Explore a world of cheeses with Cheese Traveler, Trevor Thomas, CCP
Cooking, Pairing, Education
Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!
When I wrote my blog post Back to Nature – Wood Bound, I may have been premature when writing that piece in June, as some of them were not available until the wintertime, so I decided to revisit this cheese style as many were coming available this month.
This week’s post, could really be considered a “Part II” to the “Wood Bound” story, so I hope that you will take a few minutes to reread it.
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Photo courtesy of mirandadventure
Now that Thanksgiving has past, I find myself thinking about Turkey all the time…No, not the “Plump & Juicy” kind, but the beautiful country of Turkey that is nestled in between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.Officially called theRepublic of Turkey, it is truly a transcontinental country, located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia.
Read MoreHello Cheese Enthusiasts!
I have been thinking a lot lately about what I like to call “Cheese Essentials”…they are ingredients, or terms that we use in the cheese industry, but their definition, use, need, or even their ‘essence’ may get lost over time. I have tried to focus on a few of these in the last few months, such as my story on Rennet (you can read it here), or last week’s post on Mold. These may not be romantic cheese stories, but if you enjoy reading and learning more about what ingredients that you are consuming, then I think that blog posts like these are important pieces on this body of work, simply known as Cheese Traveler.
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I am back!...I had a few year-end projects to finish up, and could not wait to get back to writing. While away, I received the following message through the comments section of the Cheese Traveler blog: “I've seen several discussions online about trimming mold from cheese, and that it’s safe to do so. I've always done this, and would like your perspective on doing this”.
Great topic!!...and definitely one that should be discussed!!
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Besides my love for cheese, I also love family history…As a result, I have access to a lot of old newspaper databases and decided recently to take a look back 100 years to 1920. I remembered some of the highlights from this era from my history lessons…World War I had just ended and the nations were learning to work together again; women gained the right to vote, prohibition has stopped all of the legal sales of alcohol, the population was a third of what it is today, and Jazz music was all the rage…But what about the world of cheese?? I decided to take a look…The following article is a shared here in its entirety for your reading pleasure. It is from Page 11 of The Sacramento Bee Newspaper, 17 August 1920:
HOLES IN SWISS CHEESE INDICATIVE OF ITS QUALITY
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This time of year, the air is a little crisper, the leaves are turning the most beautiful array of colors, and nightfall seems to come a little quicker…That can only mean one thing!!...Halloween is almost here!!
Realizing that Summer was officially behind us, we wanted one last camping adventure to help celebrate a few birthdays, the last warm weekend of the year, and sitting around the campfire at night enjoying a few too many s’mores, a few laughs, and of course, some good stories!
No ghost stories here…although it may be frightening that some of these cheeses we are about to discuss are not more readily available.
So settle in and gather around the fire as I tell you about three cheeses that are perfect for this time of year…
Read MoreThat was a phrase that many of us were told when we were young…A brand new coloring book, a fresh box of Crayola® Crayons, and the encouragement to “color within the lines.”
While this may have been easy for some children, others just loved to scribble in an attempt to use as much of the color as they wanted.
In this week’s post, I am going to explore the more “colorful” cheeses and share them with you. The Cheese Traveler Blog is not a forum to judge cheese, rather to try and bring the cheese from around the world to you…So, when writing this piece I will be in many cases using the manufacturer’s descriptions of their cheese, and not my own.
Read MoreThat term may not be common here in the United States, but trust me…it’s coming our way and we will be celebrating it when it does finally become part of our vocabulary…So what does ‘Au Lait Cru’ mean?....It is French for a product made with Raw Milk. That is to say that the milk temperature never rises above 40º C (104º F), which is about the same as an animal’s body temperature (101.5 – 103.5ºF). This is the way that all cheeses were made until the invention of milk pasteurization in the 1880’s. Milk pasteurization of fluid milk started happening in the 1920’s here in the States and by the mid-1940’s the rule was extended to cheese, unless it had been aged at least 60 days to help kill any potentially harmful bacteria
Read MoreFall is finally here! The days are a little shorter and the nights are a little cooler…but there is one other thing that would let me know what time of year it is…Apples! I live in the foothills near an area called “Apple Hill” and every market in the area is overrun with all of the delectable local apple treats that are coming out of this area…
Read MoreOctober 28, 1891 – That date will always have significance for my family, for that is the date that my great grandparents packed all of their belongings into seven steamer trunks and left the only home they had ever known. Their home up to that point was a small village in the Southwest Region of England in Cornwall where they ran a small hotel. 5,260 miles later, they made their new home in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Read MoreSeveral weeks ago, I received a question from one of my readers named Brian. He was very curious about cheeses that were infused with flavor through the rind.
I remembered how many times that I have seen other rind questions in other resources, so I thought this would be a good time and place to discuss this topic…
Read MoreIt’s Saturday morning, and as I sit down to write today’s post, I am flooded with inspiration to write this piece…As I have written many times before, my inspiration for stories come to me in many different sources…rather than list them here, I will just let them unfold as I tell you about the pride of the Basque…
Read MoreThe bartender says, “Wow…you look like you could enjoy a Double…or maybe even a Triple”…and then slides over a platter of Double and Triple Creme Bries!
Sounds great doesn’t it?...But what to pair with it??
We have discussed cheese and wine pairings before, but what about other libations?…
Read MoreJust like a good “Throwback Thursday”, I enjoy looking through some of my earlier posts to see where I have been and what I have already reviewed…One in particular caught my eye this week and I thought that I needed to revisit the region – “Regional Cheeses of the Northeast” was a story I wrote about my travels up to Albany, New York exploring several of the cheeses that could be found there. Right after I re-read this story, I grabbed my keys to head down to visit my local cheesemonger when I stopped to take took a closer look at my “Black Sheep” keyring from Old Chatham Sheepherding Creamery. I knew that this was the cheese lineup that I wanted to share with you today.
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While shopping at Nugget Market (home to one of my favorite cheese counters), I got into a discussion with their specialty cheese manager, Reed Pattison. Reed and I have known each other since 2014 when we were both studying for the American Cheese Society’s Certified Cheese Professional Exam. I am happy to say that both he and I passed the exam and became part of an alumni that only tops 1,000 people across the U.S.
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This July 26th, a very special birthday will be quietly celebrated around the globe for one very special lady…She may have been born in Southern France of simple means, but once the King of France fell to her charms (and her beautiful green eyes), she became nobility to the people of France…and soon, around the globe. So entranced by her, they referred to her as ‘Queen’, but today we simply refer to her as Roquefort.
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Okay, this story could have been easily written in the Spring, but when I happened to visit my local cheese counter at Nugget Market and saw they had a beautiful display of cheeses that were covered in edible flowers, I just knew that I had found my inspiration for this week’s post.
Read MoreOh what a year it’s been!...I started this cheese blog 1 year ago (54 weeks ago) and since then, I have flown dozens of flights, traveled to 16 different states (not including Canada), and have written about 100 of my favorite cheeses (truth is…they all might be my favorite!)
I don’t think anyone could have predicted how 2020 was going to have turned out…and try as they might, I do not think anyone will be able to predict where this is all heading and if (and when) we will ever return to normal…whatever normal will look like.
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Love…It starts with the perfect pairing!...and nothing loves cheese more than honey…except maybe wine, but that is a story for another day.
I work in the cheese industry and I can tell you from firsthand experience that people are always asking about the perfect cheese pairing, what item to pair with what cheese, what things don’t go together, the list could go on and on.
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This week’s entry is/was part of a cheese and wine event that I was supposed to teach in the Spring.
The plan was to talk about five different cheeses and how the cheesemaker used nature to overcome the problem at hand.
Let me better explain by using an example from my fellow ACS CCP, Reed Pattison – “One can complement nature, or contrast it…Take the example of a river…One could simply build a bridge over it and complement it, or contrast it by diverting the river to another area”. The more I thought about it, he was totally right and I was reminded of the stories of my grandfather and great grandfather who worked on the construction of the Hoover Dam. These 21,000 man had to stop the flow of the mighty Colorado River and divert the water into diversion tunnels, all before the construction of the dam could begin. That is a contrast!
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