News From The Cheese Caves

Some cheeses are either unavailable or taste different at various times of the year. If the animals are given the best care available and their lactation cycles are not extended beyond what is normal, they will provide high quality milk during a part of the year. If it is a soft young cheese there may be long stretches when the cheese is not available. The harder aged cheeses should be available throughout the year, though their flavors and textures may differ. The differences depend primarily on when the cheese was produced and how long it was aged.

A cheese that is produced in June will have a different flavor from one that is produced in August. The flavor of a cheese that is produced in a June in one year may be different from one that is produced in a June of another year, even after the same amount of aging. The most important factor in considering those differences is diet that the animals have available. The plant species available in June will be different from those that are available in August, while the climactic conditions one year may differ from another, this encouraging different plants to thrive.

If left to nature, the animals will mate at certain times of the year. The ideal time of year for mating is determined by other factors besides pasturage but the plants contribute more to the differences in flavor of a cheese than anything else.

As we come into the colder months, the firmer cheeses begin to dominate. The softer younger cheeses are more plentiful in the warmer months. This is not to say that there are not a number of excellent soft cheeses available in peak form in the winter; it is only that there are fewer of them, and on into spring.

With the colder weather we tend to gravitate toward red wines. Not that the wines are subject to the seasonality factors as strongly as cheeses, yet our wine choices change nonetheless.

Some of the more aged cheeses happen to pair beautifully with some of those robust reds. The aged Gouda, the Roomano, and the Sbrinz are three cheeses that meld very well with most all of those big reds. A little less aged but full-flavored and firm is Le Moulis. The cow version of Le Moulis has been a favorite around here for years.

Could it be that cheese might help prevent us from catching colds? We firmly believe that cheese is a near-perfect food yet we hesitate to make vigorous claims on behalf of the nutritive values that can be derived from artisanal cheeses; well, actually we do have some compelling evidence supporting those claims.

While studying some of the many nutritive values I stumbled across a few of them that suggest that cheese may be able to prevent or help cure the common cold.

One report states that a fatty acid – monolaurin – that is provided by milk is known to decrease symptoms of the flu. This report goes on to state that the monolaurin apparently works by affecting the lipid membrane of these viruses.

An amino acid found in high concentration in cheese – lysine – fights viruses, and a vitamin – Niacin – helps prevent canker sores.

Granted, not all of these nutrients may be directly linked to the common cold (yet) but they appear to be associated with alleviating the symptoms, if not with the prevention or cure of viral diseases such as the common cold.

These nutrients can be purchased as supplements but it is increasingly recommended that we derive those nutrients from the foods we eat. The nutrients in cheese work synergistically; they don’t stand alone.

fondue

Get out your fondue pots; it’s cold outside. If you don’t have a fondue pot, a double-boiler will do. Sharing a pot of fondue is one of the most satisfying foods for sharing, so any time of the year is fine. Each fall we make sure to stock up our caves with many cheeses that make fine fondues.

Each of these cheeses has its own distinct aroma/flavor qualities which will differentiate one fondue from another. There was a time when I would resist melting down any of these great cheeses into a fondue. That was before I realized how easy it actually is to clean a fondue crock, especially considering all the pleasure the fondue provides. Yes, these cheeses are outstanding on their own; they can pair marvelously with many wines (not all the same type wines either) but there is something about heating up that primordial food – cheese – to near body temperature that is rather blissful.

We offer a class here on making excellent fondues – All About Fondue – that is taught by one of the newest members of our faculty – Holly Cruz. She makes some of the best fondues I’ve ever tasted and she will teach you how to make excellent fondues yourself.

If you already know how to make fondue, we have several candidate cheeses that will provide the base of a great fondue: Adelegger, Alp Draeckloch, Andeerer Schmuggler, Appenzeller, Beaufort, Comté, Comté Fort des Rousses, Gruyère, Hittisau, Hoch Ybrig, Prattigauer, Tarentaise, Uplands Pleasant Ridge, Vacherin Fribourgeois, or Val Bagner.

Or if you would prefer not to go to any trouble whatsoever, we have some cheeses that are very soft and luxurious already: Azeitão, Robiola due Latti, Serra d’Estrela, Stanser Rotelli, Taleggio and Tomme Vaudoise, no need to melt these down at all. These cheeses don’t hang around here very long but we keep them coming.

Edwin’s Munster is produced in Austria, and it packs a wallop of aroma and flavor. The first time I tasted this cheese (which was only this past summer) I had one of those cheese epiphanies. The Munsters that are produced in Alsace can be very nice but I am afraid that most of the ones we see here are not at all like what they used to be; they are a little bland, slightly rubbery, and their shelf lives are rather short. Those A.O.C. Alsatian Munsters are nice, much nicer than those processed munsters we grew up with, but they probably suffered from their popularity. Unable to keep up with the international demand, the production became more industrial. The Edwin’s Munster is a cooperative cheese, meaning that it is much closer to a true “artisanal” cheese.
These are the types of cheese that wow us, not because of the strong aroma (though we find it a rather pleasant one anyway) but because of the lovely flavor and all the satisfaction they deliver.

Most in this family of wash-rind cheeses is at peak this time of year. They pair well with the crisp aromatic white wines of the region, and with pilners, lagers, and wheat beers.

At this time of year when the stresses of cold weather, holiday planning and travel place extra demands on us, it is good to know that cheese can help us deal with all of it by giving us a broad array of nutritional benefits.

Cheese is the ultimate comfort food. Cheese is a protein-rich food. Those proteins break down into amino acids. Some of these amino acids found in high concentration in cheese help us respond to stress, anxiety and pain in a number of ways. They help to stabilize moods. A deficiency of one of those amino acids can lead to depression, while another helps give us a good night’s rest. Some of those amino acids can be useful for people with atherosclerosis, heart disorders, and hypertension. They have been shown to play a role in sparing the loss of potassium from the heart muscle. A lack of one of them may contribute to coronary artery spasms.

Cheese is also a good source of beneficial fats. The fats break down into fatty acids. A fatty acid derived from cheese has demonstrated several benefits including a reversal of arteriosclerosis.

Cheese is also a great source of many important vitamins and minerals. It is important to note that cheese is the best source of Calcium, which is important in the maintenance of a regular heartbeat, among other things.

Don’t forget the weight-reducing properties of cheese! The more weight that we carry, the more work is demanded of our heart.

These and many other valuable tidbits are presented in our Cheese & Wine 201 class. I also take the relative nutritional quantities into consideration when I choose the cheeses for Max’s Healthy Plate.

Did you ever consider that your favorite food, among many other wonderful properties, can actually help moderate your stress levels? Cheese is the ultimate comfort food.

In researching the nutritional qualities of cheese for Mastering Cheese I consulted with Dr. Thomas Morrell, a neurologist friend who summarized the value of cheese thusly: “Cheese may just be one of the most perfect foods to capture the nutritional-emotional duality.”

The holidays present their additional stresses on top of those delivered by the chilly weather. Cheese helps us better respond to stress and pain in a myriad of ways. All the many nutrients in cheese work synergistically and are assisted with the consumption of moderate amounts of wine, or beer.

Not only will cheese help you deal with stress and pain, cheese also delivers a healthy portion of Tyrosine. This important amino acid is a precursor to norepinephrine, a deficiency of which can lead to depression. Research suggests Tyrosine may be helpful for individuals suffering from anxiety, and headaches.

A couple of other amino acids that are provided by cheese – Taurine and Tryptophan – help us as well. Taurine is used to treat anxiety. Tryptophan alleviates stress and helps to combat depression and to stabilize moods.

And if the seasonal stresses are causing us to lose sleep, we may want to have a little cheese before bedtime too. Tryptophan is used by the brain to produce serotonin, a necessary neurotransmitter that is responsible for normal sleep.

I touch on these and several other marvelous benefits that are derived from fine cheeses in one of our single-session classes – Cheese & Wine 201.

In the meantime, order a little cheese for yourself and your stressed friends. Try Max’s Healthy Plate. This selection will make it all better.

From Holiday 2010

When entertaining a large group you may want to keep a lid on the cost of your wine choices, partly so that you can have more cheeses. You don’t have to spend much on your wines to find some that pair remarkably well with a broad range of cheeses.

At a recent Cheese & Wine 101 class we tasted a white wine made with the Malvar grape, in the region of Almansa outside of Madrid. This wine reminded me of a cross between a Sauvignon Blanc and a Chardonnay. (That sounds like a combination that should cover a lot bases in cheese pairings.) The aroma of pineapple has been applied but I detect a little more apple. The wine is not as acid as most Sauvignon Blancs but it does have a little citrus note.

This relatively inexpensive wine paired well with a broad range of cheeses, from milder to stronger: goat, sheep, cow and mixed milk types; younger to older; softer to harder; all of these worked well with the Malvar, all of them except for the blue cheese.

This is where the Gamay grape steps in, as in Beaujolais – quite a festive wine itself, and available at a very nice price too. There is a sidebar in my latest book – Mastering Cheese – in praise of Gamay. The Gamay wines can work wonders with a full range of cheeses, including the blues. Some of the better Beaujolais are comparable to best of the red Burgundies. As wonderful as those wines may be, they don’t have the success as a wine partner that the Gamays have. Part of that success lies in the relative simplicity of the grape, including its lower tannin levels.

You might make it easier to choose what to take to the holiday party by ordering one of the Holiday Collections, and then take a superior Beaujolais such as a Morgon or a Moulin-à-Vent.

Oh yeah, and an autographed copy of Mastering Cheese as well.

I had the chance to taste a Fladä a couple of days ago. It had been far too long. This very soft and voluptuous cheese delivers the flavor and luxurious texture that one can experience having fresh whole clean milk, as it would be practically right out of the cow. Actually, that flavor is a little closer to clotted cream. Because the cheese is fermented however, the aroma that it gives off can be a little daunting. This is a natural byproduct in the production of cheese. It’s good to keep in mind that this fermentation process involves the conversion of the lactose in the milk into lactic acid – a plus. That aroma is not for the faint-of-heart; it’s not for everybody. Those of us that do like it expect that the flavor may be quite different, even splendid. Some people recommend that you hold your nose when you taste cheese like this one. The aroma will still slip into the experience but it may be a little subdued.

The cheese maker is one of my favorites – Mr. Josef Barmettler – whose dairy is quite close to the village of Stans in central Switzerland. In my second book Cheese, a Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Best I describe the aroma as barnyardy. That word might be a nicer way of saying that it smells a little like the back end of a cow. Interestingly, the name Stanser Chuä Fladä translates to “cow patty from Stans.” It even looks a little like a cow patty.

I don’t like to see people choose this cheese just to impress others with their stated desire to have the stinky or nastiest of cheeses. It is such a wonderful specimen of fermented cow milk that it should be appreciated for its superiority in the category of softer wash-rind cow cheeses. The cheese also delivers a hefty dose of Conjugated Linoleic Acid owing to the fact that it is relatively young with those beneficial b. linens surface bacteria, and because the milk is drawn from dairies that offer a wide diversity of nutrients to the cows.

So nice by itself, I worry less about a suitable wine partner for the Fladä, though I did record several nice candidates while researching for that book. Some of those nice wine matches surprised me. They included: Condrieu, Alsatian Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer, Vouvray, Pouilly-Fumé and California Sauvignon Blanc (of all things). Not as many reds appear to meld so well with this cheese: Priorat and the usually-reliable California Zinfandel.

Another Barmettler cheese in our caves right now is the Stanser Rotelli, meaning a little red from Stans. Not quite as aromatic as the Stanser Chuä Fladä, just a little more restrained aromatically, but equally exquisite. This cheese was first introduced to me many years ago as Innerschweizer Weicher, meaning cow cheese from central Switzerland. Barmettler and his affineur – Rolf Beeler – thought the new name might be easier for us to pronounce.

Thanks guys, but especially for crafting these phenomenal cheeses to us. Exquisite! By the way, the rinds of these two cheeses are edible (you won’t want to waste a bit) but the paste inside is really what the cheese is all about. Both of these cheeses are at their peaks right now.

You can’t miss when you include cheese in your entertaining, especially during the busy holiday season. Besides being especially delicious, cheese is also relatively easy to serve. You don’t have to cook it, no pots and pans to clean up; the preparation work has already been done for you, most of it at the creamery where the cheese was crafted. Here at the Artisanal Cheese Center we take over with the finishing touches of ripening the cheese to its peak stage of ripeness.

We sometimes call the Artisanal Cheese Center a Day School for Cheese, or it might be called a “finishing” school. Once you order your cheeses they will arrive ready to enjoy. All you have to do is take them out of their wrappers and set them out on a cutting board.

If you are unsure of what cheeses to order or you don’t have the time to make your specific selections, you can order one of our cheese collections. The Celebration Collection is essentially a “party in a box” with a variety of cheeses and nice accompaniments. Or for a more intimate gathering you might simply choose Max’s Picks. In that collection I choose three different cheeses that I would consider having on my plate at the time.

Are you considering what to give to make the holidays less stressful, for the recipient as well as yourself?

Cheese may not have that “permanence” such that they can keep it forever but the pleasure that a fine cheese provides will be remembered for a long time. Additionally, cheese includes a number of peptides and amino acids that help relieve stress and anxiety – perhaps the greatest gift for the holidays. Additionally, cheese gifts could not be easier for you.

Several cheese collections are available for the one-time purchase: The Celebration Collection, the Affineur’s Collection, Max’s Plate, or Max’s Healthy Cheese Plate, among others.

Or you can give “the gift of education” by purchasing a gift certificate for a class offered here at the Artisanal Cheese Center, either for one of our single-session core classes such as the Cheese & Wine 101, All About Fondue (perfect weather for it these days), or Sexy Cheese; or for the all-out three-day series The Master Class: Intensive for Professionals and Cheese Lovers.

To make your cheese gift a little more permanent you might consider giving a subscription to the Cheese of the Month program. Or you might include an autographed copy of The Cheese Plate, Cheese, a Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Best, or Mastering Cheese, Lessons for Connoisseurship from a Maître Fromager.

Whatever “cheese” gift you choose, you can rest assured it will bring a big smile to your recipient!