Pecorino on the beach (Cheese No. 17)

As mentioned in the previous post, one of the best cheeses I've had the chance to try since starting this project was one that I had quite recently: Pecorino. I was quasi-abandoned on a beach with a block of this cheese, half a bottle of red wine, and a biography of Jane Jacobs, which led to a lovely few hours of drinking wine, shaving off bits of cheese, and reading about my former neighbour. The Pecorino was so flavourful that I would break off small bits and suck on them until they dissolved in my mouth. I didn't take a picture of it, nor do I really know anything about it except that it was purchased at St. Lawrence Market. It's one to seek out, though.

Cheese digest

As regular readers no doubt noticed, the cheeseblog took a break. But that doesn't mean I stopped eating cheese. Far from it. In fact, one of the best cheeses to date was something I sampled in the last month. To get us back up to speed, I'm providing briefer-than-usual cheese-tasting "blurbs," starting with my birthday purchase...

Cheese No. 16 - Frère Jacques

Killing time in Yorkville before catching a matinée of The Lives of Others on my birthday, I wandered into Pusateri's and picked out a nice piece of cheese on April 10th that ended up being quite tasty. I picked it sort of randomly: it looked good and the price was right. Turns out, it's another cheese with religious connections. This semi-soft cow's milk cheese is produced by Benedictine monks at the Saint-Benoit-du-lac Abbey in Quebec. According to the Abbey's website, "Saint Benedict said that to be a true monk, one must live by the work of one’s hands. Such work is meant to provide for the needs of the monastery and to maintain a happy balance of mind and body....The monks of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac assure their living above all by a cheese-factory, an orchard, a cider-factory, a farm and a store where their products are sold." These monks have been running a cheese factory since 1943!

Cheese No. 14 - 3-year-old Cheddar

I couldn't resist taking at least one photo of mouse and cheese - too goofy. Forgive me. According to my notes, I ate this mini-block on April 11th. The only other thing I wrote down was that it was "not as strong as the X-Old." Guess it wasn't that memorable.

Cheese No. 15 - Eweda Cru

I broke out the Eweda Cru on April 13th, this was the day I had to switch rooms, which was kind of traumatic in that I had to compress two rooms into one and give up my office. I thought eating some cheese might settle my stomach (but then I chased it with vitamins and coffee...) Anyway, I wrote down that the cheese was crumbly, slightly powdery, and not very "sheepy" at all. In fact, it reminded me of Asiago more than anything. It had a nice flavour: not so sharp, not that salty either - the website says "Comparable to: Young Pecorino Romano (but not as salty)" and a "traditional hard cheese."

I did find some time to poke around on the Ewenity Dairy Cooperative's website, mostly because I was curious about the raw milk thing. Essentially what this means is that the cheese is made from unpasteurised milk, which is okay because it's aged for just over 2 months. (Under Canadian law, any cheeses less than 60 days old must be pasteurised.) I also learned that sheep's milk contains more calcium, zinc and vitamins than other milks, which I suspect has to do with what the sheep eat. According to the website, the "main feedstuffs" of the co-op's sheep are "pasture (grasses, legumes, herbs and "weeds") and hay (dried pasture). At certain times of the year, the sheep are fed grain (barley, corn, oats or soybeans) as a supplement."

Say cheese, please

I'm gonna buy me a piece of something yummy to celebrate...

Cheese No. 12

I am eating out of order it seems. Having forgotten that I numbered my cheeses from the farmer's market, I went ahead and ate No. 13 (the X-tra old Cheddar) before No. 12. My apologies to anyone following my progress with a checklist for whom this misstep causes a problem. But on with the Manchego!

As I've already mentioned, this cheese was a recommendation.* All I knew before buying it was that it was a Spanish cheese. Turns out Manchego is from the La Mancha region of Spain (you know, like The Man from La Mancha, aka Don Quixote?). It's a sheep's milk cheese and one that's supposed to be aged for at least 3 months, according to its "Denominación de Origen" (yes, it's another one of those cheeses, not surprising since it's "Spain's most famous chese"), but J.G. suggested trying some that's been aged 1-2 years. I think the block I picked up at the market must have been of the "curado" variety (aged 3-6 months) because I really couldn't pick out any notes of either sheepiness or tanginess, nor did I find it to be "Delicious-slightly piquant and nutty". However, Manchego does have a nice texture and there's a cool-looking herringbone design pressed into the rind, visible in the photo at right (and which Wikipedia has just advised me is inedible, only after I ate all of it...).

Anyway, when I think of European cheeses, Spain isn't a country that typically comes to mind. Though, via the Cheese from Spain website, I've since learned that Spanish cheesemakers produce nearly 100 different kinds and each region has its own specialty:

In general cow's milk cheeses are found in the north, along the Cantabric coast, from Galicia to the Basque Country, and along the northern Cantabric Mountain Range and the Pyrenees. Sheep's milk cheeses are found inland, from the north, in Cantabria and the Basque Country, down to the flats of Castilla-León, Castilla La Mancha, Aragón and Extremadura. And finally goat's milk cheeses are found mostly along the regions of the Mediterranean coast, from Cataluña to Andalusia, as well as in Extremadura. [Click here for a map]

If you're curious and want to read more about "The Cheese of Don Quixote," click here.

*You, too, can recommend that I try something! I'm compiling a list and, eventually, I promise, I will get around to trying everything. Just leave a note in the comments section. (You can even remain anonymous if you like)

It's a Good Friday for Cheddar

Sometimes you're in a rush because your friend is supposed to be coming to visit and you're trying to finish off some schoolwork, which means you just want to eat whatever's easiest to extract from the fridge (somewhat overloaded at the moment after a pre-birthday $74.59 splurge at Fiesta Farms). And you don't want to heat anything up. So you start by piling a bunch of things onto a plate before realizing that a bowl would make more sense, particularly because some of the things you're pulling out are round and liable to roll off the plate. But despite this urgency to eat lunch, you will take the extra time to grab what's important: CHEESE, aka what remains of the small block of "X-tra Old."



When the cheese is unwrapped a few minutes after leaving the kitchen (after all the sweet-potato hummus has been scooped up with celery and you've eaten the greenhouse-grown mini Roma tomatoes), you'll find this particular aged Cheddar smells like good cheese. Your nose knows. And when you take a bite, its bold, salty flavour (with very slightly sheepy undertones) will take over your tastebuds with a singular Cheddar taste and remind you again of the deliciousness of this type of cheese. Yes, this nearly anonymous cheese you bought at the market on Saturday is very near to being perfect, helped by having good texture and the fact that it doesn't crumble the way some aged cheddars do. Which means that you can't help but want to tell people to go forth and eat good Cheddar this weekend. (Chase it with an apple if you can: the Washington State Galas are perfect right now.)

Saturday morning at St. Lawrence Market

Yesterday was a Saturday and despite being up till nearly 3AM the previous night sitting around a campfire on the beach, I woke up at 7:20AM and decided that if I got dressed quickly and hopped on my bike, I could catch the 7:45AM ferry and make it to the farmer's market before the crowds. So I did and it was wonderful. Saturday mornings are special to me and it was so great to be up when the weekend still holds so much promise. And so it was that within a hour of waking up, I was in a foodie wonderland marvelling at the colours of fresh, local vegetables, the cuteness of pussywillow branches (such a symbol of spring), and tasting incredibly delicious cheese (the first food of the day to pass my lips!).

Amidst all the vegetable vendors, I came across a long table with a fantastic spread of different kinds of cheeses -- the majority of which could be sampled. I tried about 8 different kinds and settled on the four above. What led me to buy so many different kinds at once was the way that about a third of the cheese for sale was blocks that cost less than $3. Mind you, they're not huge pieces but for someone who's trying to broaden her cheese horizons, they're ideal: normally, I would feel bad buying such small quanties from a cheesemonger but this way I didn't have to. (Total cost for the cheese? $8.10)

I won't describe how they taste yet, despite the fact that I did try them all at the market, however, I will acknowledge that I am excited to try the Manchego, which was recommended by J.G., my co-worker in Vancouver, who says it's her favourite (not sure exactly how "aged" this one is but it tasted pretty sharp).

Cheeses on deck:

• No. 12 - Manchego
  
• N0. 13 - Extra Old Cheddar
  
• No. 14 - 3-year-old Cheddar
  
• No. 15 - Eweda Cru (Ontario raw sheep's milk cheese)
  

Nearly a cheese-free month (oops...)

First of all, apologies to those who keep checking back looking for updates only to find nothing new. I know it's been over a month but, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure what happened to March. I didn't eat a lot of cheese, that's for sure. In fact, all I can really remember consuming in the last month is:

• a decent block of President's Choice organic white cheddar, which reminded me how much I love cheddar
• molto mozzarella on a slice of veggie pizza from Pizza Gigi
• whatever cheese was in the veggie lasagna that B. made to share with everyone in celebration of her 30th birthday on Tuesday
• a good deal of chevre (I think) in the delicious purple cabbage(!) enchiladas (with tomatillo salsa!!) that T. made on Friday night
  
• (very slowly) half a wedge of Tre Stelle Asiago, which was best melted on top of a loaf of homemade foccaccia that I made using this recipe (photo of bread below, but not from the loaf with cheese—that one disappeared too quickly!)