I love introducing readers to new cheeses as much as I hate reporting on those we have lost. But lose them we do. “They come and they go” hardly describes the current moment, when the pace of closures—both creameries and cheese shops—seems to be accelerating and newcomers are rare. We are six years out, more or less, from Covid’s peak yet the aftershocks persist. Even producers that I thought were stable and had the business figured out are folding. Another award-winning American creamery bit the dust late last month, leaving its many fans, including me, bereft. Does a profitable model even exist for small-scale artisan cheesemaking in this country?
Read moreSalad Daze
Cheese and fruit is a pairing for all seasons, but autumn fruit is the hands-down champion—more compatible with more cheeses than winter citrus or summer’s berries. Apples, grapes, pears, persimmons, pomegranates….now is their moment. They add color and juicy sweetness to leafy salads with grated blue cheese, crumbled goat cheese or feta, or shaved ricotta salata. Whisk up a vinaigrette with shallots, add toasted nuts for crunch, and you have a season-saluting salad worthy of a dinner party.
Read moreThis Blue’s for You
I hear you when it comes to pungent, peppery blues. I don’t like them either. I prefer moist, mellow, buttery blues that play well with wine, which describes this flawless beauty. I used to use the term “starter blue” or “entry level” for blue cheeses as easy to like as this one, but I’m abandoning that terminology. It’s condescending, and it suggests that more sophisticated tasters would disdain this cheese or somehow outgrow it, like white Zinfandel. Maybe I’ll move on, too, but I’m smitten enough to think it’s for life.
Read moreBathing Beauty
Some cheeses shout for attention and some cheeses whisper. This one’s the quiet type; it doesn’t expect you to ponder it. I bathe it in extra virgin olive oil, which it sucks up like a sponge. It plays well with olives, salumi, breadsticks and ciabatta and isn’t finicky about red wine versus white. If you’re having a party, you’ll appreciate how well it holds up on an antipasto platter. If it’s a party of two, over cocktails, you’ll be surprised by how much you can eat.
Read moreBewitched by Cheese
Well, this is timely: Cheddar matured in a haunted cave. The Witch of Wookey Hole was not a good witch—she caused crop failures and other local disasters—but the tasty wheels aged in her Somerset hideout redeem her. Despite the spooky back story, Wookey Hole Cheddar, a clothbound wheel, is serious cheese from the U.K.’s premier Cheddar region. There is actually some evidence for the witch, which I’ll get to. But what cheese lovers need to know is that an importer is now bringing in this cheese in whole wheels, not precuts. And I’ll tell you why that matters.
Read moreCrazies in Cheeseland
Whoever said ignorance is bliss wasn’t thinking clearly. Ignorance is dangerous, costly, and embarrassing. And it’s starting to seem like an American specialty. I know crazy stuff goes viral on social media all the time, and it’s easy to ignore…until it isn’t. In recent days, right-wing influencers have launched a boycott of Oregon’s Tillamook cheese, for reasons that can only be viewed as blatantly Islamophobic. It’s enough to make you want to go out and buy a big, healthy piece of Tillamook Cheddar.
Read moreAdios, Summer
How did that happen? Seems like I was just planting tomatoes and already the vines are cratering. Now that the calendar says it’s officially fall, I’m feeling guilty about all the summer recipes I never got around to making. In California, at least, it’s not too late. We still have tomatoes; we’re still grilling. Before you retire your grill for the winter, take a look at some of these fan-favorite (I’m the fan) shoulder-season recipes from my archives. I even have a marvelous use for those green tomatoes that you may be tempted to toss.
Read moreStar of Stage and Screen
Even knowing how it ends, “The Big Cheese” was a nail biter. I saw this quirky documentary about a cheese competition a few months ago in Napa Valley, an early theater screening for a fundraiser. Now it’s available for rent (on Apple TV, Google Play and Amazon), which means you can watch it the right way: with a glass of wine, a cheese board and friends.
Read morePerfect Pearings
It’s fresh pear season around here, although my favorite variety—the Comice—arrives a bit later. No fruit is a better friend to cheese, in my view. The juicy, honeyed flavor and melting texture of a ripe pear is so compatible with pecorino, blue cheese, and fresh cheeses like ricotta. Italians even have a proverb about the pairing: Al contadino non far sapere quant’è buono il cacio con le pere. Don’t tell the farmer how good cheese is with his pears. Like most proverbs, there’s more to this saying than meets the eye.
Read moreAnother One Bites the Dust
The news that Vella Cheese Company was closing, its business no longer viable, hit hard. We Californians consider this 94-year-old creamery as a bedrock part of our food culture, a producer that has always been there and always would be, representing our state’s cheesemaking prowess with its acclaimed Dry Jack. That cocoa-dusted wheel’s unique appearance and nutty flavor—not to mention its modest price—earned it critical accolades, numerous blue ribbons and a space at almost every serious cheese counter.
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