American cheese without immigrants would be…well, it wouldn’t be. The richness and diversity of our current cheese scene owes everything to Italian, Swiss, Dutch, Portuguese and German immigrants who brought their cheese recipes and traditions to a country that didn’t have any. In Northern California, where I live, the list of Italian and Italian-Swiss names behind our greatest cheeses is lunghissima: Bianchi, DeBernardi, Fiscalini, Giacomini, Lafranchi, Rumiano, Vella, Viviani. The immigration debate rages in this country, but the contribution of immigrants to our cheese boards is indisputable.
Award winner: Fiscalini Old World Aged Cheddar
Mateo Fiscalini emigrated from Switzerland in 1886, through Ellis Island, and landed on a dairy farm in California. Today, 135 years later, you can savor his legacy. Fiscalini San Joaquin Gold is one of two raw-milk cheeses produced on the Modesto dairy farm operated by Mateo’s descendants. The other is the award-winning Fiscalini bandaged Cheddar.
San Joaquin Gold, developed about 15 years ago, was a failure with a happy ending. The cheesemaker at the time was attempting to create an Italian-style Fontina. He had the right recipe but the wrong equipment, and the result landed far off the mark.
As Julia Child once said about dishes that don’t turn out right: Never apologize. Just rename them. People loved the botched cheese—all 5,000 pounds of it—forcing Fiscalini to figure out how to recreate the mistakes. A few tweaks and refinements later, San Joaquin Gold debuted, a 30-pound raw cow’s milk wheel matured for about a year, with a deep, nutty flavor.
One of a handful of farmstead raw-milk cheeses made in California, San Joaquin Gold has a firm golden interior with a dense Cheddar-like texture and aromas of pale caramel, pineapple and roasted walnut. The flavor is full and persistent, a blend of sweetness, salt and acidity that makes you crave another bite. For those fans of cheeses with crunchy crystalline bits, San Joaquin Gold delivers.
A lush, not-too-oaky white wine could work with this cheese, but I would choose red, preferably one with a tannic spine like a Cabernet Sauvignon. A tawny port or an off-dry Madeira or sherry would also be pleasing. Beer lovers, try a malty style, like a brown ale or porter.
You can purchase San Joaquin Gold from Fisclini’s online store but the cheese is also distributed nationwide. If you can’t find it locally, inquire here.