News From The Cheese Caves

As a customer service agent in the Artisanal Call Center I answer questions that keep me on my toes, sometimes literally and figuratively.

A caller from Houston recently inquired: “I’m interested in purchasing the Wine Cask Lazy Susan. The photograph is beautiful but what does it really look like? I want it to match my French oak dining table but not look inauthentic or faded…”

This took me back to the memory of a gentleman months before who had asked me the same question: “Can’t I just look at it?!” It was the middle of the Christmas season and at the time, the Production area was off limits to the public.

Addressing the caller from Houston, I admitted I had not seen it in person but would investigate and call her back.

I asked my colleagues for feedback but descriptions were scant:

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There’s a lot going on at ArtisanalCheese.com.

We’ve been working hard to design and build a whole new web site. The new site will continue the tradition of being the best place online to learn and purchase cheese but with a more elegant look and feel. The new site will be full of pairing information and the only place on the internet to learn how to use the Artisanal CheeseClock.

I know a lot of people are saying, ‘I liked the current site,’ or ‘what else is there to add?’ The answer is a lot.

We’ve focused on making the site easier to navigate, nicer on the eyes, and simpler to find the cheese you are looking find. Artisanal is making hard to find cheeses easier to find online!

Check back soon to see the brand new ArtisanalCheese.com

This week has been full of a number of cheese musings, from enjoying Artisanal’s cheeses with the Finnish Ambassador and his wife to thinking about “perfect pairing” between cheeses and wines and cheeses and pickles. It was great fun and quite delicious to be at an event with Artisanal cheeses and a number of embassy chefs in Washington DC this week. I enjoyed both domestic and imported cheeses, including the Wabash Cannonball and the specially made for Artisanal Roquefort. The perfect pairing concept is one that I will continue to explore, as it can be very rewarding.

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It never ceases to amaze me that some of the roughest-looking cheeses can actually be at peak, that they can be especially tasty. Most every cheese lover knows that some of the “stinkiest” cheeses can be absolutely delicious and not particularly strong-flavored. But the look of a cheese, one that looks a little beat-up, can be quite deceiving.

For example: a Camembert type that looks perfectly cylindrical with a very white rind is likely not to be nearly as spectacular as one that has some yellow-gold flecks on the rind, with a rind that may be a little bumpy; or a Queso de los Beyos that has a little or a lot of gray fur growing on the outside, will actually have a lovely creamy and mild buttery flavor. Looks can be deceiving.

As for aroma: I remember many years ago when I was about to discard a Livarot because it had a trace of ammonia, Avice Wilson told me to wait and try it first, that that cheese might actually be “screaming to be eaten.” Sure enough, it was delicious. Since then I have always been a little more accepting of a bit of ammonia wafting around my cheeses, the natural by-product of a ripening cheese.

Max McCalman
Dean of Curriculum

“I find among writers that the milk of the goat is next in estimation to that of women, for that it helpeth the stomach.”
~ William Harrison, English Clergyman (1534-1593)

Max McCalman, our Dean of Curriculum, has engaged me in many a conversation on just this subject, that one reason cheese is such a comfort food may be because it is most like our first source of nourishment (both physical and emotional) our mother’s milk.

Goat’s milk is one of the easiest forms of dairy to digest (owing to the smaller fat globules then are found in cow’s milk) and its smooth, soft, creamy texture provides delicious, nutritious sustenance. Before starting at Artisanal I was a timid sampler of goat cheese, rarely venturing further then a log rolled in herbs from the local green market. A little over a year later, I have enjoyed dozens of varieties from our caves and have been surprised and delighted by the vast array taste, shape and texture.

In the winter months the firmer, aged versions of goat cheese like Old Kentucky Tomme and Ibores were perfect companions for heavy sweet white wines and dark heady reds. But now comes the best time for consuming fresh goat cheese, especially now, spring is arriving and the kids are causing the utters to fill with particularly rich delicious milk full of vitamins A and D.

The first goat cheese I fell for (which I recommend for beginners) was Purple Haze. Creamy, tangy, subtly herbaceous, Purple Haze is a sure fire way to hook people in and quickly get them addicted to goat’s milk (a drizzle of honey added a whole other dimension). My latest obsession, which I tried for the first time last night and immediately, took home to enjoy at my leisure, is Garrotxa (gah-ROTCH-ah). Surreally smooth and light, like a solid form of yogurt but less tangy, the Garrotxa enhanced the light bubbles in the glass of Cava I was enjoying and reminded me that the days are getting longer and warmer and another season of great cheeses is on it’s way.

“G stands for goat and also for genius . . .”
~ Kenneth Rexroth, American Poet (1905 – 1982)

-Heather
Assistant to the CEO

At this point, most of us know that cheeses are alive – full of micro-organisms that continually evolve and impact character, texture and flavor profile. Crazy as it may seem, artisan cheeses constantly change and adapt over their lifetimes. At birth, they often have little resemblance to their more mature selves – of days, weeks or even years later.

This maturing certainly gives cheeses their flavor. It also imparts a distinct, visual identity to the cheese itself. Trust me when I say that a cheese can have its own personality, and be quite extraordinary looking.

Over the last year, I shot portraits of several hundred Artisanal cheeses, and along the way witnessed some very dramatic characters. Some were quite pretty and pristine. Others rough looking. They were strong, silent, stoic and shy. They were all very different.

Artisan cheeses certainly look like characters. They have real personalities. They are interesting. You have to wonder if they have feelings of their own.
Next time, before devouring your cheeses, take a few moments and stare at them. You may catch them winking back at you.

Here are a few of my favorites.

The Brain	The Old Married Couple
The Bully	The Smiling Cheese

-Joshua Shuab
Photographer, Writer and Strategic Communications Specialist

Everyone has their favorite cheese or favorite type of cheese and if you asked me, there are too many great cheeses out there for me to really pick a favorite. However, one of my most desired is made at Pholia Farm in Southern Oregon called Elk Mountain. During the different seasons their herd of Nigerian Dwarf goats feed on the pastures of the base of the farms neighboring mountain called? Well you guessed it, Elk Mountain!

This cheese is made in the style of the Pyrenees Tomme and aged for 6 months and washed in honey ale that produces a unique nutty flavor and complex finish. What is special about this cheese for me is not only the flavor, but the goats that produce the milk from which this lovely artisan cheese is made.

The miniature breed produces milk which yields higher butterfat content then any other breed in the world and since they only have a small herd, the amount of cheese they can make is minimal. Therefore, whenever Artisanal is able to carry it, I know it will not last long. Their herd is extremely well cared for that they show them in local competitions and offer the male bucks up for adoption. I’m looking forward to the next time we carry this cheese and hopefully I’ll be able to take a small piece home to enjoy!

Exactly what it is that would prompt someone to embark upon an affinage internship eludes most people. Is cheese really that important or worthy in the scheme of culinary pursuits? Don’t you simply need to stop at your local grocery store and pick up some cheese to complement your dinner party fare or add to your favorite dish? Cheese is cheese. Or is it? Not to mention that fact that internships are unpaid positions and not something 40- somethings would find practical or appealing.

But just ask a convert to the world of fine artisanal cheeses and you’ll have your answer. For aspiring cheeseaholics such as me, cheese is more than just something good to eat. It’s life-sustaining goodness from the soil of the earth that both sates and delights the appetite. Cheese is a connection with early humanity and civilization. Without its fortuitous discovery mankind may not have thrived, let alone survived.

A quick study on the history of cheese traces cheese back its creation at least 8,000 years. With the discovery that domesticated animals could be milked comes the tale that cheese was “discovered” by a nomad, whose saddlebag contained milk to sustain him on a journey. When he stopped to quench his thirst he found that the milk had separated into a watery liquid with solid lumps. Since the saddlebag was made from the stomach of a young animal and contained a coagulating enzyme known as rennin, the milk had become separated into curds from the tossing about of its contents, the heat of the sun, and the rennin. Thus, came curds and whey.

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It was not until this morning on my way to work that I realized I may be a coffee snob. I was walking to the subway with my roommate and as I was ready to walk past our neighborhood coffee joint, he asked, “Do you want a coffee?” My response was no. As I waited for him to come out all I could think about was, “I wonder when those beans were roasted?” and, “What coffee would I make once I got to work?”

What would it be? Kenya, Brazil, Sumatra or my special stash of Ethiopian Aleta Wondo. I turned down the coffee I used to love, a large coffee with milk and two sugars.

My discovery of specialty coffee was an eye opener. Citrus, berries, chocolate, honey and floral flavors all brought out of the coffee bean by the way each one were roasted. No need to add milk or sugar, freshly roasted, specialty coffees are sweet and creamy on their own. I think if most people tasted the coffee they drink on a daily basis side by side with the Kenyan coffee I am drinking right now, they might not ever go back either.

The more I think about it, I don’t think I am a coffee snob, I have just seen the light, or maybe it was just too much caffeine.

-Matt Russo
Roastmaster

On a frigid windy morning in New York I ventured out to perform my good deed of the day, “to spread the curd” as Max Mccalman would say and train the counter employees at Orwasher’s Bakery. Orwasher’s is the first retail operation Artisanal Premium Cheese has opened in Manhattan. I was received with great interest and enthusiasm as the staff learned about cheese making, cheese types, cheese displays and our cheese clock and condiments.

The aromas of freshly baked bread together with the cheeses and freshly roasted coffee made for an olfactory smorgasbord. Even some customers that would stop by wanted a bit of the cheese training experience while they patiently waited for their favorite loaf of bread. Some of the Orwasher’s Wine Breads made beautiful pairings with the cheeses completing the divine trifecta of cheese, bread and wine, leaving the palate longing for more, but as with all good things, they come to an end, and I patiently donned my winter gear and returned to my cheese sanctuary on the West side.

-Waldemar Albrecht
Director of Business Development