...The Lord alps those that alps themselves
Groucho Marx
My preference in cow-milk cheese has always leaned toward the Alpine varieties, Abondance, Comté, and Beaufort from France and Gruyère and Appenzeller from Switzerland. Most of these names are probably familiar to you, but some may be less than impressive in your cheese memories. More than likely, this is because there is a lot of industrially made wheels of cheese stamped with these names that gets dumped in this country. The traditionally made versions of these cheeses, however, are sublime with the best usually being labeled ‘Alpage,’ meaning that they are made from raw milk taken from the cows when they are in the high mountain pastures. Think of small herds of Abondance, Tarentaise, Montbéliarde, and Swiss Brown cows leisurely grazing their way through lush Alpine Valleys in the warm sun from late spring through early fall. These traditional firm cheeses are well aged with creamy textures, pleasantly interspersed with protein crystals, and complex flavor profiles that usually include fruit, nuts, grass, herbs, and even hay and other barnyard flavors.
These were my cheeses of choice up until about a half dozen years ago when I first tasted Pleasant Ridge Reserve from the Uplands Cheese Company in Wisconsin, and Tarentaise from Thistle Hill Farm in Vermont. These Alpine-style cheeses just blew me away, - the Pleasant Ridge is full-bodied and complex possessing similarities to both Comte and Beaufort, while the ‘lighter’ weight Tarentaise hinted at Abondance - and they both made outstanding grilled cheese sandwiches. For the last few years, I have been telling anyone who would listen that the Pleasant Ridge was the Best Cheese in the World! These two incited me to look for more Alpine-style cheeses in this country.
Two holiday seasons ago, I decided to send wine and cheese gift baskets to my closest friends, and so I planned on ordering artisan cheeses from the East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast and pairing them with domestic dessert wines. I had some ideas for East Coast cheeses, and just to make sure I ordered samples from Murray’s Cheese in NYC, including Ascuteny Mountain, an Alpine-style cheese made from raw Jersey milk by the Cobb Hill Cooperative in Vermont. I still remember enjoying it and thinking at the time it rivaled the Pleasant Ridge. The Cobb Hill cheeses didn’t seem to make out to the West Coast so they eventually slipped from my priority list. Eventually, I tasted Roth’s Private Reserve, a traditionally made Alpine-style raw milk cheese made by Roth Käse in Wisconsin - an amazingly well-made, and delicious cheese from such a large company. Additionally, the Crawford Family Farm’s Vermont Ayr, made from raw Ayrshire milk, arrived here in Seattle a few months ago, and that has also been a delight.
While these cheeses aren’t produced from cows grazing in alpine valleys, their cheese makers take just as much care and most have at least visited Alpine farms and cheese makers if not studying with them - I know for a fact that Pleasant Ridge Reserve is produced only when the cows are pasture grazing, and I’ve watched the Jersey cows munch their way up the hillsides of Thistle Hill Farm. Just the combination of these five Alpine-style cheeses, all award winners, gives us a firm footing to stand with the best from France and Switzerland.
The punchline to this story though, is the fact that Ascuteny Mountain has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest, well, in Portland at least. When I asked for a taste at Steve’s Cheese this past weekend, it was everything I remembered, and then some. As a matter of fact, the piece that I bought and have been rationing this week has convinced me that the wheel it was cut from was even better than Pleasant Ridge Reserve. A bit lighter in weight than the Pleasant Ridge, its bright yellow color is as striking as its flavor and texture. It has smattering of irregularly sized eyes and a firm smooth paste with small protein crystals crunching every now and again. The flavor is buttery and substantial with each bite revealing yet another nuance, including hazelnuts and sweet herbs, before the long smooth finish. For now this re-orders my list of favorites: Ascuteny Mountain (Vermont - raw Jersey milk, aged 8 months); Pleasant Ridge Reserve (Wisconsin - raw Holstein milk, aged 6 months); Vermont Ayr (Vermont - raw Ayrshire milk, aged 3 months) Roth Private Reserve (Wisconsin - raw Holstein milk (?), aged 9 months); Tarentaise (Vermont - organic raw Jersey milk, aged 6 months). My search continues, but these are cheeses are definitely worth searching for.
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