One cheese to rule them all

[b1os]

Having more Heublumenkäse... so good. Not overly complex but not too simple at all. Pretty young. Nice coumarin flavor. Great every day cheese. Not available everywhere though.
Heublumenkäse: heu = hay, blumen = flowers, käse = cheese.
I've had Bergblumenkäse (berg = mountain). I like Heublumenkäse better. There's Wildblumenkäse (wildblumen = wild flowers), too (will get some when I see it next time).

 

[Cary Grant]

Lunch today...

In the foreground, São Jorge. Azores. Raw; Cow.

Right: French Pyrenees. Caprinelle Tomme. Goat. Pasteurized.

To the left, Queso a la Sidra. Cows milk cheese cured in cider. Pasteurized.

Jamon Serrano

 

[mgm9128]

Sainte-Maure de Touraine

 

[b1os]



Sainte-Maure de Touraine

Xavier David's (Gérald Brun) Sainte-Maure de Touraine (AOP). Pretty good.

 

[Cary Grant]



Sainte-Maure de Touraine

Over-ripe. Significantly.

 

[alexg]

On that note, how do you tell if a cheese is ripe when it's not open? I bought a totally under ripe Pierre Robert the other week because they all look exactly the same.

 

[itsstillmatt]



On that note, how do you tell if a cheese is ripe when it's not open? I bought a totally under ripe Pierre Robert the other week because they all look exactly the same.

CG will know best, but I believe it takes a lot of knowledge. Each cheese presents differently when at its peak. You need a good cheese shop, somebody you trust who knows what he is doing.

 

[tattersall]



Over-ripe. Significantly.

I've never seen it so runny - over-ripe or maybe he warmed it up? The centre looks fine.

 

[Cary Grant]



CG will know best, but I believe it takes a lot of knowledge. Each cheese presents differently when at its peak. You need a good cheese shop, somebody you trust who knows what he is doing.

Spot on, Matt. And fresh cheeses, goat logs etc are fragile with short lives often. The monger has a lot of variables to manage when ordering, caring for and moving them out the door.

 

[alexg]

For the most part I can gauge ripeness from the outward appearance, but for cheeses like Brillat Savarin, Pierre Robert etc they look pretty much the same to me at any stage of ripeness, so I can't tell until I'm actually cutting into it. Assuming the people working at the cheese counter are even less knowledgable than I am, how can I tell for those cheeses specifically?

 

[Cary Grant]



For the most part I can gauge ripeness from the outward appearance, but for cheeses like Brillat Savarin, Pierre Robert etc they look pretty much the same to me at any stage of ripeness, so I can't tell until I'm actually cutting into it. Assuming the people working at the cheese counter are even less knowledgable than I am, how can I tell for those cheeses specifically?

Don't assume they are less knowledgeable.

The better shops - most shops actually, that are cut to order usually have pretty knowledgeable staff (unlike, say, a Best Buy).

Cheese is a vocabulary of at least 200 and some say as much as 700 types/words/languages. To understand the nuances based on sight and smell takes a lot of practice. I am no where near knowing enough to be so fluent. Not even close.

Best suggestion is to take a class from a reputable local shop. Rubiner's in Great Barrington, MA for example offered a class earlier this month on how to judge cheese like a monger: "judging ripeness and condition, reckoning weight" and the like.

If you are really into it, by McCalman's and Gibbons' "Mastering Cheese".


To the case in point, look at the two Sainte-Maure de Touraine above. The rind of MGM's example more mottled, looked more "wet" but most noticeably, was sagging. When cut it ran... the cheese is starting to break down. b1os' example looked "younger" for lack of a better way to describe it. Once opened, the paste was firm. Sainte-Maure de Touraine is a firm cheese in it's best examples aged to about one month. HOWEVER: a young example, one less than two weeks old, may be softer and more moist... but not runny.

I suspect, but it might not be true, that MGM's might have smelled of ammonia. Never a good sign. But it might not have. And perhaps it even tasted OK.

 

[b1os]

 

[Bhowie]

Great Barrington , MA

Who would ever go there, it's the end of civilization in the middle of nowhere.

 

[kwilkinson]



CG will know best, but I believe it takes a lot of knowledge. Each cheese presents differently when at its peak. You need a good cheese shop, somebody you trust who knows what he is doing.

And whatever you do, never, ever buy Epoisses in Healdsburg.



given that I live in a ******, white trash river town, I was incredibly excited to see one of our grocery stores had half a wheel of Midnight Moon. I bought the whole damn thing.

 

[Cary Grant]



And whatever you do, never, ever buy Epoisses in Healdsburg.
given that I live in a ******, white trash river town, I was incredibly excited to see one of our grocery stores had half a wheel of Midnight Moon. I bought the whole damn thing.