I hope I live long enough to see American-made water buffalo cheese at every cheese counter, but it’s not looking good. One step forward, two steps back. Someone starts a water buffalo dairy, another fails. I dream of homegrown mozzarella di bufala, of course. But Italian cheesemakers do so much more with this super-rich milk. The gorgeous, slumpy cheese pictured above demonstrates what water buffalo milk can do in skilled hands. Will we ever get there?
Read moreWild Kingdom
Get a hand lens ready. You’re going to want to take a closer look at this astonishing cheese rind. It is quite the wild kingdom, a thick crust of colorful, coexisting microbes. I’m not sure I have ever seen a more riveting surface on a cheese: suede gray, dusty brown, ivory, powdery yellow and rust.
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