Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Another cheese class at Whole Foods
I attended my second cheese on Monday; this class was all about blue cheese! I learned a lot at this class, here are the highlights.
How does the mold get in there? Mold, like most things, need air. So the wheels of cheese are perforated with slender, long spikes to allow air to enter the cheese. If you notice in a hunk of blue cheese there are often blue veins of mold. These are the marks from the perforation. You might also notice that there is less mold closer to the rind of the wheel, because less air is able to circulate in this area. Neat huh? Well at least I think it is neat because it is kind of the opposite of what happens in most cheeses where the mold is on the outside on the wheel and works it way inward. This is why on some cheeses you see have creamier texture closer to the rind and a firmer texture closer to the center of the wheel. That's mold doing its thing. So the perforations in blue cheese create a situation of mold gone wild.
I also learned that affinage is the term for aging cheese. An affineur or affineuse is the person who job it is to age the cheese (male cheese ager the former and female cheese ager the latter). This process is not always done by the producer of the cheese but can be an entirely separate enterprise on its own.
That familiar smell that I wrote about in my post dated October 26, 2007 (if I knew how, I'd link ya there), that smell that smells like minerals or mummy's, that may be cheese mites. I might not want to learn any more about cheese mites because they are exactly what they sound like, crawly critters.
In the class we had Monte Enebro from Spain, which is an unperforated blue. Just mold on the outside, none on the inside. It is a much milder blue and very nice indeed. We had Rouge River Blue from Oregon. This was my favorite by far. It is wrapped in pear brandy soaked grape leaves. The inside is creamy with little bursts of liquidity (probably whey) like flavor burst gums. This was followed by Bayley Hazen Blue of Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont. It was a drier cheese and milder mold. They also make the Constant Bliss I had in the first class. I wonder if they accept visitors to their farm, like next spring maybe? We then tasted, side by side, Colston-Bassett Stilton and Stichelton. Both of these cheeses melt in your mouth while the blue remains on your tongue leaving tang and texture. Both are delicious but I thought the Stichelton had greater dimensionality to it. And here is the exciting back story! Stilton is a protected by the PDO (European Protected Designation of Origin) and is made from pasteurized cows milk in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire in England. This formulation was decreed in 1996. The makers of Stichelton use raw milk and are not permitted to use the name Stilton even though they are located in Nottinghamshire and prior to the PDO, Stilton was made with raw milk! So they named it Stichelton which, the story goes, is the former name of town where Stilton originated. I think that is pretty clever. Our final cheese of the evening is Herve Mons Bleu d'Auvergne which is a raw milk blue from France. To me it smelled the best. A very strong smell that screamed blue cheese. I like that. It tasted wonderful too.
How does the mold get in there? Mold, like most things, need air. So the wheels of cheese are perforated with slender, long spikes to allow air to enter the cheese. If you notice in a hunk of blue cheese there are often blue veins of mold. These are the marks from the perforation. You might also notice that there is less mold closer to the rind of the wheel, because less air is able to circulate in this area. Neat huh? Well at least I think it is neat because it is kind of the opposite of what happens in most cheeses where the mold is on the outside on the wheel and works it way inward. This is why on some cheeses you see have creamier texture closer to the rind and a firmer texture closer to the center of the wheel. That's mold doing its thing. So the perforations in blue cheese create a situation of mold gone wild.
I also learned that affinage is the term for aging cheese. An affineur or affineuse is the person who job it is to age the cheese (male cheese ager the former and female cheese ager the latter). This process is not always done by the producer of the cheese but can be an entirely separate enterprise on its own.
That familiar smell that I wrote about in my post dated October 26, 2007 (if I knew how, I'd link ya there), that smell that smells like minerals or mummy's, that may be cheese mites. I might not want to learn any more about cheese mites because they are exactly what they sound like, crawly critters.
In the class we had Monte Enebro from Spain, which is an unperforated blue. Just mold on the outside, none on the inside. It is a much milder blue and very nice indeed. We had Rouge River Blue from Oregon. This was my favorite by far. It is wrapped in pear brandy soaked grape leaves. The inside is creamy with little bursts of liquidity (probably whey) like flavor burst gums. This was followed by Bayley Hazen Blue of Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont. It was a drier cheese and milder mold. They also make the Constant Bliss I had in the first class. I wonder if they accept visitors to their farm, like next spring maybe? We then tasted, side by side, Colston-Bassett Stilton and Stichelton. Both of these cheeses melt in your mouth while the blue remains on your tongue leaving tang and texture. Both are delicious but I thought the Stichelton had greater dimensionality to it. And here is the exciting back story! Stilton is a protected by the PDO (European Protected Designation of Origin) and is made from pasteurized cows milk in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire in England. This formulation was decreed in 1996. The makers of Stichelton use raw milk and are not permitted to use the name Stilton even though they are located in Nottinghamshire and prior to the PDO, Stilton was made with raw milk! So they named it Stichelton which, the story goes, is the former name of town where Stilton originated. I think that is pretty clever. Our final cheese of the evening is Herve Mons Bleu d'Auvergne which is a raw milk blue from France. To me it smelled the best. A very strong smell that screamed blue cheese. I like that. It tasted wonderful too.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
How can you say no to this sweet face?
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I was looking through old magazines for Thanksgivings recipes when I can across this ad for Cabot cheese. Cabot was one of the cheeses I tasted at the class I attended on October 25. The Cabot Cheddar was very good, it has won awards, but was blown away by the super fancy pants English Cheddar we had.
But now, after seeing this ad, I feel guilted into buying Cabot cheese! This picture of farmer Robert Elwell kindly asks that I buy his cheese. He even says please. Look how humbly he folds his hands in front of his sage green sweater vest. With matching pants. And work boots. I love this guy. I wish he were my pop-pop. Of course I'll by your cheese!
So now I will need to make some mac and cheese or something au gratin, just to satisfy this benign stranger, my paper grandpa.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Breakneck Ridge
On Sunday morning I packed a lunch of turkey chili and headed off for a monster hike and scramble on Breakneck Ridge which is along the Hudson River, close to Cold Spring NY. There were lots of rocks and some really challenging / scary rocks to jam in a foot hold and hoist yourself up on to.
Here are a few of the fine folk at I joined the hike. It was a big group of 30 people which is tricky to coordinate (though it wasn't me who coordinated it). Mishaps were kept to a minimum and fun was had by all.
And behold, some beautiful foliage. The trees are not yet at peek; there is still a lot of green. I have been very gung-ho to see the colors this year but the weather has been so warm that the change was hugely delayed. Finally it is cold today. Since I can only get out of NYC on the weekends I am hoping that the leaves don't blast through their color and fall off between Monday and Friday!The hike lasted till 5 pm. Afterwards, everyone met up a local bar in Cold Spring. I drove three fellow hikes back to Manhattan where we stopped off at Molly's, an Irish pub on 23rd and 3rd Avenue. Fish and chips, and Guinness never tasted so good! What is it about thoroughly exhausting yourself that makes food (and beer especially) taste so sublime? I could have easily melted on to the chair and remain there forever!
Chili Challenge
I have been noodling with a turkey chili recipe lately so Friday night I tried to coerce a few neighbors over to have some chow with me. Oddly enough another neighbor was making chili as well, Chilean chili to be exact. Naturally I suggested a chili throw down. Since my invitation went out late, there weren't many hungry neighbors left but Sam and Yuko came over even though they were full from their own dinners. Sam and I each had a small bowl of turkey chili with some delicious cheese, Midnight Moon Goat, from Cyprus Grove, melted on top. I like to mess around with spice combinations so in this version I had salt, pepper, cumin, clove, paprika, cayenne, poblano and molasses. I meant to add thyme, but forgot!
Yuko came over with the bowl of Chilean chili that Marco had made. Marco is only Chilean whose cooking I have tasted so I don't know if it is a cultural thing to heavily salt or a Marco thing to heavily salt. Either way, I like salt. I was a bit daunted to taste Chilean chili. Did chili originate in Chile? Clearly you know why I would assume this? Is it the chili standard by which all other chili's are measured? Much to my surprise, It was not like any other chili I had ever had. It is a delicious, thick broth with beans, pumpkin, noodles and beef.Sam was too full to try Marco's chili, and Yuko was too full to try mine, so I was the only one who had both. Obviously, no winner was declared for the chili challenge.
Friday, October 26, 2007
ignorance is bliss
Last night at the cheese class I attended at Whole Foods, I learned something that I really, really wish I hadn't. It is about the rennet. I previously knew that rennet came from the lining of a cows stomach, that is disgusting enough, but there is detail that is much darker and more sinister than I was prepared for. Rennet is the a milk curdling coagulating enzyme found in the fourth stomach of ruminating creatures. And the only time such a creature would need to produce this enzyme is when they are still nursing, i.e. a baby. : (
There is a substitute rennet developed in a lab that can be used instead, but apparently, an artisanal cheese maker is more apt to use genuine rennet and I, being a fancy pants cheese eater am more apt to eat artisanal cheeses. So I am sad.
What is really at the core of my glumness is that during the twenty I spent as a vegetarian I was unwittingly eating dead baby cow food product. At least, before yesterday, when I ate whatever I wanted, I felt that I had done my time, I done my good deed, I abstained from eating creatures in my former life. Now that I am a recovering vegetarian I could be OK with the amount of meat product I so gladly consume.
So what did I learn yesterday? That for twenty years, I was full of crap!
Anyway, on to the cheese!!!
The class was kind of a throw-down between old world and new world cheese; America vs Europe. There were three pairs of cheese; in each pair one was American and one was European. The first pair were soft ripened, bloomy rind cheeses; 1) Le Chatelain Camembert from Normandy, and; 2) Constant Bliss from Vermont. For me there was no comparison, they were both fantastic and different enough from each other that I didn't want to pick my favorite. Next pair were Cheddar's. I have never been ga-ga over cheddar but that is probably because I consumed mass quantities of mediocre cheddar as a kid (Kraft sharp cheddar to be specific). But the Montgomery Cheddar from North Cadbury, Somerset in England was unlike any other that came before. It is a clothbound Cheddar aged for two years and has a complex dimensional flavor that I can't wait to have again. It had a minerally smell to it on the side that was in contact with the cloth. Its a smell that I have smelled before but I can't place. Maybe it is the smell of mummy's, I don't know. Its challenger, Cabot Clothbound Cheddar had a simpler, brighter taste that left me nonplussed. Next up were two Aline style cheeses, and what a way to end the evening because both of these two cheeses blew me away and I will be serving them at my next wine tasting meeting. The first one Rolf Beeler Appanzeller is from Appanzeller, Switzerland has a nutty, herby flavor (it is washed with wine and herbs) and its challenger was Upland Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Wisconsin that has a nutty caramel flavor. Both were intense. But while I savored the Upland, the girl to my right, hated it. Oddly she, her boyfriend and I all share the same favorite cheese, Comte (they like theirs with honey while I like mine with under ripened pears). I guess if we share one like, that doesn't mean we will share all likes.
So that was the class. It was fun, delicious and I learned a lot even some things I wish I hadn't. Plus the instructor, Aaron Foster had a rad tattoo of a pig with a butchers diagram on it. I am going to sign up for the Blue Cheese class next.
I learned something else culinary today; you can't rush crepes. I thought I would just quickly whip up the batter this morning and give it its 12 hour rest it needs. What I wound up with was a brown cloggy mess. I think all the ingredients were too cold and didn't want to hang out with each other. Like it was too early in the morning and they were pre-coffee. I understand, next time crepes.
There is a substitute rennet developed in a lab that can be used instead, but apparently, an artisanal cheese maker is more apt to use genuine rennet and I, being a fancy pants cheese eater am more apt to eat artisanal cheeses. So I am sad.
What is really at the core of my glumness is that during the twenty I spent as a vegetarian I was unwittingly eating dead baby cow food product. At least, before yesterday, when I ate whatever I wanted, I felt that I had done my time, I done my good deed, I abstained from eating creatures in my former life. Now that I am a recovering vegetarian I could be OK with the amount of meat product I so gladly consume.
So what did I learn yesterday? That for twenty years, I was full of crap!
Anyway, on to the cheese!!!
The class was kind of a throw-down between old world and new world cheese; America vs Europe. There were three pairs of cheese; in each pair one was American and one was European. The first pair were soft ripened, bloomy rind cheeses; 1) Le Chatelain Camembert from Normandy, and; 2) Constant Bliss from Vermont. For me there was no comparison, they were both fantastic and different enough from each other that I didn't want to pick my favorite. Next pair were Cheddar's. I have never been ga-ga over cheddar but that is probably because I consumed mass quantities of mediocre cheddar as a kid (Kraft sharp cheddar to be specific). But the Montgomery Cheddar from North Cadbury, Somerset in England was unlike any other that came before. It is a clothbound Cheddar aged for two years and has a complex dimensional flavor that I can't wait to have again. It had a minerally smell to it on the side that was in contact with the cloth. Its a smell that I have smelled before but I can't place. Maybe it is the smell of mummy's, I don't know. Its challenger, Cabot Clothbound Cheddar had a simpler, brighter taste that left me nonplussed. Next up were two Aline style cheeses, and what a way to end the evening because both of these two cheeses blew me away and I will be serving them at my next wine tasting meeting. The first one Rolf Beeler Appanzeller is from Appanzeller, Switzerland has a nutty, herby flavor (it is washed with wine and herbs) and its challenger was Upland Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Wisconsin that has a nutty caramel flavor. Both were intense. But while I savored the Upland, the girl to my right, hated it. Oddly she, her boyfriend and I all share the same favorite cheese, Comte (they like theirs with honey while I like mine with under ripened pears). I guess if we share one like, that doesn't mean we will share all likes.
So that was the class. It was fun, delicious and I learned a lot even some things I wish I hadn't. Plus the instructor, Aaron Foster had a rad tattoo of a pig with a butchers diagram on it. I am going to sign up for the Blue Cheese class next.
I learned something else culinary today; you can't rush crepes. I thought I would just quickly whip up the batter this morning and give it its 12 hour rest it needs. What I wound up with was a brown cloggy mess. I think all the ingredients were too cold and didn't want to hang out with each other. Like it was too early in the morning and they were pre-coffee. I understand, next time crepes.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Cheese Class
Tonight I will be attending a cheese class at Whole Foods on the Bowery. My first apartment in NYC was on Bleecker and Bowery many many moons ago. It was such a rough neighborhood at the time that, after dropping off his youngest born child, my dad uncharacteristicly downed a shot of some kind of hard liquor. And now, just around the corner, is the most fabulous, enormous Whole Foods. The neighborhood has changed considerably. I still live in the East Village. I thought it was the coolest place to live before I moved here and I still think that. Go EV! After stuffing myself full of cheese tonight, I will be attending a comedy show about gluttony, the irony is not lost on me.
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