Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Cheese: Abondance
Country: France
Type: Cow, raw

Horray, a new Pope! Congratulations to the Catholic world on the appointment of Pope Francis.

So this week I had the fine staff at Janice Beaton's pick me something random, and they handed me a 100grams of Abondance. Abondance is sort of like a strong scented havarti. Creamy, semi-firm, and buttery in texture. The rind is slightly crunchy, and a wee bit bitter. Over all for a cheese with a moderate amount of aroma to it the flavour is quite mild. A nice first step on the road to limburger.

Wednesday March 06, 2013

Cheese: Rougette
Country: Germany
Type: Cow, wash rind

Ah, another Wednesday is here and it's time for cheese!

Today I had a wash-rind soft cheese from Germany called Rougette. Like a lot of German cheeses it tastes a lot like butter, with a hint of pasture from the washed rind. Very mild in smell, which is nice if you happen to have coworkers around who aren't keen on the pungent stink that can come with some German cheeses. The texture was soft, creamy, and melted like butter on the pallet. If you're looking for something a bit different than brie this is a good place to start, it has almost none of the ammonia undertones you get with a brie.

I paired this with some elk terrine and a duck rilette with a bit of peppadews on the side.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Cheese: Parmigiano Reggiano
Country: Italy
Type: Raw Cow

Today, the king of cheese, Parmigiano Reggiano. The only cheese that I know has an entire series of television commercials and a show tune. Salty, slightly sweet, hints of grass and small crystals... delightful. Most people would use it as a garnish, or to boost a dishes profile. I just ate it in big happy bites. Right now there is a shortage of Parmigiano due to an earthquake in Italy, so production has slumped and price has gone up. This particular piece was quite a bit moister than I'm used to from Parm, not quite sure if it was a younger age or something else.

There along side it is a duck and hazelnut terrine, some olivers, and cornichon.

Not Wednesday, February 19, 2013

Cheese: Paillot de Chevre
Country: CanadaType: Goat

This week we went to Janice Beaton's early, one of our coworkers has his last day tomorrow so we are going out for a celebratory/mourning meal that will probably include all sorts of delightful meats. So today we do the last Janice Beaton Cheese run we'll do together for a while.

Paillot de Chevre is a lovely goat cheese, typically sweet and mild. I pared it with some dried pears and a beet salad, which was a lovely combo. The centre is a slightly dryer texture, so you get a nice range of smooth to crumbly as you eat the cheese. Pretty good for a Canadian goat.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Cheese: Parrano
Country: Holland
Type: Cow, hard



Parrano tastes like a cross between a cheddar and a gouda, slightly sweet with a hard mild rind. There are small holes in the cheese, giving it a slightly emmental-esque aroma. A good entry level cheese, nice for eating with crackers or a slightly sour preserve.

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Cheese: Burrata
Country: Canada
Type: Mozzarella/Bocconcini

Today we have an amazing treat, it's a fresh soft mozzarella style cheese from Canada called Burrata, made by Santa Luchia. This version was made here in Canada, but I'm sure there are local versions all over the place. Normally I consider mozzarella something like cottage cheese, boring and useful for a crispy toping on something flavourful. Burrata though was a surprise, it had the typical chewy mozzarella outside but buried in the middle of the cheese was this amazing creamy slightly salty slightly sweet creamy awesomeness.

This cheese would be awesome melted on anything, and I ate it straight paired with some tiny olives and some sausage. Great for a salad, great for pasta. A really excellent cheese.

Wednesday January 30, 2013

Cheese: Monte Enebro
Country: Spain
Type: Goat

Today's photo courtesy of Mr. Peter Smith, because my phone was dead after playing Ingress in the freezing cold all lunch break.

The "Man With The Keys Tattoo" basically pushed this cheese into my hands. Enebro is an interesting goat cheese, the rind is pretty funky, a combination of ash and blue mould. The cheese itself is fairly neutral, the typical salty-sweet you get from most goat cheeses. The rind on the other hand is pungent, strong, and earthy. This one isn't for the feint of heart, but if you are into blue cheese and goat cheese it's a unique combination of the two.

I had some caper berries with it, probably not the ideal pairing.

Wednesday January 16, 2013

Cheese: Morbier
Country: France
Type: Cow

Cheese: Migneron de Charlevoix
Country: Canada
Type: Cow

To celebrate the Government of Canada losing track of 2% of Canadian's personal data I'm having an extravaganza of treats from Janice Beaton today. Up first, Morbier, a lovely cheese from France, with a washed crystalized rind and a layer of ash in the middle. It is one of my favourites, mostly because of the rind which has a bit of crunch to it and a slight tang of grass. Also on the plate today is a close cousin to Morbier, Migneron de Charlevoix, which I've had before as well. It has a wonderful rind and the flavour reminds me of pastures and impressionist paintings (I know, an odd thing for a cheese flavour to bring to mind).

I paired both cheeses with a game hen terrine with pistachio and black truffles and a big pile of cornichons, and a handful of almonds. Both cheeses are excellent for eating, I would recommend them on any fork, but I'd avoid melting them or cooking with them - they have subtle flavours that you'd lose in any dish calling for cheese even though they'd melt nicely. They'd be great additions to a tasting plater since they are a bit adventurous with the rinds and ash layers, but flavour wise mellow.

Thursday January 10th, 2013

Cheese: Vigneron
Country: Switzerland
Type: Raw Cow

After a bit of a holiday hiatus JBW is back, though a day late this week, sort of. I had a coworker pick up some cheese for me yesterday as I was out of the office, and am enjoying it today. He snagged a chunk of Vigneron, sort of a Swiss version of cheddar. It's fairly mild, the rind is no where near as gnarly as the picture makes it look, it's wrapped in a thin black foil/paper. There was a slight grassy hint to the cheese which I think would go nicely with some apricot or plum preserves, and possibly one of the more bitter nuts (walnut maybe). Over all a pretty decent cheese.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Cheese: Cornish Yarg
Country: England
Type: Raw Cow

At Christmas time the fine folks at Janice Beaton's get in a bevy of seasonal cheeses, this year one of their tasty treats is a Cornish Yarg. Yarg is more or less a slightly sweet cheddar wrapped in nettles. The rind is surprisingly mild, I had expected something sharp but the nettles are well cured and aged and just added a grassy undertone to the cheese. I ate some with a salad, and also melted some over chili. It held up nicely to a moderate bit of melting, and was just slightly stringy with a nice texture when warmed. I would say it is good for both eating and melting over foods, but it won't hold up to punchy flavour companions. For fun I had a bit with Rooster Sauce, and the cheese lost the flavour battle.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Cheese: Double Gloucester
Country: England
Type: Cow - Raw

Cheese: Linconshire Poacher
Country: England
Type: Cow - Raw

Double cheese day! There are all these seasonal cheeses showing up at Janice Beaton's right now, so a co-worker and I shared. Up first is the Double Gloucester - a straight forward cheddar with a cloth wrap for curing. It's middle of the road in terms of sharpness, slightly dry, and sort of what one would expect from a cheddar. The Linconshire Poacher has a more robust flavour, slightly caramel in undertone, certainly more exciting an eat than the Gloucester. Both are excellent eating cheeses and I wager would go good with wine. I ate mine with some Elk terrine and olives.

Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Cheese: Bleu d'Auvergne
Country: France
Type: Cow

Today is a lovely mild blue from France, Bleu d'Auvergne. I wanted something that wasn't super strong and melted nicely, and this was the cheese recommended by the fine people at Janice Beaton's. I melted it over a giant pile of cabbage and roast beef. Delightful. The tangy blue goes so very well with beef.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Cheese: Raclette de Savoie
Country: France
Type: Semi-soft Cow

On the weekend I was able to identify a cheese in a restaurant from across the room, Morbier with an ash layer, and was hoping to score some today. Sadly, there was none about, so I grabbed a piece of Raclette de Savoie. Slightly pungent, soft and gooey when melted, and mild. A great cheese to eat with meat, in my case a big dollop of Bacon "Jam" (sort of a bacon based tapenade). Normally this cheese is melted, since it's an excellent melting cheese, but I also enjoy it as is.

The bacon jam was also awesome, as anything with bacon should be.

Wednesday, November 21, 2011

Cheese: Lappi
Country: Finnland
Type: Cow, partially skimmed milk.

Lappi, the Finnish cheese that's hard to pin down. Sort of like swiss, sort of like cheddar, sort of like emmental. I find it very mild, like a toned down swiss but there is a bit more creaminess to it. There is almost a buttery aftertaste similar to a havarti or german butter cheese. To be honest I'm not really sure whether this is best for making sauces or melting or just eating. Since it's such a neutral flavoured cheese I'd recommend eating it with some fruit compote or a nice tart jam.

To be honest it is so mild that I doubt I'd rush out and buy it again, but that could have been because I was pairing it with strong agressive flavours in the rest of my lunch. The cheese was really overpowered by the chorizo in heavy cream sauce that I was eating, so my palette may not have been doing justice to any subtle flavours in the cheese.

On the up side it has minimal stink factor, so is office friendly (unlike some of the other cheeses I bust out at lunch time).

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Cheese: Salt Spring Island Goat Cheese w/Basil
Country: Canada
Type: Soft goat cheese

Peter (a co-worker of mine) and I like to call the Salt Spring Island goat cheese cups 'low carb pudding'. The cheese is a pretty standard soft goats cheese, slightly sour, slightly sweet, quite creamy. Today I'm having the Salt Spring Island cheese with olive oil and basil, it's pretty tasty, but I find the basil is hardly showing up on my palette.

There in the background of the picture are the exciting things for today... terrines! They are making in-house terrines at Janice Beaton's now, which is awesome. I had, from the top going clockwise; Duck with pistachio and cherry; Lamb Merguez, and Pate de Campagne.  As much as I love pistachios and duck, I have to say my favourite of the three is the lamb. Quite lovely, a little spice to it. One comment I have about the terrines at Janice Beaton's is they are a bit dry, I think they need more fat in them... but I bet for the typical scared-of-fat customer it's just perfect.

Wednesday November 7, 2012

Cheese #1: Truffo
Country: France
Type: Soft rind cow

Cheese #2: Pont Leveque
Country: France
Type: Soft rind cow, washed rind

Double cheese, so intense!

We have a guest from France (our marketing manager at work, Benoit) so in honour of our visitor I'm having two cheeses from France. First, Truffo, a delightful soft rind cheese that is exceptionally creamy and sweet. It's like a really soft cream cheese and doesn't have that ammonia flavour I associate with a brie. Best of all it has a line of black truffles nestled right in the middle adding their earthy awesomeness to the flavour. For fun I melted some over the cabbage I had in the rest of my lunch, and it melted nicely and tasted fantastic. I highly recommend this one, it's delightful.

Up next is Pont Leveque, another soft rind cow cheese. This one seems to be slightly fermented (washed rind), and it has a punchy stink to it. Flavour wise it's surprisingly strong, almost yeasty and sour. I like it, but I'd only eat it in smaller amounts and with something to break the flavour up. In my case some trail mix (almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and raisins). Paired with the fruit and nuts it was nice, but I'd say not for the feint of heart.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Cheese: Etorki
Country: France
Type: Sheep Semi-Hard

I had appointments at lunch yesterday so I had to do my weekly pilgrimage today.

Etorki is a mild semi soft creamy cheese, I find it has a nice neutral palette half way between a gouda and a mozzarella in flavour, and melts in your mouth like a nice brie. What makes this cheese fun is the rind, which has a slight stickiness to it and a bit of a pungent punch. A little leathery in flavour, but not so overpowering that it drowns out the mild taste of the cheese itself. Etorki is an awesome eating cheese, and I wager it would melt nicely and hold up to a wee bit of baking.

Wednesday October 24, 2012

Cheese: Avonlea Cheddar
Type: Cow, Raw
Country: Canada

With a mild fruity aroma and a nice sharpness this is a lovely eating cheese. It isn't a super old cheddar, but it has been aged just long enough to get those delicious crunchy crystals in the body of the cheese. Today I paired it with some sweet pickled chipolini onions and a big hunk of pate. If you want a cheese that isn't to funky and low risk (and raw milk, a rarity in Canada) this is a good bet.

Wednesday October 17, 2012

Cheese: Dragons' Breath
Country: Canada
Type: Live Unviened Blue

So I'm back from vacation and it's time for CHEESE!

This week they have a new cheese that I have never seen before, or heard of, it's a blue cheese that has not been ripened or veined, but is still active (live). Basically they coat the cheese in the bacterial culture that causes the moulding, and you open it up and the air activates it. Over a week or so it gets progressively more 'blue' as it ripens before your eyes! Unfortunately for the bacteria I'm not that patient, so I ate the whole thing in one sitting. It's a delicious cheese, creamy and slightly hard, a bit salty and fairly mild. Because the cheese hasn't gone blue yet it doesn't have those sharp overtones that a blue usually has, but you do get this interesting sour/tart hint in there from the bit of brine that the cheese has been waxed with. A fun cheese for kids and party tricks, and those who pace themselves while eating.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Cheese: Gorgonzola
Country: Italy
Type: Cow, soft blue

I had a hankering for some Gorgonzola today, I haven't had it in a couple years. It's mild, sweet, and creamy. I think it goes smashingly with nuts (cashews in my case today) and in the past I've found it to be an excellent cooking blue cheese.