Counting Sheep...

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Counting Sheep...

Greeting Cheese Enthusiasts!

I have written much about Cow’s and Goat’s milk cheeses on Cheese Traveler, but it was brought to my attention that I did not have a lot of information regarding Sheep milk cheeses.

There is much to share, so let’s get started!

Much like Goats, Sheep have been domesticated for thousands of years…way before cows…about 6,000 years ago. This most likely happened due to their size and temperament, as well as their ability to provide dairy (fresh milk/cheese), wool (clothing), as well as fresh meat.

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Eat your Greens!!...

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Eat your Greens!!...

Hello and Happy New Year Cheese Enthusiasts!

Many people this time of year are ready to start working out and eating healthier. I agree!...Time to start eating your greens!!....No, I am not speaking of those leafy greens!...This is a cheese blog!!...I speak of those cheeses that are wrapped in leaves!

Last year I started several blogs that spoke of different ways that cheese makers used natural methods such as Marinating and Binding with Wood in order to hold the soft cheese curd together and protect it from the elements. Wrapping with leaves could easily be the third installment to this series.

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Cheese from the “Waterless Land”…

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Cheese from the “Waterless Land”…

Hello Cheese Enthusiast!

While most parents were busy shopping online trying to find that last “perfect” gift…and visions of sugar plums were dancing in children’s heads (or something like that), a quiet anniversary was being celebrated in a far off land.

Queso Manchego may have been produced as early as the 4th millennium B.C, but it only became one of Spain’s protected cheeses on 21 December 1984….but I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s step back in time…way back. A time in history known as “The Bronze Age” when writing was just starting and history began to record happenings…

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The Spice Trade…

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The Spice Trade…

guess that I have always had a thing for spices…My first job at a cheese counter was an awakening, not just for the hundreds of cheeses they carried that expanded my sense of taste and smell, but also my sense of wonder. This shop was also known for carrying gourmet foods (mostly from Europe) and exotic spices. By today’s standards they may not have seemed exotic, but for that time in history, they were ground breaking. Where did they come from?...How were they used??...I was intrigued and had to learn more.

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Six Producers - One Dream

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Six Producers - One Dream

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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Turkish Delights…

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Turkish Delights…

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

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.

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The Cultured Life…

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The Cultured Life…

Hello 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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Fungus among us…

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Fungus among us…

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

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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1920 – A 100 year look back at Cheesemaking in America

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1920 – A 100 year look back at Cheesemaking in America

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

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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Stories around the campfire…

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Stories around the campfire…

Hello Cheese Enthusiast!

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…

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Coloring within the lines…

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Coloring within the lines…

That 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.

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Au Lait Cru…

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Au Lait Cru…

That 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

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“Fall” in Love with Apples….

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“Fall” in Love with Apples….

Fall 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…

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GREAT Britain…

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GREAT Britain…

October 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.

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A Taste of the Tropics…

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A Taste of the Tropics…

As I write this, I am looking at the outside temperature on my phone..108ºF….then my eyes drift down the list of other cities, and then I see Maui, Hawaii at a breezy 72ºF…Ugh! While current restrictions keep me from flying to Maui, I can still dream I am there after a quick trip to my favorite cheese counter and their aisles of specialty foods.

When one thinks of tropical islands, they may not immediately think of cheese….

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A Cheesemonger walks into a bar…

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A Cheesemonger walks into a bar…

The 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?…

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In the Land of Sheep and Goats…

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In the Land of Sheep and Goats…

Just 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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‘Hatch’ing Trend…

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‘Hatch’ing Trend…

Hello Cheese Enthusiast!

Although my travels during these days have been suspended, my mind (and taste buds) are currently vacationing in Austin, TX….Why Austin you ask??….Well its Hatch Chile Season of course!!

My friends at Central Market, (a division of H-E-B Markets) in Austin have been celebrating the harvest of these amazing peppers (August 5th-25th) for the last twenty-five years. This event has grown so big that in 2013, the New Mexico Tourism Department certified that the Central Market event is “the most authentic Hatch festival outside of New Mexico.” This celebration has carried over to their H-E-B locations as well and combined they will bring in 330,000 lbs. of these peppers to sell in their produce departments as well as fire-roasted at selected locations.

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