Hello Fellow Cheese Travelers!

Sometimes food (especially cheese), has a way of transporting you…to another place, another time, or another culture.

Browsing through my local retailers cheese cases can sometimes be a “treasure hunt”…What is new?...What haven’t I seen in a long time?...What is seasonal?

Photo courtesy of Swiss or Miss Ahhh….What is “seasonal” you ask? Well, if you look through some of my social media feeds, you will see dozens of photos of “Alpabzug” (also known as Transhumance) – A celebration of the cows returning home after their Summer in the high alpine pastures of Switzerland (see top right).

The sights of cows being paraded through town is only part of the fun…It’s the cheese that was produced from this Alpine Milk that really makes some spectacular cheeses.

That’s what came to mind as I spotted Glarner Alpkäse AOP…So what’s so special about this cheese?

Hello Fellow Cheese Travelers!

As March is “Women’s History Month”, I thought I would share with you the story of a celebrated cheesemaker from Norway, Anne Haav (sometimes spelled Hov). Many people may not recognize her name, but the cheese that she created is recognized around the world. In 1863, Anne created Gudbrandsdalost, but many people know it by its common name, Gjetost.

This cheese may be a simple one, but I am sure that what I am about to share might surprise even the most experienced cheese lover.

Gjetost has a unique (and celebrated) history. So pull up a “Stol” and grab your “Ostehøvel.” because we are about to dig into this sweet, carmel-y, creation.

Hello Fellow Cheese Enthusiasts!

Recently I had the opportunity to travel to the South…to be specific, Atlanta, Georgia. Ask anyone their thoughts on the foods from the South, and you will most certainly hear someone speak about Pimento Cheese. I confirmed this with my sister who lives in Atlanta and her husband from Alabama.

In my early days of working in a cheese shop, I sold a little Italian import known as Galbani Bel Paese.

I did not know much about the brand, or the cheese, other than it was imported from Italy. It had a mild taste and my customers loved it!

I thought it was long overdue to share the story of this iconic brand (and cheese) and how they got started….

Hello Fellow Cheese Enthusiasts!

By now I am sure that most of my loyal readers have thought that something drastic must have happened (like being trapped in a cheese cave, becoming lactose intolerant, or worse) to me, as it has been a while since I have written a blog post. The truth is that after being isolated for 18 months from my cheese community, I was down…Then travel opened back up for me and I found myself busier than ever. I still have many more stories to share, so be patient with me as I gear back up and get back to my writing that I miss so desperately…

Hello Fellow Cheese Travelers!

Today’s story easily could have been called “From Ohio, with Love”, but then you may not have read this far…

While I have seen many interviews with cheese makers over the last year, I wanted to take a different approach and write a story about cheesemongers and the important role they have in our cheese industry. They are the last set of hands that touch the piece of cheese before it makes its way into the customer’s basket.

Without further ado, please allow me to introduce John and Anne Reese of Black Radish Creamery.

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

Upon my desk sits a small stack of French Books with a small bust of Napoléon Bonaparte standing guard proudly over them. While they may be small, they are mighty…

In my many travels, it has been some of the smallest cheeses that have made the biggest impact.

I thought that I might share a few of them today with you:

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

I have to admit it…March 2021 hit me much harder than I would have expected…it was then I realized that it had been a full year since everything shut down, travel stopped, people isolated, and it yet remains to be determined if it will ever return to the way it was.

To keep a smile on my face, I remind myself of the things that I am grateful for, and the things that bring me joy (cue Julie Andrews singing about “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens”).

In my case, its Blue cheese….whether you call it Fromage bleu, Queso azul, or Blauer Käse, it is universal in any language. It can be spicy or mild, creamy or crumbly, made from cow, goat, or sheep’s milk, it doesn’t matter to me.

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

The inspiration for this week’s blog came from the photo roll of my camera. I found a series of photos that I had taken last year of the smoky skies near my home in Northern California, due to the horrible fires that we had experienced. The day the photo was taken, the smoke was so thick that there was only about 1,000 feet of visibility and the local schools were closed due to the air quality.

Seeing this smoke, I commented to a neighbor that I had planned on hanging some cheddar on the clothesline outside to see if I could smoke it….Not too far from the truth, as cheesemakers have been doing just that same step for years.

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

A very special edition this week to help celebrate one very special person…My “Editor-In-Cheese”, also known as my Mom.

Every week I kick around some ideas to write about, take my final photos by Friday, and then finally finish up writing the story over the weekend. Most Sunday evenings you can find me on the phone with my Mom late into the night, so that she can help me edit my latest post. She was an English major in college, but that is not why I ask her…I enjoy letting her be the first person to read my post, as well as sharing the backstory of the post with her.

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

I must admit in life, there are many things that one takes for granted…meaning that they may have been important at one period in your life, but their luster faded over time, until one day you see them in a different light, or in today’s post, someone has taken something old and made it new again.

Ultimately, today’s post is about “Curds & Whey”, so pull up a Tuffet and sit back while I put a very old (and new) twist on today’s post.

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Paper?...Plastic?...or Parchment?? Seems like everyone has an opinion on how cheese is supposed to be wrapped. Oh, I fully admit it was one of the biggest questions that I received while working behind the cheese counter…and who could blame them?...Cheese was, and still is, expensive.

For the last several years, I attended (and cheered on) some of the nation’s best cheesemongers at the Cheesemonger Invitational events on the West Coast. (You can read all about my experience here). I can tell you the parchment paper was flying that night…it looked something like the department store giftwrap counter on December 24th. These mongers were able to fold and wrap with all of the precision of an origami master. They were being judged on their speed, technique, and tightness of their wrap.

Hello Cheese Enthusiast!

Well, I certainly did not plan for the last three posts for the Cheese Traveler to be about historical figures, but sometimes you go where the research leads you…

In honor of Valentine’s Day this week, I bring you the following story…

About a month ago, I was doing some research on Roquefort Cheese and I read that this classic blue cheese from France was mentioned in “The Memoirs of Casanova”…. Wait!...What??...Casanova kept memoirs??...and they mentioned cheese??...I was intrigued and had to know more.

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

Well, Super Bowl LV is almost upon us. A head-to-head competition between two of the season’s best teams (although I would have preferred it had been between Green Bay and Buffalo – two classic cheese related teams). This year’s showdown is set for Sunday, February 7th and will be played in Tampa Bay, Florida.

While most may be picking sides, or anticipating which company will claim the most memorable commercial, I am thinking of what I am going to eat on Super Bowl Sunday, as it has become an annual day of snacking…

Hello Fellow Cheese Enthusiasts!

In 1861, just as the “War between the States” (American Civil War) had begun, a book on “domestic civility” had just been released in London, England. Entitled “Beeton's Book of Household Management”, it sounded like an early version of Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events, but it was so much more than that…

Behind this Victorian Era masterpiece was publisher, Samuel O. Beeton. Samuel had made his early money as the first British publisher of Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852, securing the rights from the then-unknown Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Hello Fellow Cheese Enthusiasts!

A few weeks ago my friend Barry Zuroff called me to talk about Danish Havarti Cheese. He called because he had recently received word that Danish Havarti Cheese had been awarded PGI status (Protected Geographical Indication) and wanted to know more, so this Cheese Traveler decided to dig in and give you the full story about this Danish classic cheese.

Greeting Cheese Enthusiasts!

I have written much about Cow’s and Goat’s milk cheeses on Cheese Traveler, but it was brought to my attention that I did not have a lot of information regarding Sheep milk cheeses.

There is much to share, so let’s get started!

Much like Goats, Sheep have been domesticated for thousands of years…way before cows…about 6,000 years ago. This most likely happened due to their size and temperament, as well as their ability to provide dairy (fresh milk/cheese), wool (clothing), as well as fresh meat.

Hello and Happy New Year Cheese Enthusiasts!

Many people this time of year are ready to start working out and eating healthier. I agree!...Time to start eating your greens!!....No, I am not speaking of those leafy greens!...This is a cheese blog!!...I speak of those cheeses that are wrapped in leaves!

Last year I started several blogs that spoke of different ways that cheese makers used natural methods such as Marinating and Binding with Wood in order to hold the soft cheese curd together and protect it from the elements. Wrapping with leaves could easily be the third installment to this series.

Hello Cheese Enthusiast!

While most parents were busy shopping online trying to find that last “perfect” gift…and visions of sugar plums were dancing in children’s heads (or something like that), a quiet anniversary was being celebrated in a far off land.

Queso Manchego may have been produced as early as the 4th millennium B.C, but it only became one of Spain’s protected cheeses on 21 December 1984….but I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s step back in time…way back. A time in history known as “The Bronze Age” when writing was just starting and history began to record happenings…

guess that I have always had a thing for spices…My first job at a cheese counter was an awakening, not just for the hundreds of cheeses they carried that expanded my sense of taste and smell, but also my sense of wonder. This shop was also known for carrying gourmet foods (mostly from Europe) and exotic spices. By today’s standards they may not have seemed exotic, but for that time in history, they were ground breaking. Where did they come from?...How were they used??...I was intrigued and had to learn more.

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

When I wrote my blog post Back to Nature – Wood Bound, I may have been premature when writing that piece in June, as some of them were not available until the wintertime, so I decided to revisit this cheese style as many were coming available this month.

This week’s post, could really be considered a “Part II” to the “Wood Bound” story, so I hope that you will take a few minutes to reread it.

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

Photo courtesy of mirandadventure

Now that Thanksgiving has past, I find myself thinking about Turkey all the time…No, not the “Plump & Juicy” kind, but the beautiful country of Turkey that is nestled in between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.Officially called theRepublic of Turkey, it is truly a transcontinental country, located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia.

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

I have been thinking a lot lately about what I like to call “Cheese Essentials”…they are ingredients, or terms that we use in the cheese industry, but their definition, use, need, or even their ‘essence’ may get lost over time. I have tried to focus on a few of these in the last few months, such as my story on Rennet (you can read it here), or last week’s post on Mold. These may not be romantic cheese stories, but if you enjoy reading and learning more about what ingredients that you are consuming, then I think that blog posts like these are important pieces on this body of work, simply known as Cheese Traveler.

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

I am back!...I had a few year-end projects to finish up, and could not wait to get back to writing. While away, I received the following message through the comments section of the Cheese Traveler blog: “I've seen several discussions online about trimming mold from cheese, and that it’s safe to do so. I've always done this, and would like your perspective on doing this”.

Great topic!!...and definitely one that should be discussed!!

Hello Cheese Enthusiasts!

Besides my love for cheese, I also love family history…As a result, I have access to a lot of old newspaper databases and decided recently to take a look back 100 years to 1920. I remembered some of the highlights from this era from my history lessons…World War I had just ended and the nations were learning to work together again; women gained the right to vote, prohibition has stopped all of the legal sales of alcohol, the population was a third of what it is today, and Jazz music was all the rage…But what about the world of cheese?? I decided to take a look…The following article is a shared here in its entirety for your reading pleasure. It is from Page 11 of The Sacramento Bee Newspaper, 17 August 1920:

HOLES IN SWISS CHEESE INDICATIVE OF ITS QUALITY

Hello Cheese Enthusiast!

This time of year, the air is a little crisper, the leaves are turning the most beautiful array of colors, and nightfall seems to come a little quicker…That can only mean one thing!!...Halloween is almost here!!

Realizing that Summer was officially behind us, we wanted one last camping adventure to help celebrate a few birthdays, the last warm weekend of the year, and sitting around the campfire at night enjoying a few too many s’mores, a few laughs, and of course, some good stories!

No ghost stories here…although it may be frightening that some of these cheeses we are about to discuss are not more readily available.

So settle in and gather around the fire as I tell you about three cheeses that are perfect for this time of year…