Each week we taste a sampling of cheeses in our Cambridge office and discuss their flavors, textures, and our general impressions of them. Yum!

Tasting Tuesday: Sheep’s Milk Pecorino and Reblochon

Pecorino de Pienza in Fossa
Sheep’s Milk – Italy

Amanada – Sharp, firm, really good
Molly – It’s hard, crumbly, sheepy, earthy, and a bit astringent.
Lauren – Barely detectable flavors of browned butter and nuts are callbacks to a more traditional aged Pecorino, but with a earthy barnyard flavor and a strong aftertaste of black pepper.
Amy – The barn-y, earth-y quality is a little overwhelming for me, but I do love the sharpness and crumble it has.
Jesi – As soon as I put this cheese in my mouth, I noticed a prickly feeling on my tongue.  I wouldn’t exactly call the cheese spicy, but it did taste a little peppery and basement-y.
Amy – I didn’t notice the pepper until you said it, but I agree now that you pointed it out.
Becca – Struck a nice balance between salt and earth.
Final thought by Lauren

Pecorino de Pienza turns the volume all the way up: like the punk-rock cover of your favorite James Taylor song.

Stanser Schaf Reblochon
Sheep’s Milk – Switzerland

Kate E. – While the smell is very intimidating, the gooey center of this cheese is creamy, a little salty, and a little meaty. Slow to develop its richness with a bit of a kick at the very end.
Becca – A super stinker, but the paste is a great complement for sopressata.
Jesi – This one was funkier than Rick James.  Not my favorite, but certainly not forgettable.
Amy– You can tell you’ve been at culture a while when everyone else gasps at the strong smell of a cheese like this and you think, “huh, that’s interesting.” Sheep’s milk cheese are a personal favorite of mine and l love the creamy, gooey, texture of this cheese as well as the grassy flavor and sheepy smell.
Lauren – Definitely not for the faint of heart, the ultra-stank Sanser Schaf Reblochon always makes an entrance, with a potent scent-trail winding behind it. Its creamy interior paste hits all the right funky notes, but move closer to the rind and the experience is closer to French-kissing a sheep.
Final thought by Molly

A stink bomb, super creamy and runny, sheepy, farm/grassy, intensely flavorful, especially the rind–much more flavor than the cow’s milk reblochons I’ve tried. 

Amy Scheuerman

Amy Scheuerman—culture's former web director—spent eight years in North Carolina where she developed a love of barbecue and biscuits before moving up north to get a degree in nutrition. She now works at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.