They’re back! Or maybe they never left. But I haven’t seen olive-stuffed cheese balls in decades and now I’ve baked multiple trays of this marvelous 1950s hors d’oeuvre. I spotted the recipe recently on another blog, A Well-Seasoned Kitchen, and it almost made me tear up. My mother, an unapologetic non-cook, had only one party appetizer in her repertoire and this was it.
Read moreSecond Time Around
This focaccia bread pudding with mushrooms and goat cheese got good reviews from [ital] Planet Cheese [end ital] readers last year so I’m bringing it back for an encore. If you’re ready to change up your Thanksgiving dressing, or need a vegetarian alternative, please give it an audition. It’s crusty and custardy, with soft nuggets of goat cheese, sweet leeks and toasty bits on top.
Read moreThe Salad You’re Missing
If you have room for one more dish on your Thanksgiving table, I nominate this one. A crunchy, colorful salad is often what’s missing on the menu, a contrast to all the rich, creamy, brown food that Thanksgiving is usually about. As we know, but sometimes forget, the holiday is a harvest celebration (although where I grew up, in Dallas, it was more about football). A salad with persimmons, radicchio, grapes and walnuts is autumn in a bowl, and of course a few nuggets of blue cheese will only improve it.
Read moreThe Cheeses to Beat
Gourmino board: (l to r) Ur-Eiche, Emmentaler AOP, Bleu de Combremont, Le Gruyère AOP
The wins just keep coming for Gourmino. This Swiss marketing co-op has 13 cheesemaker members who seem to have a lock on the top prize at major international competitions. Last week, a Gourmino Gruyère prevailed at the World Cheese Awards in Wales, besting 4,433 entries. Earlier this year, a Gourmino Gruyère from cheesemaker Michael Spycher was named World Champion Cheese —for the third time. I can’t overstate how remarkable that is.
Read moreColor Theory
thought I knew why producers added color to cheese, giving some Goudas and Cheddars the hue of a Garnet yam. But I recently read more about the origins of this peculiar practice, and now I’m a little less sure of my facts. What’s certain is that Mimolette (above) without its screaming orange interior would be just another aged cheese and not the head turner it is. Wisconsin Cheddar without its trademark orange tint would look just like Vermont Cheddar. But if you’ve ever wondered what inspired cheesemakers to manipulate their products’ natural color, and why the tradition persists, here are some more or less believable stories.
Read moreOozy Does It
With November around the corner, we’re entering the ooey-gooey season. Fall is prime time for those unctuous, bark-wrapped cheeses that spread like buttercream frosting, and this year we have a new one to celebrate. It took more than three years to get this beauty through R&D. Turns out the style presents all sorts of hurdles.
Read moreFeta to the Rescue
After months of tomatoes and zucchini, I’m ready for winter squash. Kabocha is my favorite, but butternut squash is much easier to hack into and to peel. I like to roast thick slices until they’re caramelized and then balance the sweetness with something tart and tangy. Feta to the rescue, along with pomegranate seeds, pepitas, Aleppo pepper and yogurt. Creamy and crunchy, warm and cool, sweet and tart. It’s all there in this autumn side dish. Add a roast chicken or a bulgur pilaf and dinner’s ready.
Read morePerfect Cheese at a Price to Like
Given the eye-popping prices at the cheese counter these days, the bargains stand out even more. Some (not all) of the selections selling for $35 to $40 a pound are fabulous, but none of them is better than the beauty pictured above. I paid $19.99 a pound for this charmer, a raw-milk wheel made in Switzerland by a single family with milk from their neighbors. I’ve admired this cheese for a long time, but these days I’m blown away by the astonishing quality for the price.
Read moreBig Win for a Glorious Goat Cheese
I am overjoyed to see aged goat cheese getting more attention from America’s cheesemakers. Personally, I can’t work up much enthusiasm for another fresh, rindless chèvre—we have plenty of those—but a new firm, nutty goat cheese with a natural rind, made in the U.S.A., gives us more choice in a slender category. The blue ribbon-winning beauty pictured above isn’t new—it debuted maybe 10 years ago—but it’s tasting better than ever. And I am noticing a few more entries in this slim niche. Many people tell me they don’t like goat cheese, but in my experience, everybody likes this type.
Read morePimento Cheese Gets a Twist
I have a perfectly good pimento cheese recipe but a cook can always use another, especially if it’s from the guy who makes the Obama family’s’ Thanksgiving pies. Brian Noyes is an acclaimed baker and café owner in rural Virginia. But he’s not a Southerner by birth so he gets away with tweaking tradition. His pimento cheese has a couple of ingredients I’ve never seen in this cult classic, but not being a Southerner either, I keep an open mind. I met Noyes recently at a party to celebrate his new cookbook, and although the cakes his bakery provided were fabulous, I came home and made the book’s pimento cheese first.
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