Cheeses for a Desert Island

Must-have cheese
Must-have cheese

Video From J in Washington State: Owner of Vinotique Wine Shop in Lakewood, WA from Tacoma News Tribune 1/12/2009

The 3 cheeses the owner would take on a desert island:

Saint Agur: A French blue cheese. “It’s so creamy. It’s the creamiest blue cheese ever. You have to eat it at room temperature.” ($26.99 a pound)

D’affinois: A French cheese. “It’s like brie on steroids. I love pears with it.” ($16.99 a pound)

Iberico: A Spanish cheese. “It’s made from sheep, goat and cow milk. The sheep’s milk gives it a nutty flavor, combined with the goat milk it’s… pungent. And the cow’s milk makes it so smooth.” ($22.99 a pound)

For beginners she suggests: gouda, danish havarti and Italian fontina.

Christmas Eve, ’08

I was in Silver Spring, so I went to Whole Foods.  It’s not the best (they don’t cut the cheese off of the wheel like they do a real cheese shops, but it was the best I could do at the time).  We also had Coffee Egg-nog with it.

Bel Paese
milk: Lombardy, Italy cows
Semi-soft, mild cheese. Nice.

Manchego
milk: Spanish sheep
As they say on Splendid Table, when you want to try out different cheeses, there’s more than just Manchego. But as I said, I was at Whole Foods, so I had to do my best.

Stilton
milk: English cows
A very good blue; we’ve had this before. I lost the label, so I don’t know what creamery this one came from.

Thanksgiving at Burlington

Was in Bethesda the other day & went by Ibo’s shop, Cornicopia. As it is an Italian shop, I got 3 kinds of cheese to take to N.C. for our Thanksgiving trip.

Piave messano
Italian cows
very good, was hard & was fine for grating on soup

Sardo
Italian sheep
very good, soft

Pientino
Italian sheep
very good, soft

New Jersey Cheese


Amram
Bobolink
milk: cow

We went to visit NJ and went to this dairy in Warwick, NJ. They make several kinds of cheese, and we were able to taste a very tiny portion of them. Amram was closest to brie; we got several others.

Shepherds Logue (0.55 lbs, $24 per pound, $13.20 total) Cave aged 4+ months. Brick shaped with an external rub of herbs de Provence.

Oldwick Shepherd (0.53 lbs, $22 per pound, $11.66 total) Cave aged 3-6 months. Mold ripened. Earthy aroma, nutty smooth finish. Pyrenees style sheep’s milk cheese.

Crema de blue (0.48 lbs, $20 per pound, $9.60 total) Raw mixed blue cheese. Aged 60 days. Creamy, with a smooth rich flavor.

Shepherds Cushions (1.00 lbs, $2.50 a pound, $2.5o total) Brie style cushions; Aged to perfection; creamy and runny. Not shown in photo.

Valley Shepherd
all raw sheep

Three from the dairy where we made cheese. I think the difference in Shepherds Logue and Oldick Shepherd was the kind of rennet used. All very nice.

They gave very detailed receipts — weights and descriptions of cheese.

yet more cheese

some more cheese
some more cheese

Wensleydale
Mainly because it is mentioned in the Monty Python sketch. It is a rather unique tasting cheese, but I like it.

Saga Blue
very good.

l’edel de Cleron
it tastes better than it smells

Cheese at Enflight

cheese at enflight

I’m in Stow, MA doing some typing, and of course, cheese. It made a nice break from the workday.

Brie
milk: French cows
Good. Was going to list the brand of the brie, but Eli shredded the lid before I got that information(!).

Ementaler
milk: Swiss cows
A nice, mild Swiss cheese, without the holes.

President Gouda
milk: Dutch cows
This cheese won a Gold medal in the 2003 United States Cheese Championship. I’ll bet it would also make a nice mac & cheese. We all like it, and it may not keep long enough.Tara liked t a lot, as did the rest of us.

cheese and fondue at Angela’s

Melissa’s fondue

MCS and MLS made fondue. MCS and K were visiting, and this was their first cheese tasting. We wanted to make sure we had enough cheese. The fondue pot is MCS’s and she and MLS grated cheddar and gouda with white wine and a touch of brandy. It’s nice to have cooks in the kitchen while you are away.

Ashe Co curds & cheddar

I went to Calvert Woodley to get cheese to balance out WWT birthday cheese from North Carolina. It wasn’t as busy as usual, so it was great fun to taste. One cheese have gave me tasted too much like cream cheese, so I didn’t get that. They were also tasting pastrami — I don’t remember it tasting so good and garlicky, so I got that and Virginia ham for the guys — they can’t just have salad like us. The Ms already had some good bakery bread. Chocolate Moose Chocolate and NC strawberries for dessert.

Ashe Co. Cheese Curds
North Carolina cows

Our first time having cheese curds at a tasting. David sent this from North Carolina. Some of us liked them, some didn’t. It squeaked when you ate it. Different flavor than Wisconsin curds. K gave it the highest score. Even though it was their first tasting, both MLS and K were good at describing what they liked and didn’t like.

Belletoile
triple cream french cows

Since MCS was attending, we had to get at least one triple-cream. It was very good, as usual. K hadn’t liked the Brie he’d tried at N’s art opening the night before, but we told him it was because it wasn’t at room temperature.

Ashe Co. Mild Cheddar
cheddar
North Carolina cows

Another N.C. cheese from David. It would be great on hamburgers. And definitely mac and cheese.

Camboloza
invented in early ’70s
brie with blue

Cambozola is a cow’s milk cheese that is a combination of a French soft-ripened triple cream cheese and Italian Gorgonzola. It was patented and industrially produced for the world market by large German company Champignon in the 1970s. The cheese (originally called Bavaria Blu), was invented circa 1900 and is still produced by the Bergader family in the Chiemgau region of Bavaria.

very good. I loved it, and N even brought some by from another store along with her artwork after class — it was an abstract painting that started out as boats but looked like a cityscape — art always ads to the cheese tasting.