Looking back at a year of columns, I'm surprised by how many
American cheeses I featured. At a glance, I'm sure that I showcased more
domestic cheeses than I have in any year past. What's up with that?
Availability provides part of the answer. Americans keep opening creameries, and existing creameries keep creating new cheeses. Membership in the American Cheese Society has doubled in the past decade, and the 1,700-plus entries in the society's competition broke records again.
Distributors and retailers do their part by taking a risk on these unproven new cheeses. It's easy to find buyers for Mouny Tam or Pleasant Ridge Reserve, award-winning cheeses with avid fans. But how do you move a high-priced newbie with no name recognition? The brief life span of many cheeses puts extra pressure on distributors and retailers to stock only brisk sellers.
That's all the more reason to applaud Cream and the Crop, a new Bay Area distributor specializing in American artisan producers like Fraga Farms in Oregon and Alemar Cheese in Minnesota. And to give a special shout-out to Rainbow Grocery and Mission Cheese, two San Francisco retailers who impress me with their support for new American cheeses.
In that spirit, I'd like to return the spotlight to some favorite domestic cheeses I highlighted in 2012. They're not all new, but all strike me as having exceptional merit. If you haven't yet tasted them, put them high on your shopping list.
In no particular order:
From New York's Adirondack Mountains, Nettle Meadow Kunik is a luscious, bloomy-rind goat cheese enriched with cow's cream. When young, it smells like clotted cream; when fully mature - my preference - it has a buttery aroma and a silky, spreadable texture.
Compare it with Vermont Butter & Cheese's Coupole, a cream-less goat cheese with a wrinkled, or "brainy," white rind. Modeled loosely after the French Taupinière, Coupole develops mushroom and damp-cave aromas as it ages.
Capriole's cheesemaker Judy Schad takes goat's milk in another direction with Julianna, an aged wheel coated with herbes de Provence. The interior is semisoft to semi-firm, depending on the age; smooth and sweet, with a gentle herbaceousness. From Indiana, it's rare here, but keep an eye out for it.
Franklin's Washed-Rind Teleme, from California cheesemaker Franklin Peluso, has been a long time coming and is worth waiting for. Who doesn't love Peluso's floppy, rice-flour-dusted Teleme? For this variation, he rubs the young squares with brine and ages them longer to develop a big, yeasty, nutty aroma. And the reasonable price - about $17 a pound - makes it affordable for cooking. Grilled cheese, anyone?
Vermont's Jasper Hill Farm produces the fabulous Winnimere, a washed-rind disk wrapped with a strip of spruce bark. Made with raw cow's milk and bathed with beer during its two-month maturation, this farmstead cheese develops a crunchy, flesh-colored rind and an oozy, fondue-like interior. The aroma is huge and reminiscent of earth, smoky ham, mushrooms and mustard.
Also from Vermont, Spring Brook Farm's Tarentaise is inspired by Beaufort, the classic French alpine cheese. Made with raw cow's milk from the farm's own herd, the 20-pound wheels of Tarentaise receive repeated brine baths during their 10 months in the aging cellar. A fresh-cut wedge comes close to Beaufort aromatically, with nutty and fruity scents mingled with hints of bacon and buttered toast.
Next up: Freya's Wheel, an aged goat cheese from Oregon.
Availability provides part of the answer. Americans keep opening creameries, and existing creameries keep creating new cheeses. Membership in the American Cheese Society has doubled in the past decade, and the 1,700-plus entries in the society's competition broke records again.
Distributors and retailers do their part by taking a risk on these unproven new cheeses. It's easy to find buyers for Mouny Tam or Pleasant Ridge Reserve, award-winning cheeses with avid fans. But how do you move a high-priced newbie with no name recognition? The brief life span of many cheeses puts extra pressure on distributors and retailers to stock only brisk sellers.
That's all the more reason to applaud Cream and the Crop, a new Bay Area distributor specializing in American artisan producers like Fraga Farms in Oregon and Alemar Cheese in Minnesota. And to give a special shout-out to Rainbow Grocery and Mission Cheese, two San Francisco retailers who impress me with their support for new American cheeses.
In that spirit, I'd like to return the spotlight to some favorite domestic cheeses I highlighted in 2012. They're not all new, but all strike me as having exceptional merit. If you haven't yet tasted them, put them high on your shopping list.
In no particular order:
From New York's Adirondack Mountains, Nettle Meadow Kunik is a luscious, bloomy-rind goat cheese enriched with cow's cream. When young, it smells like clotted cream; when fully mature - my preference - it has a buttery aroma and a silky, spreadable texture.
Compare it with Vermont Butter & Cheese's Coupole, a cream-less goat cheese with a wrinkled, or "brainy," white rind. Modeled loosely after the French Taupinière, Coupole develops mushroom and damp-cave aromas as it ages.
Capriole's cheesemaker Judy Schad takes goat's milk in another direction with Julianna, an aged wheel coated with herbes de Provence. The interior is semisoft to semi-firm, depending on the age; smooth and sweet, with a gentle herbaceousness. From Indiana, it's rare here, but keep an eye out for it.
Franklin's Washed-Rind Teleme, from California cheesemaker Franklin Peluso, has been a long time coming and is worth waiting for. Who doesn't love Peluso's floppy, rice-flour-dusted Teleme? For this variation, he rubs the young squares with brine and ages them longer to develop a big, yeasty, nutty aroma. And the reasonable price - about $17 a pound - makes it affordable for cooking. Grilled cheese, anyone?
Vermont's Jasper Hill Farm produces the fabulous Winnimere, a washed-rind disk wrapped with a strip of spruce bark. Made with raw cow's milk and bathed with beer during its two-month maturation, this farmstead cheese develops a crunchy, flesh-colored rind and an oozy, fondue-like interior. The aroma is huge and reminiscent of earth, smoky ham, mushrooms and mustard.
Also from Vermont, Spring Brook Farm's Tarentaise is inspired by Beaufort, the classic French alpine cheese. Made with raw cow's milk from the farm's own herd, the 20-pound wheels of Tarentaise receive repeated brine baths during their 10 months in the aging cellar. A fresh-cut wedge comes close to Beaufort aromatically, with nutty and fruity scents mingled with hints of bacon and buttered toast.
Next up: Freya's Wheel, an aged goat cheese from Oregon.
Janet Fletcher
teaches cheese-appreciation classes and is the author of "Cheese &
Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing, and Enjoying" and "The Cheese
Course," both from Chronicle Books. Go to www.janetfletcher.com for a class schedule, or contact her at fletcher@foodwriter.com.
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