#washed rind

[zuerchercheese]

Two New American Goat’s Milk Cheeses

We just started stocking two fantastic goat’s milk cheeses – Dream Weaver from Central Coast Creamery (California) and Evalon from LaClare Farms (Wisconsin). If you are interested in trying a sample on either, please reply directly to this email and we will get one on your next outgoing order!

  Dream Weaver – Central Coast Creamery

Dream Weaver is a goat’s milk, washed-rind cheese. This cheese drew rave reviews amongst the Zuercher staff for a variety of reasons – flavor (on point), format (small pudgy 2# wheel), and overall originality. The flavor is bright, with notes of sweet goat cream and vanilla, while the texture is like rich silky fudge, plump and creamy at the same time. As it ages, more goat flavor emerges, along with notes of toasted cashews and malt. Most importantly, from what we tasted, Dream Weaver is very enjoyable at all points along its development.   

Central Coast Creamery is located near California’s coast in Paso Robles. The area itself was once home to a number of dairies; however, during the 1970’s these independent farms lost their steam and were extinct by the end of the decade. Armed with 25 years of experience in the industry, Reggie Jones and his wife Kellie started the creamery hoping to rejuvenate the once burgeoning dairy scene. In true California spirit, all of their cheeses are made in primarily handmade, small batches using locally-sourced milk, free from artificial growth hormones, and aged on pine racks.

  Evalon – LeClare Farms

Evalon is made solely from the milk of LaClare Farms’ own goats in Pipe, WI. There, they are raised by Fuhrmann’s family (who have owned the farm for close to four decades) and fed on the highest quality grain.  The cheese itself is then aged for a minimum of four months.  The result is a raw milk gouda-style cheese with subtle notes of caramel and vanilla, as well as a nutty, winey quality reminiscent of aged Italian cheeses.  It has a supple, smooth pate that develops an earthy and crystallized texture as it ages, with slight burnt sugar notes.  

[corneliuscheese]

Haxaire Petit Munster - Also in the Fridge

I was 19, fresh out of high school and recently licensed, told by mum to 'go and get some great cheese, company's coming'. Even at that age I knew good cheese, I was adventurous with my tastes, sometimes a little to adventurous...  

Needless to say Petit Munster is not a 'company's coming' type of cheese, it's the type of thing that's appreciated by those who know and repels those who don't. Choose your company and your timing wisely, I have on more than one occasion left Petit Munster in our home fridge on the Friday of a long weekend, only to come back and discover monday morning that we were now the proud owners of cheese infused everything; mustard, celery, filtered water, carrots.

Made in the Alsace region, close to Franche-Comte from rich, creamy cows milk and best when their grazing on the fresh tips of luscious green pasture in the Autumn and Summer.  Our locally available and pasteurised version benefits from the use of specially selected cultures and moulds to assist in creating the marmite and bacon quality to the cheese. 

Appearance wise, Petit Munster in quite distinctive, a humid rind, blossoming with a B.Linen culture giving it the distinctive mild to bright orange colour. Muster should be springy to the touch, never crumbly, a sign of too colder storage or immaturity or oozing like an overripe Camembert. Next time you pop through the cheese cave to collect an order ask for a demonstration.  

The character of Petit Munster lends itself to matching with great Gewurtztraminer wines, their musky and fruit forward, blended with a gentle sweetness are the perfect match. If you're a potato fan, who isn't? Boil fluffy potatoes and stir through while still warm.

The taste of Munster is difficult to pin down, most people get a distinctive bacon note, we've heard of beef and the pronounced 'chewy' mouthfeel. Like a beautiful, freshly picked Forrest mushroom.

[cheesenotes]

Lovers of beer, and cheese, and consuming the two together, should check out this great piece in Culture Magazine. Liz Thorpe, author of The Cheese Chronicles and owner of consulting company The People's Cheese, does a deep dive into the marriage of these two unique expressions of microbial culinary delights. Via Culture: 

Partners in Craft: Beer-Washed Cheese

Liz Thorpe | March 14, 2016

An exploration of beer-washed cheeses should begin in the hills of France and Belgium. This one does, if only to illustrate how far American cheesemakers have journeyed from European tradition.

While the process was born out of necessity, innovative producers across the United States are embracing the practice out of personal passion for local suds, respect for the growing craft-brewing movement, and, most importantly, their desire to tease nuanced flavors from a humble piece of cheese.

Monks in the Middle Ages followed highly regimented schedules: They made cheese immediately after milking, according to historian Paul Kindstedt, who recounts the monastic origins of European washed-rind cheeses in his books. Resulting high-moisture wheels were low in acid, creating ideal conditions for yeast and bacteria to develop on the rinds during aging; brine washing further encouraged this growth, as microbes require a certain level of salinity and moisture to flourish. Since monks were the de facto brewers and vintners of the period, it was only a matter of time until they started experimenting with beer and wine in the wash. It’s commonly thought that this addition was for preservation purposes—the sugars in alcohol fed yeasts, keeping undesirable microflora at bay. Another possibility: Alcohol can impart meaty flavors to cheese, which would be particularly appealing to brothers who swore off meat for Lent.

Savory, beefy, and complex flavor profiles certainly hold the imaginations of many domestic makers turning out beer-washed cheeses, yet none of the producers I interviewed credit a European cheese as a primary source of inspiration. (The most common European examples of the style available in the US are from Belgium’s Chimay, which makes a half-dozen cheeses, only two of which are actually doused in their own beer.) So, while the style is undeniably a European invention, it’s not tradition that excites today’s American beer-washed cheese producers. It’s the creative potential unearthed when brews meet rinds.

Read the full post. 

(You can also check out my own exploration of the marriage of booze and cheese in this piece for Edible Brooklyn). 

(Photos ©2016 Culture Magazine)

[cheesenotes]

Wild Wheels! Beer Washed Cheese Event, Sat 12/05

UPDATE 10/23 1:00pm: EVENT SOLD OUT. 

Beer and cheese are each pretty much perfection on their own, but the marriage of the two is even better. That goes for pairings, of course, but washing cheeses with beer produces it own unique alchemy of flavor, aroma and texture. All of which is to say, this, the 2nd Annual beer-washed cheese extravaganza at Crown Finish Caves, in partnership with beer guru Josh Bernstein and Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, is not an event to be missed (and trust me, they’re not exaggerating when they say that last year’s even sold out in 15 minutes. If you want in, you’ll have to stalk BrownPaperTickets and get your clicking finger stretched and ready). You can see more about last year’s event here. Via Crown Finish Caves: 

Wild Wheels Event!

We are hosting Wild Wheels: Funky Beer and Cheese in the Old Nassau Brewwery Lagering Caves.  

This event will take place on Sat December 5th in the old existing tunnels and tickets will go on sale this Friday at noon. (last year they sold out in 15 mins) Only 75 spots.

Click here for tickets and more info.

We are working with local beer guru Josh Bernstein and washing special donut shaped cheeses with 7 amazing local breweries.  The cheeses are made by cheese maker Andrew Torrens from Beecher's hand made cheese.  We are washing (2) separate batches -  (1) inoculated with ripening cultures and (1) without.  You will get to taste both types from all the different beer washes!  

1.Finback:

Plumb and Proper - a dark sour beer with a touch of smoke and plums aged in red wine barrels with Brett.

2.Threes:

Paradigmatic Flex is a 100% Brett fermented beer brewed with a bunch of orange zest.  It is barrel aged with a secondary strain of Brett in cab franc barrels for 5 months.

3.Transmitter:

G4 Tart Golden Ale.   We make one half sour and then make the second batch unsourced and blend them to make them start without being crazy acidic. Its fermented with a single strain of brett to give it a bit of a wild edge……. hops give it some tropical fruit flavors that marry well with the citrusy acidity….

4.Other Half:

Foodre Jooose #1- saison with Brett Claussenii, raw honey, rye and Nelson sauvin hops. It came out of our foudre.

5.Right Proper:

Shawinigan and it's an amber tripel fermented with our house mixed culture of brettanomyces and bacteria.  It spent a year in freshly dumped apple brandy barrels and is 10% ABV

6.Kelso: Brett Saison- barrel-aged Saison blended with Brett which is a form of yeast that makes the beer sour. Although it has a sour taste to it, the blend of Saison helps to cut the tartness with it's sweetness

7.Sixpoint Red Hook Wild: pale ale wort, added some mangoes and peaches, put it in an open barrel and left it uncovered for a day.  We're left with a kinda funky, very interesting beer that's 100% fermented with the wild yeasts of Red Hook.  There's also a bit of brett and some other funky stuff in there.

[murrayscheesebar-blog]

St. Stephen, a soft and buttery cow milk cheese from Four Fat Fowl , washed in Short, Dark & Handsome, an American stout from Other Half Brewing Co., becomes The Other Stephen, exclusive to Murray’s retail shops and Cheese Bar. Get some of this funky goodness!

[culturecheese]

Look at this Pied de Vent made in Quebec Canda from our Cheese Library

Produced by the Fromagerie de Pied de Vent, this aromatic washed rind cheese is made from raw cow's milk. The breed of cow, La Canadienne, is an unusual breed from the Magdalen Islands. Pied de Vent is herbaceous and vegetal.

[cheesenotes]

My story on Booze-washed cheeses is now available in Edible Manhattan on the stands, and online at EdibleBrooklyn.com! Check it out to learn more about some of the washed-rind cheeses of the region around NYC, with beautiful photography from Lauren Volo and food styling by Richard Vassilatos: 

Local Cheesemakers Wash Their Curds in Everything From Beer to Absinthe By Matt Spiegler | February 2, 2015

Alcohol and cheese are a natural match — and I’m not just talking about pairing a smoked porter with a sweet, peppery blue, or a grüner with a Loire Valley crottin. There’s a whole world of cheeses whose creation involves being dunked, bathed and swaddled in booze.

European cheesemakers have a long tradition of washing young curds with their region’s libations — from the Trappist beer-bathed cheeses of Belgian monasteries to the wine-and-herb washes of Swiss alpines.

It’s more than a matter of infusing a cheese with the taste of a liquor. Indeed, the up-front flavors of the liquid (it’s called a “wash” in cheese-speak) often disappear after affinage, or aging, so you won’t end up with a “beery” or “winey” cheese [1]. Rather, the alcohol’s yeasts, bacteria and sugars create a complex alchemy on the cheese’s surface, a microbial playground welcoming to other cultures.

The best known are the Brevibacterium linens, which impart red and orange hues and distinctive aromas — meaty, wet grass, broth, barnyard, even “gym sock” — to prized washed-rind cheeses like nose-searing Époisses or funky, custardy Taleggio. But not all washed rind cheeses are “stinky”; some range toward fruity, floral, pleasantly sour and yeasty; others might not even read as “washed” at first taste, so subtle is the influence.

Trailblazing American cheesemakers have taken this tradition and made it their own. We tasted our way through some of the region’s booze-bathed wheels, and here present our favorites.

Check out the full story.

[fromageforyou]

Époisses de Bourgogne (M. Berthaut)

(eh-pwah-ss)

So funky, so good. You have to try this cheese at least once.

Milk: pasteurized/raw cow

Location: Epoisses, Burgundy, France

Texture: brandy washed rind, soft, spoonable, buttery

Age: up to six months

Flavor: Amazingly meaty and custardy, however, this is considered a very stinky cheese. Can get super buttery and rich as it ripens. The cheese is somewhat salty, woodsy, and bold with slightly sweet under notes. It is a strong cheese with strong and amazing flavors.

Notes: This cheese is washed in brandy multiple times through the aging process. The Epoisses we get in the states is a pasteurized cows milk where as the Epoisses you get everywhere else would be a raw cows milk cheese.

Accompaniments: Strong lagers and even porters would be great with this stinky cheese.