Cheese Snob Wendy's Cheese Orgy

Cheese Snob Wendy, aka Wendy Levy, stopped by Intelligent Design last Wednesday to conduct a cheese orgy with FMU staffers. Wendy's a professional cheese snob and has just launched a new cheese blog here.

You can listen to her appearance: MP3 | Real Audio

These are the 9 cheeses she brought and which she highly recommends:

1. Paglietta
2. Capra Valtellina
3. Monte Enebro
4. Pleasant Ridge Reserve
5. Comté, 18-Month
6. Izarou
7. La Serena
8. Abbaye de Belval
9. Bleu de Bocage

Detailed descriptions and yummy pictures follow after the jump.

1. Paglietta
Loosely translated, it means "straw cheese."  Not because of the ingredients - which, I assure you, are pasteurized cow's milk, rennet, salt, and cultures - but because of the practice of ripening these little, soft-ripened cheeses on straw mats.  If you look at the fluffy, white rind, you can see the straw has left its mark.  A pleasant earthiness permeates the creamy, milky paste, and a lightly salty tang finishes the experience.  A very elegant cheese from the Italian Piedmonts.

2. Capra Valtellina
There's a dearth of Italian goat cheeses available to us in the States, but we should consider ourselves fortunate, because the ones we do get are beautiful, such as this one.  Aged for at least six months, it shows off what happens when you carefully age high-quality goat's milk.  It's light, clean, and savory, with sweet, herbal notes and a toasty, tangy finish.  No strong animal flavors.  Glacier-white paste; semi-firm, solid, granular texture.  Pasteurized.

3. Monte Enebro
A very unique goat's milk cheese with a short history; one man has made it for only about 15 years.  Its log shape is referred to in Spain as pata de mulo or "leg of the mule."  This mold and ash covered pasteurized cheese is very different from most young goat cheeses (this one is aged for about 20 days); it's minerally, woodsy, and quite piquant with chestnut, black walnut, and tarragon notes and a lingering finish.  The semi-soft, compact, flaky paste is assertive but not barnyardy.  Considered one of the best foods coming out of Spain.  NB: enebro = juniper.

4. Pleasant Ridge Reserve
This natural-rind cheese has won many awards, including “Best In Show” at the 2001 and 2005 American Cheese Society conferences; and when you try it, you’ll know why.  Cheesemaker Mike Gingrich sends his single herd of cows out to graze on the lush grasses and wildflowers of rural Dodgeville, Wisconsin.  The result: a savory, fruity, cheese with balanced, complex flavors.  Vaguely resembling Gouda or an aged Pyrenees mountain cheese; however, there really is no cheese like Pleasant Ridge Reserve.  Made with raw milk.

5. Comté, 18-Month
Franche-Comté, a dairy-rich region in France, uses 80% of its milk for cheese production, all from the red-and-white Montebeliard breed of cow.  In the village of Jura, “fruitiéres” (small cheesemaking facilities) produce this well-loved, raw cow’s milk cheese.  It takes 500 litres of milk to make one gigantic wheel of Comté, weighing in at just under 90 lbs.  This one is aged for 18 months, and the extra aging makes for more balanced, developed flavors than are found in the 12-month: the acidity goes down, making it less sharp and tangy, and the nutty sweetness becomes more pronounced.  The amino-acid crunch is a nice touch, too.  Makes a wonderful fondue cheese, or serve as a table cheese for breakfast - or any time - with fresh fruit, sweet cream butter, and a rustic, crusty loaf of bread.  AOC.

6. Izarou
This seems to be the youngest of the aged sheep's milk cheeses from France's Pays Basque.  It's also one of the oddest, tasting exactly like buttered movie theatre popcorn.  How do they do that?  Is buttered movie theatre popcorn trying to emulate Izarou?  That is a mystery we may never solve, so let's just eat cheese and forget about it.  Bring home a piece of this semi-firm, tart, nutty tomme and try it for yourself.  Pasteurized.

7. La Serena
A relatively recent arrival to the US, this unusual Spanish cheese was barely available even 5 years ago.  Instead of animal rennet, macerated thistle flowers are used as the coagulant, giving the cheese a notable floral intensity on top of gamy, sour, fruity flavors, balanced salinity, and a lingering sour/creamy finish.  The oozing, voluptuous paste gets softer as it ages - again, a result of thistle rennet.  Raw Merino sheep milk; made in Spain's Extremadura region.  DOP.

8. Abbaye de Belval
This Trappist cheese, made by the Sisters of the Abbaye de Belval, is for those who are not faint-of-heart, but who are also not expecting a washed-rind cheese to overwhelm.  The happy medium.  Sweet, vegetal, zingy, pungent, and aromatic.  Solid, smooth, semi-soft paste, the color of straw; the rind has the hue of light brown sugar.  Made of raw cow's milk, aged for at least 60 days.  From Normandie, France.

9. Bleu de Bocage
One of my most recent finds is a line of artisan-made cheeses from one of France's Maître Fromagers, Pascal Beillevaire.  Monsieur Beillevaire makes and ages a\ variety of cheeses on his family's farm, all of superb quality.  One of the few goat's milk blues out there, this one boasts a panoply of flavors: chocolatey, minerally, sweet, salty, milky.  It's not goaty, but it is assertive.  Caseophiles looking for something new are going to love this one, especially for dessert.  Pasteurized, aged for 60+ days.

All the cheeses we tasted.

Picture 1 of the Cheese Orgy
From left: Liz Berg, Mike Lupica, Kenny G

Picture 2 of the Cheese Orgy
From left: Kenny G, Nick the Bard, Megan, Cheese Snob Wendy, Bill Zurath, Liz Berg, Mike Lupica. Gray haired guy in front: Ken Freedman

Offical stuff about Cheese Snob Wendy:

Wendy M. Levy has been working with cheese on a professional basis for
nearly eleven years, and considers herself a Cheese Nerd, a Cheese Snob, and
a bit obsessed.  She got her start in one of the best cheese-related places
on earth: Vermont.  After years of retail and wholesale cheesemongering
(amongst other exciting, cheese-related experiences), she has found a way to
bring her talents, knowledge, and contagious enthusiasm to as many people as
possible.

July 2006.  The launch of Caseophile Creative Services, Wendy's consulting
business, based in New York City.  Wendy provides marketing, writing, and
education services for those involved in all aspects of the cheese (and
specialty food) industry: retail, wholesale, food-service, production, etc.

For example, did you know that many cheese shops and cheese departments
suffer from a lack of informational signage?  Wouldn't you sell more cheese
if people knew more about the cheeses?  Wendy will do it.  Are your
counterpeople and waitstaff informed enough about cheese, and how to prepare
and serve it?  Would you like to teach them more about cheese so they can
sell more, but you don't have the time to teach them?  Wendy will do it.
These are just a few of the services Wendy provides.

The website for Caseophile Creative Services is currently under
construction; it's being designed by an award-winning web designer, and just
like a well-aged cheese, these things take time.  In the meantime, please
visit http://caseophile.blogspot.com/ for an interesting read, and more
information.  You may contact Caseophile Creative Services directly at
[email protected]

Comments

[Steve PMX]

sounds pretty stinky.

[Miss Us]

Caciaocavallo!

[ENGLISH BREAKER]

I am a reader from Extremadura, and I'm very surprised! Exportations are not developed in this Spanish region, even for the rest of the country, but I hope this situation changes. That cheese is a marvel. How much it costed?

[EB]

I meant EXPORTS

[Wendy, Cheese Snob]

Hi "English Breaker":

There are a few importers in the United States bringing in cheese from your region. Forever Cheese in New York City and Rogers International in Portland, Maine are 2 I can think of off the top of my head.

But you are correct: Spanish cheeses in general are a fairly recent arrival in the United States, and we are only beginning to explore what's available from Extremadura.

In addition to La Serena, we also have Torta del Casar (which seems to be the same cheese, but with a different name) and Ibores. All are readily available (usually) in the New York area. All are wonderful, and I'd personally love to see more cheeses coming in from Extremadura.

The prices of these cheeses vary, depending on which shop they come from.

Thanks for writing!
-Wendy, Cheese Snob