New Cheese, Old PBS Reference
May 16, 2012 - 1:02pm | by cheese_taster_2012
Nothing makes the day go slower than a full schedule of staff meetings. Unless you've just received a package of cheeses to taste, and you can't do anything about it until the day is over. Then each minute feels like a minor eternity. So you can imagine my relief when my last meeting was over and it was finally time to get on to the real business of the day: tasting the three cheeses from Jasper Hill.
Leave the Fish Tacos, Take the Roasted Cauliflower
May 15, 2012 - 11:26pm | by cheese_taster_2012
Hello Culture readers! I'm Danielle, and I have the pleasure of being a 2012 Birth of a Cheese taste tester. Getting free, delicious cheese shipped directly to me from one of America's most highly regarded creameries is about the best thing that can happen in my book. And then I get to blab on and on about it to the world? Perfect.
I am the executive chef of a club at a military base in Texas. My husband, and co-taster, is also a chef and runs the kitchen of a catering company in Austin. Needless to say, we cook, eat, and talk a lot of food. But cheese holds a special place in my heart - I think it's alchemy is magical, and I am beginning to learn how to make it at home.
Raclette Party Contest: who would you most like to melt some cheese with?
May 15, 2012 - 6:38pm | by wfertman
Boska USA, purveyors of fine cheese gadgetry and upholders of great European cheese traditions, recently sent along a sweet set of photographs of an event they'd held with the help of Jason Sobocinski, host of the Cooking Channel's The Big Cheese. Now, besides looking overwhelmingly delicious, the photos got me thinking—especially this one:
Jasper Hill Farm’s Alpine Sample #120125 Open-Faced Sammy
May 15, 2012 - 6:06pm | by cheese_taster_2012
April was National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Month and The Lady and I, your humble Feline Foodie, promised 30 new grilled cheese recipes… alas… to mis-quote the late, great John Lennon… “we had grilled cheese plans and then life got in the way”… so even into mid-May, we are still posting grilled cheese recipes… this one today is #26 and as with the last, this is actually an open-faced cheese melt.
The Lady took Jasper Hill Farm’s sample #120125 to make her latest cheese sammy…
Using Original La Panzanella Croccantini for her bread base, she topped it with Prosciutto and then JHF’s sample #120125. She sprinkled a little rosemary on top.
She popped it in the toaster oven and three minutes later… ta da… we had dinner.
Another terrific grilled/open-faced sammy for the grilled cheese recipe vaults and future reference… living with The Lady does have at least one good side… Cheese, Glorious Cheese…
-- Spaulding Gray, The Feline Foodie, for Marcella (The Lady)
Trial by Fire
May 15, 2012 - 12:25pm | by cheese_taster_2012
First and Foremost thanks to Jasper Hill and Culture for selecting me to be a cheese tester.
My name is Joe and I live in Sun Prairie Wisconsin. By occupation I am a police sergeant and by hobby I am cheese maker. I have been married for 25 years and have two daughters. While I like cheese and live in the dairy state, I am a novice as a formal cheese tester. I was thrilled but a bit intimidated at being selected to test a new cheese. As a home cheese maker I have given birth to some cheese myself so I appreciate the desire to test one's cheese at various stages of development and the reaction of others while tasting the cheese. I hope that my feedback helps Jasper Hill with the successful delivery of their cheese.
Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese visit, part 1
May 15, 2012 - 11:13am | by Veronique
***I updated this post at 5/15/2012, 10:10am PDT, to correct the Giacominis' official job titles.***
To reach the Fork on this beautiful spring day in April, the new educational and event building at Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company, my cheese photographer Gavin and I had to first leave San Francisco, drive past miles of fields punctuated by knobby, massive boulders, and climb a single-lane road flanked by roaming cattle. Actually, the drive was only an hour long. I still can’t get over how suddenly the scenery shifts once I leave San Francisco and its somewhat precious bedroom communities.
This cheese has got...great color
May 15, 2012 - 10:59am | by cheese_taster_2012
Scientists appreciate experiments...and well, we’re scientists. Food scientists, to be precise, at Cornell, studying dairy chemistry (Steve) and foodborne pathogens (Daina). So when we realized we were examining the results of a Jasper Hill experiment, we were excited. Three almost identical wedges arrived, challenging our powers of discrimination with subtle differences. Surely, just a variable or two were tweaked in the process of crafting a new cheese.
Probably the most spectacular aspect of this mystery Alpine style was its natural, bright orange rind, already described by others. You’d expect that color from a softer washed rind cheese, but on a hard aged cheese?! Mindblowing. The rind definitely had the funk of a washed rind cheese but quickly faded into a mild, creamy paste. We could have used a little more funk in the center, and like many of the other tasters have already shared, we thought they were all too bland.
Geeking out
Jasper Hill's Alpine Introduction
May 14, 2012 - 8:40pm | by cheese_taster_2012
My name is Jenna and I am a periodontist from lovely Charleston, South Carolina. So if you haven’t guessed by that statement yet I’ll just come out and admit that I am no cheese professional. That is unless you count eating and then I might just approach championship status. I am extremely fortunate in that I have been able to travel a fair amount and even more fortunate that I have someone to travel with. The man-panion and I often make arrangements to investigate local cheeses on our vacations. We have come across many incredible cheeses and found ourselves in some really neat caves during our journeys.
An inauspicious start
May 14, 2012 - 5:49pm | by cheese_taster_2012
My first Jasper Hill tasting got off to an inauspicious start. I’m sharing with a coworker and while we planned to taste together, overdue deadlines and too much coffee on the palate led us to the dish room at work late Friday afternoon, divvying up our wedges on a cutting board, teetering atop chest freezer.
Then, a humid, rowdy ride home; I work in Brookline, Massachusetts and live in Boston, meaning that my commute brings me right by Fenway Park, where there was a Red Sox game that night. Still, even after a hot, crowded and drunken (not me…at least at this point) hour on the train, my three little wedges of cheese were intact. Unfortunately my self-restraint was not. Starving, I broke into one right away, slicing off a couple squares, I’m not even sure which.
Great Expectations: Sweet Beautiful Milk Can Do No Wrong
May 14, 2012 - 5:05pm | by cheese_taster_2012
I’m Jackie and I live on a small farm in Western Pennsylvania where I raise old-fashioned Milking Devon cattle. This farm evolved from my frustration with America’s industrialized food system. Auburn Meadow Farm is a living experiment in sustainability and humility. And deliciousness.
The farm is in a rural community called West Middlesex, a little over one hour north-west of Pittsburgh. It’s a Walmart sort of town, but our more upscale local grocery chain attempts a fine cheese case. You have to check regularly, as sometimes there are random treasures, but most of the time, the cheeses are safe, pre-cut & wrapped and completely misunderstood by their caretakers.
