Good to Goat!

Hello Fellow Traveler!

On the road this week…visiting new cities, new cheese counters and the amazing, dedicated cheesemongers behind them.

When I ran out the door for this trip, I did not know what I was going to write about, but considering how much cheese I was going to be around this week, I knew that I would find the inspiration en route.

I am a very visual person, so it’s no wonder that I found the inspiration in the samples that I carried with me!

Goat Cheeses have a very special story. While it may be true that goat cheeses may have been the first cheese to be created (due to the animal’s size, diet, and versatility), it was the French that took this cheese-making style and helped elevate it to a new art form. The different shapes, styles, ages, and treatments that they have used over the years are dizzying! That’s what the folks at ANICAP (L’Association National Interprofessionnelle Caprine) are trying to share with the Goat Cheese-loving public. This art form in France was truly perfected in the Loire Valley of France, where the terroir is so beautifully expressed in these cheeses. 

When I started working behind my first cheese counter, the only goat cheese that was readily available was from France. To this day, just the taste will bring me back in time.

Today, we are blessed to have so many wonderful producers of goat cheeses in the States. I live on the West Coast, so cheese cases in my area are filled with Cypress Grove products, including the iconic Humboldt Fog created by Mary Keehn, as well as Laura Chenel’s Goat Cheeses out of Marin. Laura Chenel Chèvre quickly became a favorite of the Bay Area once Chef Alice Waters featured it in one of her dishes at her world famous restaurant, Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley’s “Gourmet Ghetto”.

But the two cheeses I want to talk about are from the East Coast.

In the early 1980’s, Allison Hooper traveled to the Brittany region of France for a cheese-making internship on a farm. It was here that she fell in love with these cheeses. 

Returning to the States, Allison got a job working in a dairy lab and milking goats when she was approached by Bob Reese, who was working for the Vermont Department of Agriculture. Bob was charged with organizing a dinner featuring Vermont-made products. When the French Chef requested fresh goat cheese, Bob asked Allison to make the cheese. The dinner was a hit and Vermont Creamery was born that very night!

I first met Allison around 2009 while I was working as a specialty cheese broker (yes, that is a real job!) representing some amazing cheese companies. I was very familiar with her products from my days of being a deli buyer for my grocery store, bringing in their Crème Fraîche, as there was really nothing else like it at the time. 

When she and I first spoke, I did not realize that I would soon get to represent their cheese line, but was even more thrilled when I was able to taste their aged goat cheese line up!

I use two of their cheeses as a regular part of cheese education. The following two cheeses beautifully illustrate how age can effect flavor:

Classic Goat Cheese Log – As simple and pure as it sounds! This award-winning cheese has a fresh milk taste, mild flavor, and smooth texture. It perfectly exemplifies the term “Fresh Cheese”. With minimal aging, this product is ready to ship to market.

Bijou – This hand-shaped little button of cheese has a dense center with a nice cream line just under this wrinkly Geotrichum rind. Bijou, meaning “Jewel” in French pays a beautiful homage to the classic French Crottin from the Loire Valley. The flavor and texture will intensify with age.

The teaching moment? – While only about two weeks difference in age, they could not taste more different, or have a more different mouth-feel. Both are essentially made the same way, but the Bijou has been inoculated with the Geotrichum which turns it from a “fresh cheese” to a “surface-ripened” cheese. This special application of the Geotrichum perfectly illustrates the versatility of Goat cheese, how age, moisture levels, and how the affinage treatment can impact the overall flavor of the cheese.

Two beautiful cheeses that not only show off the terroir of Vermont, but pay homage to the cheeses of the Loire Valley.

Until next week…Go,Go, Goat!!

Trevor