Cabot Clothbound Cheddar

For my Di Bruno Bros. column this week, I write about Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, a beautiful mummy of a cheese from Vermont. It's bandaged in cloth and "larded," then cave-aged -- like an Egyptian pharaoh. Whenever I eat clothbound cheddar, my mind flashes to the mummified cats on display at the Penn Museum. 

Sorry, that's a bit ghoulish, but I do find it fascinating that cheesemakers adopted this method of preservation to create wildly flavorful cheeses. This one smells like the woods and tastes like a thousand things. If you want to read about it and try a little clothbound cheddar tasting (highly advised around Halloween), you'll find all the info over on the Di Bruno Blog, where I post twice a month to earn my cheese allowance.

If you're a cheddar head with lofty aspirations of understanding this tricksy style of cheesemaking, check out The Cheese Chronicles, by Liz Thorpe. She writes beautifully and thoughtfully about cheddar in her chapter on "The Amish: Seeking the Roots of American Cheese" (pp. 90-123). I reread it over a nibble of Cabot Clothbound, and as always I fell under Thorpe's spell. She talks about cheddar the way some people talk about craft beer -- with reverence, pop, and understanding.

If you want more juicy backstory about Cabot Creamery and how Vermont became a cheese mecca, listen to Ann Saxelby's interview with Paul Kindstedt on "Cutting the Curd," a Brooklyn radio show all about cheese. Kinstedt has trained many American cheesemakers and is a sort of Gandalf figure in the American farmstead cheese movement. His take on the Vermont cheese scene is fascinating, and you'll enjoy Ann Saxelby's gently probing Midwestern twang. 

Paging Contest Winners

After a few rolls of the dice, we have some winners for the four cheese journals I put up on Friday. The following cheese fiends should email me (see below) in order to receive their prizes by mail: Miss Platt, Kit, Brian Kall, and Goat Song.

Cheers and happy cheesing, everyone. Special thanks to Dave Selden for providing free samples from 33beers.com. And many thanks to all of you for coming out of your quiet corners of the universe to leave a comment.

Signing off from the cheese battlestar,

Madame Fromage

(tenayadarlington@gmail.com)

Cheese Journal Giveaway

Dave Selden is a cheese frau’s dream. Okay, this cheese frau’s dream. The Portland beer blogger (he's the author of 999 beers) has developed a series of pocket-sized tasting notebooks for beer, whiskey, wine, coffee and – oh, bless him – cheese.

Each book contains 33 pages, hence the name of Selden’s cottage industry out of Portland, Oregon: 33books.com. A beer-blogger by night and graphic designer by day, he’s pretty much the perfect guy for the job of tasting-book developer.

I have 4 books to give away, and one lucky winner will also receive a complimentary cheese board (pictured below) made by Seldon himself. If you use the book, I hope you’ll let us know how you like it. Pop it in the pocket of your jeans vest, and jot down a few notes at the cheese counter or at a resto when you order a cheese plate.

The notebook is so cleverly put together and so compact, it’s a little frightening. (Does Dave Selden live in my brain?) The top of each page offers room for notes about the origins of each cheese – there’s even a line for a rind descriptor. Thank you, Dave.

The bottom of each page is comprised of a dairy dashboard – there’s a flavor wheel and a texture meter, along with a 5-star rating system. Don’t be scared. The diagrams are self-explanatory. The inside cover also offers some useful notes.

Good design and good cheese? I can’t think of a better pairing. Drop me a comment if you want me to send you a freebie. I’ll draw four random winners on Sunday, October 2, 2011 and ship these off to you tout de suite. 
~
Dave's tasting journals are also available online for $4 each, or 3 for $10. Stocking stuffers? Yup. Each book is made of recycled paper and printed with soy ink. Cowabunga! I hope I start seeing these on retail shelves soon.

Puddle Duck Creek

My October cheese column in Grid Magazine features this pretty duckling, known as Puddle Duck Creek. It's a bloomy cheese from Hillacres Pride in Peach Bottom, PA. When I first picked up Puddle Duck at my local Green Aisle Grocery, I was struck by it's golden interior -- it looks like banana pudding. That's a good sign. As I mention in my column (see below), that gold coloring tells me that the cows were pasture-raised. Cows can't digest beta carotene in grass, so it shows up in the milk and subsequently in the cheese.

This is the first season I've seen Puddle Duck Creek. It's a great addition to the local cheese world -- dense and fudgy. It joins a couple other notable Brie-style cheeses from the area, namely Buttercup Brie, Noble Run, and Sue Miller's Little Chardy. If you live in the Philadelphia area, check out the Hillacres Pride stand at Headhouse Farmers Market. You'll see Sue Miller's Birchrun Hills Farm stand there, too. It would be fun to try her Little Chardy alongside Puddle Duck Creek since they're made from different breeds of grass-fed cows. Hillacres raises Jerseys, while Birchrun milks Holsteins.  

In fact, that's just what I might do this weekend.

If you find yourself with a puck of Puddle Duck, try serving it with cherry preserves and a sparkly wine or Duvel. You could also toast slices of Puddle Duck on top of baguette rounds and layer some sauteed mushrooms on top to pick up on the earthy notes. Add a sprinkle of chives, too.   

~

Below: A screen shot from the October issue of Grid Magazine, p. 13

 

Close Encounters With Coulommiers

Certain cheeses, like certain rare albums, attract die-hard fans. You’re looking at one here. I would show you others if I weren’t just a wee bit worried about getting caught. See, the cheese pictured before you isn’t actually legal, and that’s because it’s unpasteurized. It came into this country, like so many pirated Michael Jackson cassette tapes, via a suitcase.

I’ve always wanted to try a raw-milk French Brie, which is why I biked to an undisclosed parking lot several weeks ago and did the unthinkable: I ate raw Coulommiers out of the trunk of an unmarked minivan. It’s just as nefarious as it sounds. There were knives, illicit cutting boards, cheese thugs.

I risked my life. And I’d do it again.

Coulommiers is a cow’s milk cheese from near Burgundy – an area of the world that is known for its glorious dairy. Epoisses? From Burgundy. Delice de Bourgogne? From Burgundy. Both  are sold to the U.S. as pasteurized cheeses because of our stringent raw-milk laws. They’re very good cheeses, mind you, but as a diehard cheeselover, one has to wonder: what would the raw-milk version taste like?  

This is why I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try raw Coulommiers – the real deal from France. If I’d been in Paris, I would have shmeared it on a baguette without hesitation, without looking over my shoulder, without first putting on a Lone Ranger mask. 

I wouldn’t even be telling you about this experience except that…well, I feel I owe it to you. I mean, we have come so far together.

So here is my close encounter with Coulommiers: Imagine the taste of a thousand splendid mushrooms, sautéed in butter and herbs to silky perfection. Envision the crepe-de-chine creaminess on the tongue, the pasturey aroma of wet hay. Multiply this by 10,000 flashing taste buds and you have, well, a cheese supernova.

I am here to tell you that this Coulommiers was so far from every other gummy, slightly furry, tongue-coating Brie experience I’ve ever endured, that I literally moonwalked across cobblestones and fell into a planter pot, stunned.

I am ruined, reader. If you ever go to France, order Coulommiers. Make sure to get a ripe one. If it doesn’t run down your sleeve, step away and move to the next cheese shop.

And if you ever get a phonecall in the middle of the night from someone with a husky voice who says, “Meet me in a parking lot tomorrow at 2 p.m. I have some dangerous, irresistible French cheese,” please let me know. I will go in your place. 

Note: This post is not intended to advocate cheese smuggling. Raw milk cheese is legally available for purchase in the U.S., but it must be at least 60 days old. Young cheeses, such as Brie and Coulommiers, ripen in a few short weeks so they are not available in stores as raw cheeses. It is legal to eat them, just not to buy them. 

On Blue Cheese & Food Blogging: Two Classes

"Black Castello," by Mike Geno

Pssst...it's happening. I'm teaching a class on tasting blue cheese. Yeah, I know, blue cheese is not everyone's bag, but you and I know that most people get hung up on "crumbles" at the grocery. We don't like those either. But we love a soft, purring blue like Gorg Dolce (which would be a very good name for a cat) and we get rowdy when someone brings out a big blue bruiser like Stilton. 

On Friday, October 28, I am going to sing the blues at Tria's Fermentation School. I hope you'll grab the hand of an adventurous friend and join me for an around-the-world, multi-milk tour. We'll start in the U.S., with some award-winning blues, then fly to Italy, France, Spain, and England, enjoying pairings with each bite. It's a flight of 7 blues, my loves. There will be dark chocolate, there will be sherry. Let's all wear silk stockings. 

Click here for tickets.

Food Blogging Workshops I & II

You've been asking and asking, and now this dream comes true: Marisa McClellan and I are teaming up to teach two workshops specifically for food bloggers. Whether you're just starting out or deeply engrossed in the blogosphere, we think this set of two hands-on classes will be smashing. Come to one, or both. We're holding them at Indy Hall, a unique co-working space in Old City, Philadelphia. Both workshops will be intimate (12-15 people), and we're providing coffee and baked goods for breakfast. Our goal is to provide you with community, creativity, and croissants, along with new skills and a boost of confidence. 

Food Blogging I : An Introduction

Sat., October 15, 10-1 p.m.

Indy Hall, $75, includes brunch

Instructors: Marisa McClellan (foodinjars.com) & Tenaya Darlington a.k.a. Madame Fromage 

Want to launch a food blog, or spice up the one you’ve already started? Spend a morning developing your culinary identity. We’ll give you an anatomy lesson of good blog components, talk photo gear, explore trends and niches, plus brainstorm future posts with you. This is a hands-on class. You will eat muffins. You will take lots of notes. When you leave, you’ll have all the tools to start blogging with a clear vision of the food story you want to share. 

Food Blogging II: Ethics & Etiquette

Sat., Nov. 5, 10-1p.m.

Indy Hall, $75, includes breakfast

Instructors: Marisa McClellan (foodinjars.com) & Tenaya Darlington a.k.a. Madame Fromage 

So you’ve been blogging for a while, but you’re wondering how to get noticed. And you’re worried your posts might be too long. And you think you might want to run advertising? In this 3-hour workshop, we’ll run through Blog Ethics 101 and help you think through the choices ahead. We’ll also look at several case studies of successful bloggers who have landed book deals and launched full-blown careers in writing. It’s not just about branding, it’s also about understanding the ethics and etiquette around posting recipes, photos, and comments. Consider this your baptism into the pro blogger community.

Note: The image of "Black Castello" at the top of this post is a new work by Mike Geno. His cheese paintings will be featured in the winter issue of Culture Magazine.

Cheese, Ale, and Jam Recap

Yesterday was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, perfect for tucking into jam, nibbling cheese, and sipping beer. Marisa of Foodinjars.com joined me on the back patio at Wedge & Fig, Old City's new cheese shop, for a little catechism. Since several of you wanted to be there but couldn't, here are a few photos along with a menu of our pairings. 

Later this week, Marisa and I will be posting about our upcoming Food Blogging Workshops -- we've got two (one for newbies, one that's advanced), and I've got details to share about my all blue cheese class at Tria in October. Click the links for a sneaky preview. More verbiage to come.

Now, for yesterday's tasting...

Humboldt Fog + Honey-Sweetened Apricot Lavender Butter

Walt Wit, Philadelphia Brewing

This iconic goat cheese from Cypress Grove’s Mary Keehn is layered with a line of edible ash, separating morning milk from evening milk. A light-bodied wheat beer with plenty of effervescence is perfect. So is a Sauv Blanc.

Delice de Bourgogne + Pear Vanilla Jam

Duvel Belgian Ale

One of the most decadent triple cremes, Delice is often served with Champagne, but a spritely Duvel does the job, too. In fall, serve Delice for dessert with dried cherries, pears, and spiced pecans. 

Epoisses+Cara Cara Ginger Marmalade

90-minute IPA, Dogfish

Meaty Epoisses hails from Burgundy, where 16^th century monks developed this unique brandy-washed cheese. Try it before Thanksgiving dinner, served with crudité and a big beer with plenty of malt and hops.

Quickes Cheddar+Peach Chutney

Saint Botolph’s Town, Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project

Mary Quicke makes traditional clothbound cheddar at her home in Devon. Its sweet earthiness matches the malty caramel notes in this rustic brown ale made by gypsy brewers outside of Boston. Try the Duvel, too. 

Beemster Aged Gouda +Fig Jam

Bam Biere, Jolly Pumpkin

This Gouda-style cheese from the Netherlands is toasty and smoky, a good foil for for an artisan farmhouse ale made from wild yeast in Dexter, MI. You could also try a smoked beer or a stout.

Black Castello+Pickled Cherries

Life & Limb, Dogfish/Sierra Nevada collaboration

This friendly Danish blue made from cow and sheep’s milk is notable for its black rind. It has a supple, salty profile that stands up to dark beer, in this case an American Strong Ale sweetened with maple syrup. It’s strong (10% ABV).

Table settings w/ menus and tasting notes 

Beer selections, from local to far-flung

Pickled cherries, etc. in the Wedge & Fig kitchen