Saturday is my favorite day to sell cheese. No orders to place, no signs to print, no reports to fill out, and the A-Team cheese mongers are working next to me...the ones who want to know more...why Piper's Pyramid has paprika on the rind, what makes Parmigiano Reggiano so special, and exactly where in France that weird smoked sheep's milk cheese comes from. Saturday is the time to sell the sexy cheese...I decided to feature a a delicious selection Kinsman Ridge. This is an East Coast cheese from Landaff Creamery in New Hampshire and aged at the Cellars at Jasper Hill. Cellars at JH is proving to be on the level of Europe's best affineurs including Herve Mons in France and Guffanti in Italy. They're awesome...except they are a really tough sell here in suburban Chicagoland where folks care more about Louis V. and Michael K. than what's behind food. So I buy sparingly and hand sell to those lucky enough to try it, and my cheese mongering philosophy comes out in full swing "when it's gone, it's gone," and next week there will be something new to try.
This cheese makes me want to get up in the morning...
This cheese makes me want to get up in the morning...
The brown mottled and fuzzy natural forming rind is foreign to my brie and gouda loving clientel. It's oh-so-thin and edible, and it smells faintly like damp earth. Its slightly grassy, lots of mushroom notes and one of the few cheeses that I can instantly say has the elusive "umami" flavor profile. It stays with me...I keep thinking about this cheese after I'm done eating it, like a good movie sticks with me the day after I've watched it.
Kinsman Ridge is clearly inspired by the French tommes. When I eat this cheese, I feel like I'm tasting French cheese the way that it's supposed to taste. I love my Frenchies...and part of me always feels like it doesn't taste the way it could because when I eat it at home, it's already had to cross thousands of miles to get to me in the landlocked Midwest.
I gave a sample to my bashful, young FNG cheese monger (who has much potential) and I said to him "Please...sell this by saying "this is a sexy cheese!" He blushed, but my enthusiasm for cultured milk products eventually wins everyone over, and he liked the cheese as much as I did by the end of the day. Need I say...we sold out. When it's gone, it's gone....we'll have something else delicious next week!
Stay cheesy out there!
Kinsman Ridge is clearly inspired by the French tommes. When I eat this cheese, I feel like I'm tasting French cheese the way that it's supposed to taste. I love my Frenchies...and part of me always feels like it doesn't taste the way it could because when I eat it at home, it's already had to cross thousands of miles to get to me in the landlocked Midwest.
I gave a sample to my bashful, young FNG cheese monger (who has much potential) and I said to him "Please...sell this by saying "this is a sexy cheese!" He blushed, but my enthusiasm for cultured milk products eventually wins everyone over, and he liked the cheese as much as I did by the end of the day. Need I say...we sold out. When it's gone, it's gone....we'll have something else delicious next week!
Stay cheesy out there!