The Cheese Blog
Achadinha's Capricious- A Photo Tour
Let's start off with some straight talk. Goat cheese haters can be found anywhere. Except for the slightly less satisfied look on their face that comes from consuming the shorter amino acid chains that are in goat cheese, they look like you and I. They walk like you and I. They even sound like you and I.
Let's start off with some straight talk- goat cheese haters can be found anywhere. Except for the slightly less satisfied look on their face that comes from consuming the shorter amino acid chains that are in goat cheese, they look like you and I. They walk like you and I. They even sound like you and I.
Yet they deny the goat its true dairy glory. Some say no to goat cheese all together. Some say no to certain styles, like fresh chevre, gouda, or very aged versions. But, dear readers, there is hope. All it takes is one goat cheese to open the door.
There are entire realms to be explored. And just maybe, maybe, if you're unsure what style of goat cheese you might like, Achadinha's Capricious is your door.
Today's post focuses on Capricious made by Achadinha Creamery. It is aged, crumbly, hard, peppery, herbal, and, a little fierce. Imagine a ripped, tattooed Parmesan in a boxing ring. Capricious takes no prisoners, and it makes no apologies. It's a goat cheese, and it's damn proud. And you, my cheesy friend (hater or not) should try it. It's a goat cheese that some chevre-haters love and a cheese that makes goats proud.
Below is a photo tour of a visit to Achadinha. My amazing photographer friend Molly DeCoudreaux took all these photos (she rocks). Achadinha is a family company run by the third generation dairy family, the Pachecos, in Sonoma.
Available in farmer's markets all over the California Bay Area, via Cowgirl Creamery shipping, and possibly at a cheese store near you. Have you tried Capricious? What did you think?
Cheese & Wine Pairing Part I: Pink Party!!!
For the first of a series I'm doing on wine and cheese pairing here on "It's Not You, it's Brie," we're going pink. The hue is partially inspired by a class I just taught on rosé and summer cheeses at the Cheese School of San Francisco and otherwise inspired by a general love of wines the color of salmon, Barbie logos, watermelon, nectarines and strawberry ice cream.
For the first of a series I'm doing on wine and cheese pairing here on "It's Not You, it's Brie," we're going pink.
The hue is partially inspired by a class I just taught on rosé and summer cheeses at the Cheese School of San Francisco and otherwise inspired by a general love of wines the color of salmon, Barbie logos, watermelon, nectarines and strawberry ice cream.
But more importantly.... I'd like to write about pink wines now because rosés are still in the shops and I want you to drink them! The longer we drink rosés past the stereotypical spring-summer rosé season, the longer importers will keep boating them over and the longer domestic winemakers will sell them past August. Make a t-shirt, and let this be your cause.
Rosés are by far some of the easiest wines to pair with cheese, for 3 main reasons.
1. A good rosé has great acidity.
Cheese, packed with rich dairy fat, craves acidity. If you were going to try to take acidity away from cheese, it would have to enter a 12-step program to help it through the process. Why? Because fats like a little brightening. Ever been underwhelmed by a cream sauce? Chances are it was because the cook wasn't minding the ratio of cream or fat to acid. Cream on its own can be flabby, dull. But add a squeeze of lemon or vinegar and you'll and another dimension to the richness. The same goes for a dish with rich coconut milk- unless you add an acid like lime juice, the coconut has the responsibility of carrying the dish all on its sweetness and fat alone. That's a lot on its creamy shoulders. Acidity = brightness. It helps show off cheese's best features.
2. They have red fruit, but not too much red fruit.
Even the most seductive berry fruit of red wine can clash with some cheeses- especially their rinds. Take a Bordeaux or Cali Cab, for example, and pair it with a bloomy-rinded cheese like Constant Bliss or Fougerous. As soon as you get a slice of that rind in your mouth and make a lovely paste with it and the Cab, you're going to be looking for a spit bucket. Like brown, braided belts and black snake-skin shoes, red fruit and bloomy rinds don't mix. When young, a white rind and a dark red might pass as a pairing, but as the cheese and its rind get older and stronger, the pairing is going to be as unexplainably gauche as Donald and Melanie Trump. Sure a rosé can have red fruit flavors, like strawberry, but normally peach, watermelon, apricot or other pink or stonefruity flavors mellow the redness.
3. Low tannins
Tannins can also conflict with edible cheese rinds. Because rosés are made either by quick press, saignée method, or by adding a touch of red to white, the juice doesn't have enough contact with the skin or seeds (where the tannins are located) to make a textural impact. Plus, pinks don't often see a barrel (wood is another way to impart tannins to a wine) and stainless steel fermentation keeps the rosé fresh and lively instead of tannic or oaky.
To get an idea of how to pair rosés to cheeses, I've included a few pairings that charmed the students of the aforemetioned class I taught. See what you think. Feel free to make substitutions and improvise away.
Brillat Savarin & Mt Tam with a Lini Sparkling Lambrusco rosé
Andante Tomme Dolce with a light Provencal style pink.
Comté- with the funky, earthy Clos Saron "Tickled Pink" Syrah rosé.
Pleasant Ridge Reserve with Ricard Petiot Gamay/Cab Franc blend (as pictured in post photo)
What are your favorite rosé and cheese pairings?
Cobb Hill: Four Corners & East Coast Privileges
What are some of the privileges of living on the east coast? Oh, Vermont. Being able to use "summer" as a verb without being looked at like you're a creep. Cobb Hill's Four Corners.
What are some of the privileges of living on the east coast? Oh, Vermont. Being able to use "summer" as a verb without being looked at like you're a creep. Cobb Hill's Four Corners.
We don't get much Cobb Hill out here in Cali. If we're lucky, if we've been good boys and girls and the distributers we buy from are feeling giving and have CH when the stars are in the proper alignment, we might be able to pick up some Ascutney Mountain, but most sells out in Vermont. Most of what doesn't sell out in Vermont goes to NYC (another place were they actively use "summering" as a verb). And Four Corners, well, let's just say that it makes it to the bay area almost as rarely as George Bush Jr.
So you could imagine how happy I was when I got my hands on some Four Corners while touring Vermont in the beginning of August. Even better- I snacked on Four Corners and Ascutney Mountain in the Cobb Hill kitchen. In truth, it was a little difficult to eat the cheese in front of the cheesemaker while trying to appear semi-professional (I had to sit on my hands between bites to avoid from clapping them).
Four Corners, the focus on today's post, is Cobb Hill's version of Caerphilly. Caerphilly is a cheese that was created near Somerset, England, for miners. The women wiping up batches in their home kitchens made it so the cheese had a thick rind and firm enough texture that their miner men could pick Caerphilly up by the rind on their lunch breaks without worrying about getting the paste dirty or the slice falling apart. All hail the worker cheese.
Just like Caerphilly, Four Corners has a thick, dusty colored rind that gives when touched. I love the rind. If you press just hard enough on it, it will show a slight finger indentation, announcing your presence. I'm wondering if CSI script writers know about this- there might be room in the show for some awesome cheese finger print episodes.
Beneath the rind is a layered cheese. Directly under the thick exterior is a semi-soft, velvety layer the texture of a young provolone that is smooth and buttery. Underneath this is a slightly tangier layer that crumbles easily and, honest to god, tastes exactly how mac n' cheese should- creamy, buttery, a little earthy, and with just the right amount of tangy acidity so it feels like you could eat way more than you actually should (and of course, you do).
Dispersed through this post are photos I snapped when visiting Cobb Hill. Cobb Hill is a group living establishment that, frankly, I want to join. It's acres and acres of fun. Plow horses, tiny houses for kids to play in, lakes to swim in and ponds to skate on in winter. And of course, they offer their members great deals on cheese. I'm considering asking where their sign up sheet is.
Can you get many Cobb Hill cheeses where you live? Turns out they're going to start selling their wheels via the web soon, so if you're wanting like I am, we may be able to fulfill our Cobb Hill needs soon enough. Fingers crossed.
Vermont, Ground Cherries & Cheese Con.
I spent the last weeks of July and the first two weeks of August traveling around Vermont and Montreal. Vermont, to interview cheesemakers for my book, and Montreal, to eat massive amounts of foie gras and cheese, and you know, maybe hit up the ACS conference while I was in town. I had a blast. I met some new people, went on play dates with some old ones, and went to one ACS session where I tasted six different cheeses made by nuns or monks. And then I got tired.
There are prolific writers, like Jeanne of Cheese Underground or Tenaya of Madame Fromage, who write as many great cheese blog posts as Prince produces albums. They write them while working their normal job(s), maybe while raising a child or two, and traveling. They even write two or more posts during the crazy busy American Cheese Society Conference (I'm pretty sure I saw Jeanne write one during ACS while explaining the merits of Canadian poutine to me, slicing cheese with one hand, and shaking the hand of a cheesemaker with the other). I'm a little jealous.
Me, eh, I'm a slow writer. My blog gets a little upset with me when it hears that I'm going to be traveling. It knows that I'll forget to call it or text it every night to tell it how much I adore it, and the posts will slow down to one a week, or less. We've agreed that this is a issue we need to work on in counseling, but in the meantime, "It's Not You, it's Brie" readers, I'd like to share a little of my trip that was keeping me from you.
I spent the last weeks of July and the first two weeks of August traveling around Vermont and Montreal. Vermont, to interview cheesemakers for my book, and Montreal, to eat massive amounts of foie gras and cheese, and you know, maybe hit up the ACS conference while I was in town. I had a blast. I met some new people, went on play dates with some old ones, and went to one ACS session where I tasted six different cheeses made by nuns or monks. And then I got tired.
I wanted to share a few photos from some of my favorite places and people I visited in Vermont and Montreal. Much more to come.
Kathleen Cotter of The Bloomy Rind and I visited four cheesemakers, one of them was Michael Lee at Twig Farm, in an area of Vermont that Lee called "almost Appalachian." We followed Lee and the goats around and tried to understand what Lee was saying while he was moving a mile a minute and we kept tripping over tree roots.
Cheese & Wine Classes: School Time!
Are you ready sharpen your pencils to a dangerous point, fill your binder with white paper, and put on your new super hero backpack? Not in the mood? Yah, don't worry about it, places like The Cheese School of San Francisco pimp their own writing supplies. The Wonder Woman backpack is up to you (find two and I'll give you my mailing address).
Are you ready to sharpen your pencils to a dangerous point, fill your binder with white paper, and put on your new super hero backpack? I already have, but if you've been too busy to go back-to-school shopping, don't worry about it. Places like The Cheese School of San Francisco pimp their own writing supplies. The Wonder Woman backpack is up to you (psst, find two and I'll give you my mailing address).
Cheese Class Time!
This August and September I'll be teaching two classes at the Cheese School of San Francisco. Official descriptions are below. If interested in joining, follow this link to reserve a spot with the school. I hope to see you there! Want more cheese action or live out of state? Keep scrolling.
EDUCATIONAL CHEESE OPPS:
Cheese & Rosé Wines, Tuesday, August 30, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Not to be confused with the jug wines of yesteryear, the exquisite beauty of some pink wines can be absolutely enchanting. Instructor and wine maven Kirstin Jackson will explore how Rosé is made and discover the flavors of strawberries, minerals, rose petals and cocoa powder that characterize the very best of this style. Paired with carefully selected cheeses and you have the perfect anchor for summer outdoor entertaining.
Old World Inspiration, New World Innovation, Tuesday, September 13, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Cheesemaking in Europe is inspired by centuries of tradition. Cheesemakers in North America on the other hand are known for their cheese innovations. But can you taste the difference between a new and old world cheese? You be the judge. In this class, we'll taste a French double-crème against a similar cheese from the American south; an English cheddar alongside a Vermont one; and several other equally delectable match-ups. Along the way you'll discover what the most important components of a great cheese really are. Hint: It has to do with the cheesemaker.
Still want more education? These are some other classes I've been eyeing:
Mystery of the Caves, Thursday, August 4, 6:30-8:30 pm, Brian Ralph, At Murrays, NYC
See why Conde Nast Traveler named Murray’s Cheese Caves one of the 50 Coolest Places to see in the world. Join us as we share the world of cheese caves with you. Take a tour of the subterranean caves at Murray’s and find out exactly what goes on in there. Learn about basic affinage practices and the elementary science behind what happens to cheeses as they age. Enjoy your newfound knowledge as we lead you through a guided tasting of cave-aged gems so you can see (we mean taste) the benefits of the aging process for yourself.
Amazing Cheeses of Wisconsin and the Beers That Love Them, Monday, August 22, 6:30 – 8:30 pm (also at the Cheese School)
While we take a lot of pride in our California cheeses, Wisconsin has been producing more cheese than any other state in the nation for more than 100 years. Building on those traditions, trailblazing artisan cheesemakers are popping up all across the state. Sara Hill of Wisconsin’s own Milk Marketing Board will guide us through the evolving landscape, from rustic and simple cheese curds--‘squeakers’ in local parlance--to award-winning, artisanal masterpieces. Cheeseheads of all regions are sure to love this tasty tour of America’s dairy heartland...and brewland. Did we mention there would be beer?!
Instructor Sara Hill
Free Story Hour, Tuesday, August 23rd 3:00-5:00 pm, at Forward Foods, Norman, Oklahoma
Let’s start this school year off right! Join Cheesemonger Bailey for an hour of fun with cheese - We’ll read books, color, and even play with our food while the grown-ups shop! A free come-and-go event for ages 3 and up.
Parents/Guardians must remain in the store while children attend Story Hour.
Wine Rep Showdown! – Round 1 Ashley vs Megan, Round 2 Travis vs Shane, Thursday September 8, 7:00pm and Thursday September 15, 7:00pm, Scardello Cheese, Dallas, Texas
Two titans face off in Cheese Stadium! They pick the wine (Sparkling, White, Two Reds!) We pick the cheese! You decide. Whose wine will reign supreme?
Cheese Basics, Tuesday, Sep 27, 2011, At Artisanal, NYC
You may know you love a particular cheese, but do you feel tongue-tied when asked to tell another person what makes it so great? Are you at a loss when talking about a fantastic cheese + wine pairing? The range of vocabulary surrounding cheese is at least as vast as that around wine, but each of us already has the vocabulary to talk about cheese and wine, using colorful and expressive - yet everyday - words.
Ask the Cheesemonger: Perfect Ripeness, Thursday, September 29, 6:30 – 8:30 pm (also at the Cheese School)
Cheesemongers spend a lot of time with cheese. Over the years they learn to recognize what’s almost ripe, what’s fabulous, and what’s seen better days. The perfect window for cheese excellence can be as short as a few days or as long as a few weeks. In this class BiRite cheese buyer Anthea Stolz [the sweetest person in the world] will take us through a vertical tasting of the same cheeses at different stages of ripeness. You may find you prefer some cheeses older, while other younger. By the end you’ll be ready to snob it up with your favorite cheesemonger.
Have some I should add to the list? I'd looooove to get some more up here. Please let me know! Email me at itsnotyouitsbrie@gmail.com
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?
Bohemian Creamery Cheese: Breasts & Bo Peeps
Bohemian Creamery is a two-woman organic goat and cow milk dairy (with a little sheep's milk thrown in) in Sebastopol, Marin County, California. For just being open for two years, they're rocking the cheese world- showing up on French Laundry's cheese list, being included in L.A. Times stories, and popping up all over northern California. Now they're making their way down south. And I'm pretty sure it won't be too long before they head east (now would be a good time to ask your local cheesemonger if they've heard of them, can get them).
I first dappled in Bohemian Creamery at Monk's Kettle beer bar in San Francisco. This was back when I first learned that sipping Belgian beer while writing story pitches provided a different sort of writing jump-start than did cappuccinos. I was pretty much going there every week.
Anyhow, I started to talk to the beertenders and cicerones there and later was invited to sit on on their beer tastings if I agreed to verse them in their cheese styles. Hmm, let me think.... Yes! This was sadly before I realized I have a gluten-intolerence, but we'll save that story for later (I hold firm in my heart that I will drink beer again. Soon).
Bohemian Creamery was on their menu, which is pretty awesome since it just opened about two years ago and wasn't on many people's radar. I was intrigued. I quickly decided to thoroughly research the company by sampling every one of their cheeses I could get my hands on.
Bohemian Creamery is a two-woman organic goat and cow milk dairy (with a little sheep's milk thrown in) in Sebastopol, Marin County, California. For just being open for two years, they're rocking the cheese world- showing up on French Laundry's cheese list, being included in L.A. Times stories, and popping up all over northern California. Now they're making their way down south. And I'm pretty sure it won't be too long before they head east (now would be a good time to ask your local cheesemonger if they've heard of them, can get them).
What type of cheese do they make? What type of cheese don't they make?
They make Asiago styles, bloomy-rinded cheeses, hard goat tommes, Époisses styles, cheese with cocoa nibs on top, Romano styles, and I'm sure they're working on more. They play with cow, sheep, and goat milk. Cool body part points- they also make a creamy goat's milk cheese shaped like a breast called Bodacious. Owner Lisa doesn't think it's always the prettiest one, but what can you do with old cheese shaping molds, she asks.
One of my faves- and one that the ladies at Bohemian Creamery will probably have better luck shipping to you if your cheesemonger doesn't yet represent them- is Bo Peep. Pictured above. It's a pressed, firm yet supple cow's milk cheese, made with uber buttery Jersey cow and sheep's milk that tastes like fresh milk, topped off with a bit of buttermilk and browned butter. If you like a bit of earth with your cheese, eat the rind- I always do on this one. Drink with a Viognier, a Melon de Bourgogne based wine from the Muscadet region, a rich Pinot Noir, or a nut brown ale.
Tried Bohemian? Where did you find it? What did you think?