Cheese of the week: Marieke Gouda Burning Melange

Name: Burning Melange Gouda

Brand: Holland's Family Farm

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country of Origin:  Wisconsin, USA

Price in Iowa: $14.70/lb

Milk: raw cow

Processing: Gouda with added stinging nettle and other spices

Texture: semi-hard

Color: pale cream with big holes

Rind: wax and basket-weave

Aroma: Sharp dairy

Taste: sharp, umami, subtle onion and vegetable aromatics

Mouth feel: firm and rich, with a tingling feeling

Notes: This is kind of a neat cheese.  As a gouda, it's pretty top notch for an American cheese.  But the addition of onions and chives adds a richness to the cheese that I really liked.  The spices weren't overpowering, they just added to the experience.  Then, there's the stinging nettle.  It added a tingling, metallic flavor that lingered and was very pleasurable.  I finished my last piece 10-minutes ago and I'm still tingling.  I'm not sure if this qualifies as unique or just a neat trick, but I like it. 

Cheese of the week: Le Chimay à la bière

Name: Le Chimay à la bière

Brand: Chimay

Place of Purchase: QFC in Bellevue, WA

Country/Region of Origin: Belgium

Price in Washington: $24.99/pound

Milk: cow

Processing: all I know is that it's aged for three months and bathed in beer made by Belgian Trappist monks


Texture: semi-soft

Color: cream to apricot

Rind: Natural washed with beer made by the Trappist monks of Chimay

Aroma: slightly stinky dairy

Taste: dusky, strong aging like limberger, cream, salty, bitter (maybe hops?)

Mouth feel: Soft, in-between a string cheese and a brie
 
Notes:  I got this cheese during a trip to Seattle.  My friends tell me that the Chimay beers and cheeses are very popular in the Northwest.  This cheese is very strong, capturing the most intense flavors found in an aged cheese and an artisan beer.  You can taste both cave and cask with this cheese.  I wouldn't recommend it to the casual fromageophile, but if you can appreciate the complexity of flavors of this very well-made Trappist cheese, then I think that you're in for a treat.

Libation of the week: Huckleberry Lemonade

Name: Huckleberry Lemonade

 

Brand:  Dorothy's

Place of Purchase: Thorp Fruit Stand in Thorp, WA

Country/Region of Origin: Thorp, WA

Tasting Conditions: Chilled in the bottle

Price in Iowa: $1.59 for 8 oz.

Description: crisp, natural lemonade with huckleberry added

Flavors: tart lemon, meaty huckleberry, natural sugar

Mouth-feel: Crisp and clean

Aroma: Clean lemon and mountain air 

Notes: Sometimes the simplest way is doing it right.  This product has sugar, water, lemon juice and wild huckleberries.  It tastes fantastic.  The huckleberries are just bringing something to the party, the flavor doesn't overpower this excellent lemonade.

Cheese of the week: Alpine-Style Cheese

Name: Alpine-Style Cheese

Brand: Saxon Homestead Creamery 

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Organic Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Wisconsin

Price in Iowa: $12.59/pound

Milk: cow

Processing: cooked, pressed curd, washed rind, aged 90 to 150 days

Texture: semi-firm

Color: straw yellow

Rind: Washed

Aroma: clean dairy

Taste: meaty, nutty, umami, tangy afternotes

Mouth feel: firm, chewy, eventually yielding paste
 
Notes: This harder cheese is very flavorful.  The flavor profile, while complex, focuses on the higher protein content in this cheese.  I think that the low-fat content and the drier nature of this cheese would make it great for a picnic or a long trip.  I'd suggest pairing it with melon and spiced meats.

Cheese of the week: Pyrenees Caprinelle

Name: Pyrenees Caprinelle

Brand: none listed

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Organic Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: France

Price in Iowa: $21.67/pound

Milk: pasteurized Caprinelle goat's milk

Processing: mountain-cooked cheese made with a single milking from spring or autumn milk

Texture: semi-soft

Color: Bone white

Rind: Natural (basket-weave, woody, brown)

Aroma: medium dairy

Taste: cream, nutty, mild goat

Mouth feel: a yielding, rich, but a contiguous paste
 
Notes: This particular Pyrenees Caprinelle was listed as "young and semi-soft," so I knew that it was not going to be the standard for the variety.  These artisan, mountain cheeses are made from spring or autumn goat milkings and aged for 3 to 6 months.  The spring milk cheeses are supposed to have more grassy and floral notes.  This cheese, while quite creamy and buttery, was very mild; especially for a goat cheese.  When I left the cheese on my palate for a bit, I did detect some caramel and stronger nutty/umami flavors, but these were far in the background.  This mild cheese would be delightful when paired with grapes, tart apples or white wine.

Cheese of the week: Brick Cheese

Name: Brick Cheese

Brand: none listed

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Organic Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Wisconsin

Price in Iowa: $11.67/pound

Milk: pasteurized cow

Processing: Simple cheddar processing with higher heat

Texture: semi-soft

Color: cream

Rind: Natural

Aroma: mild dairy

Taste: Creamy, buttery, mild cheddar finish

Mouth feel: Soft, silky, almost fudge-y
 
Notes:  There are plenty of fancy cheeses out there.  Then there is brick cheese.  This "sandwich" cheese is a simple cheddar created at a slightly higher heat to encourage higher fat content.  The cheese is pressed with clay bricks (hence, the name) and a Limberger culture is used to surface ripen the cheese block.  It's washed with whey and turned for a few days before packaging.  This cheese will continue aging in the package, starting off as a soft, very mild cheddar; then increasing in piquant and sharp flavors as the cheese matures.  However, most applications employ the young cheese.


I just ate this cheese as is, right out of the packaging.  It was sweet, buttery and silky.  My next application was a grilled cheese sandwich.  Like raclette, this cheese was almost designed for melting.  However, the young cheese doesn't provide much flavor.  It offers a creamy mouth feel, but I found myself reaching for some mustard after a few bites.  I'm going to try to find an older brick, but as a straight snacking cheese this is one of the best I've tried.

Cheese of the week: Sage Derby

Name: Sage Derby

Brand: none listed

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Organic Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: UK

Price in Iowa: $13.57/pound

Milk: cow

Processing:

Texture: semi-firm

Color: pale yellow with green veining

Rind: Natural

Aroma:  mild dairy with herbal notes

Taste: luscious and complex herbal bouquet

Mouth feel: a nice semi-firm, chewy pate
 
Notes: I've had the Port Derby before, and that was nice with sweet and tart notes.  The Sage Derby immediately reminded me of the flavors from a nice roasted chicken or quail.  There were the quiet, meaty notes of the derby, but the sage blossomed in my mouth and just exploded with memories of herb-roasted bird.  I'm not sure what to pair this with.  I've seen recipes that use it with turkey or chicken sandwiches.

So, that's what I'll be having for lunch tomorrow...