Blue Cheese Meets Vodka

Annie Baum-Stein, blue-cheese model

Today’s submission for the Blue Cheese Invitational comes from blogger Mike Lyons of West Philly Local. Lyons snapped this shot at his favorite West Philly cheese joint, Milk & Honey, where owner Annie Baum-Stein keeps her cheese case stocked with local gems, like Royer Mountain, along with international dream wheels, like leaf-wrapped Valdeon from Spain.

Lyons and his wife Julija, who is Russian, serve blue cheese as Zakuska – a chaser for vodka. In Russain, Zakuska means "snack."

“After a shot, you need something salty and punchy,” Lyons says.

He recommends a less crumbly blue with a sharp hook at the end. The Valdeon sold at Milk & Honey has become their go-to cheese. Baum-Stein (pictured above) also carries Black River Blue, a customer favorite from a dairy co-op in Wisconsin. I know it well -- what a coup!

For a Blue Cheese and Vodka party, Lyons recommends:

• pickled tomatoes
• black bread
• Valdeon blue cheese
• chilled Ruski Standard Vodka

Lyons also likes to shop at one of two Russian grocery stores in the Philadelphia area, Bell’s Market and Net Cost Market. Expect a full-on Soviet experience, complete with Russian pop, blue eye shadow, and plenty of pickled fish – both in line and at the seafood counter.

Day 3: How to Serve Saint Agur

When I told my friend the Blue Cheese Brit that I was planning to eat blue cheese for a month, he snickered. The Brit, a frequent face on this blog, works in a medical lab by day and returns to his own personal cheese cave by night. He is an airy dairy vampire.

The Brit will tell you, in his Scottish accent, that there is a regular rotation at his house in Philadelphia – meaning, he rotates blue cheeses in and out of his diet depending on the season and his whim.

“This winter, I’ve been on a weekly diet of Saint Agur and Cremifacto,” he told me, as he muddled through Di Bruno’s wrappers in his fridge. “I can’t imagine living without them. They are sooooo creamy.”

He wanted me to tell you that if you are considering a blue cheese vocation you “simply must” spend an evening with Saint Agur. He recommends a weekly wedge, administered with dried cranberries and walnuts.

Saint Agur is a cow's milk double-crème blue (60 percent butterfat) with a gentle boldness. In wine terms, it’s a Pinot – not hardy like a Cabernet or simple like a Beaujolais, but pleasantly frisky.

Roquefort, France’s premier blue, is headstrong and salty – too much for some. Saint Agur is much lighter on the salt but still an excellent cheese, the kind of cheese you could eat every night after work.

And serve to cheese aficionados.

How to Serve Blue Cheese

If you’re hosting a blue cheese party, here are a few little tricks I learned from the Blue Cheese Brit. He is such a wonder – a master host who can appear relaxed even when he has a crown roast and several fowl in the oven. One day, I aspire to be his equal.

1.    Always serve your cheese at room temperature. That’s when flavors will be most potent. Just leave cheese on the counter for an hour while you pish-posh about the house before guests arrive.

2.   Keep a decent sherry in your cupboard, along with a ready supply of dried fruit and nuts. If bezzie mates pop in, you can create an instant buffet.

3.   Blue cheese goes well with baguette and oaty biscuits. Freeze leftover baguette rounds, then you can toast them up in a flash.

4.   When you taste cheese, smell it first. With blues, you may detect a flinty scent, vegetal hints, or a leathery aroma. Say, “Gorgeous.” Then drop a crumb on your tongue. Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth as you eat. Then, you’ll taste the full range of flavors.

5.    Flavorful cheeses often have lots of notes that are fun to distinguish. In blues, look for hints of: grape, white chocolate, flint, watercress, earth, cream, black pepper, salt, roasted nuts, leather.

6.   Common blue cheese pairings: sliced pear, walnuts, figs (fresh or dried), chutney, candied pecans – anything sweet, even mango.

7.   In the glass: stout, barley wine, Sauternes, port, sherry.

8.   Serve blue cheese after a meal, not before. It’s heavy and salty, a nice finisher, while lighter cheeses – particularly goat or bloomy styles– go well before, alongside beer or bubbly.

My Life in the Blue Cheese Cult

Confession: I haven’t told you about all the blue cheeses in my life. There are times when I have three, sometimes four, little blue cheese romances going on all at once. On a Friday night, I might eat a hunk of blue cheese with honeycomb at 6 p.m., then shmear another blue on a piece of dark chocolate at 8 p.m., and then carry a different blue up to bed, along with a snifter of port.

I want to be open with you, but I also know that a few of you have something against blues. You don’t want to hear about my little blue crushes every time you visit this blog. But you need to know: it’s November, and this is my high season. I am going to be bringing a lot of blue cheese home from now on, and you might as well know the gnarly truth.

Here are three recent infatuations:

Incanestro

Think of a ham hock, then superimpose blue cheese over it. This porky tasting blue from Common Folks in Leola, PA is dense, creamy, and salty as hell. I fell for the beautiful scarification on the rind, which comes from the basket in which this cheese is aged. A shout out to Albert Yee of the Fair Food Farmstand who writes about Incanestro on his blog, Messy and Picky, this week.

Harbourne Blue

I took this pasteurized goat blue to a party, and every body wanted a bite – once they saw the price tag anyway. At $40/lb, it’s much too spendy to buy regularly, but on a sparkly occasion, it’s worth procuring a minor shard and eating it unadorned. This is a bright, bold blue from the UK – a little spicy, but icy, too. Imagine incredibly fresh snow with a dusting of chive blossoms.

Basajo

Don’t be put off by the coat of many colors here – this gorgeous Italian sheep's milk blue is packed in grape must, which imbues the paste with grapey, floral notes. It’s sweet as far as blues go and very fudgy. I can’t even write about it without purring. Cheese fan and journalist Janet Fletcher suggests serving it with a "silky dessert wine." Thanks to Gil of the Philly Market Cafe blog for recommending this dream.

There, I've come clean. Mostly.

Blue Cheese, Four Ways

Lots of people proclaim to be blue cheese haters, and this breaks my heart. Why? I can't stand the thought of anyone going to the grave without having eaten a wedge of Stilton or a spoonful of creamy Cashel. There are umpteen kinds of blue, and I firmly believe that for every person alive there is a variety that will change his or her mind forever. Willing to take the plunge? Here are four pairings to tempt even the meekest mouse.

To read more...

Full disclosure: This post is part of a series I'm writing for Di Bruno Bros., one of my fave cheese haunts in Philly. The deal is, I get paid to guest-blog for the store's site (dibruno.blogspot.com) on Wednesdays. I choose each topic myself.

Black Castello: Matchmaking with Blues

Yesterday, I teamed up with Marisa McClellan of foodinjars.com to pair cheese'n pickles. It wasn't easy to find cheeses that could stand up to a vinegary mate, but we put together a beautiful tasting for about eight people at my neighborhood cheese shop, Quince. The real hit of the party was this luxurious blue, a Danish triple-creme with a shock of black mold for a rind. It cries out for fresh figs, but it also cuddled right up to pickled cherries. Marisa's batch was woodsy, thanks to the bay leaves in her recipe.

Pairing cheeses can be like setting your friends up on blind dates -- you have to take a few risks. I knew that Marisa was keen to crack into some pickled garlic scapes she made in spring, but I wasn't sure exactly what kind of cheese could handle that much snap and pucker. Turns out, a clayey goat cheese called Leonora was game. Leonora, an aged goat cheese from a single maker in Spain, had just the grassy, citrusy notes to tangle with a scape. (A scape is the green shoot that roars out of planted garlic in spring.)

With the fruits that are in season this time of year, these two cheeses should be your single friends. Pair them up with Asian pears or peaches -- Leonora would love that. You could add a drizzle of dark honey, and she'd lose her mind. Fresh figs or ripe plums would work, too. Black Castello takes to figs and honey, but you could also nestle it against ripe pears, toasted walnuts, fig-onion jam, apple chutney.

Black Castello is a triple-creme made from a mixture of cow's milk and sheep's milk. It's a perfect blue for beginners and tweens. No sharp hook. No bitter zing. It's all cream and conversation, and the taste doesn't linger in your mouth. If you want to impress your friends, spread it on toasted bread with pickled cherries or ripe fig halves, and top it with a sprig of rosemary. Now, that's love.

If you live in Philly and you'd like to join me for a tasting at Quince, come out of hiding! Here's a list of upcoming dates, along with with a few photos from yesterday.

Upcoming Tastings
September 18, Cheese, Apples & Ale
October 23, Warm Cheese Appetizers
November 20, Thanksgiving Cheese Plate
December 18, Holiday Cheese Pairings
January 22, Fondu
To reserve, please email Nicole at quince@quincefinefoods.com.

Point Reyes Blue

In summer, I love to serve blue cheese, sherry, and dark chocolate. They are tastes that go well with overgrown patios, marble stoops, and moon watching. On a hot night, the flavors cut through the muggy air and cure me of my air-conditioning hangover. I’m a blue-cheese-on-the-patio kind of girl.

Because it’s made in a hot state (California), Point Reyes Blue seems to pair well with warm weather. To read on, please click here.

Full disclosure: This post is part of a series I'm writing for Di Bruno Bros., one of my fave cheese haunts in Philly. The deal is, on Wednesdays I get paid to guest-blog on the store's site (dibruno.blogspot.com).