weekly dinner & cheese at Angela’s

more cheese

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 It was not originally made in Caerphilly, but was sold at market there, hence taking the town’s name.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

wheel of Blue

Pt. Reyes Blue

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:

  • Grade A raw milk from a closed herd of Holstein cows that graze on the certified organic, green pastured hills overlooking Tomales Bay
  • The coastal fog
  • And the salty Pacific breezes

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

while Illini beat #1 ranked Buckeyes

Illini cheeses

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

last known bottle of real Vampire wine in DC

vampire wine and cheese

Josh got the first three from Cowgirl Creamery in DC, Julie brought us the Cougar Gold. Melissa, Angela, and I enjoyed these with the last known bottle of real (i.e., Romanian) Vampire wine known to exist in the DC area.

California Crottin
Redwood Hill Dairy
Sebastopol, CA
milk: goat

Redwood Hill’s own version of the French Crottin Chavignol has a sharp and meaty flavor with a thick, pale yellow, corrugated rind. This cheese manages to be both dense and fluffy with an intense earthy aroma.

ms, at, wt: very good, but note to self: put goat cheese after cow and sheep, and before blue

Pierce Pt
Cowgirl Creamery
Point Reyes Station, CA
milk: organic whole milk

Pierce Pt is rolled in dried herbs from the Tomales Bay coastal region. The result is a delicious cheese, semi-firm, yet creamy, complex yet never overpowering, that you’ll recall longingly when it’s out-of-season. Pierce Pt received a 1st Place award at the 2006 American Cheese Society Conference.

ms, at, wt: very good

Bayley Hazen Blue
Jasper Hill Farm
Greensboro, VT
milk: Ayrshire cow (morning milk)
type: blue

Bayley Hazen Blue is a buttery, natural-rind cow milk blue cheese that is made with whole raw milk. The milk used is primarily from morning milk, which tends to be lower in fat. The milk is taken from their own herd of Ayrshire cows who graze from late spring to early fall. Bayley Hazen Blue is drier than most blues, and the penicillium roqueforti takes a back seat to an array of flavors that hint at nuts and grasses and sometimes licorice.

ms, at, wt: very good, buttery

Cougar Gold
Washington State Creamery
milk: pasteurized milk
type: cheddar

Very nice cheddar that has been already reviewed.

ms, at, wt: one of our favorite cheeses

at & wt at Lia’s in Friendship Heights

Lia cheese plage (phone picture)

Angela and I went to dinner at Lia‘s, and had a cheese plate with the dinner. The cheeses arrived quite chilled, so we saved it for dessert.

Lia cheese menu

Robiola
milk: sheep and cow
type: creamy

A very nice brie-like cheese.

Boschetto al Tartufo
milk: cow

The infusion of truffles may have degraded from an otherwise fairly decent firm cheese.

after the Illini game

nov 3 cheese

We picked up the cheese from Ibo’s Cornucopia Deli in Bethesda, a great place to get cheese and Italian food items.

L’Edel de Celeron
milk: cow
region: France
type: soft

A very nice brie-style cheese that we all liked very much.

Asiago (DOP)
milk: cow
type: hard
region: Italy

Asiago, pronounced ah-SYAH-goh, cheese is a nutty flavored cheese that hails from Europe. It is named for a region in Italy where it was first produced. This region is known as the Asiago High Plateau, which lies within the Italian Alps. As far back as the year 1000 AD, Asiago cheese was produced by farmers in this region for use locally. Now, it is manufactured commercially in northeast Italy, specifically in the provinces of Vincenza e Trento, Padua, and in Treviso.