As if Portland weren’t already a hipster haven, the city upped its cool quotient with the opening of Ancient Heritage Dairy early this year. The petite urban creamery—a transplant from central Oregon—now creates its cheeses in a light-filled corner building in southeast Portland, in an area with so many food-focused entrepreneurs that it’s dubbed the Artisan Corridor. Big plate-glass windows invite pedestrians to pause and watch as milk is transformed into curd, and they can purchase the results at a retail counter next door.
Read moreWisconsin Newbie Worth the Splurge
In my dreams, the U.S. will someday produce aged sheep’s milk cheeses that rival the finest from Europe—the Basque cheeses from the Pyrenees; the pecorinos from Tuscany, Sicily and Sardinia; the Manchego, Roncal and Zamorano from Spain. We are getting close on quality, but I’m not sure we’ll ever compete on price. Europe’s cheesemakers typically have lower land and labor costs and fewer costly regulations. In some cases, they benefit from government-funded marketing support and operate at a volume that makes for efficiencies.
Read moreGroovy Goat Cheese Takes Blue Ribbon
At this time of year, I’m happy to eat Greek salad every day. I’m not tired of those garden tomatoes and cucumbers yet. But last week I shook things up a bit, replacing the feta with PsycheDillic, the little dill-scented goat cheese that just took a blue ribbon at the American Cheese Society competition.
Read moreFarmed and Dangerous?
There's a collegial, celebratory, almost giddy spirit at the annual American Cheese Society conference. No wonder many regulars refer to the gathering as "cheese camp." But the mood was noticeably more subdued at this summer’s summit in Providence, courtesy of the FDA.
Read moreRosy Future for this Blue
Celtic Blue Reserve, a blue cheese from Ontario, took Best of Show at last week's American Cheese Society competition in Providence. Topping 1,779 entries, the cow's-milk wheel gave Canada its first win in the contest's 30-year history. Margaret Peters Morris, whose Glengarry Fine Cheese company produced the roughly six-pound wheel, is a respected consultant who has mentored many U.S. cheese makers.
Read moreSecond Act
Doug and Debbie Erb are second-generation dairy farmers in New Hampshire. Doug’s father, a veterinarian, combined several small farms to create the property and had his clinic in the building where the creamery is today. The younger Erbs began cheesemaking in 2008 to try to make the farm more viable and have since won acclaim for Landaff, their Caerphilly-inspired cow’s milk cheese.
Read moreIt Stinks So Good
One sign of a true cheese enthusiast is a refrigerator full of little wrapped nubbins, pieces too big to throw away but too pitiful-looking to serve to a guest. Recently, my husband and I had an entire cheese course of nubbins—probably 10 different two-ounce remnants making their last stand. The one I kept coming back to was Cabra Raiano, a semisoft Portuguese goat’s milk cheese. I nibbled at some of the others, but this one I polished off. Even as a days-old leftover, it was sublime.
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 moreHow Tradition Tastes
It’s dispiriting to think that raw-milk cheeses are dwindling in number and that American cheese counters will have fewer in five years than they do now. But no one who follows the artisan cheese world would dispute that forecast.
Read moreNext-Generation Cheddar
Brad Sinko has already earned his place in the cheesemakers’ hall of fame with his creation of Flagship, Flagship Reserve and Flagsheep. These Cheddar-style wheels, which he developed for Beecher’s Handmade Cheese in Seattle, have won heaps of critical acclaim and awards, including American Cheese Society Best of Show for Flagsheep.
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