The PFI Cheese Library

Morbier

pfifromager — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:25:26 +0000

Country and region of origin: France – Franche-Comté (Pontarlier, Haut-Doubs)

Milk: Raw Cow’s Milk
Age: 2.5 months to 4 months
Rind: Non-edible, natural, brushed

Creamery: Fromagerie Badoz

Creamery website: Fromagerie Badoz
Properties: It’s semi-soft, a lovely pale yellow with it’s characteristic layer of ash running through the center. The rind is typically a bit sticky. The flavor is full, a little nutty and very rich. Uses: This is a great table cheese. I don’t know that people cook with it at all, but I could absolutely see it in quiches or melted on baguette.
Wine Pairings: All light and fruity reds
Production Notes:This raw milk cheese is made with the milk of two milkings (a morning milking and an evening milking) separated by a layer of vegetable ash.

Testimonials:
Steve Jenkins, Cheese Primer: “The most seductive of all semi-soft cheeses.”

Max McCalman, Cheese, A Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Best: “The good raw-milk Morbiers I’ve tasted are full, plump and gorgeous.”

Tome d’Aquitaine

pfifromager — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:29:37 +0000

Country and region of origin: France, Loire (Affinage in Bordeaux)
Milk: Pasteurized Goat’s Milk
Age: 4 months
Rind: wine washed (Muscadet and Sauternes)
Creamery: Union Laitiere de la Venise Verte Affineur: Jean d’Alos
Creamery website: Jean d’Alos website (Affineur)

Properties: In spite of the cheesemaker’s persistent description of this cheese as “hard”, we describe it as semi-soft (slicable, soft but not spreadable). This cheese is one of our favorites. Tome d’Aquitaine is characterized by bright, fresh flavors (almost fruity) with a pleasant, ellusive saltiness.
Uses: Snacking, a little too luxurious to cook with, though you certainly could.
Wine Pairings: A dry white wine would be perfect.

Production Notes: Washed first in a local Muscadet by the creamery and then washed four times in Sauternes by the affineur. The rind is one of the tastiest I’ve ever eaten.

Ingredients: Pasteurized goat’s milk, salt, rennet, cheese cultures

Humboldt Fog

pfifromager — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:10:06 +0000

Country and region of origin: United States; Northern California (Humboldt County)
Milk: Goat
Age: 1 month
Rind: Bloomy-Rind with Ash
Creamery: Cypress Grove Creamery
Creamery website: Cypress Grove Website

Properties: Smooth, creamy, very rich, tangy, luxurious
Uses: Snacking, hors d’oeuvres
Wine Pairings: From the Cypress Grove site: White Wine: Chenin Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Sancerre, Sparkling Wine
Red Wine: Old Vine Carignane, Pinot Noir
Production Notes: features a ribbon of edible vegetable ash along its center and a coating of ash under its exterior

Testimonials: Again, from their website:

Awards
Top 100 Designs Worldwide, Metropolitan Home Magazine, 2003
Best Cheese & Dairy Product, IFFCS (New York), 2002
Gold, London International Cheese Competition, 2004
First Place, American Cheese Society, 1998 2002 2005
Best In Class, Surface Ripened Goat’s Milk Cheeses, World Championship Cheese Contest, 2010

Nutritional Information

French Feta – Valbreso

pfifromager — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 14:04:52 +0000

Country and region of origin: Southwest France
Milk: Sheep’s Milk
Age:
Rind: None
Creamery: Valbreso
Creamery website: Unknown

Properties: Among feta cheeses that we’ve tried, Valbreso is certainly both the creamiest and least salty. Whether or not you think of this cheese as a true feta, it’s hard to deny that it’s a wonderful cheese.
Uses: Baking (spanokopita) and simply eating at table with pita bread and olives.
Wine Pairings:

Production Notes: Made with the milk leftover from the production of Roquefort cheese. Cured in a very mild brine.

Nutritional InformationNutritional information

Beemster 18 Month Gouda

pfifromager — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 05:40:07 +0000

Country and region of origin: The Netherlands, Beemster Polder
Milk: Pasteurized Cow’s Milk
Age: 18 months
Rind: Wax
Creamery: CONO Beemsterkaas
Creamery website: US Beemster Cheese site

Properties: Powerful cheese that’s both nutty and tasting darkly of caramel, Beemster is our favorite aged gouda. The calcium lactate crystalization is wonderful with this cheese.
Uses: Perfect for snacking – it’s also a surprisingly impressive grating cheese. Their site also has a recipe for a kind of Frico (baked cheese wafer usually made with Parmesan).
Wine Pairings: I like it with big fat red wines (powerful cabernets, for instance) but it also pairs well with a rich pinot gris.

Production Notes: Mostly what seems to set Beemster apart from the rest of the gouda pack is its fine milk. Quoting from their website: “The cows, which provide the milk Beemster cheeses are made from, graze freely in the pastures from spring through fall. ”

Beemster is a member or the Caring Dairy program.

Testimonials: The internet is loaded with interesting reviews of this cheese. This one in particular caught my attention

Tomme Crayeuse

pfifromager — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:24:55 +0000

Country and region of origin: Savoie, France
Milk: Pasteurized Cow’s Milk···
Age: aged over 6 weeks
Rind: natural brushed rind
Creamery: Schmidhauser
Creamery website: Schmidhauser Website

Properties: Creamy, pale paste. When ripe this cheese is spreadable. Surprisingly rich for a single cream, especially one made with pasteurized milk.
Uses: This is such an extravagantly good table cheese it’s hard to imagine other uses for it. But it would melt beautifully. It would be fine with fruit or with crackers – or spread on baguette.
Wine Pairings: A big, spicy red would be nice. Perhaps a Syrah. I can also imagine having this with Champagne or Cava.

Production Notes: First created by Max Schmidhauser in 1995, this was intended as a tomme alternative to the Tommes de Savoie of its region. In this, of course, it is successful. It is richer, creamier and more luxurious than most Tommes de Savoie.

Nutrition Data

Testimonials:

Baita Friuli

pfifromager — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:09:42 +0000

Country and region of origin: Italy, the Friuli-Venezia region of Giulia
Milk: Pasteurized Cow’s Milk
Age: at least 5 months
Rind: Natural rind, not particularly edible
Creamery: Various
Creamery website: Unknown

Properties: Nice, firm and buttery-colored, Baita isn’t a particularly well-known cheese but it’s a fine, slightly fruity, oddball of a cheese. It reminds some of cheddar, some of gruyere. For me, it depends upon what you’re eating it with. It melts beautifully.
Uses: Grating, cooking, sandwiches, munching
Wine Pairings: Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, or hearty red wines; some suggest dry Rieslings, also

Production Notes: Wheels are about 22 pounds, typically. Listed ingredients are cow’s milk, rennet (animal rennet) and salt.

Asiago Pressato

pfifromager — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:19:05 +0000

Country and region of origin: Italy, Veneto
Milk: Pasteurized Cow’s Milk
Age: 2 months
Rind: natural, inedible
Creamery: Agriform
Creamery website: Agriform Website

Properties: This is not, as is commonly thought, the younger version of Asiago d’Allevo. Asiago Pressato is also a DOP cheese, though its DOP criteria is quite different from that of Asiago d’Allevo. Asiago Pressato is, by contrast, invariably a mass-market cheese. It is creamy, semi-soft and relatively mild in flavor.
Uses: A good sandwich cheese and a fine melter, it’s also a decent snacking cheese.
Wine Pairings: It would be pretty good with a nice, crisp white or a light, fruit red.

Production Notes: Asiago Pressato is an “industrial” cheese, called “pressato” because it is pressed to speed up ripening. It is higher in fat than Asiago d’Allevo and also milder and more rubbery. This is not to say that it doesn’t have its uses, simply that it is a less regarded cheese among those who care about such things.

Nutrition Data

“Asiago” (aged domestic)

pfifromager — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:00:29 +0000

Country and region of origin: United States/Wisconsin
Milk: Pasteurized Cow’s Milk
Age: one year
Rind: Black Wax
Creamery: Saputo (“Stella”)
Creamery website: Saputo Website

Properties: A fairly salty, hard cheese that bears little resemblance to the Italian Asiago dAllevo from which it gets its name, this is nonetheless a fairly popular cheese in this country.
Uses: a versatile grating cheese. Some do like this as a table cheese also.
Wine Pairings:

Production Notes: One of the reasons that Stella cheeses are so popular is that there is little-to-no variation between wheels. Stella aged asiago is the same in December as it is in June. Thats consistency is comforting to Stellas particular demographic. An interesting note is that there is also little difference between this cheese and Stellas Parmesan cheese. Stella cheese are all customer favorites.

Nutrition Data

“Asiago” (mild domestic)

pfifromager — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:48:47 +0000

Country and region of origin: United States/Wisconsin
Milk: Pasteurized Cow’s Milk
Age: 6 Months
Rind: Brown wax···
Creamery: Saputo Foodservice (“Stella”)
Creamery website: Saputo Website

Properties: A fairly salty but mild semi-soft cheese that bears little resemblance to the Italian Asiago d’Allevo from which it gets its name, this is nonetheless a fairly popular cheese in this country.
Uses: a fine, inexpensive cheese for cooking and sandwiches.
Wine Pairings: This would be okay with a fruity red or a cold, clean white.

Production Notes: One of the reasons that Stella cheeses are so popular is that there is little-to-no variation between wheels. Stella mild asiago is the same in December as it is in June. That’s consistency is comforting to Stella’s particular demographic. An interesting note is that there is also little difference between this cheese and Stella’s Kasseri or Romano cheeses. The Romano is slightly drier, but in essence these are the same cheeses – interchangeably so. They are also nearly the same price. These are all customer favorites.

Nutritional Data