Yours in Cheese

The best cheese I put in my mouth, week of 3/31

When you consider how many elements must align for a cheese to just be good you would wonder how we get any good cheese at all. Pasture conditions, animal health, milk quality, aging conditions - everything has to be perfect to result in a quality cheese product.

Now imagine what has to happen for it to be exceptional.

The wheels of Dante we have in the case right now are ah.may.zing. I don’t know what those sheep got into six months ago, but I hope they find it again and often.

Dante is a seasonal sheep’s milk cheese made by the Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Cooperative. Member farms milk their pasture-fed sheep seasonally, February through September. Cedar Grove Cheese takes it from there, pasteurizing the milk and forming and aging the cheese to perfection.

My co-worker likes to say that Dante is the only cheese he’s successfully paired with coffee. Aged around 6 months, the texture is firm without being grainy or crumbly. The nuttiness comes across as roasted hazelnuts, the sweetness as almost-burnt caramel. Aged at least 6 months, the cheese is firm with a rich mouth-feel. The wheels we have now have just the smallest amount of blue mold running through it, giving it an extra bite that wasn’t present in the last wheel.

If I had to describe Dante in three words? Don Draper’s manchego. This cheese would be fantastic at a cocktail party. Manhattans and martinis, canapes and mini-quiches, Dante and olives. Sounds like heaven to me.

The best cheese I put in my mouth, pretty much every day this week

I’ve been meaning to write about this cheese for over a week. Bridget and I ate it when she stayed with me a few weekends ago. The dog even got into this cheese, snapping it up off the coffee table while we were refreshing our drinks in the kitchen.

Point Reyes Blue is a Farmstead cheese, meaning the cheese is made only with milk from the dairy’s own cows. The milk all comes from cows with the same diet, breathing the same Northern California ocean breezes, raised on the same land. This makes a big difference in the character of the cheese. Think of it like the difference between an estate bottled vintage and Two Buck Chuck. (Not that there’s anything wrong with some Two Buck Chuck now and again.)

While I was aware of the variety of flavor profiles and complexities within the blue cheese family, I had assumed a commonality of earthy stinkiness among them all. This was the first blue that completely surprised me.

This cheese reminds me of biting into a crisp green apple. It is bright and tart and screams for white wine. I’ve spent the last week snacking on dates stuffed with Point Reyes Blue. It’s a great snack to make a little ahead of time, as it is easier to cut and stuff when both the dates and the cheese are cold. Like all cheeses, you want to serve and eat it at room temperature.

I had a lot of customers come in last weekend asking for a Goldilocks cheese - he likes stinky while she likes soft and buttery. I offered this cheese as a solution to 3 different couples and it worked for all of them. (Have I mentioned how much I love my job?!)

Yours in Cheese,

Linds

The best cheese I put in my mouth, Saturday 2/18/12

You guys. YOU GUYS. Go get this cheese. Seriously. Stop reading right now and go. get. this. cheese.*

Soyoung Scanlan is a cheese maker running her own company, Adante Dairy in Petaluma, California. She primarily makes goat’s and cow’s milk cheeses, all named after musical terms.

Like the Wabash Cannonball, Bel Canto is an ash-ripened goat cheese. The similarities end there. This cheese is chalky, fresh, and has a nice acidity to it that is well balanced with the earthiness of the rind. It is delightful from start to finish.

When we tasted this on Saturday, eyes rolled in the back of heads and cries of “Oh my god, you have to try this,” echoed throughout the store. Any cheese that can get tenured cheese mongers this excited is something to behold indeed.

*Bel Canto is made exclusively for Pastoral, so you’ll just have to come to Chicago and stop by to get some. Trust me, it will be worth the trip.

I went to a wine tasting at NotaViva vineyards in Virgina a few years ago. The winemaker is both a musician and music afficionado. In addition to food pairing suggestions his wines come with music pairing suggestions. I would love to eat this cheese with a flight of his wines, particularly the “Cantabile” Cabernet Franc and “Ottantatto” Viognier, which I recall to be my favorites.

Yours in Cheese,

Linds

_________________________________

I hope to make this a regular feature to guide you guys to the cheeses I think you’ll find the most interesting and delicious. Alternate titles are welcome, throw ‘em in the askbox.