Spooky Cheeses…

Hello Fellow Cheese Travelers!

I am calling Chicago home for a few days, thanks to a business trip. While in town, I had to see what “cheesy” events and/or places there were to visit.

I am happy to report that I found Beautiful Rind, a specialty cheese shop, restaurant and classroom space in Logan Square – About 16 miles Northwest of Downtown Chicago.

Beautiful Rind was the brainchild of Randall Felts, a retail cheesemonger who was ready to take the plunge and open his storefront which would feature cheese, wines, accompaniments, catering, classes, lighter-fare meals, and take-out. Although Beautiful Rind opened in April of 2020, he and his band of cheese-loving employees were ready (and adaptable) to survive through the pandemic that closed so many cheese shops across the country.

I was grateful to see that they were offering a class the night I was in town on “Spooky Cheese” – A tongue-in-cheek look at some cheese origin stories or production methods that might sound “scary” to some…    

I arrived early to have a light dinner – a Parmigiano Reggiano & Preserved Lemon Salad – which was the perfect bite before walking into the connected classroom setting. I was able to get one of the last seats offered. The students filtered their way into the classroom and swooned over their plate of fine cheeses.

As Randall explained that many of the cheeses that they carried were smaller production and Farmstead produced (milk and cheese production on the same property), we were ready to dig in. Here are the cheeses that Randall shared with us:

Photo courtesy ofBlakesville

Linedeline – Blakesville Creamery, Port Washington Wisconsin.

This was a great cheese to start off with…as the flavor is mild “with a taste of crème fraiche and mushrooms”. It was also an award winner – Gold Medal at 2023 American Cheese Society Awards; Silver Medal at 2022 World Championship Cheese Contest.

Very promising for Blakesville which began business in 2020.

The “Spooky” part? – This cheese uses ash (helps control pH in cheese, while adding a historical homage to the great goat cheeses of the Loire Valley), it also uses Geotrichum candidum, a wrinkly surface rind that helps this surface-ripened cheese develop its flavor. Ash?...Mold?...These are two things that we were told to “not eat” growing up.

Photo courtesy of Sequatchie Cove

Cumberland – Sequatchie Cove Creamery, Sequatchie, Tennessee.

While I had featured a story before on Sequatchie Cove Creamery in the past, I did not cover their Cumberland that is their version of a French, Tomme de Savoie IGP.

Since 2010 Nathan and Padgett Arnold have used time-tested methods to conjure the terroir of the Sequatchie Valley, collaborating with cute cows and the living landscape to make cheeses worth sharing.

The “Spooky part? – This cheese is made with Raw Milk and wild molds (Mucor) have been allowed to grow over it…Something that might give some people nightmares, but these natural elements are the very best wayto experience the Terrior – the “sense of place” – of the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee within this Alpine-Style cheese.

Photo courtesy ofInstagram

 Chällerhocker – Käserei Tufertschwil, Lütisburg, Switzerland.

While the name Chällerhocker and the image of the demonic looking little boy on the wheel might sound devilish, I assure you the flavor is heavenly. “The texture is dense, with a silky melting texture. It tastes of brown butter, leeks and a caramelly finish.”

Chällerhocker (pronounced “holler-hocker,” – this can be roughly translated as “sitting in the cellar.” – Which is exactly what this cheese does as it ages on wooden boards for at least 10 months.

The “Spooky part? – It’s the little boy for me.

Photo courtesy of Redhead Creamery

Clothbound Garlic Cheddar – Redhead Creamery, Brooten, Minnesota.

When Alise Sjostrom returned home at the tender age of 16 from a 4-H youth trip to Wisconsin announcing that not only did she plan to stay on the farm but that she wanted to expand into cheese making, her parents, while encouraging, weren’t quite sure if this dream would become reality. Little did her parents know that they would one day become partners with Alise (and her future husband) to create Redhead Creamery.

Redhead Creamery made their first batch of cheese in 2013 and by the end of 2014 they had built and opened their own cheese making facility right there on the family farm.

Since then, they started attending the annual garlic festival in Hutchinson, MN and were inspired to create their Garlic Cheddar, which became a big hit…Since then, they decided to cave age this cheese, giving it more depth of flavor.

The “Spooky part? – Maybe because it’s bandaged wrapped like the mummy…or maybe it’s because it lived in a cave…but most likely because this garlic cheddar will certainly keep you “vampire free”.

Photo Courtesy of Fandom

Bleu des Causses – Multiple producers, Occitania Region, France

In the southern Massif Central, within the former historic French province of Rouergue, existed small artisanal cheese dairies scattered on the Causses. These dairies crafted a blue cheese, similar to Roquefort, but were made with cow's milk or a mixture of cow's milk and sheep’s milk. Numerous books and papers report that this blue cheese, which was not yet called "Bleu des Causses", was produced locally and aged in natural caves dug into the limestone. These local dairies benefitted from the local notoriety of Roquefort in the area, and especially after the adoption of the law of July 26, 1925, which defined Roquefort cheese, reserving this term for cheese made exclusively from sheep's milk and matured in the caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon.

Any "blue" type cheese that was manufactured with cow’s milk, or outside the village of Roquefort, were looked down upon as Roquefort imitations, and needed to assert their own personality to differentiate them from Roquefort. In November 1932, the Trade Union Association of Manufacturers of Aveyron Cheese was created, and the cheese became officially known as “Bleu de l'Aveyron” under the collective brand name of VALMONT. The name Bleu de l'Aveyron gave way to Bleu des Causses successively defined by the Decree of 4 December 1941.

Bleu de Causses was formally recognized as an AOC (Appellation d’origine controlee) cheese by the INAO (Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité) on June 8, 1979.

The “Spooky part? – Good food gone “bad” – Rye bread and cheese allowed to mold over to transform this into a wonderful cheese.

My thanks to Randall and his team for such a warm welcome.

Until next time…Happy Halloween!

Trevor, your Cheese Traveler