Cheese Tasting for Roberta's Birthday
Posted on Thursday, December 09, 2021 | By Nicole Easterday |
What a great time we had celebrating Roberta's birthday! I know many of you wanted to know the cheeses we tasted in class so here they are in order, along with a photo of your cheese plate from class. I hope your baby bries are coming along well! Happy cheesemaking! - Nicole
- Fromager D'affinois Plain Brie - This is the most exported cheese out of France and with good reason! With it's very slightly mushroomy rind and truly smooth and creamy paste, it's a real crowd-pleaser. D'affinois tends to be a top seller at most cheese counters, whether artisanal or more of a grocery setting. An easy-to-find cheese, this little brie gets its ooey-gooey texture not by adding additional cream, but by using a patented method of ultra-filtration, which breaks up and disperses the fat throughout the cheese. While it stands well on its own, try wrapping this one in phylllo dough and baking it with some jam this holiday season.
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L'Original Paysan-Breton -This traditional Brie from Brittany in France is one of the few that is truly a "lactic set", which means it uses less rennet and takes a longer time to mature. This process results in a stronger flavor due to longer ripening time, resulting in a very traditionally ‘French’ flavor. You’ll find it quite unlike most bries you’ll find in the US. The textured boasts a silky, creamy yet supple paste with a full, cooked cabbage and mushroomy flavor.
While you won’t find AOC Brie in the US, this cheese is about as close as you’ll get flavor-wise. Pair it with a nice, full-bodied, full flavored earthy old-world-style wine and pretend you’re in Paris.
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Camembert di Bufala, La Casera, Lombardy, Italy - This cheese is a lovely example of the trend in Lombardy to mix traditional cheesemaking with the accessibility of local buffalo milk. In the style of French Camembert, the butterfat-rich Buffalo milk gives the cheese a lush texture and slightly fruity flavor in a soft-ripened cheese. Rich, runny, earthy, creamy, with a nice hint of sweetness.
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Camembert dell'Alta Langa - This cheese by Caseificio Alta Langa hails from the Alta Langa region of Southern Piedmont. Like its more common sister cheese La Tur, the camembert features a mix of goat, sheep & cow's milk. One thing I love about this cheesemaker is that they don't use commercial cultures at all but rather have been building and protecting their own in-house cultures for a flavor and style that is uniquely their own.
- Leonora - With a paste that is both dense and smooth and a white rind gentle mottled in light gray and sometimes yellow, I find this cheese to be everything Bucheron purports to be and is just too industrial to pull off well. This luscious rectangle ranges from silky and smooth just under the rind, to flaky and cakey near the center. A modern take on ancient European goat cheese making, this treasure is created from the pasteurized milk from a single herd of goats in Leon, Spain. Delicate and bright, Leonora is reminiscent of lemon meringue pie with its bright citrus profile and meringue-y creaminess. Start tasting at the center of the paste and move outward toward the rind, stopping when the flavor becomes too intense for you.
