By KaraThis 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.
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.
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