TASTES - And NEWS!: Our Cheese-Selling Debut

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

Huge news at Cheese: A Journey.

Keep your eyes peeled for the imminent post!

LINKS: Liederkrantz returns!

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

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

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?

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

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!)