Saturday was ‘Wash Day’…

No, not the weekly chore of laundry…But an educational, “aromatic” cheese course on Washed Rind Cheeses that I attended this last Saturday.  Washed Rind Cheeses fall under the category of Surface Ripened Cheeses, which means that they age from the outer surface inward. They are also stinky cheeses because of this washing (or smearing) process.

These cheeses have a long standing history and are sometimes referred to as ‘Monastery Cheeses’, as many were developed in Monasteries across Europe. Since the middle ages Monks and Nuns have been the source of many of the original European cheeses and wines. 

Working under the premise – “Ora et Labora” (Pray and Work). This motto summarizes monastic life in two words.  The Monks and Nuns devote a large portion of each day to manual labor, thus providing for their own living expenses as well as helping others in need. 

These cheeses, most of which were founded in France, Belgium, and Switzerland, share a basic recipe and milk type; they are soft ripened,semisoft, or semihard cow’s milk cheeses made from uncooked curds and with washed rinds. 

One of the most famous examples of this genre is Muenster, which takes its name from an old form of the word monastery.

Let’s get back to the cheeses….These cheeses have been washed with a brined water solution, or beer, or spirits, or something called Morge (a salt water solution with remnants of older cheese bits in it). These washes help develop a very thin rind which helps keep bad bacteria away, while allowing good bacteria (brevibacterium linens or just simply b.linens) which also allows an orange/pink coloring, and pungent odors to develop…think Limburger type.

I mentioned Limburger because while many have not enjoyed it, its stinky reputation has proceeded it, which was precisely why this class (and the study at the Oregon State University, Food Innovation Center) developed this training.

We were given four Washed Rind Cheeses in a blind tasting (meaning we were not told their name) and asked to evaluate them on the following: Flavor, Aroma, Texture, and Taste. We were asked to rank them in order of preference and whether we would purchase or not…..Then, we were told that #573 was Limburger. When this same study was given to tasters at Oregon State, half the group tasted them ‘blind’, while the other half were told what they were tasting. The results?...The study showed that people do have a negative connotation of the name ‘Limburger’, as the half of the class that tasted it ‘blind’ really enjoyed it.

My favorites were Pont-l'Eveque (#417) and Grayson (#642).

So in summary, when buying these cheeses, be adventurous! Ask your local cheesemonger for their recommendations, pairings, and for a sample! I think that you will be pleasantly surprised by these wonderful cheeses!

While laundry may be nothing to celebrate, exploring these great cheeses are!

Cheese, Time Travel, and other such things…

Cheese is magical. A mere uttering of the word, makes one smile; it has the power to transform a dish; and it has the power of time travel…Let me explain.

Recently, I had the opportunity to stop by and visit my friends at the Cheese School of San Francisco, if you have not had the chance of visiting, I highly recommending stopping by. It is part cheese/wine shop, part cheese education center, and part restaurant (did I leave out ‘part heaven’?). In all my travels, I have never found anything close to it. 

For today’s visit, I was focusing in on their cheese case, as they tend to carry some unique ones from around the U.S. and the world. Then I noticed a small, dry cheese that was wrapped in cloth with a yellow ribbon, just one sniff, and I found myself half way up the Swiss Alps, sitting in a small chalet with no electricity, about to enjoy a green salad topped with this magical cheese known as Belper Knolle.

No hallucinogenic properties going on here, just my senses taking me back to my last visit to Switzerland. Strange how a sight, a sound, or a smell from our past has the power to recall memories, down to the slightest details, and yet we can’t find our house keys that we had in our hands not five minutes earlier. This was one of those experiences.

Belper Knolle is a raw, Cow’s Milk Cheese that is infused with garlic and pepper that have been aged in a small ball shape that is aged for 90 days. 

It is very hard and must be ‘shaved’ like a truffle partially due to its hardness, but also due to its intensity in flavor. 

The shavings are so fine that they are like flower petals. The cheese is dry, and yet has a creamy, garlicy, and peppery flavor to whatever it is paired with. In Switzerland, I had it shaved over a green salad, drizzled with a fine extra virgin olive oil.

Mr. Peabody may have had his WABAC Machine, but I need only visit my nearest cheese case to be transported to another time and place.

Regional Cheeses of the Northeast

As mentioned in the “About Me” section of this blog, my job takes me to new and different parts of the country. While in these “new” parts, I always like to visit the local cheese shop, or cheese retailer to see what local gems I can find, that I don’t see in my local markets.

Recently, my travels took me into Albany in upstate New York. Other than being the Capitol of The Empire State, I really did not know much about the area (or how high up in the country I was – almost as high as Buffalo, NY).

While in one of these cheese shops, I found a brand called Nettle Meadow Artisan Cheese. It was the word “Nettle” that caught my eye, as Nettle is a type of plant that can be used in helping the milk coagulate in cheese making instead of using animal rennet (more about this in a future post).

The Nettle Meadow Artisan Cheese Company was founded in 1990 is owned and operated by Lorraine Lambiase and Sheila Flanagan in Warrensburg, NY which is about an hour North of Albany. 

While they produce many different styles of cheese (Bloomy Rind, Washed Rind, and Fresh Types) there were two that I had to try: Kunik Mini and Honey Lavender Fromage Blanc.

Kunik Mini is a Bloomy Rind “Button” (a petite 3.5 oz. round) that is made from Pasteurized Goat’s Milk, Cow’s Cream, and Sea Salt. This award-winning cheese had a wonderful earthy aroma and a creamy finish.

Honey Lavender Fromage Blanc is a soft, spreadable cheese that was perfect on a toasted bread and served with a good cup of Jasmine Pearls Green Tea from The Tao of Tea for Breakfast. I have seen Lavender turn up more and more as a flavoring in cheese and I love this trend!

Happy hunting for your own local brands and I look forward to sharing more finds from my travels… Until next time!

The Terroir of Cheese

If you search for the definition of “Terroir” in the dictionary, you will most likely find a reference to wine and it stating that the factors of Climate, Sunlight and Soil will have an overall effect on the outcome, or characteristics of the grapes. However, when it comes to cheese, I learned that there is so much more going on than that!

You see, Terroir for cheese follows the same for factors for wine, but since the animal is eating the grass/flowers/plants that grow in these regions (and elevations), they too have a major impact on the overall taste of the cheese.

This was a hard concept to understand…especially if you walk over to your refrigerator and smell a carton of milk. Assuming it’s a fresh container, you may pick up some buttery, or grassy notes, but beyond that, it’s hard to imagine how the flavor of the cheese is impacted… That is, until I traveled to the Canton of Fribourg, to a small town known as Gruyères in Switzerland. It is here at the La Maison du Gruyère (The House of Gruyere), where you can learn of this famous cheese’s history, how it’s made, but also receive a sensory lesson of how the Terrior of this region effects the overall flavor of the cheese.

When you enter the La Maison du Gruyère, there is an area where you can watch them make the cheese, and of course there is a gift shop, but it was the self-guided educational part that left the biggest impression on me. Along several walls there were close up photographs showing some of the wildflowers, native grasses, and herbaceous plants that grow along the mountain of this region. Patrons are then encouraged to read about these, then to lift the small stainless steel vessel that contains this plant and smell the fragrance.

Each are all so different then the next. Each have their own impact on the final piece of cheese.

When you have made it through all eleven stations, you are then handed a piece of cheese to taste. At once, it all becomes crystal clear how very important these native plants, flowers, and grasses can impact the final flavor of the cheese, and more importantly how this cheese could only be made in this region.

So getting back to the definition… While the dictionary may try to explain it, speak to anyone in this region and they will simply say that Terroir simply means “A Sense of Place.”

Photos Courtesy of www.lamaisondugruyere.ch/homepage-en/

Wine & Cheese Unite

For the last 9 years, I have been fortunate enough to help lead a cheese and wine education event at Bogle Wineryin Clarksburg in Northern California. I have been approached many times over the years by different wineries to do a similar event, but I decline their generous offers…

Bogle is so fun to work with and they have an amazing selection and range of wines to pair with no matter what cheese I bring in every year.

Pairing cheeses and wines seems simple enough, but it is actually more complex than I first thought.

Here are a few examples that you might try at your next event: 

Triple Crème Brie with Champagne

Pure decadence! Creamy, luscious bloomy rind cheeses love Champagne and Sparkling Wines! Something about those silky, creamy and earthy notes of the cheese seem to be in perfect harmony with the fruity, crisp, and effervescent notes of this sparkling treat! Those beautiful bubbles effortlessly wash the creaminess away of this fine style of cheese…No wonder that both have been called the choice of royalty!

Fresh Chévre with Chenin Blanc

The beautiful Loire Valley in Western France is the home to one of the great regional cheese & wine pairings - Fresh Chévre (or aged varieties) served with Chenin Blanc is the classic “What Grows Together, Goes Together” pairing that perfectly captures the essence of “Terrior” (more about that in a future post). As the cheese and wine match each other in acidity and intensity. C'est Magnifique!

Roquefort with Ruby Port 

Some pairings seem to work best with contrasting (or “opposite”) flavors. In this case, you have a creamy sheep’s milk cheese that has a good “bite” of salt, paired with a sweet, almost syrupy gem that is delicious as a dessert or as an apértif. The sweet seems to cut right through the saltiness and balance it out.

Washed Rind Cheeses with Porters

While the Roquefort/Port combination was contrasting, this pairing is complementary, meaning that you have a stronger cheese that can stand up to a stronger beer. Washed Rind cheeses are “Monastery Cheeses” (more about these in a future post) which means that they have been washed with a salt water solution which can give the cheese an orange hue. These tend to be the “Stinky” cheeses varieties such as Limburger, Beer Käse, or Hand Cheese (all from Germany). Prost!

Photos courtesy of Bogle Winery

Meet Trevor Thomas, Certified Cheese Professional

Welcome Cheese Enthusiasts!

I am glad that you found this page and I hope that you will enjoy this blog, which will be part “cheese journal”, part “enjoying / cooking with cheese”, and part “cheese travel journal, as my job takes me around the country and I explore regional cheeses.”

Just so you feel like you know me a bit better, here is some background on me:

Ever since I started my very first job behind a 45-foot gourmet cheese counter, I have been in love with cheese. The year was 1984, and delicatessens had not yet found their way into every corner supermarket, in fact, the next cheese counter of equal size was some 25 miles away. We had no idea at that time how revolutionary such a cheese counter was. I guess the lines of customers should have been a clue that we were doing something special.

I have just celebrated my thirty-fifth year in the cheese industry. I have been truly blessed to spend my entire working career working with cheese. I worked my way up from a clerk behind this counter, all the way up to Director of Service Delicatessens for Nob Hill Foods; a 29 store supermarket chain in Northern California. As Director, it was my job to add gourmet cheese counters to the stores; all the way from construction, up to selection of products for the case. We started working with an importer that was airfreighting product to our store from France and confirmed we were doing something special when we found our cheese counter on the front page of the newspaper, and customers were again lining up.

In 2006, I decided to shift gears and look at the cheese industry from a different angle: as a Specialty Cheese Broker (Yes, that is a real job!). A great friend of mine owned a food brokerage in the Bay Area, and had just lost his account manager that handled his specialty cheese lines. When he asked me if I was interested, I jumped at the opportunity. In selling cheese as a broker, I was able to sell the cheeses from all over the world and found myself once again in a teaching role; helping retailers and distributors select and merchandise their cheese, while continuing to train their sales force.

2013 led to another chapter in my “cheese journey” as I accepted a position as a Regional Manager for Lactalis Group, third-generation, family-owned dairy company founded in Laval, France. Lactalis quickly understood my passion for cheese and wanted to encourage it. The company agreed to sponsor my attendance of the 2014 American Cheese Society’s Certified Cheese Professional exam…on one condition: I would turn the info I learned into a training book on Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). I passed the exam and became 1 of 101 Certified Cheese Professionals in the State of California (about 450 across the country as of 2014). 

In 2018, Lactalis changed my title and scope of responsibility to lead its efforts in Cheese Education and Retail Merchandising across the country. The following blog entries are my Cheese Traveler “journal” …so come along and enjoy!