Mouco Interview: Soft & Washed in Colorado

This marks the continuation of a new “It’s Not You, it’s Brie” era, ripe with interviews of people who live, breath, swim in, or just do incredibly cool things with cheese. For the second interview in the "It's Not You, it's Brie" series I would like to introduce to you MouCo cheese, a cheese company in small town Colorado that focuses on making soft, buttery, and surprisingly easy-to-love mild bloomy and washed-rind cheeses.  MouCo is also at the forefront of eco-friendly business practices. And they named their milk truck Chuck. If you haven't heard of them, check em' out, and if you have tried them, keep supporting their creamy habits! Because they need to support ours.

MouCo is deeply rooted in Germanic tradition [the president and her father, the company's consulting cheesemaker, lived and made cheese in Germany]. Can you explain how your cheeses have been inspired by German cheesemaking and whether most of your creations are inspired by traditional cheeses from a particular region or pure imagination?

In this day and age it is easy to get caught up in the production and physical science or any product that’s made. With cheese, there is an art side of it. You are not dealing with something that is exactly the same every day so learning the art of working with our cheese and the organisms that produce it is one of the biggest things we can learn from our family and our buddies in Germany.

You describe on your website how carefully you check to make sure that the milk you buy from small farms in Fort Collins, Colorado does not have any traces of antibiotics. Why is this so important to you? 

This is a requirement of the health board, so obviously, that is a great reason. However, in addition, some of our consumers may have antibiotic related allergies and the reactions could be significant. Lastly, people are not cows so we don’t figure they need to take cow drugs.

Your company is at the forefront of environmentally-friendly packaging. What are the main things you do to reduce your carbon footprint, and what steps would you suggest that other cheesemakers take who are interested in doing the same?

The wonderful thing about working on environmental efficiencies is that most of the areas where you are not environmentally friendly are costing money. E.g. We made a change to the way we handle the water used for heating and cooling the milk during the pasteurization process in January 2010 that resulted in a reduction in our water consumption of 20% and has reduced our natural gas consumption by about 25%. So back to costing money….the return on this project was 2 months…we just wish we had thought of it sooner.

So of the new things we work on now….April 1st we will start using a returnable shipping system for small internet orders. We currently have this system in place for our wholesale system; where it reduces our shipping materials by 80%!!!!! So we have great faith we can trip these cardboard boxes around the USA for a long time before they get retired and save a lot of waste from the landfill and save money to boot.

Did I mention we are so close to our milk source that we only put gas in Chuck, the milk truck, once every 2 months.

As for suggestions…don’t take anything for it’s face value, everything can be done better, think out of the box, if you read about a great efficiency that a massive company makes, make it work on the small scale…it can be done.

You also donate cheeses that are not perfectly suitable for sale to a local food bank. It seems like it is important for you to give back to the community around you. Are you involved in any other ventures that bring MouCo and the community together?

We do have a commitment to the community around us and giving away cheese is a great way to support a lot of different causes. Many organizations, be them food support programs or not, will have silent auctions to help raise money during an event. This way we are able to help a broader range of programs within our community.

Once of the more exciting things that has happened recently is an increase in the amount of educational support. Several times in the last year we have taught children about cheese and business economics. We feel this is great way to help expose the next generation to the science and art of cheese making in addition to offering them a bit more knowledge about their food and where it comes from….and we get some really cool thank you cards.

On the back of your cheeses there are suggested dates of consumption, but not just "sell by" or "eat by" dates. They suggest when a consumer should eat the particular cheese they purchases according to their taste preferences. What has been the response to this, and does the cheesemaker like their cheeses young or ripe?

People really love our date code system. A little story…a little cheese..where’s to go wrong. We make a cheese that ages over time and we even go the extra mile to buy a cheese wrap that allows this to happen by “breathing” Oxygen and venting CO^2. So our date code helps them decide when to eat the cheese based on their texture preference. At the bottom we have a little saying, this is our batch tracking system…the computer doesn’t care if it a big long code or a little funny story, then we post these stories on the web so people can understand our craziness.

Young or aged…hmmm, guess the general feeling around here is…for what?…a cracker, a bit more aged; a salad, a bit more young.

Birgit Halbreiter, the president of MouCo, sat on the board of directors for the New Belgian New Belgium Brewing company. How has her beer knowledge influenced the company, and do you use any particular beer to wash the rind of ColoRouge?

Beer is a living product as well as our cheese. Both products deal with creating the right conditions for a set of organisms to …whala…make your product for you; you just have to steer a bit. Because of Birgit's extensive background in both cheese and beer, we are able to create a system that finds the best in both worlds. When we are moving milk we do so with a gentle “beer” philosophy knowing we have the potential to damage our end product by mishandling the cheese at any stage, even when it is milk.

Really it’s all about creating those ideal conditions for a bunch of friendly organisms to make complex yet mild cheeses…even the salt bath has a few little guys hang out to help create the proper rind conditions for both the Camembert, as well as the ColoRouge.

As for the smear solution for the ColoRouge…sorry, closely guarded secret…but I can tell you it’s not beer.

Although delicious, German cheese does not yet have a stronghold in the United Sates. If readers of "It's Not You, it's Brie" wanted to try some of these cheeses that have at least partially inspired MouCou's inventions, what should they be eating?

Well, they are not all German by here we go….BergKäse, Limburger (has to be fresh, scrape it, slice it yum) Morbier, Comte, Bavaria Blü, Rochette…for starters. Sure they are not all like our cheese at all, but we can learn something about flavor and texture creation from each one.

Thank you very much MoCou!

Do you have a favorite MoCou cheese? How do you like eating it?

Beer and Cheese Pairing with a Wine Geek

Even though I love drinking beer, I know as little about it as I do grappa, the best potato varieties to use for vodka, and the birth of rhinoceros babies. Despite my lack of hoppy knowledge, I wanted to share with you some findings from a recent cheese pairing experience that I was lucky enough to taste in on.

The tasting took place with the super knowledgeable beer people at Monks Kettle who in fact do know more about beer than rhino babies. They busted out their cheese menu, I gave a little talk about the bacteria used in this and that piece of fermented milk, and we sampled a hell of a lot of beer from their menu.

The results follow.

Cypress Grove’s Humboldt Fog, Humboldt, CA

Pasteurized, goat, soft-ripened

We tried this one with many beers and discovered that unless someone absolutely loves the harsh bite hops unleash from a soft-ripened cheese like Humboldt Fog, they should stay away from mixing hoppy beers and this genre of cheese. Like the tannins in a heavy Cabernet Sauvignon and a thick piece of rind on a brie, both wanted to be the star of the show. The winner was a Weizenboch, a light wheat ale with a touch of spice.

Robiola, Lombardy, Italy

Pasteurized, cow, sheep and goat's milk, surface-ripened

As it is with wine, Robiola is a beer pairing dream. The mix of lemony, grassy goat's milk, nutty sheep's milk, and sweet buttery cow milk provides an easy pairing canvas. But of course, peanut butter always tastes better with chocolate than raspberry, Journey always sounds better after three drinks, and there will always be a beer that's a better match for a cheese. Although nothing went poorly with Robiola, we tried a Geuze/Gose, a tripel and a stout. The best match was the Geuze - not too light, and not too dark. I would imagine this would pair well with most 3-milk cheeses.

Yellow Buck Camembert, Marin County, CA

Pasteurized, cow, soft-ripened

This cheese wanted something as creamy and lush as it. Buttery and earthy, it was aching for something nutty. Although just fine with Speckled Hen, it was even better with Downtown Brown, a beer I normally find a little boring. But together, they tasted like a buttery toast dream. In short, a perfect breakfast pairing. I would try an earthy and creamy cheese with a like beer in a heartbeat.

Bellwether Farms Carmody, Sonoma, CA

Pasteurized, cow, semi-firm,

Carmody wanted hops, badly. It's a mild cheese- more of a cooking favorite than its sister Carmody Reserve, which is made from raw-milk. It needed something fresh and feisty to uplift it. It didn't fare well with a clean-cut wheat beer and was completely overwhelmed by darker brews. The winners with Carmody were Stone Pale Ale and Sublime Self-Righteous.

Wavreumont Belgian Cheese, Wallonia, Belgium

Unpasteurized, cow, semi-firm, washed-rind

Although technically a trappist cheese, the monks hire a local cheesmaker to craft this mild beauty while they harvest latex from the nearby forest. Yes. The porters we tried with this one were too dark. The cheese is buttery with a touch of funk, but didn't sport the strong scent of an average washed-rind like Époisses or Comté. What worked best with Wavreumont was a Biere de Garde.

Beehive Seahive Cheddar, Uintah, Utah

Unpasteurized, cow, firm, Cheddar

It was difficult not to like all the options with this cheese. It would be like having a basket of fries in front of you and a mug of beer and complaining that the pairing just wasn't perfect. Who cares? Salty, buttery, high acidity, with a touch of honey, the Beehive went with everything from a porter to a Rauchbier.

Grevenbroeker Blue Cheese, Flanders, Belgium

Unpasteurized, cow, blue

I'm not a fan of uber-hoppy beers. But all of us, myself included, thought this one was best with Pliny the Elder, a heavily hopped beer from the Russian River Valley. Together with the salty-sweet cheese, the hops tasted fresh and enlightening. And the bitter hoppyness of the beer melted away until a grapefruit flavor carried it all through to the end.

Have you tried these cheeses or beers with other drinks or bites and loved (or hated) the pairing? Tell me about it in the comment section!

Links du Fromage

Because the world of cheese is wide and vast and I can’t possibly meet all your dairy needs, here are some of my favorite Links du Fromage this month. Feel free to leave links to your own favorites in this post’s comment section.

News

Walmart, "Lacing up Gloves in Price Battle," Diary Herd

Getting a Butter maker's license in Wisconsin, Cheese Underground

Cheese, Cheese, and Fromage Links

On Jasper Hill's Moses Sleeper, Cheese and Champagne.

Haystack Peak, Cheese and Champagne (In fact, why don't you just stay on the page. Check out their write-up on Green Hill Dairy too.)

Rogue River Blue, on Vanilla and Garlic.

Tickelmore and Coolea at the Washington Post.

Matt from Matt Bites (hallow be your photos) is cheesing it up, video style. Don't miss it.

Fat Bottomed Girl, by Bleating Heart Sheep at Cheese Underground.

Recipes: Goat Cheese Focus

Swiss Chard, Goat Cheese, and Prosciutto Tart, Sweet Tartlette.

Goat Cheese Zucchini Rolls, Apples and Butter.

Bergamot Marmalade, at David Lebovitz (to accompany a fresh goat cheese).

More of My Bizness

"Don't Turn up Your Nose at a Stinky Cheese," NPR Kitchen Window (original recipe photo pictured above).

I'm teaching two classes at the SF Cheese School this spring, one of which will be right after I return from a trip to France (seasonal goat cheeses, here I come!). And... I just found out they are both are sold-out (not unusual for their classes) but they have a waiting list. Plus, they have some other beauties you should check out that are not yet full.

Stephanie Stiavetti featured a "Food Blogger Spotlight" interview with me on Wasabimon.

Just published a review on the Tartine cookbook on The Good Taste Review.

I am POSITIVE there are links that I missed, especially those pertaining to small-production dairy happenings. I'll love you if you add your links to mine in the comment section below.

Thank you for linking!

Andante Dairy: A Case of Cheese Reverence

Fervent cheese lovers know that if one spots an Andante creation at their local shop and leaves without buying it, their copy of the “Cheese Bible” will be revoked without question and that, suddenly, the well-worn Fromage Forever T-shirt they made with puff paints will mysteriously disappear. Why? Because the cheese gods are watching and missing such a rare and delicious opportunity would severely offend them.

Andante is sort of a waiting list cheese. Except that there is no official list that I know of, and waiting isn’t sensical. It would be much more efficient to: a) pounce, b) befriend a local cheesemonger who will call you as soon as it lands, or c) make a reservation at one of the best restaurants in the country in which the rare piece of Soyong Scanlan’s creations are served.

Andante cheeses are noted for their balance, their harmony, and like the tempo mark after which her dairy is named, the slower speed they inspire in those engaging them. They demand full, close-your-eyes and put-your-knife-down attention. It takes time to consider their beauty just as it requires time to make good cheese.

Former scientist Soyoung Scanlan makes all of her cheeses by hand in an old facility used by Laura Chenel before she went big (and many years before Soyoung’s chevre replaced Chenel’s at Chez Panisse). From cutting the curds to cleaning the milk vats, Scanlan does it all on her own.

The results of such devotion are often telling. Scanlan has an exacting eye and her cheeses are prettier than a lady bug in a field of wildflowers. And the flavors, well in this case, the demand speaks for itself. Scanlan sources organic sheep, cow and goat’s milk from neighboring farms to make her cheeses, and sacrifices little to nothing in her cheesemaking. If she doesn’t have time to make her usual assortment of cheeses to her high standards (and very often she doesn’t), a restaurant might not get their triple-crème from her that week.

Each and every cheese that makes it out the door, she feels, should express the flavors of the milk and land from which it came. Because it takes time to craft such delicious expressions of fermented milk, and there is only one Scanlan, there are very few of her cheeses to go around. Hence why they are harder to find than a burger at a zen center.

At any given time, Scanlan makes her “standard” creations from each milk, makes a couple mixed milk cheeses, and creates a seasonal morsel or two that celebrates the varying flavors of the surrounding landscape. Some of my favorites Scanlan classics are the Picolo, triple-creme Jersey cow’s milk and the Acapella, an ashed goat’s milk pryamid.

The cheese pictured above is a seasonal mixed-milk cheese named Quatro Stargioni that I was lucky enough to find at Market Hall in Oakland. It was the last of the winter versions, and is topped with bourbon-soaked golden raisins, which lent the cheese a lightly spicy flavor and a touch of acidity to the already sweet milk. The Quatro Stargioni is a blend of cow, goat and sheep’s milk, the mixing of which is more frequently seen in Italy than the United States. The spring version of this is out now, and topped with mustard flowers.

Further reading:

At the San Francisco Ferry Building’s Farmer’s Market.

In Cheese by Hand.

With Janet Fletcher in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Have you had a chance to taste Andante’s creations?

Due to an unexplainable web glich, comments can be left and found here.

A Lil' Sonoma Restaurant Week & Bellwether Farms Lovin

The winner is.....   Shelly Larson! Thank you so much to everyone who commented below. There were some awesome answers, and Laurie Figone, your Sonoma cheese and produce poem rocked so much that I entered your name in the name bag twice. Love your spirit. Shelly, Congratulations! Email me your address at itsnotyouitsbrie@gmail.com and I'll send your golden tickets!

It's Sonoma Restaurant Week in the green land of rolling hills, frolicking sheep, and tasty cheese and "It's Not You, it's Brie" is celebrating by hosting a giveaway. This giveaway, of course, is completely centered around cheese.

Rich with wine grapes, abundant produce, and happy livestock, Sonoma is an area that easily supports its local producers. True with such bounty, it would be sacrilege not to, but these kids are devoted.

The regions cheese is no exception to this devotion. For example, a quick look at the links on Sonoma Restaurant Week's website reveals that many of the best eating establishments have secured a place on their menu for Sonoma favorites like Bellwether Farms or Délice de la Vallée cheese. The restaurant week runs from Feb 22nd-28th.

In conjunction with the Sonoma festivities, I am celebrating local cheese reverence with a gift pack so cool that I will be jealous of whoever wins.

The Fromagical Pack Includes:

• A VIP tour of Bellwether Farms (they aren't normally open to tours, so cheese lovers, this is the golden ticket!)
• A $25 gift certificate to the Epicurian Connection, a cheese, gourmet shop and cafe owned by Sheana Davis, the cheesemaker behind Délice de la Vallée.
• Another $25 gift certificate to Japanese restaurant Hiro, which is serving a to-die-for Bellwether Farms ricotta cheesecake as part of its 3-course menu throughout the restaurant week.

Keep in mind the Bellwether tour is a timely thing. Says Bellwether owner Liam Callahan, late weekday mornings are when the action happens and Friday mornings around 10am  are best if you want to experience the mighty curd cutting (you do, you do!). Plus, you also want to go soon to see the cutie-pie lambs that are being born in the spring. I, ah, might also try to sneak along on the tour with you.

How to Win:

• Leave a comment in the comment section below saying what Sonoma cuisine means to you.
• Plus, leave a quick mention of a favorite Sonoma (preferred) or California cheese.
• The contest will run through Sonoma Restaurant Week and on Friday the 26th I will randomly draw a winner.

Thanks for playing and good luck!

Tia Keenan: An Artist in an Artisan Cheese Revolution

The start of a new "It's Not You, it's Brie" era, ripe with interviews of people who live, breath, swim in, or just do incredibly cool things with cheese, has begun. Starting today, "It's Not You, it's Brie" will feature weekly or bi-weekly spotlights on those that are charming the world with fermented milk.

I am happy to announce that the first interview is with Chef Fromager Tia Keenan, a friend, a dairy advocate of the highest order who always thinks outside the cheese box, and an all-around bad ass. Keenan launched the acclaimed cheese and wine bar Casellula nearly three years ago in New York City, where her style, pairings and focus on artisan dairies made the restaurant a national cheese destination. And she didn't stop there.

What inspired you to go into a life of cheese? In other words, how was your road to cheese worship paved?

I started my career in restaurants in 1999, a transformative time in the NYC restaurant scene. There was a professionalization happening.  The work was potentially no longer about being an actor who’s a waiter.  People were developing specialties, and the industry was attracting passionate, creative people who worked with food and drink in new ways and who had IDEAS.  I was initially a “front of the house person” -- a waiter, and then a manager.  In 2003 I had the good fortune of landing at Fleur de Sel, a Michelin-starred Breton restaurant operated by the amazingly talented Chef Cyril Renaud.

We had an investor who’d come in and want a family-style cheese course.  Cyril asked me to call Murrays Cheese and arrange for the cheese.  I opened up an account and started tasting.  Liz Thorpe, who is now the VP of Murray’s Cheese and author of The Cheese Chronicles, was my wholesale rep.  I think she was the ENTIRE wholesale department! We may not have been able to clearly articulate it back then, but we knew there was great change and growth in artisan cheese in the U.S. Recently, Daphne Zeppos, the goddess of Comte cheese in the U.S., called me part of Cheese 2.0.  A cheese revolution was happening, so to speak.  I was blessed to become part of it.

You launched what is, to my knowledge, the only entirely cheese-consumed restaurant in the U.S., Casellula in NYC. Explain your inspiration for this and why you knew something so different would be a success.

I cut my teeth running a cheese program at The Modern at the Museum of Modern Art.  It was in many ways a classic, Euro-centric program: 30 selections on a cheese cart, tableside service, one condiment, raisin-nut bread. I carried some American cheeses.  I began to tell people “there’s a cheese revolution happening in the U.S.” In fact, THEY began telling me: by asking more sophisticated questions, requesting better cheeses, loving on their cheese plates with gusto.  It was 2005, but there was something so OLD about the paradigm of cheese programs, so EUROPEAN.  I began to think about what an AMERICAN cheese approach would be.

I decided it would be fun, whimsical, irreverent and focus more on “local” cheese, i.e. cheeses from the U.S.  The bar was set so low I felt I had a blank slate to work with.  I had gone to art school and then gotten a degree in journalism.  I wanted to create and communicate with cheese. Through cheese I was able to explore everything that interested me: flavor, food politics, the discovery of pleasure, creating new paradigms. So I did that at Casellula.

Your time at Casellula introduced a new way to approach cheese. Explain your concept of "cheese as sushi," and how you come up with your cheese pairings. For example, what inspired you to pair Twig Farm's washed-rind with miso-mustard pickles?

When I explain my work with cheese I often tell people “I’m like a sushi chef, but instead of working with fish I work with cheese.”  I connect very much to the values of Japanese food culture.  They really understand fetish as a food concept. The preciousness of product, the thrill of something perfect, the MOMENT of enjoyment, the universe conspiring to create this one nourishing, pleasurable bout of eating. The acceptance that something may never again be as pleasurable as it is RIGHT NOW.  It’s the opposite of American food culture, which venerates conformity and disposability.

When I create compositions of cheese and condiments, I’m listening to what the cheese asks for.  Does it want sweet, sour, bitter? Vegetal, floral, meaty?  Crunchy, creamy, toothy?  Then I’m also thinking about the experience I want to give the eater.  Do I want to conjure childhood memories by using, for example, marshmallows?  Do I want to confound and provoke them by using seaweed with cheese, which is not part of their flavor lexicon?  But when I made the miso-mustard pickles it was simply because I thought miso would work well in a brine.  And I thought the Twig washed-rind had asked me for acid.  And I thought it would look beautiful, the brightly colored baby carrots with their shocking green tops, the white oozy paste of the cheese.

Why do people love cheese?

People love cheese because we’ve been eating it for thousands of years.  It’s an expression of mother’s milk, our first food.  It’s good for us! It’s high in protein and good bacteria, nutrient dense.  It’s the perfect food in so many ways.  It’s mysterious and potent.  It tastes good. It’s visually intriguing. I’ll reiterate: It comes from boobs!

Even after leaving Casellula late 2009, your cheese presence has not faltered. Your twitter following has increased and you are continuing to spread the dairy gospel wherever you go. It's safe to say that you've got street cred. How do you plan to use your influence in the cheese world?

I don’t think about influence.  I want to do good work that is provoking.  I want to engage people to think about ALL food differently, to ask What does this mean to me, to my community, and to the planet? What is this ACT of eating?  I always knew I’d be an artist. As a little kid I went through a millenary phase.  I grew up in the 80’s and I wanted to make hats!  I’ve always been a dreamer.  I used to draw pictures of nightclubs as a kid – the people, what they were wearing, what the space looked like. But I’d never been in a nightclub!  I never imagined cheese and food would become my medium, but I was never good at oil painting…

The role of the artist in society is to ask What if? And to show people a new point of view.  To that end, my work in the food world is broadly about showing another way and creating a unique, alternative, food-based experience.  If I do that well people will connect with my work, and I suppose that’s it’s own kind of influence. On a more literal level, I am more and more focused on American artisanal cheese and the value of connections between rural and urban economies.  There is a great shift happening in human society.  We MUST begin to re-prioritize our relationship with each other and the planet.  Food is a touchstone.

Any projects in the horizon?

I have lots of interesting projects in the works.  Some are cheese-centric and some are more broadly about food.  I teach, always.  I connect people. I explore.  This is the first time in a decade that I haven’t been working in a restaurant every day.  It’s scary and liberating!  I just agreed to do an event for Vermont Restaurant Week. I’m planning on serving cheese in a 15 foot feed trough.  I want people to eat cheese in the context of the animals who gave their milk (to make the cheese), to think about that while they enjoy the hard work of Vermont’s diary people, cheese makers, herd-managers, affineurs and milking animals.  I want people to understand the community of work that goes into a piece of artisan cheese.

Describe the sexiest cheese plate you've ever experienced.

Tough question! I don’t usually eat cheese at a restaurant unless they carry something I’ve never had before.  Honestly, I’m bored by a lot of restaurant’s cheese plates.  I prefer to eat cheese in the context of working with it.  That’s when I enjoy eating cheese the most. It’s more personal and mystical for me when I’m working with it.

Name eight cheeses that any cheese head must try before being given the honor of wielding such a title and share with us three cheese makers that we should be watching.

I’m going to flip this question around! I can’t help myself! The goal of a cheese head should be to try EVERY possible cheese they can. Good cheese, bad cheese, ALL cheese.  The great thing about cheese is that every wheel is different, mutable.  There are cheeses I’ve eaten for years that STILL surprise me and express something new to me when I eat them. There are so many talented cheese makers!  Some just have “the touch”.  Because my approach can be quite mystical, I tend to admire the work of iconoclastic producers who are able to somehow infuse a ‘fingerprint” on all of their cheeses, a unique point of view so to speak.  Their work is not necessarily consistent in terms of production amount or style, but their cheeses are consistently great.

Consumers need to start looking at cheese as producer-driven, like wine.  Not “I want a cheddar”, but I want something from this producer, whatever they are working on RIGHT NOW.  That said, I’d gladly cuddle in the barn with Laini Fondiller of Lazy Lady Farm, Kelly Estrella of Estrella Family Creamery, Michael Lee of Twig Farm, Rick and Helen Feete of Meadow Creek Dairy, Soyoung Scanlan of Andante Dairy, Brad Parker of Pipe Dreams Farm, Nancy Richards of Bronson Hill Cheesery, I could go on and on and on…

And lastly, pastry chef Plino Sandalio of gouda ice cream fame wants you to explain for him the meaning of "they need some cheese for that cracker," besides, well, you know, that crackers need love too.

I’m no linguist, so I can’t be sure about the origin of this phrase, but I’ll go with my gut.  There’s something sexual about it, the assumption of SPREADING something luscious and decadent.  There’s also a double meaning for me in that phrase, like crackers are boring white people and cheese is some soul, some flavor, some spice.  It’s possible that “They Need Some Cheese For That Cracker” is the follow-up single to James Brown’s “Mother Popcorn”.

Gouda- The Shining Dutch Dairy Star

If this above photo of aged gouda looks familiar, it is probably because I've plastered it unabashedly all over my blog. The light was good that day, the gouda was feeling it, the marcona's were shiny, and quite simply, it is my proudest piece of cheese porn to date. I share it like a mother does a photo of her prodigy child playing their first Fisher Price violin.

And then I remember eating the cheese.

Aged, farmhouse gouda is one of the greatest go-to cheeses on the planet. Let me count the ways.

1. It is a showstopper. It is packed full of so many flavors that it requires a 10 minute window for the person consuming the cheese to sit down and consider its nuances. Aging, let's say at least a year to six years, draws the moisture out the cheese and packs the unami in.

2. Only people with cold, cold hearts can deny the deliciousness of an aged gouda. Put it in a plate and you're golden. Try spelling p-a-r-t-y   h-e-r-o (I did, I got it on the first try).

3. It is dirt cheap for the quality of the product. Seriously. I'd happily pay $30 a pound for it, because its greatness deserves that much, but aged gouda normally clocks in around $16 a lb. Why? I have no idea. Do you?

4. It is a conversation starter. Many, accustomed only to the rubbery, bad Monterey Jack doppelgangers sold in supermarket chains, expect gouda to taste like, well... flavorless milk. Tasting aged farmhouse goudas will blow these people's minds. They'll need a cigarette break after letting a slice dissolve on their tongue.

Feel like trying one of the coolest ones available in the United States?

Pictured above, one of my favorite goudas is Roomano Pradera. Aged two-plus years, it's a cheese that looks and tastes good from every angle. Its flavors range from butterscotch, caramel, nuts, right down to the crispy, seared beef fat on the edge of a good steak. When you bite into it, expect to taste salty, crunchy sweet crystals in the cheese resulting from amino acid breakdown during the aging process. Ah, flavor layers.

Aged goudas like Roomano Pradera pair wonderfully with fresh, tart apple slices, dried fruits, and toasted or fried nuts (like marcona almonds). As for drinks, I favor goudas with dry or sweet sherries, or bourbon.

Do you have a favorite aged gouda?