If you enjoy Swiss mountain cheeses, get yourself to a shop in the next few weeks for some of the best cheese we get from Switzerland all year. Retailers across the country are just starting to receive wheels from the Alp they “adopted” several months ago, sight unseen. The eight-year-old Adopt-an-Alp [http://www.adopt-an-alp.com/learn#Abou] program links traditional Swiss cheesemakers—the kind who make cheese only in summer in remote high-elevation huts—with American merchants who want to support these practices. We consumers get to experience phenomenal raw-milk cheeses that hardly ever left their region before. Don’t procrastinate; these gems go fast.
Read moreEverybody Loves a Winner
Has so much deliciousness ever been assembled on Zoom? Sixteen blue-ribbon cheeses. Four tastings. The best of the best. Oh, and a bonus cheese on the final evening. That’s the new “Cheese O’Clock” series in a nutshell, folks. My co-conspirator in cheese, Laura Werlin , and I hope you will join us for this virtual cheese party/cheese class/deep dive. We’re tasting exclusively American Cheese Society Blue Ribbon Winners, grouped into four themed tastings
Read moreWhat Goes with Cheese?
Autumn duo: Jasper Hill Farm Whitney with apple chutney
Americans didn’t pioneer the practice of pairing cheese with condiments, but we have certainly embraced it. When I teach cheese-appreciation classes, I can count on being asked, “What should I pair with this cheese?” I’m Old School and believe that good cheese is perfectly complete by itself, yet the condiments keep coming and I have to admit that they make a cheese platter more beautiful and, to some, more enticing. While sampling some new American-made mostarda, I flashed back to some of my earliest experiences with the cheese course, as a 22-year-old in France, where I encountered some firm “do’s and don’ts” about the plâteau de fromages.
Read moreCheese Judging in Covid Times
No Summer Olympics. No James Beard Awards, at least not for chefs. No American Cheese Society conference. Not even a Miss America pageant. We’re becoming so accustomed to events being canceled that’s its noteworthy when they aren’t. When the Good Food Awards Foundation announced that it was moving forward with its annual competition and awards, I was pretty skeptical, because…well…tasting. In groups. But they figured it out. I was a Good Foods Awards cheese judge last weekend and the crazy scheme worked.
Read moreBaby Burrata Takes the Stage
I’m loving the new Gioia mini burrata. At four ounces—half the usual size—it’s just right for two, and that’s all the people I get to cook for these days. A whole burrata is a commitment. Once you cut into that oozy interior, you have to finish it.
A Napa Valley winery chef turned me on to the combination of burrata, tomatoes and peaches. I’d been seeing versions of this salad online, but his rendition has some appealing refinements.
Read moreCrazy Good
The cheeses I crave most in summer are light, fresh, moist and milky. They have no rind or just the merest one. Their flavor is bright, lactic, buttermilky. They go with rosé, crisp white wines, wheat beers and kölsch, which pretty much describes my beverage menu right now. Mozzarella makes the list, of course. Burrata. Feta. And now, moving straight to the top, is this new-to-me charmer, Melinda Mae. I’m crazy for it and you will be, too.
Read moreAwestruck
I’ve been enjoying this cheese for decades, but the wedge pictured here was the best ever. It should have been underwhelming. It had endured a lot—too much shipping and too much time in my fridge. But it was as creamy, luscious, balanced and compelling as any blue cheese I’ve had in a long time. My husband rarely eats blues with enthusiasm, but he practically fought me for this one. The creamery believes it may be the first cow’s milk blue wheel produced in America. What better choice for your Independence Day burgers or holiday cheese board?
Read morePesto of Your Dreams
I’ve been working on my pesto recipe for a few decades but I’ve never been 100 percent satisfied. Sometimes I make it in a mortar, like you’re supposed to, but it seems to discolor more with that method. Sometimes I blanch the basil leaves for a few seconds to keep the color, a trick I learned from Michael Chiarello, who also adds a pinch of ascorbic acid for the same reason. But that always seems a bit like cheating. Recently, perusing a new Italian cookbook, I saw another approach that intrigued me.
Read moreMascarpone Sundae Any Day
I’m pretty sure that most mascarpone sold in this country ends up in tiramisu. Not a bad fate, but mascarpone can do more than that. If you’ve never made mascarpone ice cream, go dust off your ice cream machine. Memorial Day weekend is imminent, and no matter what you put on the grill, this strawberry mascarpone ice cream sundae will be what you remember.
Read moreCheese Takes a Beating
Travel woes: (clockwise from upper left) Camembert au Calvados; Clochette; Burrata; French ashed cheeses
Maybe cheese wasn’t the first thing you thought about when President Trump announced a 30-day ban on flights from Europe last week. But cheese is, indeed, a victim. It won’t be getting on planes, either. All those lovely soft spring goat cheeses from the Loire Valley…fresh mozzarella and burrata from Campania…delicate robiolas from Piemonte…these cheeses and many others have effectively had their passports revoked. “Trump said it’s not going to affect cargo, but it doesn’t work that way,” says Stephanie Ciano of World’s Best Cheese, a major importer.
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