Baby Swiss  $4.85 lb. at Wheatsville, $.53 for a small slice.  This cheese seems softer and more pliable than some big swisses.  It is sweet, slightly nutty, very mild, almost like a Havarti sometimes, but not so soft.  It has tiny holes.  I can’t tell if they are curd holes or fermentation holes.  People will like this, but it’s kind of plain.  A lot of people like plain cheeses.   

Baita Fruili  $10.99 lb. at Central Market.  It is a big, mountain-looking wheel.  It has a brown rind and a light cream-colored interior.  It has a good mouthfeel.  A little cheddary-tasting.  Very mild.  Good texture and a good crowd-pleaser.  Baita Friuli comes from the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in northeastern Italy on the Slovenian border. Baita is a tasty, firm-textured cow's milk cheese, aged for about 5 months. Rich, fruity, and spicy, Baita's flavor is reminiscent of Swiss Gruyere and is wonderful served with pears or chunked in salads. "Baita" means "hut" in Friulano. It is a type of house, presumably where Baita Friuli cheese is made.

Banon Géant  $10.99 lb. at Central Market, $3.85 for a nice chunk.  From France. It is white, soft/semi-soft, creamy-looking, and wrapped in leaves, probably chestnut leaves, according to the books.  I read that it used to only be a goat cheese, but is now a mild, delicate cow cheese.  In one book, it says to buy the cheese when the leaves are brown and then the interior will be nutty, maybe even have a little bit of mold.  This batch looks fairly new.  The leaves are the color of grape leaves, but they aren’t totally brown yet.  They are green-brown, and there is no mold in the cheese yet.  I tasted this cheese again, an older version with mold in the paste.  It almost tasted like a blue cheese and was a lot stronger in general.  It tasted like a goat cheese.  I almost wondered if it was past it’s prime, but I think some prefer it this way.

Beaufort Wheel Alpage $15.99 lb. at Central Market, $4.96 for a very small chunk.  $19.99 at Grapevine, $5.80 for a big hunk. Cow's milk from France. Aged 14 months.  It is straw-colored with a gray rind that looked like bark.  All the pieces were cut in little cubes.  They had this cheese out for display on a Sat.  It was more expensive for the size of the chunk than I had hoped to pay at a party, but it was so good that I bought it.  It is semi-hard, but looks like it would be almost like a parmesan.  In fact, it reminds me of a young parmesan.  It makes my ears itch a little bit and has some stinkiness like Fontina.  It also has crunchy little flavor crystals inside.  It is somewhere in between Fontina and sharp cheddar.  It has a little bit of herby, grassy flavor in it.  I liked this cheese a lot. I tasted it later from Grapevine. It was burning, nutty, mountain cheese. It has a smooth, buttery (almost peanutbutter) taste and texture, but spicy. Very good. A wild tasting cheese. 

Beemster Graskaas See Graskaas

Belle Chèvre Pimento Cheese Spreadable Goat  Bon A-a-a-a-appétit! 8 oz. in a flattened plastic tub. These cheesemakers are from Elkmont, AL. I have been eating their cheese since it first landed on the shelves in Birmingham, where I grew up. Belle Chèvre's most standard goat cheese comes in firmly packed logs. The cheese is a tad more dense than some other fresh goats I have had, but it is very good. Now the company has a new, more modern and artistic label, and has added a variety of packages and flavors to its line. One is pimento Cheese. This cheese contains both pimentos and spices. I hate pimento/cheese spreads because they contain mayonnaise, so I tried this no-mayo goat spread instead. It was indeed spreadable at room temperature. Though it didn't have the texture or color of the pimento and cheese, I liked it. I would liked to have mixed even more pimentos in it, though, to get more of the mellow pepper flavor. 8 oz. tub. http://www.bellechevre.com Visit this site for recipes and also updates on the latest awards this cheese has won. 

Bethmale (pronounced bett-MAHL) $13.99 lb. at Citarella in NYC, $5.95 for a good slab. Irv was my cheesemonger. This cow's milk cheese comes from the Pyrenees Mountains in France, where it borders on Spain. It is cream-colored with lots of sideways curd holes like slits. I think this is what is called an "open texture." It's semi-soft, but the rind is completely craggy on the back. It almost looks like it's been ravaged by mites. It has that Mimolette look. The top and bottom parts of the rind are different. One has crisscrosses and the other, imprints of lines, circles and diagonal lines. The rind is khaki with a tinge of pink. I was interested in this cheese because it was a cow from the Pyrenees, where I usually see sheep's milk cheeses from. It also was described in the signage as having flavors of buttermilk. It does remind me of buttermilk. The paste is sticky, but very sliceable. it is a mild cheese with a nutty aroma and some sourness and herbaceous flavors. Then, on the finish, out comes a tingle on the tongue that turns into a mild, spicy burn. The label says that it is raw cow's milk curdled with bacterial culture. I wonder if it is vegetarian. Its sourness reminds me of the thistle cheeses like la Serena, but not as strong. It's this sour, buttermilk flavor that is most appealing. I am not as wild about the gummy texture. I don't know how old this is, but it should be at least two months old since it's raw.  Photo of Bethmale

Bierkaese  $3 for a nice chunk, $6.99 lb. At Central Market.  This cheese is nasty.  It is cows milk, and a step below Limburger.  I’m assuming that it’s also a washed rind cheese (soft-ripened with washed rind.)  It smells kind of stinky like Raclette, but when you taste it, it is bitter and makes your mouth pucker up.  It is really difficult to eat.  Then again, I tasted it without bread or anything.  The guy at the counter, Jordi, said that everybody that works there is scared of it and I can see why.  It was some of the worst cheese I had ever tasted, but I bought it anyway because I want to experiment with melting or dipping it in beer.
We tried the Bierkaese three different ways with a dark German beer.  First of all, we heated it in a little cup and poured beer on it.  The cheese clustered up in clumps, beer warmed up, and the grease came to the top.  It was pretty gross, though it didn’t taste that bad.  The cheese actually does seem to go well with beer.
Then we tried dipping a little sliver of cheese into the beer and it was interesting, but never anything I would think of doing.
Finally we toasted the cheese on some dark rye bread and dipped that in the beer.  That was the best of all the options, though still weird with the bread partially soggy.  Nevertheless, the flavors do compliment each other.

Bitto  $21.99 lb. at Central Market, $4.84 for a tiny square. DOC cheese. Bitto is the color of Dijon mustard -- dark yellow. It has a small crack in the rind that has created a big moldy fissure on the inside of the cheese. It looks very British. The aroma is unbelievably fruity. It really smells just like some overly ripe apples. It tastes bacony, meaty, and smoky, but not in a "smoked cheese" kind of way. This is a very dirty tasting cheese. On the finish, I can taste the goat. Bitto comes from the Valtellina area of northern Lombardy and dates back to a time when Lombardy was inhabited by Celts. The name Bitto is derived from a Celtic word "bitu," which means perennial. This cheese is made year-round. It can contain no more than 10% goat milk. It is a semi-hard, semi-cooked cheese that comes in a drum shape. The rind is the usual barky-looking mountain style and the paste ranges from light and almost white to dark yellow, depending on how long the cheese ages. This cheese is dense, like one of those cheeses you would take on a hiking trip. I just looked at the fat content and it's 13 grams per ounce! (About the same as Parmigiano-Reggiano.)

Blanca Bianca $17.99 lb. at Whole Foods, $3.42 for a small wedge. Unpasteurized cow's milk cheese from the Dallas Mozzarella Company. It is aged over 60 days and looks like a very young Taleggio. It has a slightly sticky beige rind that is orange in places, and it stinks, which tells me that it is a washed rind cheese. It has been bathed regularly in white wine, which gives it its stink. The paste is softer than semi-soft, but not nearly as soft as a Brie. You can slice this cheese. It was made in smaller molds so that it would age more quickly. It has that robust washed rind taste, a lot of tanginess, creamy mouthfeel, salty, earthy tones, and nut flavors. When I close my eyes, I taste something like hazelnuts. This cheese is supposed to be good with wines, hams, olives, and chutneys, I guess because of its tangy flavors. It is mild for a washed rind, but not that mild when it comes down to it. The sign at the store said that this cheese would be good with red wines and it is.

Bleu d’Auvergne $8.99 lb. At Whole foods, $1.98 for decent chunk. From France, cow’s milk with penicillium roqueforti  Salty, very creamy, good, a little sharp here and there, but I could eat this for breakfast.  Patrick says it has a touch of the foot cheese in it, but I didn’t taste it.  This cheese is great – crunchy little flecks of mold, big veins of powdery blue.  It came wrapped in foil on the crust.  This is a great blue.  It is off-white.  

Bleu d'Auvergne $12.99 lb. at Garden of Eden in Hoboken, $3.80 for a small wedge. I had this again years after Whole Foods in Texas. This cheese comes from central France in the Auvergne region of France. It is supposedly the mid-nineteenth century by-product of an accident with some Cantalet and moldy rye bread. It is extremely creamy with ivory-colored paste and medium-sized pockets of blue-grey-greenish mold. The rind is tinted with some orange and mottled. This cheese came already wrapped in plastic and it seemed a little too slimy near the rind, but it is good. When I cut towards the rind, though, I get hit with more ammonia than I'd like, but it's ok. The middle part is excellent. The blue is not too strong, but it comes out in the finish. It has an earthy, nutty flavor that is mellow and long, and then at the end is sort of a lingering funky blue taste with some very light tingly bitterness and sourness, but it's really very mild. This cheese was described on the shelf talker as "strong" though I beg to differ. The strength only really came out when I ate some during my physical therapy session while hooked up to a tens unit. I wrote, years ago, that I could eat this cheese for breakfast, and I am eating it for breakfast today! The store also said that it was good in a salad dressing, and that it was spicy. Sonia was the cheesemonger at Garden of Eden. She also does massage therapy of some sort. Photo of Bleu d'Auvergne 

Bleu de Basque  Grapevine Market. This is an excellent blue cheese from the Basque country. It is a dense, creamy blue that has a savory, woody flavor, almost like BBQ.

Bleu de Cassis  Smooth, mild, salty. Beautiful cheese with blue mold.

Bleu de Gex (jecks) $8.99 lb. at Whole Foods, $2.52 for a nice chunk. From France. It seemed very cheap.  It was the last chunk of it.  A cheese novice was up at the counter, saw us trying it and liking it, and went crazy wanting some, even though there were tons of other blue cheeses for him to get.  I thought he was going to get violent, he wanted our cheese so bad.  He didn’t seem to know what he was talking about and didn’t care what he was buying, so I didn’t offer to split the chunk with him.  I think he was disappointed.  We tried to direct him to Maytag or something, but he wanted our cheese!  And the cheesemonger was no help.  Turns out it is a nice cheese, so he did miss out.  It is cow’s milk.  It looks like shropshire, and actually tastes a lot like it, too, but seems a little sharper.  It has a bitter taste to it.  Very creamy, semi-hard, brown rind and straw-colored paste.  The mold is supposed to be sky-blue, but it looked more gray to me.  I like it.

Bleu de Graven $13.99 lb. at Central Market, $3.36 for a very slender slice. From France. It is straw-colored and looked like it had been cut from a very small round.  It was shaped like a tiny gouda and was covered in white wax. I tried this in the store and it was adequate, but not all that exciting.  Maybe I wasn’t in the mood.  I was distracted because I was fixing to get a job at the cheese counter.  I bought the cheese anyway.  Then, when I got home, I tasted it again and it was delicious!  It was sweet, creamy, woody, with crunchy bits of blue roqueforti mold inside.  It doesn’t have a ton of veins.  It is soft, crumbly, salty, but not too much, with a smooth, strong flavor.  I couldn’t find this cheese in the cheese books.  This is a good little blue.  People at Liz’s party ate it quickly.  Once we got home, Patrick dropped the blue cheese leftovers on the floor.  The cheese was so precious, he ate the pieces off the floor and then even licked the inside of the wrapper.

Blue Castello $11.99 lb. at Central Market, $1.32 for a tiny wedge.  Extremely creamy Danish blue cheese.

Blue, Royal Blue by Fair Oaks Royal Blue hails from Fair Oaks Farms in Northwest Indiana just outside of Chicago. Fair Oaks is a family-owned dairy—one of the largest in the U.S. They make mostly semi-hard or semi-soft cheeses, but also offer soft cheeses such as this Royal Blue. It comes in a wedge wrapped in glistening blue foil. When it’s cold, you can crumble it, but once it warms up, it cuts like butter that is just beginning to come to room temperature. It has moderate green-blue veining and a deep cream color. The mold gives it a sharpness on the finish, but up front, it has a sweet cow’s milk taste. There is a bitter undercurrent that reminds me of walnuts. I melted this cheese on French bread rounds and it was to die for!  The nut flavor really shines through, and since the veins are not scattered everywhere, the cheese isn’t gritty when melted. It looks like a baked brie—all hot, gooey, and stringy. This would be a great cheese for Panini or bruschetta with some sweet figs or apples, and maybe some prosciutto or chicken. http://shop.fofarms.com 

Bleuet, Jacquin $16.99 lb. at Whole Foods, $3.40 for a 3/4 inch slab. It comes in a triangular loaf. Its rind is cracked, wrinkly, and light brown/orange. The paste is dark cream colored with a dark grey mold. This is a goat cheese from the Berry region. It is firm for a goat cheese and reminds me of a Stilton in its color and texture. When I first taste it I get a little bit of goat taste, then some light mold, then cream, and then it finishes with very spicy, earthy, chocolatey, salty, crunchy mold. It finishes very strong. It is really interesting, especially since I don't run across so many blue goats. The goat's milk gives it a nice acidity. I am eating this at the computer, and the cat Karl, who refuses all Cheddar, loves this cheese. If I weren't enjoying it so much, I would give him more. Vince suggested trying this cheese with an Entre-deux-mers, but they were out, so I'm having it with a Vouvray.

Blu di Bufala $24.99 lb. at Murray's, $8 for a big block. This is a square, rustic-looking Lombardian blue cheese made with the extra fatty milk of water buffalo. It is crumbly with a big barnacle growing in the middle of it. Sour and bitter, but also sweet and only lightly blue. Great bacon flavor. This cheese is not so consistent in its texture. It is sticky and dense toward the rind, but then more crumbly in the middle. Still, when you get a middle bite, it flattens out and gets creamy. There is no one part of this cheese that looks even remotely uniform, so I don’t know where even to cut from. I get an intense buttery finish, like this butter hangover from having eaten too much butter. Crunchy, earthy and nutty. At times, I feel like I’m eating cashews coated in blue cheese. The blue parts are in clumps, so there is not a lot of veining. It is more of an earthy cheese. Chemical and bitterness for some people, but not for me. I get a lot of walnuts that are nutty, sweet, and bitter. It’s a weird cheese because you bit into it and it’s creamy, and then there is a chunk of crunchy blue that is the texture of dark brown sugar when you get a clump. It grows on you. Every bite is so different, you keep having to take more. Photo of Blu di Bufala

Bocconcino di Pura Capra  $3.99 at Grapevine. I have fallen in love with an adorable little cheese this month -- Bocconcino di Capra Pura from the Caseificio dell'Alta Langa in Piemonte, Italy. (I got this cheese at Grapevine.) Bocconcino means "little mouthful" in Italian. This cheese looks like a tiny, flat Brie. It is small enough to fit in the palm of my hand. As the name suggests, it is 100% goat's milk. The label depicts a shepherd (or goatherd, rather), playing the flute for a member of his flock. No wonder these goats produces such good chese. They are pampered! And cultured! As soon as the cheese hits room temperature, the paste becomes creamy and oozy. The rind is delicate and tender enough to eat without any distraction. Bocconcino is a small, yet complex, cheese with a light goatiness, fresh tang, and ultra creamy finish. All for $3.99.

Bonifaz Pfeffer HEB, Germany $6.59 lb.  Triple crème Brie(?) with peppercorns.  I thought it would be good.  The wedge was small and only $2.50.  When I got it home, I saw the crust was slightly orange in places.  It had separated from the cheese, kind of runny.  The brie was obviously old.  I don’t know if it was supposed to be that way or not, but it tasted wrong.  It was way too bitter and the consistency was sticky.  I couldn’t eat it.  Read more about it at http://www.bergader.de/start.html, but be warned, this site is in German and you have to navigate around a little.  Go to Weichkaese.

Bonrus  $19.99 lb. at Central Market, $5 for half an oval. This cheese looks like the typical Piedmontese soft cheese with its bloomy rind, soft paste, and flat shape. It is a blend of cow and sheep milk. I got a nutrition read-out for this cheese and it's only 7 grams of fat and 90 calories per oz. The picture on the original label had a man stoking a fire. The cheese is a light yellow, almost green, color with a very thin, bloomy rind. It tastes a lot like a salty Cravanzina. Aged for 21 days. This is really good, but I'm shocked over the salt. It has a wonderful milky flavor, but I can't say it is very intense beyond that. Both the flavor and texture are very delicate. The rind is very pleasant and lightly mushroomy and the paste is almost grainy, I guess from the sheep's milk cheese. People who like soft-ripened cheeses will not be offended by this little treasure. From http://www.atalantacorporation.com.

Bourdin goat cheese $8.99 lb. at Central Market.  $3.84 for a full 8 oz. tub.  Tangy, not too salty, and fresh, but without bitterness.  Yum!  I love this cheese.  You can either crumble it over a salad, cook with it, or spread it.  It is great and not too expensive.  

Boursin  $3.99 for about 4-5 oz. round at HEB.  I am assuming that this cheese is from Canada, though it never says.  The languages on the package are French and English.  They use a French recipe, but it could also be American.  Whatever it is, it’s mass-produced and pre-packaged.  I think it’s cow’s milk, but it looks like goat cheese.  The cheese is white like a goat, crumbly almost like a goat, but a little less.  It is heavily herbed – garlic and such.  Strong.  It really will give you bad breath, though when I took it to a party, people ate it up.  I liked it ok, but it seemed too overdone with its spices and such.  This is a fatty cheese!  It’s 13 g per oz.  There is also a pepper variety and a light herbed one.  Read more about it at http://www.boursincheese.com/. 

Brebiou sheep’s milk brie from France.  $14.99 lb. at Central Market.  $5.40 for a fat wedge.  This cheese has off-white paste and a soft off-white crust with a little bit of orange mold on it.  It doesn’t smell too strong like that other sheep brie, Brie de Rocastin.  It is musty, salty, mild and creamy with a light sheep taste.  The people at Liz’s party really ate this up fast.  I liked it.  Nice mild cheese, but still different from brie.  A nice change of pace.

Bresse Bleu from France. I got it for free at Central Market because the little cardboard package it came in had torn up.  It is a very small bloomy rind cheese with a little bit of blue in the paste.  It is a manufactured, prepackaged cheese, but it is good.  It is tall for such a small cheese.  The piece I got had the perfect springy firmness.  It is mild, slightly moldy and salty.  It has a little bit of a bitter aftertaste, but not bitter like the Saga cheese.  It has a very creamy paste that starts to run in places when the cheese is at room temperature.  I like this cheese a lot.  It would be a great party cheese.  We tried it with the sweet Muscat white dessert wine and the wine made the cheese taste weird.  It wasn’t a good pairing.  The wine was really bad, but the cheese was yummy.  Read more about it at http://www.cheese.com/Description.asp?Name=Bresse%20Bleu or in the French cheese encyclopedia http://www.francefromage.com/m3_fiche.asp?IdFromage=118. 

Brie, Alouette "All Natural" Creamy Brie. $4.99 in 2010 Hand-crafted soft ripened cheese. Kosher, Tablet K. This little 5 oz. round comes wrapped in plastic butcher paper and cradled in a scallop-edged wooden tray which they call a box. It is extremely mild and perfect for a small get-together with berries and bread. It can be served cubed or left whole. Its size makes it ideal for showcasing at the center of a fruit tray. Above all, it is a cute cheese! http://www.alouettecheese.com 

Brie, Canadian $4.99 lb., $1.80 for a nice chunk.  Very silly-looking Brie, Damatro is the brand, 60% m.g.  Even though it’s a Canadian Brie, it has a tacky photograph of the Eiffel Tower on the front and says “Tour de France.”  Supple paste, some curd holes.  It had “cheese” written in English and in French, like we might get confused and think it was a mantle decoration.

Brie, Pepper  Fromager d'Affinois  $11.99 lb. at Whole Foods, $5.04 for a big wedge. This is the same cheese as their Fromager d'Affinois regular Brie-style cheese. It is typically very light with a thin crust. This cheese is covered in pepper, however and seems to even have pepper mixed into the paste. I bought this when my pet rat, Brie, died as a commemorative cheese. I sampled it in the store. At first, I didn't like it, but then it kind of grew on me. It has that typical super-tangy flavor of the Fromager d'Affinois line plus a little extra zing with the pepper. The pepper makes it taste a little woodier. Eating the rind is more intense. I like pepper better with goat cheese, but this is still interesting.

Brie Primo Taglio $8.99 lb. at Randall's. This is a Safeway product, but it's from France. 60% m.g. It is definitely a factory cheese, but still tasty. The label says "French Brie, Imported from France." I don't know if that means it's actually from Brie or not. It has a thickish, white rind and the usual creamy, sticky paste. The rind makes the cheese taste nutty and gives it a bitter finish. This is a moldy cheese. It started to grow mold down the side pretty quickly and also spread mold to a Cheddar, though I think it may have been the fault of my friend who can never keep his cheese knives straight. 

Brie Martin Collet $5.99 lb., $1.26 for a wedge the size of my palm at Central Market.  60% m.g.  The rind is white, old.  It tastes too salty, but it says that it is only 150 mg of sodium.  It needs bread.  It is strong, mushroomy rind, creamy, off-white paste, a little stinky, moldy aftertaste.  It’s good.  It’s really good for being so cheap.  Not much info on this cheese on the internet.

Brie de Meaux  $14.99 at Whole Foods. $3.45 for a tiny, slender slice. This Brie is pungent, but still young. The crust is thickish and white with brown tombstone etchings. Eggy, ammoniated (but not bad), earthy, spicy, and creamy. This cheese received the title of "King of Cheeses" at the Viennese congress in 1814. This cheese can only come from a certain area in the Ile-de-France near Paris. It has kept its rural tradition and its hand-crafted production. Its velvet-white mold rind changes to a reddish hue during the ripening process. Brie de Meaux has a soft, hazelnut, fruit flavor that can be slightly bitter. Its nuttiness is enhanced by wines from Burgundy or Bordeaux. I liked the Brie de Nangis better on its own, but this Brie de Meaux really blended well with red wines.

Brie de Nangis  $12.99 at Grapevine. It smells like eggs. It is so creamy, rich, luscious, buttery, nutty, meaty, and spicy. It is not as stark as the Brie de Meaux, but it has the same salty, creamy, buttery texture and taste. It really just melts in your mouth. Strong taste of hazelnuts. Thick, white, rustic rind with some golden tinges.    

Brie Le père Normand from France.  60% m.g.  I got it on sale at Whole Foods – 2. 2 lbs. for $10.99.  Very milky, fresh.  When I cut into it, the inside looked a little chalky, but then it got soft and creamy when it warmed up.  It reminds me a little bit of fromage d’affinois.  It is a double crème brie.  It’s kind of a simple cheese.  Even if it had been expensive, I would still like it.  

Brie President  HEB, from France   $5.99 lb.  A decent cheap Brie.  Party folks don’t know the difference, though sometimes the crust is a little bitter and the texture, in some batches, is too rubbery.  The small rounds of president are not good.  They taste fake.

Brie, Tour de Marze $6.99 lb. at Grapevine. $2.38 for a big slice! This Brie is actually from France, from the Brie region just north of Paris.It is 60% m.g., pasteurized. It looks more like a triple creme, the way it oozes out all over the place. The rind is fluffy white and thickish. It has a good, strong flavor, but not too strong. Mushroomy aroma and a garlicky, nutty flavor. Very nutty, and the rind tastes like a sauteed garlic and mushroom mix that has some pepper in it that burns my tongue some. In spite of all that, it's pretty mild -- salty and milky paste on the tongue. Every time I eat a bite, it tastes different. It is a gorgeous, exciting cheese and I am very excited to have caught it at this price. I am going back tomorrow to buy more before the store owners realize what this cheese is worth.

Brie, Whitestone Double Cream from New Zealand. $16.99 lb. at Grapvevine. $2.38 for a very very slender slice. This rind is nice and bright white. The paste is yellow and oozing, though it stays in place. The rind is very mushroomy and a little bitter. The rind is actually pretty strong. It looks like such a mild cheese, but the rind is a little bit of a surprise. It is a very pretty cheese.

Brie with Fruit  $12.99 lb. at Pomegranate, 

Brie, goat’s milk by Peillouté  $13.49 lb. at Central Market, $4.45 for a nice slice.  It looks just like regular brie, but with maybe a thinner crust and kind of a greenish tint to it.  The paste is sort of white/cream, but not as yellow/straw as a cow brie.  This is a great cheese!  I am trying to save some for Patrick, but I may eat the entire wedge.  It is creamy, has a nice strong, but not too strong, goat taste, some musky mold flavor, and just a slight bit of bitterness in the aftertaste.  I really like this better than cow brie because it has that goat aftertaste.  The guy at the counter, Thong, said that the goat is made by the Fromage d’Affinois people, and the reason that both cheeses are so creamy is because they put it in a centrifuge, extract all the water from the cheese stuff, and then infuse it with cream.  The label says that it is only 5.8 g of fat per oz.  It sure is yummy! The Fromagerie is Guilloteau in Pélussin, France.  This one is 45% m.g., but it tastes a lot fattier.  Read more about it at http://www.crossstreetwineandcheese.com/buttoncontentpages/cheeses/2001cheeses/sept2001august.htm.   

Brie, sheep’s milk  Brie Rocastin de Berger  $13.49 lb. at Central Market.  $2.97 for a tiny tiny brick.  I don’t know how I’m going to manage on such a small piece of cheese.  It looks just like the goat brie, but it is in a rectangle instead of a triangle.  The paste is not as yellow as a cow brie, and the rind looks thinner, with not such a thick white crust on it.  This sheep brie kind of stinks, like an old tire.  It is delicious!  It is very mildly tangy, doesn’t taste too sheepy like some of the aged Spanish cheeses. 7 g of fat.  I guess what is most noticeable about it is the creamy tangy taste, and the brie muskiness.  It also has a tad of bitterness, but not much.  I think people would like this a lot.  It is very mild.  Between the sheep and the goat brie, I would prefer the goat because it tastes more rambunctious.  The sheep is very elegant, though.  

Brie de Jean (?) from Grapevine. I can't remember what this cheese was called. I think it is already listed. It is a triple cream Brie from France with a nice aged, wrinkly rind. It is a lot like a Délice de Bourgogne, but with much more flavor. It definitely tastes more artisanal. It does not even need to come to room temp to be spreadable. The flavor is long-lasting and full with very pleasant, light, mushroom tones in the paste, and a definite earthiness in the finish. I like triple cream Bries ok, but this is outstanding. It just melts in your mouth and covers your tongue. The taste doesn't go away, but in a good way.

Brillat Savarin  $14.99 lb. at Grapevine, $5.40 for a quarter chunk.  I split it in half and it made it through 2 party trays.  Super creamy, soft-ripened triple cream cheese, runny, slightly musty, very very salty.  This cheese is decadent!  I like it, but the salt was a little overwhelming.  The people at the party really devoured it, but left the rind all flayed out like a dead fish.  It was kind of sad.  This cheese is made in Burgundy.  Brillat Savarin is named for a famous French gastronome who has written extensively on the culinary arts.  Read more about the cheese at http://www.cheese.com/Description.asp?Name=Brillat-Savarin and http://www.artofcheese.com/chdes/brilsav.htm.

Brin d'Amour, a.k.a. Fleur du Maquis (the brand name)  Sheep's milk cheese from Corsica.  It is covered in herbs -- rosemary, juniper berries, and little red chilis.  It has a beautiful white, slightly crumbly (like a Ricotta Salata Infornata), and a little darker towards the edges.  It comes in a tiny round.  This cheese is exciting and different.  It has a little bit of a bitter taste.  It is delicate, but also rustic and refreshing.  The rind is bitter, though edible.  I like the herbs and the wonderful dry, yet spongy texture.  Even not eating the rind, the flavors have soaked down into the cheese.  This is great.  I tried it with Sancerre and wasn't wild about it.  Although it was mild, it was too wild of a cheese.  I hear that it might be better with a more rustic white or Rhône, and maybe even a Rioja or Nebbiolo.  

Brinata  $12.99 lb., $2.34 for a small piece.  Italian sheep brie.  Firm texture.  Firmer than cow’s milk.  Has a strange aftertaste, but interesting.  It is yellow-ish/white, with a white crust.  Has a little bit of a bitter aftertaste, very creamy, edible crust.  Not overly dry like some of the goat cheeses. It is only slightly harder than a cow brie.  Read more about it at http://www.igourmet.com/st_wineandcheesenov04.asp. 

Brinata, Sheep’s milk soft-ripened cheese from Italy.  $12.99 lb. at Central Market, $2.99 for a nice wedge.  Yum!  I’ve had this before.  David at the cheese counter told me today to buy it because it was a really good batch and he was right.  This is excellent.  It bounces back when you squeeze it.  The paste is a perfect semi-soft texture, and the rind is snowy white, hence it’s namesake.  It is not too salty or chalky, lightly sheepy, and very slightly musty.  

Briscole al Barbera  $14.99 lb. at Grapevine, $3.00 for a slender slab.  Italian goat/cow milk cheese, semi-hard, with the rind washed in dark red wine.  The rind is burgundy-colored, and the paste is light cream-colored.  This cheese has a flour taste to it, and is also salty and a little vomity like parmigiano reggiano.  The aftertaste is tart, and it has a sweetness to it from the wine.  It is an Italian “ubriaco” (drunken) style of cheese washed in wine.  Read more about it at http://www.guffantiformaggi.com/it/tecnica/veneto.html, but scroll down to the bottom.  Sorry, the website is only in Italian.  It tastes like it might also have a little bit of sheep in it.  My dad is here asking, “Which part of the sheep?”

Brunet, Formaggetta stagionata di pura capra $16.99 lb. at Grapevine Market, $8.99 for a wrinkled up hockey puck. From the Caseificio dell'Alta Langa. This is one of those soft, lightly aged Piedmontese cheeses that comes sitting in a piece of folded paper that looks like a cupcake holder. It has developed a light frost of white mold that has caused the top of the cheese to wrinkle up. It looks like a flattened out brain. I am assuming that this cheese is called "Brunet" because the goat that makes the milk is a brunette; the picture on the label shows a fashionable young she-goat sporting a long, luxurious coat of brown hair. I'm sure her wooly fur helps her through the cold winter months. This is my lucky day. Sometimes these little Piedmontese cheeses dry out or deteriorate on the shelf, but this one is still very supple with a firm, almost flaky paste and a runny, creamy texture towards the rind. This cheese ages for about a month, though I can see that I would enjoy this one even older. At this stage, it is tangy, salty, lactic, and acidic yet not overpoweringly goaty. For being so dense and cakey, it is still a pretty delicate cheese. When I first tasted it, it had that typical "rubber tire" smell to it, but that blew off.

Buche, French Buche (goat’s milk)  $8.99 lb. at Wheatsville, $1.89 for a nice chunk.  It is very white and creamy, not as crumbly as Chavrie.  Wheatsville doesn’t give you the name of the farm where it was made, unfortunately.  It is pasteurized goat’s milk.  It has a weird almost paint-smelling taste, not too salty, tangy, but mild.  Latex paint.  But you really don’t taste the paint for too long.  It is good.  This is pretty much the same cheese as bucheron.  Read more about it at http://www.igourmet.com/samples.asp?cat=98&subcat=France.  (You have to scroll down mid-page.)  

Buche des Causses  $13.99 lb. at Grapevine.  It looks like an aged, and smaller Bucheron.  It is made by the same people who made the Gariotin d'Alvignac.  I think it is from Quercy in the southwest of France where the Causses are.  It reminds me a lot of Monte Enebro goat from Spain.  It is excellent.  Much more flavorful than the factory Bucheron.  It is much more like a log than the other.  This cheese is aged longer -- the rind is crinkly and beige in places rather than snowy white.  The paste of the cheese is better defined with the chalky white interior and then the ring of creamy, soft-ripened goat cheese towards the rind.  It has a musty taste from the hardened rind.  This is so good!  It is tangy, salty, goat, long long finish, and very complex.  It almost tastes spicy and herby to me.  It has such a great meaty flavor.  I am so glad to have tasted a real Buche. 

Bucheron, French goat’s milk, soft-ripened cheese.  $9.99 lb. at Central Market.  $3.80 for a thick slab.  This cheese comes in a huge log and it’s sliced into round slabs.  It is really pretty.  It is soft-ripened, so it has white mold on the outside, and then there is a layer of softer, runnier, darker thick cream inside the rind, and on the very inside is chalkier, dryer white cheese.  It ripens from the outside in.  This cheese is excellent.  It has a very mild mold taste to it, and a good goat tang.  The inside is pastier, very mild, with almost a floral taste.  Good party cheese. 

Burrata  Bought at Whole Foods. Mozzarella Company in Dallas. This was the first Burrata I ever tried. From what I had understood, Burrata is basically cow's milk Mozzarella with cream inside. This cheese was more like a ball of Mozzarella wrapped around a pat of butter. It has to come to room temperature to taste like Burrata. Otherwise, the butter on the inside is too hard and chunky. This Burrata was still a very good cheese and got gobbled up immediately.

Burrata  $16.95 at Mandola's Market. The smallest ball of it I could buy came in the size of a grapefruit and probably weighed nearly a pound. This is the first real Burrata I have ever tasted. The name Burrata is based on "burro," which means "butter" in Italian, and boy is this cheese buttery. Burrata is made by stretching Mozzarella into a sort of envelope and then filling it with strings of stretched curd blended with cream that comes from putting the leftover whey in a centrifuge. Then the "bag" is tied and packed in a plastic bag or tub for sale. The resulting cheese is absolutely gorgeous; the outside is a thin layer of the usual fresh Mozzarella, but when you cut into the top of the ball, it opens up like a fried onion blossom appetizer and makes a bowl of delicious, creamy, buttery, curdy, tangy, fresh cheese. It is absolutely addictive and pairs wonderfully with rosato wines and light-bodied, acidic reds like Pinot Noir. Burrata traditionally comes from Puglia, in the heel of the boot of Italy. This Burrata comes from the Caseificio Andriese. The bag is bright green with a pattern of leaves, recalling the days when Burrata was packed in asfodelo leaves, an herb-like plant similar to leeks. When the leaves turned brown, the cheese inside had most likely lost its freshness. It looks like a big Christmas present, a big green ball with a red ribbon tied around it. The label says that it contains 20% cream. No wonder it tastes so good. I hope we can keep on getting this in town. It doesn't have an English on the packaging and I'm surprised it made it through customs. Burrata is sometimes hard to find in the U.S. because it has such a short shelf life. It has to be flown out the day after it's made and then sold as soon as possible.

Butter cheese, $6.99 lb. at Sun Harvest, $4.47 for a huge chunk.  German Butter Käse, semi-soft cheese.  It is light yellow-colored.  Soft like havarti and about the same color.  Tastes like butter!  It tastes very mild like havarti or scandic farmer’s cheese.  It is creamy, good, definitely has a butter aftertaste.  This is a good cheese to eat with crackers.  The finish tastes a little bit like flour for some reason. 

Butterkaese $6.29 lb. at Whole Foods, $1.89 for a big chunk. From Germany. Yellow wax, havarti texture with curd holes.  It was stinky like a raclette.  It would be good for cooking, but maybe too strong for parties.  It is probably good on dark rye with beer . Definitely has the stinky foot taste going on, but I don’t think it’s a washed rind.  It did not taste like the Butterkaese from Sun Harvest, and although it was buttery and creamy, it didn’t really taste like butter since it stunk so bad.  This cheese might be more authentic.  I don’t know, but I can tell it would turn some people off.  Patrick loved it.  The Butterkaese I tasted later at Central Market was much milder. No taste at all.