{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }
Photo: Sara Remington
I’m not a big cheeseburger fan, to be honest. I prefer my burgers plain. But a lamb burger topped with feta? Well, that’s another matter. Ground lamb shoulder makes the tastiest burger, and crumbled feta on top contributes a creamy, briny, tangy note—like adding a sliced pickle but better. Everything else about the Fourth of July will be different this year. Why not shake up your menu, too, with these succulent burgers?
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I’ve been enjoying this cheese for decades, but the wedge pictured here was the best ever. It should have been underwhelming. It had endured a lot—too much shipping and too much time in my fridge. But it was as creamy, luscious, balanced and compelling as any blue cheese I’ve had in a long time. My husband rarely eats blues with enthusiasm, but he practically fought me for this one. The creamery believes it may be the first cow’s milk blue wheel produced in America. What better choice for your Independence Day burgers or holiday cheese board?
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Everyone I talk to seems at loose ends right now. What’s the right thing to think, say, feel, do when your country is experiencing an emotional earthquake? Cheese seems trivial, perhaps, but to dairy farmers and cheesemakers it is not. It’s a livelihood. It’s the future for their land, their livestock, their families.
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I’ve been working on my pesto recipe for a few decades but I’ve never been 100 percent satisfied. Sometimes I make it in a mortar, like you’re supposed to, but it seems to discolor more with that method. Sometimes I blanch the basil leaves for a few seconds to keep the color, a trick I learned from Michael Chiarello, who also adds a pinch of ascorbic acid for the same reason. But that always seems a bit like cheating. Recently, perusing a new Italian cookbook, I saw another approach that intrigued me.
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Open for business! But now what? The owner of a popular independent cheese store in Sarasota, Florida, shares her experience with the bruising logistics of closing her shop and, weeks later, the anxiety of re-opening. Devining what customers might crave after weeks of lockdown, plus retooling her sales practices, has been keeping Louise Kennedy Converse—aka Cheese Louise—awake at night. Our phone conversation has been edited and condensed.
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I’m pretty sure that most mascarpone sold in this country ends up in tiramisu. Not a bad fate, but mascarpone can do more than that. If you’ve never made mascarpone ice cream, go dust off your ice cream machine. Memorial Day weekend is imminent, and no matter what you put on the grill, this strawberry mascarpone ice cream sundae will be what you remember.
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Are you doing as many virtual Happy Hours as I am? I’m enjoying how easy it is to “meet” friends for a drink, but the bar menu is pitiful. My husband and I hoarded pistachios when this madness got started, but I’m getting a little bored with them. Knowing how desperate our cheesemakers are to sell their fresh cheeses, I decided to challenge myself to make some bar bites with ingredients on hand. I did have to purchase the cheese, but all the toppings were foraged from the fridge, garden and pantry. You can do this.
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Putting others first: Ford (left) and Messmer
The Covid pandemic is devastating cheesemakers around the country. No restaurants, no foodservice, no sales. But as the owners of Beehive Cheese in Utah and Lively Run Dairy in New York watched their revenue plummet last month, they independently hatched the same plan. Both creameries had empty cheese vats. Both had idle cheesemakers. Their milk suppliers—small family farms—were about to dump milk. If they couldn’t make cheese to sell, they would make it to donate.
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American Cheese Month is just around the corner. What better time to show our nation’s cheesemakers some love? Over four Thursdays in May, I’ll be partnering with cheese expert Laura Werlin and top California wineries to bring you the best in American artisan cheese and wine and to support our cheesemakers in these challenging times.
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One positive result of this unsettling time is that more people are cooking at home. I’m hoping that becomes a habit even when it’s no longer necessary. Hunkering down, we need nourishment and a kitchen that smells great. We need dishes that are easy to prepare with ingredients that are easy to find, recipes that deliver a lot of pleasure for the effort. I’ve chosen six favorites from my archive to share with you.
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