how to shop for cheese: maximizing your buying experience Following is some practical advice for buying fine cheeses. Always remember to sample plenty and be sure of what you’re getting. Be adventurous: If you’re buying more than a couple of cheeses in a good shop, leave at least some of your requests open ended; this way, you have a chance of discovering something new and exciting every time you go shopping. Reading Labels Here are a few tips to help you decipher labels when browsing. cheese name—If you have any difficulties with pronunciation, your cheese retailer should be able to help. Note instances where the cheese name is also a place-name. American artisanal cheeses, generally being more recent arrivals on the scene, tend to have more fanciful, made-up, and sometimes even “cutesy” names as opposed to European ones, which are more often associated with the cheese’s place of origin. provenance—Apart from the name, the label should state specifically where the cheese comes from—its country, region, village, and so forth. type of cheese—Is it categorized on its label? For example, the label should specify whether the cheese is fresh and/or aged under 60 days; bloomy-rind; hard, aged. type of milk—Is it made from cow’s, sheep’s, or goat’s milk, or is it a mix? Is the milk raw or pasteurized? producer—Who made the cheese and what type of operation is it? Is it a factory, a cooperative, a dairy or creamery, a farmhouse? Each and every artisanal cheese has a story. Most U.S. producers have their own websites, where at least a bit of their history is explained. If you see that cheese comes to you via a co-op, an affineur, or a foreign source, by way of an importer, you may find interesting information on these individual companies’ sites.
affineur—Certain operations source their cheeses from very small and/or independent
producers whose names are not listed on the cheeses. You are essentially buying the affineur’s brand, which becomes your quality guarantee. This is also true of a major cheese such as Parmigiano-Reggiano, which comes from a huge consortium of producers (of all different sizes), each indicated by number only. In the case of Parm, if it is selected and aged under the supervision of a quality affineur exporter such as Giorgio Cravero, there is your guarantee. Another good example is Neal’s Yard Dairy, which is the brand for British artisanal cheeses and which allows for no confusion about the exact origins of its cheeses. content—The fat content of cheeses is expressed on their labels as a percentage of “fat in dry matter” or “fat on a dry basis”—in other words, what portion of their solids are fat. (The term is matière grasse in French; grassi in Italian; Fett in Trochenmasse, or F.i.T. in German.) Whole-milk cheeses range from about 35 to 50 percent butterfat; double crèmes are 60 to 75 percent and triple crèmes over 75 percent. designations—How is the cheese qualified in terms of official designations of origin such as the European AOC or DOP labels? (See appendix 1, page 363.) Check to see whether there are any other official stamps on the cheese itself or its labels—and if so, what
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additional qualifications they may indicate. France, for example, has four categories of production. • fermier (farmhouse): Raw milk from the farm’s own herd is made into cheese there by traditional methods; small-sized operations. • artisanal: This is an individual producer, like the fermier, but milk may be bought from other farms; small-sized operations. • coopératives (or fruitières): An individual local dairy, to which co-op member farms contribute their milk for cheesemaking; small- to medium-sized operations. • industriel: Factory-style dairies, which may receive milk from distant regions; mediumsized to large operations. Mountain cheeses may have additional qualifications such as alpage. (For more on appellations, see appendix 1, page 363.) certifications—Cheeses, particularly U.S. artisanal ones, may make other claims and/or have other types of certifications as to whether they are organic, biodynamic, natural, sustainable, and so on. Rogue Creamery’s cheeses, for example, have three different third parties certifying them organic, sustainable, and quality assured (for cleanliness and proper sanitary procedures). Since the United States has no appellation designations, these thirdparty certifications tend to hold more weight. As always, when in doubt ask your cheesemonger. Know What You’re Getting Beware of “brand confusion,” which can happen if you don’t read the labels carefully. Sometimes industrial, commercial cheeses may be masquerading as the real thing. How Much to Buy The rule of thumb I follow is about 1 ounce of cheese per person for a tasting of 5 to 8 cheeses. If you’re presenting more cheeses, you can reduce that to around ¾ ounce per person. For a main course or a deluxe after-dinner plate, you’ll want to figure on as much as 1½ ounces per person. If you’re organizing a cheese-centered event—particularly, a tasting or a dinner where a plate of special cheeses with more than a couple of wines is the main focus—you may want to increase it to as much as 2 ounces per person. Generally speaking, with softer cheeses you can increase the quantities. For blues, I increase it by about 20 percent per serving; for the bloomy rinds and other softer selections, I’ll go up as much as 50 percent. With washed-rind cheeses and some of the bloomy-rind ones, there is going to be a certain amount of waste, so you need to figure that into the equation: First of all, people are not necessarily going to eat the smelly and slimy (should we say “fragrant and moist”?) rinds. For your cheese eaters to get their money’s worth in this case, again you should probably figure on between 25 and 50 percent more—about 1¼ to 1½ ounces if you want them to consume 1 ounce and so forth. guidelines for home • Never serve cheeses too cold; it masks all their wonderful flavors and aromas. This is the biggest mistake cheese novices make. In general, if they’re in the fridge, give them at least 1 hour out of it to make sure they come to room temperature.
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• Blue cheeses may get bluer quite fast, so they can be given less than an hour out of the fridge before serving. • For soft, ripe, gooey, runny cheeses, provide a separate plate onto which they can melt and expand. • Sharp steak knives and/or small- to medium-sized kitchen knives are all you need to cut cheeses. • If you’re using a board for cutting or presentation, be sure it is made out of an inert material: hardwood works well as do different types of nonreactive plastic and glass or stone surfaces. • Cut all cheeses fresh; don’t precut. • Consider keeping separate knives and other utensils for each cheese or cheese type. • Keep utensils clean by wiping them with a clean cloth napkin or thick paper towel immediately after cutting each cheese. • Slice harder cheeses into smaller, thinner pieces. • Slice semisoft cheeses in long wedges. • Slice soft cheeses in shorter, thicker wedges. • Include a portion of the rind (if applicable). • Serve cheeses on dinner or salad plates with dinner knife and dinner (or salad or dessert) fork; add a spoon if they’re gooey. • Rewrap cheeses as they were wrapped in the store, with semipermeable paper touching the cheese and plastic wrap encasing the package; use a zip-locking bag or some scotch tape if necessary. • Storing most cheeses, particularly firm to semisoft types, at cool room temperature conditions, away from any sources of heat or light, is fine for probably longer than you would imagine. • For refrigerator storage, treat your cheeses like bread or any other fragile food you don’t want to dry out: Put them in the vegetable drawer—or perhaps the smaller cold-cuts tray—if possible alongside other foods that provide some moisture (vegetables and/or other cheeses).
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