The Cheese Blog
4 Cheeses to Know Now
4 cheeses that should be in your circle of friends.
It’s been a while since I’ve had time to just stroll around a cheese aisle. To nudge a triple creme to see if it’s ripe. To revel in the newest mixing of cow-sheep-goat-buffalo milk for cheese. School’s been heavy and taking most my time, so when a few days ago I had the chance to just space out in a cheese aisle, I did just that. It was awesome.
I wanted to let you know what caught my eye just in case you too are in need of cheese inspiration. Buffalo milk gouda, coming up!
Here are 4 cheeses to meet, to re-introduce yourself to.
Vacca Nera: Called a semi-cooked cow’s milk cheese, Vacca Nera is an Italian cheese made from the milk of cows wandering the Beragamo Valley of Italy. Jealous of those cows. Semi-cooked means that the curds are stirred and warmed for longer periods than say, mozzarella, or manchego. While aged, the cheese is rubbed with olive oil and ash to make a dashing black rind. Flavor profile is between a Monterey Jack and a Fontina. Pictured at top.
Central Coast Buffalo-milk Gouda: A first for me, too! This newbie by Central Coast Creamery is a charmer. Buffalo milk is a higher fat milk so except a rich-tasting cheese that lends itself to more intense pairings. I loved this one with honey-poached-kumqouts but also loved it with a dark honey. It tastes like a goat gouda-cheddar hybrid and the milk comes from Morsey’s creamery. Coming soon on my Instagram, more for photos. Above, middle row, right.
Pecorino with stuff in it: I forgot how good sheep’s milk cheeses can be when studded with peppercorns, saffron, or in the case of the sheep’s milk I picked up this time, pistachios. Try one from your local cheesemonger too, you just might be as surpised as I was. Pair younger pecorinos with medium-bodied, high acidity reds like Barbaras or Carignans, and aged pecorinos stuffed with peppercorns with heavier wines like Zins or Cabs. Middle row, left in photo.
Chiraboga Blue: If you’ve been reading for a while you know that Bavarian Chiraboga is no stranger around here, but I haven’t seen it around in a bit so it was like running into a long lost lover. (do they get lost?). This double-creme, sweet, blue cheese is the blue cheese for either those who a) think they don’t like blue cheese, or b) or who those who like thier blues richer than the Kardashians. So preadable. I served it with a rose-petal confit.
How to Find Budget Wines you Love:
My Top Tips for Buying Budget Wines:
One of the things that make the holidays feel special is that you purposely make it so by serving and doing things that you don’t always do. Serving wines you’ve purchased for special occasions, seeing your kid’s holiday plays, drinking winter cocktails, or ice skating. These are all great!
As far as entertaining though, if you’re always serving “special” wines, holiday events can get pricey quickly! Especially if you’re having multiple people over, or ahem… heavy drinkers.
Here is how to find great budget wines, anytime.
1. Find a small wine shop with friendly winemongers. You don’t always have to go small, but doing so can be great because their employees have a fair amount of expertise, and often more time, which helps them better get to know your tastes and your budget. Remember, their JOB is to recommend wines that you like so you'll return! After you get more familiar with your favorite budget wine grapes, styles, and regions, then if you want, branch out to shopping for wine at spots where there might not be as much hands-on help available.
2. Embrace buying wines from areas & countries whose grapes you don’t know as well, or, “sipping cousins" of famous wines from celebrated regions. Example- Barolo made from Nebbiolo grapes in Piedmont = $$$. Barbera or Dolcetto wines, also from Piedmont, $20-$100 less. All are delicious! If you'd like a little help exploring, ask that winemonger.
3. Unsure what to ask for?
Say: "I love Pinot but I want to pay under ____ (fill in the blank). What are a few bottles you’d suggest?"
Or "what's your favorite wine to recommend under $____?"
4. Get to know what you like and dislike (learn through tasting and reviewing my Wine-101 series on Insta). This is important so you can tell your winemonger, and then try whatever they recommend that caters within your budget. Everyones’s likes and dislikes will differ, so spend some time exploring yours!
5. Set your budget ahead of time and spend the most $ on the wines you adore. Say you have $45ish to spend on 2 bottles. A good Pinot can be pricey, spend up to $30 there if you love Pinots. Then spend less on a citrusy white that you can find easier for less $.
Happy Holidays, and I hope you enjoy this guide year round, too!
5 California Cheeses to rock your Thanksgiving Cheese Plate
These 5 California cheeses will make your Thanksgiving cheese plate unforgettable.
Thanksgiving to me is a time of A) gathering with family and eating an amazing cheese plate, or B) eating an amazing cheese plate no mater who is there because, pandemic even you can’t stop my holiday cheese.
I also like to focus on American cheeses to honor the domestic makers for whom I’m thankful.
This year I’ve been especially thankful for 5 California cheeses. You may already know them. You may just not have noticed them because they’re not the creamery’s bestselling cheese. They might be ones you have to order directly or seek out. Or, they could just be brand new so you haven’t had a chance to taste them.
Try putting one you haven’t tasted before on your plate to liven things up. Or, grab all 5 and knock your Thanksgiving cheese plate out of the water! Or, screw Thanksgiving and just eat a huge piece of one of these tonight.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. In no particular order.
1. Cypress Grove Purple Haze
Obvs this isn’t as famous as it’s superstar big sister Humboldt Fog. But Purple Haze fresh chèvre -upper left photo corner- is surprisingly stunning. Marry fresh chèvre with lavender and fennel, then give it a name that sounds like a potent marijuana strain, and you have one surprising stunner.
2. Stepladder Cambria
A mixed milk goat and cow’s milk cheese, Cambria is as charming as it is complex. I mean, check out the cheese on the right side of the photo—even it’s rind is cute. Imagine a cheese that tastes like halfway between Garrotxa and Machengo with a like Abbaye de Belloc thrown in and you’re close to these beauty’s flavor. Becomes spicier with age. Bonus- it’s hard to think of wine that wouldn’t go with this.
3. Point Reyes Quinta
Made by California cheese veterans Point Reyes, Quinta is the newest cheese on Point Reye’s line up. And it was worth waiting for. It is creamy, soft, wrapped with spruce bark, and topped with local laurel leaves that lightly perfume the cheese. How to eat: Buy a whole wheel. Let Quinta come to room temp an hour before serving. When ready to eat, slice off the top rind, and dig into the oozy wheel with a spoon.
4. Morsey’s Buffalo Milk Tomme
Real talk real quick. I’ve only seen this once in my life at Sigona’s Market and it’s not even listed on Morsey’s website. This makes me think a couple things. One, it’s really new, or, two, it’s really small production. Or, three it was an experimental batch that they only made once. I hope it’s not 3! Though it looks like a mini-camembert because of it’s bloomy white rind, it actually slices like a tomme. It’s semi-soft, slices easily, and tastes like fresh melted butter and white mushrooms.
5. Garden Variety Black-Eyed Susan
Made near Monterey, Black-Eyed-Susan is farmstead sheep’s milk cheese aged around 4 months. This is for manchego lovers who love sheep milk’s complex, peppery bite and brown buttery notes. You don’t see it that often because it’s in such small production, so if you spot it at your local shop, buy it! Perfect for heavy red wine lovers.
Another Mozzarella Class
Hello,
I am excited to announce that I am hosting another Mozzarella Class with 18 Reason on October 26th! It will be via zoom - so you and your friends can join anywhere!
By the end of it, you’ll have 1 pound of fresh mozzarella to enjoy!
You can learn more about the class and book your ticket here.
Different Milk, Different Cheese
Super excited to start a new series all about different milks and how they can be used to make different cheeses. First up, goat's milk!
To start, some tasty goat milk science:
- Goat & cow milk have nearly the same amount of fat and protein.
- When the protein or fat differ in amount, it's mainly because of the particular breed of goat or cow, not whether it's a 🐐 or 🐮.
- Though it has roughly the same amount of fat, goat's milk has more short-chain fatty acids than cow's milk (cow's milk has longer fatty acids). The shorter the fatty acid chains, the more peppery/piquant flavors the milk can produce. This is why goat's milk can taste more herbal or peppery than cow's, especially when it ages and/or the fatty acid chains break.
- The protein in goat's milk is smaller than cow's milk, making it more fragile, easier to break, and sometimes harder to form into cheese.
- Because goat fat and protein are very delicate (shorter/smaller), goat milk must be very carefully handled or it can produce off flavors.
- There is slightly less lactose in goat's milk than in cow and sheep milk.
How can you tell if it's a goat's milk cheese before tasting?
1. Looks: Goat's milk cheeses are white! When goats forage on grasses, their bodies convert the beta carotene they absorb into Vitamin A, which is not colored, and contributes no hue to their white milk. (Cows keep beta carotene, well, beta carotene, which has a yellow hue that translates to a buttery color as a cow's milk cheese ages.)
2. Flavors: Taste fresh milk, pepper, herbs, green notes, and lemon? You probably have goat's milk. If you taste them all together, you almost definitely do!
3. Scents: are similar to flavors with this cheese. Think black and white pepper, thyme, chives, lemon zest. And yup, sometimes a little funk, but should be only enough to make it interesting.
A favorite way to pair goat's cheese!
Kombucha and goat cheese is one of my favorite pairings, and I'm not even a kombucha lover. Goat cheese is the most citrusy, herbal cheese, and if you get a kombucha with herbal or fruity flavors in it, it goat cheese's brightness so much!
Though you see ash occasionally in non-goat's milk cheese like Morbier or domestic beauties like @sequatcheese's Coppinger or @springbrookfarmcheese Ashbrook, it's primarily a goat's milk thing. Why? My guess is because the practice originated in the Loire Valley, where goat's milk is king. According to cheesy educator @ivan.larcher, families in the Loire used to age cheese in their huge farmhouse fireplaces during warm seasons, and ash naturally settled on the cheeses. This practice inspired modern interpretations!
🌋 A little refresher about what ash does to a cheese: changes its pH, gives the ripening process a little nudge, and, looks cute.
Mozzarella Class is BACK!
My mozzarella class is back after a year and a half! If you have never made mozzarella at home, this is the perfect opportunity to start as this is a fully online class in partnership with 18 Reasons.
This is a camera-on, hands-on class where you'll make your own pound of fresh mozzarella. Imagine all the tasty things you'll be able to make with it! From Caprese salad to a meatball sub to some delicious pizza - the possibilities are deliciously endless.
You can find all the ingredients locally, and you have plenty of time to do it! The class is on Sunday, September 12th at 10 AM PST - right in your kitchen!
Reserve your spot by clicking this link.
Best cheeses!
photo cred: Anna Voloshyna
Mixed Milk Cheese
Meet Cremont by Vermont Creamery! This mixed cheese is made of goat’s and cow’s milk.
Why mix the milk? Here are four common reasons why makers mix it up:
1. It’s a great way to make more cheese because 🐐 give less milk, sometimes only seasonally. 🐄 on the other hand, provide ample milk and cream.
2. Mixing types of milk can make your cheese more approachable to people who aren’t super into goat’s milk cheese. Then they can gently fall in ❤️ with it.
3. It can help bring your cost down. (Goats give less milk = more labor.)
4. It tastes SO GOOD! Imagine the brightness of goat milk and the sweet richness of cow's milk, which is reason enough to make mixed milks! Cremont is lemony, tastes like creme fraiche, and slices like cheesecake!
This cheese mixes deliciously well with Luxardo cherries! You can learn more here.
Have you ever tried this type of cheese before?