Watching prices for some cheeses top $40 a pound is making me anxious and cranky. I still buy them because it’s my business to taste them, but I worry that many people are being priced out of the experience of great cheese. Of course, a lot of people are priced out of luxury restaurants, too, but it just seems that fine cheese, such a fundamental foodstuff, should not be reserved for the one percent.
Read moreAsh Gets Trashed
Not again. For the second time in a month, a cheese that I had requested for a class would be a no-show, the distributor informed me last week. The French producer had declined to ship any Couronne de Touraine, concerned that the goat cheese might be detained by the FDA. The issue? The ashed rind.
Read moreWhere’s My Cheese?
Preparing to teach a class on French cheeses recently, I began trying to round up a few favorites, including some of the impeccable cheeses from Pascal Beillevaire. Beillevaire is a highly regarded French affineur, with shops all over France. I have written glowingly about several of his cheeses in the past—gems like Secret du Couvent, Bleu du Bocage, Tomme Brulée and Vendéen Bichonée. Last summer, when I was in Paris for just a few days, I made a point to visit one of the Beillevaire shops
Read moreSix Cabernet All-Stars
I’m vaguely aware that my husband, Doug, maintains a list of cheeses that go well with Cabernet Sauvignon. You might imagine that I would be the one with that list, but no, he’s the go-to source. He’s the winemaker, after all.
Read moreAll Washed Up →
About 20 years ago, a small group of French shepherds who supplied sheep’s milk for Roquefort decided to break away and establish their own creamery. A risky venture, certainly, but they were unhappy with the Roquefort system and thought they could bring more value to their milk if they made their own cheese.
Read moreLittle Stinker →
I hope you like strong cheese. This sweet-looking little guy had to move into the isolation ward at my house when it threatened to stink up everything in sight. I enjoy that decaying-mushroom smell at dinner time, but not when I open the fridge to hunt for breakfast. My husband couldn’t take it, either, so he put the cheese, still in its cardboard box, inside another lidded container and banished it to the outdoor fridge.
Read moreCheese for All Seasons →
Your eyes tell you something about these Comté samples, but what exactly? I thought I could distinguish winter cheeses from summer ones on paste color alone (the paste is the inside), but I learned otherwise on a trip to the Jura last June.
Read more