The Cheese Blog
Making a Mother's Day Cheese Plate? Turn it up to 11.
If your mom is anything like my mine, she'd appreciate a Mother's Day cheese plate that rocks the dairy boat.
She'd like a Mother's Day cheese plate that was so unusual she'd have to ask twice if the cookies really were supposed to go with the cheese (yessss, Mom). One that featured fermented vegetables and preserved fruit. One that let her enjoy the many layers of her favorite cheeses in ways she never had before.
For Mother's Day, turn your mother's cheese plate up to 11.
Of course you can build a simple plate packed with cheese, and maybe a little honey or dried fruit. But a more contemporary option is pairing cheeses that you know your mother (or the mother-figure in your life) adores to exciting sides and condiments that she'd never cozy up to her favorite wedges on her own. Do the daring leg work for her.
My mom (isn’t she cute?)
Should you be afraid to go bold in your pairings? If you reach out of bounds, will flavors get too extreme or clash?
No, and maybe. In case you're wondering, I can now speak from with confidence that dried mango with chili powder does not play nicely with cheese. Play around after Mother's Day- here are some pairings that are good-to-go now
Tried and tested, these are my picks!
My Mother's Day cheese plate features the lovely Comté: Stepladder Creamery's Cabrillo, Tomales Farmstead Teleeka, preserved lemon, Oreo's or Newman's O's, and Cultured's gingery sauerkraut.
Full disclosure, the Comté Association sponsored my post and asked me to pick 2 more cheeses to feature on the plate. More disclosure, Comté was already one of my top 10 cheeses (so, yay!).
Comté with Cultured's "Super Sauerkraut Salad:" I've recently discovered the joy of pairing krauts and fermented cabbage with this Alpine-style cheese. This one is one of my favorite duos. The kraut's gingery and tangy flavor slices through Comté's richness like a bright acidity wine does a triple-creme, while allowing the cheese's brown buttery and hazelnut nuances shine through. Pair a gingery and bright beet-hued kraut with golden Comté, or go a little bolder and pair with Kimchee (really- it's not to spicy-start with a tiny piece and go as bold as you like it). Even more pairing, you ask? Throw an off-dry Riesling in the mix. But the next way I'm trying this combo is in a grilled Comté and kraut grilled cheese sandwich with buttered country bread.
You can read more about Comté's culture and history here.
Steppladder Creamery's Cabrillo: A goat and cow's milk hybrid, Cabrillo already shows light notes of lemon from its goat's milk so matching it to a preserved, salty lemon felt natural. It made it even more sunny and bright. I also tried it with goji berries, and... well, let's pretend I didn't. Together the preserved lemon and the Cabrillo offer a liveliness fit for a cheese plate, or light appetizers. Another cheese option? Garrotxa, Panteleo, or Pennyroyal Boot Corner.
Tomales Farmstead Teleeka & Chocolate Cream Sandwich Cookies: Goat, sheep, and cow's milk- are you sensing a California theme here? Yup, when goat and sheep's milk cheesemakers don't have enough milk from the tiny producers (goat and sheep provide less milk during certain seasons), they often buy cow's milk from dairy farmer neighbors. This cheese is like a robiola, and the grassy hints of the goat's milk shine through while the sheep and cow's milk provide a thick, creamy texture. I've always loved fresh chevre with chocolate so I decided to test these cookies out here. Delicious. Bright and sweet and earthy. At one point I scraped out the cream filling from the cookie sandwich, replaced it with Teleeka, and liked the cookie even better. Another cheese option? La Tur, Tomales Farmstead Kenne, or Vermont Creamy's Crémont.
Enjoy your Mother's Day with an amazing woman in your life.
Cheese Super Heroes! The Swiss Cheese Book
I used to say (okay, I still say) that the next time I go to CheeseCon -a.k.a an American Cheese Society Conference-, I'd bring a cape, maybe some tights, something bright and spandex-y, and a lasso. That CheeseCon has nothing to do with capes or super heroes in the traditional sense doesn't really have anything to do with it. Anytime you can attach Con to the end of a gathering of hundreds of people, as is done with ComicCon, you have, in my opinion, ample reason to attach a large piece of fabric to your neck wear green tights. And the lasso? Obvious. Cows. Cattle. By the way, have you seen how much work cheesemakers do in one day? A Super amount. ComicCon ain't got nothing on us cheese folk. Except... maybe the easy comic association.
Anyhow, I got a package the other day. My roommate is a grad student, so he gets about three to fifty-three packages a week filled with books, but, me? I rarely ever get a package. So I was already excited before I opened it. And then I opened it. And I was even more excited (one might say super excited).
The package? Well,"Swiss Cheese: Origins, Traditional Cheese Varieties and New Creations," by Dominik Flammer and Fabian Scheffold is the newest cheese book in my collection. One of the coolest things about the book, oh, you know, beyond its detailed description of the history and culture of the artisan Swiss cheese industry, and lively profiles of modern and traditional cheesemakers of the Alps and beyond, is its photos.
The cheesemakers in the photos look like super heroes (sans capes). Photographed standing on top of some of the highest mountains in Switzerland, lifting wheels of cheese while balancing on logs teetering over rushing streams, or rolling their wheels up grassy hills, cheesemakers are pictured in their element- holding something they created with love, in the region that matters most to them.
If you'd like to oogle cheeses in distant lands, in landscapes just as pretty as the animals that give their milk to make these wheels, check out this book. In can be found in English here. Available in French and German elsewhere.
Just wanted to share one of favorite cheese finds with you, first shared with me by Mz Tia Keenan of Murray's Cheese Bar.
Cheese & It's Circle of Friends: Yuzu Marmalade
In order to be as tasty as possible, cheese opens its arms wide to everyone. Don't matter where you're from, who's your daddy, what your name is, or if you're sweet and sugary or pickled and rambunctious. One of my latest favorite pairings? Yuzu marmalade and Alpine style cheese
As mentioned previously on “It’s Not You, it’s Brie,” cheese has a wide circle of friends. It’s a social animal. It likes to party. Circulating only amongst its own kind has no appeal to cheese; it knows that it is only as well-rounded and nuanced as those it keeps in its company and that discriminating against non milk-based products would ultimately make life less tasty.
And we all know that dairy likes to be tasty.
In order to show itself best in as many ways as possible, cheese opens its arms wide to everyone. Don't matter where you're from, who's your daddy, what your name is, or if you're sweet and sugary or pickled and rambunctious. Cheese will take a chance on you.
One of my latest favorite pairings?
Yuzu marmalade and Alpine style cheese. Now, I love the extra feisty, bright, slightly spicy and bitter taste of yuzu, a Japanese citrus that is nearly impossible to find in the U.S. when not in preserved or juiced form, but other marmalades will work too- especially bitter orange. This is good because yuzu marmalade aint super cheap. Great news- a little goes a long way. Or, if you can find yuzu fruit, here's a recipe for the homemade stuff. Send me a sample.
The type of Alpine style cheeses we're talking about are mainly large format, cow's milk, washed rind, firm wheels. The originals are ones like Beaufort, Comté and Gruyere, and a few North American interpretations of them are Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Meadow Creek's Mountainer, Mountina, and the smaller wheel, Blondie's best.
Ever notice how some Alpine wheels have an almost tropical flavor to them- a bit of that pineapple bite that makes their finish on the tongue tangy, especially if it's really aged? Both citrus and sugar love that. Citrus loves it because the Alpine tang highlights its own inner fiesty qualities. Sugar loves it because it gives it an opportunity to use its sweetness to caress something with a seductively sharp edge (and we all now how much sugar loves a good caress).
Next time you have a slice of a prized Alpine in front of you, pair it with a little sweet citrus action. Marmalade, candied peel, whatever. See what you think.
If you haven't yet used yuzu or citrus with your cheese, what are some other things you like to pair with your Alpines?