WHAT IS EDAM? Once long ago, a semi-hard, sharp tasting farmhouse cheese was all the rage. But today Edam is an industrial cheese. Cannonball-shaped, this semi-hard cow’s milk cheese has a mildly spicy flavor and less rubbery texture then cheap gouda. The red wax is only for exports. Back home in the Netherlands they sell […]
cheese
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Manouri
WHAT IS MANOURI? Imagine if someone replaced the word “Philadelphia” on your cream cheese with “Athens” and you would have manouri. Also known as manoypi, it is a semi-soft, feta-like Greek cheese. Like French toast, this dairy delight allows you to use the leftovers from other recipes. Whey leftover from making other cheeses is used, […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Ubriaco
WHAT IS UBRIACO? This aged cow’s milk cheese is traditionally soaked in the grape remnants of wine making. The name “Ubriaco” translates as drunk in Italian. Apparently inWorld War I, Italian farmers started hiding their cheeses in wine barrels. This style of cheese can be found in various versions from the Spanish “Drunken Goat” to […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Brillat-Savarin
WHO WAS BRILLAT-SAVARIN? At the end of the 19th century, Henri Androuet named this cheese after French gastronome and physiologist Brillat-Savarin. Born over 100 years earlier, he was the author of such famous statements as “Dessert without cheese is like a beauty with only one eye”. Think of him as the bachelor gourmet precursor to […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Caciocavallo
WHAT IS CACIOCAVALLO? Caciocavallo looks like a cheese that was made into a sad pear. Normally you don’t hear the term “strung up” outside of 50 Shades of Grey. But this cheese is hung from the ceiling while drying. With the neck of the cheese hanging from a rope, gravity causes the formaggio to stretch. […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Myzithra
WHAT IS MYZITHRA? Myzithra is made from a mix of either raw cow, sheep and or goat’s milk and half as much whey. Associated most strongly with Crete, it comes in two types. There is the fresh, less salty fresh version called xinomizythra which looks like a granular cream cheese. It’s fermented to varying degrees […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Robiola
WHAT IS ROBIOLA? Robiolas are a style of fresh, white, rindless cheese. They come from the Piedmont section of Italy. Each formaggio is around four ounces in size. Both the type of milk and cheese making technique can vary a lot from one local producer to another. More often than not Robiolas are either a […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Halloumi
WHAT IS HALLOUMI? If the fate of the world hung in the balance, you’d need a cheese that wouldn’t “crumble” under pressure! Wow, that sucked. Ok, let me try again. Picture a movie theater turning dark. The announcer’s deep baritone leaps at you from the shadows. “In a world torn in half, two cheese’s united […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Reblochon
WHAT IS REBLOCHON? This fromage is made in the French Savoie region of France. Only the milk from Abondance, Montbeliard and Tarine cows is used. Reblochon is a bit unusual in that its rind is washed with whey. After the cheese has been aged for about a month, a nutty, yellow interior balances out the […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Danish Blue
WHAT IS DANISH BLUE? Danish blue cheese wheels in are creamy and semi-soft. These ost (cheese) have a beautiful yellowish white paste and blue green veining. The same penicillium mold used in Roquefort creates the bacterial marbling of this cheese. And if you buy a salad at a restaurant, 50-50 chance that the blue is […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Gouda
WHAT IS GOUDA? This waxed Dutch cheese can be consumed from 1 month to 5 years old. It is almost always made from pasteurized cow’s milk and cooked curds. The traditional raw milk version is still made but under a different cheese (boerenkaas). Gouda is classified by age. The first of the 7 stages is […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Humboldt Fog
WHAT IS HUMBOLDT FOG? So Europe has a long tradition of cheese making. And for many years, there weren’t many non-European cheese that could compete. Humboldt Fog is a goat’s milk cheese created by Mary Keehn in the 1970’s and changed that. This soft-ripened cheese with its beauty mark line of ash gives even the […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Feta
WHAT IS FETA? Long ago in Greece this was traditionally a mixed milk cheese. Shepherds would have a flock of sheep with a goat or two milked into the mix. And if you were a Greek sailing the ocean and conquering islands, what better cheese to bring with you then a block of solid milk […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Mozzarella di Buffalo
WHAT IS MOZZARELLA? Long ago in the U.S.A. lobsters used to only be fed to prisoners in the States. In a similar vein, once upon a time in Italy buffalo would roam the southern swamps. Poor Italian peasants would milk them, return home and make this cheese. How times have changed, today buffalo mozzarella is […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Grana Padano
WHAT IS GRANA PADANO? The name Grana Padano is sometimes used incorrectly as a generic term (like the word “tomme” for French alpine cheeses). Grana Padano is if anything one of the more unique cheeses in the world. It is one of the few Italian cheeses that can give Parmesan Reggiano a run for its […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Parmesan Reggiano
WHAT IS PARMESAN? You think you’re tough? You think you know hard? You know nothing John Snow! Er, I mean whoever you are. Anyway, much like Game of Thrones, knives are your diplomatic tool of choice when attacking a wheel of Parmesan. However most knives will snap in two if you try to use one […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Roquefort
WHAT IS ROQUEFORT? It’s a French sheep’s milk blue cheese named after the Combalou caverns in which they’re aged. Roquefort is a foil wrapped, rindless raw milk cheese. Long ago, blue mold was introduced by throwing a loaf of bread infused with penicillium roqueforti into a cave next to the cheese. TO BUY THIS CHEESE […]
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHEESE – Comte
WHAT IS COMTE? Do you know the remake of that Culture Club song “Comte Chameleon?” No, nor does anyone else, I just made it up (sigh, only 158 more words to write!) Comte had a huge influence on 19th century thought and seduced famous social activists like Karl Marx, Falco and John Stuart Mill. No […]
