Past Newsletters - April 2010
Three Cheers to the French for Making – and Inspiring – Great Cheeses!
Fromage d'Affinois
Fromage d'Affinois is a wonderfully luscious, pasteurized cow's milk, soft-ripened French cheese that is in the double-crème category. Mild and buttery, it's an amazing addition to the Brie world. It's produced from milk that has been specially filtered to break down some of the fat content; yielding a lighter, smoother, silkier texture than other Brie. The filtering makes the Fromage d’Affinois lighter than other Brie in terms of weight, but is certainly creamier and a little thicker than most.
The cheese is made using a process known as ultra filtration. The process is somewhat similar to homogenization, and serves to remove water from the milk. This concentrates and distributes all the other components in the milk, including fat, evenly throughout the paste. Ultra filtration imparts a taste as rich as most triple-cremes, although the fat content is closer to a double-creme. In addition to retaining more fat, ultrafiltration allows the cheese to retain more protein and nutrients, and actually accelerates the cheese making process. Whereas Brie takes eight weeks to make, Fromage d'Affinois takes just two. When ripe the cheese has a runny texture that coats like icing. The rind is flawless and adds flavor to the sweetness of the cheese.
Tasting Notes: Fromage d'Affinois' sweet and mild flavor is lighter than the mushroom-like earthiness characteristic of its identical-looking cousin. It also has a freshness that distinguishes it from Brie. It's a must for cheese trays: absolutely sinful—and even more sinful served with a fig spread. Pair it with crusty artisan bread or with fruit. If you have it with bread, enjoy it with a red zinfandel or Beaujolais. If you serve it with fruit, a sauvignon blanc, viognier or chardonnay – light on the oak – will complement it well. For that matter, it pairs well with almost any white wine, dry or sparkling.
Bonne Bouche
Bonne Bouche is no ordinary cheese. Hand ladled and ash-ripened, the cheese is round – resembling brie – contrary to the logs of goat cheese more prevalent in the United States. Introduced by the Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery in 2001, this cheese is extraordinary. Bonne Bouche means “good mouthful” or “tasty morsel” in French. When you taste it, you, like many, may be skeptical that a goat cheese of such quality could possibly be made in the U.S., but Vermont artisan cheeses now rival those produced in Europe. Not surprisingly, Bonne Bouche won instant acclaim nationally among food writers, retailers and chefs. The first year it was introduced, it won first place for aged goat cheese at the American Cheese Society competition.
Bonne Bouche is made from pasteurized milk and microbial (non-animal) rennet and set in tubs for twenty-four hours for a process called lactic coagulation. The next day, the cheese curd is hand ladled into molds and drained overnight. Then the cheeses are unmolded, moved into the drying room and then into an aging room where the controlled environment is cool and humid. The entire process takes seven to ten days before the cheeses are packaged in their individual wooden boxes or “micro-caves.”
Vermont Buttery and Creamery cheeses are considered “fresh-ripened” cheeses. This mean they are young, soft cheeses, high in moisture and have delicate rinds. They need to be stored in a cold area of your refrigerator like the meat or vegetable drawer.
Keep your Bonne Bouche in its micro-cave until you plan to serve it. The wood crate acts as a wick to absorb moisture away from the rind and to maintain moisture in the cheese. Slide a knife under the rind so it doesn’t stick to the wood. It is easier to remove the cheese from the crate when it is still cold and hard. At room temperature the rind becomes sticky and very fragile making it difficult to remove without damaging it. If the cheese is too soft for your taste, remove the film and leave it overnight in the refrigerator to dry the surface of the cheese. The next day leave the cheese at room temperature for at least two hours before serving. The rind will be dense of flavor and the paste will be sweet and creamy. If you prefer an even drier cheese to grate or marinate, let the cheese dry up to a week in the refrigerator.
If you have leftover cheese, wrap it in its wood crate with regular plastic wrap. If you have thrown away the crate, a small plate will do. Make sure the wrap is not too tight so the cheese keeps breathing. Waxed and parchment paper are also good materials for wrapping artisan cheeses. Bonne Bouche can be aged up to 45 to 50 days if stored in the right temperature and humidity conditions. If you keep it too cold, (30-35F) the active organisms stop working and the maturation is interrupted. If it’s too warm for too long – room temperature for more than two days – then it will be too runny and will likely develop a very pungent smell.
Tasting Notes: Many of you are no doubt familiar with the flavor of goats’ milk cheese. Bonne Bouche, with 21% butterfat, has a texture that’s smooth and very creamy, and the rind is sweet and mild for an overall fresh flavorful goats’ milk cheese. Notes of fresh flowers, citrus and hazelnuts predominate. The wooden box in which Bonne Bouche is packaged is not only designed to protect the cheese, it creates its own micro-cave to help the ripening continue. Enjoy your Bonne Bouche right away or in the next 45 days. The younger the cheese, the milder the cheese; though even young, the cheese will still be slightly acidic. As it ages, your tasty morsel will become softer, the rind more dry and the flavor more piquant. Perfect with a dry white wine such as sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio.
Mirabo Walnut
The Gourmet Cheese of the Month Club is proud to bring you a unique, sophisticated cheese from Germany—Mirabo Walnut. Its exclusive blossom shape, with fine white mold, gives Mirabo its unmistakable appearance. Mirabo Walnut is a cheese with little history as far as we know, but it sure is tasty! Käserei Champignon of Bavaria, Germany introduced this soft-ripened cheese made with cows' milk and crème fraiche. Walnut Mirabo has a center that is soft and creamy with the finest crushed walnuts speckled throughout.
Käserei Champignon is a family-owned business founded by Julius Hirschle and Leopold Immler a century ago. In 1908, they gained acclaim for their special mushroom Camembert, which today has become a staple for many cheese boards. The business headquarters and main production plant is located in Heising, in the pristine countryside of the Bavarian Alps. It is here that their free grazing cows enjoy the plush green valleys conducive to producing their rich Bavarian milk. Combine their cheese-making heritage (handed down over the generations), the latest in advanced technology, and an inordinate dedication to quality, and you have Käserei Champignon, an internationally recognized leader in the industry.
Mirabo Walnut is actually a German interpretation of Brie. Most varieties are made with pasteurized milk, some with added cream. All of them are soft, velvety cheeses with mild, but pleasantly sophisticated, flavors. They are allowed to ripen naturally in the traditional manner – from rind to the center – until they reach the pinnacle of perfection. Enjoy Mirabo Walnut and other German Bries at peak flavor by unwrapping them to let the cheeses breathe and come to room temperature.
Tasting Notes: Made in the fertile land of Bavaria, this brie style cheese with walnuts is delicate and ripened to a soft consistency. Its unique shape and presentation really set it apart on a cheese board, and its delicate flavor is sure to please. Serve it with many of the excellent German Rieslings and Gewürztraminers. As with all classic Bries, Mirabo Walnut is outstanding with a full-bodied white wine such as Ruländer or Morio-Muscat, or with a smooth, elegant red wine such as Blauburgunder or Bordeaux. This nouveau cheese is out of this world as a dessert cheese. Serve it with honey drizzled on the top and your choice of fruit on the side.
In addition to making and inspiring fine artisan cheeses, France yields an astounding array of incomparable wines, many of which we feature on a regular basis in our International Wine of the Month Club. Whether it's a robust red, a fruity white, or a dry white with subtle tones of oak, we ship some of the most extraordinary wines at great prices. Our monthly features are selected by a panel of professional wine tasters, some of whom travel the world in search of rare vintages. You can view exactly what we have shipped by checking the newsletters and featured wines sections of our website: www.winemonthclub.com.
Culture Corner |
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Cheese |
Pronunciation |
Recommended Wine/Beer |
Fromage d'Affinois |
fro-mahzh |
Dry white wines, light-bodied reds, |
Bonne Bouche |
bon boosh |
Dry white wines or light-bodied reds |
Mirabo Walnut |
mer-rah-boo |
Sweet, full-scented white wines; full-bodied red wines |
