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?

Cheese Class & Beer vs. Wine Pair-off!

Been aching to take a sheep's milk cheese class or attend a Beer vs. Wine Cheese Pair-off for SF Beer Week? Do I even need to ask that question? If you're in the San Francisco bay area, free Wednesday night or Saturday day and want to come and check out an event I'm teaching or co-hosting, please do! I feel the fromagic in the air already.

Wednesday, Feb 3rd

Sassy, Spicy, Seductive, Sheep’s Milk

There is a fabulous world of sheep’s milk cheeses out there beyond Manchego just waiting for your love. Hold my hand, and we’ll explore it together, spicy slice-by-slice and surprisingly creamy bite by bite. The score: pecorinos galore, Torta la Serena, Bellwether San Andreas, Cave-Aged Marisa, Ewe's Blue, Abbaye de Belloc, smoked ricotta, served alongside two wines and a sheep-friendly beer. Sign up, and be put in the running to win a free month of the "It's Not You, it's Brie" cheese club.

7:30 pm,  $40 Reservations required.

Buy tickets online, or call Solano Cellars at 510.525.9463

Saturday, Feb 8th

Beer Vs. Wine Pair-off

It's SF Beer Week and the beer drinkers are talking smack about wine and vice versa. So we’re going brother against brother.  Grains against grapes. And we’re going to pair the living crap out of 3 different cheeses.  Certified Cicerone Sayre Piotrkowski is standing up to Fromagatrix Kirstin Jackson in a pairing challenge to see which booze makes the moves. Duvel vs All the Wine in the World.  The cheeses: Vermont Butter & Cheese Bonne Bouche goat, Pecorino Toscano Reserva aged sheep's milk, Sweet Grass Dairy Grill Hill creamy cow's milk. Which beers and wines? That's top secret. Sounds like a fair fight to me!  Bring your judge’s regalia and be prompt!

$18 for tickets online, or call Solano Cellars at 510.525.9463

(sheep above provide the milk for the Marcelli family in Tuscany, whose cheese will appear in the Wednesday class)

Cheese Class: You Don't Know Chevre!

Spots are still open in the goat cheese class I'm teaching at Solano Cellars this Wednesday. Check out the write-up below, and spread the chevre love like a wildfire! I'd love to see some readers there!

The Cheese Lover's Trinity: A Tri-Milk Summit

Join Kirstin, instructor at the San Francisco Cheese School and author of "It's Not You, It's Brie" blog for a series of classes devoted to the holy cheeselover's trinity (and wine pours!). Stimulating the cheese lover’s palate through tasting, the class will explore the unique characteristics and temperaments of each cow, goat, and sheep's milk to consider what makes up some of the best cheeses around so damn good.

Wednesday, Jan 27th, 7:30 pm

Goat's Milk: You Don’t Know Chevre!

You love goat cheese; you just don't know it yet. Get ready to warm your goat-loving heart and to be surprised by the miraculous and varied nature of chevre. By the way, goats wag their tails when they’re happy.

Buy tickets here: Solano Cellars, or call the nice people at Solano Cellars, 1580 Solano Ave, Albany, CA 94707 at 510.525.9463.

And the upcoming sheep's milk cheese class:

Wednesday, Feb 3rd, $40

Sassy, Spicy, Seductive, Sheep’s Milk

There is a fabulous world of sheep’s milk cheeses out there beyond Manchego just waiting for recognition. Hold our hands, and we’ll explore it with you, spicy slice-by-slice and surprisingly creamy bite by bite.

Lincolnshire Poacher: All Hail a Cheddar King

Like buttered bread sprinkled with sea salt, béchamel lasagna, bone marrow with brioche, a crackling fire, and Pat Benatar, cheddar consistently supplies comfort without asking for anything in return. Except for you to upgrade to the good stuff.

I'm all for mixing the high with the low, and when it's time to make a potato gratin for a family of twelve, it's okay to buy cheddar a little lower than $20 a pound. But when it's time to whip out the cheese plate at the end of the night and there's a bottle of stout calling your name in the fridge or a Bordeaux looking pretty on the counter, that's when you want to go big.

Go Lincholshire Poacher.

One of my favorite cheddars, crafted by two robust cheesemaker brothers in the British countryside, is Lincolnshire Poacher.

Made from the milk of 230 Holstein cows eating organic grasses and grains in Lincolnhsire, east England, this cheese sets a high bar for the cheddar world. Although the Ulceby Farm producing the cheese has been in the Jones family since the early 1900's, cheesemaking didn't fully kick off until the nineties, after a Jones son went to agricultural school and played around with a Welsh cheesemaker with a little bit of rennet.

Lincolnshire is a beefy, sometimes sharp and spicy cheese with buttery tones. Although blessed with a little more funk than some, it is similar to other cheddars of nearby regions that are also made in small batches, and will get bolder as it ages. It is exported by Neal's Yard Dairy and can be found at Cowgirl Creamery in San Francisco's Ferry Building, and Cheeseboard and the Pasta Shop in Berkeley.

As far as its favorite drink, well, Lincolnshire is kind of a cheap date. It likes to party and would only slightly turn up its nose at a Long Island tea. However,  it favors dark beers, dark red wines like Cabernet blends and Zinfandels and as far as whites, loves full-bodied Chardonnays and Viogniers. And whiskey and scotch and bourbon.

And that pretty little fruity thing in the ramekin next to it is Frog Hollow peach chutney. Lincolnshire Poacher appreciates a little spunk in its sweet acoutrement, so a number with onions, chile and sugar does it up well. Fresh, tart apple slices- also delicious.

What's your favorite cheddar? British? Born in the U.S.A or New Zealand?

Cheese Lover's Trinity: A Tri-Milk Summit

Join Kirstin, author of "It's Not You, It's Brie" blog and instructor at Solano Cellars and San Francisco Cheese School for a series of three classes devoted to the holy cheeselover's trinity. Each class will examine the characteristics, bounty, differences, and unique temperaments of cow, goat, and sheep's milk through tasting six cheeses that illustrate the glories of each milk genre in order educate and stimulate the cheese lover’s palate. Prepare to learn, to be surprised, and to taste through some of the best cheeses available of each type. Time to test your cheese boundaries.

Wednesday, Jan 20th

From Triple Crèmes to Alpines –

Cow's Milk, Redefined

Wednesday, Jan 27th

Goat's Milk: You Don’t Know Chevre!

Wednesday, Feb 3rd

Sassy, Spicy, Seductive:

Sheep's Milk Like you've Never Tasted Before

7:30 pm,   $100 for all 3 or $40 each

* Reservations required. *

Solano Cellars, 1580 Solano Ave, Albany, CA (510) 525 9463, kirstin@solanocellars

photo taken by Stephanie Stiavetti, former student & wasabimon author

Going Grand: New Years Cheese Ballers

I'm not making a cheese plate for New Year's. Instead, I'm going to a Raclette party and am going to eat melted cheese. All night long. When I'm not drinking. Or dancing.

But I still want to share a hypothetical cheese plate with you, or rather, share a list of cheeses that would ring in anyone's sexy new year with a bang. This is also a list of cheeses that I will make every attempt to consume on a monthly basis in 2010.

I'm thinking big and I'm not focusing on prices because I've heard that if you set your standards high and roll with the cheese ballers on New Years Eve, that the rest of your year will be blessed. So I'm also gilding my fromage plate in gold. If I could not jinx myself for a moment, 2010, you're going to be better than 2009. I'm going to hold you to it.

My New Year's Cheese Plate

Achadinha Capricious: Goat mik's cheeses come in many forms, and this firm, earthy, tangy number impresses me with it's nuances and complexities every time. Plus, its atypical nature and shape and size draws gasps of surprise from people who are certain they dislike goat cheese, so this one is going on the plate for sure.

Sampietrino: A cheese made out of cow and sheep's milk that is shaped like a square and has a crumbly center that tastes like mushrooms and buttermilk? No way it's not going on. God bless Italy, the land of the mixed milk fermentation.

Colston Basset Stilton: The only true Stilton, Colston Basset is made exclusively from the milk from four dairies in the Val de Belvoir in the English countryside. Although there has been no shortage of attention for blues this year, this is one that I keep coming back to with complete admiration. Colston Basset Stilton, rose confit jam, and late-harvest Chenin Blanc makes me the happiest girl in the world.

Vermont Ayr: This was the first cheese I choose for the "It's Not You, it's Brie" club. Back then, the wheel struck me with its earthiness and peanut buttery streak. When I broke into a new wheel last week, however, it tasted like buttermilk and really good beef fat (think rib-eye). Vermont Ayr is a testament to the living, breathing, changing nature of cheese.

Salvatore Bklyn Ricotta: Ricotta doesn't normally go on cheese plates. This one, however, blew me away when I visited New York. It was served warmed over grilled bread, sprinkled with sea salt and drizzled with olive oil. Bellewether's sheep's milk ricotta is amazing, but I was blown away by Salvatore's because I've never tasted a sexy version made from cow's milk . I can safely say that I've never had a better fresh cow's milk cheese than this. Serve warmed alongside crostini, sea salt, and good olive oil.

Happy New Year!

What will you be serving?

Cheese Balls: Artisan, Updated, Wonderous

Nothing besides crazed children running around department stores hopped up on seven times thier daily sugar limit makes me feel the spirit of the holidays more than cheese balls. So it is with great pleasure that I am sharing with you today my first article on NPR's The Kitchen Window, devoted entirely to this spherical ball of wonder. Comments at the end of the NPR piece are very, very welcome!

And here is a link to a holiday wine pairing article I recently wrote for Edible East Bay too, just in case you haven't picked out your juice for the big nights ahead.

Happy Holidays!