Prose and cheese

It has been bitter cold here in the Northeast U.S. this week!  Stay warm everyone.

Here at F-du-M, we thought we'd share with you this lovely article from the New York Times to warm your spirits (below).   It does a great job show-casing the un-sung heroes of our burgeoning cheese culture in America: the cheesemongers who use their literary creativity to spread their love for the good stuff. Enjoy!  (click the caption below)

The Language of Fromage

How Much Cheese is Enough?

Recently I was asked to set up some sample cheese plates for a local business. At first I was more concerned with the cheese choice. Only when I was laying the cheese on the plate did I realize how essential the amount of cheese is for such a venture. When I sit down with a piece of cheese I'll often just eat with no regard to how much I've consumed. This, of course, is a testament to my love of fromage. When there are other factors involved (multiple cheeses and extras) it's a whole different story.

I set up a few plates. The first was designed to be an all American plate: cheddar, a blue, and a chevre. This combination is nice because you could fill all the cheeses from various regions of the country if you wanted to keep it more local. And on this plate I set out 1.5oz of each cheese along with some filler (almonds, figs, etc). 1.5oz turned out to be way too much cheese.

On the next round I went with an Italian theme: burrata, a toscana, and a piave. This time I switched to 1oz of each cheese which was much more manageable. It's possible that even .75oz would have been sufficient but I think 1oz is a nice amount. Filling for one person and share-able for two.

And if you keep the cheese choice reasonable, so too will be the cost of the entire cheese plate. At wholesale prices just the cheese (@ 1oz / cheese) was under $2 per plate.

And in terms of extras - they mostly hovered around $.30 per item. In order of cost: sliced baguette, figs, chutney, almonds, tapenade. And the only very expensive and very delicious extra was the prosciutto. A guilty pleasure.

Neolithic cheese making: Evidence from the 6th Millennium, B.C.

It was exciting to hear some cheese news out of the world of archaeology this month.  (A dear friend to FDM was kind of enough to pass along the story).

An article published in the journal Nature (link here) describes some carbon-dating techniques and other analysis that a collaborative group from the U.S., England, and Poland performed on pottery sieves found at a Neolithic archaeology site in Eastern Poland.

Basically, this group report  evidence that these sieves, which date from ~5300 to 4900 B.C., were definitely used to process milk and were designed (hammered at) to be able to separate the whey-protein clumps from the typical fat-rich milk curds that result from milk spoilage. This method is similar to the way that many cheese-makers do it  today. 

To-date, this is the earliest evidence of human beings making cheese . 

These are the actual sieve fragments that contained milk residue that was  carbon-dated .

As all of you know, the production of cheese can be viewed as sort-of the controlled, variably nuanced, spoilage of milk. Historically, the process may have been put to use by farmers who wanted to preserve the milk for a longer period, as it was a precious commodity, and/or to make it more digestible or palatable.

The article's abstract includes the following of interest: "The processing of milk, particularly the production of cheese, would have been a critical development because it not only allowed the preservation of milk products in a non-perishable and transportable form, but also it made milk a more digestible commodity for early prehistoric farmer."

It turns out that pre-historic man was on to something pretty big.  It's a fascinating story all together.

Thank you, Keyrock and friends.  Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.  

Cheese Caves of Cambridge, MA

We at Fromage-du-Mois recently enjoyed a fabulous evening out for a cheese-centered event: a tour of the cheese "caves" (see below, right) of Cambridge, MA's own Formaggio Kitchen. The Kitchen is nationally recognized and is certainly the premier imported cheese and specialty food distributor/retail outfit in New England. 

The 'Old Cave' in the basement of the store

The personally guided tour was a gift from very good friends of FDM (the "Muensters") who also accompanied us on the taste-expanding mission. Formaggio Kitchen has 2 other locations aside from its flagship store in Cambridge: one is in the the South End of Boston and the other is in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in the famous Essex Street Market.                                                                                
Our tour guide was none other than co-owner Ihsan Gurdal, who founded the Kitchen in 1978 with his wife Valerie. Originally from Turkey, Ihsan first came to California and then to Boston as a volleyball player and coach, always carrying with him a love for cheese and fine foods. He is a quite a kind and knowledgeable man.

The cheese "caves" are 2 connected rooms in the basement of the Huron Avenue shop in west Cambridge.  They were built out of an old office suite in 1996 and were "the first of their kind in the U.S." (according to Ihasn). As he explained, the rooms are maintained constantly at about 45-50 degrees F with a refrigeration system that needs fine adjustments. The rooms are also kept damp and musty with a 'mister' machine (that the Ihsan refers to as a 'shower'). These conditions, of course, are meant to mimic those of an Alpine hillside mountain cave. When you're inside, the air feels moist, it's chilly, and there is minimal air circulation. There are also small puddles on the floor that you have to step around.

A group of aging cheeses, pre-experimentation,  in the 'Old' room

The cheeses that line the wooden shelves are imported from all over the world, with a bias toward Europe. Ihsan and his team from Formaggio may spend weeks at a time travelling to (often) small towns, meeting dairy farmers and cheese producers. As they establish these relationships, it makes it easier for them to import entire wheels of cheese that they fall in love with and also be able to return in the following years to buy more. Difficult life, eh?

When they are brought back to this rooms, the cheeses are personally attended to, sometimes for months. They may be flipped every other week or so to change the side that gets air/moisture exposure. The staff at Formaggio also experiments with different preparations. When we visited, they was ready to rub fresh herbs and different olive oils on some newly acquired wheels. After a certain amount of time (months, up to 2 years), Ihsan and his team decide that the cheese are ready for prime-time and they bring them up to sell in the shop.

                                                        

If you are ever in the area, you will have to check out the store. They have a really unique selection of imported and regional artisinal cheeses. And, according to the website and to Ihsan, the staff would also be happy to give you a small peak at their urban cheese undergound.

Here is a virtual tour of the cheese caves that Ihsan took part in : Link

Additional photos from our tour:   (We were fortunately able to taste most of these!)

The primary FDM tasting team

Recently imported sheep's milk cheese from Pyrenees-Atlantiques (Department) in Southwest France*

*Available at Formaggio Kitchen: https://www.formaggiokitchen.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=&products_id=2618 

To board or to plate....

When it comes to serving cheese to guests at a small dinner party, say, there are at least two main options people turn to. Let's discuss those here: the cheese board or a cheese plate. I think it will become clear which one we favor at Fromage-du-Mois.


(I thought I would mention that Steven Jenkins, one of America's foremost cheese mongers, has a very nice section on serving cheese as well in The Cheese Primer. His book is also a wonderful introduction to the world of cheese, including the cheese-making process, wonderful descriptions of the major and many minor cheeses of the world and their regions of origin, and many resources about cheese shops and artisinal cheese makers around the world.)

So, a cheese board is that slate or wooden board, perhaps a bit unwieldy, that is often put out on the coffee table or end-table for guests (image, right). There are usually 1-3 wedges of different cheeses on the board, each with its own knife, and a stack of small napkins nearby. Some people will add a couple of crackers to this mix. After your guests do some mingling and hovering around this board, you inevitably see small crumbles of cheese on the floor below. There sometimes feels like there is "no beginning and no end" to this method, until all you have left is 3 rinds and guests that may be too full for the rest of your courses.


The cheese board is a well-intended endeavor. As we've experienced, however,  it seems to fall short and can become a true tragedy of the commons. It can promote endless standing around and nibbling, it lacks a personal touch, and it often doesn't include the savory accompaniments which enhance cheese flavors (things like: thick crusty bread, toasted black walnuts, a fig or date jam, and macoun apples, among others).

A cheese plate, on the other hand (image, left), may fill these voids well and help serve as desired. In a small or even medium-sized dinner party setting, it is only a little more trouble to prepare individual plates.

A cheese plate can be a regular dinner plate in size or smaller one, if fitting. You can prepare the plate with, say, 2-4 cheeses, usually in smaller wedges or pieces than on a board.  This seems to really cut down on the hovering, mingling, careless cutting, and piece-dropping on the floor. And importantly, the experience is more personal; it seems to emphasize quality rather than quantity in presentation. It is also a more fit method to include a smattering of appropriate accompaniments, things like wedges of French bread, roasted nuts, slices of fruit,  or (if the cheese is right), thin slices of prosciutto or sopresata.  More on specific cheese accompaniments later....

Let us know what your experience has been...