CHEESE NOTES

This unusual red-rinded wheel is the Tomme de Liebrandt, a...

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:18:24 -0400

This unusual red-rinded wheel is the Tomme de Liebrandt, a collaborative effort between Chef Paul Liebrandt, Chef and Owner at Corton, a restaurant a the forefront of the NYC scene and awarded two Michelin Stars, as well as three stars from the New York Times. Chef Liebrandt was also the subject of an HBO Documentary “A Matter of Taste”.

When Liebrandt told Murray’s he was interested in a St. Nectaire-style tomme that had been washed in Antica Vermouth — a richer and more complex, herb-infused vermouth often consumed on its own rather than as an ingredient in a mixed drink — the Tomme de Liebrandt was born. the Liebrandt is affinaged in the Murray’s caves and sold at their counter as well as appearing on the Corton menu, where it is frequently served with green mango membrillo.

The rind is an adobe red color — thanks in part to the deep red color of the vermouth — with a rough, textured exterior, lightly sticky to the touch. The straw-yellow interior is semi-firm and supple, lightly eyed, softening as it warms. In flavor it is tangy, meaty and fruity, with an earthy, musty quality and hints of wet hay, all classic for a St Nectaire, but there is an added layer of complexity, an herby, rich quality infused by the Antica Vermouth.

Purchased at Murray’s Cheese.

Hummingbird is a delicate disc of Robiola-style cheese from Doe...

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:10:00 -0400

Hummingbird is a delicate disc of Robiola-style cheese from Doe Run Dairy in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Kristian Holbrook is the head cheesemaker at Doe Run Farm —his wife Haesel Charlesworth, manages the fruit and vegetable farming — but Doe Run is the passion project of Urban Outfitter’s founder Dick Haynes, who long had a desire to get into farming and saw an opportunity when the historic Doe Run farm came up for sale just as he was pulling back from the $2 Billion clothing business, first started as a single clothing shop in the 70’s, catering to Pittsburgh’s countercultural crowd. Doe Run is a sustainable, organic farm, with the cows, sheep and goats rotationally grazed on the 700 acres.

The creamery opened just a couple years ago, but the farm is much more than just a cheesemaking operation, with vegetables, horticultural gardens, massive greenhouses growing ornamental flowers, and more. You can read a detailed profile of Haynes and Doe Run at MainlineToday.com. Kristian has a culinary background, and is graduate of the New England Culinary Institute and a former chef at Green Seasons, outside of Pittsburgh.

Like many Robiolas, the Hummingbird is a mixed-milk cheese, made with Jersey cow and East Friesian ewe’s milk. Inspired by the likes of Robiola Bosina and Robiola Due Latte, the wheels are thin, only 3/4” high perhaps, with an elongated oval shape, akin to an oversized bay leaf. The rind is paper thin and pillowy to the touch, pinkish-orange with a white veil of mold and occasional tiny patches of blue. As soon as you cut it open, the ivory paste begins to ooze out of the thin rind, the interior molten at room temperature. The aroma is lightly fungal, with notes of wet hay.

In flavor the Hummingbird is buttery, unctuous and herbaceous, milky-sweet and with a nice salt balance, with subtle but distinct barnyard and lanolin notes on the finish.

I’m a big fan of Robiola’s, so discovering this American-made version is a pleasant surprise. (I probably shouldn’t share this, but you can see my own experiments with a Robiola recipe, which were…not exactly successful, so I appreciate it even more when it’s well-done, as with the Hummingbird).

The Financial Times has a great profile of William Oglethorpe of...

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:24:37 -0400

The Financial Times has a great profile of William Oglethorpe of Kappacassein Dairy, one of the first true modern urban cheesemakers in London (and probably any city, for that matter). This man is my role model! :

Twice a week at 4.30am Bill Oglethorpe leaves his flat in Streatham, London and drives for 50 minutes to an organic farm outside Sevenoaks in Kent. When he arrives the cows have just finished milking. He unloads his squat 20l aluminium churns and pours a little of his fermented milk starter into the bottom of each one. The milk comes straight out of a tank in the milking parlour, through a pipe and into the churn at the temperature it leaves the cow’s body: 30C. Bill fastens on the lids, heaves the churns into the back of the van and heads off to his Kappacasein Dairy in Bermondsey. In just a few hours the milk in the churns will have been transformed into five fat wheels of cheese. Bermondsey Hard Pressed cheese goes from udder to a recognisable cheese in a little over seven hours.

Cheese makers perform a daily alchemy, turning a perishable ingredient – milk – into something durable, storable and dense with protein: cheese. But to be a cheese maker you must rise, like Bill, before dawn to fetch your milk – and not just any milk. The French cheesemonger, Pierre Androuët talks about cheese having a cru, or growth, just like wine. Instead of the quality of the grape, it is the milk that is the first (and possibly the most fundamental) thing a cheese maker must get right.

William Oglethorpe sounds like a very English name, but this cheese maker is a Frenchman raised in Tanzania and Switzerland, where he learnt his craft in the Swiss Alps. The simple way cheese was made there (by heating raw milk) appealed to him, as did the relatively small amount of equipment needed. I join him as he starts work on the first cheese of the day, similar to an Alpine Tomme de Montagne.

Read the full story. You can also listen to an interview with Oglethorpe on Episode 75 of the Cutting the Curd podcast.

Guardian: The secrets of Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire cheese

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:36 -0400

The Guardian features a nice essay by Graham Kirkham of Mrs. Kirkham’s Lancashire Cheese, in which he discusses the roots of his cheese knowledge and passion:

The secrets of Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese
Graham Kirkham inherited his artisanal approach from the females in his family

My grandmother, Ruth Townley, made cheese all her life. When she retired, she moved to Beesley Farm and passed her equipment and knowledge on to my mother, Mrs Kirkham, and that’s how it all started. I took the reins about five years ago.

Making cheese is bloody hard work, but it isn’t just a job, it’s a way of life. Back in the day, my mum was making five or six cheeses a day on her own. Nowadays, Mrs Kirkham’s has a team of five full-timers and one part-timer, and we make about 20 10kg cheeses a day. Big dairies churn out thousands of kilos a day, so in the cheese world, we’re minute.

The quality of your cheese is dependent upon what you start off with: start with something great and you’ll end up with something great. The welfare and comfort of our herd of 125 Holstein Friesian cows is crucial. Through the winter, they are kept inside in roomy cubicle housing with slatted floors, so the ground is always clean. They also have massive spongy cow mattresses to lie on, which they love! In the summer they’re outside during the day and back inside at night, so we can monitor what they’re eating. A diet of grass silage, whole-crop (wheat or barley) silage and a compound feed of oats, wheat, barley and maize, along with some treacle, is what gives us the best milk…

Read the full story here.

SF Bicycle Coalition: Tour du Fromage, 05/26

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:35:44 -0400

San Francisco’s two-wheeled turophiles can combine both their passions into one day of riding around the city and tasting the best cheese that S.F. has to offer:

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Rec Ride: Tour du Fromage

Sun., May. 26 | 10am-4:30pm | Meet at McLaren Lodge

Join JB Rumburg, Other Avenues’ Cheesemonger for the Tour du Fromage—a bicycle ride highlighting his favorite cheese stops in San Francisco. JB has been a worker-owner of Other Avenues Coop for 10 years, and will be sharing his cheese expertise and experiences by way of bicycle. The ride will take you to the far reaches of the fromage frontier—from Ocean Beach to North Beach. This ride promises to stretch your legs and taste buds!

Free for SF Bicycle Coalition members; $10 donation for non-members; rain cancels rides.

It’s that time of year again! Tickets are now on sale for...

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:10:17 -0400

It’s that time of year again! Tickets are now on sale for the 4th Annual Cheesemonger Invitational. This is a can’t miss event, featuring competitive mongering, mountains of cheese (both literally and figuratively) a lavish food spread and reasonably priced drinks, all set in the Larkin Cold Storage facilities in Long Island City and MC’ed by the irrepressible Adam Moskowitz, for a party that usually goes late into the night and draws cheese professionals and turophiles alike into one space. I made it to the 2012 CMI, when Adam Smith from Cowgirl Creamery D.C. won (he’s now moved on to an affinage position at the Cellars at Jasper Hill), and 2011, when Steve Jones of Portland’s Cheese Bar took the title. Matt Rubiner of Rubiner’s Cheesemongers won the 1st ever CMI in 2010.

The mongers compete in 8 rounds, with the last 4 rounds for the 10 finalists only; the winner walks away with the crown for “Best Cheesemonger In America”, insane bragging rights and $1000 in cold hard cash.

This year also sees the introduction of the VIP class of ticket:

“f you are a true cheese lover, buy one of this year’s limited VIP tickets and get: one hour early entrance (5:30 PM) which means first crack at the yum yum, a gift bag you can take home stuffed with even more yum yum, AND THE BEST PART…

VIP participates in the perfect bite part of the competition. Fifty cheesemongers will create the perfect bite of cheese using two other food elements and as VIP you get to sample each and every one. VIP will be cheese nirvana.

Please know for every ticket sold, we will donate $5 to further cheesemonger education via the Daphne Zepos Teaching Award.”

So get your tickets now! This event definitely will sell out so don’t wait ‘til the last minute.

Best. Business Card. Ever. (via Gizmodo) Of Course a Cheese...

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:31:58 -0400

Best. Business Card. Ever. (via Gizmodo)

Of Course a Cheese Store Has a Tiny Grater Business Card

Since printing its address and contact details on a slice of muenster cheese would probably do more harm than good for Bon Vivant, the Brazilian-based cheese shop hired ad agency JWT to come up with something better. And in every way possible, this miniature cheese grater business card is a much better idea.

So as not to also turn your wallet into a pile of shredded leather, the grater comes in a protective sleeve, which probably also helps to minimize the inevitable cheese smell from permeating your pocket. And that’s also why the garlic growers of the world should just forget about trying a similar gimmick to promote their product.

You can even see some video of the grater in action.

Food Travel Company: Madame Fromage Interview

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:01:06 -0400

The Food Travel Company blog features an interview with Tenaya Darlington, author of the new book House of Cheese: A Guide to Wedges, Recipes and Pairings (you can check out my review here):

From her tales of cheese retreats, to her tips on how to talk to a cheesemonger, to her generally epic encyclopedic knowledge of cheese, through to her love of Joan Didion, there’s definitely something about Tenaya Darlington, that we find irresistible. We chatted with Tenaya, AKA Madame Fromage, The Cheese Courtesan, about life, cheese soirees, and her new book: Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese: A Guide to Wedges, Recipes and Pairings.

Check out the full interview!

Arkansas Legalizes Raw Milk Sales

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:01:00 -0400

Via RealMilk.com, Arkansas has now legalized on-farm sales of raw cow and goat milk:

Beginning in July 2013, Arkansas farms will be allowed to sell up to 500 gallons of unpasteurized cow milk per month, and up to 500 gallons of unpasteurized goat milk per month, directly to consumers. It will still be illegal to sell unpasteurized milk at farmers markets or other retail outlets. Under the new law, farmers will be required to post a sign on the farm and label unpasteurized products with a standardized label noting that the milk is unpasteurized. Neither the farm nor the cows will be inspected by the state, and the buyer assumes all liability should any health problems arise from consuming the raw milk.

This new law is not only exciting for the consumers who rely on raw milk’s nutrients for health benefits, but also for the farmers who see economic opportunity in taking advantage of the emerging raw milk market – raw milk often sells for $6-$8 per gallon. As the market continues to evolve and more farms begin to offer unpasteurized products, it will be interesting to see where costs stabilize and how farms brand themselves to stand out from the herd.

Read the full story.

U Bel Fiuritu, a semi-firm, washed-rind sheep’s milk cheese, is...

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:10:35 -0400

U Bel Fiuritu, a semi-firm, washed-rind sheep’s milk cheese, is made by the Pierucci family of cheesemakers of Sarl Fromagerie Pierrucci, in the Casinca region of Corsica. Run by 4th-generation cheesemaker Michel Pierucci, the fromagerie collects the milk of as many as 80 farms in the region, transforming them into their line of cheeses, both traditional recipes and new interpretations of Corsican classics. I previously reviewed their A Casinca, a washed-rind goat’s milk cheese.

The name, U Bel Fiuritu, means “Small, Beautiful Flower”, and the ewes, grazing on the scrubby, redolent “Maquis” of the Corsican hillsides, imbue the milk with a wonderful herbal fragrance. The amber-red rind is frosted with patches of white mold, sticky and a bit gritty from regular washes during the 4-10 week aging. The paste is white in the center turning ivory towards the rind, scattered with small eyes.

The creamy, rich paste is complex in flavor, milky, herbaceous, sweet and nutty, sheepy and meaty and with a wonderful pungent bite and spice. This is a cheese that becomes exponentially stinkier the longer it ages: this wheel was near the sweet spot, still a bit firm at the center but ripening inwards, strong in aroma but well-balanced in flavor and with a mild finish.

Purchased at Formaggio Essex.

The Salt: Tiny Mites Spark Big Battle Over Imports Of French...

Sun, 12 May 2013 11:30:39 -0400

The Salt: Tiny Mites Spark Big Battle Over Imports Of French Cheese

NPR’s The Salt blog delves into the FDA’s current efforts to make a mountain of a mite hill in their patently ridiculous ban on Mimolette:

The Food and Drug Administration is currently embroiled in a surprisingly heated culinary standoff — pitting French cheese-makers (and American cheese-lovers) against regulators, all because of one very small problem: cheese mites.

Cheese mites are microscopic little bugs that live on the surfaces of aged cheeses, munching the microscopic molds that grow there. For many aged cheeses, they’re something of an industry nuisance, gently brushed off the cheeses. But for Mimolette, a bright orange French cheese, they’re actually encouraged.

The mites munch on the rind for a few years and then are removed — usually with a blast of compressed air and a bit of hand-brushing — before Mimolette is sold. But there are always a few hiding behind. And now the FDA is cracking down.

According to the FDA’s Patricia El-Hinnawy, there’s no official limit, but the target is no more than six mites per square inch. For Mimolette, that’s a near impossible standard.

But in the 21st century, do we need a cheese ban? Microbiologist Rachel Dutton runs a cheese lab at Harvard University, and we checked in with her about the dangers of mites. Dutton notes that there have been some reports of mite allergies, but they seem to be restricted to people who have come into contact with large numbers of mites.

“Cheese is absolutely alive,” Dutton laughs. And all of that life — the molds, bacteria, yeasts and mites — help make cheese what it is. Dutton says that the mites on Mimolette can contribute flavors of their own (they have a somewhat earthy smell), and by eating into the rind, they can also increase aeration — and the surface area in which the other microbes can do their work.

Dutton understands that this doesn’t sound appealing, but implores people to realize the good work of these bugs. “There definitely are microbes that can spoil food and make either it bad for you to eat or just sort of gross. But any time you eat a piece of cheese or a bite of yogurt, have a piece of bread or a glass of wine — these are all examples of foods fermented by different types of microbes.”

Read the full story or listen to the broadcast here.

NYT: A Cheese Shop in a Slim Crown Heights Space Wedge, the...

Thu, 09 May 2013 21:14:00 -0400

NYT: A Cheese Shop in a Slim Crown Heights Space

Wedge, the newest cheese shop in Brooklyn, gets a visit from the New York Times Diners Journal, who also include a shout-out to our friends at Edgwick Farm (see my Edgwick visit here):

The new cheese shop in Crown Heights may be called Wedge, but Sliver would be more like it. The owners of the narrow but well-equipped storefront, Kate Blumm and Michael de Zayas, have done their homework. And with the expertise of Lilith Spencer, who had been at Bklyn Larder, the cheese and provisions shop, they are stocking their bright little place with some real finds. Among them are a goat’s milk ricotta from Edgwick Farm in Cornwall, N.Y.; a couple of tommes from the Kokoborrego Cheese Company in Mount Gilead, Ohio; and an organic Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy. They also carry pistachios and almonds from Sicily, a mead vinegar from Italy, breads from Bien Cuit in Brooklyn, and a sweet white miso made in Conway, Mass. Charcuterie is sliced on what Ms. Spencer says is the Rolls-Royce of slicing machines;

Wedge,
728 Franklin Avenue (Sterling Place),
Crown Heights, Brooklyn
wedgeonfranklin@gmail.com, facebook.com/wedgeonfranklin.

This gooey, fluffy ball is the Saint Nuage, a cow’s milk...

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:46:00 -0400

This gooey, fluffy ball is the Saint Nuage, a cow’s milk triple-creme from acclaimed French affineur Hervé Mons. “Nuage” actually means “cloud” in french, so this is the “Saint Cloud”, an appropriate name when you experience the texture.

The St. Nuage is a cow’s milk triple-creme, made by a Burgundy cheesemaker, and affinaged in the famous Mons tunnels before being sold exclusively through Whole Foods. I’m not sure if this is actually the first one, but I don’t recall seeing Mons cheeses with custom packaging and the Hervé Mons logo prominently displayed prior to this, at least on this side of the pond. I’ll certainly keep my eyes peeled for others.

When warmed to room temperature, the St. Nuage is almost unmanageably soft and must be moved with care lest the skin tear open in your hands. The rind, butter-yellow with a thin white mold layer, rippled and puckered, opens to reveal an incredibly gooey, delicate interior, the texture almost whipped in consistency. If you’ve ever baked a cake, the texture is kind of like the room temperature butter after sixty seconds of creaming, it’s that soft and fluffy; pretty impressive for an aged cheese — albeit briefly aged from what I can tell.

The flavor is mild but intensely buttery and rich, milky, a little tangy, with hints of mushroom, a nice salt balance, the paste melting in your mouth. Terms like “decadent” tend to be abused in the cheese world (including, admittedly, by yours truly), but this is a cheese that truly deserves that descriptor. I usually prefer my cheese neat, no bread or crackers, but this is a cheese that is tailor-made for slathering on a crusty baguette or with fruit. This is not a challenging or complex cheese, but it definitely puts the “creme” in triple creme.

BBC: Village of Stilton cannot make "Stilton"

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:51:00 -0400

The BBC reports that the village of Stilton has lost their appeal to make name-controlled Stilton:

Stilton cheese has traditionally been made in three East Midland counties who have protection over the product name, but a Cambridgeshire village wants to be able to make the cheese that bears its name.

Shailesh Vara MP claimed those making the cheese today in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire were “new boys”, and he pointed to documents dating back to 1722 to support the Cambridgeshire cause of his constituents.

But Stilton Cheesemakers’ Association chairman Nigel White reckoned there had been no stilton been made in the Cambridgeshire village for 200 years.

Labour MP Alan Johnson tasted both versions to see which was better, but decided he could not tell them apart, after the panel watched a Daily Politics film on food and town labelling.

This little crottin resembles some of the classic goat’s...

Tue, 07 May 2013 08:55:29 -0400

This little crottin resembles some of the classic goat’s milk cheeses of the Loire Valley, but actually hails from Kempense Geitenkaas, a creamery in Lichtaart, Belgium, north of Antwerp in the region of Flanders. Paul D’Haene and Veerle Minsaer have been making cheese since 1979, focusing on goat, in country that is known almost exclusively for its cow’s milk cheeses (the trappist style cheeses being the best known, such as the Le Charmoix, recently reviewed). Paul even says that “the goat is the cow of the poor farmer”, but there’s nothing impoverished about the cheeses that he’s making with their milk.

The aged 5oz crottin has a textured, stony amber exterior, opening to reveal a chalky white interior, the paste creamy and fudgy with a bit more proteolysis at the rind. The aroma is yeasty and fruity; the flavor is milky and bright with citrus notes and a distinct sour, tangy, overtone.

Purchased at Formaggio Essex.

Boston Globe: Tasting Quebec Cheeses At Their Source

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:10:33 -0400

Quebec is producing many great cheeses these days, including a wider variety of raw milk cheeses thanks to provincial laws that are closer to those of Europe. I tasted some great ones at last year’s ACS Conference in Raleigh, and Quebec makers took home multiple ribbons. The Boston Globe went on a driving tour of the Quebec Cheese trail:

In Saint-Lambert, a Montreal suburb, Max Dubois runs L’Échoppe des Fromages, the back full of mix-matched chairs and tables. Cappuccinos come with a tower of foam mounded several inches high.

Trained in theater and sociology, Dubois sang loudly and well as he chose a record for the stereo, and before joining us greeted his early morning customers by name. “Always we had a mission,” he said, “to educate everybody … and explain the importance of eating true cheese.”

“A true cheese for me, it’s a farmer cheese … when the same producers control the cow, the goat or the sheep, the milk, and the production of cheese, and the affinage, the old-fashioned aging. And they control the market.”

Dubois is known as a proponent of Quebec’s raw milk cheeses, a position of politics as much as taste. Raw milk cheeses are favorites in Quebec, but with two listeria outbreaks (one tied directly to Quebec-made cheese) in the past five years, they’ve come under significant scrutiny.

Dubois is still a champion. “It’s better for everything,” he said. “For the economy, for the family, for society, and for the heart. We have true bacterias. For me it’s the taste of terroir. Of the country. We could have a cheese in each place in the country, and each cheese would be different.”

Fromageries are plotted as points on the map, but there is no one road that connects them. Some points denote shops, others factories. We planned for trial and error.

Our first day we made three stops: a highly-regarded organic creamery, a monastery that sold cheese out of the basement, and the home of a bemused homesteader who told us, from his front porch, that he’d given up cheese making years ago. “These days I make beer,” he said.

The second day, we managed six, starting with Fromagerie La Station. La Station is one of the best known creameries in the province. Though chiefly involved in wholesaling, the farm has a nice roomy shop with its cheeses and other local goods for sale.

Driving to each cheese maker is an incredibly inefficient way to taste cheeses. En route, we pulled up to an enormous factory and into the headquarters of a local producer that was also, inexplicably, a poutine-pedaling fast food establishment. If it were just cheese we had wanted, we could have stayed in the city. At the cheese shops in Montreal and Quebec City we met many helpful, friendly, and generous cheesemongers happy to share their wares and their knowledge.

But visiting the cheese makers added a dimension beyond nose or texture. Dubois had said that cheese was an expression of identity in Quebec, but the reverse was also true. Driving the lanes, watching the land change from hills to pastures, turning around in lakeside driveways, pointing out houses of unbelievably perfect proportions, all of this mattered. Even metal-clad barns standing almost like sculpture in the fields can be thought of as elements of terroir, and these made the drive all the more worthwhile.

Read the full story.

Closeup on the array of cultures that go into making a cheese:...

Mon, 06 May 2013 08:55:24 -0400

Closeup on the array of cultures that go into making a cheese: Included are Flora Danica, Geotrichum Candidum, Penicillium Candidum and more.

Now on the Cheese Notes bookshelf: Di Bruno Bros House of...

Sun, 05 May 2013 18:01:00 -0400

Harbison

A gorgeous leaf-wrapped wedge

The book cover

Some of the 'Free Spirits' cheeses

Scharffe Maxx S'Mores

Cheddar-Ale soup

Burrata with Heirloom Tomatoes

One of the 'Sugar Mama' cheeses

Beer and Cheese pairing

Grande provolone

Now on the Cheese Notes bookshelf: Di Bruno Bros House of Cheese: A Guide to Wedges, Recipes and Pairings, from Tenaya Darlington — a longtime Di Bruno customer who fell into the role of resident cheese expert at Di Bruno’s while blogging as Madame Fromage; her goal of tasting every cheese in the shop eventually evolved into a longstanding relationship with the store and eventually, the idea for this book was borne.

The book explores the cheese counter and history of this legendary Philadelphia food shop, first started by Danny and Joe Di Bruno more than 70 years ago, and now run by William Mignucci Jr., grandson of the founders. The first Di Bruno’s opened in 1939, in South Philadelphia’s iconic Italian Market, and has since grown to four locations around the city, selling not just a world-class cheese selection but gourmet prepared foods, fresh meats and seafoods and a wide array of artisan products from Italy and the world.

The book is organized playfully by cheese type: theVixens chapter focuses on cheeses that are rich and decadent (think Anton’s Liebe Rot, Harbison); Mountain Men cheeses are the big, bold, nutty cheeses of and inspired by the Alps (Challerhocker, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Vacherin), the Rockstars are the best that Britain has to offer (or inspired by them, eg Keen’s Cheddar, Beecher’s Flagship, Lincolnshire Poacher) and Stinkers are, well, you know (Ardrahan, Epoisses, Hooligan). Other categories include Wise Guys, Sugar Mamas, Baby Faces, Quiet Types and more; you’ll have to check out the book to find out what those include!

The book also has themed cheese board menus, like Fireside Party and All-Goat Blow-Out, and is sprinkled with helpful write-ups on everything from Cheese Tasting 101 to pairing Beer with Cheese, or Charcuterie Demystified. Every cheese includes “Good Matches”, wine and beer pairings and sidebars providing interesting facts and interviews pertaining to those cheeses.

In casual, friendly language, Tenaya guides you through the do’s, don’ts and secrets of navigating the cheese counter, all while sharing the history of Di Bruno’s and the cast of characters who have made it a treasured neighborhood fixture over the decades. She also provides a solid foundation of basic cheese knowledge; this book can serve as a good Cheese 101 guide, with the fundamentals of cheese categorization, cheese science, cheesemaking concepts, profiles of American cheesemakers who are at the top of their game, and more.

There are also many tasty-sounding recipes: The Scharffe Maxx S’Mores, which pairs one of my favorite alpines with almond torrone and dark chocolate, sounds ridiculously awesome, and each chapter offers a few recipes, or unusual pairings to go with the chapter’s featured cheeses.

Another standout in this book is the beautiful photography from food photographer Jason Varney and food stylist Carrie Purcell.

Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese: A Guide to Wedges, Recipes, and Pairings
by Tenaya Darlington
May 7, 2013
ISBN: 9780762446049
ISBN-10: 0762446048
Published by Running Press

Cheese School SF: Honey & Cheese Pairings

Fri, 03 May 2013 09:00:43 -0400

Coming May 22nd to the Cheese School of San Francisco, a class in Honey and Cheese pairings, from Marina Marchese of Red Bee Honey:

Cheese & Honey with Red Bee Founder Marina Marchese
May 22

Marina Marchese beekeeper, author, president of Red Bee Honey will induct you into the secret world of the honeybee with a remarkable class. She pairs each of her single-origin nectar honeys with a different artisan cheese: the result is nothing but sweetness and light. Come and bee illuminated! Marina has created honey and cheese menus and classes at Artisanal, Murray’s, and Eataly. We are thrilled to welcome her to The Cheese School.

Time: 6:30 – 8:30pm
Price: $69.00

Boston Globe: VT's first community-owned dairy

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:00:48 -0400

The Boston Globe profiles Vermont Farmstead, a farm and cheesemaker that was started to save the land from development, and is now producing award-winning cheeses (You can see my review of their Lille Cheese, pictured above, here).

SOUTH WOODSTOCK, Vt. — Perched on a hill overlooking a valley, Farmstead Cheese Co. began as a neighborly plan to preserve a dairy farm.

The bucolic 18-acre site was a former water buffalo farm and creamery that produced mozzarella and yogurt. When its owners moved to Canada and put the land up for sale, locals worried about the loss of jobs and the disappearance of another bit of the Green Mountain State’s rich heritage. They feared that the pastoral landscape might be grabbed by a developer.

So 14 neighbors banded together to buy the farm and decided cheese making might safeguard its future. Within the year, they rebuilt the creamery, brought in a mixed breed herd — Holstein, Jersey, Ayrshire, and Swiss Brown — to blend milks and make farmstead cheese. They started the first community-owned dairy farm in the state. In two years, the company has won dozens of awards for its cheddar, a harvarti-style tilsit, Edam, and English and French-style cheeses.

The new owners are not novices. They include seasoned farmers and food industry executives who hired experienced staff. The top cheese maker, Rick Woods, 46, has been plying his craft for 19 years. “We’re a new company, but it’s not the first time around the block for these people,” says Sharon Huntley, who is in charge of marketing.

Read the full story.