With Angela’s kitchen deep in construction, cheese night was held at my place on February 6th. Josh made a special trip to Cowgirl Creamery. Here are the selections:
Red Hawk
(Point Reyes [where the infamous blue cheese is from]): Cowgirl Creamery captures the essence of West Marin with its Red Hawk, a triple-cream, washed-rind, fully-flavored cheese made from organic cow milk from the Straus Family Dairy. Aged four weeks and washed with a brine solution that tints the rind a sunset red-orange, Red Hawk won Best-In-Show at the American Cheese Society’s Annual Conference in 2003 and 2nd Place Ribbon in 2007.
Rating: JR–Way too smelly! AT & MS–Tastes great, just don’t inhale.
St. George
Matos Cheese (Santa Rose, CA): Putting their personal American spin on the original recipe, St. George, named for the island, is a full-flavored cow milk cheese with a cheddary depth and a rich texture.
Ratings: JR, AT & MS–Good hard cheese.
California Crottin
Redwood Hill Dairy (Sebastapol, CA): Redwood Hill’s own version of the French Crottin Chavignol has a sharp and meaty flavor with a thick, pale yellow, corrugated rind. When cut, this cheese manages to be both dense and fluffy with and intense earthy aroma. This is the third time for this one. Ratings: JR–Still a little earthy but good.
AT & MS–As good as the last few times.
Triple Cream: I don’t even have to write about this one as we all loved it, again.