The oldest cheese in America also happens to be one of the youngest. The fresh little guy pictured here is only three to four days old when packaged, but the creamery has been making it since 1865. Correct me if you know better, but I don’t believe any domestic cheese has been in commercial production longer. More to the point, it’s delicious: moist, mild and milky, the perfect segue to spring.
Read moreWelcome Aboard
When the pandemic picked up steam last spring, Ray Rumiano found a whole new gig. His family’s century-old business, Rumiano Cheese, was doing just fine, producing the mid-priced jack cheeses that supermarket shoppers were stockpiling. But Ray knew that some of his friends who made artisan cheese were in dire straits as their restaurant and catering sales plummeted. What could he do to help them through this crisis?
Read moreWhey Gets a New Look
Upcycling. It’s the word of the moment. Can we create something useful out of stuff we usually throw away? In the cheese business, whey is a headache. For every pound of cheese, a creamery has roughly nine pounds of whey to get rid of. Sometimes a neighboring farmer will feed it to livestock or spread it on fields. But solutions for whey fall far short of the need. What if, as one young entrepreneur proposed, you could distill it?
Read moreDouble Your Pleasure
A cheese debut from Jasper Hill Farm is always a news event, but when the debutante is a crowd-pleaser like this one, I can almost hear the stampede. If you love buttery, silky double- and triple-cream cheeses—and retailers say you do—this Vermont beauty should go on your bucket list. It launched only last November so shops are just getting their first shipment, but you can probably locate some Sherry Gray now, before its fame spreads. Peculiar name for a cheese but, as always with Jasper Hill, there’s a back story.
Read moreWhen a Cheese Dies
“No more Landaff” is not a phrase I wanted to read this year, or ever. I loved this cheese. But New Hampshire’s Landaff Creamery is closing, and its signature cheese—Landaff—will soon live only in memory. It makes me sad to lose a farmstead producer and to realize how quickly and quietly a unique cheese like Landaff can essentially go extinct. You might want to snap up a wedge while you can; you’ll find a mail-order source in my post.
Read moreNew Blue to Dream About
Do you eat more blue cheese in winter? I know I do. That big, spicy flavor is what I want when it’s cold outside. I love it melted on polenta, crumbled in an escarole and radicchio salad with walnuts, or on a cheese board after a bowl of vegetable soup. So this new blue from New York landed in my kitchen at just the right time. I think it’s dreamy, and even my husband—not a blue-cheese enthusiast—gave it a rave.
Read moreWho Gets Your Cheese Dollars?
Mission Cheese/Page Bertelsen
At this inflection point in the pandemic, it’s hard to predict where will we shop for cheese in 2021. Will we continue to buy online because it’s safe and easy, or from the big-box stores because it’s cheap? Or will we return to the small independent merchants who provide the service, selection and smiles we love? The demise of San Francisco’s Mission Cheese and Portland’s Cheese Bar made me anxious about what lies ahead. My recent conversation with Sarah Dvorak of Mission Cheese reminded me that, as consumers, we have to decide what we value. Low prices, selection, quality, knowledgeable service, convenience, personal safety…what matters most to you?
Read moreMargrit Mondavi’s Blini
I’m looking forward to lowering the curtain on this no good, very bad year. At my house, we’ll be celebrating quietly with Margrit Mondavi’s blini and a bottle of bubbles. I had the pleasure of collaborating with Margrit on two memoirs, and her buckwheat blini recipe is in one of them. The wife of vintner Robert Mondavi, Margrit was a fine cook but, by her own admission, not a patient one, so she made her blini with baking soda, not yeast. She put crème fraîche on top, but I have labneh in the fridge and like the tang.
Read moreGive One, Keep One
Bread or crackers? I rarely teach a cheese class without someone lobbing this question. Don’t make me choose. But, truthfully, crackers are inching ahead now that I’ve discovered these wonderfully seedy, crunchy, crackly shards made in Buffalo. What a great stocking stuffer for a cheese lover, although you’ll probably want to stockpile a box for each one you give. That’s how I hope you’ll feel about all the giftables I’ve rounded up for this post. One for them, one for you.
Read moreRelish Tray Reboot
Crème fraîche makes the most luscious deviled eggs, a discovery I made only recently. For a client who needed some holiday recipes, I was playing around with ways to dress up stuffed eggs without resorting to budget-busting caviar. I landed on crème fraîche, which gives the filling a subtle tang, and smoked trout on top to make them festive. Eureka. Open a sparkling wine or a Riesling and reboot your Thanksgiving relish tray with these two-bite beauties.
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