Palet du Roy Tomme de Chèvre, goat’s milk cheese from France. $19.99 lb. at Central Market, $5.40 for a decent wedge. The paste is white and semi-soft, sort of like a young pecorino. The rind looks like a hard, gray, moldy waffle. Excellent goat cheese with hints of mint and herbs. It is not really too goaty. It is very smooth and a little bit gritty in texture. It really coats the tongue well and has a nice goaty finish.
Panela
$3.79 for 12 oz. at HEB, HEB brand of Mexican-style fresh cheese.
It is very curdy, not so salty (160 mg), and spongy, firm.
I really liked it, though I ate it way too fast for what it was.
Panela $3.29 for 12 oz. at HEB. Cacique brand. Part skim milk cheese. This is only 6 g of fat per oz., 150 mg. of sodium. It was less curdy than the other HEB panela. I think I may have liked the other one better, though this was ok. It reminded me of a piece of raw meat, the way it was like a little wet, spongy loaf. You can almost hear the knife squeak when you cut it and it squeaks against your teeth when you chew.
Pantaleo $14.99 lb. at Whole Foods Goat's milk cheese from Sardinia. Super salty and tangy, but not too goaty. It tastes like grass and spruce, but it also has a very luscious milk backdrop. Ivory colored with a lighter rind. It has a great texture that you can slice without it crumbling all over the place. This cheese is absolutely gorgeous with a wonderfully long, sweet, salty, tangy, nutty, macademia, wild grass finish. It is enchanting. It is great as a snacking cheese, but also good for grating. Afterwards, it feels very fresh in the mouth, almost like you've just chewed a piece of goaty spearmint gum. It is a treat to have this cheese in America because most often, the only cheeses on the shelf from Sardinia are sheep's milk.
Palhais (pronounced Pah-laish) from Portugal. It’s a goat cheese. It was $2.50 for a hefty little round at Whole Foods south. They had marinated it themselves in olive oil, whole peppercorns, and rosemary, from what I can tell. This is really great, especially for the price, and you get an entire bowl of flavored oil and peppers with it that you can dip bread into. And if you dip the cheese in as well, it is covered in little flecks of spices. It is very very tangy, salty aftertaste, mostly tangy. I don’t know how I’d serve it. It would be great just sitting on a single piece of lettuce. Yum!
Palhais
Goat cheese from Portugal $13.99
lb. at Whole Foods, $2.80 for a tiny round.
This cheese is the size of a tall crottin, bright white, bouncy, and
soft. It is salty, lightly sheepy
(even though it’s goat), and has a hint of olives.
It goes well with a slightly sweet Texas white wine.
This seems like a good cheese to eat with salad.
It’s great on a crusty baguette. You
can read a little more about it at http://www.forevercheese.com/prodlist.shtm,
but you have to scroll down and click on Palhais in the list of Portuguese
cheeses.
Parrano
Gouda, Dutch, medium aged. $9.09
lb. at Wheatsville, $.99 for a small, but nice chunk.
This is much much lighter in color than a gouda.
It is very light yellow, hard, but has a wax rind with some sort of big
logo on it. It had a couple of
fermentation holes. It is salty,
creamy, nutty, sharp. Very nutty.
This is really good and interesting, almost tastes smoky.
I like this. Kind of
cheddary, but has a slightly different flavor to it.
It doesn’t seem like a gouda. It
is good. This would be a good party
cheese. It slices nicely.
Peggy really likes it. This
would be a good cheese to have for a “hard” cheese on a platter instead of
plain cheddar. It made me think
twice.
Pastore Sini
$8.99 lb. at Whole Foods south, $2.52 for a nice chunk.
It is semi-hard, white/cream-colored. It doesn’t say on the package what milk it is, but I think Vince up at
the counter said it was sheep. It
definitely tastes like sheep. This
was one of his favorite cheeses. It
is from Lazio, Italy, and yes, it is a good snacking cheese. It’s covered in a waxy brown paper that looks like thin frog skin. This would be a really good party cheese.
It is very tangy, lightly nutty, herby at times, salty-tasting, but that
may be just because it is a sheep cheese. It’s
really good. I dug into it on the
way home in the car. I was stuck in
5 o’clock traffic, so what else did I have to do?
Pau goat cheese from Spain near the Pyrenees. $20 lb. at Artisanal in NYC. $5.20
for a big wedge. It looks a little like a Basque cheese. It has a light brown
rind with some white mold on it, and a firm, yet bouncy, white-yellow paste. It
is earthy and full-flavored. The texture is nice and soft on the tongue. It
melts in my mouth. It is a great snacking cheese -- milky, tangy, and salty. I
would not have guessed this as a goat cheese. It sure is good, though. It tastes
a little woody. I ate this on the airplane on the way home from NYC. Artisanal
describes it as creamy, slightly sweet, and nutty. It is a very pleasant cheese.
Pavé Sauvage Picadine (the wild slab) $8.59 for a square at Whole Foods. It is from Périgord, France. Goat cheese. It feels like a good 8 oz. It is supposed to be a pave, but is more like a brick or a loaf. It is completely covered in gray mold. The guy at the counter said it had many layers, and it does—creamy, dense, tangy, lightly salty, herby, spicy, minty, and pasty. It has the consistency of Play-Doh, but creamier. Patrick doesn’t like the texture. He think’s it’s too much like peanut butter. It’s a really nasty-looking cheese. I held it up in the light and one corner had a beard hanging off of it. I ate some of the mold and it’s ok so long as you don’t eat a huge chunk of it. I cut off the end of the cheese, but the mold actually tastes kind of good just with the little bit that comes on the slice of the rind. This mold is really thick and wrinkly, too. The outside of the cheese has some herbs, peppercorns, and juniper berries in it, too. I guess that’s why it’s so lumpy. This is really great. The sign said to have it with Sauvignon Blanc or an Italian rosé, I think. I had it later at Central Market and it was fresher and sported no mold. It was also really good that way.
Pawlet by Consider Bardwell Farm $22.99 lb. at Murray's. This cheese is made of raw Jersey cow milk. The farm is located in Pawlet, Vermont, known for slate, syrup, and timber. Its style is based on an Italian toma, which ages four to six months. The cheese comes from a small wheel. It has a straw-yellow paste with some small curd holes, and it turns khaki right at the rind--which is natural, firm, crisscrossed with some straw marks, and then mottled with peach, brown, white, and grey. It smells tangy, buttery, and a little earthy, but has no strong odor. The cheese is definitely tangy and sour. (How do I keep picking these types of cheeses? I guess because I like them.) It has a buttery texture. When you bite down, the cheese melts on your tongue. People who like Cheddar or Havarti should like this. Murray's describes it as a cheese with "broad palate appeal." There is some floral flavor on the finish and a spicy bitterness that is surprising. The finish is extremely fresh. Excellent party cheese. Photo of Pawlet
Pecorino
Antico Mugello $9.99. lb. at
Central Market, $1.40 for a small wedge. Aged
for 6 months. It is smaller than
the fresh pecorino because it has shrunken up in the aging process.
It has a thin red/orange wax crust that contains tomato.
It is harder and not so bouncy, but not quite a grating cheese.
It is yellow and almost looks transparent.
Nutty, tangy, not overly salty. It
crumbles up in your mouth. It has a
sheepy, animal aftertaste. It’s
really pleasant. I think it would
be good with a mild fruit. Read
more about it at http://www.forteto.it/eng/ampi.htm
Pecorino Bigio with Ash $19.99 lb. at Central Market. $6.60 for a small chunk. It is hard, waxy and crumbly in texture, and light straw-colored. It is covered in a coat of light wax and brown ash. This looks like it was aged for at least 6 months, maybe 9. It is crumbly and a little gritty. It tastes lightly salty, a little sheepy, and very herbaceous. It is a very rustic cheese.
Pecorino Crotonese, Crotonese, Fresh $9.99 lb. at Central Market. Sheep's milk cheese from Lazio, the region where Rome is located in Italy. This cheese is a basket-style cheese, meaning the curds have been drained in a basket. It is a bone white color with a greens tint. It is semi-hard. I hear that it can be used for grating, but this is better as a snacking cheese. It needs to be aged longer to be used as a grating cheese, but as a table cheese, it has more flavor than other fresh Pecorinos. It has a very fresh, tangy flavor, but with an animal aftertaste. It is made between January and June when sheep's milk cheese is the best and most abundant.
Pecorino di Fossa $17 or so at Central Market. This cheese is lighter colored than the F 1 Anno. It is a pale, yet dense, yellow. The texture is ok for snacking, even though it could be used as a grating cheese as well. Once it comes to room temperature, it becomes more pliable and snackable. It has a little mold marbling through around the top. It is very flavorful. Salty, good, manageable texture (grainy, yet covers the tongue well.) It is a little mushroomy and very sheepy. I think that flavor-wise, I like the F1 anno a little better. This one can come off as too salty at first. Still, the trademark sheep/olive flavor is very pronounced. It is a more delicate cheese than the F1 anno. This cheese is wrapped in white cotton clothes and put into little caves three meters underground in Tuscany. It is put underground in August, and the cavern is sealed until November 25, the feast of Santa Caterina, During the 100 days in the cave, the Pecorino undergoes a huge transformation. At first, it breathes the oxygen in the cavern. Then once the oxygen is used up, it goes through a process of refermentation, or secondary fermentation, almost like wine. It is mostly sheep's milk, but sometimes has some cow and goat mixed in. It is good with honey, fresh or dried fruit, balsamic vinegar, red wines, and dessert wines.
Pecorino Fi Anno/F 1 Anno $17.99 lb. at Central Market. $4.50 for a small slice. This cheese is a yellow-orange color like Parmesan, but a little darker. It is extremely dense. It is probably best used as a grating cheese since it is hard to cut, but it is also good as a snacking cheese. It is made from pasteurized sheep's milk. It has persistent perfumes and flavors. The sheep flavor is pronounced, but also smoothed out by a delicious nuttiness. This is a very oily, dense cheese. The crust looks like a rock. The mouthfeel is crumbly and flaky. When I get it in a slice, it is a little chewy. I don't know what to say this tastes like, except that it is the perfect balance of salty, tangy, sheepy, and nutty. It is excellent. It is a chewy kind of cheese, both in flavor and in texture. It is very substantial; the finish is extremely long and pleasant. You don't have to eat much of this cheese to get the full effect. It goes through a long, controlled seasoning process. It is ripened for at least one year, hence the name. At Central Market, they mistook the F1 for a nonexistent word "fi." From Forteto.
Pecorino Mannoni Aged sheep cheese from Italy. “Strong” it says on the label. $5.99 lb. at Wheatsville, $1.50 for a good chunk. It is straw colored, semi-hard to hard, with some salt granules in it. It has that refrigerator aftertaste and is very salty. It’s a good cheese, but I’m not a big fan of the refrigerator taste. I don’t know why the label says it’s strong because it really isn’t. I think it’s also supposed to be a pecorino romano. Read more about it at http://www.pecorino.it/.
Pecorino
Mugellano $7.99 lb., $1.76 for a
nice chunk at Central Market. Aged
for 3 months. This cheese is white,
supple, kind of soft, very very creamy and tangy with not too much of a salty
taste and also a little bit of bitter/musty aftertaste.
This is a good cheese. Sheep’s
milk. 7 grams of fat.
180 mg. sodium. White and
creamy, sticky on the outside, cream-colored on the inside.
Bouncy cheese. I think it
came in a small round, cut into thin, short wedges.
It has a very mild taste. Patrick
says it’s not strong enough for him. I
thought it was really good and interesting.
It had a nutty, musky flavor that lingered.
I would definitely buy this cheese again and again.
Mugello is a field in Tuscany.
Pecorino Oro Antico
$12.99 at Central Market, $3.90 for a big chunk.
Pasteurized sheep’s milk. It
is hard, oily, dark yellow/brown. It
looks like it’s been aged at least 6 months.
It is definitely a good grating cheese.
It has a very slightly caramel taste almost like a light aged gouda.
It is salty (though it doesn’t have too high of a salt content), and
has a great cheesy, sheepy aftertaste with a long finish. This is basically a pecorino toscano that has been burnished
with olive oil and aged extra long.
Pecorino con
Peperoncino $9.99 lb. at Central Market. $2.38
for a slender wedge. It has
sheep’s milk and chili peppers in it. It
is a pecorino toscano stagionato. It
looks like it is 3-6 months old. Good,
sheepy taste with a little bit of musty aftertaste and light pepper flavor.
It is tingly and almost makes me need to sneeze.
Pecorino di Pienza Sheep’s milk from Italy $11.99 lb. at Grapevine. $3.24 for a slender slab. Pienza is near Siena in Tuscany. Semi-hard and straw-colored with a dark brown rind. It smells like cheddar. This cheese could be a grating cheese. It is tangy, salty, and a little crumbly on the tongue. It has a musky aftertaste. This cheese comes from the spring milk of the sheep. The rind is treated with olive oil and then the cheeses are wrapped in fresh walnut leaves. Each cheese is aged for 3 months in clay jars. Their porous walls allow the cheese to refermented, which gives it it's characteristic taste. It has a distinct flavor of walnuts.
Pecorino
Re Nero $9.99 lb. at Central Market, $3.50 for a chunk that could have been
bigger. It is semi-hard and
ivory-colored, almost with a green tint in places.
It comes in a covering of thin black wax.
It is a sheep cheese, and traditionally, was made with the milk of
black-fleeced sheep, hence the name Re Nero (black king.)
This cheese was traditionally rubbed with dark ash or and olive dregs to
preserve it, so it also has a black coating.
It matures for 20-40 days and says “stagionato” (seasoned) on the
label. One Italian web site says
that it is aged for 3 months. In my
Italian book, it is called “Pecorino di Montagna.”
It is from Tuscany. It is
salty, with a taste of olives and creamy ewe’s milk.
The texture is good for cutting and snacking.
It has an herby finish. Theresa
at CM said that the people in the Tuscan wine and cheese class went wild over
this cheese.
Read more about it at http://www.forteto.it/eng/reni.htm.
Pecorino
Romano Much sharper than Pecorino Toscano. Pecorino Romano is
originally a Roman cheese, but much of it is now made in Sardegna.
Pecorino
Toscano $8.99
lb., $1.44 at Wheatsville for a slender slab.
Aged 3 months, Italy. It is semi-hard, but not a grating cheese.
Almost, though. It is like a
young Manchego. Light yellow, no
rind, sheep milk. It has a label on
top with Italian writing. Salty,
but not too bad. It reminds Patrick
of the Gruyere, for some reason. It
has a refrigerator aftertaste that I don’t think is due to the fridge.
It was packed 4 days ago. It
is good. I’m not quite sure how
to eat it. It’s doesn’t seem
like it is enhanced by crackers or bread. It
seems better by itself. Maybe not a
table cheese. Very tasty, though.
Patrick thinks it would be good with crackers and bread.
It melts well, but has a different flavor (almost rubbery) after being
melted.
Pecorino Toscano Aged 3 months, stagionato from Italy $9.99 a lb. at Central Market. $3.40 for a nice wedge. It seems like it would be aged longer than 3 months, judging from the texture. It is semi-hard, almost hard, straw-colored, sheep’s milk. It is kind of gritty, breaks up in your mouth when you chew it. It is salty and has a good sheep tang to it. Delicious cheese. Today we were demoing it with Italian honey and French bread. It was so delicious that I decided to take it to a party. The combination of sweet and salty/tangy reminded me a lot of Manchego and quince paste. One of the employees told me that it was a good cheese to eat with quince paste, and that the honey would also be good with a salty Greek cheese like Manouri or Mizithra, maybe even with olives.
Pecorino Toscano Aged 12 months from Italy $13.99 lb. at Central Market. This is excellent. I think I may like this better than any other Pecorino. It is so flavorful. This cheese is dark straw-colored with a lot of different colors going on. It almost looks like you could look into it, it is so compact, like coal that has been pressed into a diamond -- transparent. It is extremely dry and crumbly, maybe even more so than a Parmigiano-Reggiano. It is very grainy on the tongue, but good texture anyhow. It's really not a good cheese to take to a party because you can't slice it. It would be good for grating or snacking when you aren't embarrassed to pick up crumbs off a plate. It is so good, I would almost hate to lose any of its flavor by combining it with other flavors. Boy is this good. It is sheepy, nutty, salty, olivey, and very savory. This is about the most savory cheese I have ever eaten. I can't get enough!
Pecorino Toscano Aged about 12-18 months $16.99 lb. at Grapevine. This cheese is dark yellow and very hard and also crumbly. It is has a very earthy, nutty taste that is less tangy than some of the Pecorinos I have tried. It is delicious, especially at room temperature. It has a little bit of that powerful sheepy flavor that reminds me of vomit, but not too much. It is really good. It reminds me a lot of cheese straws. It also has a great finish.
Pecorino in
Walnut Leaves $24.99 lb. at Central Market, $2.75 for a tiny slice. This
Pecorino is delicious! It is light colored, sheep's milk, and has a wonderful
grassy, leafy smell with pronounced nut aromas. It smells very earthy, fresh,
and oily. The texture is good and sliceable. The rind is gray and hard. I love
this cheese. It tastes like leaves. It is tangy and very salty, but with a very
fresh, green aftertaste. The finish is phenomenal. You can taste this cheese a
good 2 minutes after you eat it. It is bursting with flavor. When I breathe out,
I taste herbs. Woody and earthy.
Pedrozo Tipsey Cow $17.99 lb. at Central Market. $2.70 for a tiny
wedge. This cheese is soaked in red wine. Raw cow's milk from Orland, CA. This
cheese looks like a tiny Gouda wheel. It has a dark brownish purple rind that
seems to have been wrapped in bandages. The paste is dark yellow, and towards
the rind, the cheese is darker brown, but almost transparent. This cheese was
demoed at Central Market, so I bought it. It is firm and oily. It tastes fruity,
salty, and tangy. I like this a lot. The grape/wine flavor is intense.
Delicious. I like this better than Drunken Goat because it is a fuller-flavored,
more aged, more intense little cheese. I love this.
Pepper Jack, Sonoma, Hot Pepper Jack See Sonoma Hot Pepper Jack.
Persillé de Malzieu $24.99 lb. at Murray's Grand Central in NYC, $11.25 for a large wedge. The label says that this cheese looks similar to a Roquefort. It has leaf-shaped pockets of blue and a spicy, earthy kick with a silky paste. This is made in the small hamlet of Malzieuville from the raw milk of Lacaune ewes just outside the designated area for Roquefort. It costs less because it is out of the name-controlled area. It is recommended by Murray's with a toasted, nutty oxidized Oloroso sherry. No wonder I liked this cheese in the shop! The paste is dark white-cream, and the blue is more blue and grey. It is well-marbled with medium pockets. Towards the rind, it really gets a lot darker and almost grey. The actual rind is craggy. It looks like the side of a cliff with fossils in it. In fact, I think I see a fossil! It is full of cubbyholes and something that looks like piercings, even where I don't think the needles should have gone in on the side. The rind is fairly thick, like 1/4 inch, and also has some specks of salt. This cheese is a little gritty and the pockets of mold are chewy. As the cheese softens in your mouth, you get some of the grit and chew from the mold. The cheese is pretty sharp. It has the sheepy "vomit" taste, which would be better described as biting, bitter and acidic at the same time, and spicy. Maybe even sour. The cheese gets really creamy, but stays gritty, so it doesn't seem so creamy. There is a lot of spice and burning on the back of my tongue. Photo of Persillé de Malzieu
Petit Agour (P'tit Agour) $19.99 lb. at Whole Foods, $4.20 for a tiny piece. 100% ewe's milk from the Basque country. This sheep's milk cheese is an older version of the P'tit Basque. It is made from the milk from local herds of red or black-headed Manecha sheep. Very grassy, hard, piquant, salty, and herbaceous. It has such a long-lasting flavor. I ate some of this cheese, then sat on the sofa and watched Jay Leno for 10 min. I can still taste the cheese.
Piave Vecchio Artisanal Cheese in NYC. I ordered this online. The insert says: "This Northern Italian (Veneto region) cow's milk cheese has dense, rich, savory flavors. It resembles a cross between Asiago and Reggiano in texture with slightly fruity flavor overtones." This cheese is sold at Central Market in town, but just as Piave. It is milky, fruity, very nutty, salty, and complex. It is like a Parmigiano-Reggiano, but very mild. It just melts in your mouth. This is a cheese that can do no wrong. Hardly anyone I have ever served this to has not liked it. This Piave tastes richer than what we have in town. It's either because this is aged longer and better, or just psychological -- knowing that the cheese was overnighted from a special aging cave in NYC. It was all very exciting to get this chilled, bubble-wrapped cheese in the mail. I ripped up the cardboard box just to get to it faster. Within a couple of hourse, the entire half pound was gone.
Piave Mezzano According to the export manager at Agriform, this cheese is 4-6 months old. Made by Lattebusche in Busche in the Veneto, near Belluno. I got this free sample at the Fancy Food Show. It is not as nutty and Paresam tasting as the red label Oro del Tempo, but is very good. It has a very smooth look and texture, almost like a darker ivory. Super creamy cheese. It really coats the palate, and once it's there, I taste a little grass, something tingly, a mustiness, and milk. Lightly salty. Not granular at all. Mellow, but with a little bit of a twang. At first I was only a fan of the Oro del Tempo 12 month, but this one is really nice, too. It is good melted straight over gnocchi and also pairs well with Prosecco.
Picandou Nature $2.99 for a small hockey puck at Whole Foods. Delicious little fresh Chèvre from Burgundy that will not offend people. The name most likely derives from the French words "piquant" (spicy, sharp) and "doux" (sweet, mild.) This cheese has a little of both. Unfortunately, it's pricey for the tiny round. I love its gorgeous, delicate, almost pudding-like texture. Lemony, limy, especially lime. Then I get a log of goat cheese tang and acid plus some light hazelnuts. Boy is this good. It doesn't seem like a complex cheese at first, but it packs a punch. The only problem is that this little $3 cheese is about the size of a piece of sushi. I could knock down at least $15 worth of this in no time. It goes well with Pinot Noir, which makes sense since it is from Burgundy.
Le Pié
d’Angloys from Bordeaux $6.99 for
200 g at Far West HEB. 60% m.g.
It looks like a little goat brie. The
rind is darker, not so thick and white as a brie.
It has some lines and indentations on it from where it sat on a grid.
Soft-ripened cheese, medium-mild, musky, salty, really good, yummy tangy
aftertaste that lingers. This
cheese is best without bread so you can taste it completely, but you have to
have bread because it’s soft like a brie.
This would be a great party cheese except that it costs $7 and people
would probably take a chunk the size of a third of the round.
It is just a little bigger than the palm of my hand.
It came in a little beige cardboard case with a picture of a farm on it
and a fake wax seal. It says “Le
crémeux de Caractère. This cheese
definitely smells like a barn! I
guess that’s why they have the picture of the barn on the front.
Point Reyes blue
cheese $17.99 lb. at Central Market, $2.88 for a very slender and short slice.
It is raw cow’s milk with Roquefort mold from California.
Very salty and sour. It
doesn’t have much blue veining in it. It
is hard and crumbly. My dad likes
it a lot. Read more about the
particulars of making Pacific coast farmstead cheese at http://www.pointreyes.com.
Polish
Podlaski From Poland $4.99
lb. at Central Market, $2.00 for a nice big chunk.
I bought this cheese because it was cheap and I was going to a party.
It was also pretty. It is
dark yellow with some fermentation holes. I
thought it would taste kind of like havarti, but it really didn’t.
It smells very mild. It is
not all that tasty, and it has a heavy aftertaste of flour and a little
bitterness. It is only a little bit
salty. I wasn’t that wild about
it, but people seemed to be eating it.
Pont l'Evêque Cow's milk from Normandy, France $8.69 at Central Market for a little square. It came in a chipwood box with a picture of a cow resting on the front. It is a soft-ripened, but maybe also washed rind cheese. It has a light smell, but for the most part, this is just like a fresh camembert. It is fairly young, firm, not much orange on the white rind yet. The rind is the perfect consistency for consumption, though. The center is bouncy and not yet liquified from age. It tastes young and tangy. This is divine! I knew from the touch that this cheese would be good, but had no idea how perfect it would be. If I wanted to, I could have even aged it a couple more weeks in the fridge to let it turn orange and get more supple. Still, it was very good for a milder cheese.
Postel Old Postel Abbey Cheese. Cow’s milk from Belgium. $11.99 lb. at Central Market, $5.30 for a decent chunk. This cheese is so dense, it ends up not looking like much. It comes in a wide loaf that we cut in half and slice up so that each slice looks like a slice of a loaf of bread. It has a little strip of a dark red label with French and Flemish writing on it. It is a dark, earthy yellow color, and heading towards brown around the edges. Hard cheese, aged over 12 months. 270 mg of sodium. It reminds me of Parrano, but not as soft, light, and creamy. Nevertheless, it still has a great creamy taste. Nobody at work really likes this cheese, but I sure do. It feels a little pasty in the mouth and it has a caramel, nutty flavor that sometimes reminds me of peanutbutter. This is a cheese that was traditionally made by trappist monks. Read more about it at http://www.cheese.com/Description.asp?Name=Postel and http://www.igourmet.com/newsletter/jun99.asp
Potato Chip Cheese by Dorothea $11.99 lb. at Central Market. This cheese was created in 1993 by the Van Dijk family. Dorothea cheese is named after the Van Dijk's daughter. The famous chef Cas Spijkars wanted to win the annual Dutch award for Most Unusual Food, so he invented a flavored goat cheese and had this company make it. They used potato skins as the secret ingredient since the potato is an important food in Dutch culinary tradition. Cas didn't like the combo at first, so they tweaked the recipe by adding basil oil, coriander oil, and chopped onion. They won the award. Only 4,000 of this cheese is made per year. The humidity and temperature are adjusted every few days to assure proper maturation. It is made from pasteurized milk. It is aged for more than 60 days to develop a full, nutty flavor and a body that is firm, but not hard enough to grate. I liked this cheese. It is light cream-colored, semi-hard, and the rind is brown wax like a smoked Gouda. On the label, it says that it contains potato chips, garlic, coriander, basil, and essential oils. When I think about it, I do taste the potato, and I also taste the onions mentioned in another description. It's really tangy and salty. I get a mustard flavor and feel, like how mustard tastes salty, but really isn't. One of my friends said it tasted like salad dressing. Most people liked it. I like it, but I don't know quite what to make of it. It is a little fruity and nutty.
Poudre Puffs Bingham Hill,
Colorado. $19.96 lb. at Grapevine.
$4.99 for a 4 oz. ball. Cow’s
milk? It looks like an old dried up
white orange. It’s a ball smaller than a baseball with soft-ripened
outside, all white and wrinkly. The
inside is crumbly and pale cream-colored. Great
crumbly texture. It has a light
smell. So far, everybody is scared
to eat this because one side has a moldy beige growth on it. This is a very strange cheese.
It tastes like a very fresh Italian cow’s milk.
It has a lot of bitterness in the aftertaste and that weird fresh, yet
slightly putrid, lactic flavor. I
definitely think it needs bread with it. Daddy
thinks it has a paint flavor to it. It
does taste like paint. “Lingering
aftertaste that is equally as bad as the earlier taste,” my dad says.
Prà de l'Ö (Pra de l'O) $16.99 lb. at Central Market, $5.27 for the small orange round. This is a little cow's milk washed rind cheese from the Valtellina in northern Italy. It comes in a small round that is about the size of a large St. Marcellin. Through the plastic, I could hardly smell anything, but once I opened it up, it was really stinky. Puzza di culo (if you know Italian, go ahead and translate!) The paste has a very mellow flavor that is fruity, but the rind is wild. Ammoniated, but not too much so. It has a long lasting creamy texture and flavor. Finish that is a little bitter, nutty, fruity, and finally smoky and woody. Overall, it's somewhere in between an Epoisses (aged) and a Taleggio. The texture of the paste is great -- all creamy and lush -- but I'm not as wild about the sandy rind that cracks up and affixes itself to the slices of cheese. I think the cheese suffered during its journey. Still, this flavorful cheese is a nice change of pace from some of the boring Taleggios I've tasted recently. Without too much rind, this cheese goes well with Barbera. http://www.valsana.it Breaking down of proteins, sweet taste. In the mouth, it leaves a faint taste of mold that dissipates quickly. According to the Italian website, it is a good cheese to serve with preserves, dried fruit, or seasonal fruit. It is aged for at least 21 days.
Primat
des Gaules $8.99 lb. at Central Market. I
got a medium small chunk for $2. They
said it was sheep cheese since it’s from the Pyrenees in France.
It is light, almost white, medium soft, and has a black wax around the
edges. Salty, almost has a peppery
(green pepper) olive taste, sort of tangy.
Must be goat or sheep. If
this is a goat, it’s the creamiest goat I’ve ever had.
Little holes in it. Very
unique. I’ve never tasted a cow
or goat like this.
Provolone, Cabre extra aged
Provolone $9.99 lb. at Central
Market, $2.20 for a healthy slice. It
is slightly flaky, semi-hard, white/cream-colored, and came in a triangular
slice with some curd holes. It is
wrapped in white/clear wax, and the edge is indented from having a rope tied
around it. I guess it was a big
piece of cheese. It is really
salty! It makes my tongue burn and
my ears itch. There is a little bit
of a creamy nutty taste buried down there somewhere, a little bit of
refrigerator taste, and I don’t think it’s the refrigerator’s fault.
I think it just has that weird herby taste.
This is hard to eat. It is
still burning my mouth. The roof of
my mouth is even burning, and I am having to itch my ears.
Good one in small doses. Patrick
really likes it. I think I could
eat it in a dish better than with bread. It
needs some greenery with it to cut down on the burning and cool the tongue off.
People at Barbara’s party liked this cheese a lot and I was surprised.
My belly dance teacher, Pat Taylor, loved this cheese.
Provolone
"Real Smoked Provolone," smoked over a wood fire.
$5.09 lb. at Wheatsville, $.36 for a small slice.
It is a little rubbery like Provolone tends to be, buttery, salty, a
little fatty tasting, tangy. It is
good, though I’m not wild about smoked cheese.
North Farm made this cheese, in Madison, WI.
Provolone, smoked Maialino Provolone pig $7.69 at Central Market for a pig. $9.99 lb. It looked like a little innocent pig in a Japanese rope bondage body harness. It was an ok cheese. I ate the entire pig over a period of time, skin included, and later found out that the skin had been dipped in a light wax. Yuck.
Provolone di Pecora From Sicily. This was smuggled in by a Sicilian family. They put it in a big plastic bag and checked it and it went right through. It was covered in wax and is semi-hard. This cheese was so different because usually Provolone is made from cow's milk, but in Sicily, it is very mountainous. The cows don't have much room to roam, so they end up using mostly sheep's milk for their cheeses. This Provolone (I think) was aged about 18 months. It is more yellow than other aged Provolones, and also more flavorful. The other thing I noticed is that it seemed to be a little more crumbly. It is very piccante and has that delicious sheepy aftertaste that reminds me of vomit and milk. It is delicious.
Provolone, Aged Grapevine. About $7.99 lb. at Grapevine. It came in the shape of a waxed gourd with a noose around its neck. It is supposed to be sharp, but it is really mild, especially compared with the one that came directly from Sicily. It is very lightly sharp, semi-hard, and dense. It is from Italy, but reminds me of the Provolone in America, but with a lot more flavor. Still, it is pretty mild. Sharp aftertaste. Ike at Grapevine said that the Italians love this cheese. They come to Grapevine especially for it, and when they taste it there, they nearly have an orgasm. I figured I had better buy some if it was that exciting!
P’tit Basque
$14.99 lb. at Whole foods. $4.05
for a small wedge. Sheep’s cheese
from France. It comes in a small
cylinder. The outside is light
brown and is covered in thatched wax. The
inside is light cream-colored and almost seems semi-soft.
It is a little musty, lightly sheepy, somewhat salty, nutty, and very
creamy-tasting. It’s good.
People love this cheese. Scroll
down this site to read more: http://www.cheesemonthclub.com/pastnewsletters/vol2no6.htm
Pyrénées Green Pepper Cheese $8.99, $2.61 for a chunk at Central Market. Medium, salty, soft, like a munster, but not as soft as a brie. Comes with a black wax, peppercorns, but not too many. Has a creamy after-tastes that goat lacks. Very salty – surprising, since a cheese that soft is usually not salty, yet has a sweet aftertaste. A social cheese. Pair with one mild cheese and one strong one.
Pyrénées Green Pepper Cheese
$8.99 lb. at Central Market, $2.78 for a nice slab. It is white, kind of
processed-feeling, cow’s milk. It comes wrapped in thick black wax and has
green peppercorn inside of it. It
has a lime taste to it. It is
semi-soft. I don’t taste the
green peppercorns so much, though. I
tried it with a red Grenache noir and it made the wine taste awful.
Then I tried it with a cheap chardonnay and it was great, even made the
bad white wine taste sweet and smooth.