Wendell's Cheese Blog

Today was the JMA potluck.  I supplied a cheese tray at Avis’ request.  I brought Cougar Gold and a brie.  The Cougar Gold was a hit.  Everyone liked it.

AKT also brought back Jake’s Wheel Mustard from Ludwig Farmstead Creamery in Illinois.

Jake’s Wheel – Named after the founder of the creamery and based on his favorite cheese, the Havarti.  Sweet flavors of cream cover you palate leaving a mild rich after taste.  We use this as a base for many flavored cheeses including Habañero, Dutch Garden Herb, Italian Garden, Bacon, Mustard and our 2013 American Cheese Society Red Ribbon winner, Fresian Fields (with Cumin and Cloves) made with raw milk.

Despite what most people have heard their entire lives, milk may not be so good for bones or for longevity, according to a new study in the journal BMJ. The research found that consuming more milk was linked to greater risk of bone fractures and to earlier mortality. Meanwhile, cheese, yogurt, and other fermented products appeared to be “safe.”

For men and women both, the more milk they’d consumed, the greater the risk of death.

Cheese and other fermented dairy products did not seem to be linked to the same risk – in fact, as people ate more of these products, their risk of bone fracture declined, as did their risk of mortality.

 

Cheese from Illinois.  Sangamon.  Named after a beautiful Illinois river, Sangamon is a smooth & firm, but still melt-in-your-mouth cheese,  made with day-fresh milk and added cream, this cheese has a velvety texture and fresh, mild buttery flavor.  Sangamon is terrific on it’s own, sublime on a warm baguette or as an elegant balance to stronger cheeses.  Ludwig Farmstead Creamery’s Sangamon cheese took Blue Ribbon honors at the 2013 Illinois State Fair!

I’m probably going to get money to start a lab at work!  So we went to Ripple in Cleveland Park for a snack:  cheeses with honey, apricot jam, and pecans with bacon.

Kinderhook Creek – sheep’s milk cheese from Old Chatham Sheepherding Company, a soft, spreadable cheese.

Pleasant Ridge Reserve – cow’s milk from Uplands Cheese in Dodgeville, WI.  Made in the Alpine tradition similar to Gruyere and Beaufort.

Mitibleu – a rare Spanish roquefort-style sheep’s blue, from Mitica in the La Mancha region of Spain.  Apparently difficult to find here.  Very good, creamy.

 

We went over to the O’B’s for a cheese evening.  We first went to Arrowine to get the cheese, wine, and salami.  They have a good selection of everything.

S. O’B had a nice layout of salami, carrots, crackers, grapes, chutney, and proscuttio.

We started with a soft, camembert-like Moses Sleeper by Jasper Hill Farms, in Greensboro, Vermont.  It was a bloomy-rind cow’s milk cheese aged for 3~6 weeks.  We all liked it.

Next was Wyfe-of-Bath from the Park Farm in Kelston, England.  It was a semi-firm cow’s milk cheese formed in cloth-lined baskets.  Very good.

Then on to Ewephoria, which we’ve had before, and have always liked.  They liked it too.  It is a sheep’s milk cheese made in Holland and shipped to the US.  I guess they don’t understand the play on it’s name.

We had brought over our Boska Holland raclette plates and so we had raclette cheese on apples, cornichons, and carrots.

Last was Black Ledge Blue from Cato Corner Farm in Connecticut.  It was good, creamy.

AKT’s inlaws/(my outlaws) were here for a few days.  We forced them to have a cheese tasting.  No blue, not much brie, but some good semi-hard aged cheeses.

Trader Joe’s Brie:  we needed to have a soft cheese, and we were at Trader Joe’s the other day, so this was it.  It was ok, but we’ve had better brie.  JV, who doesn’t normally like brie, liked this one.  I told here that there are better bries out there.

Invierneo, from Vermont Shepherd, is a nice mixed milk (cow & sheep) cheese.

Prairie Breeze, from Milton Creamery, Iowa, was their interpretation of a white cheddar.  GV liked it.

Bomboloni was a sheep cheese, which of course I liked (not sure where it was from, possibly Chester County, PA).

 

We usually don’t go for cheeses “with stuff in them”, but we did in this case, and we liked it.  It was a Trader Joe’s Asiago that was rubbed with rosemary and olive oil.  It was pretty good.

AKT got a camembert from her local farmer’s market today at Crystal City.  It was an aged camembert, and was fairly firm, and somewhat salty.

Coulter Farms Camembert:  milk from Pennsylvania cows. $7, but no box for the collection. Certified Organic 100% Grassfed Jersey Milk.

To go with it: fresh Maryland crab. From Shells Yes!