Cheese 101: A Tour of a Plate

The first cheeses probably happened by accident when some gamely shepherd put milk in a sheep stomach; the canteen of the day.  The milk, legend goes, mixed with rennet, a natural digestive enzyme before….Eureka! The shepherd likely squealed as he realized that this process helped the shelf life of his milk and made him popular amongst his friends.  Since then, humans have created endless varieties and kinds of cheeses.

While in Seattle, Taking Root staff joined Sheri Lavigne of The Calf and Kid, a treasure trove of a cheese shop that opened just six months ago.  Inspired by the Bedford Cheese Shop in Brooklyn, The Calf and Kid offers both European and domestic cheeses, tons of sampling, and an impressive staff including Laurel Miller who also helped with our cheese tasting.  Miller, too is a formidable force of artisanal knowledge and has honed her skills teaching about sustainable agriculture and acting as a contributing editor at Culture Magazine.   This course was the first of many cheese class offerings by the shop.

Salivating, nineteen eager participants ranging in age from about 14-70 are facing a clock-set cheese plate of 14 different cheeses (14 different cheeses!) that represent 7 of the basic categories of cheese: fresh,soft-ripened, washed rind, semi-firm, hard cheese and blue.  The plate offers a smattering of examples of each culled from endless possibilities.  We start with white quarter-sized dollops of fresh cheese including Chevre and Ricotta. Boldly, we move on to four unique styles of soft-ripened morsels from France, England, Washington, and California.  We’re on a taste bud tour of milky cow, goat, and sheep deliciousness.  And my mind is racing right along with my taste buds, as I try to wrap my head around the fact that cow milk and sheep milk produce dramatically different yields of cheese per pound.  In fact, due to different fat content,

10 pounds of cow milk yields 1 lb of cheese

6.5 pounds of goat milk yieds 1 lb of cheese

5 pounds of sheep milk yields 1 lb of cheese

As we move on to washed rinds, It is France versus Vermont.  But delightfully, both of the washed rinds are delicious winners.  The semi-firm cheeses bring us just passed mid-way as we sample raw sheep milk cheeses from France and California before moving onto two distinct cheddars and end with an atomic finish with two blue cheeses that I cannot seem to forget even two days later.

Interesting about this tasting is that was organized so that we could sample a smattering of European cheeses on a complicated but tasty first date with an American pairing.  This paved the way for an interesting tour of terroir and technique.  It also showed us just how far American cheese profile has come in our past fifty years of taking cheese-making seriously.  But, the really good stuff just started cropping up in this country in the past 25-30 years.  One need only google American cheese to understand what I mean.  Today there are at least 400 cheesemakers in the U.S. and this number is growing every year.

Starting in April, Taking Root will sample cheeses from the Northeast as we join cheese monger Anne Saxelby for four amazing Farm Tours that will have us talking with artisans, learning from cheese makers, and sampling an astonishing array of more than 50 of our favorite farmstead cheeses in New York and Vermont.