Sage Derby $8.59 lb.
at Whole Foods. Cow milk cheddar type cheese, light yellow marbled with lime
green, very mild, not stinky, flecks of sage. Hardish cheese.
Saint Agur $16.99 lb. It has since gone up to $19.99 lb. at Whole Foods, and it's worth every penny. Cow's milk from Auvergne, France. Sweet blue cheese, cream-colored, soft, spreadable paste, with crunchy, spicy, bright blue mold. The finish is tingly and it burns my throat. Delicate cheese. This is absolutely delicious. It is tangy and creamy at the same time. It melts in my mouth. Very buttery. It is a dainty little cheese for being so strong. This cheese, at room temperature, is so wonderful. Even with the plastic wrapper on, I could smell a delicious, cheesy, tangy, pure cheese aroma, and then some blue. The paste is dark cream colored, but it's not one of those dirty-tasting Stilton type of cheeses. This cheese is extremely delicate, light on the tongue, salty, creamy, sweet, moldy, spicy -- everything I love. It is an exciting cheese on so many levels.
Saint-Albray
French from the Jura, $5.99 lb. At HEB, $2.88 for a big chunk.
This cheese was pure nastiness! It
stunk up my fridge. It is creamy
and light, a little rubbery on the inside, supple, with a crust with red/orange
mold and some white powder. It
looked fresh enough, but on second glance, had been packed nearly 4 weeks
before. I think this cheese was old
because the books say it’s supposed to be mild with a light odor, but it is
bitter and stinks. It is washed
rind, but it isn’t supposed to be this strong.
It was even stronger than the Limburger-esque Bierkaese that I had bought
the same day. I melted it on toast
and it was a little better. If this
is old, it would be the second old cheese I have bought at Far West HEB.
I talked to some people at Central Market and they said that the Saint
Albray should not be ammoniated like that.
Saint Albray
$12.99 lb. at Central Market. $5.87
for a big slice. Patrick loves this
cheese. I got some for him and it
was a good batch. It stank really
bad, but the flavor was good and just a little stronger than munster.
It is a meaty, spicy, robust cheese with a bitter aftertaste.
Sounds bad, but it is interesting for a change of pace here and there. This cheese is from the Aquitaine region of France.
http://www.hillersmarkets.com/cheesenotes_detail.cfm?cheesenotes_ID=14
St. André
Triple crème Brie $9.99 lb. at HEB Hancock, $2.70 for a slender slab.
It is a very buttery creamy brie. I
like it a lot. It’s competitor at Central Market is Délice de Bourgogne,
a saltier, tangier triple crème. St.
André is excellent, though. The
paste looks like soft butter, and tastes only slightly cheesier.
The label says that the milk was mixed with whipped sweet cream and heavy
sour cream. It is supposed to go
best with a light, fruity rosé. http://thecheeseshop.com/cgi/SoftCart.exe/scstore/p-0062.html?E+scstore
Saint
Marcellin This is a yummy little
cheese. The size of the palm of my
hand, soft-ripened cow’s milk. The
crust is not too thick. The inside
is creamy and a little darker at the edges.
Tangy, a little bitter, salty, and moldy.
It seems young, but it still really stinky. It’s
not so congealed as a Brie. Patrick
says it smells like the YMCA locker room—moldy towels, but not stinky feet.
It is giving Patrick asthma. I
guess he’s allergic to mold. Patrick
doesn’t like it as much as the washed rinds.
It is from the Dauphiné region. Mild,
acidic and salty. It can also be
served ripe. It is cow’s milk,
but originally was a goat’s milk cheese.
This one tastes like it could have a little bit of goat in it.
It is pasteurized. It is
really good. Kevin said that in
France, he used to wrap it in foil and let it sit out until it got really stinky
and runny and eat it with a spoon. Double
crème, 50% m.g.
Ste.
Maure from Pure Luck $14.99 lb. at Central Market, $5.80 for a tiny log that would
sit well in the palm of a hand. This
is one of my new favorite cheeses! It
comes in a very small log, soft-ripened. The
guy from Pure Luck said that it was aged 6 weeks.
It is kind of runny under the plastic and almost a light brown color from
the liquid. Inside, it is gooey
(but in a good way) with firmer cheese on the inside.
It is fairly salty, tastes like a runny, ripe brie at times, but also has
a strong mold/Roquefort taste. In
the finish of the cheese, there is a definite goat flavor.
Everybody at work loved this cheese. The only problem is that it is so
small, it would be devoured in mere seconds at a party and people might not stop
to savor it.
Pure Luck $6 for 4-6 oz. Log,
Farmstead Goat cheese. Ste. Maure
from Dripping Springs, Texas. Has
vegetable rennet and some herbs which I couldn’t taste.
Crust looks old, a little white brie-like crust.
Great goat taste, very salty, perhaps a little too salty, creamy in the
middle, firmer towards the crust. Slightly
crumbly. Very clean.
I liked this cheese a lot.
Saint Maure, Jacquin
Goat’s milk from France. $22.59
lb. at Central Market, about $12.50 for a big log.
It was rolled in ashes and also had the piece of straw in it that is put
there to hold the cheese together and to ventilate it.
It was a lot like the pave de jadis – light, white, fluffy, and not too
goaty – but it seemed just a little denser and more crumbly.
It broke off in chunks. It
was very good with the Sancerre.
Saint-Nectaire
$6.99 lb. at Grapevine, $2.70 for a huge pie slice. It looks kind
of like Reblochon. It has a hard
rind, red and white mold, straw-colored paste.
When it gets softened up, it is barely harder than a cold brie.
It is really good. Salty,
creamy, mildly buttery, a tad musky, but not like Brie because I cut the rind
off. It doesn’t have a lot of
flavor, but is good. Buttery.
It is from Auvergne in France. It
is aged on straw. It is supposed to
smell like a pasture, and I guess the rind does smell more like cow doo than
mold. I liked it and other people
did, too. It is awkward to eat
because you want to eat it like a brie, but you have to cut the thick rind off.
I tried this again later from Grapevine. I think the cheese was more aged,
so it had more flavor. It was a little bitter and spicy. It doesn't
really smell like a washed rind, but it tastes like one. It is the
opposite of the washed rinds that smell really bad, but taste mild.
Sap Sago $3 for a little concrete
tower at Central Market. It is
genuine Swiss green cheese. It is a
low-fat cow cheese made with clover and aged over 90 days.
It is supposed to be green, but it is cream-colored with a green tint.
It looks like a sandcastle tower or a concrete sculpture.
It is dry, crumbly, greener on the inside.
It tastes like liquorice or chemicals.
It makes my tongue sting. It’s
awful. It makes red wine taste like
fish. It is a well-known Swiss
sour-curd cheese made from ripened zieger and honey lotus clover.
I took it to a party and dared people to eat it, told them it was the
worst cheese in the world, but nobody would eat it.
I think people grate it up and make salad dressings out of it.
Sbrinz
Hard Mountain Cheese $9.99 lb. at
Central Market, $3.60 for a small/medium block.
Cow’s milk cheese from Switzerland.
It is dark yellow, different colors of yellow.
It is definitely hard and dense. I
can slice it in tiny slivers and when I hold it up in the light, I see little
chunks of salt in it. It does taste
salty. It’s got some nuttiness
and cheesy tanginess to it, and something light that reminds me of the smell of
rubber. When it comes down to it,
it really doesn’t have a huge, strong flavor.
I really like eating it because of the crunchy salt crystals.
It used to be only made in the province of Brienz, but now is made
elsewhere as well.
Read more about it at
http://www.cheese.com/Description.asp?Name=Sbrinz
Sbrinz is so famous, it has its own website in Switzerland:
The site says that the milk is made from the Braunvieh cow (those cute brown
European cows with white muzzles and bells around their necks).
They eat only grass in the summer and hay in the winter, never any sort
of fodder. All natural.
Sbrinz Cow's milk from Switzerland. Dark yellow, deep-colored, and semi-hard. It says Sbrinz on the rind in wax. It has little grains of salt in it. It is nutty and goes well with red wine. When you hold a thin slice up to the window, you can see the salt nodules. I always like this cheese. It reminds me of a Swiss Parmigiano.
Scamorza,
smoked Mozzarella Company in Dallas. $12.99 lb. at Central Market. $8.70 for a
big ball. This is the only Scamorza I could find in
Austin. It comes in a round not much bigger than a baseball. It has had a little
rope tied around its neck so that it has divided into something that looks more
like a fat pear. It is covered in thick yellow wax. Inside, the cheese is
cream-colored and very supple. Towards the wax, it is a little more brown. There
is a piece of straw or a little string that runs along the outside of the
cheese. When I eat towards the straw, the cheese is a lot herbier. It has a good mouthfeel -- definitely a stretched curd type. It is bouncy like a
low-moisture Mozzarella or a Provolone. This company smokes their cheeses over
pecan shells. I like it. Usually I am not much into smoked cheeses, but lately,
since I have found some artisanal smoked cheeses, I have been enjoying them.
They also go well with some of the rustic red wines. This cheese is not exactly like
being in Italy, but it is still good.
Selles-sur-Cher, Jacquin
$22.99 lb. at Whole Foods, $12.41 for a round the size of my palm.
It’s raw goat’s milk from Berry and came in its own little wooden
crate. It is completely covered in
lumpy light gray mold. This is
great! It’s very very goaty,
possibly the goatiest I’ve had in a while.
It’s creamier towards the rind, and chalky on the inside.
It is a little stinky-tasting and not too salty.
It is supposed to taste like hazelnuts.
Maybe that’s the weird taste that I can’t name.
Yes, it does taste a little like hazelnuts, come to think of it—old
hazelnuts! http://www.fromagerie-jacquin.com/selles_sur_cher1.htm.
I tasted this again. It had gone up to $24.99 at
Whole Foods. It came in the wooden crate again. It is shriveled up and grey/white
with a tough rind. I cut a third of it and put it on a cheese plate. Within
about 10 minutes, it had come to room temperature and started to ooze. After 20
minutes, it looked like it was sticking its tongue out at me! It is very spicy,
very goaty, and a little bitter. It's good, but it really does fill your mouth
up with some crazy flavors. Before long, it gets milder. This is the ripest
Selles-sur-Cher I've ever had.
Shepherd's Wheel Soft-ripened sheep's milk cheese from the Old Chatham Sheepherding Company in Old Chatham, New York. It comes in a 3 lb. wheel. It has a downy, edible rind, a creamy texture, mild flavor, with earthy tones and a nutty finish. It intensifies as the flavors develop. Read more about it at http://www.blacksheepcheese.com.
Shropshire
Blue, Clawson From England.
$15.49 lb. at Central Market, $4.65 for a decent, yet scant slice.
“A smooth golden blue veined cheese, excellent with claret.”
It says to put it on filo dough, fold it, and bake it.
It is the color of cheddar because it has annatto in it.
It has blue veins scattered around, and a dark brown rind with some white
mold on it. Comparable to the
Roaring Forties. It is mild, but
has a good, strong-tasting mold on it. It’s
nutty. It’s got a weird bite,
almost bitter at times, but creamy. It’s
really good. Really moldy aftertaste, kind of itchy.
It’s not sharp like a Roquefort, though.
I don’t know how they make this cheese.
I guess it’s cow’s milk so that it doesn’t have that one kind of
sharpness.
Single Gloucester, Smart
Neal’s Yard. $13.99 lb. at
Central Market. It came in a slab. Raw cow’s milk. It
is very cheddary, long-lasting, yet understated.
It was milder than the Double Gloucester. The people at the party loved this cheese.
Skirrid $15.99 lb. at Central Market, $5.28 for a modest hunk. It was a little expensive, but I loved the color of it. It looks like it came in a small cylinder. The rind is the color of cocoa powder. The cheese is ivory-colored and gets a little greenish brown towards the edges. It is semi-hard and dry, a little like some of the Greek sheep’s cheeses, but a little spongier. It crumbles in your mouth and is extremely salty, 500 mg. per oz. It has a nice long finish and an aftertaste of something vaguely stinky like that light vomity taste I get from pecorino romanos. It’s good, though.
Snofrisk About $3-4 for 4.4 oz. at Whole Foods. This spreadable cheese comes in a triangular container. There is a darling picture of a snow white goat on the front sniffing flowers. Snofrisk comes from the makers of Jarlsberg in Norway. It is 80% goat's milk and 20% cow's milk. It has a goat taste, but with extra cream behind it from the cow's milk and a thicker, smoother cream cheese cow-like texture. It is nice and easy to eat. What was strange about it was that I couldn't decide whether it was goaty or not because of the cow's milk.
Sole, Formaggi Sole $11.99 lb. at Central Market. $5.04 for a big chunk. Sheep cheese from Sardinia. It has an acidic aftertaste and a little bit of a mayonnaise taste. It also tastes like bile, but it's not unpleasant bile. It seems like it would be better as a cooking cheese than a snacking cheese.
Sonoma Jack Hot Pepper Cheese $3.59 for at least 1/2 lb. I bought this at a liquor store in San Francisco. Cheap! It is more yellow than your usual Monterey Jack, and it has flecks of red and darker peppers in it. The label says that it is hot, but it's really pretty mild. Very tangy from the milk and peppers. It tastes pickled. It has a good consistency for melting. My friend Tracy and I can't quit eating this cheese. It is rennetless and pasteurized, and it contains Jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, and crushed red peppers. This is so much better than the Pepper Jacks I usually eat. I am surprised to have found such a tasty cheese in a liquor store. We went in to get beer, and came out with my other favorite food -- cheese.
Sonoma Jack with Portabella Mushrooms $3.59 for a huge chunk at a liquor store in San Francisco. This cheese looks the same as the Hot Pepper Jack listed above, but it has dark flecks of Portabella mushrooms, spices, and herbs.
Soréda Cone with Black Peppercorn $12.99 lb. at Whole Foods, $1.82 for a small pyramid. Made by the Fromagerie Soréda in Périgord. Southern France, near the Bordeaux regions where the Garonne and Dordogne rivers are. I can't find a lot of info out about this cheese online. This company also makes the delicious Cabécou Feuille goat cheese, wrapped in chestnut leaves. Some of the other cheeses alongside this one were wrapped in leaves, but they were past their prime. Vince at Whole Foods discouraged me from buying one, but when I sampled the peppercorn version, even though the paste was probably tougher than it should have been, I really enjoyed it. The core of the cheese is a dense cream color, and then it changes to caramel towards the rind. It is covered in crushed black peppers with some mold on top. It is kind of peanut-buttery textured, like peanut butter that has gotten stuck up alongside the rim of the jar and dried out. The flavor is definitely goaty with a bit of a barnyard finish. Tangy and spicy with lots of nuts, and the flavors from the black peppers that have bled into the paste of the cheese. It's really good. I think I would like this better with the peppers, since it is aged, to balance things out a bit.
Sottocenere
al Tartufo $19.99 at Whole Foods. It is called Sottocenere because
"sotto" is "under" in Italian and "cenere" is
"ash" -- meaning that the cheese is covered in ash. I never have liked
this cheese, but finally got friendlier with it. It was suggested to me as a
good match for Prosecco. It is cream-colored, dense, and aromatic. In fact, it
smells like bad breath, which is part of the reason I never liked it before. It
has that sort of wild onion/garlic halitosis thing going on, I guess from the
truffles. The people at the party loved it, though. It was everybody's favorite.
It is a fairly mild cheese overall. Here is my description from class: Sottocenere is a firm cow’s milk cheese made
with black truffles and then rubbed with herbs and spices to enhance its flavor.
Following the old Venetian tradition this cheese gets covered with ash and
aromatized with truffle. Sottocenere means "Beneath the Ash". From
Treviso. Cow’s milk, firm texture with flavor of white truffles, spice and
anis.
This is a
soft solid cheese with flakes of black truffle inside. The units of cheese are
carefully washed after a short period of ripening, and then the surface
undergoes a treatment with extra virgin olive oil, many spices, especially
cinnamon and then natural truffle flavoring. At this point the cheese is covered
with ashes, allowing it to keep its flavor better. Its aromatic characteristics
make it a very good cheese for very particular dishes.
Soumaintrain From Burgundy, France. $19.99 lb. at Grapevine. $6 for a little wedge. This looks, acts, and tastes like a triple cream Brie type. Its rind is nice and soft with downy white mol and some brown and orange speckling here and there. The paste is luscious. It looks almost like cream-colored sour cream, it is so fluffy. The flavor explodes in your mouth. It is unpasteurized, so it has extra power and longer lasting flavor. It is creamy, salty, and earthy with the mold. The mold is also firm and when my teeth bite into it, they sink in and then suddenly pop through the delicate skin. The mold is fun to chew on after the creamy cheese has left your mouth. It is delicious and a treat to taste since I never see it here, especially unpasteurized. The French Cheese book says that it is generally eaten young, 6-8 weeks old, and that the rind is washed and brushed just like an Epoisses. This one doesn't seem to be such a washed rind since there is so much white mold, though there is some red bacteria here and there.
Speziato al Tartufo $21.99 lb., $2.64 for a teeny wedge. This cheese reminds me a lot of Sottocenere (see above) in both flavor and texture, but lighter. The rind is brown and dusty, and I assume that's the truffle and spice coating. The outside tastes like cinnamon. It is a cream color with little specks of truffles here and there. I can taste some of the same coating of the Sottocenere, like cinnamon, for instance. It is the same style of coating, but with out the ash that Sottocenere has. It is good and easier to eat that Sottocenere. Excellent cheese.
Stilchester
From England $10.59 lb.
$3.49 for a decent chunk. This
is the cheddar-type of cheese that is layered with blue cheese.
It is really good and people like it.
It is pretty, too.
Stilton,
Neal’s Yard Colston Basset Stilton $8.99
lb. at Central Market, $1.62 for a small slice.
The king of cheeses. It is
creamy-colored, but towards the rind, it gets dark brown like the cookies I used
to eat when I was a kid. The rind
is really tough and has some white mold flecks on top of the brown.
It is a firm cheese, with just a little bit of blue.
It looks like a creamy, white cheddar.
The blue taste is really strong, but then there is the cheddar-like
aftertaste. It is bitter, sharp,
tastes kind of green. I guess
that’s the mold. Patrick says
it’s medium-stinky. It has a
weird cheddar taste. I don’t
quite know what to make of this cheese, but I like it.
It is slice-able like cheddar. It
tastes cold, green/blue, like water. It’s
not a warm cheese.
Read more about it at
http://www.gourmet-a-la-modem.com/0105008.htm
Stilton also has its own website in the UK:
http://www.stiltoncheese.com/index.html
Stilton,
Neal’s Yard Colston Bassett Stilton
$13.99
lb. at Central Market. $3.08 for a
good slab. It is darker
cream-colored, and towards the rind it is almost yellow.
The rind is brown. This piece doesn’t have a lot of blue veining in it, but I
can see where the cheese was pierced with the needles. It is crumbly, yet creamy-tasting, and with long-lasting
lightly salty blue. Apollo said he
really liked it, and that it was strong, but it seemed not so sharp to me.
It is not too salty – 260 mg per serving.
The blue flavor is really nice and smooth.
This cheese is excellent!
Stravecchio, 2 years $12.99 at Central Market, $2.47 for a small piece. It was sitting out with the Parmigiano-Reggiano. It is rock hard. It is a little rubbery and not as salty as Parmigiano-Reggiano. I'm not wild about it. It is chewy, nutty, and is pale yellow like Parmigiano. It has crystallized protein circles on it. It would be best for a grating cheese. I tried this later on and really liked it. It seems like a dryer version of Parmigiano-Reggiano. It has Stravecchio stamped in the rind. The name Stravecchio is usually reserved for "extra old" Parmigiano that is aged for 3 years instead of 16-24 months. At four years, it is called Stravecchione. This one is just two years old.
Swiss, Bavarian Emmental From Germany $6.49 per lb. at Central Market, $2.66 for a decent chunk. Very mild with a sweet nutty taste. It is a little bit rubbery, as are almost all swisses. It is very light in color. It seems young, but it says on the label “extra age for extra flavor.” It says that it’s aged over 120 days. I don’t see where the aging helped with the flavor. It’s ok, but it doesn’t really have too much taste. It’s good for snacking, though. It’s made by Kaeserei Champignon in Lauben, Germany. The milk is pasteurized, even though it has been aged over 60 days. People liked it ok.
Swiss
Cheese, Wisconsin, Great Lakes $4.49
lb. at Central Market, $2.33 for a huge slab. It looks like the usual Swiss cheese, but seems to be younger.
It is lighter. I got it
because it has a lot of holes. It
was so pretty. It’s actually kind
of mild. It tastes sort of like
steak to me, so that’s good. Buttery
flavor. It takes a while to chew
into the flavor of it. It is maybe
even milder than a baby Swiss. I
like it, but it doesn’t have a lot of taste.
It has a little bit of a minty, herby smell, very light.
Swiss Diablo $11.99 lb. at
Central Market, $2.88 for a slender slice.
It has a black border and straw-colored semi-hard paste with a few little
holes here and there. This cheese
is a little like a raclette at times. It
will give you bad breath. It makes
my tongue burn and ears itch. It is
nutty, a little sweet, creamy, herby, sharp and slightly, with a grain of salt
here and there. Burns your palate.
Long smooth finish, but no aftertaste.
This is a fun cheese. It’s
not so heavy as a raw milk raclette, but it has a great variety of flavors
running through it.
Swiss Emmentaler $4.99 lb., $2 for a big chunk, on sale at Whole Foods. Not chilled when I bought it. Not many holes, big holes, buttery, soft, butter-colored, very mild, a little sweet, not very nutty. Made with rennet.
Swiss Olive
$11.99 lb. at Grapevine, $3.24 for a small slice.
People loved this cheese! I
wasn’t so crazy about it, but everybody else was.
It was cream-colored, semi-soft, and trimmed in thin black wax.
It tasted nothing like Swiss to me and didn’t have a Swiss cheese
texture. It reminded me a little of
Havarti, had a light olive flavor, and a long finish that was buttery and almost
eggy. Generally good and fun to
eat. It also seemed to go well with
wine.