Still finalizing your Easter menu? Or maybe, like me, you’re a guest and need to bring something. To that end, I’ve gathered some of my favorite ricotta recipes for right now.
Read moreWhat Tariffs Mean for Cheese Fans
Maybe, by the time you read this, the tariff wars will be over. Or maybe not. In that case, we’ll be pining for the good old days of $40 a pound French cheese. The on-again off-again import duties have cheesemakers, importers, distributors and retailers unable to make key business decisions. But as it stands now, we’re looking at a 20% tariff on cheeses from EU countries. Switzerland, inexplicably, got slapped with a 31% duty. Go figure. I checked in with importers, distributors and retailers about what this means, potentially, for consumers—and for their own businesses. It’s not pretty.
Read moreWith Spring Asparagus, Bring on the Cheese
At my house, we enjoy the year’s first asparagus with nothing but olive oil and salt. I like the Goldilocks spears—not too thick, not too thin—and I eat them with my fingers. But after a couple of these keep-it-simple encounters, I’m ready to change it up and, naturally, cheese is my go-to.
Read moreRaising the Bar on Buttery
I was shopping for cheeses recently for a sparkling wine tasting and hoping to find a few selections my guests wouldn’t know. This bloomy-rind beauty caught my eye because even I didn’t know it. A gentle probe of the exterior told me it was ripe. But was it tasty?
Read moreCanadian Cheddar Welcome Here
If you want to show Canada some love right now, seek out this award-winning Canadian Cheddar. I was surprised to find it at a local shop recently; we get so few cheeses of any type from our northern neighbor.
Read moreHappy Anniversary, Roquefort
Anniversary? Birthday? I wasn’t sure what to call it, but Roquefort is celebrating a milestone this year. That most iconic of French blue cheeses received the first AOC—appellation d’origine controlee—100 years ago this summer.
Read moreWhen Bad Things Happen to Good Cheese
I was hoping to order a favorite French cheese for an upcoming class, but the distributor had unwelcome news for me. “We haven’t had it for months,” she said. “The producer stopped making it.” Her reporting turned out to be largely, but not entirely, accurate. There was more to the story.
Read moreGold-Standard Manchego
I love aged sheep cheeses so much that even a mediocre one will tempt me. But a sublime Manchego like the one pictured here makes me greedy. I don’t want to share it; I want to hoard it. You have the Brie, honey. The Manchego’s all mine. Of course, I also want every cheese lover to know about it, and buy it, so that we keep the shipments coming. Manchego is Spain’s top-selling cheese by a mile, with 61 different producers. But if you want to taste the gold standard, in my view it’s this one.
Read moreYour Cheese is En Route…Maybe
What happens to that Camembert after it leaves the creamery in France? If the cheese is coming to me in Napa Valley, it’s traveling 5,500 miles. The journey is tedious enough if you’re human, but if you’re a steadily ripening cheese, delay can be a death sentence. MIT professor of anthropology Heather Paxson has researched the logistics of cheese importing and recently delivered an illuminating talk on the topic at SOAS Food Studies Centre in London.
Read morePancakes: A Love Story
My recent post on the cottage cheese trend elicited a pancake recipe from a reader, who told me it was a family favorite. When I made them, my husband joked that you had to put your hand on them to keep them from floating. They are indeed fluffy. I think they would make a wonderful Valentine’s Day breakfast, but for those who prefer to celebrate at dinner, I’m reprising Margrit Mondavi’s buckwheat blini with crème fraîche and smoked salmon.
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