Past Newsletters

Vol 4 No 2

Unleash Your Senses!

With or without a Valentine this year, In Pursuit of Cheese is confident that this month's selections will wake up your senses with the stellar combination we have chosen for you.

Gouda is a cow's-milk cheese named after the town of its origin, just south of Amsterdam and southeast of The Hague. Although it's sold all over the world, only a small amount is really made in or around the village of Gouda. Because the name Gouda is not protected, Gouda cheese may come from any place in, or even outside of Holland. Most of the world eats Gouda made in large commercial factories, but fortunately there are a very few dairy farms in Holland where this delectable, mouth-watering cheese is still made in the traditional way.

Boerenkaas Gouda Is Aged 2 Years

The cheese we have shipped to you today is called Boerenkaas Gouda. Boerenkaas means "farmer's cheese" and guarantees the cheese is made by hand on a farm in Holland, using very traditional methods. Boerenkaas Gouda is usually aged for about two years (compared with factory Gouda sold at three to six months), and it can be found as old as five years!

The aging makes the interior of the cheese a stunning shade of gold and imparts a more intense caramelized flavor, a little like brown sugar melted with butter. The texture, due to the longer aging, is harder than factory Gouda and can be an interesting alternative to Parmesan. Gouda is popular as both a table and a dessert cheese. It's outstanding with fruit and wine. Try a Beaujolais.

Queen Isabella offered Gouda to Columbus

By the 15th century the Dutch were producing and exporting cheese on a very large scale. In his description of The Netherlands, published in 1567, an Italian named Guiccardini commented that Dutch Cheese and butter were worth as much as all spices imported from Portugal… worth some million guilders per annum. In fact, The Dutch have produced cheeses since before 400 AD, and have exported cheeses since the middle ages!

Several cities in Holland still have Cheese Weigh-houses… outstanding sixteenth or seventeenth-century buildings where weighmasters used to inspect the cheeses offered at market. Even today, cheese markets are held weekly in many Dutch cities. Some just for the tourists (Alkmaar and Purmerend), but you can visit real cheese markets in Bodegraven, Woerden, and in Gouda, where a cheese market is in full swing each week during the summer, right in front of the old Weigh-house dating back to 1668.

So You Wanna Make Gouda

Remember, Gouda is not a protected name, so legally you could. Here's what you need to do- that is, besides milking the cows in the evening, and again in the morning, so part of the milk is aged and part is fresh and warm.

• First, add rennet to the milk. Rennet is an enzyme from a calf's stomach that causes the milk to coagulate. If you can't find this easily, there are 'man made rennets' - sort of like starter yeasts for bread.
• Once the milk curdles, you need to begin stirring and cutting the curds. Add a hot water to your vat while you stir and cut so that the curds shrink and become light and rubbery.
• Now carefully transfer the curds to molds so your cheeses can be pressed for about six hours to remove any excess moisture.
• It's a good idea to mark your cheeses at this point. The Dutch mark each cheese with a stamp indicating the country of origin, the fat content, and even a serial number! These stamps enable them to control the quality. Would you believe that it's possible to trace the life of each individual cheese!
• Here comes the part that begins to differentiate your Gouda. Place your cheeses in a brine bath (with other secret ingredients?) for three days to enhance the flavor, and form a sealed rind.
• Lift your cheeses out of the bath, and let them dry on wooden shelves. Now you have a choice of covering your cheeses with paraffin or a porous plastic coating to protect the rinds and prevent mold from forming. The flavor develops as moisture evaporates and the salt penetrates the cheese.

Don't get tempted to eat them in three months… well, you might try one and another at six months so that you can appreciate the difference. Let most of them mature within a controlled climate for two years. You might even let some go for five years! All of your creativity and attention to detail will magically transform into an extraordinary tasting experience called Boerenkaas Gouda.

A Saint Must Have Created This Masterpiece!

Although the names are not related, St. Nectaire (meaning sweet nectar) has a similar smell to that of an extremely ripe nectarine. It has a fruity aroma, rich texture, and a sweetness of flavor that we have not found in any other cheese.

The French field marshal, Henri de La Ferte-Senneterre, introduced St. Nectaire at the table of Ludwig XIV, and thereafter it was always on the menu. For centuries, St-Nectaire has been produced in the region of Monts-Dore in Auvergne - an appellation controleé. The Monts-Dore are known as 'montagres à vaches' (mountains for cows), as they provide summer pasture for herds of cows raised primarily for the milk and production of cheese.

St. Nectaire is made from the milk from Salers (sal'air) cows - red with lyre shaped horns - a breed of cow that produces incredibly rich milk due to genetics and the rich and perfumed volcanic pastures they enjoy from April to October. Salers were named after a village from the middle-ages, situated in the heart of the mountains. These volcanic meadows are rich with phosphorus, potassium and magnesium, inherent in Salers' milk.

The Auvergne region of France, once covered with active volcanoes, has a demanding climate. In the winter the land is covered with deep snow and when summer comes, it brings high temperatures. Although this sounds grueling, the weather is not only ideal for winemaking, but also for cheese making.

The Romans coveted cheeses from Auvergne!
During the Middle Ages, St. Nectaire was used as money
to calculate the value of bread and farm products.

St. Nectaire's grayish-purple colored rind is covered with white, yellow and red mould spots, and it has an unmistakable smell of dark, damp cellar and rye straw, on which it is stored during the ripening process. A whole cheese is about eight inches in diameter and weighs about four lbs. If you are yearning for a creamy, milky cheese, St. Nectaire is the perfect cheese. It goes extremely well with fruits, raw vegetables, olives, bread and salami. A fantastic combination is St. Nectaire served on buttered bread along side a steaming bowl of soup, dip the bread and cheese in the soup and enjoy!

European Cheese Is Protected

You may have noticed AOC (Appellation d'Origine Controlee), DO (Controllata Quesos con Denominacion de Origen), or DOC (Denominazione di Origine) on some European cheese. In Europe traditional food is a serious business and one that governments are committed to protecting. France was the first country to initiate this type of regulation. On May 6, 1919, it passed the first law for the Protection of the Place of Origin. This law specifically defines the place of origin for a product, including province, region and commune. Italy and Spain have since followed suit. These letters guarantee the food has been made within a specified geographic area using exact, traditional methods, ingredients and techniques.

Not only is it a guarantee for the customer. This law also provides the farmer who chooses to subscribe to the specified methods, a lock on the name and reputation of his product. For example, you could not make a cheese in California, or even southern Italy, and call it Taleggio.

Don't judge a book by its cover or, a cheese by its aroma.

Let us be clear from the beginning, this is a STINKY CHEESE. You either can't live without it, or you can't live with it! When you opened your box of cheese this month you probably noticed the aroma straight away, so let's take a look at what causes that smell.

Once made, the young cheese is constantly washed or "rubbed" by hand with a brine solution that stops the growth of mold, while promoting the growth of edible bacterium. This bacterium, known in short as b-linens, is where the staggering aroma comes from, and it also creates the sun burnt-orange colored rind.

Trappist Monks where the first to make this exceptional cheese. Limburger originated in the Belgian province of Liège and was first sold at markets in Limbourg.

In the nineteenth century, cheese makers in Germany fell in love with Limburger, and are now so enamored with it that most Germans, and even some Belgians, believe Limburger to be a German cheese! In the United States Limburger also owes its popularity to the Germans, since German immigrants started making the cheese when they emigrated. (Domestic made Limburger is a much milder cheese than the real thing.)

Limburgers' notoriety is such that it turns up in all manner of places. The Invalid's Story by Mark Twain is about a very bizarre experiment which studied mosquitoes' responses to Limburger cheese versus socks worn by humans! There are even a couple of websites devoted to how Limburger is either beloved or detested!

if you are adventurous and like strong tasting cheeses, try this sandwich. Start with pumpernickel or rye bread spread with some horseradish, add Limburger, sliced onions, and liverwurst or braunschweiger. This is not for the faint of heart - for some it's a traditional way to start each new year!

Tasting Notes

Gouda: Aged Gouda is a traditional, creamery, hard cheese. The flavor is sweet and fruity. As time passes, the taste intensifies and becomes more complex. Gouda is both a table cheese and a dessert cheese. Try it with Corbières, Beaujolais, Côte de Beaune, Haut-Médoc, Nebbiolo d'Alba, Valpolicella, Zinfandel, Ruby Port, Rheingau Kabinett, Mosel Spätlese and Dutch beers.

St. Nectaire: A full-tasting cheese, slightly acidic and spicy at the same time, its supple white dough melts in your mouth and unfolds an unmistakable flavor with a touch of salt, walnuts, and spices. St. Nectaire is an excellent choice for a cheese board, and makes an outstanding quiche. Great with Chinon, Bourgueil, Côtes du Rhône, and Beaujolais.

Limburger: Limburger is really quite delicate in flavor once you separate it from the rind, which is eatable. The smooth, sticky, washed rind is reddish-brown with corrugated ridges. The yellow interior hints at sweetness but the taste is spicy and aromatic with an intriguing sweet undertone. A bona fide treasure if you can get beyond the smell! Serve it with plenty of cold beer. Other good accompaniments are tinned fish, onions, crackers, fruits and vegetables.
Complementing spirits include Rheingau Kabinett, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Hermitage, and dark malt beers.