Jakob's Bowl

Pure Sunshine

Yet another went buy without any Fresh Breeze Dairy heavy cream to be had for my clafoutis, but as I scanned the dairy case, I saw the Grace Harbor Farms Golden Guernsey Yogurt, and remembered the clafoutis recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Martha Rose Shulman’s Provencal Light. Ms. Shulman produced ‘lighter,’ from a fat perspective, versions of Provencal classics, including a fresh peach and berry clafoutis using low fat yogurt instead of heavy cream. Well, the Grace Harbor Farms yogurt isn’t just ‘full fat ‘yogurt; it’s made from non-homogenized milk, so there is an abundant layer of Guernsey cream on top, and the total fat content is around 12%, three to four times that of commercial full fat yogurt. I bought a pint. The Guernsey milk yogurt seen in the images is made from pure milk and yogurt cultures - no coloring has been added. It gets its deep yellow color - a darker yellow than the heavy cream from most Holstein cows -from the Guernsey cow’s superior ability to turn grass into beta carotene, and it has a natural hint of sweetness. This yogurt should produce a great clafoutis, and it’s just a reinforces my belief that the Guernsey breed belongs in my Heritage Hall of Fame - look for more info later this summer, including sources for Guernsey milk around the country.

Sometimes It's Good To Be Sheepish

I finally got to the local Co-op just a day after their delivery from Tieton Farm and Creamery. When Lori informed me that the Co-op was carrying a few new versions of their Chèvre, I had mixed emotions since I usually prefer my fresh cheese straight up, but she mentioned the magic words, cracked black pepper. And their were the buttons, wrapped sometime within the last 24 hours. This morning as I unwrapped the button it was pretty tasty looking, and I spread it thickly on my toast...wow, what flavor! I was right in my first impression a few weeks ago; the addition of sheep milk makes the paste smoother and gives it a creamier finish. It seemed richer than 100% goat milk chèvre with a fatter mouth feel, and it had just the right amount of salt and that nice tanginess with hint of lemon, and the pepper made it all the more tasty. If they can keep this up, my days of buying Cypress Grove fresh chèvre are over.

A New Black Seep In The Family

Last year it was a four-ounce container of the spreadable fresh pecorino (a la fresh chèvre) from the Black Sheep Creamery located near Chehalis, WA, on every trip to Portland, and this year my habit has increased to one-pound containers, which take me about a week to consume. After picking up my fix last Saturday, I wandered into Steve’s Cheese where I found a stash of Black Sheep Creamery’s aged cheeses. While I wanted to taste them all, time and budget concerns set my sights on one, what they call their Fresh Pecorino - confusing isn’t it! This ‘young’ pecorino was their new offering late last year, and it’s a delight.

Banish any thoughts of the flavor and texture of that nasty factory made Locatelli Romano you see in just about every cheese case. Very little ‘young’ pecorino gets imported from Italy, which I always lamented since it can be a magnificent cheese for the table. Fortunately, now that I’ve tasted the Black Sheep Creamery version, I don’t care if another wheel ever comes from Italy. It has the telltale ‘pecorino’ aroma, but possibly a bit brighter. I am not sure how long is aged, but it has firm but pliable texture, a smooth, creamy paste, and a nice amount of randomly spaced eyes. It is a bit nutty with loads of fruity wine notes and only a hint of ‘sheepishness’ on the mid palate. It finishes with a nice tanginess and the typical pecorino prickliness which is accompanied by a bore more ‘sheepy’ intensity. Black Sheep Creamery Fresh Pecorino is great to accompany a bright fruity red wine like a Barbera or a Sancerre. It’s also good with a drizzle of acacia honey, and I’m thinking about using it for grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

Some New New...

I was wandering about aisles of the local food coop this evening looking for something to go with Umpqua Valley Lamb burger when I spotted an unfamiliar cheese in their cheese case, Tieton Farm and Creamery Chèvre…perfect for tomorrow’s breakfast. The label is very simple and it looks as if it were printed with an inkjet printer. When I got home, the first online source that I checked was the Pacific Northwest Cheese Project, no luck. Of course, their website’s address was right on the label! The one page text website reinforced my impression about the newness of the cheese maker, even before I read “Opening in Spring 2010” - I assume that the sale of cheese began this spring, and not the farm itself. The farm and creamery are near Yakima, WA, and the fresh chèvre is made with goat and sheep milk - a bonus. Apparently, they also produced feta, provolone and grill-able Halloumi.

Sadly, when I unwrapped the disk of fresh chèvre, which had been packaged the day before, there was a dime-size splotch of black mold on the side. This is not something I expected or wanted, and suggested some mishandling somewhere between the Creamery and the Coop's cheese case. I hopped into my car and returned to the coop to replace my cheese with a similar size piece packed on the same day. I got back home and opened my new disk to the annoying sight of another dime-size splotch of black mold. My hunger and my inclination not to waste another 45 minutes on the issue had me perform an emergency amputation. I spread the chèvre on my slice of Pain de Campagne, and the slight heat of the just toasted bread released a bright lemony aroma that made the cheese that much more appealing. The presence of the sheep milk seems to have moderated the typical fresh chèvre ‘barnyard goatiness’ that often turns some people off. I am not sure of the ratio of goat to sheep, - I assume that it varies a bit from batch to batch - but the relatively mild flavor had a delightful lemony finish. I enjoyed two well slathered pieces of toast, not enough for me to make a final judgment, but enough for me to buy it again. And, now for yet another taste of...Nosiola, this one from Pojer e Sandri.

The Big Blue Rose

No, I’m not talking about the fabled “Blue Rose” from the kitschy Italian remake of the Thief of Baghdad, (Il Ladro di Baghdad) from the early sixties starring Steve Reeves; I’m talking about a really tasty goat milk cheese made at the Blue Rose Dairy in Winlock, Washington about 45 miles south of Olympia, specifically their Grande’ Rosa. While the grade ‘A’ dairy produces fresh chèvre, feta, and some aged, firm cheeses, their Grande’ Rosa is aged but 5 days and has a springy texture somewhat akin to (cows’ milk) mozzarella, which is how they market it. Knowing that chèvre and fresh goat feta both have a protein structure that don’t allow them to melt even at high temperature, so I was skeptical. However, the sample I was given at the Pike Place Market had a great flavor and texture, so I bought a piece for further tasting and melting.

If you click the image to expand it, you will just be able to make out the light yellow edge of the slice of Grande’ Rosa. It is firmer than the snow-white interior, which has a goodly number of randomly sized and spaced eyes. The texture is delightful, something between the sponginess of Mozzarella di Bufala and the rubberiness of a fresh Fiora di Latte that has got a few extra days of age on it. It also lacks the ‘stringy’ texture of both those cheeses. It has a ‘light’ flavor to start but proceeds fairly rapidly to a more pungent finish reminiscent not of a fresh goat cheese, but of an aged one. I placed a thin slice on some bread and popped it under the broiler, and it did melt, but not quite as runny as fresh mozzarella. It would definitely be a better choice for pizza duty than fresh chèvre or feta, and I think it would make an awesome salad with tomatoes, basil and olive oil. It is very addictive. I bought it at the dairy’s booth and paid their $24/pound price, but I have seen it in cheese shops for up to $34/pound, which is a crime - this season the Blue Rose Dairy will be at the following Farmer’s Markets - Longview (Sat), Olympia (Thur. & Fri), Tacoma (Tue, Thur., Sat., Sun), Stilecoom (Wed), Des Moines (Sat), Pikes Place (Fri).

Dear Mr. and Ms. Cheesemonger

Do you remember what moved you to get into this crazy business, possibly even sinking the family nest egg into building out a shop? I’m not really addressing those people who are just in it for the money, since that’s a whole different business ‘model,’ and not really the best investment one could make anyway. I’m addressing those people who started their business because they loved ‘real’ cheese, and especially those who are, or at least professed to be, passionate about supporting our growing, but still nascent, domestic artisan cheese guild - the word ‘industry’ has too many negative connotations these days with respect to handcrafted products. I hope you really remember that you are trying to promote the growth of this band of domestic cheese makers and increase its number by raising awareness and growing the market, a situation in which everyone wins.

Yes, it’s a crazy business in which you have to convince your potential customers that there is a difference between ‘real’ cheese and the industrial dairy products that are sold as cheese these days. And, I’m not talking about individually wrapped American cheese slices, cheese product squirted from a can or shaken from a green cardboard container, since those ‘things’ are fairly obvious. I’m talking about the fact that most of the cheese imported from Europe including those with the well known names are made in large, automated, multimillion dollar factories – a fact that many, if not most, people who eat cheese regularly are not aware of.