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June 29, 2005
Cheese lunch with Tomette des Alpes
Tomette des Alpes is a cow and goat milk cheese from the Haut Savoie region of France's Rhone-Alpes. It has a quite a terrifying rind, very hard and thick and not really that good (yes, I tried). The cheese is pretty good, "like muddy cheddar" a coworker said. It does sport a cheddar-like flavor but not at all sharp and instead very earthy and mushroomy. I'm not sure I liked this cheese - it felt a little uneven. But it still made a great lunch:
People who claim that cheese is only for appetizers, snacks, or to be melted on things are plain wrong.
I used Ryan's awesome camera to take pictures of this cheese.
The crazy rind:
The insides:
Posted by maggie at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2005
Cheese Making for Beginners
The cheese making for beginners course by David B. Fankhauser, Ph.D. , Professor of Biology and Chemistry at University of Cincinnati Clermont College.
This link has been forwarded to me by Josh. A lot of my friends are very supportive of my learning about cheese and some have even tried to make cheese themselves. I am afraid that cheese making is in my future. Any tips?
Posted by maggie at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2005
The American Cheese Society 22nd Annual Conference
The American Cheese Society is holding its 22nd Annual Conference July 20th through July 24th in Lousiville, Kentucky.
The registration fee is about $350 for the whole conference (early bird) or about $200 per day at the site. It looks really interesting.
The ACS is made up mostly of cheese makers and retailers, but individuals interested in cheese (e.g. cheese writers and cheese experts-to-be) are also welcome to join. The annual cost of membership for an individual is $90 or $160, depending on the kind of benefits one wants to receive.
In addition to all sorts of talks about cheese marketing, starting and running a cheese-making business, etc, the agenda for the conference contains talks such as "From Center Plate to Center Stage: American Artisan Cheese Takes the Spotlight", "Cheddar: from the British Traditional to the American Original" and "Traditional Cheese Styles Compared: American Artisanal Cheeses and Their Models".
The conference brochure lists recommended audiences for each presentation, so you can refer to it to find the cheese-enthusiast presentations instead of being bored by marketing babble in cheese retail presentations.
Best of all, "over 700 cheeses will be on display and available for tasting, along with specialty foods, wines and dishes prepared by some of Louisville's premier chefs."
Link for more information.
Posted by maggie at 10:32 AM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2005
Some Thursday cheese links
It's hot today and I don't feel like eating cheese. All I want to do is lounge around. So instead of a new cheese, here's some links:
- Matching Cheese and Wine - A pretty good list of cheeses and related general and specific wine recommendations. (Bonus! If you scroll down, you see a picture of Saint Marcellin like the one I reviewed last.)
- Bingham Hill - Colorado cheese makers. I've already tried their Harvest Moon and soon will review another one of their cheeses so stay tuned!
- I Love Cheese. Period. (And make sure to check out their Cheesemakers Map of the USA!)
Posted by maggie at 09:43 AM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2005
Saint Marcellin (not Banon)
Small confession - I bought this cheese on a whim and only because I liked the little ceramic dish it was in. Little did I know what kind of a treat I was in for!
Let me give you a little background. Saint-Marcellin and Banon are two cheeses which used to be made primarily from goat or milk. Nowadays, Saint-Marcellin is usually made from cow's milk while Banon can be either cow or goat milk. They are both French cheeses, soft, so soft that they might actually fall apart if not handled carefully. I guess this explains the little dish that the Saint-Marcellin I got came in. However, the more traditional way of providing structure to this cheese is by wrapping it in grape or chestnut leaves. The leaves are usually pre-dipped in wine. This gives the cheese a very deep flavor, almost bitter, but in fact very nutty and fruity. (I don't know, maybe these descriptions such as "nutty" and "fruity" come natural to a cheese expert. It is starting to seem that it just kind of clicks - learning about cheese as an epiphany!) It spreads on bread like soft butter and tastes delicious!
Saint-Marcellin - view from the top:
Again:
Saint-Marcellin wedge, cut out:
Note: the pieces of bread featured in the picture are miniature pumpernickel bread cocktail slices. They are about an 1.5"x1.5" wide. This makes the cheese about 2-3" in diamater. It might look big and it tastes big, but it's tiny!
Steven Jenkins recommends eating this cheese with olives, which turned out to be the right thing to do. It was, in fact, really good.
I am not sure exactly where the particular Saint-Marcellin I got was made. The cheese came with no label and even Murray's Cheese didn't provide any information. I'll have to ask them next time I go, but in the meantime, if you know, please tell.
Posted by maggie at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)