CHEESE NOTES

High-res Strachitunt Val Taleggio, produced in the same region of Italy as its better known namesake and made by Arnoldi Valtaleggio, is an unusual cheese, essentially a Taleggio crossed with a blue. Made with the combined morning and evening milks of the Bruna Alpina cows and aged for two months in limestone caves, the Strachitunt brings together a medley of flavors into one cheese. The striking lines running through the paste are the piercings created to encourage the growth of natural molds present in the caves (as far as I know they don’t actually innoculate the cheese with Penicillium Roqueforti). Cutting into the cheese, the stony rind reveals a soft, creamy paste, with only the slightest of bluing, mostly along the pierce-lines. It would be hard to identify it as a blue cheese even, until you taste it, although this seems to vary from wheel to wheel as I’ve seen others that had much more prevalent bluing. Salty, nutty, a little bit meaty and brothy, like a mild Taleggio, but then also sweet, grassy and slightly caramel-y from the blues. All in all a unique and delightful cheese.  Purchased at Foragers in DUMBO. 

Strachitunt Val Taleggio, produced in the same region of Italy as its better known namesake and made by Arnoldi Valtaleggio, is an unusual cheese, essentially a Taleggio crossed with a blue. Made with the combined morning and evening milks of the Bruna Alpina cows and aged for two months in limestone caves, the Strachitunt brings together a medley of flavors into one cheese. The striking lines running through the paste are the piercings created to encourage the growth of natural molds present in the caves (as far as I know they don’t actually innoculate the cheese with Penicillium Roqueforti).

Cutting into the cheese, the stony rind reveals a soft, creamy paste, with only the slightest of bluing, mostly along the pierce-lines. It would be hard to identify it as a blue cheese even, until you taste it, although this seems to vary from wheel to wheel as I’ve seen others that had much more prevalent bluing. Salty, nutty, a little bit meaty and brothy, like a mild Taleggio, but then also sweet, grassy and slightly caramel-y from the blues. All in all a unique and delightful cheese. 

Purchased at Foragers in DUMBO. 

High-res Pecorino Balze Volteranne, from Fattoria Lischeto in Tuscany. Made in the shadow of the Balze di Volterra, or Cliffs of Volterra, for which it is named. A raw sheep’s milk organic Pecorino, it’s aged in oak barrels for 60 days, after which the rind is covered with a thick coating of oak and olive ash — hence the gray dusting on the cheese slate in the picture, as the ash shakes off liberally when you handle the cheese. The ash serves to slow down mold development on the rind, as well as retain moisture. With a firm, lightly eyed paste which has a bit of the oil associated with sheep’s milk hard cheeses, in flavor it is on the mild side but with a full nuttiness and musky, lipase notes. The Balze Volteranne uses a vegetable coagulant of wild artichoke, which gives it a slight but pleasant vegetal bitterness. The ash imparts a distinct flavor, a smoked, woody oakiness that fuses with the flavors of the paste beautifully.  Purchased at Foragers in DUMBO. 

Pecorino Balze Volteranne, from Fattoria Lischeto in Tuscany. Made in the shadow of the Balze di Volterra, or Cliffs of Volterra, for which it is named. A raw sheep’s milk organic Pecorino, it’s aged in oak barrels for 60 days, after which the rind is covered with a thick coating of oak and olive ash — hence the gray dusting on the cheese slate in the picture, as the ash shakes off liberally when you handle the cheese. The ash serves to slow down mold development on the rind, as well as retain moisture.

With a firm, lightly eyed paste which has a bit of the oil associated with sheep’s milk hard cheeses, in flavor it is on the mild side but with a full nuttiness and musky, lipase notes. The Balze Volteranne uses a vegetable coagulant of wild artichoke, which gives it a slight but pleasant vegetal bitterness. The ash imparts a distinct flavor, a smoked, woody oakiness that fuses with the flavors of the paste beautifully. 

Purchased at Foragers in DUMBO.