
Taylor Farm Smoked Gouda, Chase Hill Farm Queso Viejo, Organic Cherries, Sesame Ak-Mak, Oat Cakes.
Tonight I made a platter for an event at the Sam Adams brewery in JP. They have a neat promotion where some talented home beer brewer submits an original beer, and if they deem it best, it is the special on tap brew at Gillette Stadium, for the entire season of Pats games. Wow! They wanted me to pair cheese with the beer for an event celebrating this years winner.
.The Beer.
I am no beer expert, which is sad, because I have consumed plenty. I received in the mail two twelve ounce bottles of the 2010 winner. Everyone was saying I was getting a “smoked” beer, which sounded like an oversimplification of something, so I just waited. The label said Rauchbier. Didn’t know it. Pounded the virtual pavement of the internet and seconds later came upon “malted barley dried over wood fire”. Makes sense. Malted barley means it is sprouted and then dried by heat. But it doesn’t specify where the heat comes from, wood fire, forced hot air, or something wilder. (Volcano? Car exhaust? Friction?) Wood fire is a must for Reichbier. (Kinda like Gruyere alpage, anyone?)
Cooled it down and tasted it; the bier’s got some smoke, a honeyed sweetness, gradually giving way to a pleasant and mellow “a little sweeter than bittersweet” flavor. A smattering of mellow soft round bubbles greets you when you swish the brew around in your mouth. Cool. I didn’t get huge smoke notes myself. Mighta been too cold.
Went through a few cheeses, picked ‘em Taylor Farms Smoked Gouda and Chase Hill Farm Queso Viejo. Here the scoop on those…
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Name:Taylor Farms Smoked Gouda
Milk:Raw Cow (Their own Holstein and Jersey)
Origin:Londonderry VT
Cost at Store:$22.99
I remember Leslie, an old cheesefriend of mine handing me my first taste of this cheese ever. She said she couldn’t decide if it was good or gross. I think I felt judgemental right away because I was going through a phase where I thought smoked foods were stupid. She had a point. It’s is overtly smoky, and it is kinda sticky, and rubbery and gooey. It doesn’t seem honorable. Like, cartoon smoky. So Leslie and I, we weren’t sure, and some folks really ragged on that little wheel, but in the end, it would sell alright, and she’d order another wheel, which’d sell, and we’d always nibble on it and say stuff like “They should use this at Friendly’s!” And it was clear that we were enjoying it and even better; we were enjoying how much we were enjoying it. So, in a way, (and I know this can be interpreted as damning praise) this is the definition of a “fun” cheese.
Now don’t get me wrong; this is a serious wheel. Taylor farm is a wonderful story, and I strongly urge you to at least visit their website, but Dick Wright, who I believe is their cheesemaker, has really taken a good thing with their Gouda wheels and made it even better, by expanding their line to include the smoked, the spiced, (cumin and caraway) and the hot (habanero). (I hear there is a garlic though I have yet to try it). It is also a neat example of breaking the mentality that cheese with “stuff” in it (mustard seeds, caraway seeds, herbs or spices, brandy soaked raisins), is stupid or is masking the flavor of bad milk. It is its own distinct expression of cheese making, and as such should be treated with respect and enjoyed con brio. We generally carry their full line at City Feed, and it generally sells well, and we get lots of wow moments for the smoked. Cool!
I thought the pairing worked because of the different flavors of the smoke. It is pretty fun to eat a big hunk of the smoked Gouda, get my mouth all fiery and smoky, and lap down a healthy glug of the reddish amber brew. You got a good weird beer smoke note up your nose, that gives way to a powerful honey punch with the mellow and delicate bubbles exfoliating the caseus from your primary orifice. (So to speak)…
The other cheese.
Name: Queso Viejo
Milk: Raw Cow (Normande)
Origin: Warwick MA.
Cost at Store: $24.95/lb.
This wheel is actually sorta an exclusive for us at City Feed, insofar as they do not deliver or distribute, so you gotta go pick it up. Fun. A friend suggested I carry one of their wheels as he was planning on featuring it in a magazine article, and wanted to have the opportunity to shout out City Feed, and it was a good taster and hard to find cheese to boot. I am pretty sure I gave David a specific list of what I was looking for from their selection, but it is possible he made the call to bring in this wheel. Suffice to say I had never tried it. It was first described to me as a Manchegoey, which, once you say cow’s milk, is totally never gonna be even close to true. (Right?) (Which, I get it, everyone wants Manchego, because they for some reason can remember the name / sheep’s milk really razzed their palette, but seriously, if we are going to get anything close, your going to need an olive ranch combination sheep farm in Cali on the coast, otherwise, your really not going to get an American Manchego anytime soon.)
Here’s what the Queso Viejo is. Raunchy and raucous, this cheese arrived with a sticky black and white rind and a really weird flat spot. Sorta like it fell at some point in its life. I thought “how charming, they sent us their ugly baby”. It smells yoghurty and sour, tastes sour, has a bitter and strangely addictive rind, balanced salt, and firm fudgy paste that has a few little slits and holes and is actually still pretty creamy and curdy in the center. I don’t believe it to be a cooked curd, more that I think in the aging it got a little gassy, hence the slits and eyes. Not necessarily my top pick out of the case for “most perfect cheese”, I liked it with the Sam Adams choice because the aged sour and cave flavors I thought were bold enough to hold up to the smoke and fermenty flavors of the beer. It has a firmer texture than the gouda, and I think folks are going to say “wow” when they try the cheeses, and again when they try them with the beer.
It is really late in the night, and I should really be getting to bed, but I thought I would say one more thing. The crackers are for in between the bites of cheese. It really is most fun that way. Also, I was at this fancy NYC dinner with press and socialites not too long ago, and this food writer for “Yankee” or “New York” or something like that was (totally decked, dressed, accessorized and made up eyes),was eating her baby green salad, piece by piece with her fingers, practically flinging the tender greens into her mouth, laughing and saying how much she “LOVED” lettuce. It was totally awesome! Eat with your hands! In front of stuffy people. Make it seem like that is how they should act. Did you know Catherine de Medici brought Spinach and the fork to France, when she married King Henry II in 1547? That is why eggs Florentine means spinach, because the rich and poweful de Medici family was from the Italian city of Florence! So, I mean, she was really trendy when she came to France, and France was really trendy about food then, and she brought the fork, which helped distinguish the table manners of the privileged (ie the folks who could afford a fork), from the commoners (those pathetic, forkless, masses), which in turn undoubtedly exacerbated and exaggerated the cultural difference between the rich folks and the poor folks, aggravating and inciting mutual bitterness, presumably. So, I mean, that is really the only reason you are so hooked on your fork. One person trying to look cool. Did you know they used to inject paraffin wax in to womens faces to make them more beautiful? See, people make mistakes. OK, getting weird. Peace, Love, MonsterMongerMorgan.
Great article in the Rutland Herald about Taylor Farm
Great article in the ProJo about the Reichbeir and the guy who won this year.
PS dear readers, I am closing in on my review of the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival, which will include my humble list of “Best in Show” Word. Stay Tuned.