{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }
Crunch time: Marin French Schloss
I always learn so much from Pat Polowsky. This graduate student is half my age and twice as knowledgeable about cheese, especially if we’re talking chemistry. In that case, it’s more like a factor of ten. Ever wondered how salt gets to the middle of a wheel when it’s only applied to the outside? (You didn’t?) Did you think the crunch on the rind of Taleggio comes from salt? I did, but it doesn’t.
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And now for something completely different. Swiss producer. Raw sheep’s milk. Washed rind. I don’t know of any cheese that fits that description other than the one you’re about to meet. Oh, and the milk is organic and from French Basque sheep transported to the Swiss Alps. They don’t seem to mind: the views are great, and the shepherds speak French. The ewes quickly adapted, and the cheese made with their milk is one-of-a-kind.
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It’s a mouthful in more ways than one. Schnebelhorn doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it’s a palate pleaser in every other respect. I’m not sure cheese can get any better. Raw cow’s milk, Swiss know-how and eight months in a cellar have produced a new alpine gem that you really need to know. Heirloom apples, toasted walnuts and Schnebelhorn—there’s your autumn cheese board.
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A-may-zing. A terrific aged raw-milk cheese from Switzerland for $20 a pound. If you’re accustomed to paying at least half-again as much for the best Swiss cheeses, you may be asking yourself, “How do they do that?” I know I am. I asked the importer, who had one answer, but he also warned me that the price would likely climb. So now’s your chance.
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Maybe you have made gougères in the past. Maybe you like your recipe. But you’re going to like this one better. I got it from Napa Valley caterer Sarah Scott, who cooks dinner parties for a lot of the local wine families. If I’m invited to a party and find Sarah in the kitchen, I am so happy. Her gougères are perfection: crunchy outside, airy within. With that first glass of sparkling wine, they’re just what you want.
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Meg Smith Photography
The gems from Switzerland just keep on coming. This latest, Vully Rouge, debuted in the U.S. last fall, although it has a 20-year history in Switzerland. Unlike Gruyère, Emmental, Appenzeller and other well-known Swiss cheeses, Vully Rouge is the creation of a single cheesemaker and it has thrived outside the PDO (protected designation of origin) system.
Read moreAs many cheese professionals know, Oxford University Press is in the process of compiling the first Oxford Companion to Cheese. If it’s even half as good as OUP’s corresponding works for beer (edited by Garrett Oliver) and wine (edited by Jancis Robinson), this encyclopedia will be a must-have reference.
Read moreSan Francisco’s Fancy Food Show is always an over-the-top experience, with so many new products and competing tastes that it’s hard to focus. When a cheese stands out in this cacophony—so much that I recall it months later—it’s a good bet that the cheese isn’t speaking to me alone.
Read moreEvery summer I lead a cheese tasting for the Society of Medical Friends of Wine, a group of Bay Area physicians with a shared interest in fine wine. We have never had a problem filling the seats until this year, when one of the doctors—a Swiss native—suggested a Swiss theme for the tasting. He got no resistance from me: I loved the idea. Some of the most impressive cheeses I’ve had in the last few years have been new arrivals from Switzerland.
Read moreA new Swiss cheese in the U. S. market is always something to celebrate, especially if the importer is Florida’s Quality Cheese. Caroline and Daniel Hostettler, who run the company, got their start 17 years ago with the impeccable cheeses from Swiss affineur Rolf Beeler. They made Beeler into a rock star here (he was already acclaimed in Switzerland) and have since expanded their line to include many other gems from their native Switzerland.
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