News From The Cheese Caves

The idea of entertaining with cheese may sound a little funny when you first hear of it: as in spending some December evenings with your favorite cheese, or making cheese the party entertainment itself. There is a way of making either of these ideas work but I know of no easier way to entertain than by serving up a little selection of fine cheeses. No cooking required, minimal mess to clean up, and you can have it delivered directly to your door from one source – www.artisanalcheese.com. It is almost too easy!

I find that people often feel compelled to supplement their party food options with other items: charcuterie, shrimp cocktails, guacamole, etc. Yet the cheeses end up being the “hit” of the party, the food that people remember. The questions arise: if cheese is going to be the main food, how much will I need, how many cheese types, and what accompaniments will work best?

If cheese is the main food you will be serving I recommend that you have at least three varieties, though a larger grouping will make for a more stimulating food affair. Mixing up the milk types: cow, goat, sheep, and mixed milk cheese, is one of the first recommendations I make. Mixing up the textures of the cheeses is helpful (more on that below) because some people prefer softer cheeses while others prefer the harder varieties. Mixing up the rind types opens up wider distinctions among cheeses: bloomy rinds, wash rinds, waxed rinds, etc. Having one blue cheese is recommended (at parties especially) because they can put that little “exclamation point” on the palate, and because the blue cheese lovers are a loyal group. Mixing up the provenances invites more discussion. For example, having one cheese from Spain may send a conversation in one direction, while having another from Vermont will bring up other topics.

For a party intended to last at least three hours I recommend that you have the equivalent of six ounces per person, no less, in total of the various types. If you plan on serving three cheeses then you should have about 2 ounces of each, per person. For the softer cheeses this weight should be increased a little; people tend to eat more of the softer cheeses because they have a higher water content. This is one reason I recommend that you devote more of your cheese purchasing dollars to the firmer cheeses, the harder the cheese is the sooner your guests will be sated. Said another way, a little hard cheese goes a long way. If you end up with scraps of hard cheeses they are much easier to wrap up and save for another occasion than a soft cheese that is oozing out of its rind. Saving those softer runnier cheeses is like putting toothpaste back into its tube.

The harder cheeses are usually more successful pairing partners for beers and wines (and other beverages) than the softer ones. If you are entertaining a large group, you will not want to end up with a lot of cheese waste, nor do you want to end up with flawed marriages between your beverage offerings and your cheeses.

We have noticed that a simple beverage can be “elevated” by fine cheeses. You may want to purchase a festive and relatively inexpensive wine such as a Gamay (as in Beaujolais). With these wines you can find many nice matches with various styles of cheeses. The cheeses can make a decent Beaujolais taste like a Grand Cru Burgundy, or almost. If you choose to open up your cellar and bring out your First Growth Bordeaux there is a good chance that you will “diminish” the expanse of the wine; you may even harm the wine with obstreperous cheeses.

As for the other accompaniments, the crisp baguette is nice but it is not a must. Neutral flavored crackers work well. Some people just cannot resist the urge to spread their cheese on a cracker, or lay a slice of a hard cheese on a piece of bread. My inclination is to serve other foods that deliver some of the few nutrients that cheese does not: vitamin C and fiber. Some high-fiber vitamin C-rich fruit and some fiber-rich nuts (preferably unsalted on my table) make excellent accompaniments. A good honey makes another delicious and nutritious accompaniment to most cheeses.

The default grapes are nice too, though I prefer to have my grape juice fermented into wine.

Bottom line: cheese, bread, and wine, or beer; it is easy to get it right, and surprisingly difficult to get it wrong.

Max McCalman

We often receive requests for the strongest cheese available. At this time that honor goes to a mixed-milk Cabrales. By far and away the most assertive cheese in our caves and a hard act to follow, this raw-milk, naturally-bluing-blue is to Spain, what Stilton is to England, what Roquefort is to France, what Gorgonzola is to Italy. These are all strong flavored cheeses but the latter three cheeses command a far greater market share, largely because they are much more “approachable.”

The Cabrales is the most artisanal in the mix not only because it is has limited production, unlike the others it acquires its blue mold spontaneously, and varies from one season to another. When produced in spring and summer (when the ones now in our caves were crafted) the mix of all three milks is included: cow, goat and sheep. Later in the year when the ewes dry off the mix switches to goat and cow milk only, then in the winter only cow milk is used. The milk that is used for Cabrales production in the winter months is provided by cows with a diet limited to hay and grains; in other words: they are not left out in the cold grazing on limited vegetation. As one would expect, the cheeses produced with all three milks when the vegetation is more lush yields a cheese with a much bigger flavor profile. Not to take anything away from the winter cheeses; they are “nicer.”

Perhaps that should be one’s first Cabrales experience – the “nicer” one, though no wallflower whatsoever.

People often want to believe that there will be a suitable wine partner for any old cheese that is before them. This one has just a few: a viscous, high-quality Pedro Ximenez sherry from the opposite side of Spain (the deep south); a superior aged Madeira; or an aged Sauternes. We also noticed that a fruit-forward new world Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon worked okay. Interestingly, Tawny or vintage ports do not measure up, though they will present a valiant effort. The region where Cabrales is produced is not known for its wine production; this is a very recent agricultural enterprise. The beverage for which Asturias is known is cider. Apples thrive well in the region so the ciders have always been the locals’ favorite Cabrales partner.

I would recommend that you have one of the above beverages close at hand when you try a Cabrales the first time. The battleship gray color and fetid aroma should suggest an outsized gastronomic experience is on the way. A very small nibble is more than sufficient to get the idea across. The flavors ignite every taste bud, though not to an alarming level. Instead the flavor is more persistent than alarming. Water won’t help. After a few minutes the finish is actually rather pleasant, the flavor is still present but much more graceful, even a little sweet.

For those that want the strongest cheese in our caves, the Cabrales is the one. If you are choosing it only to impress others with your bravery you are missing the point. This cheese is one of the last of its kind; it should be respected for its unique qualities, its history, and its pedigree, as well as its above-average nutritional value. Just a little dab will do you though. If it is still too much to enjoy on its own, or accompanied by cider or one of the wines recommended above, you might try incorporating it into a sauce for a steak, or into a dressing for a salad. However you have it I am certain that it will offer a memorable experience.

Max McCalman

As we proceed into the colder season the stresses can mount, aggravated by holiday demands, less sun, more family visits, the end of semesters, the creeping feeling that we did not meet all our goals or resolutions, etc. It is great to know that we have cheese available, which can make it a little easier to handle it all. Cheese has a way of making it all okay: helping us deal with stress and pain, satisfying and/or reducing our appetites, warding off depression, minimizing anxiety and hypertension, reducing fatigue and insomnia, At this time of year there is a broad range of cheese types from which you can choose and I recommend that you mix them up, have several, and don’t worry about over-eating it. It simply does not happen, partly because cheese is particularly satisfying; one will reach satiety long before they need to worry about having too much.

If we have our cheese preferences, so be it. Yet no two cheeses are created equal. To get the best cheese experiences, including the stress-reducing capacities that are found in many of its components, I advise trying different types: not just cow, not just soft cheeses, not only stinky; because all of them have different levels of those important nutrients, as well as their individual aesthetics.

Those points about nutritional values are the focus of our Cheese & Wine 201 class. Cheese offers near-complete nutrition; those nutrients are better assimilated with the consumption of moderate amounts of wine, or beer. The operative word here is “moderate.” The first glass is for digestion, the second is for romance, and the third is on the border between having a good night’s sleep or one that is not so good.

When we were in the process of assigning a CheeseClock™ position to the Mountaintop Bleu we anticipated a stronger placement, the Mountaintop Bleu being a “bleu” cheese. Yet we could not deny that this lovely cheese was actually just fine fitting in the milder quadrant, a first, a blue cheese in the Mild category! This Maryland cheese has a gentle balanced flavor with just a touch of salt, not too acid, with a thin rind, a soft clay texture, and gentle bluing.

Part of the success of this cheese as a goat milk blue, and one that can fit into the Mild quadrant, is that it is made with pasteurized goat milk. We can only dream of what it might taste like if it were crafted from raw milk! That heat treatment might minimize some of the challenging characteristics in raw goat milk, for which there are few internal molded blues, raw or pasteurized. Another factor is that the cheese is fairly young; the flavors have not had a chance to intensify. Instead of a pierced blue cheese, the Mountaintop Bleu has the mold added to the curd so that within a few days the blue mold starts to develop in the paste. If the cheese were aerated by piercing the mold would develop faster. Because the rind has a light dusting of ash and a little beneficial bloomy mold the cheese has less air entering it to promote the bluing.

This cheese is not particularly salty for a blue. Most blues require a little extra salt to thwart competing enzymes. Because the Mountaintop Bleu has less salt you might expect that it would become bluer quickly. Again, it is a fairly young cheese, and the other surface molds, as well as the fact that the cheese is not pierced, helps to keep the blue mold in check so that it does not overwhelm the flavor of the fresh goat milk.

We are especially pleased to have another marvelous cheese such as the Mountaintop Bleu in our caves now, and out first blue in the Mild section!

An article written by a cheese guy would uncover more facets of the mysteries of affinage than one written by someone outside the industry. The recent article in the NY Times made for interesting reading: the pitting of the affinage naysayers and those who are strong proponents of the practice(s). The article concluded with evidence the cheeses that were given extra care were superior to those that had not; one of the cheeses in the latter group was inedible. Whether it was admitted or not there are plenty of things that happen to cheese once it is formed; some of those things are beneficial while many others can be seriously detrimental. Simple aging involves a number of processes that occur on their own, yet careful monitoring of these processes is critical.

An immature cheese has less character than a mature cheese. To bring that young cheese to where it reaches its optimal level of ripeness includes several skill sets, several beyond what the cheese maker generally provides.

While some established cheese mongers claim their cheese-handling task is simple: to avoid screwing up a good cheese, this alone involves far more than temperature and humidity-controlled storage. It is no wonder that many people don’t like cheese. Lazy and imprecise cheese handling (or simple neglect) can yield a lame gustatory experience.

When I call the Artisanal Cheese Center a “day school” for cheese it barely scratches the surface of what we aim to accomplish in nurturing our cheeses. The critical first few hours and days of a cheese are almost always left to the cheese maker. After that the “finishing” is left up to the retailer who then sells it to the end-consumer. Perhaps a better analogy is to call our enterprise a “finishing school.”

To “elevate” a cheese is not rocket science. Some people who handle cheeses seem to have the knack. Under the tutelage of one of those experts a cheese can reach its optimal peak. Without those skills and talent a cheese can easily succumb to the catacombs.

Whether we care to admit it or not, affinage is practiced by a growing number of Americans. Along with the growing appreciation for cheese here, there is a greater need for this expertise. This is one reason the American Cheese Society has endorsed a certification effort for cheese handlers. By this time next year we expect there will be several individuals who have attained this certification. A big part of this will include knowledge of good cheese-handling practices.

Cheese is a living food, a near-perfect food, but it is also a perishable food. The affineur must include safe handling in their cheese studies. Fortunately cheese has some built-in qualities which make it a safe food, safer than most other foods.

For the person who said Portugal and Ireland were newcomers in the cheese world, they should be advised that cheese has been a food staple in both those regions for almost as long as it has been in Italy and Spain, since well before any of those countries were known by those names. What is now called France is as much a newcomer as is Portugal.

What is happening with affinage here in the US is encouraging. With these developments I expect artisan cheeses to taste better and better. Good affinage speaks for itself.

Max McCalman

For more information on Max or the Art of Affinage, please visit us at artisanalcheese.com

Everywhere you turn now people seem to be talking about pairing foods and beverages, especially the cheese and beverage pairings. This could be partly because we started digging into this study almost twenty years ago and now it seems like everyone’s doing it. Our pairings began with the focus on cheese and wine. The beer lovers hopped on the pairing bandwagon, then spirits aficionados, sakes cognoscenti, tea drinkers, coffee lovers, etc.

Cheese has been enjoyed with beers and wines for many centuries, the other ones are more recent studies. Yet Americans seem to have a near-obsession with the pairings, whatever the food and beverage, as though if we get it wrong we have made an egregious error. The pairing principles are good tools to use to master pairings but the variables are limitless, and we have to admit that it is a little subjective.

Our preferences for certain cheeses or wines (or other beverages) likely has a big say in our pairing assessments. For example, if we are particularly fond of Pinot Noir we might find more successful pairings with that grape than with a wine we avoid. The same goes for the cheeses. In our Cheese & Wine 101 class we dissect the pairings of several cheese types with a range of wines.

This “laboratory” is probably not the way most people experience cheeses and wines–by mixing them in the mouth and noting what happens as the mixture crosses the palate. It is normally a less formal or academic exercise, one that is more leisurely. We have a sip of wine then we have a nibble of cheese a little later. Most people do not consciously force the two together simultaneously. Even though the “forced” pairing is not taking place in these casual situations the results can be very much the same. If the cheese and wine were not good mates to begin with, they probably eventually leave a disappointing finish.

More often than not, cheeses and wines (or beers) do work well together. Again, we all have our personal preferences and sometimes the confluence of flavors and aromas between the cheeses and beverages can bring out new flavors and aromas which some of us may enjoy while others do not. Those aromatics are what “seals-the-deal” in pairings not just with cheese but with all foods.

The balancing relationships between cheeses and wines have several parallels: the “fruit” in the wine (or beer or other beverage) balances the salty or savory characteristics in the cheese. The saltier cheeses pair better with the fruitier wines, generally even better with the so-called “dessert” wines. Those wines with higher levels of residual sugar should be called “cheese” wines. When you already have sweet in your dessert why would you want to top it off with a little more sugar in the wine? One of the classic matches between a cheese and wine is the one between a salty Roquefort and a sweet Sauternes.

Another balancing act between cheeses and beverages is how they relate to overall “size” of flavor. The bigger flavored cheeses can annihilate a milder wine. It is usually better to have the cheese and wine find a matching fullness of flavor otherwise the cheese can change the wine into water, so to speak. The gentle wine may wash the big cheese down nicely but the subtleties in the wine may be lost.

We have found that the more acid cheeses generally work better with the more acid wines. All wines are more acid than all cheeses. If the cheeses had those low pH levels they would be intolerable. This is more a relationship of harmony than an actual see-saw balance. This is perhaps one reason why beers and cheeses can mate so well, the pH levels in beers are rarely as acid as those in wines.

Speaking of beers, the texture of each partner plays a not insignificant role. The effervescence in beers helps to lift up the butter fats and acids in cheeses so that they swirl around in the mouth like Balanchine. Wines have their textures too; it is not just “advantageous” sparkling wines and still wines. The mouth feel of still wines can be notably different. One varietal such as a Chardonnay has a round texture compared to a Sauvignon Blanc. This overall mouth feel is drawn from a number of qualities: acid, astringent (as those presented in tannic wines), trace minerals, barrel influence, and any effervescence.

Cheeses obviously have their own textures. Some are liquid like water while others are nearly as hard as granite. This is a relationship between cheeses and beverages that may be a little less important than others yet we have found that the firmer the cheese the better the mating with the beverage. This could be partly because the flavors in the cheese become more focused as they harden and age; the salts become more pronounced – those salts which play off the liquid partner so well, especially a liquid partner on the sweeter side. The softer cheeses often work best with the more effervescent beverages. The flavors in a younger softer cheese can be a bit scattered and unfocused compared to the harder cheeses. The bubbles provide a little texture to the duet.

Again, in more cases than not, cheeses and wines or other beverages do work well together. There are the occasional bad marriages but they are much less frequent than the successes. It should be noted that the hungrier and thirstier you are the more likely they pairings will be pleasing.

August is goat cheese month for a couple of reasons. Most goat cheeses are at their peaks when they are on the young side. If it is a relatively aged goat cheese (say around four months of age) the milk would have been drawn when the animals had some of the fresh vegetation that April brings, or if it is a younger cheese there should be a good diversity of plants available in July or August. Many dairy goats have wild berries and fresh herbs in their summer diets. The more food choices the animals have, the more flavorful the milk will be, which translates to a better cheese.

August, being one of the hottest months of the year, is a time when our cheese choices are for the lighter varieties, such as those younger goat cheeses. When the temperature creeps up into the nineties or higher we might skip the blues, the big-flavored or the stinky cheeses and choose those lighter creamier goat cheeses such as the Laurier instead. Even though most goat cheeses are still available in fine form later in the year, they are especially favored in August.

Our choices of wines or beers veer toward the lighter styles in August too. The Sauvignon Blancs (a varietal whose favorite cheeses are produced with goat milk) or the young Chardonnays that are fermented in stainless steel instead of oak, the floral Viogners and dry Albariños or Chenin Blancs; all these white wines and many others pair exceptionally well with the goat milk cheeses. These cheeses also blend in beautifully with our cool pilsners, wheat beers, and our summer ales.

When you follow the logic of the CheeseClockâ„¢ pairing tool this is precisely what is indicated, the lighter cheeses such as the younger milder goat cheeses pair best with the lighter wines and beers.

Max McCalman

Here we are at a time of the year when our appetites wane; it’s just too hot. Maybe some watermelon, berries, or some other fruit, but other meatier foods? The heavier foods just don’t seem so appealing in the summer months. I personally enjoy the warm weather, far more than the colder. A big part of what I enjoy about this part of year is that more and more cheeses are coming into their prime, cheeses that were not quite at peak in the spring.

The younger cheeses, the ones that are aged less than three months, are ones that were produced when the vegetation available to the animals was fresh and diverse. Some animals that may have had to settle for hay in the earlier parts of the year were allowed to roam about outdoors and choose from new sprouts, young shoots, green leaves and grasses. All this fresh vegetation spells full flavors in the milk, as well as in the cheeses that are crafted from that milk.

The young goat milk cheeses, or cheeses that have some goat milk in them, are showing so pretty now: the Coupole, the Cremont, the Nettle Meadow Kunik, the Petite Mothais, and the Roves des Garrigues. We always look forward to seeing these come into their primes. And with a side of fresh berries, these cheeses are all you may want to eat for lunch, or breakfast, or later in the day! The Abbaye de Tamié is spectacular right now, to think of it: drawn from happy cows grazing on all types of flora in the valleys of the French Alps. Similarly, the Dorset suggests that the springtime in western Vermont was a good one. These two cheeses are available year-round but these two are primo now. Le Moulis is back, and like the previous two cheeses, this is a cheese that is delicious when it is at this age, and from cows grazing in the lush springtime of the Pyrénées.

Apparently Utah had good springtime weather too, the Terraluna is magnificent. I have come to appreciate this cheese more and more. I look forward to seeing how its flavors evolve throughout the year. One thing I have always counted on this time of year is having the assurance that the Alpine cow cheeses are sufficiently aged. The Appenzeller has some of those sparkling tyrosine crystals developing and there are some in the Hoch Ybrig too. Having a little snack of these cheeses does the body good. And for that matter, I see no reason to ever refuse a little Carles Roquefort when it is around.

Summertime is a great time for cheese, cut back on the other sources of protein.

Max McCalman

A post on Vegetarian Blues has me in fits. An old article from the Orlando Sentinel is quoted:

Of all the potentially addicting foods, cheese may be the most complex. In research studies using vegan and vegetarian diets to control cholesterol or reduce body weight, most participants soon forget the lure of ice cream, sour cream, and even burgers and chicken. But for many people, the taste for cheese lingers on and on. Yes, 70 percent of its calories may come from waist-augmenting fat, and, ounce for ounce, it may harbor more cholesterol than a steak. But that cheese habit is tough to break.

Give me a break! Yes, cheese has addictive properties but I am fully certain that the consumption of cheese is a good addiction to have, and for many reasons. It is interesting to note that the first two foods cited as easy to “forget the lure of…” are also dairy products: ice cream and sour cream. The lure of dairy is always present, the primordial food that milk is in its many forms.

One of the biggest reasons why it is so difficult to give up on cheese is that our bodies know a good food when it eats it. Those addictive opioid peptides found in cheese actually help control our food intake. They also play a role in motivation, emotion, and the response to stress and pain. If a food delivers a lot of nutrition while helping to control our appetite then a little additional motivation and alleviation of pain should be permitted.

The article goes on to say that the cheese industry is looking for those Americans who will eat it straight out of the package, whatever the cost to their waistlines or cholesterol levels. It fails to mention a number of cheese components that can help you to slim down. Along with those appetite-controlling opioid peptides there is the satiety factor to be considered. Cheese (being a near-complete food) tends to satisfy us so that we do not crave excess amounts of food, cheese included. A little bit of cheese goes a long way.

A misconception I often hear is that it is the fat itself which makes us put on weight. More accurately it is instead the excess calories we consume but do not expend. Of course you can derive calories from fat, but you can also derive calories from protein and carbohydrates. The fat that is found in cheese not only makes the cheese taste good, it also helps to satisfy our cravings. That fat also breaks down into some mighty important fatty acids such as conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA. Multiple studies of the type of CLA found in dairy products have shown that it helps to reduce our weight; some studies indicate that a diet that contains this fatty acid can reduce abdominal fat! Another benefit of CLA is that it decreases whole-body glucose uptake. This is what we want.

There are several other good qualities of this addictive food. Cheese is an excellent source of the amino acid which suppresses our appetites and helps to reduce body fat – tyrosine. Other amino acids, vitamins and minerals that are derived from cheese help to lower our cholesterol levels and control our appetites, and to metabolize the fats and proteins that we do consume.

The cheese industry does not claim that cheese is perfect but given a choice of foods there is no other that matches the complete nutrition that cheese provides, and there is no other food with a better track record for food safety. Cheese is derived from our first food – milk – our first and only food for the first several weeks or months our lives. Unfortunately, what in many cases passes for cheese is so far removed from our first food that it is no wonder that cheese has been repeatedly and viciously maligned. Yet even those processed cheeses are still better foods for us than most any other, and a safer food too.

By the way, my cholesterol levels are amazing and I am quite slim. My HDL is 163 and my LDL is 64, not bad for someone my age. Good genes don’t hurt but the 100 pounds of cheese that I eat each year does not seem to be hurting either.

Max McCalman

Using blends of milks and creams to make cheeses may sound like a new idea yet this practice has been around almost as long as cheese itself. When a cheese maker has an excess of one milk type and a deficit of another he might just add them together into the cheese making vat. Or if it might be a family farm that had one milking ewe and one lactating cow whatever milk they did not drink they might mix together. The enhanced flavors in these blended milk cheeses gave an incentive to continue to mix milks for cheese making. Like having the best of both worlds, or having the best of all three.

Different species and breeds of dairy animals that graze on the same soil and that consume the same vegetation will produce different milks. Not that all the different animals will naturally choose the same foods, yet if and when they do, the nutrients that they individually extract from those plants will yield different flavors and aromas in their milks. The cheeses that are produced from these subtly different milks often become more distinctive than the milks themselves. This is certainly the case among the species – that different species yield cheeses with different profiles.

Blending these profiles together adds organoleptic qualities to cheeses. It is similar to wines produced from blends of grapes. The sum is greater than the parts. These blends can take a little edge out of dominant flavor notes in cheeses, the same way that blending grapes can smooth out forceful varietals. For example, some people just cannot do the goat cheeses (unbelievable as this may sound). Blending in just a little cow or sheep milk can reduce those “objectionable” goat notes significantly.

Another advantage of mixed milk cheeses is that you derive different nutritive values from different milks, or at least different relative amounts of those nutrients. For example, goat milk has more vitamins A and D than sheep or cow milk, cow milk has more Folic acid and Zinc than the other two, while sheep milk has more CLA and vitamins B2 and B12. In theory then, mixed milk cheeses should deliver a more complete and balanced grouping of all those nutrients.

Back to the aesthetics of mixed milk cheeses, the blends should offer a bigger “rainbow” of aromas, flavors and textures. The broader flavors should then lend themselves to greater synergies with wines and other beverages. This has been our experience that overall, the mixed milk cheeses blend in more successfully than the other single-milk cheeses. This bigger rainbow might seem to be a problem for successful pairings yet the blending actually diminishes some of those “rough edges” in the single milks, making these cheeses more forgiving.

Some of the standout mixed milk cheeses in our caves now include: Nettle Meadow Kunik, Cremont, La Peral, Robiola Bosina, Robiola due Latti, and Robiola Rocchetta. It is great to see that an old tradition of mixing milks is still practiced.

- Max McCalman