Got misty eyed over eating a bite of cheese earlier. My (ex?) co-worker sent two of my favorite cheeses to me via a friend, and I opened one (Black Betty, a 14 month goat gouda) as a treat. When you want to experience the flavor of a food you should inhale with mouth slightly parted, close your lips, and then exhale through your nose. Taste on all parts of the tongue.
Black Betty is sweet with notes of brown butter and the pleasant crunch of the occasional tyrosine crystal. As it melts on the tongue, it develops a slight barnyard note, with the lush flavor of the goat's milk shining through before giving way to a caramel sweetness that's traditional in good aged goudas.
Black Betty isn't easy to find-- a very limited number of wheels are shipped to the US each year --but if you do see it you should treat yourself to a piece. Look for the distinctive black rind against pale, off-white paste anywhere you can also find L'Amuse gouda. Pair with sour beer, champagne, or black tea if you'd like, and cut up a pink lady (or other tartly sweet apple) to eat alongside it to balance the richness. Or just break off a chunk, taste, and get tears in your eyes because it's just that good.
OH CHEESE GODDESS, I HAVE EATEN ALMOST THIS WHOLE 0.240 lb SLICE OF ITALIAN “UNDER-ASH MYTHICAL TRUFFLE CHEESE” (my best attempt at a translation), AND I NEED YOU TO TELL ME I WILL BE OKAY AND WHY THIS STUFF IS SO DAMNED DELICIOUS!!!
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Well friend! Let me just say that this particular cheese is one of my favorite to recommend for folks who want something big and truffle-y, but aren’t quite sure if they wanna snack on it or cook with it or both. I think its texture--semi-soft, buttery, almost melt-in-your-mouth--and the streaks of rich black truffle throughout are what make it so special. The rind doesn’t hurt, either. Ash often balances the acidity of cheese, and the touch of anise gives a unique spicy note that (fortunately) doesn’t overwhelm the truffle. And the name does translate to “under the ash,” but I think you’re right that the mythical part is at least implied.
Anyway, I think you will be ok, so long as your local source keeps getting the cheese in stock. It’s addictive, for sure. A quarter pound certainly won’t hurt you. That’s my high end for personal cheese servings.
Incidentally, if you go back for more, you should consider grating just a little of it onto a pizza (I’d do carmelized onion and prosciutto with mozzarella, a little fontina, and a little sottocenere) or into a grilled cheese (fontina, sottocenere, and some sauteed mushrooms on good bread). It’ll melt like a dream.
I love getting cheese question/comments/submissions! Thank you for sending me this!
the trick here is that you said *kinds* of cheese! bless you! i can’t choose my five favorite cheeses. but kinds? i can roll with that, i think.
in no particular order:
1) Alpine: typically hailing from the mountainous regions of Europe (the Swiss, French, German, or Italian Alps), these cheeses are characterized by a dense, firm paste and a nutty & grassy flavor due to the high quality of the milk that’s used. This category includes gruyere and comte, but it’s SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. Allow me to blather, because Alpine cheeses are cool as HECK…initially these cheeses were made to feed entire villages and to last for a very long time. A cheese like Emmentaler, for instance, is formed into 200lb wheels that were carried down from the higher points of the mountain and into the villages in the valleys. The cows go up and up in the spring, reaching the upper parts of the mountains when summer grasses are plentiful, and then everyone returns back down the mountain when it’s over. IT’S SO DANG COOL. I’ve never visited the Alps, but I hope to one day. I wanna watch an old French or Swedish guy hefting a floppy wheel of giant cheese with my own eyes.
I’m putting the rest of this behind a cut because I got long-winded. I REALLY LIKE TALKING ABOUT CHEESE OK??
2) Clothbound cheddars: so there’s more than one way to make cheddar, but this is the way that makes it AMAZING. Traditional cheddar making involves cutting, stacking, and pressing cheese into uniform squares–this is actually “cheddaring” the curds!–and then, once the cheese is formed into its wheel shape, wrapping that wheel in cheesecloth that’s then rubbed with fat to create a permeable rind. The result is a cheese that’s sharp, rich, and a little earthy with the potential for some light blue veining running through. The other way of making cheddar is to vacuum seal the curds once they’ve been cheddared, thus allowing for longer aging times (i.e. 5-10 year cheddars) but taking away all that amazing fattiness and the hints of dirt and barnyard that good old cloth will get you. Gimme that old time religion, yo.
3) Fresh chevre: SIMPLE A.F. Goat’s milk, (cultures), salt, heat, and time. Fresh cheeses are the easiest to make, but in that regard they’re also challenging. You’ve gotta have good milk, and if you mix something in it needs to be well-balanced. In my opinion there are few things as classy and beautiful as a good fresh chevre that’s been set up in a nice glass bowl. Sprinkle some fresh herbs on, or don’t. Serve it with honey or olives or LITERALLY ANYTHING, fresh chevre just wants to hang out with everyone at every party. Easy.
4) Sheep’s milk blue: The classic is Roquefort, but honestly I adore a lotta sheep blues. For a long time, sheep’s milk was the go to for blue cheeses. Cow’s milk just wouldn’t age properly with the molds that had always been used. Cheesemakers figured it out, but I honestly think the fattiness of sheep’s milk (it’s a higher percentage of fat than cow or goat) makes for a really decadent blue cheese. And blue cheese should feel like DESSERT, it should coat your tongue and make your throat a little tingly. It should be a little sweet and a little barnyardy and if you eat it with dark chocolate you should feel like you need to say OH GOD YES right afterwards. Not sayin, just sayin.
5) Soft-ripened: I almost said washed rind, because UNF–but then I thought about how washed rinds are tricky for me, and how I need just the right kind of funk to really crave a washed rind cheese; I need peanut butter and a little bit of barn and maybe some woodsmoke or damp earth. I like washed rinds that make me use scotch descriptors. And then I almost said triple creme, because BUTTER, YO–but then I thought about how quickly the butterfat gets to me and how little I can actually eat of a triple creme before I am saying, “hold, hold! no more!” and that doesn’t feel fair to a type of cheese that’s so very luscious and loveable. So, consider the soft-ripened cheese. It literally softens as it ripens. It might get a little wash, and it might not. The rind will give it away: if it’s white and downy, it didn’t get a bath; if it’s a bit sticky, it probably did. The flavors are all over the map, but the texture–soft, silken, pudding-like, unctuous, creamy–is always perfect. It doesn’t quite melt on your tongue, but it releases slowly until it fills your mouth when gooey heaven. Oh soft, oh ripe. Oh yes.
I went on RATHER long there. Sorry/not sorry. I can talk about cheese forever.
Hello! Thanks for your question! I’m gonna answer over here, but please feel free to send cheese questions to my cheese blog! heycheeselady!
This is a fun one, though, because first I’m gonna answer your question with a question: What *kind* of goat cheese, exactly?
The most typical kind would be fresh goat cheese, or chevre. It’s bright white with a zippy tang that you might describe as lemony or citrusy. Flavors and textures vary from brand to brand, so if you don’t like one, you may like another. They also come with herbs and flavorings sometimes, which can be fun. Try lots! Chevre is great.
My favorite fresh fruit to pair with chevre is definitely a fresh cherry. Right in the middle of summer when the cherries are dark and luscious, there’s nothing better than slicing one in half and letting the juices run onto the fresh white paste of the cheese. It’s messy and gorgeous.
A cherry jam would work nicely too, of course, as would a drizzle of honey. In general I love summer fruits with chevre, so I’d go in that direction for a jam pairing—blueberry, raspberry, apricot, peach…but really, a fresh cherry is the best.
For more aged goat cheeses, I love figs or fig jam. A good aged goat gouda is sweet and nutty, and when paired with fig jam it really sings. Look for brabander or black betty if you’re feeling spendy and have a nice cheese counter near you, otherwise check out central coast creamery’s goat gouda—its black rind and creamy white paste look a lot like midnight moon, but the price is often just a bit cheaper…and it’s made in the US, which is nice.
Those are my suggestions, but at the end of the day pairing is all about experimentation. Pull out the jams and honeys you have in your fridge (I can’t be the only one who impulse buys jam & honey and then has 3-5 going all at once, can I?) and try a little of each with your cheese. You might discover that you love the way that lemon curd matches your fresh chevre in brightness and creaminess, or that the cranberry jelly your aunt makes at Christmas turns your goat cheddar from meh to magnificent.
Report back on your findings, nonny! I’m anxiously awaiting the results!
Holy Shit dude. How did you do that? I gave you like the most basic description ever and you a) managed to figure out what i was talking about and b) give me a better recommendation. You are some sort of cheese god and thank you so much!
this is why all y’all should let me be your cheesemonger.
i promise to do my best to make your mouth happy (by feeding it high quality artisan cheese).
also lemme tell you, i used to have so many people come in and ask for fruit stilton! it got easy to identify. the tricky ones are when someone doesn’t feel like tasting, can’t remember a name, and the only identifying things they know are the texture and color. but even that is fun, because it’s like playing 20 questions OF CHEESE.
which. that’s another cheesemonger game to add to my list.
ps: i am gonna use this ask to quietly promo my cheese blog.
heycheeselady
come ask me cheese questions over there, friends. :)
ahhh dang, this is prolly the time to say that i have a side blog for cheese related queries and such.
heycheeselady
i can answer questions ranging from "what should i use for the best mac and cheese?" to "one time i had this cheese and it was grey on the outside and gold on the inside and it tasted kinda like peas, what the fuck was it?"
and everything in between. or. i'll /try/ to answer. can't promise to be unstumpable.
anyway. go follow my cheese blog if you want to discuss cheese matters and occasionally see my cheese tasting notes or whatever.
did you know that i love cheese? that selling it and eating it and teaching people about it is what i actually want to do with my life? and is something that i am really good at actually?
i'll just bet you didn't. but i do and i am and so.
i made a cheese blog.
there's only one post on it right now. but there will be more. please go follow it if you want to talk cheese and food and all that.
