipe to make Cotswold palatable. I had good luck in the archives of the Albion Cooks blog. There was a breakfast tart featuring egg, bacon and Cotswald, sounds good! Um, but I'm no cook. Heck, cheese is just slice and eat. Can't mess that up. Now, I know exactly why I'm not a good chef: 1) I don't go and get the ingredients I need therefore 2) I don't actually follow the recipe. So things usually go badly.
However, on Sunday everything was destined to be perfect. My version of the Scottish breakfast tart as seen on Albion Cooks? Ham, egg and cheese on toasted weightwatchers bread. Mm hmm gourmand heaven right? Actually, it was great! Ham is the perfect foil to the Cotswolds overly aggressive onion flavor. Ahhh, gotta love it. :)

Suprisingly Simple Morbier

2008-05-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

Ah at last, cheese. Morbier is named after the town in France where it originated, but I chose it because of its similarity to the word "morbid". What? There's nothing wrong with choosing a cheese for its cover. It's not like they come with a cute synopsis and industry-celebrity reviews written on the back. (Wow, but thats not bad an idea if I do say so my self.) Mostly people choose by color, a guess at basic texture and, of course, previous experience. Only if you're lucky will you be able to get a sniff or taste test before you buy.
So here I am trying not to buy something that I've had before, knowing that I'll be happy with almost everything in the case; how can I narrow it down? Two factors: 1) Names that make me giggle. 2) The contents of my liquor cabinet. Since I'm currently drinking rum and black cherry lemonade, I can safely assume no cheese will pair well (except dessert Wensleydale). Silly name it is!
Morbier also has a pungent scent that I enjoy. And when I say pungent that means other folks may find it somewhat offensive if not reminiscent of death warmed over. But despite its odor, Morbier is quite mild from head to toe. The rind is sticky and leathery, pleasant enough to eat but you're not missing anything if you don't eat it either. The body of the cheese is fleshy; soft yet springy. And so mild it can be eaten in great mouthfuls which adds to the sensation of eating something meaty, yet not animal. Ooo much like eating the white of a hard boiled egg. This cheese goes perfectly with simple, mild things. Cucumbers and a fresh white baguette. Melon and unnervingly floral gin (Blue Coat would be good). Lemon thyme and mild radishes.
Mmm mm. I'm so hungry again.

Say Cheese for Rachael Ray

2008-05-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I headed into New York for a taping of the Rachael Ray Show. I'm sorry. I know I should have mentioned it sooner. I was distracted by several toddlers and a nasty toothache. And actually, I probably wouldn't have mentioned it at all, but I'm broke again and I can't afford a new cheese for lunch. Not to say I didn't have fun at the Rachael Ray show! It was quite fun, Babybel level of fun: cute, novel, not amazingly tasty...but entertaining.
It's just that it wasn't about cheese. In fact it wasn't really about cooking either. I thought I was going to a Rachael Ray show when in fact I was going to The Rachael Ray Show. It's a talk show?? Tell me again why we want to see a chef interview people? 'Eh' on that concept. But it was nifty seeing behind the scenes of a tv taping and Rachael still did a bit of cooking. She made her lunch. No seriously. She was working a 12 hour day, taping different shows back-to-back-to-back. Around 1:00 there was a segment on california pasta and when the cameras turned off for "commercial break" Rachael picked up a fork and dug in. Really it shouldn't be impressive to watch someone eat their lunch. But we just finished watching her cook her lunch...so I guess what could be more natural? Who would trust a chef who doesn't eat her own food anyway?
The whole experience was riddled with surreal moments like that. Everything on the set was exactly like it was on TV (obviously) except that once its life size you realize how crazy it all looks. Her fridge is baby blue. Well, I mean the TV studios fridge is baby blue. In person, thats weird. Who has a blue fridge and an orange stove? And the lights...woah...there is no ceiling. It's just a sea of black blazing with lights and yet the studio is still icy cold (HP Lovecraft fans this place is for you). The studio audience is seated on a giant lazy susan that spins to follow Rachael to each of her settings. It spins smoothly, without warning, and occasionally backwards. Much like the show itself; which stops and starts, does sudden retakes and is filmed entirely out of order.
But there was talk of cheese...no actual cheese but the audience really would have liked it. We cheered ecstatically every time Rachael Ray said "cheese". Even drowning her out occasionally and garnering surprised laughter for our efforts. So if you see an episode about California pasta where the audience goes crazy for cheese...thats me. I'm hiding in plain sight. :)

Blast From the Past: Andy Capp Cheese Fries

2008-05-01T07:14:00.000-07:00

Oh, I know I shouldn't be writing this. If cheese food doesn't belong here then certainly powdered cheese flavoring is the worst kind of interloper on my heretofore pure cheese blog. But I can't help but give a nod to Andy Capp cheese fries.
On a certain small college campus, in a certain building, on the 3rd floor...waaay at the back, is a vending machine. A vending machine filled with stuff that no one eats; or really that no one choses to eat until pressed. Licorice. Salt-free pretzels. Wrigley's gum. A unheard of brand of miniature cookies. And Andy Capp's Hot Fries. But before this dust covered and forlorn machine was filled with that final insult of painful heat, it used to be stocked with plain Andy Capp cheese fries. They kept me going all through college.
That vending machine was my secret stash. The cafeteria was only open for 6 hours a day. The campus store opened only on weekdays. The vending machines in the dorms were emptied within minutes of the cafeteria shutting... Except for my creepy little friend on the 3rd floor. It would always be waiting for me. Even when the building lights were all shut off for the weekend, it would be sitting there, humming, creating a little halo of light around those last few bags of fries. My footsteps would echo as I rushed down the empty corridor..oh wow, and opening the bag was intense. Really it was like eating in a sensory deprivation tank. Dark and silent (except for crinkle and crunch), enveloped in a cloud of fake cheese scent.
I worried about going back and trying them again. Could it be another nostalgic cheesesteak moment? But Andy Capp has a new flavor... (and really i thought that they hadn't actually made any cheese fries since way before I went to college, that I'd been slowly eating my way through the warehouse backlog in a long shutdown factory) Its "White Cheddar Cheese Steak Fries". And I'm thrilled to say they are even better than when I was in school :)
First, because they are white cheddar. You know my feelings about orange cheese (especially after yesterdays Cotswold incident). And secondly, because I now have enough money to pair them with the perfect matching alcohol.
Miller Light *grin*

Ugh! This Is Not Shropshire!

2008-04-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

Oh damn. Another shopping mistake. I ducked into the Reading Terminal Market because my mood was slipping (after nasty run in with septa's attempts at "customer service") and I was in desperate need of some cheese to pep me up. I went straight to Salumeria as it was the closest. The selection was nothing out of the ordinary. I'd pretty much tried everything there except for the goat cheese but I wasn't in the mood for that. So I chose Shropshire (an orange cousin to stilton). The attendant had no idea where it was. I tried to direct him and then a 2nd attendant pointed him towards "the orange one". I got my cheese (wrapped in clingfilm, then wax paper, then more clingflim and finally a plastic bag) and plodded home.
I settled in, poured my self a big glass of lime vodka and took a big bite of orange cheese. Cheese that is in no way related to Shropshire except by unfortunate shade of orange. I don't know what the heck this is. Nasty cheddar with green flecks. And it really really doesn't go with vodka. I'm going to go off and mope somewhere.

It's All Fun and Cheese Games

2008-04-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

I play a lot of those downloadable pc games. Bejeweled, Dinner Dash, Insaniquarium; pretty much anything that comes with a 60 minute free trial (because you can pretty much beat them in that amount of time). Anyway, I was playing a hidden object game, and I found myself in a grocery store scene with tons of cheese. Suddenly I thought something along the lines of "omg there should be more games with cheese!!" Of all the subjects for cutesy games marketed to women, how could cheese not have been picked before? Cheese is at once gourmet and low-brow humorous. It can be simplified down to the iconic yellow swiss or illustrated in it's thousands of shades and textures. It's a luxury item, yet available at the supermarket; a brilliant hybrid of exotic foreign import and safe domestic bliss.

And think of what a great time-management game cheese making would be! From milking to cooking, to whey separation, to flavoring and aging, to packing and shipping, and all the way to the customers hands. Heck, I can see several games in this. Cheese Master and Cheesemonger (followed by my feature length movie "Cheesemaster and Commander: The Far Side of the Wheel").

But alas, the current offerings for cheese games are truly weak. A hard to control, yet otherwise unchallenging puzzle game: Cheese Hunt. A side scroller that's pretty fun (you play as rubbery moon made of cheese) : Cheese Dreams. There's Cheese Indigestion.... I'll pass on that. These are justsad! Come on Bigfish games! I'm waiting on you to rescue me from mediocre cheese entertainment.

Mystery Potluck Cheese

2008-04-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had the great pleasure of attending the Philly Food Bloggers Potluck. Despite my slight trepidation about hanging with "real writers" (I'm not a real writer I just play one on Blogger), I had a grand old time and met a lot of folks who adore food and, like me, can't believe anyone actually reads their blog. It reminded me intensly of that Moxie Fruvous song "My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors".
Now, about the food. Oddly enough, I didn't bring cheese. Hey, all work and no play makes Jane a very dull girl. So I made rice balls :) . Ah, but a few people did bring cheese and you know I couldn't resist that! And even better, no one labeled their food. That says something about food bloggers as a whole, I think. We, the adventurous lovers of food, will eat first and ask "what was it?" later. For me, finding an unlabeled cheese platter is like..wow, its like having your cake and eating it too. It's like being allowed to shake the presents under the Christmas tree and yet somehow not have the surprise spoiled. (What is it? Oh joy! What is it!?)
My best guess, in the photo from left to right: Bucheron, Raclette, and the decimated Humbolt Fog. The beautiful (mozzarella?) dish delicious also. Now, I know we had a lot to drink...but if anyone recalls reading the labels do let me know!

Ps. Here's the Moxie Fruvous Vid:

Cheese Expert: Who Me?

2008-04-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

There are upsides and down sides to writing a cheese blog... Wait no. Let's make that upsides and weird sides. First, the upsides (and they are glorious). I get to eat cheese. Even better, I get to feel like I've accomplished something just by eating cheese. People send me links to fascinating cheese articles. And people bring me cheese to try. Wow. Awesome.
Now the weird ways... People assume I know how to make cheese. That I have, perhaps, swallowed a cheese encyclopedia and can now recite cheeses alphabetically by region, or on a lark, in order of acidity. That I need to know what cheese does to other people's gastrointestinal systems. That I speak French. That I have a history in smuggling cheese from abroad (therefore can help them get other things).
But really I must say: Thank you for the love. :) I deeply appreciate the attention. I like the chance to mangle French and hear of misdeeds committed in the JFK airport. I adore the cheese (Amanda that homemade almost-mozzarella is great!) And I love sharing the cheese frontiers with you all.

A Salute Cheese Blogs and Posts

2008-04-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

In my search for fabulous cheese info, I've run a cross some great cheese sites. (And some terrible ones but you all know I'm a cheese-wheel-is-half-full kind of person) Now, I know that you are all perfectly capable of finding places to buy cheese, wiki cheese types and get enough cheese recipes to paper your own dairy barn.... But what's fun to find are those little gems of site where people just enjoy talking about cheese.

Trivium Pursuit had an amusing cheese mystery. (don't scroll too fast the solution is at the end)

365 Cheeses: Year Long Cheese Course was a great blog, which sadly didn't finish out the year. But on the upside there are over 100 posts on cheese that are still readily available.

Dairy Lama: The Land of Cheese Haiku. Now I may have mentioned this site before....but I really like it! There's nothing so light hearted as poetry about cheese.

Farmstead Cheese News is a great blog about cheese and other artisanal foods. The food, the photos, the casual update on foodie news... I dare you not to relax into it. Well, on that note, I think I'll go do a bit of reading and eating too.

Happy Tax Day!

2008-04-15T06:03:00.001-07:00

Happy tax day everyone. I know everyone is probably too busy running around gathering last minute tax info. Or...it could just be me, I've procrastinated horribly this year. But there's always time for cheese!
A friend of mine, who has been interested in bee-keeping, asked me if there were any cheeses made with honey. My response: "of course!". Really I think just about everything has been chucked into a cheese at one time or another. A prime example is "Mr. Holmes's Pomfrit". Its a British cheese coated in liquorice liqueur and sweetened with heather honey. I haven't yet had the pleasure of trying it but with a name like that, well, its certainly on my must-have list!

Oh but I found that too fast...quick I must further distract myself from the inevitable trip to the post office. Hey check that out! Its the history of the invention of the cheese slicer! A fairly basic tale of problematic gouda and necessity being the mother of invention and all that, but what really gets me is the last line "text provided by the Norwegian patent office". That means that someone was looking up cheese in the archives of a foreign patent office. Wow. Now that is dedication to the cause. I think the challenge flag has been raised. I'm going to need to go on a cheese mission now.

Rockstar Gone Cheesemaker

2008-04-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

British rockstar, Alex James, bass player in Blur, has retired with oodles of cash. And what to do with the fortune now that fame is done? Well make cheese of course! BBC 3 votes him one of the most annoying people in the world because, well damn, how awesome can his life get??

And here's a vid of him at the British Cheese Festival 2007.

The Great British Cheese Festival

2008-04-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

I'm lucky enough to work for an awesome company that gives huge presents for christmas. This year it was gift certificates to a travel agency. So I've got to figure out where to go. So hard! This world is full of marvelous things. I could sun on tropical islands, suba dive a few wonders of the world, rent a narrowboat and pilot it around the Thames for a week or two...
Or, well, there are some nice cheese events.
The Great British Cheese Festival is held annually in September and that does coincide quite nicely with the cheaper season of narrowboat rentals. And wow....
"- 460 cow, sheep, goat & buffalo cheeses to taste & buy
- 175 stalls featuring British & Irish artisan producers
- Extraordinary Whiskeys & Beautiful Beers
- 56 English ciders, perries, beers & wines
- 44 inspirational Masterclasses & Cheesemaking Demonstrations"
Doesn't that just make you go all teary eyed with the glory of it all? Okay Okay, pull yourself together. There are cheese festivals everywhere...there must be one on a tropical beach?
Well, There's always a visit to Hawai'i Island Goat Dairy. Hey and they are hiring too! Here's their ad:
"Tropical living on a shoestring as an intern at Hawai'i Island Goat Dairy. Must commit to at least two months. Work with goats, cheesemaking, marketing, according to your skills. Housing and stipend included. Openings Summer 2008."

Lessons from Gorgonzola

2008-04-07T06:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I'm rooting around in my head, I find a strange belief that isn't attached to any proof or experience that I can remember. It's like unpacking your picnic basket and finding a small ball. A ball you've never seen before. And you can't help but look around for where it came from... Did you bring it with you from home? Did someone throw this and it accidentally landed in you basket?
Well, I was at the supermarket the other day, buying cheese (big shock hahah). I must have been overly hungry or just momentarily daft, because I bought two cheese I dislike. And when I arrived home I thought "damn! brie and gorgonzola???" And then it hit me... Why do I dislike Gorgonzola? There, in my mind, was a bit of paper saying "I hate Gorgonzola" and I don't really know when I decided that or why. (Does someone I know not like it? Is it 'cause it contains the word "Gorgon"?)
So I tried it. And yeah! I love it! Wickedly strong blue veins but not very complex, it made the perfect breakfast food for me. (Spinach salad with white grapes.) Pow! Wakes you right up like grit in your coffee.
Awesome.

Ps.
Tried the Brie again. Still sucks. Too bitter like hop laden beer. Yuck.

Obama Buys Goat Cheese

2008-04-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

Generally politics doesn't catch my fancy. Neither does grocery shopping *shrug* but it has to be done. You read, you research and then you make a choice that's good for your near and dear. Same process for soup or senators. But occasionally, there's something extra special to be found. (Mostly in the cheese aisle)

I give you Obama, in Philly, buying cheese. (sorry I know cnn sucks. But the youtube vid focuses on the guy begging for a photo and cuts out the cheese)
Note* Kudos to my sis for finding this gem!

UPDATE! The Youtube vid!

Cheese Intervention & The Cheese Nun

2008-04-03T06:40:00.000-07:00

My adoring friends and family have noticed that I haven't posted in a few days. And, soon my email began to fill with gentle queries, and then requests, and now fascinating cheese articles and videos. I realize it's true, I've been letting work get in the way of my cheese habit. In my efforts towards a promotion I may have forgotten the important things in life. Thanks for the intervention guys. So with out further ado, I return to cheese writing.

I watched a great motivational documentary on cheese called: The Cheese Nun: Sister Noella's Voyage of Discovery. I was a bit reluctant at first, I mean, a movie about cheese? Even my obsession has limits. But since my hubby wanted to get his Netflicks queue moving I sat down and watched. Wow! So glad I did. Sister Noella is one lucky lady. After being named the official cheese maker of her abbey, Sister Noella goes to college, travels the world, and stars in this movie, all for the sake of cheese. She found her passion and the doors of opportunity just popped up all around.
This left me in a fabulous mood. How many documentaries actually leave on a high note? Tell tales of hope and dreams that don't fade in the light of hardwork and the "real world"? I'm still uplifted and feel a renewed passion for my own life. Thank you Pat Thompson. Thank you ladies of the Benedictine faith. Woot! You go girlz!

Cheese Addicts

2008-03-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

There are days that cheese borderlines on an addiction. Not in a bad way… Addictions aren’t what they used to be. It’s like –holics; it used to be “alcoholic” was attached to family destroying stories, now it’s more likely attached to a happy bar hopper or even used self referentially. And then there workaholics, chocoholics, sexaholics…and dare I say cheeseaholics? Anyway, I digress.

What I mean to say is that there’s a certain place in my life for cheese. The comfort that most women find in ice cream and milk chocolate bon-bons has always eluded me. Don’t get me wrong its nice stuff, it just doesn’t provide solace. Ahhh, but cheese it has it all. There’s indulgence. There’s artificial elation via chemical high. Hey, and dairy; proven to help weight loss, plus calcium for your bones… dang, it’s like sinning with an angel’s go-ahead. Again, I digress…

What I mean to say is, last night was great for me. That “St. Marcellin in Crocks Signatur” was positively ..wow just wow. This cheese is so liquid that it comes in a little brown plastic crock and you could just eat it with a spoon. So I did. I just pealed back the plastic and dug in like it was yogurt, occasionally dipping in with rosemary crackers. Wait, wait, let’s rewind this back and let me set the scene. Sofa. Me slumped in with a mountain of throw pillows and my feet on the coffee table. I’m watching “Sex Crazy”: a flick about a psychiatrist who decides all his asylum inmates need is a bit of sexual release, so he takes them to a bordello. (What? It’s got subtitles. And the acting isn’t as bad as you’d think.) I’ve got a teacup full of grain vodka, and this amazing cheese that I’m eating with a spoon that says “princess”.

Yeah, this is the life. This is pure joy.

The Cheese Challenger

2008-03-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

I’m feeling a tad competitive today. And that’s seriously out of character for me…and yet…wow, today I would totally throw myself down a hill just to beat you to a wheel of cheese. Unfortunately the Gloucester Cheese Rolling competition isn’t until May 25^th. So it looks like I’ll go unchallenged for today. But wow what a wonderful concept. And my favorite part? If you win, you get to keep the cheese.

There aren’t many competitions for cheese lovers who aren’t cheese makers. There’s no cheese tasting championship. (Can you imagine? You can’t really rush cheese appreciation. We’d all just sit around happily munching, pausing occasionally to sigh contentedly.) I haven’t seen any cheese sculpture contests either. Butter seems to be the preferred media of dairy art.

So what is a girl to do? Harass co-workers into playing Jenga with mozzarella sticks? Challenge strangers to a limburger inhaling endurance contest? *sigh* Perhaps I’ll start building a sliced cheese deck of cards so I can play solitaire. Oo I’m so gonna win that.

Hoppy Easter from Chimay!

2008-03-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

Happy post Easter. Hope all of you survived the tremendous amounts of food. I can barely recount all the fabulous things I ate; the meats, the cheeses, mmmmmmm. So rather than try to cover eveything let's talk about that Chimay cheese. Er technically "Chimay met bier" (the Trappist monks of Chimay wash the rind of their cheese in their famous Chimay beer. But with a title like "chimay met bier" you wonder if the cheese was named before the beer...hmm food for thought).

I felt badly for bashing on Guinness cheese on St. Patty's Day. And although I can't rescind comment (cause that cheese was boooring), I do feel that finding a good beer cheese some how makes the world a little brighter.
I knew this cheese would be lovely. It's from Belgium and its a washed rind. And that means? Pleasantly stinky. Not "bad breath on a cracker" stinky, but pungent like rich wet soil. Mushrooms. Moss. Mulch. Mm Mm Mm.

I was so well pleased nibbling on this that I actually missed part of the conversation. And I’m going to have to get more because (horrors) I didn’t try it with beer! I paired it with smoked goose. I tried it with pickled squash. I had a bite of it with green tomato chutney and a bit more of it with pheasant… Oh but the Easter Bunny was good to me! *contented sigh*

Cheese Books and Authors

2008-03-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

I've been reading. And do you really need to ask? Of course I've been reading about cheese. However, there's a serious lack of good cheese books out there. Everything seems to fall into 3 categories: glossy coffee table book, the making of cheese, or cheese reference by country.
(You may notice that I haven't included cheese cookbooks. Several reasons for that: 1) in most recipes cheese is not the main ingredient. 2) in the US we cook cheese 80% of the time, in other countries its 20% of the time. Now, the US may be a big cheese producer but on a global scale we aren't big cheese eaters at all. So I'm going with the majority and deciding that uncooked cheese is better. 3) and probably most importantly, cookbooks make boring reads.)
Here's a quick link to the Cheese Quest Library. I've got a growing list of books and I'm reviewing them as I go. But the real trouble is there aren't many fun ones. There is a growing subset of cheese reference; the cheese history. (I'm keeping an eye out for a copy of The History of Stilton Cheese) But I wish I could add "cheese humor" or "cheese adventure" as a its own category. Maybe a '1001 Cheeses to Eat Before You Die' book? Or a 'How Not to Make Cheese' misadventures in cheesemaking? A kids book - 'How Many Cheeses does a Stegosaurus Weigh?' Or... Well dang, I'd buy just about anything thats yellow with dots.

The Milk of Human Unkindness

2008-03-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

Do you ever forget that your not as young as you used to be? You gleefully pop in a microwave burrito and realize...they suck. These taste awful! How were these ever edible?? Well, I'm sad to report, it can happen with cheese too.
This story starts with a bar crawl. A good one too. Just me, my baby and my buddies. No frat kids, no poorly conceived thematic shots, no sticky floors or wet counters. These were nice places with hip colors and craft beers. But then some tragically-behind-the-times part of my brain said “we get drunk on bar crawls!!” And although I wasn’t drunk its easy enough to make believe and let the giddiness of good friends, sugar, and sleeplessness sweep you up into happy stupidity. And it wouldn’t have been a problem except: “And when we get drunk, we eat cheesesteaks!!! Woo cheesesteaks!”

Now, cheesesteak eating falls under two categories for me. 1) Too drunk to know better. 2) Too hungover to care. But sadly I was neither of those when I arrived at Geno’s. And for the first time I could actually see the menu. I’ve never actually ordered a cheesteak for myself so, I figured I’d stick to what everyone else was having.

The result of this poor choice? Cheesewhiz! Wow…worse than microwave burritos. Worse than microwave hamburgers. This cheesesteak was repulsive. How did I ever eat this before?? The cheese had separated like peanut butter in the fridge and now the bun was awash in clear grease. Grisly bits of meat poked through electric orange goo. I quickly gave mine away to a hungry friend but the grease stayed behind. It congealed on my palms. And the stickiness made me obsessively wring my hands; a modern day lady Macbeth. (All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little cheese)

So the moral of the story, stay away from cheese that drunk people find acceptable. Actually, that maybe an axiom applicable to many things...

Green Cheese with Your Green Beer

2008-03-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Today’s cheeses follow in fine St. Patty tradition: green, Guinness, and a Ireland. First up, Pesto Gouda which takes green to a whole new level. It really is exactly as it says, a pesto flavored gouda. Heavily aromatic, but still a plain cheese; it’s perfect for bring to a friends house. The color makes it a conversation piece, and the flavor is inoffensive yet not boring. Those leftover cubes would do nice things for a sandwich too. Hmmm open face turkey with green goo…

Next up! Guinness cheese. This cheese looks nifty with its dark brown marbling through a yellow body. But…it doesn’t taste like anything. Boo hiss. Blindfolded I’d swear this was just mild cheddar. I love Guinness (and if I didn’t, I wouldn’t say so today!) so this cheese is extra disappointing.

Lastly, Ardrahan: a beautiful semi-soft cheese, with a strong scent. It has a buttery colored centre and an orange washed rind. The flavor is mushroomy and smokey, complex despite its upfront pungent aroma. This cheese is made in the lush countryside of Duhallow in north west county Cork, Ireland by the widow Mary Burns and her 120 pedigree Fresian Holsteins. The farm was started by her father in the 1970’s when he realized he couldn’t get a hold of the types of food he wanted his family to eat. Thanks Eugene! This a damn fine cheese.

Brillat-Savarin: The Man, The Cheese.

2008-03-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce the beautiful Brillat-Savarin (cave aged): a snow white, soft bodied, triple crème cheese with a natural white mold rind. This cheese was named after a renowned 18^th century food critic. Now that is flattery of the finest grade! The first bite and my mind says Cream. And I should have seen that coming as it’s a triple crème style cheese with a minimum of 75% milk fat content. But wow. This like pure cream straight from the pitcher; Cream so thick you can cut it, well, smoosh it, with a knife. Wow they could just call this Cream - cheese! Wait…that sounds familiar…cream. cheese. creamcheese. What?? Is this what Philadelphia cream Cheese is trying to be?? I always thought that was just because it had a creamy texture. It never tasted particularly like cream. Certainly not Cream. Brillat-Savarin. Ohh Ahh. This is pure, this is, this is the cream with my coffee.

So if this cheese is so much more a cream cheese than Philly cream cheese… how much better would standard cream cheese recipes be? Brillat-Savarin on a bagel. MMmm! Brillat-Savarin with honey and apples? Mmmhmm! Oh so sad its all gone. If I hada bigger wedge I could have tried a Brillat-Savarin cheese cake. Something tells me that with this secret ingredient I’m going to be whipping the pants off the competition at the next dessert potluck. Uh oh. Monsieur Brillat-Savarin is probably rolling in his grave…

Cheese Etiquette aka "Do I Eat The Rind?"

2008-03-13T06:52:00.000-07:00

Although I adore cheese, or perhaps because I adore cheese, I’m not a cheese snob. My behavior is completely uncouth; a cheese heathen for sure. I mispronounce all their names because looking like a twit at a fancy shop is not going to stop me from getting cheese. I let my cheese languish in plastic wrap until I’m ready to eat it. Hey, I like other foods too and I read The Chocolate Touch when I was a kid. So rather than let the pungent cheeses merrily turn everything in my kitchen cheese flavored…I suffocate them in plastic.

Oh and it gets worse. I smear cheese. Soft, semi-soft. Yep, I admit it. Rather than placing a careful slice atop my bread, I put a little wrist muscle in and give it a good smoosh across the whole surface. Sometimes, when I can’t find a knife, I use a spoon and squish the cheese around. Cheese aficionados are swooning everywhere right now. But I’ve tried it both ways. Maybe my palate isn’t sensative enough, but I can’t tell the difference in smooshed versus non-smooshed cheese. The only thing I notice is that if I don’t smear it then there are annoying patches of disproportionate cheese distribution.

And yes, since you asked, I eat the rind too. All cheese rinds are edible (even the foil and wax ones) it’s just about what is pleasant to eat. Wax? Not interesting. Natural mold? Very very interesting. At least to me, and that’s what’s important. It’s my lunch damn it! So that’ll be me at the corner of the bar ordering the brie and a gin martini (*gasp* did she say gin and brie?). Oh, and I’ll be eating the rind off my brie and the lemon twist out of my drink. And I betcha I’ll be enjoying my lunch hour more than anyone else in the building.

Cheese Cave Update

2008-03-11T07:18:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was sad to discover that cheese caves were not as I hoped (the french cave post). The image of wheels of moldering bleu’s in damp caverns was replaced by sanitized basements with all the order and charm of a widget factory. (see picture #1)

But hope rises again! Like a phoenix from a …a ..damp moldery cave! I’ve seen a few pictures which come close to my cheese dreams. Not the brightly lit rack after rack… But more like real caves. Or at the very least some awesome stone vaulting. Looks like I may find a few cute cave-buildings in Vermont (picture #2). Some monastery like cheese vaults in Europe. And…a nifty pot cave in Tennessee.

Okay yes, that bears some explaining. Apparently when a pot farm was discovered in a natural limestone cave, the owner was arrested (obviously) and a Wisconsin cheese company, Roth Kase, made the winning bid for the property when it went up at auction. Great interview with him on epicurious.

It may not be as glamorous as my cheese cave dreams of truffle hunting pigs and kindly French men… but it does have a secret trapdoor entrance. And that’s pretty awesome.

(The Cheese Underground is a great cheese blog which also mentions the pot/cheese caves. fun stuff!)

Public Service Announcment: cheese

2008-03-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Its a lovely Monday. Have a video! What's it about? Well cheese of course...

Health Benefits of Cheese

2008-03-06T07:32:00.000-08:00

Damn it! Cheese is not bad for you! If you must have something to worry about then let it be the stress related ailments that will befall you after prolonged sadness induced by low fat ricotta. Okay. And now my rant on cheese and health:

The Lactose Intolerance Myth:
You’ve heard people say “Oh I can’t eat cheese, I’m lactose intolerant.” Go ahead and call them liars. They either have an honest to god milk allergy/ milk protein allergy (which has nothing to do with lactose) and will have hives, respiratory trouble and the like. Or. They are eating the wrong cheese.

You can become lactose intolerant if you don’t eat any milk products. After awhile your body will slow in the production of the enzyme lactase, which you need to digest the sugar in milk: aka lactose. And, voila, you’re lactose intolerant. However, unpasteurized cheese contains lactase. Yes! It’s so user friendly it comes ready to be digested! Even better, if you eat small quantities of dairy products enzyme production will return (we have amazing bodies huh?). Don’t like unpasteurized cheese? Guess what, aged cheeses contain little or no lactose. Enjoy!

High Cholesterol Doesn’t Matter When:

1) Cheese helps you lose weigh t. In order to lower your cholesterol, doctors often suggest losing weight. Dairy products have been proven to help you lose weight. Can you say…cheese?
2) Cheese improves the circulatory system.
3) Cheese improves your sex life. Hey the British Cheese Board is looking out for you!
4) Cheese is good for your teeth. Just a 30g piece of Cheddar (the size of a matchbox) provides 216mg of calcium. But increased saliva flow may also be responsible for less cavities in cheese eaters!

Must I go on? Please just go have some cheese. I know that’s what I’m going to do right now.

Cheese Fashion Review

2008-03-04T07:43:00.001-08:00

It’s a beautiful spring day, warm and rainy. And like a good portion of females, spring starts me thinking about fashion. I’m currently stepping out in my sateen trench coat the color of 5-year aged Gouda. I’ve got a slightly clashing Velveeta colored umbrella. Are you sensing a theme here? Things may have gotten out of hand… but just because cheese is my passion doesn’t mean I only dress in orange and white. Heavens no. I can’t go around ignoring the beauty of Bleu, Port-Wine, Smoke and Sage. I’ve even got a Windsor Red tiger striped bra and panty set. Ahem. Back to the food.
I had a beautiful blue this weekend: Cashel Blue Irish Farmhouse. The body was a soft cream color with a gray blue mold. It reminds me of cable-knit sweaters and blustery winds rolling off a gray ocean. (I haven’t been to Ireland but I’ve got a vivid imagination and this seems like a nice fit). The cheese has an excellent flavor too. Some blues have a sharp contrast between the blue and the white both in color, texture and flavor, but not this Cashel. The blue bits blend right into the creamy body giving lending pungency to the overall rich flavor.
This cheese is just right for me. I’m a real pearl and leather kind of girl. It’s got to feel rich and luxurious but I love that warm musky scent of animal and earth too. A cheese like Cashel has everything it needs to get my attention.

*Note
-Thanks to the Country Butcher Market in Kennett Square, PA. Dan was exceptionally helpful in tracking down the cheeses I enjoyed after I lost the labels. He also mentions: "Cashel Blue is from a farm in Beechmount, (near Cashel) and it is the only blue cheese (cow's milk)in Ireland. It is similar to the world's finest Gorgonzola. Our Irish Farmhouse cheese is one of many cheeses we sell from small farms throughout Europe."

Pinky and the Cheese Video

2008-03-03T06:50:00.000-08:00

And now for a little frivolity from "Pinky and the Brain", Pinky sings Cheese Roll Call:

Are You Sure You’re Not From New York?

2008-02-29T05:51:00.000-08:00

True to my word, I brought Pont l’Eveque to work.
It warmed nicely and, surprisingly, without comment. So when lunch time rolled around, I took my cheese with me and popped down to the bar on the first floor. Hey, the Guide to French Cheese recommends pairing cider with Pont l’Eveque. Who am I to argue? I ordered up a Ace Peary Cider and dug in.

First thoughts: wow, this is way better with cider than with Shiraz. Thank you Cheese Guide. This cheese is a show off. It’s like: “Oh Yeah? You think you can handle stinky cheese? New York Subway in August kinda stink? Well, here ya go. Here’s your stink.” The rind is thick and gritty. I can actually feel my sides flexing under the onslaught.

The cider is light and bright, like the fizzy white wine of ciders. But it’s quickly losing the battle against the power of this cheese. My own breath is hanging in the back of my throat, hot and rising. The cider becomes less of a pairing and more of a chaser. The stench is building up like the hot wings you scoffed at on the first nibble.

A few years back I was in NYC and got stuck in traffic behind a broken down elementary school bus near the Guggenheim museum. I didn’t blink an eye when a taxi drove up on to the sidewalk to get around the bus. Hey, I live in Philly. I know taxi drivers are crazy. What got me was when the cab driver pulled up next to the bus, gestured for the bus driver to open the door, and then proceeded to curse him out a bloody blue streak. This cheese is that guys cheese. It may even have lived in that guys cab for awhile.

The Pont l’Eveque has landed on my stomach with a sneer and a “You lookin’ at me?”. Bread is a must, but still I can’t finish it. I’ve grown embarrassed of the growing cabbage like fumes rising from my plate and I’m having trouble figuring out how I’m going to ask for a breath mint without breathing on anyone.

Wrapped in Cherry Leaves: Surprise! It’s not Japanese

2008-02-28T07:45:00.000-08:00

For those of us trying to make it around the world via cheese, Asian countries are a real stumbling block. Just when you think you’ve found Japanese cheese…wham, turns out Wasabi Canonballs were invented in Indiana.

I recently came across a cherry leaf wrapped cheese but it’s not the elusive Sakura from Hokkaido. It’s La Rosa made in Italy. A beautiful little bundle of leaves tied with red cord, hides a pure white semi-soft body. The scent is quite heady, a perfume of pickled plums. Wait, isn’t it supposed to smell like cherries? Maybe it does and I just got caught up in the nostalgia. I used to eat a lot of pickled plums when I was a kid in Japan. And the scent of pickled fruit is somehow unsubtle. It’s heavy and romantic at the same time, like a cheesy high school crush. If you’ve watch Japanese animation you know how this goes:

You’re walking home from high school, the bright spring light is blinding but up ahead is a talk dark figure…it’s Tanaka Senpai! Upper classmen are so cute! Wait…is he turning? He’s looking right at you! He smiles. *Woosh the wind blows and suddenly the two of you are awash in cherry blossoms*

Yes! Except I was in 6^th grade and romance was interesting but more in a “look-what-strange-new-mold-I-discovered” kind of interesting. Luckily, that just gets more fascinating as you grow up. The mold I mean.

On that note, back to the cheese. The leaves are damp and tear easily and where the leaf meets the cheese there is a skim of moist paste. I suppose it’s the cheese ripening swiftly? Or perhaps a reaction between the leaf and cheese moisture? Whatever! It’s got a delicious pine nut flavor that I can’t get enough of. Its funny I’ve been so busy experiencing the leaves, I forgot about the heart of the matter. Ahh, even more in common with first love. Under all the pretty trappings is a pure cheese, light with a bit of lemon like acidity. Oh. Must be a goat cheese. Hahaha, I didn’t even read the label before digging in. Still, it’s lovely. Almost sweet. The world disappears a bit…

Well, no more kissing and telling. Go find your own cheese.

Tales of Stinky Cheese

2008-02-26T07:08:00.000-08:00

You may have heard that Cranfield University in

England

decided to find the world’s stinkiest cheese back in 2004. (Here’s a synopsis if you haven’t read it.) The results: placing first was Vieux Boulogne followed by Pont l’Evêque and Camembert de Normandie. Now, I’m a big fan of stinky cheese so I was thrilled to buy a piece of the silver medalist Pont l’Eveque.

I wanted to get the full effect of this promised aroma, so I left it out to get the recommended room temperature. After 40 minutes I was dang hungry but this cheese would not warm. Its naturally soft body was still stiff and the aroma was present but by no means strong. So I looked up what exactly “room temperature” is, and it turns out to be 72 degrees Fahrenheit! I live in an old brick building that used to be a plumbing supplies store in the 50’s. It still has the same windows. I don’t think my house can get that warm pre-June.

So I’m in a bit of a pickle about this cheese. Where can I take a cheese that promises to be hair raisingly pungent as soon as it gets warm enough? I think I’ll bring it to work. That’s always good for a laugh. J In the mean time, here’s a fun tale of stinky cheese at a conference. And a great article about “Guttery Breath of the Knight of Lostice” a cheese which is so strong it’s served with a toothbrush and mints!

Cheese Pairings Without the Wine

2008-02-25T06:03:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what to pair with a great cheese but would rather not have anymore crackers and wine? Blue cheese on chicken is old hat…but how about on pineapple? Or kelp?? An interesting site called “FoodPairing” uses the commonalities in “flavor components” to predict which foods go together. The information is presented in beautiful snowflake graphs. Currently the only cheeses represented are rather unspecific Blue, Camembert, Gruyere and Mozzarella. However there are enough odd sounding pairs that you could still be kept busy in the kitchen for quite awhile. ( I do wish I could see the raw data behind this research. What is a flavor component anyhow?)

Also try looking into cheeses from non-wine producing locales. Cheese from the French province of Normandy naturally pairs with cider, beer and even coffee. The picture on the left is from a neat blog "Farmstead News" which has some great paring suggestions here and there, but largely covers cheese from the cow side.

Oo and I also updated the tabs at the top of the blog to include Cheese Quest Library. It has some nice books on cheese pairing if you need more in depth info. Personally, I’m more of a do-it-yourself girl. Yeah, but I also eat Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. I like a little horrible with my delicious.

Maggots on a Food Blog??

2008-02-22T06:03:00.000-08:00

There is a very special cheese made in Sardinia, Italy called Casa Marzu. Now usually I write about cheeses I’ve actually tried. However, after much research, I’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that I will not be eating Casa Marzu: aka the maggoty cheese.

Wikipedia has a nice detailed entry. But essentially this cheese is rotten and infested with the larvae of the cheese fly. Is it the still wiggling maggots that make me not want to eat it? Well, no. Actually if the maggots aren’t moving it’s a really bad sign. If the cheese can’t support life then it’s actually quite toxic and will slap you in the hospital.

So the maggots are safe to eat? No. Here’s the details of Piophila casei. These maggots can survive human stomachs and live for a time in the intestines, merrily slicing you up all the while. You can imagine the symptoms. Plus locals say if the maggots jump from your sandwich they have an uncanny knack for hitting you in the eye.

But wait! These maggots can jump, so there are a few nice tricks to scare them out of the cheese before you dig in. Like covering it with a paperbag and waiting (as if for popcorn) for the panicking maggots to stop hitting the bag.

So now that the maggots are out, its safe to eat? Uh, no. The cheese is rotten and can cause a host of interesting symptoms on its own. “Enzymes produced by the maggots cause the cheese to ferment and its fats to decompose. The result is a viscous, pungent goo that burns the tongue and can affect other parts of the body. One neophyte experienced a strange crawling sensation on his skin that lasted for days” says Yaroslav Trofimov, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal. His article.

Besides its illegal even in Italy. That cheese on Fear Factor? Yeah it had maggots, but nice fat safe ones. If anyone knows what kind of cheese that actually was do let me know.

(Also if anyone knows the photographer of the above image, I'll post credits)

Benefits of Economic Recession: Cheese Boom

2008-02-21T06:10:00.000-08:00

Cheese as a valid indicator of economic down turn? You better believe it. When Americans get bummed about the economy we turn to our old friends: ice cream, butter and cheese. This guy thinks he’s invented the theory, and proposes using mac& cheese to follow market trends. (unfortunately he didn’t read the article he referenced, which actually talks about how single serving cups are responsible for Kraft’s recent success…) If you feel like getting technical here’s a professional using peanut butter and jelly to watch the economy. But really it’s a long standing economic truth. Comfort foods always do well during a down market. And they aren’t the only thing. Now, to really build a well diversified portfolio – stop. I’m not going there. This is about cheese! Cheese, I say!

Okay. Although cheese is definitely benefiting from the current downward economic trends, I don’t think cheese would have halted its climbing popularity even if times were different. US cheese consumption has been steadily growing since the 1970’s. And despite the dairy industries fears that attacks on saturated fat will cut sales…well it just hasn’t happened yet. (per capita cheese consumption in the US: link 1 and 2)

And it’s not just us. Cheese consumption is climbing globally. Reports of record growth in cheese appreciation in Switzerland, Spain, Finland, and China. And the most amazing, in 2005 the Greeks out paced the French in cheese consumption per capita. Looks like I'm going to have to brush up on my Greek cheeses!

PS: --This post is dedicated to my high school economics teacher Mr. Simpson.

Humbolt Fog Double Take

2008-02-19T07:28:00.000-08:00

Humbolt Fog is a soft goat cheese orginal from Cypress Grove. It got a lot of attention and there’s a good bit of speculation about whether their new offering Truffle Tremor can live up to the Fog’s reputation. But I’m a bit behind the times and I’m just trying its predecessor at the moment. (I’ll let you know if I get my grubby little mitts on Truffle Tremor.)

Humbolt Fog is quite visually appealing; white rind and white flesh intersected by a thin dark line. Now that’s not a vein of blue, that’s actually vegetable ash. My tastebuds claim it’s pretty much decorative but don’t worry this cheese isn’t lacking in flavor. In fact, in one wedge you'll get to try both aged and fresh tastes. The cheese ripens starting from the rind and heading inwards, resulting in a unique double texture and taste: a runny layer surrounding a core of fresh goat cheese. (Note: this photo from wikipedia shows the two textures with clarity, while the Cypress Grove photos show the cheese in its fresh only state.)

Now generally, I’m not a huge fan of goat cheese, often the smell of the animal comes through too strongly. The stinging acidity and wet mealy texture don’t do a lot for me either. However, the more I try, the more often I see that not all goat cheese has to have those characteristics. Humbolt Fog is a great example. I adore that runny edge! The center starts to get a bit lemony sharp, but I found it almost cleansed my palate so that I could re-experience the runny edge as though it were my first bite again.

With cheese like Humbolt Fog and the Haystack Farm’s Pyramide, I’m going to be a goat cheese convert in no time flat!

Fontina in Bed

2008-02-18T09:43:00.000-08:00

I’m not the kind of girl who eats crackers in bed. When I wake up hungry at 1:00am, I tend to bring the cheese back to bed sans anything crumbly. Hey, gotta have a little consideration right? Anyway, this Sunday I got home late, grabbed a slab of dry salami, a wedge of Fontina and climbed into bed. There’s something extra special about eating cheese in the quiet dark of the night. It’s like half a sensory deprivation tank. There are no distractions, just melting cheese. Scent. Texture. Slight squashing noise of chewing. (it’s really amazing i’m married isn’t it?)

A young Fontina is the perfect cheese to take to bed. It doesn’t crumble or smear, there’s no thick rind to dispose of, and no strong scent that would require rigorous hand washing and rebrushing of teeth. The taste is important too. There’s no tang to wake up the taste buds, no zip to get your nostrils all riled up. This is a thick smooth cheese with a high fat content that makes it luxuriously heavy yet uncomplicated and familiar. So, luxurious like a thick down quilt, not a mink coat. It reminds me of Laughing Cow cheese wedges. Which is odd since Laughing Cow wedges are a low fat soft swiss and Fontina is a soft fatty Italian cheese… Eh but love is love.

If you’re not into midnight snacking, Fontina may still be for you. It melts nicely, pairs up excellently with plain foods, and plays well with citrus-y or acidic wines. Just keep in mind that there’s a big difference between young and aged Fontina. If you get the wrong one you’ll definitely end up with cheese crumbles in the sheets.

French Cheese Caves

2008-02-15T06:47:00.000-08:00

In case you hadn’t noticed I’m a cheese amateur. I love love cheese…but I don’t know much about it. For example, I’ve known about cheese caves and cheese tours for a long time. But I thought cheese caves were actual caves located somewhere in France. So when I dreamed of going on a cheese tour someday, I imagined it would go something like this:

One would arrive at a small cheese making farm in the country side, and there, past the last barn and truffle sniffing pig, would be a path leading into the forest. A few minutes in and the hills would rise and there, amongst the boulders and vines would be a centuries old door set into the rock. Upon entering the cave you’d immediately be wrapped in the damp tangy smell of blue cheese mold. A friendly old man in a white apron would pause in his work to tell you about this special strain of mold that has been cultivated by his family since before (insert little known historical event). He’d then return to stabbing large wheels of cheese with hat pins to let the mold in.

*Sigh* Well, it was a lovely fantasy. But there’s nothing of the sort. Turns out cheese “caves” are just rooms or even boxes where a cheese can happily wait in its ideal heat and moisture level. It really takes the magic out. (It’s like learning a Webmaster is just a guy who builds pages on the internet. Man, I was really hoping for a bit more there too…)

Then again, it makes visiting a cheese cave a whole lot more accessible. I don’t have to buy a ticket to Europe, all I need to do is get Cliff from across the street to let me in. The only stumbling point: what sort of host gift do you bring a guy who owns a cheese, chocolate and liquor store??

(Updated with entry "Cheese Cave Update" 3/11/2008)

Great Moments in Cheese Love

2008-02-14T06:52:00.000-08:00

OOOooo! I almost forgot! Happy Valentines Day all you cheese lovers out there! This extra post goes out to you. Great Moments in Cheese love:

Sara Silverman Loves Cheese (this is a bit rude so NSW!!)

The Nacho News Reel from ilovenachocheese.com

Retail love: I heart Cheese Tee

And this story from NPR on how a little too much love from Wallace and Gromit causes a small cheese maker distress when the Stinking Bishop cheese mentioned in their movie became wildly popular. By the way, I tried the stuff and it is amazingly good, wickedly stinky. I think they would have gotten famous any how.

And if anyone knows where I can get heart shaped mozzarella sticks please let me know! The restaurant I used to get them at closed. There's a little cheese tragedy. *sob* Breaks my cheese filled heart.

Cream Cheese Everything!

2008-02-14T06:17:00.000-08:00

Cheap, smooth and mild: the incredibly versatile cream cheese! Three cheers for some uses and an equal amount of boos for creative mistakes. For example: 10 minute cheesecake; excellent use of cream cheese resources. One the other hand, “Philadelphia Sushi Roll” …fish and cream cheese… wow someone was not thinking there. (*suddenly imagines a cheddar and cocktail weenie sushi roll*) Actually, I’m thinking any cheese in sushi is not a great idea.

But it doesn’t stop there. Oh no, there are cream cheese chip dips, brownies, fudge, soups, icing, pasta sauces, marinades, ice cream, smoothies and you can even deep fry slabs of it or use it as a skin moisturizer. Is that it? No. Of course not! Why just eat cream cheese when you can use it to win money? Kraftfoods.com has a contest until April. Use their “Cheesecake Customizer Tool” and enter your creation to win 10k. Wow that'd buy you a lot of cream cheese!

Cheese of the Month Club

2008-02-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

Step one in a cheese obsession is the realization: “Hey, I like cheese”. Step two is “I think I’d like that cheese of the month club” (then before you know it you’re writing a cheese blog). But for today lets just examine cheese clubs. First up: cheesemonthclub.com each month they ship a ½ pound of 3 different cheeses. Of all the cheese clubs, this was the only one I’ve seen with an exact list of what you’ll be getting. Nice selection of mid-range cheeses; this club won’t get you Caciocavallo Podolico but you won’t get stuck with Jack either. The price tag? 450$ for the year, so about 25$ per pound. iGourmet.com weighs in at a similar quantity and cost: 360$ a year, 20$ a pound.

At artisanalcheese.com the cheese club will run you 840$ for 3 cheeses, a ½ pound total per month, for 13 months…I couldn’t find a list of cheeses, but they better be in gold leaf for that price tag of 129$ a pound! Of course, there’s always the bottom of the barrel: at Hickory Farms, you’ll get 9 months of Colby and Muenster for 8$ a pound. Woo. Exciting. I love wax!

My favorite so far is the vast range of cheese clubs at 1-800-cheeseclub.com. You can get really specific and have 12 months of Spanish cheese, or blue, or kosher, whatever you like. Generally they run between 450 and 600$ a month, 25-33$ a pound. (Except for the Platinum Club…but you knew that from the name.)

Now, is it worth it? If you live in a major metropolis, no. Within a 20 minute radius of my house are three gourmet supermarkets and two cheese themed restaurants. So there are easily 300 cheeses just ready, waiting and generally available around the 15$ a pound mark. Not that I’d say no to a cheese club. Really, I’d love one! I mean hubba hubba! Sign me up!! Please? I’ve been very good this 1/6^th of the year.

Nacho Cheese: Missing

2008-02-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Wachovia Center,

The Flyers rocked as usual. I don’t recall if they won, however the gloves-off-fist-fight-on-ice was awesome. And the fight behind me in the stands wasn’t too bad either. I was in the All You Can Eat section. That’s where things started to go down hill. I was dreadfully misled. The deal was all you can eat hot dogs, sodas and nachos. Dear sirs, nachos have cheese. Without cheese “nachos” are just tortilla chips. Please understand, my apologies to the Flyers, but I can’t continue to support this blatant misrepresentation of food stuffs.

Sincerely,

The Great Cheese Quester

Who moved my cheese (to the trash)?

2008-02-08T06:54:00.000-08:00

“But you can’t just throw that out!” That’s me. Saving terrible cheese again. I guess I just can’t believe that any cheese could really be bad. I must be just applying it incorrectly. If it’s no good on a cracker, maybe it melts really well. If it sucks on a burger maybe …uh…okay well, almost everything is good on flamed meat but you get my point. There’s nothing wrong with ricotta, but don’t make it into ice cream.

So now, its time to revisit the Vermont Ayr, Ciacotta and Piemonte. (Oh and by the way, don’t think I’m trying Rice Slices again. It's three strikes for cheese and only cheese. )

I really want to like Ayr. Its from Vermont and everything is better in Vermont. Let’s see…everything is also better with garlic. So I’ll try it as garlic cheese sauce over cauliflower! (time lapse) Okay! That wasn’t ideal. It took almost an equal ratio of garlic to cheese just to cover the Ayr’s stale butter back taste. At this point I may as well just eat the garlic straight.

Great. Fine. Um, Ciacotta. Help me out here internet. Woah! Wikipedia now does recipes?? Awesome! Well there’s nothing in here for Caciotta yet. But I have high hopes! In the mean time, recipetips.com suggests a toasted cheese and honey baguette; maybe that will counter this painful tangy-ness. (time lapse) Hurrah! We have a winner! That was delicious, the warm honey took the sharpness right out of the cheese. Even the muskiness of the truffles became less powerful and more luxurious.

Last one. Piemonte. There’s nothing horribly wrong with this cheese, its just too salty to east straight. Basically anything that needs salt can benefit from this cheese. Boring old spaghetti, plain white bean soup, whatever. Eh, its nothing to write home about. Or the internet for that matter.

Can I get some salad on this cheese?

2008-02-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

New life to hard cheese: shredded Parmigiano Reggiano baskets. Credit goes to my mummy for coming up with this one (you knew I had to get this foodie streak from somewhere). We took a cast iron frying pan and heated it to medium/low, then sprinkled finely shredded Parmigiano Reggiano in a circle inside the pan. Waited a bit until it was just starting to turn brown, pried up the cheese circle and flopped it over a small overturned bowl. As the cheese cooled, it hardened into the shape of the bowl and in a few minutes it could stand alone. (Later in the evening we filled the cheese baskets with mixed salad greens, making probably the most delicious and most unhealthy salad known to man).

Okay. That description makes it sound easy. Now the particulars: first, Mummy keeps her cast iron in great shape, well oiled and seasoned. I’m think this makes a heck of a lot of difference because we tried melting the cheese on an aluminum griddle and it just stuck. And adding oil to the cheese is 1) gross, 2) doesn’t make it stick much less, 3) the resulting basket is brittle and tastes over cooked.

That said, prying the cheese out of the cast iron pan isn’t a particularly graceful operation either. The spatula doesn’t neatly slide under it like a pancake. The cheese likes to bunch up like a wrinkly scarf and takes a fair bit of re-stretching when you finally get it out of the pan.

Also of note: your kitchen will be covered in bits of cheese, you’ll probably burn yourself at some point, your baskets will not look anything alike. Get over it. Perfectionism is not delicious. But these baskets sure are! Go try it!

Cheese Haiku

2008-02-05T11:28:00.000-08:00

So I heard about this award winning cheese made in Hokkaido, Japan. It’s a white, soft bodied cheese, flavored with cherry leaves. Naturally I’m interested in trying this so I went looking online to see where I could buy some. I didn’t have much luck...but I did run across something entertaining. Using “sakura cheese” as your search words seems to turn up a lot of bad haikus referencing cherry blossoms/trees. But no actual cheese. And no haikus about actual cheese. Well, that’s got to be fixed!

its high time you ate
dear, why not let it be cheese?
there is no grater

eau d' sweaty feet
bacteria miracle
pungent limburger

i am wholly yours
cheese, alpine lace, emmental
you are holey mine

kith and kin to spam
tube cheese, canned cheese, easy, cheese
food unrelated

And this last one courtesy of Shumpitron:
Oh white squishy cheese
why is you name Ricotta?
Not that I should care

Laying the Cheeseboard

2008-02-04T08:07:00.000-08:00

Bringing a cheese platter to a dinner party takes a fair bit of thought. There are an awful lot of variables to consider. How many guests are there, how long will they be left waiting for dinner, will there be other hors d’oeuvres? And then the cheeses themselves: the cheeses should compliment dinner (or at least not clash horribly); Colby for the Super Bowl, Havarti for dinner at the neighbors, and that fascinating little French thing for heels and tie events. Of course, if you know most of the guests, keep their tastes in mind. If the host is no more adventurous than brie, be kind and skip Spanish blues. In fact, you may want to skip bringing seriously stinky cheese in general… its really embarrassing if you make your hosts’ toy dog cry and bury his nose in the sofa.

I went to a lovely dinner party on Saturday, a sit down affair with crystal and china but still casual enough to avoid ties and pointy shoes. I brought a Gouda with mustard seeds, Leyden with cumin and Amadeus (from Austria of course). Pretty small platter for 8 people, but dinner was six courses so I would have done everyone a disservice letting them fill up on cheese.

Okay. The point of this story: I am so cool. I am so cool. I think my cheese crimes can be forgiven now that I’ve managed to pull off this cheese platter with aplomb. The gouda was very approachable. The mustard seeds provided a dash of interesting, both visually and mentally without any taste bud hurdles. The leyden was aromatic but plain bodied, making a nice match with the peppercorn pate.

Now, the Amadeus was a shot in the dark for me. I was passing through Wholefoods and saw something new. It was an attractive rich yellow wedge, and neither hard nor soft. Wow, turned out to be a real winner. Smooth texture, not as rubbery as a gouda or as smooshy as a badly chilled brie. And best of all it was interesting. Not forced interesting, (Imported! Organic! Its smoked! Its herb added! Wrapped in Brazilian toad leaf!!! Buy it now!) but an honest, complex cheese talking about where its been. Air and fields, warm summer days on the river bank, other cheeses…its a perfect cracker cheese. I wouldn’t want to clutter it up with other stuff, except maybe some white grapes.

MMmm now I’m hungry for it again.

Crime Against Cheese

2008-01-31T08:03:00.000-08:00

I’m sad to report another crime against cheese…and this time I’m the perp. *sigh* It all started with the best of intentions. Low on cashola, I decided to hit the sample cheese bin (No, no, not the cubes on toothpicks. I haven’t sunk that low). It was the worst weather to go out in, of course. Cold and rainy but too blustery to keep an umbrella up; twigs and plastic bags attacking your ankles as you try to navigate around those strangely foamy city puddles. But I made it to the supermarket and the sample bin had a couple interesting things in it. A bit of Vermont Ayr, a truffle Caciotta, and a Piemonte. Cheese acquired, I made the struggle home. Only to find I had neglected buy anything other than cheese…so I was going to have breakfast, it was going to be those sample cheeses. And you know what? They sucked. And don’t think its really their fault. I think pretty much anything would suck eaten off a plastic plate (‘cause you’re a bad bad person and haven’t any clean dishes left), at 7am, while your adorable teething baby cries her head off.

In detail, here’s how they sucked.

Truffle Caciotta. Ah the lovely earthy smell of truffles…sunk into old sour cream. Raw and sour tasting with a pale spongy body like a cross between mozzarella and dried out ricotta, it reminded me that my fridge desperately needs cleaning and the milk for my coffee has gone off.

Bra Duro Piemonte. Salty. Hard and wickedly salty. Eating this makes me feel like a sailor adrift in the doldrums. We’re on half rations of cheese rinds, weevil filled biscuits and rotten limes. *sigh* I really wish I’d remembered to get breakfast at the shop…

Crawford Family Farm Ayr. It’s a hard yellow cheese which tastes overwhelming of butter. Putting this in my mouth at the same time as the caciotta almosts fools me into thinking I’m enjoying myself. Then I accidently tip my plate over and it gets covered in beige carpet fuzzies. I need to vacuum. My cat is neglected. This house is leaking heat like a sieve. Gah. I quit. I’m relegating these all to cooking cheese status.

Ps.

Jail time for cheese crimes:

Bathtub Cheese
Cheese Thieves

I'm so fondue you, cheese

2008-01-31T07:03:00.000-08:00

Alrighty. I love fondue. Duh. It’s cheese for dinner. How could I not love that? Well… I was invited over for fondue dinner and, unfortunately, I was put in charge of the chocolate fondue. My dear host took on the cheese fondue. We were both unpleasantly shocked. I don’t really eat dessert fondue, (to be honest, I’ve never had room after the cheese) so I just chucked a bag of Hershey’s kisses and splash of cream in pot: done. My host, chucked a block of Monterey Jack and a block of Velveeta in a pot: done. Good thing neither of us has any taste in liquor or that meal might have gone badly.
I’ve since found that an immense amount of fondue recipes out there have very little in common with actual fondue and wind up more like warm chip dip. Hey people!! There is no crying in baseball and there is no American cheese in fondue! It’s a swiss dish, therefore needs to involve cheeses found in Switzerland. Generally accepted rules of fondue: A hard Swiss cheese (Gruyere), a soft Swiss cheese (Emmental, Vachirin or Raclette), a bit of binding agent (flour, potato starch), and a bit of a thinning agent (Kirshwasser, beer, or wine). I personally, get a bit naughty and add a ton of garlic. Things that don’t go in cheese fondue: Worcestershire sauce, salsa, taco mix, chicken soup, breaded chicken, cream cheese, apple juice, or ranch dressing. Yuck, people. Just yuck. Also, I’d avoid any recipe that mentions how great it was at the church luncheon.

Venezuelan Beaver Cheese Hunters

2008-01-29T06:25:00.000-08:00

According to wikipedia, the Monthy Python’s Cheese Shop sketch mentions 44 cheeses. And with so many dedicated Python fans out there, you know more than a few are trying their own cheese hunts. Enter: Beavercheese.org, a home for hunting and reviewing all of the cheeses in the Cheese Shop Sketch. Wow what fun! And pretty darn easy too. Most of the cheeses can be found in your local supermarket (cheddar, mozzarella, Wenslydale) The slightly more challenging cheeses are still popular enough to be easily bought online. Carre de l'Est, which isn’t generally available in the US, can be procured for a mere 12$ on cheeseline.com. Wait two weeks and voila, another cheese off the list. (And in the grand scheme of cheese, two weeks is practically instant gratification!)
As for the fictional Venezuelan Beaver Cheese, I don’t know how much longer it’s going to stay that way. There are plenty of inspired folks out there: beavercheese.org finds that “beaver milk has 33% protein, 56% fat, 5% lactose and 34% solids” and suggests it would make a fabulously rich cheese. There aren’t any beavers native to Venezuela, but commenters on beavercheese.org have a few creative work arounds; including milking a Venezuelan capybara (a large rodent similar to a beaver) or using north American beaver milk to follow a Venezuelan cheese recipe. Actually I’m surprised a cheese artist out there hasn’t just applied the creative title for laughs. Well, I’ll keep my ears to the ground just in case.

(In case you’re wondering the cheeses mentioned are: Bel Paese, Boursin, Bresse-Bleu, Brie, Caerphilly, Caithness, Camembert, Carré de l'Est, Czechoslovakian sheep's milk, Cheddar, Cheshire, Danish Blue, Dorset Blue Vinney, Double Gloucester, Edam, Emmental, Gorgonzola, Gouda, Greek Feta, Gruyère, Ilchester, Lancashire, Limburger, Liptauer, Mozzarella, Norwegian Jarlsberg, Parmesan, Pipo Crème, Pont l'Evêque, Port Salut, Red Leicester, Red Windsor, Roquefort, Sage Derby, Saint-Paulin, Savoyard, Smoked Austrian, Stilton, Tilsit, “Venezuelan Beaver Cheese" (fictional), Wensleydale, and White Stilton).

Limburger

2008-01-28T06:03:00.000-08:00

Last summer I treated myself to a block of Limburger. And why am I thinking of that now? Because it’s freezing out and someone said to me “Remember those stinking hot days in August?” And, yep, I remember. Mostly that Limburger incident.
I’m a known lover of stinky cheese, yet I’d never gotten around to sampling the notorious Limburger. So when I saw it at my local supermarket (?!) how could I resist? And it was lovely; a tame soft cheese hidden beneath an incredibly powerful odor of old gym socks. (Fun fact, the bacteria use to ferment Limburger is indeed the same bacteria responsible for human body odor.) After having a couple of slices I put the remainder in the fridge, thought better of it, and moved the bag to the freezer.
I came back a few hours later to find my poor husband furiously scrubbing the kitchen. He looked positively green. He said something was rotting but he couldn’t find it, we might have to move the major appliances and look for a dead rodent… When I sheepishly admitted my guilt, Limburger was summarily banished from the house. I’m lucky, I got to stay. So if you see (or smell) someone out on the roof eating cheese, it’s me.

Ski Queen, Kraft Singles and oh god…rice cheese.

2008-01-24T07:01:00.000-08:00

End of the month, pay check’s a little late…does that mean I stop eating cheese? Of course not! It just means the quality of cheese really really suffers. After digging around in my fridge for a bit I came up with ½ a cube of Ski Queen, two Kraft singles and an unopened pack of soy cheese slices. I can imagine why this is unopened…what I can’t imagine is how this got in my house.
There are very few cheeses I dislike. In fact, all the cheeses I genuinely hate barely qualify as cheeses; low fat ricotta, a host of “pasteurized process cheese foods”, and I’m just taking a guess here…but probably soy cheese. So the big question: Do I want the worst first or last?
Kraft Singles: Being a sheltered child of a dedicated gourmet, I wasn’t exposed to processed cheese singles until I was 10. It was an illicit experience. My friends taught me how to unwrap and roll them without tearing the strangely delicate cheese. We ate them straight out of the fridge and then went out to light illegal fireworks. So, singles taste like plastic but I still eat them because its like school just let out again.
Ski Queen Gjetost: A funky Norwegian cheese which looks like a giant soft caramel square. It’s sweet too. Leaves a bit of peanut butter-esque stickiness in your mouth. A good drink pairing? Uh… 7-up? Actually, I could see this in someone’s lunch box wrapped up next to a hunk of pumpernickel and thermos of bitter coffee. MMmm!
And now…Rice cheese. Please don’t let this be worse than tofu hot dogs… I can’t do this. This isn’t even cheese! It plainly says that its vegan, soy free, rice slice! Okay. Okay. I need rum.
….
Woo! Okay! Ready! Cheese looks like an orange kraft single, same individual wrapping, smells like plastic, tears like wet packing material. And it tastes- aAgkkkeh!! There’s this massive backtaste of…ugh what is that? Sour laundry? Hangover sweat? Ugh, I think I pulled a muscle while grimacing.

At Tria: Chaput Grand Foin, Haystack, Ombra

2008-01-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

Tonight: Ombra, Haystack Mountain’s Haystack Peak, and Chaput Grand Foin

Location: Tria. (www.triacafe.com 1137 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107)

Tria bills itself as a wine, cheese and beer café. And hey, wine and cheese, isn’t there fad diet book on that theme? While I doubt that there are diets in heaven, it’s safe to say I almost had a religious experience at Tria. Admittedly, I’m a cheese fiend. But that doesn’t make me easy to please, quite the opposite in fact. I’ve had the cheese platter at Le Bec Fin and it was so boring I could have slept face down on my plate. However if you’re not a cheese aficionado, have no fear. Tria makes it easy to find your way around the menu by listing both the cheese selection, and the libations, by character; approachable, bold, stinky, clear, light-hearted.

I started with a basic pairing of red wine and hard sheep cheese (Care Tinto Joven a Syrah / Garnacha / Tempranillo and the cheese: Ombra). A gorgeous red, interesting, rich, really there was nothing basic about it. The cheese was nice but “hard sheep cheese” was exactly it. No more no less. It did have a lovely added bonus of a membrillo served on the side. (Has anyone else noticed how honey flavor is popping up everywhere? Will meade and quince be the next fad to replace the oh-so-hip pomegranate?)

Round two, Haystack. My friend described this succinctly: “its like eating cheese after you milked a cow”. Yep. Milky foreground, swiftly followed by a warm snoot full of Bessie. Only surprise is that it’s a goat cheese, so make that snoot full of Buttercup. This cheese earns my affection for bringing back warm memories of hugging goats, without the rude scent of Billy.

I knew exactly what I was having next. I’d known it since I picked up the menu, I was just prolonging the inevitable, reveling in the anticipation. Bring on the “stinky” cheese please. The indescribable Chaput Grand Foin and as a classy foil: the bubbly Pares Balta cava brut. This is the part where the clouds parted and a host of angels dropped mana on to my cheese board. Rich and creamy, tasting of powerful odors, grit of rind edges…this cheese was no lady. This was a wicked dame straight out of a noir flick. The cava brut was like her innocent apple perfume that makes you stop looking at her cleavage for, oh, two seconds.

I awoke the next morning with a smile on my face and memory of my night with Chaput Grand Foin. Thanks Tria for the love match.

-KWest