Melissa was checking out cheese on woot.com, and found a good deal on a 3.5 lb ball of Bravo Farms Tulare Cannonball. After a brief email discussion, we decided, of course, that we had to get it.
Bravo Farms Cannonball
milk: raw California cow
type: Edam
We liked it. We’ve been eating it for a few days, but it is still very good. We’ll probably make fondue with it also. Still, it’s a lot of Edam cheese!
It was the first cheese night in Burlington, and all of the cheese was from the local Harris-Teeter. It was our first time getting the mini-wheel of the St. André, which made for a nice presentation. The other cheeses were fine also. Everyone rated all of the cheeses highly. The comte was good on toast for breakfast.
St. Andre
French cows
type: triple cream
St. André is made from cow’s milk and enriched with pure cream. St. André is also fairly rare. Containing no less than 75% butterfat for every 100 grams of cheese, St. André is commonly agreed to be 50% richer than the average Camembert. This cheese is a favorite of our cheese boards!
Asiago
Italian cows
type: hard
The rind is thin and elastic. The interior is straw white, slightly more golden in color if aged. The paste is elastic and contains holes but, depending on the aging, it may also be granular with small cracks. The cheese’s scent recalls milk fresh from the cow, and its taste is sweet and balanced, more accentuated and flavorful in the aged version.
Comte
French cows
type: semi-hard
Comté (also called Gruyère de Comté) is a French cheese made from unpasteurized cow’s milk in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France. Comté has the highest production figures of all French AOC cheeses, making around 40,000 tonnes annually. Its name is French for ‘county’, and is named after the Franche-Comté region. The rind is usually a dusty-brown colour, and the internal pâte is a pale creamy yellow. The texture is relatively hard and flexible, and the taste is mild, slightly sweet, and ‘nutty’.
Tony & Maura came to visit this weekend and brought some nice sheep cheese from a creamery in northern New Jersey. Although Maura thought we took too much preparation time, they enjoyed it a lot, and the cheese event was very nice. (In Maryland it is illegal to sell raw milk, so we have to depend on out-of-staters to smuggle in raw milk cheese!)
Cowgirl Triple Creme
(left over from the tasting at Melissa’s, still very good)
Baby Shepherd
raw sheep’s milk
type: 1lb wheel, semi-soft
New Jersey, Valley Shepherd Creamery
A small 1lb wheel of sheep’s milk cheese. Very real cave aged farmstead cheese.
at, mt, tt, ms, wt: good
Oldwick Shepherd
raw sheep’s milk
type: hard
New Jersey, Valley Shepherd Creamery
A cave ripened, raw milk cheese that develops a brownish–white mold exterior during its 3-4 month stay in our cave. Great earthy aroma, nutty smooth finish. Just a wonderful Pyrenees style sheep’s milk cheese.
at, mt, tt, ms: good; wt: very good
Shepherd’s Basket
raw sheep’s milk
type: hard
New Jersey, Valley Shepherd Creamery
A mold ripened traditional Basque raw milk cheese aged a minimum 4-5 months in our cave. The basket imprint may remind you of a Manchego but the flavor is deeper.
at, mt, tt, ms, wt: good
Blue d’Auvergne
cow
France, Calvert Woodley
We just needed a blue to round things out.
at, mt, tt, ms, wt: good
Angela found the cheese labels at a store in Frederick; this is their first use.
Gorgonzola
italian cow
We’ve had this before.
good
Chaumes
french cow
Chaumes has a distinctive golden soft rind that has a bright tangerine-orange color. The interior is smooth, supple; a rich mellow cheese. The nutty, almost meaty taste and aroma are mild. This gourmet cheese is made of pasteurized milk.
a bit strong
Explorateur
Triple-cream
french cow
The original (non-pasteurized, and not available in the US), has a picture of a rocket on the label.
This triple-cream cheese was invented in the 1950’s and named in honor of the first US satellite – Explorer. The French dairy that invented the cheese decided on a topical name and an image of the rocket still appears on the wrapping. Explorateur became one of the first cheeses created after the triple-cream classification was defined as a cheese with butterfat content of 75% or more, and remains one of the most popular triple-creams. It is a soft, fresh, white cheese of cylindrical shape. Enriched with cream, it is one of the most popular triple-cream cheeses found around the world. Exploratur has a rich, buttery taste and a slightly sharp, salty finish with a pleasant tang of mushrooms. The slight sharpness deepens a little with maturity.
very good
with Melissa and Josh in the country
Irish Cheddar
Irish cow
Very good cheddar
Aged Gouda
Dutch cows
Was a bit strong just by itself, is good grated in soup & salads.
Manchego
spanish sheep
good
Fromage d’Affinois
french cows
http://www.fromagerdaffinois.com/fromager-daffinois-GB/index.htm
Very rich double-cream Brie-like cheese.
very good
Taleggio
milk: cow
location: Italy
A very nice cheese, although some likened it to Velveeta, however that may have been just because of the texture. It did have a quite earthy taste (which I liked).
ms, at: ok wt: good
Saint Andre
milk: cow
location: France
A triple-creme cheese, which is why we liked it so much. We’ve had it before. Camembert-like.
ms, at, wt: very good
All from Calvert-Woodley, all on sale, and with some Citterio proscuitto also!
Pt Reyes Blue
milk: cow
loc: California
Yes, we still have some of the Pt. Reyes Blue left(!).
Caerphilly
milk: cow
loc: England (Wales)
Caerphilly cheese is a hard cheese that originates in the area around the town of Caerphilly in Wales, although now also made in England, particularly in the South West, on the border with Wales. It was not originally made in Caerphilly, but was sold at market there, hence taking the town’s name.
It is a light-coloured (almost white) crumbly cheese made from cows’ milk, and generally has a fat content of around 48%.
Carephilly has a mild taste, but perhaps its most noticeable feature is its saltiness. It is rumoured that the cheese was developed over time to provide the miners with a convenient way of replenishing the salt lost through hard work underground and so was a staple of the diet of the coal-miners.
Caerphilly was one of the many cheeses mentioned in the “Cheese Shop” sketch from Monty Python in the 1970s.
at, na: good; wt, ms: very good
Gruyere (AoC)
milk: unpasteurized cow
loc: Switzerland
Gruyère is a hard yellow cheese made from cow’s milk, named after the town of Gruyères in Switzerland, and made in the cantons of Fribourg, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Jura, and Berne. Before 2001, when Gruyère gained Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée status as a Swiss cheese, some controversy existed whether French and Transylvanian cheeses of a similar nature could also be labeled Gruyère. (French Gruyère-style cheeses include Comté and Beaufort.) Gruyère is sweet but slightly salty, with a flavor that varies widely with age. It is often described as creamy and nutty when young, becoming with age more assertive, earthy, and complex. When fully aged (five months to a year) it tends to have small holes and cracks which impart a slightly grainy mouthfeel.
at, ms, na, wt: good
Returning from this year’s N.C. Thanksgiving trip, Angela flew the Archer for about an hour!
Pt. Reyes Blue
Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co.
milk: morning Holstein cow
type: blue
Melissa found a good deal on this 3lb wheel of Original Blue at woot. We decided that with the holidays coming up that we should get it, so here it is.
The secret to Original Blue lies in the unique combination of three ingredients:
Time influences the recipe, too. Original Blue is made within hours of milking, and then ages for a minimum of six months. The result? A creamier style, full-flavored blue cheese.
at, ms, wt: very good, mild
The cheese tasting was held while Illinois University (Angela, Melissa, Josh, Drew, Maggie, George) beat #1-ranked Ohio State University (Karen, Julie, Johnny) at Ohio on Saturday. The cheeses are from Eastern Market.
Manchego DO
milk: sheep:
country: Spain
type: hard
Manchego is named for the Spanish region of La Mancha, also home of Don Quixote. This historic cheese is produced in the La Mancha region from pasteurized sheep’s milk. It has a black gray or buff colored rind with a crosshatch pattern, the interior ranges from stark white to yellowish, depending on age. The aroma should suggest lanolin and roast lamb. The final cheese is usually smeared with olive oil and surface mould is removed. It has a number of holes and a mild, slightly briny, nutty flavor. It is sold at various stages of maturity: at the age of 13 weeks it is described as curado (cured) and, when over three months old it is referred to as viejo (aged). There is a peppery bite to cheeses that have reached a great age. It is best known of a series of sheep’s cheeses and is similar to Zamorano, Cadiz, Calahora or Castelleno.
at, ms, jr, wt: very good
Ossau-Iraty AOC
milk: sheep
country: France
type: semi-hard
Ossau-Iraty is a traditional, unpasteurized, semi-soft cheese made from sheep’s milk. It usually has a shape of a wheel, with natural rind. This cheese is made with the milk of Manech ewes. There are three main sizes: small (Petit-Ossau-Iraty-Brebis Pyrenes), intermediate (non-fermier), large (fermier). Affinage takes at least 90 days, 60 days for the small version. The temperature of the cellar must be below 12 C. This cheese unites two regions of France in the Western Pyrénées: Ossau in the valley of the Bearn and Iraty in the beech forests of the Pays Basque. The cheese is full of a delicious, nutty, robust taste if it is produced during the period from June to September when the herds move up to the high mountain meadows.
at, ms, jr: good, wt: very good