Past Newsletters

October 2008

Classic Cheeses from the Old World and New -Great Gifts for the Entire Year!

This month's cheeses represent the perfect balance of tradition and quality and the best of the old world and new. Like our other clubs, the cheese club is for people who insist on quality when it comes to food and wine. Since you do, chances are great your friends and family do, too. So, if you want to savor your entire stash of cheese this month instead of sharing it with friends and family, we have the answer. The holidays are fast approaching; why not give a gift membership? The Cheese of the Month Club offers a host of ideas for that October gift-giving goblin inside of you and, along with our other clubs, is sure to satisfy the budding or the experienced gourmands in your life.

Complete your gift purchasing before Thanksgiving, and you can have stress-free holidays and the luxury of gifts that keep on giving, month after month. We will ship your choices for you and send personalized Gift Announcements on the dates that you select. To make your gift even more unique, we can help you "mix and match" products from any of our six clubs. Now to the cheeses you're receiving this month…

Pecorino Romano – An Italian Classic

Pecorino Romano is a hard, salty, Italian cheese made, as the name implies, in or near Rome. Similarly, there's Pecorino Siciliano from Sicily, Pecorino Sardo from Sardinia, etc. In Italy, cheese made from sheep's milk is known as pecorino. Most pecorino cheeses are aged and classified as grana (granular hard and sharply flavored).There is a soft pecorino, a ricotta, that's white, young (meaning not aged), and mild in flavor. Aged pecorinos range in color from white to pale yellow and have a sharp, pungent flavor. Pecorino Romano – which comes in large cylinders with a hard, yellow rind encasing a yellowish-white interior – is the best known of the genre. Similar to its cousin, Parmigianino Reggiano (parmesan), it's a hard, dry cheese good for grating. Like parmesan, pecorino is used mainly in cooking. Substituted in any recipe calling for parmesan, pecorino will give the end result a sharper flavor. Pecorino cheeses are generally aged up to a year, and as they age they develop a brittle, hard texture, and the rind yellows. The younger the cheese, the softer and whiter it is. Pepato, a variety we've also featured in the club, is spiced with peppercorns. As is its cousin, Parmigianino Reggiano, Perconio Romano is often used grated in pasta dishes. Serve with bold red wines.

Most Pecorinos are oily cheeses (about 45% fat) because ewes' milk contains very high amounts of butterfat—one of the reasons this cheese is so scrumptious. When your Pecorino comes to room temperature, don't be surprised if you see beads of oil on the cheese. The cheese's oils, called "butterfat tears," weep naturally and indicate the cheese is at the perfect temperature for eating. For a real treat, have it for dessert, laced with your favorite honey.

Cheese Notes: Sheep's milk cheeses break down into smaller molecules in the body that are much easier to digest. Many lactose-intolerant people find that they can enjoy sheep's milk cheeses without repercussions to their health.

Wensleydale – An English Classic

From the northern county of Wensleydale, England, a few miles northwest of York, comes our second featured cheese. This region is also known as The Dales, and the name is practically synonymous with quality cheesemaking. Cheeses originating from The Dales date back to Roman times. There may be justification in saying that William the Conqueror and other infamous figures of history enjoyed cheese made from the very same recipe as the cheese you're about to sample.

All cheeses bearing the name Wensleydale were originally produced from sheep's milk and briefly aged into a soft, moist, blue cheese. This changed by the middle of the 17th century, when cows replaced sheep as the main source of milk for Wensleydale cheeses. Further changes ensued with the Industrial Revolution. Concomitant standardization and large scale factory-based production ushered in a major change to the character and style of Wensleydale. Its texture became harder, with no bluing, and it was sold quite young. By the end of World War II, there were fewer than a dozen farms left making Wensleydale.

To compound these less-than-positive alterations, in the 1950's the Milk Marketing Board began to create strict guidelines for cheesemaking. Unfortunately, the guidelines didn't take flavor or tradition into consideration but were based on standardized yields and percentages of ingredients, etc. None of the so-called "standards" are satisfactory criteria for producing full-flavored cheese. With the exception of a lone creamery that continued to make the "real" Wensleydale, the last few farmhouse Wensleydale cheesemakers threw in the towel (or, more aptly, their cheesecloth). The Wensleydale Creamery, whose cheese we're bringing you this month, is the only company in the world still making Wensleydale as it has been made for literally hundreds of years.

Hand crafted, wrapped in muslin cheesecloth or wax, this delicious, creamy-white, flaky cheese is pure, natural, and wholesome. The fresh milk drawn from cattle grazing in the sweet limestone Wensleydale meadows, eating the wild herbs growing in this area of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, gives this cheese its distinctive and extraordinary flavor. Designated an environmentally sensitive area, this region is restricted in the use of artificial chemicals and fertilizers, ensuring an honest, completely natural composition of ingredients in each batch leaving the Wensleydale Creamery.

If you're ever in England, keep an eye out for the rare and delicious Blue Wensleydale cheese. The celebrated blue-veined Wensleydale requires six months to mature. It has a smooth creamy texture similar to Stilton but with a more mellowed flavor. Until the 1920's, Wensleydale cheese was almost entirely recognized as the blue-veined cheese we now know as Blue Wensleydale. This original variation is tough to come by. If you ever do, snatch it up and savor this historical treasure of a cheese!

Tasting Notes: Descriptions of White Wensleydale are somewhat paradoxical. It is firm but not dry or hard; creamy with a surface that is crumbly; slightly sweet but also tart in flavor. As a reward for cutting real Wensleydale, you always get some crumbs. It is sometimes described as having a nutty, buttermilk flavor complemented with a honey aftertaste and the gentle aroma of cut grass. It has a fine curd, minimal texturing, and high moisture content. Wensleydale is usually eaten young, at about a month old. This cheese goes well with a crisp apple and is traditionally eaten with fruitcake. It is said that eating apple pie without Wensleydale cheese is like a kiss without a hug.

White Wensleydale is firm but not dry and hard; creamy, yet the surface is slightly uneven and crumbly; and it has a slightly sweet but also tart flavor. It's sometimes described as having a nutty, buttermilk flavor with a honey aftertaste and the gentle aroma of cut grass. It has a fine curd, minimal texturing, and high moisture content. Wensleydale is usually eaten young, at about a month old. This cheese goes well with a crisp apple and is traditionally eaten with fruitcake.

IG Vella Dry Jack – America's Classic Jack

This is an American original with all the character, versatility, and individuality so typical of our country and countrymen! With its sweet, nutty flavor, Ig Vella hints of Parmesan, yet it finishes with a cheddar tang. Made in northern California, the cheese is a handmade Monterey Jack, rubbed with unsweetened cocoa and black pepper, then aged for nearly a year. Unlike most cheese, Dry Jack is aged standing up on its edge, perpendicular to the floor. The wheels have to be hand-rotated regularly throughout the aging process to ensure even moisture and flavor distribution.

Grated onto salads, soups or pastas, Dry Jack is a winner! It's wonderful eaten on its own for snacks or sandwiches and it is delicious after dinner with fresh fruit and a handful of toasted walnuts. In its home state of California, Dry Jack is known as a "backpacker's cheese." Its firm texture and low moisture make an ideal addition to your camping and hiking provisions.
For 67 years, Vella Cheese has been a companion to great food. Ig Vella says, "The success of Vella Cheese has to lie in the personal attention each day's production is given. Quality starts in the pasture. Every cow is not the same. Every day is not sunny; every blade of grass is not green and lush. But, if you insist on the finest breeding of herds, the finest feeds, the greatest care in milking and transporting top grade milk, you have the best possible natural raw material, and you have set the stage for outstanding cheese."

Word Soon Spread about the Marvelous "New Cheese" Tom Was Making

While much has changed over the last 67 years, more has remained the same. The cultures, the care, the personal hands-on techniques, even the old curing rooms are the same. But, most of all, the quality is the same. It all began back in 1931.
Tom Vella had arrived in Sonoma nearly a decade earlier. He held various jobs with the Sonoma Mission Creamery, in which his brother, Joseph, owned considerable stock. By 1931, Tom had built a reputation for hard work, honesty, and a talent for making superior cheeses.

It was that year that a group of dairymen called on Tom with an idea they had been mulling over for a while. They wanted to know if he would be interested in starting a cheese factory of his own if they guaranteed him all the quality bulk milk he would need to operate it successfully. Bright, ambitious, and weary of working for someone else, Tom jumped at the opportunity.

Gathering together the best equipment available, and in partnership with an equally experienced cheesemaker, Tom put his management skills to work. Word soon spread about the marvelous "new cheese" Tom was making. A Scot named David Jacks, whose name it carries today, originally created the cheese recipe in the Gold Rush Days in Monterey. Tom and his son, Ig Vella, a born-to-the-vat cheesemaker, knew a winner when it rolled across their counter. Their focus on quality has made Ig Vella Dry Jack an American classic.

Culture Corner
Cheese	Pronunciation	Recommended Wine/Beer
Pecorino Romano	peck-o-REEN-o ro-MAHN-o	Bold red wines such as Cabs or Merlots
Wensleydale	WENZ-lee-dale	Dry white wines, beer, ales, cider
Dry Jack	DRI-jak	Dry white wines: chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, pinot gris