Tag: cheesemaker

  • Mas Marcé El Set: Milk from a Rare Breed of Sheep

    DSC_9044 - Version 22013-10-11-Mar-marce-el-set-sheep-cheese-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    El Set, a sheep milk cheese from the Mas Marcé area of Spain is our latest taste delight from Formaggio South End.

    DSC_9043 - Version 22013-10-11-Mar-marce-el-set-sheep-cheese-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    With a pretty basket pattern, El Set looks great on a cheese tray. Its dry texture and herby flavor will please many a cheese lover. This is not an overwhelming sheepy cheese like many of the ones we love. But, we planned to enjoy it with a piece of fresh pecorino and didn't want something that would mask the flavor of the milder cheese.

    This is a "hero cheese," in our opinion, because it's made from the milk of a rare breed of sheep that's native to the Catalan region of Spain. And, it is a vegan cheese since the cheesemakers use thistle rennet found in the same pastures where the sheep graze. When you buy this cheese, you are helping to preserve the sheep whose milk production is too low for mass producers.

    We are so fortunate to have cheese shops like Formaggio Kitchen and Formaggio South End where you can find a new cheese with a great story each time you visit. And, if you follow them online, they will tell you those stories one wedge at a time. You'll find links to their facebook and twitter pages on their website links above.

    Here's an example from their Facebook page.

    Formaggio facebook on it 

    And, here are other items from our Cheese Tray!

    What's on your Cheese Shopping List? Here are some great books about cheese. These make wonderful gifts for a cheese lover. And, when you shop Amazon from here, they put some coins in our tip jar.

    Details:

    Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
    Photography: © 2013 PennyCherubino , Shreenshot courtesy of Formaggio South End 

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

  • Vella Dry Jack Cheese: an American Treasure

    We are students of cheese and admit to having a mental list of cheese we want to try. Vella Dry Jack has been on that list since we saw it on Steve Jenkins list, "American Treasures: the best American Cheeses" in his book Cheese Primer

    IMG_4916 - Version 22012-04-04-vella-fry-jack-cheese-cocoa-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    It is not widely available in this area. So when Penny saw it at Whole Foods on Cambridge Street, she grabbed a wedge. 

    This cheese has a wonderful history and others have told the story well, so we'll just link to those reports.

    First, there is the family's own history on the Vella Cheese website. And, Janet Fletcher wrote about it in the San Francisco Chronicle: Vella Dry Jack's dark brown coat makes an instant impression.

    IMG_4923 - Version 22012-04-04-vella-fry-jack-cheese-cocoa-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    The process that created that brown rind you see above is one of the interesting notes mentioned by most people writing about Vella Dry Jack. To protect and preserve the wheels, cheesemakers rub them with a mixture of oil, pepper, and unsweetened cocoa during the aging process.  

    This is a hard cheese with nutty, sweet, caramel tones. You can pick up a scent of chocolate, but not the flavor.

    Dry Jack was originally sold during World War I as a substitute for Parmigiano-Reggiano. With the recent destruction of so much of the supply of Parmigiano by the earthquakes in Italy, we could find ourselves looking to California cheesemakers to create more of this rarer, dry version of Jack Cheese. 

    Related Posts: 

    One of our all time favorite cheeses was created by a cheesemaker from the Vella Family.

    Rogue River Blue 

    Rogue River Blue, Amercian Cheese Society Winner

    And, here are other items from our Cheese Tray!

    What's on your Cheese shopping list? Here are some great books about cheese. These make wonderful gifts for a cheese lover. And, when you shop Amazon from here, they put some coins in our tip jar.

    Details:

    Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
    Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino  

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

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  • Vella Dry Jack Cheese: an American Treasure

    We are students of cheese and admit to having a mental list of cheese we want to try. Vella Dry Jack has been on that list since we saw it on Steve Jenkins list, "American Treasures: the best American Cheeses" in his book Cheese Primer

    IMG_4916 - Version 22012-04-04-vella-fry-jack-cheese-cocoa-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    It is not widely available in this area. So when Penny saw it at Whole Foods on Cambridge Street, she grabbed a wedge. 

    This cheese has a wonderful history and others have told the story well, so we'll just link to those reports.

    First, there is the family's own history on the Vella Cheese website. And, Janet Fletcher wrote about it in the San Francisco Chronicle: Vella Dry Jack's dark brown coat makes an instant impression.

    IMG_4923 - Version 22012-04-04-vella-fry-jack-cheese-cocoa-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    The process that created that brown rind you see above is one of the interesting notes mentioned by most people writing about Vella Dry Jack. To protect and preserve the wheels, cheesemakers rub them with a mixture of oil, pepper, and unsweetened cocoa during the aging process.  

    This is a hard cheese with nutty, sweet, caramel tones. You can pick up a scent of chocolate, but not the flavor.

    Dry Jack was originally sold during World War I as a substitute for Parmigiano-Reggiano. With the recent destruction of so much of the supply of Parmigiano by the earthquakes in Italy, we could find ourselves looking to California cheesemakers to create more of this rarer, dry version of Jack Cheese. 

    Related Posts: 

    One of our all time favorite cheeses was created by a cheesemaker from the Vella Family.

    Rogue River Blue 

    Rogue River Blue, Amercian Cheese Society Winner

    And, here are other items from our Cheese Tray!

    What's on your Cheese shopping list? Here are some great books about cheese. These make wonderful gifts for a cheese lover. And, when you shop Amazon from here, they put some coins in our tip jar.

    Details:

    Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
    Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino  

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

    Enhanced by Zemanta