When it comes to cheese, surprisingly, there is a universe of caramel and butterscotch flavors to explore. Often occurring in aged cheeses, such as French Mimolette and Dutch Roomano, the sensation of savoring the candy-like flavor happens thanks to the type of milk used to produce the cheese and the process of affinage...more
I distinctly remember the sour-milk smell and the wet concrete floor in the cheese-making room, and the way the women worked quickly and efficiently...more
The People Who Stare at Goat Cheese would be a great title for a movie. Of course, it would star George Clooney and the superstars of the Goat revolution!...more
From the upscale cheese cart at Cyrus restaurant in Healdsburg to the downhome Cheese Grits at Rocker Oysterfellers in Valley Ford, the buttery cow's-milk cheese has already carved out a delicious niche in the field of artisan cheeses. ... more
To those of us who've forced our entire family to take a field trip to Camembert -- the one in France... the appearance of a new local farmstead cheese is something to celebrate ... more
The very best of British cheese is represented by the wonderful Montgomery Cheddar, which is full of flavour and character with a subtle nutty taste ... more
...we are beginning to see gems like Challerhocker (pronounced "holler hocker"), an aged cow's-milk cheese from a small creamery in Toggenburg, near Zurich ... more
Taleggio requires cow's milk by definition, so there was never a question of calling the bufala cheese by that name. But the family resemblance is obvious ... more
Milk may look the same every time you buy it, but it's a remarkably complex liquid, varying with the source (cow, goat or sheep), the feed and the breed ... more
Blue cheeses made with goat's milk are not that common, which is probably why Verde Capra quickly drew my eye in the crowded cheese case at Sunshine Foods in St. Helena ... more
Hoping to establish a dairy farm similar to the ones they grew up on, Rolf and Marieke Penterman bought property in Wisconsin about six years ago ... more
Named for dramatic rock formations off the Pacific Northwest coast, Seastack comes from a 3-year-old artisan creamery on Washington state's Olympic Peninsula ... more
With so little tradition of their own to rely on, America's cheesemakers can experiment with a freedom that might shock their Old World counterparts ... more
Most novice cheeseheads have limited their past experiences to firm cheeses—block cheddar and swiss, for example—but there's a whole world of artisan cheese that falls under this category ... more
Even more impressive is the Flagship Reserve, which the company began releasing about two years ago. The Reserve is the same cheese as the regular Flagship, yet not the same at all ... more
Christened Lionza, after the ancestral village of the Fiscalini family in Switzerland's canton Ticino, the cheese is modeled after the alpine wheels of that region ... more
Turning milk into cheese more than doubles the milk's value, which is why so many dairy farmers have turned to cheesemaking in recent years. One dairyman who has successfully rerouted all his cow's milk to cheese is Jules Wesselink of the Winchester Cheese Company, near San Diego ... more
When Cabot clothbound cheddar won best of show at the American Cheese Society's annual competition two years ago, the news electrified the audience ... more
Twenty-fifth anniversaries are supposed to be celebrated with silver. Lucky for me, Mary Keehn, founder and owner of Cypress Grove Chevre in Arcata, California, has commemorated hers with truffles ... more
Carr Valley Cheese Co. in Wisconsin achieved a remarkable feat this summer at the American Cheese Society's annual competition. The creamery's entries took two of the top three places in a contest with 1,100 entries ... more
The two young men who purchased Oregon's Rogue Creamery six years ago inherited some cheeses and have created several more. Among the cheeses already in the lineup was Oregonzola, a blue cheese obviously patterned after Italy's most famous blue, Gorgonzola ... more
Andante Dairy's cheeses are the dairy equivalent of California's cult Cabernets: made in minuscule quantities, highly sought after and parceled out to a few high-end restaurants and markets ... more
If the salty, sharp taste of Pecorino Romano has turned you off of aged sheep's milk cheese, you might have passed up Bellwether Farms' Pepato unnecessarily ... more
Niloufer's Creamy Panir, a fresh cow's milk cheese introduced three or four years ago by Cowgirl Creamery, got its start in the San Francisco kitchen of Niloufer Ichaporia King ... more
Patacabra, meaning "goat's leg," takes its name from this cheese's unusual shape, which more closely resembles a flattened log than any dairy animal's body part ... more
Even though the Greeks first produced this robust cheese, it has traveled to other countries over the years and today it's being used in the U.S. in many different ways ... more
The luscious mascarpone that makes tiramisu so divine used to be exclusively an Italian import. But now several domestic manufacturers are making it, so we can keep our dollars here ... more
The 550 farmers who contribute the cow's milk for Beemster cheese belong to a century-old Dutch cooperative in the province of North Holland. But the land they farm, a 200-square-mile area called the Beemster Polder, has been dairy country for four centuries ... more
It's a sign of how young the American artisan cheese industry is that Rogue Creamery's owners - David Gremmels and Cary Bryant - seem like they have been at the helm for years when, in fact, they didn't purchase this Oregon dairy until 2002 ... more
The ancient cheese known as Laguiole (lai-yol) comes from a region of France that even French people don't know well: a high plateau called the Aubrac, in the south-central part of the country ... more
... Spanish cheesemaking is enjoying something of a creative renaissance, as artisan producers witness the export successes of their neighbors and decide to explore sales abroad ... more
In Germany's Allgäuer Alps, near the Austrian border, the cowherds still follow the timeless practice of leading their herds up the mountains in spring to graze on fresh pasture, then back down in the fall to take winter refuge in valley barns ... more
Sardinia is sheep country, a rocky Mediterranean island with more sheep than people. Yet some Sardinian farmers keep goats and make cheese on the farm, although little if any of it is exported ... more
These days, when I assemble a cheese course for a dinner party, it can cost more than the rest of the meal put together. If you're feeling the pinch, too, you might want to check out Borough Market Cheddar ... more
On their 10-acre biodynamic farm in the Sierra foothills, Caroline Hoel and Hank Beckmeyer grow wine grapes, raise goats and chickens, and have just released their first goat's milk cheese ... more
A centuries-old French cheese made as far back as the Middle Ages, Bleu de Sassenage (bleu de sah-sen-nahj) takes its name from a 14th century baron who authorized the sale of the cheese on his lands ... more
Mozzarella was originally made from water-buffalo milk in Italy. Most fresh mozzarella now comes from cow's milk, both in Italy and here in North America ... more
Roth's Private Reserve, a new cheese from Wisconsin's 17-year-old Roth Käse dairy, had an auspicious debut at this year's American Cheese Society competition ... more
Cheese has been a part of many home specialties and dining menu selections for many years. Author Clifton Fadiman described cheese as “milk’s leap toward immortality.” There is no doubt that Fadiman’s prolific statement has stood the test of time ... more
Fratelli Pinna, a large, modern firm in Northern Sardinia, has made Brigante since the 1960s, but I had never noticed the cheese in local shops until recently ... more
To our delight, we found that truly fresh chèvre – chèvre is French for "goat" and also the generic name for goat cheese – is not just tasty. It's downright decadent ... more
The petite goat cheese known as cabecou (cah-bay-coo) comes from France's Midi-Pyrenees, a region in the southern part of the country that is also home to Roquefort ... more
Capricho de Cabra smells clean and pure, with no gaminess, and it drifts across the tongue, leaving a lighter, smoother, moister and more mellow impression than most young goat cheeses ... more
In the foothills of the Italian Alps, just south of the Swiss border, the province of Sondrio produces a buttery, bloomy-rind cow's milk cheese similar to Brie ... more
They don't call it Stinking Bishop for nothing. This cow's milk cheese from England announces its presence from afar, with an aroma reminiscent of an outhouse on a hot day ... more
Maine's loss is California's gain. Franklin Peluso, whose grandfather Giovanni developed the rice flour-coated Teleme cheese, has returned to California after nine months of making and marketing Teleme on the East Coast ... more
Pascal Beillevaire is a French cheesemaker, retailer and affineur, or cheese ager, who specializes in promoting French cheeses made on a small scale and largely by traditional methods ... more
Brothers Mateo and Andy Kehler made their first batch of Constant Bliss less than four years ago, in a 5-gallon bucket with the milk of one cow ... more
Sheep's milk cheese is a new taste for many Americans, and sheep dairying in Wisconsin -- California's rival as the top dairy state -- is relatively new ... Dante is a seasonal cheese, made between February and September, when the ewes are milked ... more
Wisconsin's Stravecchio Parmesan rides on the coattails of Italy's most famous cheese, but it doesn't need to. It is an excellent product in its own right ... more
Keen's, a fourth-generation family business in Somerset, remains one of England's most traditional Cheddar producers. Strict constructionists like the Keens believe that authentic artisan Cheddar can only be made with raw milk from the farm's own herd for maximum freshness and quality control ... more
Every so often, I get a letter in spidery handwriting from a reader, usually a gentleman, who wants to know why he can't find Limburger in the supermarket anymore ... more
Inspired by some of Europe's best washed-rind cheeses, Helen Feete at Virginia's Meadow Creek Dairy has created a winner of her own. Named for the county where she and her husband, Rick, tend 87 Jersey cows, Grayson is one of the best new domestic cheeses I've tasted in a long time ... more
Jim Schott started Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy in 1989 with five goats and 7 acres near Boulder, Colo. He and his wife, Arlene, both self-taught in everything having to do with a dairy, built their herd and made their first cheese in 1992 ... more
Spain's most famous blue cheese, Cabrales keeps a low profile in the Bay Area. By any measure, it is extreme cheese, more searingly pungent and challenging than almost any other dairy product I know ... more
Seattle's Pike Place Market offers tourists a view of the Pacific Northwest's bounty and provides food-loving locals a prime place to shop. Three years ago, this estimable market got even better with the opening of Beecher's Handmade Cheese, a retail shop and cheese-making facility ... more
A perfectly ripe Chevrot could make a convert out of the most reluctant goat cheese eater. Creamy, even molten under the rind, yet firm and velvety smooth at the heart, a Chevrot in its prime is a peak experience ... more
Ewephoria is possibly as close as cheese gets to candy. The texture is firm, becoming drier toward the rind, and the flavor intense and sweet, with enough acidity to keep the cheese from being cloying ... more
Nevat is a soft, bloomy-rind goat's milk cheese; Ros is an aged sheep's milk cheese. Rarely does a single artisan cheesemaker venture successfully in two such different directions ... more
On the tongue, the cheese is creamy, especially at the center, with a vigorous lactic tartness and a surprisingly mellow finish. The cheese has power without bite ... more
Although no one knows for certain when the locals began making the small, bloomy-rind sheep's milk cheese called Perail, it was probably well before the name first appeared in writing, in the 19th century ... more
The name means "summer wind," an evocative moniker for a cheese with a pronounced herbaceous aroma. If you think the cheese smells like freshly mown hay, bravo. The wheels are aged under a blanket of hay ... more
A truncated 4-ounce pyramid with an ash coating underneath a bloomy rind, Nocturne resembles a Loire Valley goat cheese -- perhaps a petite Valencay ... more
Laura Chenel, the Sonoma County goat cheese pioneer, realized early in her company's life that she needed to make an aged cheese that would preserve the abundant summer milk for winter ... more
From dull to superb in three months... With many cheeses, it pays to be patient, as Bill Boersma discovered with his Cheddar-like Silver Mountain... more
In this age of globalization, when we can summon almost any goods from anywhere to our doorstep, it's refreshing that there are still some foods we have to travel to taste. One of these days, I hope to taste Greek myzithra on its home grounds ... more
There are literally thousands of cheeses in this world, yet most people limit themselves to just a handful of choices. What a waste of an opportunity! ... more
Cheesemaker Liam Callahan from Sonoma County's Bellwether Farms went to Italy to learn the techniques of making this fresh, clean-flavored artisan cheese ... more
Move over, fresh goat cheese. Make room for goat crottins, goat blues, goat Camemberts and the rest of the gamut of goat cheeses that American producers are now making ... more
These pungent artisan cheeses are among the peak experiences of the dairy world, with seductive aromas that mingle mushrooms, barnyard and earth ... more
