Cheese: A Journey

TASTES: Le Zephyr

2011-04-06T19:10:00.000-07:00

By Kara and Erica

Preface: In this video, we lied. Canada and the U.S. have the same laws w.r.t. raw milk cheese. In both countries, raw milk cheeses must be aged at least 60 days.

WELCOME US BACK.

LINKS: The Great British Cheese Festival

2010-09-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

By Erica

Why are the British so much more awesome than us when it comes to cheese? It seems like we import all great cheese news from England. Here some more!

The Great British Cheese Festival of 2010 happened last week at Cardiff Castle. It involved lots of sampling, making and rolling. There's a nice slide show of the event over at The Guardian.

Maybe one day Madison will have an event as cool as this. Or maybe Kara and I could plan one....

LINKS: What will YOU do for National Cheeseburger Day?

2010-09-17T08:18:00.001-07:00

By Erica

Tomorrow, September 18th, is National Cheeseburger Day! ...maybe. According to a website dedicated to holidays, there is no documented origin for this day, nor is it technically an official National holiday. But I don't care!

The cheeseburger was supposedly invented between 1924 and 1926 when a homeless man told chef Lionel Sternberger to put a slice of cheese on his burger. Sternberger then put "cheeseburger" on his menu, and the rest is history. According to a recent survey, 44% of Americans prefer American Cheese on their burgers, while 38% prefer Cheddar cheese.

Happy (unofficial) Cheeseburger Day!

TASTES: Edelweiss Swiss

2010-09-15T06:15:00.001-07:00

Here's another C:AJ tasting from the vault. It's a swiss cheese that we did not like. To quote myself, "it tastes like dirt." I'll let you watch the vid (below) to find out the whole story.

This tasting also resulted in some of our finest cheese photography:

I hope you enjoy watching the tasting more than we enjoyed eating the cheese!

LINKS: The Most Expensive Cheese Sandwich

2010-09-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

By Erica

At the Frome Cheese show in England, chef Martin Blunos (above) announced his latest creation: a cheese sandwich that costs £111! That's about $171.50 for us Americans. The large cost comes from the addition of white truffle cheddar cheese (although flecks of gold add a few unnecessary pounds, too). Cheese sandwiches are all the rage in England, apparently, and Blunos is applying to the Guiness Book of World Records to get his pricey sandwich officially on the books.

Here's a full list of the ingredients (with their prices):

Black tomato – £1.51
Balsamic vinegar – £2.25
Pea shoots – 60p
Red mustard frill – 55p
Red amaranth – 55p
Two fresh figs – 1.36p
Apple – 34p
Sourdough loaf – £5
Extra virgin olive oil – £1.60
Quail eggs – £1.53
Edible gold dust – £3.30
West Country vintage farmhouse cheddar blended with white truffle – £92

LINKS: British Cheese Awards

2010-09-09T11:13:00.000-07:00

By Kara

It was judgment day for British cheesemongerers. The 17th annual British Cheese Awards - known, apparently, as "the 'Oscars' of the cheese world" - began today in Kingham, Oxfordshire. (Can you imagine a more aptly-name venue for this sort of event?)

According to The Cheese Web, "In 16 years the number of British cheesemakers has more than doubled and there are now over 600 unique British cheeses made from cow, goat, ewe and even buffalo milk."

Categories include "Best English (Patrick Rance Trophy)," "Best Welsh (Douglas Campbell Trophy)," "Best Scottish," and "Best Irish (Eugene Burns Trophy)" - the best Scotts are apparently anonymous. Personally, I'm interested to see the results for "Cheese Person of the Year" (is this the British equivalent of "Miss Congeniality"?), and to learn more about the difference between "Best Modern British Cheese" and "Best Traditional British Cheese."

Judging will continue on Friday, September 24th - "Trade Day" - where judges will turn their attention to cheese exports for the first time in the history of the awards. That is also the day that the winners in all categories will be revealed - so check back then!

RECIPES: Apple Pie with Cheese Crust

2010-09-07T06:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend, C:AJ had a potluck to go to, and we decided to bring a pie. Not a regular pie, though-- a CHEESEY pie.

As we've talked about before on this blog, cheese and apple pie are a common pair. In fact, many restaurants in Wisconsin, including The Old Fashioned on the square in Madison, serve their apple pie with a slice of cheddar cheese. The pie that we made got a bit more fancy than that and incorporated cheese into the crust.

For those of you who want to try this out, remember that when you're making a pie crust, try to handle the dough as little as possible and only add enough water to just keep the dough together. Also, using half shortening and half butter is important for the perfect combo of flakiness and deliciousness, so don't substitute! One last tip: you can roll the crust out between two pieces of wax/parchment paper, which is much less messy and easier than flouring the surface of a table.

Here's the recipe (directly from epicurious) and some pictures of the pie in progress!

INGREDIENTS
Crust
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6 tablespoons chilled pure vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup (firmly packed) coarsely grated sharp cheddar cheese
5 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Filling
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
6 6- to 7-ounce Jonathan, Jonagold, or Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced

INSTRUCTIONS
For crust:
Place flour, sugar, and salt in processor; blend 5 seconds. Add butter and shortening. Using on/off turns, blend until mixture resembles fine meal. Add cheese; mix in using 4 on/off turns. Transfer dry ingredients to large bowl. Sprinkle 5 tablespoons water over. Using fork, toss until moist clumps form, adding more water by tablespoonfuls if mixture is dry. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Shape each half into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.
For filling:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix sugar and cornstarch in large bowl. Mix in apples, lemon juice, and salt.
Roll out 1 dough disk on lightly floured surface to 13-inch round. Transfer dough to 9-inch-diameter deep-dish glass pie dish; brush overhang with water. Transfer filling to dough-lined dish; dot with butter. Roll out second dough disk on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Place dough atop filling. Press overhang of bottom and top dough pieces together to seal. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch. Fold overhang under; crimp decoratively, forming high-standing rim. Cut several small slits in top crust to allow steam to escape.
Bake pie until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Cover crust edge with foil. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Bake pie until filling bubbles thickly in center, about 30 minutes. Cool pie on rack 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature.

P.S. The pie was a hit!

LINKS: Old Cheese

2010-09-06T06:01:00.000-07:00

"This is the story of a hundred-and-seventeen-year-old piece of cheese..."

This is the first line of a new short piece by Robert Sullivan called "Say Cheese" on the New Yorker Website. It's a mysterious tale of cheese, war, and grandparents.

Click here to check it out!

THOUGHTS: "Maybe we could wrap it in plastic"

2010-09-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

By Kara

Last weekend, after a week spent rambling along and around the highways from Massachusetts and Wisconsin, I headed over to the Orton Park Festival to sit still for a moment and re-acclimate to life in the Midwest. It being 10:00am, I was just in time for the early musical act. I settled in with a magazine amongst a crowd of infants and elders.

Little did I know that - within 24 hours of my return to Madison - the ambient environment would rekindle my passion for this journey of ours.

The act was good - a husband and wife team performing showtunes, both classics and originals, with a combination of real musical talent and irrepressible gusto. Before long, I was neglecting my New Yorker, clapping when they asked me to, and genuinely enjoying myself. How charming, the Midwest, I thought - I had nearly forgotten.

And then they cinched it. "In this next number," the singer announced, "Mrs. Velveeta is yearning for the perfect cheese to feed her picky children."

And it just got better! I wish I had written down the lyrics. All I can recall is the chorus: "Maybe we could wrap it in plastic..."

I imagined this song taking place at a pivotal point for Mrs. Velveeta... For me, it was the perfect reminder of what a quirkily delightful city I live in. And, of course, of the power of cheese.

Onstage, the musicians call themselves The Rohnellaros (check out their Facebook page here!); in the rest of their lives, they are known as Andrew Rohn (composer) and Catherine "Cat" Capellaro (singer/writer). The song they performed was part of their "underground hit" musical, "American Cheese!" (They are better known for their "politico-musical comedy," "Walmartopia," which was produced at the New York Fringe Festival and off-Broadway.)

Links: Wisconsin wins again!

2010-09-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

By Erica

Last weekend, the 2010 American Cheese Society competition was held in Seattle. Wisconsin, of course, took home more prizes than any other state! Uplands Cheese in Dodgeville won Best in Show (who knew cheese and dog shows used the same terminology?) with their Extra Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve. This cheese is only made in the summer when the cows are grazing on grass, according to their website.

We'll have to try it soon!

LINKS: Denny's New Cheese Sandwich

2010-08-31T05:57:00.000-07:00

By Erica

Last week, Denny's put a new item on its menu: The Fried Cheese Sandwich. NPR sent some investigators, including Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me's Peter Sagal (below) to try the new sandwich, which a grilled cheese with mozzarella sticks instead of plan cheese on the inside.

Their report has some great lines, including "All the layers, it's Inception in sandwich form. The mozzarella sticks are really just a dream the grilled cheese sandwich is having. It's a good dream," and "It's really like the grilled cheese sandwich is smuggling the mozzarella sticks into your stomach."

I've never said no to fried cheese, so I think that this is an EXCELLENT invention. Maybe the Wisconsin version will include fried cheese curds instead of mozzarella sticks!

We're back! With a bonus tasting from the archives...

2010-08-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

By Kara and Erica

We just got back from cheesecation, and we're ready to eat. As we search for the perfect back-to-tasting cheese for our next review, we thought we'd share with you a video from the archives. Regular readers will know that this sort of several-month aging process merely serves to bring out the flavors in a good cheese... video... right?

Enjoy, and look back here for fresh posts this week!

We are on CHEESEcation

2010-08-16T11:57:00.001-07:00

Apologies for the lack of post. Cheese: A Journey are on vacation. We will be back at then end of a month. Here's an amazing vintage cheese label to entertain you till then!

LINKS: "A Little Fermented Curd Would Do The Trick"

2010-07-23T05:40:00.000-07:00

By Erica

Happy Friday! Here's the excellent Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch to get you through to the weekend. I don't know WHY we haven't posted this before....

LINKS: Cheese-Making in Our Future?

2010-07-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

By Kara

Maybe I'm overconfident or gullible or just hungry... or maybe this is just a really encouraging (if less than beautiful) website. David B. Fankhauser, Ph.D. (!), is a professor of biology and chemistry at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College in Batavia, OH. He is also the author of an extensive website for beginning cheese-makers.

He knows how to break it down. Ingredients: milk, starter, rennet. Equipment: heavy stainless steel pot with lid, measuring cups, thermometer, whisk, cheese cloth, cheese press. He includes instructions about how to cheat with the starters and make DIY cheese presses, and - the best part - he's posted a full cheese-making syllabus, starting with yogurt and labneh and ending in homemade blue. Professor F. is frank, straightforward, and illustrates his lessons with very helpful photographs. Check out the first "lecture" (on yogurt) here.

...Do you think we can pull it off?

LINKS: A truckload of cheese

2010-07-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

By Erica

It seems like most of our "links" posts are about cheese accidents in the news, and here's another!

Yesterday morning in Minnesota, a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his semi into a Ford Explorer. None of the passengers suffered any life threatening illnesses, so perhaps the most upsetting part of the crash was that the truck was carrying 17,500 pounds of cheese!

The Department of Transportation called garbage trucks to the scene to remove the massive amounts of cheese from the interstate (I-90, in case you were curious). It took five hours to clear away all that cheesey goodness.

Sources:
Worthington Daily Globe

TASTES: Parmesan - Pairing Appendix!

2010-07-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

By Kara and Erica

In our tasting of Farmer John's Parmesan, we implied that the lingering nutty-meatiness of Parmesan just begs for a good pairing. This might have been correct in theory, but... well, just watch. It seems we need a little pairing practice.

TASTES: Parmesan

2010-07-05T19:13:00.001-07:00

By Kara and Erica

This week, C:AJ is going back to basics with a standard cow's milk Parmesan. No crazy animals, no added spices, just a solid wedge of one of the world's most recognizable and beloved cheeses.

Background:

We purchased this Parmesan from the Farmer John's cheese stand at the East Side Farmers' Market. (Check out F.J.'s straightforward description of his Parmesan here.) We're pretty sure this Farmer John is located in Spring Green, WI (source: L'Etoile Restaurant) - if anyone else has more information about the operation, let us know! Otherwise, we'll check in with him again at the next market.

This cheese is technically a Parmesan-style cheese - "Parmesan" and "Parmigiano-Reggiano" being protected designations of origin reserved for cheeses made in or around Parma, Italy, at least when the cheese is sold within Europe. (Felix, we know you would insert a cheesy - haha - "Celestesan" joke here.) By definition, European Parmigiano-Reggiano is made between May and November, using a combination of today's whole "morning milk" and skimmed "evening milk" from the night before.

Parmesan is a cooked cheese, meaning that the milk is heated to temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the process (in this case, twice). In a unique twist on the basic cheese-making process, proto-Parmesan curds are broken up mechanically into rice-sized pieces after the first heating; after being reheated, the whey is drained and the curds are poured into round molds. After a few days of rest, the resulting cheese is soaked in a brine bath and allowed to age for at least 12-14 months in the U.S. (True Parmigianos are typically aged at least 2 years in Europe. If the cheese makes it to 3 years it is deemed "stravecchio" (extra old!), and a 4-year-old morsel earns the label "stravecchione" (super extra old!).) Parmesan-style cheese is typically aged in a very humid environment, and Farmer John - let's just assume that's the vendor's real name - told us that his Parmesan needs to be wiped dry every 3 days for the first year or so. Phew! For such a popular item, Parmesan is quite a picky little cheese...

Parmesan-style cheeses are known for being hard, dry, granular, salty, and nutty. They're often grated (quick tip: try grating your own! It's far superior to Kraft...), but true connoisseurs (at least the ones on Wikipedia) advocate strongly for Parmesan to be eaten as table cheese.

This makes us true connoisseurs.

The Taste:

This cheese is satisfying to slice: it's hard enough to make nicely shaped slices, but not so hard that your knife gets stuck halfway through. This Parmesan (like many dry, aged cheeses) has a flaky, slightly crystalline texture - toothsome when chewed (possibly due to the breaking up of the curds?). Kara is an official "toothsome" fan.

As soon as the slice hits the tongue, the salivary glands go crazy! (At least ours do.) We don't think this cheese was very sour at all... can savory flavors make one's mouth water? This Parmesan is salty and sweet, with a strong (and delicious) nutty/meaty flavor that really fills the mouth. The taste lingers for a while, just begging for a good pairing...

Sources:
- Wikipedia: "Parmigiano-Reggiano" - scroll down for some interesting Parmesan lore!

- Wisegeek.com: "What is Parmesan Cheese?"

- Cheese.com: "Parmesan (Parmigiano)"

- Epicurious Food Dictionary: "Parmesan Cheese"

LINKS: Best Cheese in Wisconsin, 2010

2010-06-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

By Erica
The Wisconsin State Fair Butter and Cheese Contest was held last Friday with over 300 entries. The winner will be celebrated on August 5th at the Wisconsin State Fair's Blue Ribbon Cheese and Butter Auction.

From what I can tell, the winner's are not yet made public, but there's a list of "top entries" for each category on the Wisconsin Ag site. The cheeseries I recognize are Chalet Cheese Co-o (maker of the new Liederkrantz!) a top entry for both swiss and smeared ripe cheese, and The Crave Brothers (who made our cupcake cheese), which is top for open class- soft and spreadable cheese. Carr Valley, which supplies goat cheese for Madison Sourdough's cafe's, is at the top of sheep and mixed milk cheese.

Click here for the full list of top entries... whatever that means!

FACTS: Cheddar basics

2010-06-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

By Erica

I like to think that I know a lot about cheese. We've been writing this blog for many months now, so I must have learned something. The other day, though, I was eating a fist sized chunk of cheddar cheese-- as I do--and I realized that I did not know what cheddar cheese was. I knew what it tasted like, but I did not know what made it that way. How embarrassing.

The essence of cheddar cheese comes from a process called, unsurprisingly, cheddaring. But before we get to that, a little history:

The first record of the existence of cheddar dates back to 1170 in England, although legend has it that the recipe was brought over from France by the Romans. It wasn't until 700 years later, though, that cheddar became the cheese that we know today.

Joseph Harding, "the father of cheddar cheese", or as I like to call him, the Gutenberg of Cheddar, standardized and sanitized the making of cheddar in the 1800s. He invented lots of equipment, including a machine that cut curds, that provided the cheese making processes with a defined structure.

(Side note: Wikipedia writes that "the 'Joseph Harding method' was the first modern system for cheddar production based upon scientific principles." I originally read that last phrase as "scientific method" and spent a while trying to figure out why cheese making would require an a priori hypothesis.)

Now we come to what makes cheddar cheddar. Cheddaring is when after being heated, the curds are kneaded with salt before the whey is drained. After this, the cheese can be shaped and aged for any amount of time (longer = sharper). Harding said cheddar is supposed to be firm, mellow, and with a hint of hazelnut. It is also often orange, but this comes from added coloring, usually from paprika oil and/or annatto, a natural red dye that comes from a scary tree pod (see picture below).

And there you have it. That's all I learned about cheddar.

...except for this fact that I couldn't fit in anywhere: For the 1964 World's Fair in New York, Wisconsin created a 34,951 pound hunk of cheddar cheese from the milk of 16,000 cows.

Sources:
-Just wikipedia. Sorry.

LINKS: Blue cheese-- but not on purpose!

2010-06-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

By Erica

In Turin, Italy this past Monday, 70,000 balls of fresh mozzarella were confiscated by the police when the several merchants and consumers noticed that the cheese mysteriously turned blue after it was exposed to the air*. The Italian Agriculture Minister, Giancarlo Galan, called the development "disturbing" and ordered laboratory tests.

The manufacturer of the cheese is a German company called Milchwerke Jaeger. They insist that the bacteria is harmless and that it affected only about ten of the mozzarella balls that were exported to Italy. Apparently, the bacteria is commonly found in ground water and has been filtered out of Milchwerke Jaeger's system. There have been no illnesses reported.

If the bacteria is indeed harmless, maybe this is the beginning of a new trend-- blue mozzarella! It would make for an interesting pizza.

Sources:
-Walletpop.com
-NY daily news
-Winnipeg Free Press

*Snicker-worthy descriptor of the tainted balls avoided with much difficulty.

Happy Weekend!

2010-06-18T08:57:00.001-07:00

Best hat ever?
(via Jezebel)

RECIPES: Cheesy baked pasta with tomatoes and mushrooms

2010-06-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

By Erica

It's time for what you've all been waiting for-- another recipe from C:A J! I adapted this recipe from one I found on Epicurious.com. It was originally in Gourmet Magazine (R.I.P.) and called for Gorgonzola cheese along with the milder Fontina. My fridge, however, only contained some of Capri's Smokey Bear, a smoked muenster style cheese, and so I used that instead. Some of the measurements in what I typed up below are only approximate, so feel free to increase amounts of cheese, garlic, spices etc. to your liking.

This dressed up mac & cheese is great for when you're having company but don't have time to prepare the day of. I made the recipe up to the baking part (Step 6) the day before and refrigerated it over night. The next day, I just popped it in the oven for 25 minutes before serving. The crowd (Kara & C.) went wild!

INGREDIENTS:
1 onion, chopped into strips
1/2 pound crimini mushrooms, chopped
1 clove garlic
Chili oil
2 tablespoons of butter
1 heaping tablespoon of flour
1 cup milk
1 large or 2 medium tomatoes
parsley
1 1/4 cup of smoked cheese (such as Capri's Smokey Bear)
1/2 pound of elbow pasta
Fresh grated parmesan cheese
Butter for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Sautee 1 onion in chili oil until the onion begins to soften. Add the mushrooms and garlic. Cook till soft (about 10 minutes). Transfer to a large bowl.

2. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the pan. Add 1 heaping tablespoon of flour and make into a roux (low to medium heat), whisking constantly. Add one cup of milk and whisk until thick (about 3 minutes).

3. Add to mushrooms and onions. Add chopped tomato, parsley, and cheese. Mix until blended.

4. Cook pasta for 5 minutes (should still be slightly undercooked). Add to cheese mixture. Salt and pepper to taste.

5. Put in a buttered casserole dish. ** Can make to here a day ahead and refrigerated. Bring to room temp before baking **

6. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and small butter chunks. Bake uncovered at 450 for 20-25 minutes or until top begins to brown.

NOTES:
-You can substitute olive oil for chili oil, but add chili pepper flakes when seasoning if you do this so that the spice is there. You can try using other types of cheeses, too.

-The picture above includes a light salad made with fresh lettuce, tomato, French Feta cheese (also from Capri), and homemade croutons. We dressed it with some fresh lemon juice and olive oil to taste. It made a perfect side dish.

TASTES: Feddost cheese

2010-06-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

By Erica and Kara
We recently purchased a cheese from Nordic Creamery at the East Side Farmers' Market in Madison. Nordic Creamery makes goat and cow's milk cheeses, and they don't have a stand at Madison's Saturday market-- although the family-owned farm is located in Westby, Wisconsin, they cross the border into Illinois on the weekend to hock their goods at the Lincoln Park Farmers' Market in Chicago.

Background: We tried a Feddost cheese, which is a cow and goat milk cheese made with a "curd infusion" of cumin and cloves. Nordic Creamery says that Feddost is "a Norwegian flavor tradition with a sweet and spicy flavor."

Feddost won second place in the mixed milk category at the American Cheese Society competition in 2008.

The Taste: Feddost was a stretch for C:AJ - neither of us thought that we liked flavored cheeses, preferring instead flavors that arise from your basic milk, rennet, and bacteria. Feddost proved us (somewhat) wrong. We enjoyed how seamlessly the spices were incorporated into the cheese - the sweetness (clove) and savoriness (cumin) tasted and felt like they were organic to the creation of this cheese, rather than being added in at the last minute. (Perhaps this is the advantage to "curd infusions," which take place so early in the process.) Feddost has a pleasing texture: medium-soft and smooth, excellent for a hard cracker. Kara would suggest this as an interesting addition to an appetizer plate - funky, thoroughly approchable, yummy... at least for a few bites. Several pieces in (after the cameras stopped rolling), the flavor becomes a little tedious... It's a pretty simple flavor, albeit unusual. It wasn't our favorite cheese, by any means, but it's worth a taste. We'll be on the lookout for other "curd-infused" cheeses for comparison.

LINKS: Chicken Soup Cheese

2010-06-11T14:01:00.001-07:00

By Kara

Breaking news from one of our cheese-advisors: Beechwood Cheese Co., based in Sheboygan County, WI, is currently selling chicken soup cheese.

"Uncle Charlie's Chicken Soup Cheese" is a variation on Monterey Jack, with a dash of chicken broth and a pinch of "celery blend." The cheese is currently going for $4.75/stick.

As far as I can tell, this is the only chicken soup cheese on the market...

... possibly for good reason? I'll refrain from passing judgment until I try a bite (sip?).

LINKS: Wisconsin is still #1!

2010-06-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

By Erica

Wisconsin is still on top when it comes to cheese in the United States. The National Agriculture Statistics Service released new figures last week indicating that Wisconsin produced 2.65 billion pounds of cheese last year. This is more cheese than any other state.

We (after all these months living here, I think I can say "we" now) also made 477 million pounds of specialty cheese in 2009, a ten percent increase from the previous year. Looks like Cheese: A Journey is still in the right state!

Source: The Cap Times

Facts: Moose Cheese

2010-06-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

By Kara

In Bjurholm, Sweden, about 8 hours north of Stockholm, live three female moose. They were domesticated as calves after being abandoned by their mother, and their names are Juna, Halga, and Gullan. Although I've never met them, they are currently my favorite moose in the world.

Why? Because Juna, Halga, and Gullan are cheesemakers! (Kudos also to the farmers behind the operation, Christer and Ulla Johansson. Check out the website for their farm, Elgens Hus, here - bring your Swedish dictionary.)

Moose only lactate 3-5 months out of the year, and these three ladies are the only cows milked at Elgens Hus. What's more, moose are notoriously finicky when it comes to being milked, and even small disturbances can cause temporary "dry-ups." A gentle and thorough milking can take up to 2 hours - at which point, the milker has only made about 1 gallon of progress toward the ultimate goal. This results in a very rare, and thus very expensive product: as of last summer, moose cheese from Elgens Hus was selling for about $420 per pound, and was only available in Sweden. Some claim that this is the most expensive cheese in the world, although other candidates (such as Serbian donkey's milk cheese) have also been proposed.

But it's not all hype: moose milk is high in butterfat, which would lead me to believe it could make a yummy (if gamey) cheese. Relative to cow's milk, moose milk is also higher in aluminum, iron, selenium, and zinc. In liquid form, it is served to Russian sanatorium residents in order to facilitate recovery from long-term illness. Who knows what it could do in the form of a cheddar?

Sources:

- TheStreet.com

- FreeRepublic.com

- Wikipedia.com: "Moose milk"

RECIPES: Frost your cupcakes with... cheese!?

2010-06-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

By Kara and Erica

In simple terms, ganache is a frosting made of chocolate and dairy - usually cream or butter. We at C:AJ will never settle for the usual, at least not when it fails to include some sort of cheese. Luckily, we were pointed* towards the blog of a like-minded baker at the Cupcake Project, who recently published a recipe for chocolate-cheese ganache ("Chocolate Ganache with the Magic of Cheese"). Genius - or disgusting? We had to find out.

The verdict: genius. Creamy as can be, thick without being chewable, rich without precluding the possibility of seconds. Honestly, we couldn't taste the cheese... Dare us to try bleu next time?

See the end of the post for some pictures from our ganachings.

Here's the Cupcake Project's frosting recipe:

Cheesy Chocolate Ganache (Source: Cupcake Project):

Ingredients:

3 oz dark chocolate, loosely chopped (C:AJ used 1.5 oz baker's chocolate, 1.5 oz semisweet morsels)
2 oz soft cheese, cubed (C:AJ recommends "Les Freres" for a mild flavor
1/4 cup sugar
2 oz heavy whipping cream

(Note: C:AJ doubled this recipe to frost 6 cupcakes and 1 9" x 2" cake... we did not regret it.)

Recipe:

Melt the dark chocolate in a small saucepan on very low heat or in a double boiler (a double boiler reduces the risk of the chocolate burning). C:AJ would add that a fake double boiler - one small saucepan inside another, larger saucepan - does the trick.
Add the cheese and mix continuously until it is melted and integrated.
Mix in the sugar.
Remove from heat and quickly mix in the heavy whipping cream.
C:AJ suggests letting the ganache cool/settle for at least 15 minutes before frosting the cupcakes - sneaking a taste: totally permitted.

Frosting is obviously the most important part of any baked good, but just in case you're lacking something to frost, C:AJ recommends the following devil's food cake recipe for a base:

Devil's Food Cake (Source: David Lebovitz):

Ingredients:

9 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ cups cake flour (not self-rising)
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
½ cup strong coffee (or water)
½ cup whole or low-fat milk

Recipe:

Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Butter two 9" x 2" cake pans and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper. (C:AJ went with 6 cupcakes and one 9" x 2" cake, and doubled the ganache recipe above.)
To make the cake layers, sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.
In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, or by hand, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. (If using a standing electric mixer, stop the mixer as necessary to scrape down the sides to be sure everything is getting mixed in.)
Mix together the coffee and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, the add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients.
Divide the batter into the two prepared cake pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

We recommend actually letting everything cool before starting to frost. Yes, the wait was excruciating (we had to leave the kitchen), but the frosting experience was so perfect... no crumbs, and not a bit of ganache went to waste.

Et voila! A brief visual documentation of our cheesy ganache experience:

Slices of Les Freres, a soft cow's milk cheese produced by Crave Brothers, purchased from the Willy St. Co-op.

Grossest step: stir cheese into melted chocolate.

Yeah, still gross. Looks a little like a turd, but bear with us. It's worth it.

Things starting to come together... Note the glossy sheen!

Delicious. And, might we add, beautiful.

*Thanks to J.M. for the tip!

LINKS: Nothing can stop the cheese rollers!

2010-06-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

By Erica

Earlier this month, we posted about the annual Cheese-Rolling Festival in Gloucestershire, England. We noted that the festival had to be canceled this year because the large number of spectators (15,000 in 2009!) made the event unsafe. Last year 18 people were injured, 10 of whom were just watching.

That didn't stop the cheese rollers, though! This year, 300 people participated in the unofficial event on Cooper's Hill, at which the police provided no medical support in an effort to dissuade participants and spectators from attending.

Chris Anderson a 22-year-old from Brockworth, was the champion for the seventh year in a row, The Telegraph reports. Congrats!

Check out a video of this year's even posted by the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/8714229.stm

TASTES: Parrano

2010-05-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

By Kara and Erica

True to our word, we found some Parrano to taste! See our recent post on the background of "the Dutch cheese with an Italian accent" here.

Before we discuss the taste of Parrano, a quick note on this picture: this mostly-sepia tone image of Parrano in its (?) natural environment presently takes up 80% of the German Parrano homepage (similar images seem to cycle through the English, Dutch, French, German, and Spanish sites unpredictably). Other shots feature a cityscape and an overturned glass, and a long-exposure image of a wine glass tipping and a man struggling to catch it. Caution: Parrano appears to induce eerie happenings at the dinner table.

The Taste: Descriptions of Parrano as a hybrid of Parmesan and Gouda are ubiquitous, and accurate. We also detected a strong resemblance to Swiss cheese, both in flavor (nutty, sweet) and in texture (medium in firmness, holey). On first taste, we liked this pleasing flavor combination and the toothsome feeling of the cheese in the mouth. The cheese is very flavorful, without a hint of anything off-putting or overly complex - a definite crowd-pleaser. The major downside of Parrano is the rind: made of several layers of wax, it feels sticky and (understandably) waxy, and imparts a bland plastic flavor to the outer edges of the cheese. We're pretty positive in the first few minutes of tasting and talking (see the video below), but it should be noted that our opinion of Parrano started shifting as we became aware of the rind problem, and continued to decline after we stopped shooting and became aware of a sort of sweet, processed aftertaste. On the other hand, a second, informal tasting of Parrano by Kara - in the context of a turkey and lettuce sandwich - highlighted Parrano's strength as a sandwich cheese. We probably wouldn't serve it on a cheese plate, but Kara at least is curious to try it in an omelette or over a salad.

FACTS: Cheese for Vegans

2010-05-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

By Erica

One consequence of living in a hippy town like Madison is that you start to question your life choices. Do I drive my car too much? How much trash do I produce per week? And, the hardest one for me, should I become a vegetarian? which inevitably becomes the much scarier, should I become a vegan?

I quickly realized that while vegetarianism could possibly exist in my future, I could never become a vegan. That would mean giving up cheese, which would mean giving up one of life's greatest pleasures. No way. Apparently, though, giving up cheese is a major hurdle for many wanna be vegans. Anthony Grani, Toronto-based filmmaker and vegan, even created a blog called "Vegan Cheese Reviews", dedicated to finding the tastiest non-dairy based "cheese".

Enter Daiya, a cheese substitute made mainly from Tapioca and water. Two Canadians, Greg Blake and Andre Kroecher, are the masterminds behind the food product (pictured above in a grilled cheese sandwich). Kroecher first started trying to make vegan cheese in 2005 by experimenting in his own kitchen. By 2007, with the help of Blake, he perfected the recipe and began looking to sell Daiya. It premiered at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California in the form of a dairy-free cheese pizza and was an instant success. Daiya is picking up steam and was named Product of the Year at the 2009 Veggie Awards.

Daiya is available in many stores around the U.S. (including at the Whole Foods in Madison). I'm intrigued enough to search it out, but don't count on me leading a cheese-less vegan life anytime soon!

Sources:
-Macleans article on Daiya
-Daiya website

LINKS: "Cheese" dealer caught!

2010-05-21T05:19:00.000-07:00

By Erica

A former employee of New York's Department of Taxation and Finance was a drug dealer. Gerry McNamara was found to have sold cocaine and marijuana to at least five co-workers.

Why is this relevant to C: A J? The code word in the email exchanges between McNamara and his clients was "cheese."

One federal employee wrote to McNamara, "I don't have extra cheese on me that I would need but I would love some crackers. You let me know ... you know I'm good for it anyhow."

Don't worry, readers. When we say "cheese" on this blog, we really mean cheese.

FACTS: Parrano

2010-05-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

By Kara

We've received a cheese tip from a source in Tennessee: try some Parrano! (Our source found it at Whole Foods.)

If nothing else, Parrano cheese is well marketed: a quick internet search reveals dozens of unique (and consistently positive) reviews and just as many mouth-watering pictures. Parrano may be the first cheese we've encountered that lays claim to its own domain name. (We'll leave it to our readers to find whatever is located at your favorite cheese's .com...) Hats off to the people at UnieKaas (the unique producers of Parrano cheese) for such an effective cheese-marketing campaign! (Also see their page on "The Good Life" for some general advice about friends, family, and well-being.)

I have to poke a little fun at a cheese campaign that takes itself so seriously... But I also have to say that Parrano does sound delicious. It's a Dutch, Italian-style gouda, affectionately referred to as "The Dutch cheese that thinks its Italian" (Wikipedia.org), "Dutch cheese with an Italian accent!" (About.com), and "the unforgettable cheese with a distinctly Italian temperament" (Parrano.com). The flavor is described as nutty and sweet, similar to a mellow Parmesan. If you're wondering what the Dutch have brought to bare on this cheese, look to the texture: despite its Italian self-identity/accent/temperament, Parrano is solidly (or rather, smoothly and pliantly) Gouda in texture. It's a fairly young cheese, aged for 5 months, and it's good for shredding, slicing, or melting. In terms of taste, texture, and certainly versatility, Parrano seems to be close to cheese perfection.

A final fact, near and dear to C:AJ's heart: Parrano won "Best in Class, Gouda" at the 2006 World Cheese Championship in Madison. We will certainly be on the lookout for a taste!

LINKS: Rollin', rollin', rollin'

2010-05-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

By Erica

Besides cheese, there's another (Madison) Wisconsin tradition that I love: festivals. Apparently, these two favorite pastimes of mine coexist in Gloucestershire, England.

In the Spring, the town gathers at Cooper's Hill for the annual Cheese-Rolling festival, which is exactly what you would imagine: a wheel of cheese is rolled down the steep hill, and the first person to catch the cheese and cross the finish line is the winner.

As popular as it is strange, the Cheese-Rolling festival had to be canceled this year because the organizers were concerned that the events growing number of spectators would be too much to handle. Maybe we'll start our own Cheese-Rolling festival here in Madison. Anyone know any good hills?

Original source: Time Magazine's Top Ten Quirky Local Festivals (Thanks, N.C.!)

TASTES: Rocastin Sheep Milk Brie

2010-05-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

By Kara and Erica

A few months ago, we and a few other friends casually enjoyed a sheep milk Brie. Well, to the others it was casual. We, of course, knew we'd have to come back to contemplate it more seriously. Today's cheese is a French Rocastin Sheep Milk Brie from the Willy St. Co-op.

Background: Rocastin (also know as "Berger de Rocastin" and "Fromage de Brebis") is a French brie-style cheese, made with sheep's milk (hence the French references to shepherds and ewes). In general, Brie cheeses are distinguished by their soft and creamy texture and rich flavor - two cow's milk varieties are protected by the A.O.C. (Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun), and a wide array of Brie-style cheeses are available and extremely popular in the U.S. Brie cheese are often relatively young (4-5 weeks) and most easily recognized by their circular or wedge-like shape, their white, "bloomy" rind, and their oozingly creamy center.

There is very little information about Rocastin out there: most descriptions center on the "velvety rind," which is pretty typical for any Brie-style cheese. Rocastin is produced in the Rhone-Alps region of France. Immediately apparent differences between Rocastin and more common varieties of "Brie": sheep's milk and a triangular shape. (It's produced in a rectangular rather than a circular mold, leading us to wonder about the effects of corners on its taste...)

The Taste: Although we have a (possibly biased) soft spot for goat's milk cheese, this sheep brie is absolutely delicious. Like with goat's milk cheeses, though, it has grassy, earthy notes. We enjoyed this added complexity! In terms of texture, sheep milk brie is everything cow milk brie is, but to the extreme. The higher fat content in sheep's milk makes the cheese very rich and creamy. It's thick and sticks to the roof of your mouth (in a decadent--not disgusting--way).

If you love brie but are bored with the typical selections, try some sheep!

Sources:

Wikipedia: "Brie"

Cheeselibrary.com: "Fromage d'Affinois de Brebis"

LINKS: Eat cheese and be healthy

2010-05-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

By Erica

A team of scientists in Finland, lead by Dr Fandi Ibrahim from the University of Turku, published a study in FEMS Immunology & Medical Microbiology that shows that probiotic cheese can help boost the immune system of elderly people. In the study, they fed people aged 72 to 103 either probiotic Gouda or a placebo cheese. They then took blood tests which revealed that those who ate the probiotic cheese had more activation of NK blood cells and increased phagocytic activity. These are both signs of a boosted immune system.

And so, if you are old and fear that your immune system is deteriorating, eat probiotic cheese!

LINKS: Cheese Wordles and Tagxedos

2010-05-09T20:22:00.001-07:00

By Kara

Wordle.net is a website dedicated to transforming texts into images: it takes the count of each unique word in a given text (say, a cheese blog), and assigns visual "prominence" (size) to each word in the worlde based on these counts. Check out what we've been writing about on C:AJ:

Tagxedo.com is a Wordle spin-off, which offers more control over the visual display created.

Bottom line: so cool!! Also, we mostly talk about cheese. No false advertising on C:AJ.

LINKS: Cheese banned, boy cries

2010-05-03T19:58:00.000-07:00

By Erica

A few days ago, a preschooler named Jack Ormisher was left in tears after a school official took his cheese sandwich away from him. Westfield Children's Centre, a school in Pemberton, England recently put together a list healthy eating options, and a cheese sandwich did not qualify as a healthy choice.

The parents withdrew Jack from the preschool and enrolled him elsewhere. Now that's good parenting!

LINKS: Cheese Dreams

2010-05-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

By Kara

Yet another myth dispelled by rigorous modern science: contrary to popular (British) belief, cheese does not give you nightmares.

"For decades," according to the Daily Mail, "parents have warned their children not to have cheese before bedtime to prevent bad dreams."

Well, not my parents. But - thank goodness! - the newest generation of English would-be cheese-lovers will also be spared that old wives' tale, thanks to a 2005 study by the British Cheese Board. According to their research, consuming small amounts of cheese in the evening is correlated with experiencing a restful night's sleep, marked by an absence of nightmares. Cheese may even afford dreamers some control over their nocturnal experiences: in the study, different kinds of cheeses were reliably associated with different sorts of dreams, including celebrity cameos (Cheddar), bouts of nostalgia (Red Leicester), forward-thinking fantasies (Lancashire), and bizarre phantasmagoria (Stilton). (Source: Dairy Reporter.)

I stumbled upon these findings through a post on Yahoo Answers (UK & Ireland), which offers some other entertaining insights on the topic of cheese.

And lest we chalk this all up to those crazy Brits and their especially nutty old wives: NPR picked up the story, too.

To our readers:

2010-05-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

Now that we've been traveling down Cheese Highway for a while, we've decided to put down the map and get a little adventurous: we're going to cook with cheese. Maybe your mouth watered while reading our last post about Mac and Goat Cheese, and you have some other cheesey recipes that you'd like us to try out. Or maybe you've always wondered how to cook or bake with a particular kind of cheese and want to see us take a stab at it. We'd love your suggestions, whatever they are - and let it be known that we at C:AJ will not restrict ourselves to the old standbys! Throw us your wackiest, cheesiest challenges (cheese ice cream, anyone?), and we'll see what we can do.

To suggest a recipe for us to try, email us at cheeseajourney@gmail.com.

RECIPES: Baked Macaroni and (Goat!) Cheese

2010-04-28T19:55:00.001-07:00

By Kara

I came home from the farmers' market last weekend with an enormous chunk of aged goatsmilk cheddar, a bag full of crumbly "Celestesan" (pungently goaty parmesan-style cheese), and an irresistible suggestion from an avid cheese-sampler: macaroni and goat cheese.

The result was incredible. The aroma of browning goat cheese filled the house as the dish baked in the oven, and lingered for hours after the bulk of the "six" servings was devoured. (Two suggestions, on a social note: (1) warm any sensitive roommates; (2) exercise caution when promising to share.) The shells almost literally melted in my mouth, save for the occasional nub of grated topping.

I highly recommend the double dose of goat for true cheese-adventurers. But for the less... goat-inclined, I can also imagine using a more standard cowsmilk cheddar for the sauce, and saving a sprinkling of goat cheese, or some other crumbly and pungent favorite, for the topping. My boyfriend and I ate it with a side of cherry tomatoes and asparagus sauteed in butter, garlic, and a dash of maple syrup.

Thanks to Felix for the idea of including some favorite cheese-recipes on the blog, to our customer for the idea of introducing goat cheese to comfort food, and to my mom for my old favorite mac and cheese recipe.

BAKED MACARONI AND CHEESE

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons corn starch
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 ½ cups milk
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
8 ounces shredded cheese (about 2 cups, divided) - I recommend aged goatsmilk cheddar, with a quarter-cup of something especially flavorful for the topping!
8 ounces macaroni (about 1 ¾ cups), cooked 6 minutes and drained - Mom suggests elbows, but this time we went with medium shells

Before beginning: Heat oven, butter baking dish and grate cheese.

In a medium saucepan (seriously, not a small one), combine corn starch, salt, and pepper. Stir in milk until smooth. Add margarine or butter. Stirring constantly, bring to boil over medium-high heat and boil one minute (this concoction will expand hugely!). Remove from heat. Reserve ¼ cup cheese for topping. Stir in remaining cheese until melted. Add pasta. Turn into greased 2-quart casserole. Sprinkle with reserved cheese. Bake uncovered in 375° oven 25 minutes or until hot and bubbly (I like it to brown up on top). Makes 6 servings (theoretically).

LINKS: Wooo hoooo-- Blurry cheese

2010-04-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

By Erica

I have found proof that cheese can change lives. Alex James, former drug addict and bassist of Blur, the band that brought us such jewels as Song No. 2, is now a cheese maker. Yes, he currently lives on a farm in a small village in England with cows and other lactating creatures.

Apparently, James has always loved cheese. In an interview he gave when he first delved into the world of curds and whey, he said, "The first time [Blur] went to Japan, they said, you have to say what you like, because the fans will want to give it to you. They'll find out what you like, and give it to you. And I could only think of cheese. I was 22 at the time, and really, really skint. So we arrived in Japan to this like regal state welcome, ha ha! And they all gave me cheese. They threw cheese at me!"*

In 2006, he, along with a more experienced cheesemaker by the name of Roger Crudge, made his first cheese, a soft cow's milk cheese named Geronimo after his son.

His journey "from music to cheese" is documented in the online video series "The Cheese Diaries". If you skip to the 4:15 mark of episode one, you can see James' version of our tasting videos as he bites into a goat cheese by the name of "Little Wallop" (pictured below). I hate to say it, but I think we've got him & his cheese partner Juliet Harbutt (hamming it up in the picture above) beat. Except for, perhaps, the part where he says of the cheese, "It's got a bite, though... a bit of a wallop," causing dear Julie to belt out one of the most amazing cackles ever caught on tape. Seriously, go to the 5 minute mark to experience this fantastic moment.

James has come a long way since 2006, and in the summer of 2009 was contracted to be Prince Charles' cheese supplier and then given a morning radio program. James seems to have figured it all out, and he has some words of wisdom for all of us:

"I think as you get older, you kind of know what you like-- And I like cheese."**

*The Guardian

**Current.com

TASTES: Fresh Mozzarella

2010-04-25T14:08:00.000-07:00

By Erica and Kara

After our last FACTS post on mozzarella, we thought it would only be appropriate if we tasted a mozzarella as well. We hope you appreciate our consistency.

Background: We purchased this fresh mozzarella from the Jenifer Street Market. It came in a container of brine with no information on the label (except, of course, the price). Where is it from? Who made it? We do not know. We can only assume it was made from cow's milk.

But, if you want to know more about mozzarella in general, see the previous FACTS post about this glorious cheese.

The Taste: We did not have as much to say about this cheese, as it is much simpler than the cheeses we usually taste. Since mozzarella is so fresh (it is best eaten the day it is made), there is no time for bacteria to grow and flavor the cheese. It tastes--as we say in our video many, many times--like milk. If milk were a solid, it would be mozzarella. Actually, mozzarella essentially is milk as a solid, so this analogy is not an analogy at all.

As for the texture, we noticed that the outer layer was stringy, much like string cheese, which is indeed a lower moisture, more processed form of mozzarella. The inside was more firm and had a grainier texture. Because the cheese is so simple, we also discussed why we think mozzarella is usually paired with tomato and basil. Watch the video to hear what we have to say!

FACTS: mmmmm...Mozzarella

2010-04-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

By Erica

Although we've mainly focused on strong, pungent cheese on C:A J, we also have love for milder cheeses. My favorite mild cheese is fresh mozzarella. The string cheese type, processed mozzarella is alright, but I love the cloud-white, tennis-ball-shaped mozzarella that melts in your mouth.

There are many subspecies of mozzarella, but they are all made by cutting up and spinning cheese curds. High in moisture, mozzarella is tastiest the day it's made; it can be kept up to a week if stored in a brine. The string cheese mozzarella (or the shredded mozzarella sold by Kraft etc... it's all the same) is very low in moisture and usually made with skim milk. The fresh, high moisture mozzarella can be made with cows milk and is then called mozzarella fior de latte. My favorite type of mozzarella, mozzarella di bufala, is made from the milk of water buffalo.

Mozzarella is relatively easy to make, too! Dr. Frankhauser's Cheese Page, a fantastic resource for those who are interested in making cheese, has detailed instructions for making your own, complete with pictures. The basic steps are extracting the cheese curds (saving the whey to make ricotta), pouring hot water over the curds and spinning them into a nicely shaped ball, then dropping the ball into cold water to harden it a bit. There are a few more steps, so I've found a lovely youtube video (below) that shows the whole process. It's pretty neat to watch, so move your cursor down and press play!

LINKS: L. Lactis is official!

2010-04-16T06:41:00.000-07:00

By Erica

The journey of L. Lactis has come to a triumphant close....

In a story that was picked up by The New York Times, a bill to make Lactococcus Lactis Wisconsin's state microbe was passed yesterday. L. Lactis is one of the strains of bacteria that helps turn milk into cheese.

The proposal had one dissenter, who Democratic Representative Gary Hebl said was "clearly lactose intolerant." The bill passed Thursday evening with a vote of 56 to 41.

I hope our readers celebrate with some cheese!

LINKS: State Microbe UPDATE

2010-04-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

By Erica

A while back, we posted about the nomination of Lactococcus lactis, the bacteria that helps turn milk into cheese, for the title of State Microbe of Wisconsin.

The bill that will decide the fate of L. lactis goes up for a vote tomorrow (Thursday)!

We will keep you posted...

FACTS: Thermalization

2010-04-11T18:28:00.000-07:00

By Kara

Recently, a friend recounted an experience she had in New York, in which she was presented with cheese labeled "thermalized cow." It took us a few minutes to work through our immediate confusion about this label: what would it take to "thermalize" a cow? (Try as I might, I couldn't find any images of cows in long underwear to post here, but those are the sorts of ideas that were running through our minds during this conversation.) We eventually figured out that "thermalized" probably referred to the milk of cows, rather than to some poor bovine individual. But even with the object of thermalization made clear, we were left with the question of what the process of thermalization is, and what sort of end result my friend consumed.

Thermalization, it turns out, is a process simliar to pasteurization: in short, a way to kill off some of the potentially harmful microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, etc.) found in raw milk straight from the animal.

Pasteurization (invented by Louis Pasteur in the 1860s) involves heating milk to very high temperatures (161 degrees F, or in some cases as high as 250 degrees F) for very short amounts of time (from a split second up to 20 seconds, depending on the temperature). This is a very effective method of slowing the many varieties of microbial growth that are dangerous to humans, such as the infamous Listeria (click here for Listeria's own blog!). However, such high temperatures also kill off microorganisms that are beneficial to human health - not to mention cheese tastiness.

Thermalization, by contrast, is a more moderate procedure, in which milk is heated to about 100-160 degrees F for 15-30 seconds: enough to kill many, but not all, micro-intruders (notably not Listeria). Proponents argue that thermalization yields perfectly safe cheese with a strong flavor and a host of health benefits, thanks to the bacteria and enzymes left behind. Opponents of thermalization counter that the risks are too high - and in the US, thermalized cheese is considered "raw," and must be aged at least 60 days in order to be sold legally, according FDA standards. In Europe, thermalization counts as "pasteurization." Those European radicals! It appears that a taste test (though hopefully not a stomach test) is in order... Please notify C.:A.J. if you hear of any cheap flights to France.

Sources:

- Curdnerds.com

- Practicallyedible.com

- Wikipedia.com

FACTS: To wash or not to wash

2010-04-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

By Erica

Have you ever wondered what determines what a cheese's rind is like? I always thought it had something to do with bacteria, and it does-- if you let cheese age on a shelf with a certain bacteria strain, the bacteria will grow on the outside of the cheese. The longer you let the cheese age, the thicker the rind will become.

But, of course, it's more complicated than that. If there's anything I've learned about cheese, it's that there's always more to learn about cheese. Another factor that contributes to rind differences (and this I learned from Felix of Capri Cheesery) is whether or not you wash the rind. Washing a rind is just what it sounds like-- as the cheese ages, you periodically bathe the cheese in a liquid, usually a brine or alcohol. This process infuses the cheese with more flavor from the rind and thus causes the cheese to become more pungent. Most softer stinky cheeses have washed rinds. The washed rind, however, remains distinct and more bitter than the cheese.

Here's a buying tip: if you're after a cheese with a thicker rind, look for one that has a distinct boundary between the rind and the cheese-- if there's a gradient of discoloration near the rind, then the bitterness of the rind has infused into the cheese, which is less than desirable.

(Pictured: Taleggio is an example of a washed rind cheese)

FACTS: Kosher for Passover?

2010-04-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

By Kara

So you're invited to a Passover seder, and you're a cheesemonger: can you bring your favorite wedge to the seder? This simple question and the "Facts" heading on this post belie the complexities of kosher-for-passover cheeses.

For one thing, cheese is one of the few edible substances not built into the already filling seder meal. More controversial is the presence of our old friend rennet, which is often made from the stomach linings of cows and other animals (see our original rennet post here). Because rennet consists of enzymes harvested from the gut of an animal, rather than consisting of actual animal flesh, it is not considered a "meat product," and is therefore exempt from kosher laws prohibiting the mixing of milk and meat (phew!). However, in order to access this non-meat product, you still have to slaughter the animal host - so in order to get kosher rennet, both the animal involved, and the method of slaughtering, must be certifiably kosher. Different families will be more or less careful about checking on the kosher status of the rennet used in specific cheeses - but around Passover especially, better safe than sorry. There is also the possibility that a cheese has been exposed to environments that are not up to Passover standards, or that the cheesemaker has added vinegar to the product (which must also be certified kosher), or that the mold in your favorite cheese (e.g., if you like a good bleu) has been grown on bread.

There has been a recent push for reliably certified kosher-for-passover cheeses, which sound pretty yummy. (Check out Kosher Blog for some suggestions, especially if you're in the Boston area.) And there is a slew of traditional Passover meals that contain cheese (though it's probably best not to bring these dishes unsolicited).

But in the end, even if you found a delicious hunk of kosher cheddar, you still couldn't serve it with proper crackers. The conclusion: stick with the Manischewitz next year.

Sources:

- Wikipedia: "Kosher foods"

- Askmoses.com: "Why do dairy products require kosher certification for Passover?"

- About.com: "Passover dairy mains"

TASTES - And NEWS!: Our Cheese-Selling Debut

2010-03-31T18:43:00.000-07:00

By Kara and Erica

Some of you may remember a time when we were but lowly cheese fans, when had no words to describe the sensations we experienced, no knowledge to impart upon our readers, and no venue to acquire such knowledge.

Times have changed.

Last Saturday, we spent the morning working at the Capri Cheesery stand at the Dane County Farmers' Market, under the tutelage of Felix, the man behind some of our favorite cheeses. (See our very first TASTES post here, and a later Capri tasting here.) We learned a lot and had a blast, and we look forward to writing more detailed posts soon on topics as diverse as cooking temperatures, chemical compounds, and, of course, how hard it is to milk a bear. (Ask Felix.)

We'll be working at the Capri stand Saturday mornings - stop by and sample some cheese!

Coming soon to C: A J

2010-03-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

Huge news at Cheese: A Journey.

Keep your eyes peeled for the imminent post!

LINKS: Liederkrantz returns!

2010-03-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

By Erica

In January, we wrote about the legend of Liederkrantz, a cheese that had become extinct 20 years ago. Check out the post for the intriguing story.

But it looks like Liederkrantz has returned! A couple years ago, the DCI Cheese Co bought the cheese division of ConAgra, who apparently was holding on to the Liderkrantz recipe. Last weekend in Madison, cheesemaker Myron Olson of DCI presented Liederkranz at the World Championship Cheese Contest. Olson works out of the Chalet Cheese Co-Op in Monroe, WI, and his cheesery also makes Limburger, the German cheese that Liederkrantz was styled after.

Liederkranz fans rejoice! In the next week, the the cheese will reappear in Milkwaukee, Whitefish Bay, Mequon, Wauwatosa, Grafton, Elm Grove, Franklin, Greenfield and Germantown, Wisconsin.

THOUGHTS: State of the Union

2010-03-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

By Erica

It's been almost four months since the beginning of our cheesy journey. When Kara and I took our first step back in December, we were idiots when it came to cheese. If you haven't yet, take a look at my first post and Kara's. Pitiful. If our knowledge back then could be represented by a hunk of cheese, it would be a very holey Swiss.

I'm not saying our cheese-brains today are anywhere near to being completely full (maybe one day they'll be more like solid Gruyere), but we've made some great strides.

I hope everyone is learning from, or at least laughing at, our day to day adventures. Continue to read, and tell your friends!

(Note: That license plate is not one of ours. Sadly.)

LINKS: Cheese Jobs

2010-03-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

By Erica

A week or so ago on a routine trip to the grocery store, I witnessed the apparently well-known "cheese lady" carving a 6 foot block of cheese as some sort of exhibition. A while back, Kara posted about a cheese sculpture of Obama's head. If three means a trend, then cheese art is in fashion.

The Cooks' Den posted a recipe for a Steve Jobs cheese head carving, complete with step-by-step illustrations, in honor of the iPad release.

Thought: how cool would it be to film Cheese Jobs, as I've named this sculpture, being slowly melted in an oven? Let's take cheese into the realm of performance art!

(Thanks to R.Z. for the tip!)

LINKS: Cow, goat, sheep... human?

2010-03-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

Daniel Angerer, chef of New York restaurant Klee Brasserie, had a problem: his wife, who had recently given birth, was producing an overabundance of breast milk. Instead of throwing the excess milk away, what Angerer said would be a waste, he decided to make it into cheese. The cheese isn't served at his restaurant, and Angerer says it was only an experiment.

THOUGHTS: I ate the one less nibbled on

2010-03-11T19:17:00.000-08:00

By Kara

From the Boston Globe's "Reflection for the Day" (3/2/2010): "Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."

(Thanks, Mom!)

TASTES: Pecorino Balze Volteranne

2010-03-09T08:31:00.001-08:00

By Erica and Kara

At some point in Erica's birthday festivities, she received a mysterious package containing three varieties of cheese from Artisanal Premium Cheese. Though the origins of the gift were eventually determined, the excitement and allure of the unexpected cheese delivery endured. We couldn't resist eating the Majorero Pimenton straight out of the package... But we summoned up enough self-restraint to catch Mystery Cheese #2 on video.

Background: Pecorino Balze Volteranne is a raw sheep milk cheese from Italy. "Pecorino" is a label applied to any Italian cheese made from the milk of a sheep (una pecora! -- or perhaps more than una, but we don't know how to pluralize in Italian). The Balze di Volterra, or Cliffs of Volterra, are located in Tuscany, and provide a breathtaking backdrop for cheese-crafting. P.B.V. is a mouthful of a name for a mouthful of cheese; see our video for a thoroughly unilluminating discussion of how (not) to pronounce it.

Artisanal provides very thorough introductions to their cheeses, as well as suggestions about wine and beer pairings. According to their description, P.B.V. is a firm, toothsome ("al dente!") cheese with "a nutty texture" that pairs especially well with red wines, such as sangiovese/chianti. The flavor is supposed to call to mind green olives, due to a 60-day aging process involving the ash of oak and olive trees. Some sources suggest that Pecorinos like P.B.V. are used mainly in cooking, and may be freely substituted for Parmesan... but we decided to forgo the grating and take a big bite right out of the hunk.

The Taste: This is the first cheese of which we'd read a detailed description before we had our first bite. We noticed right away the firmness described by the distributor. Kara in particular loved the hard-but-not-crumbly texture. The cheese has a complex taste that starts off mild and creamy before spreading over the tongue and waking up. The taste lingers and becomes stronger, with grassy, leafy notes coming through. We could taste the influence of the olive wash on the rind. This cheese is less pungent than most of the cheeses we've tasted (and loved) previously, but it still has a very unique taste. We recommend it for beginning and advanced cheese tasters alike!

Sources:

- GourmetSleuth.com

- Wikipedia.org

LINKS: Undocumented cheesigration

2010-03-06T15:56:00.000-08:00

By Kara

Yesterday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection in El Paso discovered 107 lbs. of white bricks hidden in secret compartments in a van heading into the states from Mexico.

BUT IT WAS CHEESE.

TASTES: Saint-Nectaire

2010-03-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

By Erica and Kara

This past week we tasted Saint-Nectaire, which we purchased at the Willy St. Co-op with our guest taster, Camila.

Background: Saint-Nectaire, a French cow's milk cheese, is made in Auvergne, France. This little region is very proud of its cheese, which they've made since the 17th century. Their website includes the heading, "Auvergne and Saint-Nectaire.... or when love rhymes with passion." This is either a translation error or the words of a very poetic community.

Saint-Nectaire was the first farmer's cheese to receive AOC certification. The AOC stamp means that true Saint-Nectaire must come from Auvergne. To make the cheese, the curds are gathered into a single tomme, which is later cut into small cubes and pressed into small circular moulds by hand. It is then salted and pressed for one day. The last step is a drying period of about 8 weeks, during which it is twice washed in brine. Traditionally, the cheese is dried on rye straw. Because Saint-Nectaire is from a specific region, it is said to pick up is mushroomy and nutty taste from the vegetation around where it ripens.

The Taste: We have a variety of strong and varied reactions to this cheese! Much more of a dynamic and emotional experience than our typical "Mm, I like it... In fact, I really like it." We primarily credit the cheese, of course, but also Camila, whose scientific insights are truly invaluable to this review. (For specifics, see the video below.)

The Saint-Nectaire is very smelly, especially when allowed to warm up to room temperature. (We're coming along in our cheese practices: this may have been the first time we've had enough patience to experience any cheese at room temperature.) It's a semi-soft cheese, though more rubbery than creamy in consistency.

But enough about smells and textures: it's the taste of Saint-Nectaire that makes the biggest impression... or rather, impressions. Erica's first reaction: very positive. Kara: neutral. Camila: "It smells like E. Coli to me." Initially, there's some potential for a mild to moderate disgust reaction to the moldy taste and slimy feel on the tongue, but the gross-out period seems to be longer for some tasters than others (possibly depending on your level of expertise with regards to mold and bacteria; those who have spent time working with strains of either may not want a smell that usually wafts out of a petri dish to linger on their taste palate).

As the chewing continues, the taste continues to unfold into a complex experience of strong, interlocking flavors. The cheese is sweet, especially at the beginning, increasingly sour toward the end, and very salty throughout. It's also much creamier in taste than it feels in texture. The Dolmen label promises hints of "grasses, flowers, and herbs," which we didn't quite detect... However, after much debate, we are now in agreement that--mildewiness notwithstanding and regardless of the presence or absence of flora flavors--Saint-Nectaire is a supremely tasty cheese. And not for the faint of heart.

Our one failing in this tasting: neglecting our new interest in pairing! Baguette is a safe choice for this fromage, but we promise to be more adventurous next time.

THOUGHTS: It's in the pairing

2010-02-21T16:02:00.000-08:00

By Kara

Erica and I recently sampled the Scandinavian cheese plate at Restaurant Magnus: a spectacular experience, and even more beautiful than the picture above. The plate included one goatsmilk and two cowsmilk samples, ultra-thin slices of apples and perfectly halved red grapes, and, most importantly, beautiful globs of condiments, perfectly selected to highlight each of the cheeses. Roasted pecans offset the smooth texture of a white block cheese, while a tart raspberry jam echoed and elaborated on the sour flavor of the goat cheese. Most mind-boggling was the sweet mustard paired with simple asiago, which somehow brought out flavors in the cheese that were otherwise indiscernable. How is this possible?

I believe that we have come to a major turning point in our Journey: a venture into the world of pairing.

LINKS: Especes (de fromage) en danger de disparition!

2010-02-16T19:31:00.000-08:00

By Kara
The Boston Globe recently published a sad little article about the demise of French artisanal cheeses. Culprits include Americans, the EU, the rising popularity and eventual mandatory-ness of pasteurization (one could, by extension, blame a certain bonhomme francais), globalization, and the culinary corporations known collectively as Big Food.

One fromagerie-owner gives an especially heart-breaking quote: "There are plenty of cheeses that only exist as names in old books."

I hope there never comes a day when there are cheeses that only exist as names in old blogs! Just to be safe, though, I think we should aim to taste as many as possible... You know, for posterity.

(Thanks for the tip, G & GB and others.)

FACTS: Goat milk

2010-02-12T15:24:00.000-08:00

By Erica

Last week, we tasted a cheese from Capri Cheesery that was made with "Amish goat milk." This ingredient puzzled our pseudo-cheese-connoisseur minds (you can see this confusion unfold in real time in our tasting video), and it led me on a hunt for more information about goat milk. Here is what I learned:

1) Male goats, like male people, are stinky: If a smelly buck (male goat) is not separated from milk-producing does (female goats), his scent will somehow rub off on the milk's taste. Apparently, people sometimes object to the goaty flavor of goat milk (to which I say, what do you expect! It's from GOATS), but this strong flavor only comes out if the bucks aren't taken away. I am curious: could one create a line of goat cheeses named after the various bucks that are around the barn when the doe is lactating?

2) Fat matters: Because of the size of the fat globules in goat milk, the cream does not separate out, and thus the milk does not need to be homogenized. Less processing is always a good thing, in cheese and in life.

3) Fatty acids matter: The higher proportion of medium-chain fatty acids, such as capric acid, cause goat milk cheese to be uniquely tart.

4) Goats are very productive: On average, dairy goats produce 3 to 4 quarts of milk daily for 10 months.

5) Warm goat cheese is just warm goat cheese: You know how cow cheeses, like mozzerella or chedder, melt when you heat them up? This doesn't happen to goat cheeses. They just get hot.

6) Goats are everywhere: Goat cheese is made in so many places! They are a hearty creature.

-Crottin de Chavignol is a nutty cheese with a white rind from the Loire Valley
-Clochette is a bell-shaped, tangy cheese from the Poitou-Charentes region in France
-Couronne Lochoise, another French cheese, is donut shaped
-Feta!
-Mató, is a Catalan fresh cheese similar to ricotta
-Pantysgawn is a Welsh cheese with an awesome name
-Brunost is a Norwegian brown cheese. In North America, it is sold as "gjetost"
-Rubing is a firm cheese from the Yunnan Province in China. It's similar to Paneer

7) There's a market for everything: In addition to cheese, goat milk can be used to make ice cream or soap.

8) This could be your next weekend project: It's easy to make goat milk cheese!

Slowly heat a gallon of goat milk to 185°F, using a stainless steel or enamelware pot. Add 1/4 cup vinegar. Keep the temperature at 185°F, stirring the milk occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes. At this point a soft curd should form. Line a colander or strainer with cheesecloth. Pour the curd into the colander, and sprinkle the curd with salt. Tie the corners of the cloth together and hang it to drip for a few hours.

Add seasoning such as dill, pepper, or garlic, and refrigerate. Eat the cheese immediately, or keep it no longer than a week in the refrigerator. (From the dairy goat journal.)

Sources:
http://www.goatworld.com/articles/goatmilk/goatmilk.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_milk_cheese
http://www.goats4h.com/Goat-Milk.html -- goat/cow/human nutrition comparison picture

TASTES: Aged Goatmilk Cheddar

2010-02-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

By Erica and Kara

Background: This week, we returned to the Dane County Farmer's Market. Now that it's moved to the senior center, we weren't sure if we'd see any familiar faces but to our surprise and delight, Felix himself was manning the Capri Cheesery table. If you remember, dear reader, our first tasting was one of Felix's cheeses. We won't go over the details of Capri here, so click on the above link if you want to know more about Felix and his goats.

The Taste: The cheese is white and crumbly, hard to cut neatly. Sitting on the plate, it smells deliciously, quintessentially, cheesey. At first the goaty pungency overwhelms the tang we expect from a cheddar, but by the end of the bite its sour zing asserts itself. It's a strong flavor, mouth-filling and smooth. Whenever we think of cheddar, we think of Cracker Barrel. Capri's version of aged cheddar is C.B. to the power of ten, in both strength and complexity. In short: delish.

LINKS: Cheese Is Art

2010-02-02T19:36:00.000-08:00

By Kara

In trying to keep up with my cheese news, I came across this little gem about British artist Prudence Emma Staite and her latest cheese-based art (Extra! Extra! Updated 11 hours ago on the BBC website!). Her motto, and the name of her website, is "Food Is Art" (http://www.foodisart.co.uk/). To be more specific: Chocolate Is the Mona Lisa, Pizza Dough Is Pope Benedict XVI, and Cheese Is (who else?) Barack Obama. (The BBC notes, Britishly, "This Barack Obama bust has been made by Prudence from one solid 20kg block of mature cheese.")

But does Staite's work really lead us to believe that Food Is Art? Or, upon gazing into Mr. President's cheddary eyes, are we more likely to conclude that Art Is, ultimately, Food?

There is only one way to settle this, and fortunately the artist is two steps ahead of us: Staite's website advertises that she is available for live performances! Think we could get her out to Madison?

LINKS: Recalled Cheese Balls!

2010-01-26T07:06:00.000-08:00

By Erica

I hear that in some places in this country a "cheese ball" is a popular treat around the holiday season. I have never had one. Call me an elitist, but I hope I never do. As much as I love cheese, there are some forms of cheese that should be avoided, and this, along with Cheese Wiz, is one of them. I'm sorry. It just seems gross.

Thus, I was not saddened to hear that the Wisconsin Cheeseman has recalled its cheese balls and some other products due to contamination by Listeria monocytogenes, a bacteria that, if ingested, can lead to nausea, fever, headaches and other such symptoms.

FYI, here is a list of products that have been recalled.

The Wisconsin Cheeseman® Food Gifts Impacted by Recall:
Sausage 'N Cheese Logs – Gift #11
Cheese Logs & Cutting Board – Gift #87
Smorgasbord – Gift #325
Cheese Log Trio – Gift #365
Cheese Logs – Gift #411
Cheese Ball Trio – Gift #441
Cheese Logs – Gift #509
Snacker Pack – Gift #751
Cheese Balls & Sausages – Gift #876

(Good Riddance!)

TASTES: Port-Salut (A Cautionary Tale)

2010-01-24T07:58:00.000-08:00

By Erica

In addition to the cheese that Kara and I eat every week (Note: her return to America will also mark a return to the blog's regular schedule), I buy an average of two cheeses a weeks for myself. As a rule, one of them is a melting cheese, such as Cheddar or Monterey Jack, and one is something new; my morning routine often includes an open-faced grilled cheese sandwich, and my afternoon routine often includes cheese and crackers. I am also lactose intolerant, but that's a story for another time. THIS entry is about the new cheese that I bought recently: Port-Salut.

Background:
Port-Salut is a cow's milk cheese from Brittany, France. It is very soft, has an bright orange rind and was the first French cheese to be made from pasteurized milk. Created by Trappist Monks in the 1800s, the head of the abbey gave the rights of the cheese to a distributor in 1873. Although Port-Salut is still handmade, today the cheese is mainly mass produced. The wedge I bought, for example, was made by Fromageries Bel, France's third largest cheese producer.

The Taste:
I did not like this cheese. Although it is known for its mildness, it was a bit too mild for me. The slightly tangy (and short lived) aftertaste was plastic. Its creamy texture seemed artificial, reminding me of Laughing Cow (and I hate Laughing cow.) This, perhaps, is not surprising since Fromageries Bel is the maker of Laughing Cow. I feel like I've been duped (N.B. I did my research post-purchase, post-taste, post haste). Is this what a real Port-Salut tastes like? I doubt it.

Lesson:
Look at the fine print on a cheese's label. If it says "Fromageries Bel," do not buy. Boycott!

TASTES: South Africa part II

2010-01-21T14:25:00.000-08:00

By Kara

South Africa continues to satisfy this turophile (see below). I tried another two cheeses this week and found them very palate-pleasing.

INDEZI RIVER CHEESE COMPANY: NANDI MATURE GOAT'S MILK CHEDDAR

Background:
The first was a goat's milk cheddar from the Indezi River Cheese Company, based in the Natal Midlands. Indezi appears to be an up and coming cheese company, "certified free range" (a cheesery after a Mad-townie's heart, though not quite as socially just and hippie qualified as Fairview). Again, they use imported Saanen goats, which makes me wonder if any South African cheese-makers use indigenous animals. Indezi has a very entertaining website, including a "Helpful Hints" section, including highlights such as "The blue in blue cheese is NOT melted copper wire, but a harmless penicillin mould," and "It is best to keep cheese in the bottom part of your fridge," and "Turophile is the official term for a cheese lover." All, for various reasons, very good to know!

They describe their "Nandi" as "a traditional farm style cheese," which I think means that it is pretty young (fresh) and quick to mature. They say it should be "slightly dry and a little salty with a piquant aftertaste" (note to self: add "piquant" to the vocab list). They also note that Nandi is "a regal cheese fit for a queen," which is somewhat harder to verify.

The Taste:
I found Nandi to be a very pleasant cheese, given that it wasn't especially exciting. It was extremely mild, more like a mozzarella flavor than a strong cheddar, although there was a hint of the sharp sourness that I would expect in a cheddar. The texture was very smooth and soft. I think this would be a good cheese for the sensitive-tongued. It was especially yummy on a bagel chip.

FAIRVIEW ROYDON CAMEMBERT

Background:
The second cheese came from Fairview, like the Crottin I loved last week. I'd give top marks to Fairview!! Given the abundance of Fairview cheeses and wines at the local grocery store, so would the rest of Cape Town (or at least the ritzy gay men who frequent the De Waterkant neighborhood).

The Taste:
Definitely Camembert! The cheese was very oozey and creamy, and melted almost to a liquid as it warmed up to room temperature. It was much more fluid than our last Camembert. It had that distinctive zing at the back of the mouth, but was otherwise fairly mild, with a markedly mild rind. Very tasty!

TASTES: South African Caerphilly and Crottin

2010-01-12T07:48:00.000-08:00

By Kara

I'm currently in Cape Town, South Africa, and although I'm technically here on "business," I'm doing my best to nab some local cheese. Luckily, there's a swanky little grocery store just a block down the street, with plenty of specimens in stock. So far, it's a mixed bag: meet Caerphilly (a little gross) and Crottin (quite delish), my first tastes of South Africa. (Thanks to a trio of colleagues for their input on this post.)

ENGLISH CAERPHILLY
Background:
Caerphilly (pronounced "care-FILL-y," although I can't help just saying "carefully") originated in Wales, although it is now widely produced throughout southern England. A "quick cheese," which matures rapidly to sell-ability, Caerphilly is also very high in salt. This was a successful combination in the 19th century, when farmers were looking for ways to sell off excess milk and sweaty miners were looking for ways to replenish their salt. The town of Caerphilly continues to celebrate its eponym with a three-day festival in July called "The Big Cheese."

Caerphilly is a hard white cheese, mild and salty in flavor. Originally, the cheese was creamy around the edges and more crumbly toward the center, but modern Caerphilly is pretty uniformly dry and crumbly. It benefits from moisture and supposedly shouldn't be "suffocated" by plastic wrap... Unfortunately, ours was shrink-wrapped upon purchase, which may have contributed to its grossness. The package didn't include any information on the cheese's origin or ingredients.

The Taste:
I did not like this cheese. The texture was interesting, much drier than other cheeses we've tried, somewhere in between the smoothness of Cheddar and the flaky dryness of Parmesan. At first, it tasted all right - mild and salty, a little bitter and a little sweet, but nothing overwhelming or offensive. Fellow tasters suggested it was similar to Spanish cheese, but a little more flavorful. But as I continued to consume, I had a lurking sense of something distinctly inedible, a flavor almost chemical, similar to gauze... a Bounce dryer sheet. To me, this cheese tasted exactly like a Bounce dryer sheet. Since making that realization, I can't really enjoy the cheese anymore. Sorry, Caerphilly, but I don't think I'll be attending "The Big Cheese" any time soon.

CROTTIN
Background:
The name "Crottin" might have derived from the word "crot," a small oil lamp made from burned clay, which sort of resembles a cheese mold. The more likely story, however, appears to be that "crottin" refers to "dung," which is what this cheese comes to resemble as it ages. No matter. It's still the most famous goat cheese to come from the Loire Valley (France), and descriptions of the cheese are glowing: a cheese with a "pleasant tanginess, fine, marble-like texture, with a long and nutty finish... moist and lactic when young, dry and nutty when aged."*

The name "Crottin de Chavignol" is under AOP protection (like Camembert), but the technique is used throughout the world to produce plain old Crottin. This particular little morsel comes from Fairview Wine and Cheese, headed by Cyril and Charles Back. Cyril first brought Swiss Saanen goats to Fairview in 1980 - supposedly, goats milk cheese was unknown in South Africa up to that point. A few years later, they introduced some cows to the mix (our Crottin is a blend). The business has blossomed: Fairview is currently the country's leading producer of artisanal and specialty cheeses, and their Roydon Camembert voted best in the world for three years in a row at the World Cheese Awards in London. (Their wine also gets very high marks.) Beyond purely gustatory concerns, Fairview is also renowned for excellent employment practices, including providing employment, housing, travel, and education to underprivileged workers in the surrounding area. Farm workers at Fairview have even started produced wine under their own "Fair Valley" label, with all proceeds going directly to their association. (Madisonites would love this place.)

Crottin Ingredients:
- Pasteurised goat's milk
- Jersey milk
- mixture of microbiological cheese cultures
- non-animal rennet
- salt

The Taste:
So much yummier. Fairview's Crottin was very sharp, very sour, and very milky. It wasn't especially smooth, and was actually much closer to being crumbly. Compared to other goat's milk cheeses, this one was pretty dry, but similarly dense and firm. It had a thin, bitter rind, which never overwhelmed the flavor of the cheese itself. There was significant variation from rind to center, both in terms of texture (dry to creamy) and taste (bitter to sour/fatty). Maybe it was just an effect of contrast, but I really liked this cheese.

Sorry no video! But we just bought two more cheeses, so stay tuned...

Sources:
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caerphilly_cheese
http://www.caerphilly.gov.uk/bigcheese/
*Andante dairy, http://www.andantedairy.com/crottin.html

FACTS: The Legend of Liederkranz

2010-01-05T10:29:00.000-08:00

By Erica

What do a woolly mammoth and Liederkranz cheese have in common? They're both smelly! And also, they're both extinct. Emil Frey (left), a Swiss cheesemaker, created Liederkranz in 1891 (many, many years after God created the woolly mammoth). Disgustingly, Emil Frey went on to create Velveeta, an insult to cheeses everywhere. However, Liederkranz was a hit for the Monroe Cheese Company, which was situated in Monroe, New York. Named after a local singing group, Liederkranz means "wreath of song" in German. It's a soft cows milk cheese that came out of an effort to replicate Limburger. The replication was moderately unsuccessful. The cheeses are more fraternal than identical twins; their bacteria cultures--their DNA--are slightly different.

The story of Liederkranz is meandering and sad. Frey followed his beloved cheese when the Monroe Cheese Company moved to Van Wert, Ohio, where Liederkranz was manufactured even after the business was sold in 1929 to the Borden Company, which we know today as Kraft. In 1981, years after Frey had retired from cheese making, the Borden Company decided to stop all of its natural cheese lines in order to focus on processed cheese-- those that involve unfermented ingredients and emulsifiers and have the advantage of a longer shelf life (i.e. American Cheese, Laughing Cow, and Frey's own Velveeta). The Van Wert plant was bought by the Fischer Cheese Company that year and Liederkranz lived on, but only for a short time. In 1985, bacterial contamination of a batch of Liederkranz caused Fischer to discontinue the cheese entirely, and they sold the bacteria strain to The New Zealand Dairy Board. Liederkranz was never seen again.

The closest cheese to Liederkranz today is Bayrisher Bergsteiger Kase, produced by the Kutter Cheese factory in Buffalo, New York. This cheese has a similar texture and taste, but true fans of Liederkranz, "Liederkranzlers", are not impressed. Apparently, a small group is working to bring back the Liederkranz culture from New Zealand. Good luck!

THOUGHTS: Of cheese and pie

2009-12-26T22:08:00.000-08:00

By Kara

A conversation with my grandfather, during round two of my family's Christmas pie extravaganza:

Grandpa, unsolicited, with no prior knowledge of any cheese blog: "You know, Kara, you're not a real pie eater until you have it with a slice of cheese."

Kara, apparently still a pie novice, having recently consumed several cheeseless slices: "Mm, you've mentioned this before..."

Grandpa: "Here, I have an extra piece, just try it."

Grandma: "But she has butterscotch pie! It should be with apple."

Grandpa: "Well, it's good with butterscotch, too. I have it with butterscotch."

Kara, biting into white cheddar after a bite of pie: "Actually, it is pretty good with butterscotch!"

Grandpa, never missing a beat: "A pie without the cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze!"

TASTES: Holiday Edition- The More the Merrier

2009-12-23T08:32:00.001-08:00

By Erica

'Tis the season-- sparkly lights, fragrant trees, gift-wrapped presents, and, most importantly, lots of dinner parties. Dinner parties mean appetizers, and appetizers mean cheese. Usually, the spread includes a orange and white striped wedge of cheddar, some kind of blue cheese, and maybe a Brie. Sometimes, though, there's something new. Last night, for instance, my family brought three cheeses to a friend's house. If it were last year, I would have shoveled lots of cheese and bread into my mouth (politely, of course), noted that they all tasted pretty good, and moved on. This year, however, as co-author of this cheese blog, I decided to do some research on the wheels and wedges that we enjoyed.

1) Saint Faron
This cheese, a wheel with a diameter of about five inches and a height of about four, is a cow's milk triple crème from France. Triple crèmes are cheeses to which cream is added to increase the butterfat content of the solid ingredients to 75% (overall, the fat content is about 40%). Other triple crèmes include mascarpone and St. André. As you can imagine, this cheese was very smooth. Like the Camembert we tasted earlier, it essentially melted in my mouth (I didn't lick this cheese as we did the Camembert because I was in public). It is an incredibly lush, full cheese. This lushness seemed to overwhelm any subtle notes that may have existed, which isn't a bad thing. To me, triple crèmes are about richness. In a country that despises and avoids fat like the plague (when, in fact, fat is a crucial ingredient to many of the most tasty foods), it is very pleasing to eat a cheese for which the fattiness is the point of it all.

2) Mousseron Jurassian
A harder, but still sliceable, wedge, this is a Jura Mountain cheese like Gruyère or Comté. The Jura Mountains are a part of the Alps that span Germany, Switzerland, and France. Because of the dense vegetation in this area, many its cheeses have an earthy taste. Mousseron Jurassian is made from raw cow's milk. I liked the cheese's even texture, and it is more mild than many of the cheeses that Kara and I have tasted thus far. M.J. is a very pleasant cheese, but not a stand out. If stronger cheeses are like the flashy, colorful Christmas decorations that wow the neighbors, M.J. is like a string of those white, tasteful lights that make a quiet and comforting holiday statement.

3) Hoch Ybring
Named after the area in Switzerland from where it comes, this is also a raw cow milk cheese. The Hoch Ybrig region famous for its skiing and hiking. The Hoch Ybrig cheese (pictured above) is famous for the white wine brine that it is washed in while it ages. This cheese was a favorite among the dinner guests. It has a strong earthy taste, a rough texture, and the grassy, mushroomy notes linger on one's tongue. This, in my opinion, is a perfect appetizer cheese. It is not overly pungent, but has enough flavor to be interesting.

And so, my first cheeses of the holiday season were delicious. I hope your Christmas season is as cheesy as mine!

LINKS: The Root's 12 Cheeses of Christmas

2009-12-20T12:19:00.000-08:00

By Kara

Got a great cheese tip recently (not to be confused with a great cheese dip): The Root recently posted a guide to buying cheese for holiday gatherings, with short descriptions of twelve delicious-sounded varieties of our obsession. Each description includes some background information about the cheese's origin, a tastefully-written (haha) note about its flavor, and suggestions for how to pair the cheese with wine, beer, bread, fruit, etc.

As far as I can tell, it looks like an excellent list. How could someone resist trying "Humboldt Fog," apparently "the most imaginative American-made cheese," which is creamy on the edges, flaky in the middle, and tastes like citrus and thyme?

It should also be noted that Wisconsin makes an appearance at the top of the list, with a Gruyere from Dodgeville, WI. I'm feeling the need to start a cheese wish-list...

LINKS: The Wisconsin State.... Microbe???

2009-12-16T06:05:00.000-08:00

By Erica

A few days ago, the microbe Lactococcus lactis was nominated by the state Assembly (Assembly Bill 556) to become Wisconsin's State Microbe . Lactococcus latis, which has its own hilarious home page is used in the cheese making process to ferment milk sugar into lactic acid.

Apparently, Wisconsin lawmakers believe that adding L. latis as the state microbe would raise awareness about Wisconsin's cheese making industry. Demoncrat Representative Gary Hebl, who is one of the primary authors of Assembly Bill 556, said, "My first reaction was, 'Uh . . . why would we do that?'But then we started talking about it, and it made sense."

Don't believe me? Here's the article.

TASTES: Camembert

2009-12-14T19:17:00.001-08:00

By Erica and Kara

Background
This week, we tasted a Camembert cheese from Butler Farms (Whitehall, WI). We sampled this cheese at the farmer's market a couple weeks ago and decided that we needed to buy a wheel at some point. Camembert wheels are by definition very small--only about 4.5 inches in diameter. In fact, this small size is the only factor that distinguishes Camembert from Brie, whose wheel can range from 9 to 15 inches in diameter. When it comes to cheese, size matters--the smaller wheel size means that Camembert takes a shorter time to ripen (about 3 weeks as opposed to 4 or 5) and has a higher concentration of flavor.

Besides the different sizes, Camembert and Brie are made by the same process. After the rennet is added and the milk curdles, the curds are ladled into their molds and allowed to drain. Then, after about a day, the cheeses are put in a "salting room" where they are, as the name suggests, salted. Additionally, they are coated with a particular strain of mold, Penicillium candidum, and allowed to age for a few weeks. The creamy texture is thought to be a product of the ladling technique, and bitter notes are a result of the amino acids ornithine, cadaverine, and citrulline. Nowadays, the rind is always white, but before we had the technology to tightly control the molds used in cheeses, the rinds were often spotted, grey, or blue. One legend is that Camembert was originally a blue cheese whose recipe changed over time into what it is today.

There are many other myths surrounding this beloved (especially to the French) cheese. One myth is that the cheese was invented in 1791 by Marie Harel, a farmer, and a priest from Brie whom she saved from the guillotine. Regardless of who first produced the cheese, it wasn't transported around Europe until the 1800s with the invention of the wooden box by Ridel, a french engineer (who knew that an engineer was needed to come up with the idea of a circular wooden box?). Camembert became the darling of France, and it was doled out to French soldiers during World War II.

The French have a particular snootiness when it comes to Camembert because it was not granted AOP protection until 1983. The AOP (Appellation d'Origine Protégée, or The Nomenclature of Protected Origin) decides if a product is copyrighted to a particular geographically location. Thus, today, Camembert made in certain areas in Normandy is called Camembert de Normandie, and many Frenchmen contend that regular old Camembert is not the real deal. In fact, if you buy Camembert in the U.S., as we did, you are not tasting "real" Camembert by any measure. Camembert requires raw milk, but in the U.S., if raw (unpasteurized*) milk is used in cheese, the cheese must be aged for at least 60 days. As noted above, Camembert is only aged for about 20 days. Thus, most creameries in the U.S. use pasteurized milk in their Camembert production.

It follows that, alas, the Camembert from Butler Farms that we tasted did not use raw milk. And, unlike to the traditional Camembert, it was made with a combination of cow milk, cow cream, and sheep milk. In the future, we hope to find a Camembert made solely with raw cow milk. PeRhaps then we will gain the respect of the French.

Sources:
www.thenibble.com
www.cookthink.com

*Pasteurization is a heating process that slows down the development of certain strains of bacteria to prevent disease.

Camembert Ingredients:
- sheep milk
- cow milk
- cow cream
- p. candidum
- rennet
- salt

The Taste:
Smoooooth is the operative word here. Unbelievably, perfectly, tremendously smooth. Creamy velvet. The cheese also tastes and feels luxuriously fatty, in the best sense of the word. Licking it (which we did, unfortunately not until after we turned off the camera) feels like liking a stick of butter or a hunk of lard. It's the sort of sensation that confounds the gustatory and the tactile... "Mouthfilling" might be the word.

Although it's hard to move beyond that initial impression of silkiness, there are other aspects of the Camembert experience: a subtle cow-y aroma, a buttery flavor, and a certain sourness and bitterness that rise up gradually at the back of the tongue. The sour and bitter tastes come mostly from the rind (and the amino acids, apparently - see above). We thought it tasted a lot like Brie - which was spot-on, according to our research! Kara thought it would go well with something sweet... maybe some honey. We ate it with water crackers, which allowed us to appreciate the slow and subtle unfolding of this cheese's flavors.

Our big downfall was to cut and eat the cheese too soon after taking it out of the refrigerator, which took away from both the texture (it was even much more cloud-like at the Farmer's Market) and the taste (which got stronger as the cheese started to warm up). Amateurs we remain!

FACTS: A Cheesy Vocabulary

2009-12-11T21:48:00.000-08:00

By Kara

This week I want to be better prepared to speak about cheese. I say this with some hesitation: I'm skeptical of the lingo of expertise in most avocational domains, because I think it serves as much of a social purpose as it does a descriptive one (e.g., "Mm-herm, don't you think this is quite a nervy Sauvignon Blanc?"). My goal here isn't really to immerse myself in some sort of culture d'affinage... But I do want to be able to think about what I'm tasting, and remember different cheeses for their distinctive characteristics. If I can hang my sensory experience on some reliable words, maybe the taste will be preserved a little more vividly in my mind. Also, maybe Erica and I will be able to sum our our thoughts in under 5 minutes of babble.

So I've been poking around websites and leafing through books, and I've assembled a few lists to get us started.

To describe the texture of cheese, people use words that are for the most part pretty straightforward: airy , bold, buttery, chalky, creamy, crumbly, curdy, custardy, delicate, dense, firm, flaky, fluffy, fudgy, gooey, grainy, hard, luscious, melting, moist, mouthfilling, oily, pasty, pillowy, pliable, rubbery, runny, sandy, smooth, soft , spreadable, striated, sturdy, supple, thick, veined, velvety, voluptuous, waxy, yielding. Most of these words seem like they correspond well to descriptions of other textures. "Curdy" is a little special, but I'm pretty sure that it's a literal term, referring to the concept of cheese curds (i.e., not dense, rubbery, solid but pliable). I'm thinking a luscious cheese would be super creamy and velvety... as would a voluptuous variety, though this might be a little thicker and gooier. I love the concept of "mouthfilling" - I've looked around online a bit, and it seems like this describes the experience of a complex combination of flavors that feels like it requires the whole tongue, oral cavity, nasal passages, etc., to fully experience. Yum.

To describe the aroma and flavor of cheese, people use slightly quirkier words: acidic, biting, bright, burned, buttery, chemical, creamy, delicate, dry, electric, goaty, lactic, lingering, mean, mild, milky, moldy, popping, pungent, rich, roasted, salty, sharp, smokey, sour milk, stinky, stringent, strong, sweet, tangy, tart, vibrant. "Bright" and "electric" seem to be used most frequently to talk about blue/eu cheeses - maybe this corresponds to something sort of sour and tangy, somehow "shocking." "Stringent" seems to be a similar sort of flavor, kind of acidic and often used to describe moldy cheese. I gather that a vibrant cheese has a strong but fairly simple flavor... but for the life of me I can't figure out what would make someone call a cheese "mean."

Often adjectives just don't suffice. (Some speculate that this because taste and smell are processed largely in the "deep," subcortical areas of the brain, meaning there's a long neural road to travel between those types of sensory experiences and the formulation of sentences to describe them.) In these cases, cheese-lovers turn to analogies to describe the flavors they detect: almond, ammonia, apple, apricot, artichoke, barnyard, berry, brothy, butterscotchy, candied, caramel, catbox, chocolate, cinnamon, citrus, earthy, fermented, floral, fruity, grassy, hay, hazelnut, herbaceous, herbal, humus, lemony, mushroomy, nutmeg, nutty, onion, peanut, pear, pepper, plum, spicy, straw, toasty, toffee, vanilla, vegetable, walnut, wet grass, wet wool, wheat, yeasty. I'm having a little bit of a hard time imagining a cheese that tastes brothy or mushroomy, but these words show up all the time, so I guess I'll get a taste of it soon enough. I sort of hope to avoid anything with notes of barnyard, catbox, or wet wool... but I certainly wouldn't mind overtones of caramel or pear!

Some of these words have some physical/chemical basis (fat content, level of moisture, diet of mammal, etc.) - others originate in the associative mind of the taster (at least, I hope they do). I think the take-home lesson here is that when it comes to describing and remembering cheese, free association is strongly encouraged. The descriptions I read ranged from poetic ("delicately floral") to disturbing (I still can't get over "catbox"), but none lacked creative flair. The task for our next tasting is to breathe in, let go, and let the tasting mind wander.

FACTS: A Cow's Milk + Its Fourth Stomach = Cheese

2009-12-08T18:04:00.000-08:00

By Erica

Both Kara and I (and probably the majority of you out there), thought that all you needed to make cheese was milk. There is, however, a second ingredient that is necessary: rennet. Rennet is collection of enzymes that mammals (that means you!) have in their stomachs to digest milk. In the cheese making process, it is what causes milk to split into curds and whey (Little Miss Muffet, &c &c). Today, about 60% of cheese produced in the US is made with genetically engineered rennet, but this was not always the case. Cheese, The Making of Wisconsin Tradition by Jerry Apps (a lovely little piece of propaganda "Courtesy of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board," and my reading material on the bus to work), tells me that in the 1800s, when cheese making was still a domestic chore, rennet was made by combining six gallons of water, loads of salt, 12 calf's stomachs "half emptied, rinsed, and salted", six lemons, and an ounce of cinnamon cloves. It was stored for around a year before it was used.

Most people would probably prefer that their cow stomach's were not involved in the making of their cheese, or at least that they didn't know about it. The Vegetarian Society writes that "The usual source of rennet is the stomach of slaughtered newly-born calves," and advocates for the use of other sources of rennet, like fungus, bacteria, or a petri dish. But there's something intriguing to me about getting the milk and rennet from the same source. It seems more natural. When you eat cheese made with cow rennet, it's like you're eating something that, more or less, exists already in a cow's fourth stomach somewhere.

Moo.

TASTES: Aroma Bear

2009-12-05T10:48:00.000-08:00

By Kara and Erica

For our first tasting session we tried a piece of Aroma Bear cheese from Capri Cheesery in Blue River, WI. This fall, the Capri stand at the Dane County Farmers' Market has been Kara's favorite - an opinion she exclaimed more loudly than necessary in front of the vendor (who cheerfully agreed).

Some Background:
Capri Cheesery is a small operation, spear-headed by an ambitious Swiss-American named Felix. Capri specializes in cheese made from raw (unpasteurized) goatsmilk, which purportedly allows for the full taste of the goats' "terroir" to infuse every bite. To quote the Capri website, "The cheese that results is the intersection of special goats and a special place."

We selected a "bear cheese," which is made with traditional Mu(e)nster techniques. A little context: Muenster cheeses were first made by monks in Alsace, France (hence, "munster," like monastery - no joke!); according to some (the French), Muensters are still made nowhere else. The cheese is traditionally made with cow's milk, although Felix has obviously deviated from this norm with Aroma Bear. Muenster is a "washed cheese," which means that the rind is rubbed periodically with a salt brine solution while the cheese ages, a process that simultaneously inhibits the growth of mold and nourishes the bacteria that produce the cheese's strong taste and smell. The cheese is aged for a week outside, and then for a minimum of 2 months next to other Muensters, in order to develop the unique, tangy "rind flora" that distinguishes Muenster from other cheeses. This communal aging traditionally occurs in a cave, and there does indeed appear to be a cave on the Capri Cheesery premises! In Steven Jenkins' Cheese Primer (Workman Publishing, 1996), French Munster is described as "at once piercingly sharp, beefy, and nutty." (Jenkins adds, "Odd as it may sound, I always think of fried eggs when I eat Munster.") Munster is commonly eaten plain, in quiche, with bread, on dessert plates, and with potatoes.

It should be noted that it's very easy to find disparaging remarks about American Muenster cheese, which apparently is a terrible imitation of German and Danish Münsters, themselves but bland knock-offs of the French original. We'll give Felix the benefit of the doubt and assume he's following the French technique. The descriptions of the French original definitely seem to conform to our impressions of this cheese, which was anything but "bland." Bear (haha) in mind that the cheese contains the word "aroma" in its name.

"Aroma Bear" ingredients:
- Goatmilk from Amish grass-fed goats (Amish goats!)
- Salt
- Rennet
- Cheese Culture

The Taste:
To our untrained palates, Aroma Bear is a delightful cheese. How does one expand on this statement? Indeed, it took some effort (see video) for us to get beyond general descriptors. After the first taste, we exclaimed that we liked it, then exchanged blank looks. As novice cheese tasters, we didn't quite know how to proceed. Under the "learn by doing" philosophy, though, our inexperience did not hold us back. Kara noted the sour notes. Erica noted the grassy flavor. It is a timidly pungent cheese, by which we mean it doesn't have a strong smell (where's the "aroma" in the bear? I ask), yet the strong flavor hits your tongue immediately and stays there (in the cheese world, I think they call this "lingering"). It is not a sweet cheese, and Kara suggested eating it with some jalapeno jelly, which we did. It was a nice complement.

As for the texture, Aroma Bear is not as crumbly as most goat milk cheese, although pieces broke off in crystalline bits. In fact, the cheese looks like some sort of mineral. The brown rind is like dried lava, and at some places folds into the cheese like the sulci of a brain or, more aptly, the mineral rind of a unpolished piece of quartz. Perhaps the natural appearance of Aroma Bear adds to its earthiness. I would recommend Aroma Bear to those who enjoy a stronger cheese-- this isn't your typical Muenster!

Erica had the foresight to capture our first tasting on video:

THOUGHTS: My current cheese-knowledge

2009-12-04T17:14:00.000-08:00

By Kara

Cheese is made from milk, and perhaps some other things. It's somehow related to mold, maybe, and can be "aged" to different degrees of desirability. It goes well with fruit, wine, nuts, crackers, bread, and, according to my grandfather, apple pie.

Adjectives that can be used to describe cheese include, but must certainly not be limited to, the following: sharp, mild, soft, hard, stinky, salty, and nutty. These qualities most likely arise from some part of the process that occurs between "made from milk" and "aged to different degrees."

I love cheese, I really do. I ate grated parmesan by the spoonful as a kid, and before writing this post I polished off the first of two huge hunks of cheddar (Wisconsin-made!) I bought at the grocery store last week. My love of cheeses, however, far eclipses my actual understanding. I guess I used to have some latent theory that various kinds of cheese got their distinctive tastes from the types of milk that were used in their production. Upon recent reflection, I've come to realize that there aren't possibly enough milkable mammals to produce all the varieties of cheese out there in the world... or, at least, it seems very unlikely that the difference between swiss and gouda and taleggio is that one of them is made from cow's milk, while the others originated in the teats of lions or alpacas.

So what goes on between your Bovine Bessie, Shirley Sheep, Goatrude, or whomever, and that cheddar I just ate? I can't explain, or even accurately describe, the distinctive brie flavor I've grown to love so much, or what it is about string cheese that makes it stringy. Of course, let's not forget the ultimate Wisconsin mystery: why do cheese curds squeak? (And what exactly are "curds," anyway?)

It should be fairly obvious that at this point my cheese-knowledge is really just cheese-appreciation. With any luck, we'll soon observe it developing into a true cheese-passion.

THOUGHTS: How little I know about cheese

2009-12-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

By Erica

When I was a 15, my sister told me I should be a cheese connoisseur. I don’t think she meant it seriously. I think we were sitting in the kitchen and, as usual, I was in the middle of eating an entire wedge of whatever cheese was in the refrigerator. It was probably her way of saying, “Erica, you eat too much cheese.”

In fact, I do eat a lot of cheese. Now that I have my own apartment, I make sure to always have cheese and crackers handy. My unofficial cheese mantra is “the stinkier, the better.” Consequently, my favorite kind of cheese is Époisses, a French cows milk cheese that comes in a circular wooden box. Its stench can clear a room. My mother used to buy this cheese for me whenever I visited home.

Despite my extreme love of eating cheese, I have very little knowledge about cheese. In fact, I had no idea that Époisses was called Époisses until last year. And I didn’t know it was a French cows milk cheese until I looked it up on Wikipedia a minute ago. It is high time that I learn about the food that I love so much. Perhaps I will even become a (amateur) cheese connoisseur after all.

Before Kara and I embark on our cheese journey, I will document the current state of my knowledge for posterity:

These are the names of cheese that I know*:
Cheddar
Goat Cheese
Gruyere
Monterey Jack
Gouda
Époisses (of course)
Mozzarella
Brie
Roquefort
Asiago
Parmesan
Feta

*A pathetic list.

How cheese is made according to Erica**:
1) Take the milk of some animal: cow, sheep, or goat
2) Do something to it (remove the fat? Pasteurize it? What does Pasteurize mean?)
3) Use a cheese cloth to squeeze the liquid out and create a solid
4) Let it sit for some about of time
5) Eat it

**Laughable.