Whatever they are doing at Fromagerie P. Jacquin to make this gorgeous, glorious goat cheese, I wish they’d reveal it. Is it the Loire Valley microclimate or simply French savoir-faire? Maybe it’s the expertise that comes from making the same cheeses for 60 years. Whatever, this chèvre has it all: good looks, luscious texture, big mushroomy aroma. To be honest, I’m often disappointed by goat cheeses in this style—they can be chalky or dense and lacking in scent—but this beauty is a pure delight.
Read moreCheese Cake for Wine Fans
Maybe it’s because my culinary roots are in France, but so many dishes sound better to me in French, or even Franglais. That’s certainly true of cake salé, my new favorite appetizer. I doubt I could interest you in a slice of salted cake, but you definitely want to try this warm, savory, crumbly, utterly addictive hors d’oeuvre. With the fresh rosés from last year’s harvest showing up in stores, this tender loaf makes an irresistible nibble.
Read moreAll Aboard for Cheeselandia
If you want a break from current events, imagine a peaceful nation whose citizens just want to get along, make friends and eat cheese. Such a place exists, if you can believe it, and it’s called Cheeselandia. I just learned about it and I have a passport already. If you like Wisconsin cheese, or at least want to know more about it, the border patrol will let you in.
Read moreShave This Cheese in Spring Salads
Topping my list of cheeses that deserve more love than they typically get: ricotta salata. With spring imminent and asparagus beckoning, this savory sheep cheese should be in your fridge. It’s so useful! I don’t snack on it—it’s not meant for that—but I do shave it in salads and grate it on pasta with spring vegetables or lamb. It loves asparagus, fava beans, peas, fennel, zucchini, beets. Basically, it’s ricotta with moisture removed so it will last longer.
Read moreNext-Gen Gouda
A Dutch gentleman in the cheese business once told me that the reason his country’s cheesemakers put so many different spices in Gouda—cumin, caraway, fenugreek, mustard seed—was because the Dutch eat Gouda every day. You have to change it up or lunch gets boring. Goat Gouda, which didn’t gain traction in the Netherlands until the 1980s, provides some variety in the modern Dutch diet. But sheep Gouda? “I am aware of no exported cheeses from the Netherlands made of sheep’s milk, nor, to my knowledge, is there any dairying of sheep there at all,” wrote Steve Jenkins in his authoritative Cheese Primer twenty-five years ago. Time to strike that, Steve. A new Dutch sheep Gouda has landed and it’s on the march.
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 moreCrimes Against Cheese
I’m not the cheese police, but sometimes people do things to my favorite food group that make me cringe. All misdemeanors, not felony offenses, but still. We’d all get more pleasure from the cheese we purchase, and a longer life from it, if we treat it nicely. At the risk of sounding like a crank, I’m sharing a few of the most common crimes committed against cheese. These sins deserve, at the least, a rap on the knuckles with a limp baguette.
Read moreSpain’s Best Goat Cheese?
If Manchego isn’t Spain’s top-selling cheese by a large margin, I’d be surprised. We all know Manchego. It’s a dependable—and often exceptional—aged sheep cheese. But Spain has a much bigger story to tell. Its goat cheeses, fresh and aged, can stand up to Europe’s best, but they don’t get much shelf space in American cheese shops. One of my favorite Spanish goat cheeses, I was pleased to learn, is also the favorite of Spanish cheese authority Enric Canut ,who told me years ago in an interview that he thought it was his country’s finest.
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 moreBetter When Shared
My husband, Doug, and I have shared a cheese board most nights of our married life—which is to say, for almost 38 years. It’s rarely elaborate—sometimes it’s just a wedge of cheese—but I’m convinced that the ritual has contributed to the success of our marriage. Sharing a cheese board is an excuse to slow down, pour another glass of wine and tell another story from our day. This Valentine’s Day, if you’re staying at home, you can test my theory. For this appetizer board, I’ve warmed a little goat cheese crottin (Vermont Creamery Bijou) and surrounded it with some favorite savory nibbles.
Read more