A bit of BLUE HEAVEN
found in a remote corner of MARIN COUNTY
INSIDE: Experience
the holidays
GUILT-FREE by following these easy tips
I have cheese, I have wine. Now what do I do? Not all blue
cheeses are created equally
DECEMBER 2009
www.sfdine.com
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blue cheese Who knew you could have your cheese and eat it too!?
We’ve Got the Blues: Point Reyes Original Blue Exploring sleepy Marin County.
Give Me More Wine Find wine and cheese pairings for the perfect party.
Blue Moon Maybe the moon is made of cheese...
Let the Holidays Begin Wondering what to do for the holidays? We have the answer.
Cover photo by artzone, Flickr
blue cheese revival. After years of parmesan, mozzarella and goat’s cheese with everything, there is a return to things pungent and veiny in kitchens around the country. It’s not that stilton, dolcelatte, gorgonzola, the rather humbler danish blue and exquisite farm cheeses such as Humphrey Errington’s dunsyre blue actually disappeared. It’s just that they were eaten as a course on their own, with bread or oatcakes, not used as a cooking ingredient. But fashions in food, as in everything else, are cyclical, and blue cheese is this week’s snakeskin ankle boot: a great way of adding a bit of va va voom to the culinary equivalent of a pair of black trousers. It would be a waste of the very finest of blue cheeses to mash them up, mix them with yoghurt and pour them over a salad. Or melt them over a hamburger. But the cheaper danish blue, or the crumbly remains of a wellspooned stilton, are ideal for a winter salad dressing. The crushed cheese should be mixed with natural yoghurt, sour cream or fromage frais, seasoned and sharpened with lemon juice if necessary, to make a winter salad of mixed leaves, watercress and perhaps some slivers of carrot into a light meal. The addition of a baked potato makes it a substantial one and the same dressing, possibly with more cheese, will sit very happily inside the potato. Or just mash in some chunks of cheese, for a stronger hit. These are powerful tastes and assertive textures that need something stodgy, sharp or sweet to keep them company and blue cheese has a particular affinity with pears. Locket’s savoury—toast, watercress, pear
Photo by Blue Cheese Board, Flickr
Sunday Herald, The, Feb 20, 2000 by Anna Burnside
H
URRAH. Mould is back and blue cheese is enjoying a minor
3 and sliced stilton baked until the cheese melts—came from a London restaurant, appeared in Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book and has been doing the rounds ever since. Similar ingredients can be arranged into a salad of peppery greens, slices of pear, cubes of starry dolcelatte or gorgonzola, croutons and a vinaigrette dressing. The Italian blues make an easy sauce for pasta or gnocchi—just chop dolcelatte or gorgonzola into small cubes and stir in right at the end. Parsley and black pepper make perfect finishing touches. Make a quick salad, or cook some green vegetables as well, because these cheeses are seriously rich and too much can be stultifying. Which is, of course, part of their appeal. Gary Rhodes serves huge T–bone steaks with stilton butter. It’s a full–on plateful, but where’s the harm in that for a special treat? It’s not as if you wear your snakeskin boots every day.
We’ve Got The Blues: Point Reyes Original Blue
Karen Hochman July 18, 2006
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Bob, his wife and their four daughters founded Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company with a mission to produce the nation’s premier brand of high-end blue table cheese
W
ine lovers long to visit California’s Napa and Sonoma Valleys, but cheese lovers should consider a pilgrimage to Marin County. It’s a luscious blue cheese that will be championed by those who love great blues. Bob Giacomini, whose family began making farmstead dairy products in northern Italy more than 100 years ago, has been milking cows on his Point Reyes dairy ranch since 1959. In 2000, Bob, his wife and their four daughters founded Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company with a mission to produce the nation’s premier brand of high-end blue table cheese—and they made the first vat of Original Blue. Today, they still create only that one beautiful cheese plus an irresistible Original Blue Dip & Dressing. Original Blue is a creamier style yet full-flavored blue cheese. Different than, but evocative of, a Gorgonzola dolce, it could almost melt in your mouth. It has a pronounced blue cheese character with a lovely tang, but no harshness or bite that keeps some people away from blues. It’s a luscious blue cheese that will be championed by those who love great blues, and can be approached by those who have been overwhelmed by the sharpness of other blues. People who find Roqueforts too pungent and Stiltons too strong may find blue bliss here.
The S ecrets O f S uccess Many products have a “secret recipe”: Original Blue’s is guarded by Master Cheesemaker Monte McIntyre, a relocated Iowan who has been making blue cheese for more than 15 years. The secret to Original Blue lies not only in a recipe, but in a combination of geography and other factors that produce a unique end product. The Grade A raw milk† comes from a closed herd of 250 Holstein cows that graze in the hilly green pastures overlooking Tomales Bay, a long, narrow finger of water created by a peninsula that separates the Pacific Ocean from the mainland. Since Original Blue is a farmstead cheese, this imparts the distinct taste of “terroir”‡: the cows’ milk reflects the flavor of the terrain. Animals from the same herd moved ten miles away to graze would produce a different-flavored cheese.
†Raw (unpasteurized) milk retains more flavor, but by law must be aged 60 days or more to kill any harmful bacteria that might be present in the unpasteurized milk. ‡Terroir, pronounced ter-WAH, is the French word for soil, land or terrain. The term is used to convey the larger concept of “a sense of place,” its specific soil, geology, aspect, altitude and microclimate—the sum of the effects of the environment on the creation of what is grown there.
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If you’re looking for blue heaven, here’s a place to start. It’s a luscious blue cheese that will be championed by those who love great blues F actors
of
Q uality
The coastal fog and the salty Pacific breezes that drift in from the bay impact the vegetation that is eaten by the herd, as well as help cure and age the cheeses. Time is a human-added factor that influences the outcome: cheesemaking begins within two or three hours of milking. The cheese is made from the freshest possible milk. The milking starts each day at 2 a.m. and then the cheesemaking begins. Starter cultures, kosher salt, Penicillium roqueforti (the mold that creates the blue veining) and rennet (the coagulating enzyme that creates curds) are then mixed into the milk. After the curds separate from the whey, the whey is drained off and the curds are “hooped”
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into forms to create individual 6-1/2 pound wheels. The cheese is all natural: the milk is hormone-free, contains no preservatives, bleaches or whiteners, and is made with microbial rennet. It’s a luscious blue cheese that will be championed by those who love great blues. Bob Giacomini, whose family began making farmstead dairy products in northern Italy more than 100 years ago, has been milking cows on his Point Reyes dairy ranch since 1959. In 2000, Bob, his wife and their four daughters founded Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company with a mission to produce the nation’s premier brand of high-end blue table cheese—and they made the first vat of Original Blue. Today, they still create only that one beautiful cheese plus an irresistible Original Blue Dip & Dressing.
Caring for your Cheese cheese is a living, breathing food
L
ike wine, cheese is a living, breathing food. Cheese’s moisture continues to evaporate as it ages*; the goal when storing cheese is to allow it to continue to breathe and retain its natural moisture. Most cheeses should not be wrapped directly in plastic wrap: it cuts off their ability to breathe and can alter the taste and texture. Waxed paper and parchment are the preferred wrappings. Retailers use plastic wrap because their cheeses turn over quickly, and because it is the most efficient way to display it to customers. In general, cheeses are sold at peak “ripeness” and you should buy no more cheese than you plan to eat within a few days. Original Blue has staying power if you follow these directions:
*Aged, dry cheeses, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano, have a much longer shelf life since most of the moisture has evaporated.
Keep the Original Blue foil in place Wrap the cheese in clean wax paper after each use Then place in a resealable heavy plastic bag to protect smells from migrating Store in the refrigerator’s dairy compartment (cheese likes a stable environment—each time you open the door the temperature in the front of the refrigerator and on the refrigerator door shelves changes) 7
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Holiday Season. Tis the season for sharing and caring. Our creamy, delicious blue cheese is the perfect way to get the cheer started. So come on in, sit by the warm fire and reconnect with all those you love this holiday season with this wonderfully delectable treat. Š/TM blu di bufala Formaggio, Incorporated 2009