If I took my own advice, I probably wouldn’t have bought this cheese. Only after I brought it home and tried it did I notice a key piece of information on the store label. The packed-on date—when the wedge was cut and plastic-wrapped—was more than two weeks earlier. No wonder it tasted stale. Only when I scraped the cut sides did I find the nutty, roasted-onion aroma I was hoping for. Underneath that oxidized exterior was a glorious cheese, but I wouldn’t have found it without deeply shaving the surface.
Read moreCheesy Does It on New Year’s Eve
We’re having fondue on New Year’s Eve and—hooray!—someone else is making it. I’m interested to see what cheeses they use. A couple of years ago, I interviewed Joe Salonia, a past winner of FonDuel, a zany annual competition among cheese professionals. (Get tickets for the 2024 contest here.) Salonia shared his recipe and winning techniques, and I thought you might appreciate a refresher. Any year that ends with melted cheese is ending on a high note.
Read moreTriple Yikes
Beyond how it tastes, which is fabulous, I have a few things to say about this little beauty. It’s perfectly sized to share on Valentine’s Day, so there’s that. It’s definitely a contender for my favorite triple-cream cheese. In its country of origin, it’s a style maverick and you have to admire that. But then there’s the little matter of the price.
Read moreCurl Up with This Cheese
The ruffles are eye-catching but you don’t need a special scraper to appreciate Tête de Moine. It’s a delightful cheese even when not curled into frilly rosettes. That said, I’m going to treat myself to a girolle—the shaving device—one of these days because, well, what a conversation stopper. The girolle’s Swiss inventor died four years ago, at 91, aware that his clever tool had sent sales of Tête de Moine soaring. Annual production is now 150 times what it was when his girolle debuted in 1982. I just listened to an old interview with the inventor and was charmed to hear about his lightbulb moment and be reminded of how good this cheese is.
Read moreThe Cheeses to Beat
The wins just keep coming for Gourmino. This Swiss marketing co-op has 13 cheesemaker members who seem to have a lock on the top prize at major international competitions. Last week, a Gourmino Gruyère prevailed at the World Cheese Awards in Wales, besting 4,433 entries. Earlier this year, a Gourmino Gruyère from cheesemaker Michael Spycher was named World Champion Cheese —for the third time. I can’t overstate how remarkable that is.
Read morePerfect Cheese at a Price to Like
Given the eye-popping prices at the cheese counter these days, the bargains stand out even more. Some (not all) of the selections selling for $35 to $40 a pound are fabulous, but none of them is better than the beauty pictured above. I paid $19.99 a pound for this charmer, a raw-milk wheel made in Switzerland by a single family with milk from their neighbors. I’ve admired this cheese for a long time, but these days I’m blown away by the astonishing quality for the price.
Read moreBest Cheese You Don’t Know
Maybe you know this exceptional Swiss cheese, but probably you don’t. I rarely see it at retail counters. It doesn’t get much press. Yet it’s a benchmark cheese, in my view, made by ultra-traditional methods that are vanishing. Even in the rarefied world of Swiss alpine cheesemaking, it stands out for the stringent rules that govern its production. My favorite book on Switzerland’s cheeses, Swiss Cheese by Dominik Flammer and Fabian Scheffold, calls it “the most aboriginal of all Alpine cheeses.”
Read moreRaclette Your Way
When I asked Swiss cheese importer Caroline Hostettler whether she ate raclette as a child in Switzerland, she had no trouble resurrecting a memory. “Everyone had raclette machines at home but us,” recalled Hostettler, sounding still a bit aggrieved several decades later. Her mother refused to make it (she preferred fondue), so the annual raclette at an aunt’s house was the highlight of the year. Hostettler still remembers being almost overcome with excitement.
Read moreGruyère Fights Back
Switzerland’s most famous cheese took it on the chin recently when a U.S. judge ruled that Gruyère is generic. American dairies have made Gruyère for years, he reasoned, so how can the Swiss claim the cheese is theirs? “The factual record makes it abundantly clear,” the judge wrote, that American consumers think of Gruyère as a type of cheese, not a product from a specific place. The Swiss will appeal, so the matter isn’t settled, but it’s a setback for those who believe we should respect European names like Asiago and Fontina. I wondered how the ruling was going down with people who sell both imported and domestic cheese.
Read moreCheese for the Witching Hour
We have so few trick-or-treaters on my quiet street. We fill a bowl with candy and we’re lucky if the doorbell rings twice. This year, I’ll be waiting for the little gremlins and goblins while enjoying my own candy: a fat slice of Red Witch and a bottle of Dead Guy. This Swiss raw-milk cheese may sound like a gimmick, but it’s made by a master and it’s hauntingly good.
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