It tastes like dirty socks....in a good way: The Cheese Thread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > It tastes like dirty socks....in a good way: The Cheese Thread

mindphlux: Jan 8, 2004; by R. Guyovich

so, my favorite cheese might be epoisses. anyone have any suggestions for new things I might try or look out for based on that? I think I've exhausted my local importer's selection, but might as well ask.

conversely, if any of you are far away from the southeast and happen to see Sweet Grass Dairy's Green Hill cheese - it's loving amazing. grab a bottle of the most expensive champaigne you can afford, get a wheel of that poo poo, eat it, drink, and have copious amounts of sex with whoever happens to be nearby and somewhat amicable.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2013 11:31

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 07:33

mindphlux: Jan 8, 2004; by R. Guyovich

Pookah posted:

Epoisses is rowdy; it's like camenbert if it went to the bad and started smoking hard drugs and didn't give any kind of shits about what the pastor thought about it. Personally I went the blue cheese route at that stage and dove into cambozola and oh my god, roquefort.

honestly, I don't think I'm that extreme cheese wise. I love blue cheese, but I regularly get blues that I think are way too ammonia'y and won't eat. I prefer dense salty milky sweet blues - my favorite right now is hook's tilston point. (loving AMAZING)

maybe I've just gotten under ripe epoisses? I don't think I'd say they're that crazy on the funk level or anything - definitely more funky than camembert, but on a slightly different axis? though all I've had have been practically falling apart, so maybe I'm just pretending I'm not that in to extreme cheeses. god. I love epoisses.

mindphlux fucked around with this message at 09:00 on Mar 27, 2013

# ¿ Mar 27, 2013 08:57

mindphlux: Jan 8, 2004; by R. Guyovich

Kenning posted:

It's important to keep in mind that gjetost tastes sweet and caramel-y for a cheese. If you just want caramel, you should eat caramel. If you want something that is definitely cheese, but would be great shaved over some waffles, then you want gjetost.

yeah, I agree with this.

I thought mimolette tasted pretty caramel-y the first time I had it, but it was totally a savory bitter caramel - not like a syrupy sweet caramel.

man also, I just found this page

http://www.cheesesoffrance.com/more_on_cheese.html?expandable=0&show=cheese&sel=Abondance&#Abondance

hell yeah. relieved that I can identify/describe about 50% of them off the top of my head. I've come a long way since the dark days of no-cheese-knowledge.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2013 09:54

mindphlux: Jan 8, 2004; by R. Guyovich

I just bought a sweet grass dairy - green hill round for an upcoming celebration for my gal next weekend. it's a loving ultra rich brie/camembert/epoisses style that's pretty mild and semisoft when it's just getting ripe, but gets nice, melty and tangy once it's overripe. anyways, the store I got it from sold a round for like $7, which was amazing - usually it's $11-14. the dairy-stamped 'ripe now' date is today, so a week from now it should be pretty meltingly rowdy outrageous. mmmmmmmmmmm. cheese.

if any of you ever see it in a store, buy it. it's one of my favorite american cheeses by far. also perfect with dry sparking wines.

# ¿ May 5, 2013 09:16

mindphlux: Jan 8, 2004; by R. Guyovich

yes posted:

on my way up to the vermont cheesemaker's festival last weekend i was lucky enough to be invited to tour the cellars at jasper hill, this insane $3.2 million cheese aging facility in greensboro, vt. they make and age some incredible cheeses there using their own milk and milk that is sourced from other farms in the northeast kingdom that are too small to effectively distribute their own dairy. we had to wear lab coats and sterilized boots and hairnets. every time you go into or out of a cave you have to wash your boots off in sterile foot baths. cool. ok here are some pictures

this is the entrance to the cellars. it's underground. neat.

the first cave we went into was the bloomy rind cave. this is the harbison rack, which is a soft ripened cheese bound in strips of spruce bark which gives it a very earthy, woodsy, minerally flavor. we take this cheese back to our own caves in new york and wash it with a beer brine for eleven madison park to turn it into greensward. this rack has on it some very young harbisons which are less than a day old.

here they are after 11 days. ready to get wrapped up. even though they are a few weeks away from being able to eat, it's important to not let the mold run too wild or the rind will get ruined.

the washed rind cave. we weren't even allowed to go in this one because of the risk of contamination. fine. whatever.

this is the clothbound cheddar cave. by far the largest of the 6. jasper hill gets 35 pound wheels of cheddar from cabot and wraps them in muslin, then paints them with lard, then puts a second layer of muslin on. this protects the cheddar from cheese mites during its 14 month aging process, and also provides a great place for microflora to inhabit, as well as allowing the cheese to lose moisture, intensifying the flavor as it gets older.

the affineur who showed us around described the cloth layer as a "metropolis of microflora"

the bayley hazen blue cave. one of my all time favorite blues. they use loose stones as part of the floor to help regulate moisture levels in the cave.

young

almost ready. this is a few days after piercing. when blue cheese is made, the blue mold spores are mixed in with the curd. after it is pressed, it's pierced by needles to allow oxygen into the paste. this activates the mold and allows blue veins to form.

moldy

cool. that place is really amazing. it's gigantic and it feels like being in a space ship filled with cheese.

awesomeeee

# ¿ Jul 28, 2013 08:47

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > It tastes like dirty socks....in a good way: The Cheese Thread