Big Cheese Stories

In Rob's Opinion...

2008-08-11T13:43:00.003-04:00

by Rob Kaufelt

[This post is in response to Kim Severson's recent article in the New York Times. Read it here.]

There were only a couple of Americans in town when I arrived in Bra, Italy, back in the fall of 1999 to teach classes on American cheese at the biannual Slow Food Cheese Festival that year. The week I spent there was transformative, both for the cheese and the company.

The Slow Food offices were above a little courtyard, attached to a ristorante, and we’d gather to talk of the events of the day with Slow Food’s visionary founder Carlo Petrini. What had begun as a bit of lark had evolved into a real movement, and round the table, with good food and wine, Carlo would explain his philosophy.

He said we were in the ‘Third Wave’ of civilization, and as it related to food the notion was simple enough. For ten thousand years – the first wave-, since the beginning of civilization, mankind has suffered plagues, droughts, and other natural disasters that made life itself precarious, including our food supply. The slow foods were traditional foods, often preserved, meant to get us through the winter or hard times: wine, beer, cheese – peasant foods, really – nothing fancy about them.

Next came the industrial revolution and the Second Wave, including industrial foods. These were good and necessary at the time, as people flocked to the urban areas to work in mills and factories and needed a cheap, safe source of foods in an area where transportation was slow and refrigeration undeveloped. Distillery dairies in New York, for instance, were producing unsafe milk by feeding cows whiskey mash, a fermented grain fed to overcrowded animals with tuberculosis and other diseases rampant. Though at first reluctant to admit it, I began to think that perhaps James Kraft was doing a good thing in 1906 when he invented his processed cheese.

But the industrialization of the food supply had gone too far. By our time, the old ways were being lost. Standardization was the norm and the uniqueness of artisan producers out of favor. Modern foods were loaded with chemicals and preservatives, corn syrup and transfats, which led to not only to the rise of heart disease and diabetes but worse, the loss of flavor. Ripe fruits straight off the vine, grass fed beef; aged raw milk cheeses and fresh unpasteurized milk were not to be found on modern supermarket shelves anymore. Nature was lost amidst fertilizers and industrial farming, craftsmen disappearing, animals treated with contempt.

Thus was the Slow Food movement born. Today, we may know it by other names: real food, local food, seasonal foods, organic foods, sold mainly at greenmarkets and small specialty food shops, but a growing movement across the land. We celebrate the last of the old time butchers and the young people returning to small farms. More and more, people want clean food, healthier food, tastier food, from farms that are sustainable, and where we not worry so much where our food comes from, or if it’s safe, or what it’s made of.

On 9/11 I was at ground zero, and afterward came back and closed my shop. But there wasn’t much happening when I volunteered at St. Vincent hospital, and our dear old downtown Manhattan was closed for business. So I hopped on a plane the following week and spent a few days in Bra at Cheese 2001, working the booth with my cheese pals in our first ever American Farmstead cheese booth. The outpouring of goodwill to our little band of Americans from those attending the festival that year was a highpoint of my life, America was a good place to be from. So who knows? Perhaps only Slow Food, by whatever name, will help us regain that goodwill once again.

NEW Blog Site

2008-07-14T11:11:00.002-04:00

To you, our loyal fans:

Murray's Cheese will now be posting our blogs on our own blog site.
Want to read more from Zoe Brickley, the mistress of the cave?

Love Chris Munsey's recommendations for perfect wine and cheese & beer and cheese pairings?

Perhaps you've missed the inspiration you feel from reading about our Featured Producer?

Find them all here, updated each week.

Yours in Cheese,
The Murray's Bloggers

SOMETHING CUTE

2008-06-02T15:53:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, May 24, Rosie Blau, the "Book Doctor" columnist for Financial Times had a great response to a forlorn fromage lover. What is worth more: a toasted cheese treat or a date with the man who makes them? Afterglow from a good sandwich can last longer than from a good date but nabbing the man who makes them is akin to teaching a man to fish...

Read the response here.

KING CABRALES: An imposter is unveiled; contention for the throne persists

2008-06-02T15:42:00.002-04:00

We’ve been calling our Valdeon by the name Cabrales; we’ve seen the error in our ways and now we’re casting a limelight on the rivalry...

Cabrales has become synonymous with blue-cheese-from-the-North-of-Spain. It's the name that came with the burgeoning specialty, imported cheese market in the early 1990s. The name clung to the style like a foil wrapper on the sticky blue cheese rind. At the time, the name was more of an importing alias than what some could interpret now as a false front. It seems that as we enter Act II of America’s fascination with fine cheese, the specifics are of growing importance.

Truly, Valdeon and Cabrales are two distinct cheeses, but there are some strong similarities lending to a history of interchangeability: The mixed milk (mostly cow, with additions of sheep and goat’s milk depending on the season), the rich blue veining within medium sized wheels, and the sharp and hefty flavors.

If it helps, think of Valdeon as a theatrical understudy to the more famous Cabrales. In effect, many have kept the headliner on the marquis, but have chosen to open with the alternate, who boasts consistent performances and a younger more handsome visage. Valdeon just seems to be a little easier on the eyes, palate and pocketbook.

It’s like how Isadora Duncan rose to fame under the tutelage of legendarily esoteric Loie Fuller, only to rebuke her influence during the peak of her own celebrity. A striving Valdeon just wants the credit due for his own achievements, yo.

It’s become clear that one name ‘Cabrales’ doesn't capture the whole story. There are several cheeses from the area, each with their own distinct protected designation of origin (DO), subtle variations of flavor and enormous distinctions in texture and appearance.

Here are the clear differences between these two: Specific locale. Valdeon is made in Castille-Leon, while Cabrales hails from the magical island of Asturias. Valdeon tends to have a smoother quality to its flavor profile, and a more uniform color and texture. Cabrales is a little more rustic and challenging in appearance and taste. While both cheeses are really best suited for dedicated lovers of blue, it should be understood that Cabrales really packs a punch.

I know you’re wondering… ‘If the cheese-making process is so similar, what could account for these noticeable differences?’ Some believe that the slightly higher humidity and indigenous microflora within the natural limestone caves of Asturias are responsible for a more intense interior mold. The caves are essentially ancient sink-holes along the rainy, sloping coast-line of the island. They are deep enough to maintain a cool, consistent temperature while a persistent sea breeze keeps them damp and oxygen-rich. This complex and mysterious ecology is held in contrast to the finely calibrated, man-made aging spaces used for Valdeon.

The easiest way to discern the two once they hit your local shop is by their respective outer coverings: Valdeon is enrobed by real sycamore or chestnut leaves, while Cabrales must be cloaked in green foil, as per the federal decree employed to protect its origins. It’s a good thing the DO police are relegated to their own territory.

Retailers that have supported Valdeon, the treacherous McDuff of the cheese-world, have been deemed complicit in dispatching the real-deal Cabrales. And Macbeth is staging his return from the grave. A regal challenge of this kind is bound to have a delegation of loyalists up in arms – no matter how promising the new regime may appear.

We’ve come to a point where critics claim that the more approachable Valdeon is being used to mollify a culinarily sophomoric American public under the guise of Cabrales’s famed rusticity. But fairly, who hasn’t asked for a ‘Kleenex’ only to be placated by the lotion tempered softness of a Puffs?

What this all comes down to is that we’re bringing in the real Cabrales for a lifetime achievement style victory lap of a special promo, and keeping on our darling Valdeon. But now, we’re finally recognizing him for what he is: a gorgeous and well made cheese that our increasingly savvy customer base can discern and enjoy. We figure that anyone adamant enough to seek Cabrales out by name can presumably tell the difference and would prefer the original, while one merely searching for a heady Spanish blue cheese might choose Valdeon for its own stated merits.

And the nominees for best Northern Spanish Blue Cheese are… Who’s it gonna be?

The Pairing Zone: Fin du Monde & La Tur

2008-05-03T19:33:00.002-04:00

by Chris Munsey

The Pairing Zone.

Advice for Lovers of Cheese for choosing the beverage that goes best with them. Enter a world a bit different than the one we normally live in. A world where Wine and Beer joyously match with cheese creating an unparalleled taste experience instead of brusquely destroying the complexities and nuances of that $20 a pound piece of cheese you just bought.

Enter the Pairing Zone.

Twice each month, Chris Munsey of Murray's Cheese, hardened veteran of beer and wine with cheese pairing will present an outstanding match between fermented curd and grain or grape. It's a hard job, but someone has to do it. Right, let's get to it shall we?

La Tur and Fin du Monde: a truly decadent dessert.

Creamy, dense and intense- what is not to like about La Tur? A cheese from the Robiola family (small round or square Italian cheeses from the regions of Piedmont and Lombardy) La Tur is made from a mixture of cow, sheep and goat milk and is a study in simple addiction (so easy to eat, yet so naughty: like eating mascarpone with a spoon). This rich creamy curd cupcake is even more delicious (if that is possible!) paired with Fin du Monde a Belgian style Trippel (strong golden colored beer) from the Canadian Brewery Unibroque. La Fin du Monde is no pushover, weighing in at 9% alcohol with a robust, frothy champagne effervescence and a deep weighty flavor reminiscent of wild honey. I actually find the beer a bit much on its own, but it truly finds its match with La Tur. The fudge-like richness of the cheese melts away with a sip of the beer, the malty sweet flavor of the beer mellows and becomes less cloying. This pairing would make a wonderful dessert. If you can wait until after dinner to try it!

You Gonna Eat That?

2008-05-03T19:27:00.004-04:00

by Zoe Brickley

You can't judge a book by its cover, but a cheese rind reads like a gossip column. That's one of the things that make cheese better than wine; I can spot a Taleggio from across the park, but I might not know a Merlot if I were swimming in it. That pudgy square shape, sticky orange exterior, and tell-tale impressions are dead giveaways to that notorious gooey Italian.

So what are the options here as far as cheese rinds go? At Murray's you can always have a taste of cheese before taking the plunge. But what if you find yourself in some nightmarish situation? What if you must invest in a load of cheese and your fascist cheesemonger won't spare you a nibble? A basic understanding of the few possible cheese wardrobes will help you narrow the field, focus on a concept, and allow your imagination to do the tasting for you.

For most people the biggest mysteries of the cheese rind are: What's it doing there, and can I eat it?

Let's get that one out of the way forever. Go ahead. Eat it. Do you like it? Then eat more. Do you have wax and shreds of cloth in your teeth? Don't eat that one. Sometimes you might have to switch on your 'food-not-food' radar and figure it out.

Barring man-made materials, it's always OK to sample the cheese rind or to leave it aside. Rule of thumb - if it looks similar to the skin of a fruit, like a tomato or kiwi (yep, it can be a little fuzzy) then definitely give it a try. If it more resembles the crust of a bread or rind on a pumpkin, then try it if you like, but it probably won't be flavor packed or palatable. The reasons behind these handy clues lie below.

What's that mottled rind doing there? Is it just for earthy appeal? Wouldn't it be easier to make 40lb blocks of cryovac'd cheese with a bunch of different recipes? Yes - the answer is definitely yes, but the rind is important for more than just rugged good looks.

I've divided cheeses and their outfits into not so air-tight but conceptually functional groups. There are two main headings: surface ripened and internally ripened.

The rind is key for the creation of surface ripened cheeses. These are known for their softened texture and skin-like rinds. They are usually flat or disc-shaped, to give the rind an easier time of ripening to the center. Picture this bunch as little individual gardens, cultivated by the cheesemaker or affineur. Instead of roses or mums, though, the aim is to create a solid lawn of micro-organisms. The lawn, with its specialized enzymes, changes the curdy, feta-like texture just below ground to a creamy and more pungent version of itself. The type of the yeast, mold, or bacteria chosen to seed that lawn determines the sub-family it will belong to: washed, bloomy, or natural.

WASHED: Some like it hot - and some like more on the balmy side. 54 degrees F and 95% humidity to be exact. If you create just the right balance of pH, moisture, and salt in a fresh cheese - put it in just the right cave climate, and give it frequent sponge baths with a 3-5% salt solution - then you too can be a gardener of stink. Specific conditions are necessary to cultivate Brevibacterium linens, aka B. linens. This bacterial culture effectively ripens the cheese from the outside towards the center. This is the basic principle of all three surface ripening types, but the washers get a more pungent flavor and brighter orange appearance as the B. linens develop. Think glowing Epoisses or that hunky Taleggio for classic examples.

BLOOMY: : The customer concern that makes us snicker the most in or lofty control room: "My cheese has mold on it!" Especially if they are worried about a bloomy choice; these cheeses are encouraged to grow a full coat of fuzzy mold before they're deemed saleable. There are a few strains at play cave dedicated to mold gardening and they culminate as either fluffy white and dimpled, or off-white and brainy looking coats. The molds are functioning in a similar way to B. linens, but at a slightly cooler and less humid environment. A good bloomy rind should be super thin. Like less than a millimeter. So if the thick and chewy supermarket Brie rind is the only one you've endured - give our Brie de Nangis a shot - c'est magnifique! It really showcases the buttery mushroomy thing that bloomy rinds boast at their best.

NATURAL: A little less common - but definitely worth investigating. These natural rinds do the same thing as a washed or bloomy, but the composition of microorganisms is much more random. They typically have quite earthy, musty and complex flavors, resulting from the diversity of molds, yeast and bacteria, which are allowed to populate the surface at will. Instead of being carefully selected or applied, they come from raw milk or the ambient micro-ecology of their original caves. It's a much more laissez-faire approach to affinage. Try St. Nectaire for a classic example, or my favorite, Tomme de la Chataigneraie for a more obscure demonstration.

The internally ripened members of the cheese world are generally more aged, drier curd cheeses that form a crustier and less palatable rind over time. The purpose of the rind is very different here. Instead of actively ripening the cheese, it's usually there just to hang out and protect the cheese from moisture loss and contamination while it stews to perfection. Ripening enzymes are still breaking down proteins and making flavor - only they are doing it anaerobically, deep within the paste. These types are generally taller, or have a greater ratio of paste to rind. There are several formats to look out for.

WAXED - the easiest way to set a rind for long aging. Just dip in or brush on, and rest assured knowing that those anaerobic little bugs are working their magic. The same can be accomplished with those shrink-wrapped jobs. Look to many Aged Goudas, like Boerenkaas.

CLOTHBOUND - Traditional British Cheddars are made into a hulking 60lb keg of a wheel, wrapped with linen, and then rubbed with lard to seal the deal. What doesn't lard make more delicious?

WASHED ALPINE - These cheeses were designed to keep for lean winter months in blustery mountain regions. A drier curd cheese is almost impossible to over-ripen to rancidity, like a wet and gooey one could do within a month. The tight, elastic protein structure in these sturdier cheeses also resists excessive softening. So, washing them to develop B. linens really just adds flavor and aroma, while essentially building a rind from layers of expired B. linens. This is a much trickier feat of affinage, but the hard work pays off in the punch of a heady Gruyere or Comté .

MOLDY - Again, a drier cheese will keep its shape, no matter how much mold collects around the outside. The buildup of surface cultures eventually creates a crusty casing for a developing cheese. Blue cheeses like Stiltonthat aren't wrapped in foil, and mottled looking wheels like Garrotxa are good examples of this bunch. While the mold's enzymes aren't the most important factor for texture and flavor development - they do lend a special 'Je ne sais quoi' that you'll never get from a plastic bag. BRUSHED CLEAN - Picture a Parm! These wheels kind of look naked and straw colored. The goal is to eliminate all types of surface cultures through frequent brushing and rinsing. Eventually a casing of dehydrated cheese forms and thickens over time. A Parmigiano-Reggiano rind is about ¾-inch thick after two full years in a cave.

LEAF OR FOOD COVERED - Self-explanatory. We've got 'em rubbed with tomato paste, coffee/lavender oil, wrapped in bourbon soaked maple leaves, buried in walnut leaves or coated with balsamic must. You name it - and somebody has tried to stick it in or on their cheese. It's actually a pretty clever way of making an instant protective rind, while adding an aromatic boost to developing flavors.

So the next time you're perusing the case, play the classification game and see if you can determine the genus, species, and sub-species of your favorite cheeses. The more practice you get, the better you can order with your eyes closed…

Go Big or Go Home Reading Assignment: The Cheese Plate - crammed with full-color glossy pin-ups of the fanciest cheeses from home and abroad. Hone your identification skills without leaving the house!

Cheese You Must Seek Out and Devour: Bucheron - This is a great example of a surface ripened cheese with an intentionally thick cream-line. It's a fun exercise to try the gooey ripened part just below the surface of the bloomy rind, next to the 'fresher' crumbly chevre near the center.

MAKING THE CUT: AN INSIDER’S LOOK AT CHEESE SELECTION

2008-04-16T08:56:00.001-04:00

by Zoe Brickley

FAQ #1: ‘What’s your favorite cheese?’

FAQ #2 ‘How much cheese do you eat on a daily basis?’

Subset of #2 - ‘Why aren’t you super-fat?’

FAQ #3 ‘Where do you guys get all this cheese, and how do you decide which to sell?’

By now I’ve done my fair share of cave tours, fromager events, and ‘Cheese 101’ classes for enthusiastic Murray’s patrons. It is absolutely true that somebody asks at least one, if not all three of these questions every time. And they are still hard to answer.

As for the first two, I suppose that upon seeing where our 200 cheeses live, or hearing my full spiel, the only question left surrounds how we feel about them. After swimming in cheese for a couple of years, do you get sick of it…lose the ability to enjoy run-of-the-mill types or to suspend judgment for the sake of a snack (or breakfast sandwich)?

Yes and no, but mostly no. If we didn’t love cheese, then we’d work next door at the fish place. Or the sausage or bread or guitar store. Or Bear Stearns. Nope – dairy is our jam. We even like bad cheese because it makes us feel smart.

So it’s impossible to name a favorite. It’s like asking an artist what their favorite color is to paint with. One color just isn’t enough for a work of art – and isn’t as meaningful without contrast from the others. (Unless you are a crazy monochromatic mosaic painter or worked at that all-Comté store down on Essex).

But maybe that full-spectrum painter could name the right color blend for a February oceanscape. In the same way, I know of the perfect sausage eating cheese (Piave) or the best for blue cheese dressing (Mountain Gorgonzola) or my favorite walking down the street eating cheese cheese (Boerenkaas). To impress the in-laws? Tomme Crayeuse. Book Club? Constant Bliss. Fall Picnic? Vermont Shepherd. The best dessert cheese when served with peppered strawberries and truffle honey? Monte Enebro of course.

So, FAQ#1 = unanswerable! Customers rightly use any and every excuse to come pick out cheese and after helping them for a couple months you start to develop your own set of stock answers, read: favorites.

If there is one thing that tries our undying love for queso, it lies in the answer to FAQ#3. The tasting committee is not for the weak at heart – or tummy. Between all of the samples we invite from cheese-makers, distributors, and importers- and all the ones they submit for our consideration, it adds up to hundreds every year.

One of my jobs here is to collect the samples on a weekly basis, slice them up and present them with all pertinent production and pricing info, make sure they get tasted thoroughly (with proper respect and enthusiasm), commented upon from all five sensory elements, rated on a numerical scale, considered by all four departments and finally logged into our master database.

As much as we love to help our cheesemaking friends out – we just can’t pick-up every tasty and well-made morsel that comes along. If we did, our five thousand cheeses would crowd out all the customers. Instead, we must deliberate about how a potential new guy fits in; we can only have so many semi-soft cows. No more than a quarter should be washed rinds. Eight goudas, tops. One Limburger is fine.

So when we evaluate we try to assume that we have all the styles we need covered – like a set menu outline- and that a delicious cheese will have to compete with the niche and price of an existing Murray’s choice. It’s like King of the Cheese Hill. We try to keep our total number the same and slowly improve over-all quality and value over the years.

The role of stenographer for these meetings has been pretty fun. You start picking up adjectives you never would have thought of: ‘This tastes like pencils!’ Canned corn and pineapple are mentioned. Fishy, earthy, grassy and dirty – but in a good way- aren’t uncommon.

And as our company grows, so too does the committee’s appetite for cheese. Our collaboration with Kroger supermarkets for instance, brought about an unprecedented tasting. To determine the best brands for our test locations in Kroger, we had to squeeze a lot into a single meeting.

A spread of five cheeses is a lot for a meal. Ten is plenty for a party. Twenty is pushing it for a product-line sampling. But a SEVENTY cheese tasting is enough to put you down for the count.

It started with just 30 or so possible picks: a reasonable fraction of what the total number might be. But to be fair we also got 30 or so alternatives from other producers; it became a grueling six category Ultimate Throw-down for the Murray’s seal of approval.

And still, this is nothing compared to actual on-the-books award ceremony style competitions, like the World Championship Cheese Competition. Rob just returned as a judge for the coveted titles and actually put 250 different cheeses in his mouth, more than we carry in the store, over the course of a weekend. And there were more than 1500 others that he didn’t get around to. A few cheeses we carry made the cut that weekend, but I think Rob is the real winner here.

Events like this do tend to make recreational enjoyment a little less likely – but not out of the question. And all other parts of my job ensure that I unpack, flip, scrub, heave and otherwise physically move cheese around more than I actually consume it. So that’s why I’m only a little bit fat.

So if you don’t know, now you know… But if you’re still curious - FAQ #4 is an easy one: ‘Do you ever eat American singles?’ Yes. On Eggs. But that’s technically not a cheese question; it’s a food-dyed-milk-powder-and-hydrogenated-oil question. As my definition of cheese cannot be extended so far, I can enjoy it (with a little ketchup) in the food pyramid apex category of ‘other’.

THE MERCURIAL SPLENDOR OF CHEESE SEASONALITY

2008-03-31T17:17:00.002-04:00

by Zoe Brickley

April is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs from the dead earth, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

T.S. Eliot wrote that opener to The Waste Land when he was having a nervous breakdown. Perhaps the onset of this celebrated season, classically employed as a figure of hope and rebirth, was unbearable in the actuality of his despair. The typically saccharine, floral images are reworked to reflect instead the springtime of his troubled psyche. Eliot might have experienced emotional limbo, haunted by a past abandoned and fraught over the inevitability of his undoing. Or maybe he was just having trouble finding a good sheep’s milk cheese.

That’s what’s been eating me lately. I’ve been trying to hold down the last few wheels of 2007’s Vermont Shepherd from cave pillagers – the famed Vermontian reinvention of the classic French Ossau Iraty. A few valued restaurant clients still boast it on menus, audacious enough to defy a plain law of nature: lambing season.

May was in like a lion, and out like a hurricane of baby sheep careening down wooly birth canals faster than farmers can keep up with. Due to the finicky way ewes breed they are all on the same cycle – which means that for the next month or so greedy little lambs will be monopolizing our milk supply in the northeast. It follows that well aged cheeses won’t be made, cured, and ready for eating until August at least. By the time they are extra-aged with bigger, nuttier flavors – about a year from now – they are all but sold out after the holiday drain.

If you’d like to finger blame, please look past the sap responsible for sourcing your farmstead picks, and focus instead on Mother Nature’s convention of short-day breeding. While humans and cows follow a lunar cycle of fertility, a ewe’s inner Gaia revolves around the solstice. I think it has something to do with serotonin levels and pituitary glands, but the basic result is that all sheep in our longitudinal neck of the woods can only breed during the shortest days of the year. Here lies some of the pain and the beauty of cheese seasonality.

What to expect – if you’re looking for ewe’s milk cheese in the spring – Keep your eye out for the younger styles like Willow Hill’s camembert types, which show up in late spring or early summer. Larger productions with more aged varieties, especially in Europe, can guarantee availability all year round – go with Ossau Iraty from the Pyrenees if you have a hankering that can’t wait until fall.

Goats are similarly inspired when days begin to shorten. In natural nature this serves to spare newborn kids from harsh midwinter conditions. However, goats are more easily fooled by urbane tricks of husbandry like the rigged lighting used to mimic long summer days, and central heating. Also, the most popular goat cheeses we carry are the younger variety, so seasonal consequences are more immediate and predictable. Supply issues are easily mitigated because the ‘lightly-aged’ niche is pretty well saturated within the artisan market. Fresh chevre also freezes exceptionally well compared to all other cheese types, so that really helps to bolster our late winter stash.

What to expect – from the goats at this time of year: Blue Ledge farm’s Crottina, a little bloomy cheese is aged for only a few weeks, so they’ll be ready and for sale here in April. Also – Mozzarella Company’s Hoja Santa is double seasonal because of the fresh chevre involved as well as the hand-picked Hoja Santa leaves, which are harvested in the spring and used as an aromatic wrapping. All of our little goats will improve at the grass becomes greener and they spend more time outside – this is especially true of the texture and flavor of cheeses made from frozen milk in the winter.

Cows, as I mentioned, need little more than some frozen stock and a latex arm sheath to get the ball rolling. Most bovine dairy farmers use this flexibility to keep their herd on continual rotation for a more consistent milk supply. But this does not exempt them from seasonal fluctuations in milk composition, quality and supply.

One of the most impressive reflections after a year in the cheese biz is how noticeable these changes truly are between seasons, months, and even from batch to batch. How our affections shift as a pretty good cheese starts ‘hitting super-hard’ or another looses that special je ne sais quoi.

But what accounts for these fluctuations, besides our snobbery – I mean… connoisseurship? ‘Tell me what you eat, cow, and I’ll tell you what your cheese is like’. It makes a big difference. When a cow, goat, or sheep is grazing on pasture they are fulfilling their evolutionary destiny. In fact, people started keeping these ruminants, or four-bellied lawn mowers, to take advantage of that abundant green resource, which we can’t digest ourselves. Seasonal and annual fluctuations in weather affect the nutritional content of grass and other grazed plants. The diversity and type of browse also lends aromas and subtle flavors, which are proven to translate into the milk, probably by piggybacking fat globules.

Where an animal is in terms of her gestation cycle, physical activity and nutrition causes drastic changes in the levels of fats, proteins, sugars, minerals, microbes, and aromas that can be measured in the milk. In winter the cows are more sedentary and are probably getting dried hay or supplemental grain to make up for grass shortages. Also, cows give richer milk just before they are given a 2 month rest from milking – which is often mid-winter. This results in a fattier winter cheese, often with a rich and creamy texture.

When grazing animals are in their tawny summer mode the milk is leaner of fat and protein but higher in sugars and volatile aroma compounds – so the cheese may be a little less unctuous but surprisingly more complex, floral, and flavorful. For most cheese types, ‘summer milk’ and ‘grass-fed’ are the hot-button terms.

Why then, does Classic-Sharp-White from the grocery always look and taste exactly the same? Measures have been taken to ease your suffering and stifle your joy. Very 1984. The cows behind that milk probably live inside and eat cereal all day, all year round. The milk never picks up that pretty buttery yellow color, which comes from the beta carotene involved in a pastured diet. Don’t confuse this with that lovely cheddar-orange color, which would be annatto- a flavorless vegetable-based dye. (And don’t worry, goats convert all that beta carotene into vitamin A, so their cheese will always be milky white, even when pastured. Sheep’s milk cheeses are usually off-cream colored no matter what.) It goes without saying that commercial milk never gets those volatile aromas from a varied, seasonally-evolving diet either.

The last key difference is breed. The indoor uber-yeilding cows are the iconic black and white spotted Holsteins that have come to symbolize dairying in the US. They are prized for giving lots of clean tasting milk on a diet of just about anything. Well, that’s not exactly true; the breed has been selected to grow so fast and give so much milk that for most of the year they need supplemental grain; grass alone is not enough to fuel these SUV’s of the bovine world.

Other ‘heritage’ breed cows are more traditional and, around here, typically include Brown Swiss, Jersey, Guernsey, or Ayrshire. These varieties tend to give less milk, but richer, more flavorful and colorful milk. They can subsist on pasture and hay in ideal conditions just fine. If you don’t believe me try and find a pint of Evan’s Farmhouse milk. And buy the whole milk too – its way more delicious, and the only way your body can absorb all the vitamins, minerals and calcium which are naturally packed into this luxury-grade product.

What to expect - from the larger cud-chewing contingent in April – Expect shortages from smaller producers who practice total seasonality (see the must-eat below) or even those who keep the herd on seasonal rotation. Jasper Hill Farm up in VT has a small herd of Ayreshires whose total number of milkers fluctuates from 30 - 46, with the lull at the start of each year. We’ve been tragically low for a few weeks now, but bigger batches are underway in newly expanded aging caves and supply should be back to normal by May.

So celebrate, with T.S. and me, the ups and downs of life. The tribulations that make humans human, and sheeps sheep… In the dead of winter when fresh-mown grass is a wistful memory you can take solace in the nurtured fruit of that happy season with a well aged cheese. But now, that too is a fading memory. A warm day here or there beckons pre-emptive jean shorts wearing only to leave us with exposed knees on a drafty subway platform. And summer’s intense grass-fed offerings are still weeks or months away. Our appetites for spring are sharpened after catching a whiff and chasing a wakeful dream. April – you devil you.

Go Big or Go Home Reading Assignment: The ‘Cheese by Hand’ project website: http://cheesebyhand.com. Check out interviews and farm visits with artisans across the country. See why seasonality affects more than just a cheese-maker’s wardrobe.

Cheese You Must Seek Out and Devour: Meadow Creek Dairy’s Grayson. I know last month was also washed-wonder from the East Coast, but here’s a fun activity: Hurry up and buy a hunk of Grayson right now. Then, grab another hunk of Grayson when it comes back in season this summer. The entire small herd of Jersey cows took a break from milking, as per tradition and inclination, early this year. The cheese is aged around 60 days – so that means we’re getting our last batch from last season this week! The herd of ladies are on the same page so that all of the associated tasks surrounding their breeding are consolidated and happening at the same time. Also – the more southern climate (Galax, VA) means that grass is available for 10 months of the year – so their recommended two month dry spell is timed perfectly with the absence of greens! That way, only the best milk is used for cheese, and it shows. The crew just started making again this week so it won’t be ready until June. Take notes both times and compare. Then do it again in August, and then October and…

IS OUR CHEESE WORTH THE WEIGHT?

2008-03-13T19:05:00.006-04:00

by Zoe Brickley

Imagine that your breakfast of champions is a little different today. Instead of hitting your crunchy-o’s with an ice cold splash of milk you decide to go with black gold; oil that is. Maybe grab a petrol latte, double-tall, on your way to the office.

I know that you think I’m about to launch into a rant about carbon footprints and the Alaskan wilderness, but stay with me here.

I just want to make the point that nobody in their right mind would do such things – and not just because gasoline is unpalatable… it’s also super expensive these days. Gas prices are no joke. But get this – we would actually be saving money if we were treating ourselves to gas-cream-cones. Milk has become more expensive per gallon than gasoline; the commodity cost is up nearly 50% from last year.

Granted, you need a lot less milk to power your life – but that isn’t the case if you’re a cheese-maker. See where I’m headed now?

We’ve had a few comment cards lately reflecting the public’s unrest with the climbing price of cheese. Some have even speculated that we are hiking our margins to reflect the premium ambiance in our fancy new store or to *gasp* finance our underground lair.

We promise, folks, that our margins are the same and that as an importer and retailer we are feeling the heat right along with you (I catch my share of flack as the mistress of the money-pit downstairs). So, I did a little digging and found that there are a few more factors at play than the most obvious culprits, which are transportation costs and the strength of the Euro.

The biggest: grain prices. They’ve tripled from what they were two years ago. Since the dollar is down, more people are importing our amber waves of grain – so demand is up. Also there’s been a drought in the Midwest, and a significant amount of production has shifted to corn for ethanol and livestock feed or to other crops like barley and soy, which are fetching more per bushel as well – so supply is down. Both of these factors contribute to climbing prices.

The most interesting factor affecting demand for grain and milk powder, perhaps, is what researchers are calling ‘diet globalization.’ The apparent conceit of the following statement in light of how much ridicule we garner from the international community makes me shudder, but as it appears, people in developing nations - the increasingly affluent and urbanized - ‘want to eat like Americans.’

We are bringing about this phenomenon by campaigning for our classic processed foods abroad. Who could resist those jingles? And wheat marketing headquarters have been established in places like Nigeria, where newer staples like bread are replacing the more traditional, locally available and affordable options. Hey – if you could make donuts out of cassava root, maybe we’d be importing from them.

Due to skyrocketing export and less competition from other countries, like severe-two-year-drought stricken Australia, grain stocks are at their lowest in a quarter-century.

And guess what dairy cows eat? Yep, it costs more to buy milk because it costs more for the grain to feed the cows. And picture the cheese-making process as a way to concentrate or shrink the volume of milk –it takes about 10 square inches of milk to make one square inch of cheese. Geez.

This doesn’t just apply to our commodity type ‘American’ cheese like block yellow cheddars. The same phenomenon with milk prices are happening overseas, too. In Europe, along with their climbing grain and milk prices it’s easier to export finished products to neighboring continents (by proxy), which are becoming wealthier and more interested in dairy products – especially all my peeps in Asia. Europe’s demand is higher than it’s ever been and their cheeses are much more expensive- even before transportation and currency conversion are accounted for.

Our impressive new shop can’t do much about these facts – but there is one thing: every three months or so we get a memo from the consortium that Parmigiano-Reggiano prices are about to jump again. To shield you defenseless consumers a little longer, we buy a mind-boggling amount just before the spike. My morning workout those days consists of shelving 15 or more eighty-pound kegs of that indispensable condiment. You’re welcome.

With everything getting more expensive, we start thinking about ways to tighten the purse-strings: postponing that trip to Dubai, putting the jet-skis up for sale, moving back to Bushwick… But pause here and take solace in the fact that for less than a ten spot you can take home a wedge of that luxurious triple-crème and feel like a queen for the night.

And here’s something to keep in mind when you’re spending half as much on the cheese for your dinner party as you are on the wine: Quite a few experts out there will contest that milk, grain and most of the food we buy has been grossly under-priced; compared to other countries of the world- at all points in history- we spend a much smaller percent of our income on food than most anyone else.

In fact, milk prices have been so low in the last decade that many smaller farms have been foreclosed or consolidated into bigger operations. Others have managed to get by through a shift of production and the addition of value on-site. In other words, they are making their own dairy products on the farm instead of wholesaling the milk to a consolidated production plant somewhere.

Here lies an alternative to the ever more expensive imported cheeses, and the not so cheap American commodity-types. As a nation we are experiencing a renaissance of sorts within the world of artisan cheese. If you look through Jeff Roberts’ new Atlas of American Artisan Cheese – you will notice that more than 70% of the farms listed started making cheese no earlier than the year 2000.

I’m not going argue that the growing selection of these boutique products will be much less expensive as an alternative. Fuel, labor and facility costs still make profits a challenge for the little guys. But I will say that they are a much better value.

The cows from which our favorite ones are made don’t stand around their whole lives eating Wheaties™. Nope. They eat grass and hay – the diet they were designed for. The good people on these farms craft the cheese by hand, instead of pouring milk in one end of a factory only to plop out yellow cubes from the other. And U.S. cheese quality is better than ever – gaining a real competitive edge on their European inspirations.

Above all, you know your buck is backing the good fight at home, instead of feeding inflation, fueling combines and ocean liners, or bolstering that incorrigible Euro.

Be sure to check out Liz's blog "From the Front Lines" (below) for her thoughts on the subject after a recent visit to several family farms.

FROM THE FRONT LINES

2008-03-13T19:02:00.002-04:00

by Liz Thorpe

On the heels of Zoe's entertaining, but sobering look at the increasing costs of food production in our current world, I wanted to add

my two cents. I've been in Wisconsin all week, visiting cheesemakers while Rob eats gross amounts of cheese as a judge at the World Championship Cheese Contest. I spent Tuesday morning with George and Debbie Crave of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, and the topic of milk increases came up. George summarized the macro-level for me this way:

The cost of milk, and cheese, is based on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Board's valuation of block cheddar. That's where "value" begins in the U.S. Now, if the demand for powdered milk increases (as is the case in our current market, since the greatest demand is occurring in 3rd world countries that can't generate their own milk, but can buy powdered from anywhere), the demand for block cheddar decreases. If the demand for block cheddar decreases, then the
valuation decreases. So, larger cheesemakers have 2 options: 1. They can make powdered milk, a sure sell, in the current market or 2. They can gamble on block cheddar, not knowing how the market will value that cheese in the future, after it ages.

For the dairymen who own and milk cows, but may not (are often not) making cheese, a decrease in the demand for block cheddar means more animals are sent to slaughter. Why pay to feed animals whose milk is devalued as cheddar is devalued? So, cows go to slaughter, and then,
guess what happens? Less cows a'milking, so less supply, so milk shortage, so milk becomes a premium commodity and increases in value.

The demand goes up as the supply goes down. Regardless of larger market forces. So there's a vicious cycle that gets spun each time block cheddar is devalued.

As George said, the cure for high prices...is high prices.

To deflate the price of milk doesn't mean it's any less expensive to produce. Instead there's an artificial goose to the market as milk is more or less available. I know this is basic economics, but we simply don't think about our food this way. Add to this cyclical rhythm certain unknowns like weather: if it's bad, farmers grow less food; if there's a severe drought, Australia cows produce less milk; plus other unknowns like what people in India and Nigeria want to eat.

At Murray's, we (and you too, most likely) we don't really think about block cheddar. It's not part of our world, right? Only, of course, it is part of our world. And being here in Wisconsin I am aware of it at every moment. From the tiny, off-the-grid sheep cheese maker I met on Wednesday, to the cheddar producer who makes 5,000,000 pounds of cheese a year (which, folks, is small by national standards), this cycle of supply and demand, fuel for transport, grain for feed, corn for ethanol, and national consumption here and abroad. They're intrinsically connected in a frighteningly abstracted web that doesn't acknowledge how expensive and laborious it is to make good food, real food, food without a lot of shit in it. Food from cows' fluid milk, not reconstituted powdered milk; food from cows that sniff air and see sky, not to mention cows that might actually eat hay or grass and not just grain; food from cows that don't milk 4 times a day thanks to extended lactation courtesy of rBST and other growth hormones; food
that gets made by hands, touched by people, turned on racks, or shelves, brushed, washed, aged, tended, packed and then shipped, at best, in trucks or planes running on gasoline that costs more than it ever did.

I'm no expert in this stuff, but being here this week makes me worry more than I already did about how we produce food, what we pay for it, and what's happening to family farms in America. They're getting crushed. Even as they make more money off their crops and their milk
than they have in 25 years. The whole thing bodes ominously.

Check This Out! World Cheese Championships

2008-03-11T16:19:00.003-04:00

Cheesemakers and buttermakers from around the world have submitted a record 1,935 entries in the world's premiere cheese and butter competition, the World Championship Cheese Contest, all with the hopes of being named the next Big Cheese.

This year, our very own Rob Kaufelt is one of the judges.

You can watch a live broadcast of the Championship Round via the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association website. How intense will it get? Which flavored cheddar will sway the judges' opinions? Can Rob really eat almost 2,000 samples? See it all live!

It starts at 8:30AM CST (that's one hour behind Murray's time) on Thursday, March 13.

And They Ate it Anyway… The Caves and our Cultural Heritage

2008-02-28T17:44:00.003-05:00

by Zoe Brickley, Murray's Affineur

“Behind every cheese there is a pasture of a different green under a different sky: meadows encrusted with salt that the tides of Normandy deposit every evening; meadows perfumed with aromas in the windy sunlight of Provence; there are different herds, with their shelters and their movements across the countryside; there are secret methods handed down over the centuries. [These caves are] a museum… behind every displayed object the presence of the civilization that gave it form and takes form from it.”

-Italo Calvino, Palomar, 1983

Isn’t that fun to think about? Sometimes I feel more like a curator than an inventory manager – caring for fine examples of living history and brokering deals between the buying and selling teams. It’s a good thing that cheese is so fleeting in its prime, or we would be tempted to fill the caves up, and seal them off as a perfect exhibit of these varied stories.

I like to joke that at some point in every cheese’s saga there is a point where something goes wrong – like a mutated gene in the evolution of a species – but either out of necessity or curiosity somebody eats it, despite the apparent flaw, and decides that they’re on to something. In the big picture it begins to look a lot like natural selection; the domestication of a crop whereby a favored plant yields to the forks and turns of humanity’s evolution.

Let’s take the legend of rennet’s discovery for example – that magical enzymatic catalyst, which transforms liquid milk into curds and whey: As the story goes, back in the time when people used dried stomach linings as canteens (perhaps around the year 3000 BCE), an Arab trader thought to bring milk along to nourish and hydrate him on a day’s journey. When he went to drink he noticed that his beverage had quite a different consistency. Scientifically speaking, the rennet enzyme, still active in that dried container (from the tummy of a young calf, yet un-weaned) effectively curdled the milk by re-arranging its proteins into a semi-solid meshwork. The traveler, either parched or hungry, ate the contents and behold – he was pleased!

Rennet is still used today for that crucial step in cheese-making, though synthetic microbial (vegetarian) coagulants are often used in contemporary production. And true vegetable rennets like cardoon thistles and wild artichokes were discovered by people in ancient Portugal and Spain after grazing sheep gorged on the roughage only to give milk that curdled shortly after harvesting. Again, somebody probably had to drink the odd-looking milk to solve that puzzle.

Or how about the monks? They diligently washed developing mold spots from their young cheeses for the sake of purity and cleanliness, only to find an unusual sticky, bright orange surface layer develop. Unbeknownst to the well meaning brethren, they had cultivated a bacterial culture on their cheeses, known today as Brevibacterium Linens. The fact that they used the only sanitary liquids around, booze or boiled salted water, and the regimented way they organized their day further served to consistently select these ripening microbes – which prefer the resulting pH and salt levels. Its plain to see why they kept it up – these ‘washed-rind’ stinky cheeses are famed today for their unctuous puddingy texture and pungent, earthy aromas.

Only nowadays, cheese-makers try to replicate the same set of qualifying conditions that just happened to suit the lifestyle and inclinations of those monastic traditions.

That’s the exciting and tricky thing about modern cheese-making. Sure we’ve perfected the art of refrigeration; we have finely calibrated instruments for measuring temperature, pH, and humidity – as well as others for checking fat, protein and microbe content of milk and cheese. And further, in the places where artisan cheese is being invented these days, basic food needs are pretty well covered. So now, instead of the end (hunger) shaping the means, the means (artistic vision and skilled craftsmanship) must guide a focused end-product.

The challenges facing these cultural visionaries today will be looked at in subsequent posts. But today, let’s marvel at the sheer number of cheeses that, due to the happenstance of climate, tradition, and speciation, have sprung from a relatively small, though rapidly expanding portion of planet earth. It kind of speaks to the diversity of things that humans have been up to since the dawn of time – and how thorough we have been with our innate instruments, which detect ‘food’ and ‘not-food.’

Ooh, by the way – someone’s food radar broke out there in mail-order land: The other day somebody called up about the bland jelly they received in their fed-exed gift box. Armed with her A-1 investigative skills, our kind and patient operator finally deduced that somebody ate the ice pack. Yep – someone partially consumed the thawed gel refrigerant pack and then called up to complain about the taste. It’s true! (It was non-toxic, and our customer had a full recovery.) But that serves as a fine example of a substance that will remain a mere blip on the unfolding timeline of our species’ menu.

So go out there and google your favorite cheeses. Or look them up in the The Cheese Primer to uncover that point at which ‘somebody ate it anyway’. If anything else it will be an ice-breaker at your next schmancy get-together.

Go Big or Go Home Reading Assignment: Cheeses of the World – a big, impressive, looking coffee-table book that’s actually chock full of interesting stuff behind all of our favorite artifacts. And Wikipedia (the online collaborative encyclopedia) tracks a pretty good history of cheese and otherwise.

Cheese You Must Seek Out and Devour: Cato Corner Farm’s Hooligan. Mark Gillman created this cheese with his newfangled equipment in that old-world washed-rind style. The name gives away its rowdy pungent kick – but it doesn’t tell you about the soft side of this rascal – the inside that is, where you’ll find a gooey, fudgey texture and balanced flavor. Don’t worry; with most washers and rapscallions alike their bark is worse than their bite – so don’t let the stink scare you away!

2008-02-26T14:03:00.002-05:00

Parmesan in Cans No More!

On February 26, the European Court of Justice mandated that "Parmesan" can no longer be tossed around by any old cheese producer. We've grappled with the "Parmesan"/"Parmigiano-Reggiano" distinction at Murray's for some time. It drives us nuts that any junky old reconstituted milk powder can be tossed in a shelf-stable can with some salt and called "Parmesan." That stuff bears no resemblance to the glorious nuance and complexity of the real deal. Parmigiano-Reggiano has so much variety that we carry three at any given time: Parmigiano-Reggiano made by cooperatives, Parmigiano-Reggiano Bonati made by a single family producer, and Parmigiano-Reggiano Vacche Rosse, made with the milk of the nearly extinct red cow. But, let's be frank, Parmigiano-Reggiano is a mouthful, not just of good cheese. It's long and hard to say, and most Americans fall back on the shorter, more familiar "Parmesan." Personally, I shorten it to "Parm" most of the time.

Until now, "Parmesan" could mean anything, but this ruling states that only cheeses bearing the protected denomination of origin (PDO) "Parmigiano-Reggiano" can be sold under the denomination "Parmesan." This is good news for us, because we don't have to redo all our signage. For example, we carry Sartori Stravecchio, which we love for its compulsively caramel, sweet, approachable flavor. Sartori calls it Stravecchio Parmesan, but we stuck to our guns. It's NOT Parmesan, it's pasteurized, the texture is completely different (chewier and younger) and the flavor, while butterscotchy and wonderful, has none of the almondine austerity of the Italian King.

So: score one for helping consumers understand the distinctions in their food, and why hard, aged, cooked, grana-style, cows' milk cheese is not equivalent to Parmigiano-Reggiano. Now, what can we hope for on free-range versus natural versus vegetarian versus cage-free eggs? Whew.

I've pasted the full announcement from the European Court below.

Enjoy,

Liz

***************************************

Rome, 26 February 2008.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) published today a very clear ruling: only cheeses bearing the protected denomination of origin (PDO) 'Parmigiano-Reggiano' can be sold under the denomination 'Parmesan'.
"This judgment is a clear victory for the producers of 'Parmigiano-Reggiano' and the entire sector which includes 20 000 operators and represents a turnover of €1.5 billion. This ruling will put an end to the activities of counterfeiters whose use of the name 'Parmesan' during the last years has had a very negative impact on both the economy of the sector and the image of our unique cheese. This is also a victory for consumers to which we offer strong guarantees of traceability and who will not be facing anymore misleading denominations on the market", stressed Giuseppe Alai, the President of the Consorzio of the Parmigiano-Reggiano.
The publication of the judgement of the Court of Justice comes nearly 3 years after the launch of the infringement proceeding by the European Commission against Germany (21st March 2005). "We are very grateful to all the people who gave their support to us on this case, in particularly to the European Commission which strongly defended the protection of the Parmigiano-Reggiano during all these years. It is an important precedent, not only for the producers of Parmigiano-Reggiano, but also for all the producers of products with geographical indication (DPO and PGI) protected in the European Union who often face abuses on the worldwide markets", declared Leo Bertozzi, the Director of the Consorzio.
The judgment draws on the main arguments of the opinion given in June 2007 by the Advocate General of the Court of Justice. The ECJ dismisses the action for noncompliance against Germany because the Commission did not establish that the German law does not protect sufficiently the PGO 'Parmigiano Reggiano'. By doing so, the Court questions one of the milestones of the European protection system of Geographical Indications (GIs), the fact that Member states must intervene to stop the abusive use of protected GIs (the so-called ex officio protection).
"We take note of the Court's interpretation on the effects of the protection granted at the EU level. The Consorzio challenged German producers before German courts which were waiting for this interpretation of the European Court of Justice to rule on the dispute. Now that things are clear, the Consorzio will obtain the protection of "parmesan" in Germany. However, the ex officio protection is a fundamental element of the GI system, in particular for small producers that do not usually have the means to defend their rights. This aspect must be part of the current reflection on the future of European system on Geographical indications."

Episode One: How I Got into the Caves (Without a Jackhammer) by Zoe Brickley

2008-02-13T17:08:00.004-05:00

Before working at Murray’s I didn’t know squat about cheese. It was about two years ago, and I had never shopped here before, or anywhere remotely like it. I moved to the city for culinary school and brought with me only a vague sense that I might be interested in this sort of thing. Someone picked up on this vibe, and sent me down to Bleecker Street.

If you’ve ever visited our West Village shop – then you are familiar with its ‘vast and splendid bounty’ approach to the cheese case and towering displays. Without some rules of thumb, or a tour guide, it’s hard to know where to start – and on what to end up spending your pennies on.

For me, the mere aesthetic of this mecca- including the contingent of red coats behind the counter (each surely endowed with a preternatural understanding of the dairy universe) were all too intimidating. I was totally out of my league. So instead of trying to beat this gang of snarky mongers, I decided to join them. Working behind the counter was a sort of extra-curricular activity while I studied French cuisine.

You might guess that I’m the kind of person who likes to know the rules before I play the game. This makes winning easier and more efficient. And if my specialized skill-set doesn’t match up to the contest, like in the case of all sports requiring hand-eye coordination, then forget about it; I’m not playing. Unfortunately, this usually ends up as a point of embarrassment for me, especially when I’m competing against earnest fun-lovers.

I’ve approached cheese the same frenzied and self-congratulatory way. And I’ve actually realized that you don’t have to quit your day job or lose any friends to get a solid understanding of the stuff. (its much easier to master than some terrific subject like wine or rocket science)

But to get to the heart of the matter you might ask… Why does my ‘business casual’ look revolve around insulated soft-shell performance outer-wear? Or, “Why is the in-box on my desk growing a bloomy rind?” And, “Am I anemic or does my translucent pallor come from scuttling to and fro subterranean transport and an underground workplace every day? In short, How did I end up working in a cheese cave? Well let me tell you:

Right place. Right time. Yep. Laure Dubouloz, a capable young Frenchie, was enjoying a summer abroad in NYC. She was filling in for the great Sasha Davies, who helped set-up the caves at Murray’s a year or so prior, and had taken leave for a European sabbatical. Laure was qualified to fill her shoes because she had grown up with century-old cheese caves right beneath her childhood home. That’s right, her father and grandfather are well known, real-deal affineurs in the motherland.

But around Juneish there washed over the land a panicked vision of orphaned cheese when Sasha announced that instead of returning to the abyss, she would instead embark upon this most excellent adventure: www.cheesebyhand.com. And Laure would return to France in the fall to take a killer job with the famed Herve Mons –Affineur and Murray’s leading cave-building consultant. But who would look after the cheese?!?

We needed someone, and fast. Someone to apprentice with Laure, learn her ancient craft in a matter of months, and master this obscure trade. We needed an industry fledgling and cheese maniac with no prospects for full-time employment upon her well timed graduation. We needed me. Or somebody kind of like me. (My mom’s reaction to my new appointment: “Oh, that’s cool – do ‘affineurs’ get health insurance?”)

So I won the cheese game by beating out all other competitors. Ok – I don’t think there were any other candidates, but had there been I would have crushed them! I’d like to think of this blog as my prize. So, over the next year, I’m going to explain some of the cheese facts and phenomena I’ve recently picked-up on while they’re still fresh in my mind. Peruse these segments monthly if you are just looking for a good time. Pore over them and obsess about the suggested cheeses and further reading if you want to be a champion…

Here’s a tip now:

Be systematic! My first day on the counter I tried every single cheese – and that’s like, more than a hundred. The only thing I got out of it was a food buzz and a tummy ache.

The next day I decided to only sell pecorino. I decided on this because I was formerly under the impression that there was only one cheese out there named ‘Pecorino’. Little did I know this familiar title was a mere umbrella term for all Italian sheep’s milk cheese, of which we carried approximately ten. Some were young and fresh tasting, others old and brothy, some were robust and barnyardy (yes!) Others were rubbed with tomato paste or studded with truffles. No matter who customers were, or what they asked for, they were walking away with some sort of pecorino. After a few days of tasting and discussing and peer pressuring – I had that little section down pat.

Go Big or Go Home Reading Assignment: The Murray’s Cheese Handbook – not only does it offer a hunky picture of Rob, the owner of Murray’s, but it also includes hundreds of cheeses with cheeky descriptions, pairing suggestions, and more! Also pick up Steve Jenkins’ The Cheese Primer – don’t even bother tuning in next month until you’ve read it cover to cover – all 517 pages.

Cheese You Must Seek Out and Devour – Pecorino Foja de Noce – the most sophisticated pecorino we’ve ever carried. The flavor is lactic (milky) and the cleanest example of ‘sheepy’ as an adjective. The flaking texture appears dry, but creams up on the palate due the richness (i.e. fattiness) of sheep milk. These fats help Foja’s subtle flavors cling to your receptors so that they may unfurl in a lingering finish. Plus, they bury it in a cask of walnut leaves for a few months to let it get nice and moldy, and that’s just plain cool.

~Zoe Brickley

Haunted Pumpkins – In February?!?

2008-02-11T17:55:00.001-05:00

When its your full time job to baby happy cheeses, the way other outfits (mis)handle their product can blow your mind.

Like the other day I was cruise'n down the sidewalk, re-energized after my warming soup lunch (my desk in the caves is a breezy 53F). And I happened upon the open-end of a large truck parked right outside the store.

From a distance it looked like there were three enormous pumpkins, bound with twiney rope, as if they were to be hung from the ceiling of a haunted house. They were just sitting there unwrapped; no protective boxes or paper – just bruised and naked pumpkins all tied up on the bed of this truck.

I jogged up for a closer look – wait a minute! That's our Super-Aged Provolone Mandarone that we had imported especially for our February promo. It is meant to hang as it ages and it is supposed to be that deep, nutty brown color like super-aged gouda, but it's also supposed to be handled with care. We've been awaiting the arrival of this rare and rustic behemoth for weeks, months even. I approached the driver: 'Hey man, what's that?'

'You'd never believe it,' he said, 'its provolone cheese!'

To which I puffed, 'I know its cheese, dude. It's our super-special promo waiting to happen, but what's it doing getting thrown around?'

He looked befuddled, thinking he was blowing the mind of a tourist, only to find that he was blowing the mind of this cheese's future nanny. I raced to the back door so I could warn the receiver that we might have to refuse this abused cheese. I dutifully called the other managers in outrage. I am serious about quality control. Could Murray's Cheese accept a wheel that had been tossed around so thoughtlessly?

The answer I got was, "How does it taste? Let's start there, even if it looks like a rotten pumpkin. So I plugged the mangy spectacle to taste test it right in front of the driver and everyone.

I wanted to hate it. I pre-wrinkled my nose and readied my senses for disaster. And then I was defeated. It was totally delicious. It was at once intensely caramely and sharp, with a crystalline crumbly texture that creamed-up on the palate. Damn. I couldn't return a perfectly good cheese. A great cheese even – whose ancestors had probably seen worse days, lying around in hay carts before the arts of refrigeration and sanitation were perfected, waiting to be eaten. This was probably the most appropriate and true to life method of delivery for such a dinosaur.

So come buy a hunk while we still have it around. (Even though I scrubbed the hell out of it, you still might want to leave the battered wax rind aside on this one.)

~by Zoe Brickley

Wonder What Cheesemongers Do On Their Days Off?

2008-02-11T14:24:00.000-05:00

Jessica Kesselman, a longstanding cheesemonger at Murray's Grand Central shares her Sunday:

It was no surprise to my five year old daughter, Emilia, when I announced that we would spend Sunday afternoon making mozzarella. We cook a lot together, and we keep upping the complexity of the recipes. Last weekend it was fried pork wontons from scratch. Now we were entering sacred territory- our beloved mozzarella of Friday night pizzas and birthday lasagnas, and memories of last summer's 'put-some-mozzarella-in-it' salads. We were armed with Ricki's Cheesemaking Kit and four quarts of Evans whole milk. We had a pot, thermometer and microwave. And we had all afternoon.

It turns out we only needed an hour. The process was so easy, Emilia handled most of the steps by herself. She measured out the milk, dissolved the citric acid in water, poured the rennet into the pot, and monitored the thermometer. I handled all things stove top and microwave. But we kneaded the curds together, releasing the whey, and shared our excitement that this milky, gooey mass in our hands was actually beginning to resemble mozzarella. We had turned milk into cheese in our house! Later that evening, as we sprinkled the mozzarella over our pizza dough, we laughed about the moment during the afternoon when, taking the curds out of the pot, it looked more like we were producing cheese jelly. And we both agreed- this was definitely easier than making wontons!

The Word on the Curd Nerd

2008-02-04T15:28:00.001-05:00

Jamie Forrest is the self-proclaimed "Curd Nerd" of the eponymous blog. If you love our blog, we unofficial curd nerds at Murray's highly recommend it. Last week, Jamie came by for a visit to the cheese caves and a tour with Zoe, our incredibly passionate and knowledgeable affineur. Jamie has featured Murray's before, but his interest was peaked by January's email feature on our subterranean caves.

We're pleased to have Jamie as a new friend in cheese.

Jamie and Zoe walked the caves together while I observed while the two of them discussing incredibly curd nerdy topics like the specifics of bacterial growth on certain rinds, temperature and humidity levels of each cave and the development of molds in each cave. This is what Zoe manages daily, so she revealed a few of her secrets.

After his tour, he skipped off to the counter to sample the fruit of the caves. He ended up with several blues that he planned to make into the Ultimate Super Bowl Blue Cheese Dip. Do you get the correlation? GO BIG BLUE! Read the taste-test results on Serious Eats, another fantastic foodie blog he contributes to.

Interns Turned Cheesemakers

2008-01-22T10:32:00.000-05:00

You might not know this but Murray’s caves not only age cheese but also mature cave interns into full-grown cheesemakers!

We were so pleased to hear Ilyssa’s and Javier’s story of setting up their very own farm that we wanted to share their e-mail (and pictures!) with you.

Hi Rob,
Yes, we did it! Javier and I found 100+ acres of vacant land (ie nothing - no water, electric, etc.) in central NY (close to Cooperstown) and built a farm (cheese house w/underground cave, barns) - just me, Javier, and sometimes my dad helping out. We have 46 milking goats and a couple of bucks. Here's some pictures to prove it.

Don't know if you recall, but we worked for 2 different cheese makers after leaving Murray's in Feb '06, so we've been pretty busy.

We're getting some nice milk and results, but haven't settled on a signature cheese yet. Trying to pay the bills. The cheese was so lovely during the summer when the goats were browsing! We've been selling locally and getting great reception.

Murray's is always in my thoughts. It had a great impact on us. Thank you.

Ilyssa

ilyssa.berg@gmail.com

Painted Goat Farm

Blessed Are The Cheesemakers

2007-12-28T15:18:00.000-05:00

From my Alma Mater, dear old Cornell University.
Rob

The Cornell Daily Sun
(http://cornellsun.com)

Blessed are the Cheesemakers

By Behzad Varamini

Created Oct 29 2007

Growing up in Wisconsin, cheese is not a choice, it’s a lifestyle. Dairy is not a decision, it’s a religion. Milk is not a maybe, it’s mandatory.

California, I love you guys. You have beaches, Hollywood, great food and The Price is Right. But please, once and for all, fully accept that Wisconsin is America’s Dairyland. We have nothing else. Or, maybe take America’s Dairyland, but give us The Price is Right. And Arnold.

Wisconsin is America’s Dairyland. Though there may be more cows in California, one has to be really smart and scientific and realize that Wisconsin has a much higher cow:person ratio. That’s how I got into Cornell — less because of Wisconsin’s cow:person ratio, more because I am really smart and scientific.

Plus, California is warm, diverse and trendy, so it’s easy to be from California. Wisconsin is cold, homogeneous and flannel. Even harder is leaving Wisconsin, because when you do, really weird things start happening.

I began to quickly notice some eerie changes when I moved to Pennsylvania with my family a few years ago.

First, my own body. Though the milk in Pennsylvania didn’t taste much different, my body began to reject it with violent ferocity. Cheese and ice cream induced the same symptoms. I became lactose intolerant, something I thought only happened to Asians. I even started liking bubble tea and Korean dramas.

Next, the persecution. First, the stares: it was hard to go anywhere without people glaring at my cheesehead. Then, the questions: “Why are you wearing that foam hat in the shape of a giant cheese wedge on your head?” “Sir, you know you’ll have to take that off for airport security?”

And finally, the misunderstandings. For weeks I searched grocery stores, restaurants and bars for cheese curds so I could relive my past. No one understood me. It’s like I was speaking another language.

What are cheese curds? Heaven in your mouth. Cheese curds are fresh, young cheddar cheese in its natural, random shape before being processed into blocks and aged into store-bought cheese. They have a very small window of eatability and are rarely heard of outside of Wisconsin. They are served alone, with dipping sauce or deep fried. When you bite into one, they make a characteristic “squeak” sound; yes, squeaky-cheese! I know you want some.

Oh, how I long for the days of lactose tolerance, cheesehead freedom and squeaky deep-fried cheese. Unfortunately, to this day, the persecution against cheese-enthusiasts is still rampant.

Take, for instance, a Southern California couple who are facing criminal charges for allegedly trying to sell homemade cheese in an open-air market. 375 pounds of unlicensed cheeses were seized and the couple was arrested on felony cheese-making charges.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture claims that homemade cheese is a serious threat to public health.

What the California Department of Food and Agriculture really means is that homemade cheese is a serious threat to the California cheesemaking industry because it tastes so good! I say give this couple a one-way ticket to Wisconsin — save them from California, where non-discerning taste buds can hardly tell apart Gorgonzola cheese from Brie Manoir.

These folks were simply trying to stand up for their inalienable right to fresh homemade cheese, unprocessed and unaged, soft, and squeaky.

And that’s what people don’t understand. Us cheeseheads, we’re just like you. We want to live comfortable lives. We want our kids to go to the best schools. We put our pants on one leg at a time, over our long underwear.

We’re just a little misunderstood. So grab an udder. Hug a cow. Tell a cheesy joke. Tolerate lactose. And pass the cheese. Just try not to cut it, at least not in public.

Behzad Varamini is a graduate student in Nutritional Sciences. He can be contacted at bvaramini@cornellsun.com. Gain Through Loss appears alternate Tuesdays.

Posts and Comments are the exclusive property of their owners.
All other content © 2007 The Cornell Daily Sun
All Rights Reserved.

Source URL: http://cornellsun.com/node/25690

Songs of Joy!

2007-12-21T09:30:00.001-05:00

It is no secret that we are big cheese nerds - but cheese songs? Oh yes!!
Have a giggle and sing along to this Parmigiano Reggiano video and song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmZ28NIQPbM&feature=related

Save the South Village!

2007-12-13T13:08:00.000-05:00

Murray’s Cheese is located in heart of Greenwich Village and part of a unique historic neighborhood – the South Village.

In an effort to preserve the character of one of New York’s most flavorful cultural and architectural areas, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation actively campaigns to receive landmark protection for the South Village.

Read the first installment of the GVSHP's "The South Village: Where History Lives" below and find out how to join Murray’s on the list of supporters!

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
South Village
landmark designation campaign.

Jones' street 19th century lofts, tenements , and houses look nearly the same today as they did in February 1963, when his now-iconic photograph Bob Dylan was taken for the cover of "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan," the epoch-making album featuring "Blowin' in the Wind." At the time, Dylan lived around the corner at 161 West 4th Street, later moving to 94 MacDougal Street (also in the South Village.)

From his earliest days in new York to long after his rise to fame, Dylan performed at South Village venues such as Gerde's Folk City (130 West 3rd Street), Cafe Wha? (115 MacDougal Street), The Bitter End (149 Bleecker Street), The Village Gate (160 Bleecker Street), Izzy Young's Folklore Center (110 MacDougal Street), and the Gaslight Cafe (114 MacDougal Street). The South Village is renowned as the center of the world-wide Folk musical revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The South Village is one of New York's and the nation’s most
historic neighborhoods.

But due to a lack of landmark protections, its buildings can be demolished and its history can be erased at any time.

To help, CLICK HERE for letters you can send to the City calling for landmark designation of the South Village.

To find out more about the effort to preserve the South Village, CLICK HERE.

Join GVSHP or support our preservation efforts – CLICK HERE

Happy Artisan Holidays!

2007-12-12T14:55:00.000-05:00

Jasper Hill Farm Co-Owner and Cheesemaker Mateo Kehler wrote in a recent eblast:

Dear Friend of Jasper Hill Farm:

Hi there!

As many of you might have heard Jasper Hill is in the midst of a big
expansion. We are in the process of building a series of subterranean
vaulted cellars to ripen cheese for cheesemakers around the state.
Jasper Hill Farm will become one supplier of many to the Cellars at
Jasper Hill. It is a piece of infrastructure designed and intended to
lower the barriers to entry for new cheesemakers and to deliver
efficiencies and a bundle of services to existing cheesemakers. We are
betting the farm that you will soon be seeing a lot more great cheese
from Vermont.

We are currently working with 10 Vermont cheesemakers, who ship us
their cheese young to age in our cellars. We will soon have capacity
for the production of over 50 cheesemakers. Our goal is to double the
production of farmstead and artisan cheese being produced in Vermont in
order to shift dairy farming away from commodity fluid milk production
to value added on farm processing. This will help protect the working
landscape we love so much by ensuring that small scale family dairy
farming remains economically viable. Sustainability is rooted in
economics and we are hoping to help with the shift. Our friends at
Murray's Cheese, a New York institution, have created a Jasper Hill
Collection that will change with the seasons depending on what is ripe
and ready at the time. The collection will include a range of styles
and milk types and will reflect the best cheeses we have in our cellars
at any given time. Producers we are working with now include Jasper
Hill Farm (of course), Bonneview Farm, our award-winning Cabot
Cloth-bound Cheddar, Grafton Village Cheese Co., Twig Farm, Dancing Cow
Farmstead, Crawford Family Farm, Crowley Cheese Co., Lazy Lady Farm and
a few other small scale local artisan cheesemakers. The Jasper Hill
Collection ships in a handsome handmade wooden box made for Murray's by
Richard Jewett right down the road from the farm.

Cheese makes a fantastic gift and our friends at Murray's Cheese in New
York City make it easy to give...

Best wishes for a happy holiday season!

Thanks for the support.

Mateo

Tricks of the Trade

2007-12-06T09:38:00.000-05:00

How do you create the perfect cheese plate? Weekend TODAY sent Bravo's Ted Allen to Murray's to find out.

Click on the link below for a cheesy lesson:

Tricks of the trade: Cheese

You Are What You Eat

2007-11-30T13:46:00.000-05:00

At Murray's, we take pride in the quality of our products and strive to provide our customers not only with exceptional food but also the knowledge to become a happy, healthy eater.

Laura Troyer's article on grass-fed beef will make you covet every cow on a green pasture.

The Grass Is Greener

The safety benefits of grass-fed beef
By Laura Troyer
www.culinate.com

Back in August, just before the barbecueing blitz of Labor Day weekend, a public-health alert issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service warned consumers to avoid Northwest Finest brand beef because of possible E. coli contamination.

Part of the meat in question was organic. Organic beef is generally considered safe when it comes to mad-cow disease, a disease that can develop when cows consume rendered cattle parts; such feed is banned under the USDA organic standards. But organic beef isn’t necessarily any safer when it comes to E. coli. This can be particularly frustrating for consumers who have plunked down the extra cash organic beef usually commands.

The E. coli strain suspected in the August outbreak was the particularly virulent O157:H7 strain. “It’s not found in the intestinal tracts of cattle raised on their natural diet of grass, hay and other fibrous forage,” wrote Nina Planck, author of Real Food, in a 2006 op-ed for the New York Times. “No, O157 thrives in a new — that is, recent in the history of animal diets — biological niche: the unnaturally acidic stomachs of beef and dairy cattle fed on grain, the typical ration on most industrial farms.”

Finishing (a period of fast growth to create intramuscular marbling) cattle on grass — and only grass — is the answer to the E. coli problem, say advocates like Planck. Although “corn-fed” sounds particularly wholesome and old-fashioned to many American consumers, it’s only since World War II that the modern practice of finishing cattle in confinement on grain (and anything else more or less digestible) has flourished.

According to the USDA, a certified-organic animal must be given “access to the outdoors, shade, shelter, exercise areas, fresh air, and direct sunlight suitable to the species, its stage of production, the climate, and the environment.” But as Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, wrote a few years ago in the New York Times Sunday magazine, the organic label alone “doesn’t fundamentally challenge the corn-feedlot system, and I’m not sure that an ‘organic feedlot’ isn’t, ecologically speaking, an oxymoron.”

A grass-fed product can be certified organic just like its grain-fed counterpart. But the organic label doesn’t say it all; many uncertified ranchers still avoid the use of hormones and antibiotics, for example.

Grass-fed beef also has health benefits for both animal and consumer: The absence of grain in the cow’s diet reduces the risk of potentially fatal bloat and acidosis. And studies have shown that grass-fed beef is leaner, richer in omega-3 fatty acids, and higher in the antioxidant vitamins A and E than grain-fed beef.

Nearly all U.S. beef cattle are fed grass early in life before being finished on grain, so in stores, look first for beef labeled “grass-finished,” not “grass-fed.” If pure grass-finished beef isn’t available, try to find producers who supplement pasture with grain for only a short time (a study out of Oklahoma State University suggests a time-on-feed of less than 112 days). Bear in mind, too, that the grass-fed beef in larger markets is often imported from countries like Australia, New Zealand, and Uruguay, where finishing on grass is the norm.

Eat Wild, a website promoting grass-fed meat, offers a list of pre-screened U.S. and Canadian retailers, markets, and farms that sell grass-fed beef. Additional farms and markets can be found through Local Harvest.

Finally, Lois Higgins of GrassRoots Meats in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, points out that “wellness is not just about meat . . . it’s a package deal.” Most GrassRoots customers, she explains, have diets heavy in fruits and vegetables, either homegrown or organic.

In other words, man cannot live well on grass-fed meat alone.

Murray the Scholar

2007-11-18T10:34:00.000-05:00

This year, Murray's has hosted several students from the University of Gastronomic Sciences, founded by Slow Food in Italy. Clementine Mallet spent several months working with Taylor Cocalis, manager of The Cheese Course at Murray's, a graduate of the University of Gastronomic Sciences herself. While here, she gained an inside perspective on the artisan cheese scene in NYC. You can read her graduate thesis here.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the efforts and contributions of the following individuals whom made this report possible: Zoe Brickley. Taylor Cocalis, Rob Kaufelt, Robert LaValva, Niki Russ Federman, Josh Russ Tupper, and Anne Saxelby.

Introduction

Growing up French in New York City quality[1] food has always been valued. From our home on Barrow Street my mother and I frequently did the food shopping together always at our neighborhood food shops. We bought our bread at Zito’s Bakery, meat at Ottomanelli & Sons, cheese at Murray’s Cheese Shop, pastries at Claude’s Patisserie, and coffee at Porto Rico roasting company which were all on a three block radius of each other and our home; we felt fortunate to always having all the food we wanted at our fingertips. As a New Yorker, I decided to return to my metropolitan food roots for my internship. In New York there has always existed unparalleled food energy, and with my experiences at the Università degli Studi Scienze Gastronomiche I brought my knowledge and enthusiasm about food culture to the food scene of New York.

I was very excited to become a part of the Murray’s team, a store that has been around since the 1940’s, prior to my time, yet had a place in my childhood and again in my present.

The most evident singularity I noticed upon my arrival at Murray’s Cheese is the youthful presence that makes up this establishment. From the cheese mongers, to the directors, and everyone in between, the majority of the employees fall under 32 years of age. Then I realized this youthful presence doesn’t stop at Murray’s, but rather pervades throughout the West Village, Lower East Side, and various other neighborhoods of New York City, New England and the remainder of the United States.

Ironically, I went off to Parma to develop an understanding of Food Culture through the study of food traditions and production, not realizing that in the United States, the American youth have successfully been trying their hands in the trade of quality products.

At Murray’s Cheese I educated the public about quality foods in a fun and practical manner: through tasting education in the Murray’s classroom. During my tenure, I met the leading purveyors[2] of New York, many of who are my peers (a majority of them under the age of 27). This influx of youth in the world of gastronomy came as a surprise. Although I expected such a trend in Europe, I did not anticipate it in the U.S. It turns out that in Europe many of my peers are no longer involved in traditional food ways. This “back to the renaissance” occurring in the states speaks volumes about the current food systems of the American landscape.

In this paper I will explore the rise of this movement through history, the portraits of the purveyors that are creating this movement, why this resurgence is occurring, and how this movement can provide a framework for other countries.

HISTORY

All throughout history, starting from the Dark Ages till today there have been many food crisis’s and movements that have affected humanities’ food systems: the industrial revolution, the food cooperative movement, the organic movement, and most recently the local food movement.

The newest food movements have come about for various reasons. One theory that sets the stage for this paper is “Due to the Ipod.” We are living in hypermodernity and are surrounded by technology everywhere: cell phones, Ipods, Iphones, computers, televisions, etc. “[Our] consumption behaviors are very much disconnected: everything is made of plastic. We crave connection to the natural world and food is the last thing left. We are made of flesh and crave sensibility.” (LaValva, 2007)[3]

The youth, in particular, have had enough of this desensitization and are stepping up to the vat.

PORTRAIT OF PURVEYORS

The stories of the young leaders in this new food movement come from diverse origins, yet they have all mentioned similar themes as to why they do what they do.

Murray’s Cheese Shop, founded in 1940 by a Jewish, Spanish, Civil War veteran Murray Greenberg, started as a wholesale butter and egg shop. The current proprietor, Rob Kaufelt bought the shop in 1989 from Louis Tudda, who was sold the store in the 1970’s. (Kaufelt and Thorpe 1) Murray’s differentiates itself by employing their own affineur and having cheese caves which allow them to bring the best quality cheeses to the customers. An affineur is someone who watches over the continuous aging process of the cheese and takes care of them after they have left the hands of the cheese makers: patting, washing, and flipping the cheeses in their various caves.

Zoe Brickley is the youngest affineur I have encountered and is Murray’s very own. Zoe ensures the cheeses are sold at the height of their ripeness- À point not before and not too late.

Zoe herself is at the ripe age of 24 and has been involved with quality products for the past three years: two years as an affineur and one year attending the French Culinary Institute (FCI) of New York City.

Prior to FCI, Zoe was living in the Midwest and going to school in Ohio, her family is from Indiana. I asked Zoe why cheese? “I have always been artistically inclined but I never painted and this is a creative outlet”. (Brickley, 2007)

She felt the best way to take advantage of her interdisciplinary studies in Ohio was through food and this is the same reason why she generally thinks young people are interested in working with food as well.

“Young people don’t want to be bankers forever. They want to do interdisciplinary things and there are many facets to food- historical, cultural, creativity etc.” (Brickley, 2007) The multi-faceted career is not the only cause of this revival. Zoe believes that quality foods are representative of status, ideals and one’s overall identity, making this career more and more appealing.

The boom of artisanal and farmstead products is relatively new. Just in the cheese world alone, since 2000, four hundred small-scale cheese makers have open business in the United States. (Roberts, xx)

This allure has been brought on by numerous elements. According to Zoe, supporting local and artisan products is a status symbol. By being a part of something that is of high quality, there is the indication that you hold an expertise in that area, increasing the importance of one’s role, whether it be, in bread, cheese, salami or other products. Purveying a product of quality demonstrates your knowledge and skill, making you stand out from the rest.

More frequently we hear the buzzwords such as the 100- mile- diet or locavores. These terms did not exist in mainstream dialogue a few years ago. These lifestyles “can be productive and profitable and support the community imparting many liberal ideas. The conscious decision to be held accountable for your food ways is an agricultural and political act. ” (Brickley, 2007) Taking responsibility for getting your food from sustainable businesses is supporting liberal ideas and thus part of a political movement.

The hype also comes from the media. Like fashion and pop culture, food culture is “a very accessible and marketable idea. Commercialization brings food to our attention making people want to learn more and making it novel.” (Brickley, 2007)

People go out to restaurants trying the new dishes -rating their experiences as if they were food writers. The more we eat out, the more we see the menus encompassing local and seasonal products. Chefs highlight their daily changing menus, demonstrating their political food views. This, in turn, encourages us to do the same in our own homes. At home you can watch elaborate cooking shows on specialized channels such as the Food Network or mainstream networks such as Bravo. Through reality shows like Hell’s Kitchen, and Top Chef the contestants become celebrities making whatever they create sexy. At work people gossip about these shows, discuss the points of interest, and who had to “pack up their knives and leave”. Food in New York is hot! “As food becomes more important, status arises.” (Kaufelt, 2007) So the more you know about quality products the hotter you are!

Anne Saxelby, a young woman of 27 years of age, had been getting a lot of press lately. She owns her own cheese shop called Saxelby Cheesemongers in the Lower East Side (LES). Anne believes the revival of young purveyors in quality products has to do with making change in our current food systems.

People have realized that if we continue to leave our food in the hands of the government, real food will no longer exist. The farms across the country have been diminishing, and heirloom foods and traditions have been lost. These foods are now only mentioned in our history books, rather than brought to our plates. In the grocery stores, the aisles have been filled primarily with packaged foods: the first ingredient being corn syrup.

In the past five years young people have been taking part in change. They have realized that our “food system in this country is at stake”. (Saxelby, 2007) Action must take place in order to bring quality products back to our tables. The resurgence of purveyors is partly due to need. The young have taken it upon themselves to provide this necessity, altering their careers to encompass quality foods.

Anne attended NYU for Fine Arts. What triggered her interest in cheese occurred on a trip to Florence, Italy while visiting a friend. She tried many amazing cheeses, and when she returned to New York, she followed her taste to the cheese shops of the city. She discovered places such as Murray’s, asking and tasting her way through their cheese selection. Anne decided that during her summer break she would work at Murray’s Cheese, to continue her curds and whey. (Saxelby, 2007)

After returning from Italy, Anne realized “Art school and working in a gallery ended up being to “Scenestry” and wasn’t for [her]” (Saxelby, 2007)

Every weekend Anne would go to the farmers’ market, where she met the cheese makers from Cato Corner Farm. Anne always asked lots of questions and then “thought perhaps [she] could work on a dairy farm. A dairy farm would be a great place to be and to learn after living in a city for 4 years.” (Saxelby, 2007) Anne did an internship with them in Colchester, CT, a hundred miles Northeast of New York City, where she had learned the art of cheese making. At this time Anne had had a sort of epiphany, or what she calls

“ a crystallization”.

Anne always knew she wanted to have her own business, “[It] has been an ever evolving idea to have all her interests in one.” (Saxelby, 2007) With Saxelby Cheesemongers, Anne was able to join her love for art and cheese. Like Zoe, Anne compared cheese making and painting. “Painting and cheese making are based on the same principles. With painting you can fluff around, but with cheese you cannot. Cheese is an edible art and is more accessible than painting.” (Saxelby, 2007)

Anne has her own cheese shop because it is a creative expression and a source of cheese education. The revival of purveyors like Saxelby Cheesemongers encourages people to taste, and more specifically taste what is available regionally.

Anne is passionate about educating her neighborhood regulars about the American world of cheese, specifically the northeast.

“She even feels she has to apologize for selling cheese that comes from all the way in Wisconsin.” (Simon, 2007)[4] Anne is no ordinary cheese shop owner she prides herself on encouraging and selling quality cheeses from the regions around New York. When it comes from as far away as Wisconsin it’s because it is an extraordinary “representation of American cheese making.” For example “Pleasant Ridge Reserve[5] made in Wisconsin. It is superior. No one can make anything like it from its taste, method of farming which is small and in a sustainable way”. (Saxelby, 2007) Murray’s Cheese shop describes the tasting notes as follows: Smooth, even pressed flesh with rich fruit, olives, herbs and a tang on the finish to rival the best Beaufort.

While interviewing Anne at her shop in the Essex Market there was a real sense of community. Those who stopped to shop or even passersby would always chat with Anne.

Only a few blocks away from Anne, yet still in LES of Manhattan, is another purveyor, a landmark of New York City: Russ & Daughters Appetizing. Here I met with Niki Russ Federman and Joshua Russ Tupper, the fourth generation of this family business: cousins, both younger than 32. Russ & Daughters is famous for their smoked and traditionally cured fish.

Russ & Daughters has always been a part of Niki, but not until 2006 did she wholly become a part of the family team. Niki went to college at Amherst where she studied political science. She spent her junior year abroad in Paris, France studying and working for the UN and went to Japan for a summer on a fellowship working as a translator. Niki dabbled in the art world working at a gallery and also had been involved in the area of health. She had many different interests that she wanted to explore. Niki was “looking for something real [and] that resonated with [her]” however switched to a field that was “more tactile, [where you] produce something making people happy on a fundamental level.” Niki ended up doing a “full-circle…Russ and Daughters is very real!”

(Russ Federman, 2007)

Asking Niki why she thinks there is a resurgence of young purveyors and why they are making a career shift echoed with both Anne and Zoe’s responses. The United States has very little history compared to Europe, much fewer purveyors ‘making these shops a rarity and alluring to the American people’. Talking with Niki, we discussed the “sexy” food phenomenon as part of the cause, but we could not pin point when this culture aroused (pun intended) yet we agreed it has been brought on through the media. Last but not least of Niki’s reasons for revitalization is that “people feel disconnected to the natural world sitting behind a desk all day” so food is a way to reconnect to it.

(Russ Federman, 2007)

I asked Niki if she felt any pressure to be involved in the family business and she said no. In 1914, when Joel Russ, her great grandfather, a peasant from Eastern Europe came to the United States, he had to find a way to make money and survive. At the time there weren’t many ways to accomplish this. Joel Russ sold pickled Herring from a pushcart: the beginning of the family business. Historically speaking, this was not a choice but a necessity for survival. Joel had two daughters-they too had no choice but to work in the family business. As the shop grew and became successful, the 2^nd generation (the daughters) wanted their children to have the opportunities they did not have and encouraged their children to get an education and to do something different. Law and medicine were deeply encouraged. Niki’s grandparents were thrilled when her father (Mark Federman, the current owner) became a lawyer. (Russ Federman, 2007)

“Federman, who graduated from Georgetown Law School in 1969 and practiced law before returning to the family business, is the exception to his generation’s rule of shunning the deli counter in favor of the more lucrative career paths of medicine or law.” (Witchel, A. 2007)

The 3^rd generation, Niki’s parents, supported her dabbling. However, after the culmination of her experiences, Niki preferred to be a purveyor in her family’s world-renowned shop. “ [She] knew [she] had a strong connection to Russ and Daughters.”

(Russ Federman, 2007)

Josh Russ Tupper, Niki’s counterpart, was deep in the corporate world working as a chemical engineer. Josh was so far away from the “end-user,” making his work distant.

“ In the corporate world it is hard to have a connection.” (Russ Tupper, 2007) Josh explained that it is hard to do a 9 to 5 job and have something to sink your teeth into. He wanted to be involved in something he is passionate about and wanted to have an effect on the world by making people happy. In the world of retail it is about helping the customers, and at Russ & Daughters it has always been about purveying passion and connecting to the customers directly through the traditional quality products. Josh “sells the best food [and he] knows It’s good.” (Russ Tupper, 2007)

According to Josh, “Food purveyors are celebrities in New York and have a draw.” Continuing to answer why purveyors are so highly recognized Josh explained that in the United States “ food has been dumbed down”; the specialized shop is a new discovery for people. “[Making it] easier to get into it because it is better than you have ever imagined”. (Russ Tupper, 2007) The demographic of customers was historically 95% Jewish. Today it is 50/50 (Jewish/New Yorker) “no longer emblematic of just Jewish food but has become a New York food shop.” (Russ Federman, 2007) There are the young, the old, and everyone in between.

SELF SERVICE VS FULL SERVICE

Everyone is shopping at purveyors now because they are “agents,” promoting the stories behind the quality products. (LaValva, 2007) They are food communicators: without their energetic passion and knowledge of the products and the producers that create them, we, the co-producers would not be aware of why a cheese has its flavor or what kind of work goes into its making. Anne, Zoe, Josh and Niki make these foods accessible through their work, encouraging people to try something new or know how a cheese is made or how curing fish brings out its flavor. This brings people closer to understanding their food and provides insight into how the choices we make as co-producers influences the American food system. Shopping at specialized food shops is an alternative to the industrialized food choices.

New Yorkers no longer want self-service while shopping. For the young purveyors who are stepping up and provided full-service for their customers are not only making a career choice, but also addressing a need that must increasingly be filled. The fact that people are in need of knowledgeable experts means they are ready to take the control of their food options.

Russ & Daughters has been in existence for almost 100 years. The reasons that this business has persevered throughout the ever-changing New York is because of the strong connections with the community, their knowledge and expertise passed down from generation to generation[6], and because they are a specialized shop providing the best smoked and cured fish. Russ & Daughters has become “a community center”. (Russ Federman, 2007) They know their customers and have a personal connection with them. “[It is] hard to find in New York…in a city that is impersonal.” (Russ Federman, 2007)

Even though the city can be aloof, there are shops that stand out, Murray’s Cheese being one of them. Walking into Murray’s Cheese there is always a grand presence coming from the counter, yes the cheese, but also the cheese mongers. Not just anyone can be behind the counter: only those who are passionate and enthusiastic about cheese and sharing the fervor and discoveries with the co-producers. ‘Part of the Murray’s experience is that the counter people can convey the enormity of the journey when they show you a little piece of cheese.’[7] (Zarin, 2004)

Along with the counter and case filled with over 300 cheeses, in the last few years, Murray’s Cheese Shop has established a classroom, a space for cheese themed courses: the old world and new world cheeses paired with scotch, beer, cider, and wine. These courses exist because the interest is there. Murray’s is not the only food establishment holding food courses-- demonstrating New Yorkers want to deepen their knowledge of food. Interest and accessibility go hand in hand.

The accessibility to quality food has exponentially grown and has become widespread in supermarkets --but only as a “simulacrum”. The staff is “casted” as butchers, bakers, fish and cheese mongers but they do not have any training in these fields their job “primarily consists of unpacking and slicing pre-cut sections that arrive.” (www.newamsterdampublic.org/about-the-market/authentic/)

When you shop at a supermarket you will most likely purchase a product before even tasting it, meaning taste is not your reason for buying it. Co-producers are often convinced to buy something based on what it says on the cover. Since middle school I was told, “not to believe everything I read”; this goes for food labels too. Tasting a food should be the reason why you buy it. Shopping at a purveyor usually means that you can try every smoked fish or cheese before purchasing it, making sure you like the product and also to understand your own tastes. “Everyone eats and everyone can appreciate when something tastes good.” (Saxelby, 2007) You do not have to have money to appreciate aroma and flavor of food.

The most authentic, and knowledgeable experts whom that can really tell you where your food comes from are these purveyors. They are the best communicators of food because they get the products directly from the producers and can express the intent of the products and guide you through your tasting. “Taste is a combination of flavor and knowledge linking our perceptive and cultural spheres.” (Petrini, 97) Through taste, food becomes more accessible to co-producers because it helps them become more discerning in their food purchasing, which then will support a sustainable food system. Real quality foods have flavor and aroma, and packaged corn syrup does not.

“NY is coming to a birth” (Lavalva, 2007) and the discovery of food is exciting. There even exist Food Tours for the visitors of New York, leading them to the historical landmarks and the best purveyors of the city to have a “New York experience”. (Russ Federman, 2007) Purveyors, co-producers and tourists alike want to be connected to the terroir of New York; it’s sense of place.

TAKING THE REIGNS

While I was obtaining my Master in Food culture: Communicating Quality Products I learned a lot about terroir. Università degli Studi Scienze Gastronomiche in Parma, Italy is ideally located for the goal of the school: educating eager gastronomes on the history, culture, sociology and anthropology of food in Europe. The best places to study and learn about food traditions are from the producers themselves.

In Europe there is an extensive food culture and history. People even say the best foods of the world are from France and Italy (usually the French and the Italians).

While on our field trips, I felt a lot of individual pride from the producers of traditional food products. This acclaim even seeped out of the people who weren’t making the products creating a sense of nationalistic pride.

Europeans have always had a close relationship to their foods, always buying the best quality ingredients from their personal purveyors. I have been to dinners in France where people talk about their purveyors as if they were their own, referred to as “my butcher and my baker”. The butchers, cheese mongers and bakers are committed to their customers holding relationships with them and always providing the best service for them. Even though our European counterparts have continuously shopped from purveyors, one will notice the purveyors themselves are much older and a dying breed.

While meeting the producers of highly recognized products we always asked if they had children and if so would they be following in their parents’ footsteps. Most of the time the answer was yes to the children, but no to the legacy. In the Province of Parma, where proscuitto is produced, there are people trained to cure the pork legs but the production team consisted of immigrant workers from Romania or Africa - not young Italians. At first it seemed strange to see Muslims massaging the pork legs in salt and rubbing pork grease on the legs to prepare them for their natural curing process. Why is someone who does not eat pork involved in the production of Prosciutto di Parma? Simply, the young generation of Italians are not concerned in this specialized trade.

This is also true for cheese makers in France.

While Anne Saxelby trained abroad in the Loire Valley to learn how to make cheese (goat cheese), she worked with couples whose children did not follow in their cheese steps. One couple in their 40’s, had two sons, neither of which were interested in cheese making. Another couple, in their late 50’s whose children were all grown up were also uninvolved in the family business.

Anne also spent some time at a vineyard in Umbria, Italy where she was considered as the “crazy American girl,” because she enjoyed harvesting grapes and was thrilled to help. At harvest time the laborers were old Italians and immigrants. “The local young generations would never come to help.” (Saxelby, 2007)

Quality products are so much embedded in the history and culture of Europe that it is not appealing to the youth to be involved in purveying or producing traditional products. They appreciate the products and do praise them but there is no sense of fear. There is this assumption that cured meats, cheese, and wines will always exist and there is “nothing to loose.” (Saxelby, 2007) I would probably have made that assumption too -how could foods that have been around for centuries disappear? Unfortunately there is a loss.

Out on the field visiting goat cheese producers of Crete, seeing the Bresse poultry producers in Bourgogne, and cured meat producers in Parma, it became clear that appreciation alone is not enough to safe guard these gastronomic resources[8].

Alongside the no fear phenomenon the youth have always been “expected to do something else” to seek out “professional” careers. (Kaufelt, 2007) There has always been a sense of providing the best opportunities for your offspring. Like the American counterparts, the parents want their children to further their education, be in finance, medicine, or law and be successful. These jobs are much more appealing to the young and old alike because of their status symbol and economic gains. (Russ Tupper, 2007) Working as a food producer or purveyor is known as a physically demanding job, making it not sexy.

The appeal of food in the states is as so because being a purveyor is largely new. Most up and coming purveyors today in the United States find these jobs attractive because they don’t have any experience with it. In Europe, food purveying is a large part of the culture making it old, and “second nature”. (Russ Tupper, 2007) There is definitely a stigma to choosing to be a producer or a purveyor as a career path.

The youth in Europe seem to need and want different rewards. Their incentives are similar to the values of the early immigrants pursuing the American Dream. The Americas were founded by immigrants, Jeremy Lebewohl, the nephew of Abe Lebewohl[9] said ‘When you are an immigrant, the American dream is not that you’re going to open a restaurant and slice meat. The American dream is that you are going to have an education, be a professional, put on your suit and tie and go to work.’ (Witchel, A 2007)

Since food has been placed on the “back burner” in Europe, the Slow Food Association has stepped in to counteract: the disappearance of local food traditions, people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how food choices affect the rest of the world. Slow Food has taken grand strides in promoting artisanal foods through their Foundation for Biodiversity. Through this foundation Presidia have been created to protect and continue the livelihood and economic viability of food products that are in danger of being lost. However, if the European youth are not taking the reigns then without producers there is no product.

CONCLUSION

While working at Murray’s Cheese and living in New York City, I have been more and more convinced that my passion and my enthusiasm for encouraging others to make informed food choices are indeed in the right place and a crucial time in American and European food culture.

The oldest members of the youth movement in the United States are not much more than 30 making their decisions to be in this movement “ more remarkable.” (Kaufelt, 2007) Right out of college instead of using their higher education for ‘Hedge funds … [Which is] what you do when you have a good education… They chose a peculiar path—maybe [that is] why it is appealing.” Rob Kaufelt continues to comment on this momentum explaining that people are looking for an alternative. “Life is short you should do something you are passionate about.” Zoe, Anne, Niki, and Josh have all taken the “opportunity to be on the ground floor of something.” (Kaufelt, 2007) -- the newest culinary revolution.

Through my experiences in Murray’s classroom I have been exposed to individuals who are “repeat offenders” whom have taken many diverse classes. Whether it’s the basic Cheese 101 class, Best of Both Worlds (American Wines, European Cheeses) or Mystery of the Caves, Murray’s customers always come back for more. Whether the attendance to these events is for status, for newness, for education, for politics—or all of the above, it makes a statement about the role of quality products in their lives: changing their eating and purchasing behaviors.

The classroom is just one resource; co-producers educate each other by spreading their new knowledge. Purveyors and producers themselves are also crucial elements of this food education.

Since there is little tradition in the United States, compared to Europe, it is up to us to create it, affirm it and inspire to have a new attitude towards food. This is a big mission but thanks to the Università degli Studi Scienze Gastronomiche I feel prepared and equipped to embrace this mission. American culture is liked throughout the world through our music, movies, literature, and art and now that food is becoming a part of this culture we hope that our European contemporaries will join us in this effect.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

AFFINEUR- someone who watches over the continuous aging process of the cheese and taking care of them after they have left the hands of the cheese makers: patting, washing, and flipping the cheeses in their various caves.

À POINT- On point

ARTISANAL- small production of a traditional product using skills acquired by experience, study or observation: ingredients brought from elsewhere

CO-PRODUCER- “Active participants in the communities that link us to those who produce our food” (Petrini, Cover Slip, Slow Food Nation)

COOPERATIVE- a business that is jointly owned by the people who run it, with all profits shared equally.

FARMSTEAD- All parts of production including ingredients raised and grown on farm.

HEDGE FUND- an investment company that is organized as a limited partnership and uses high-risk techniques in the hope of making large profits.

PRESIDIA- small-scale projects devoted to the preservation of a specific food product. Helps artisan producers promote their foods, develop markets, and preserve their traditional production techniques. (Petrini, Slow Food Revolution, 304)

PURVEY- to provide, look after or attend to.

PURVEYOR- “agents for both producers and consumers. Purveyors enhance the quality of food by practicing their trade.” (http://www.newamsterdampublic.org/about-the market/purveyors.

100 MILE DIET -buying and eating food made 100 miles or less from your home

LOCAVORES-only buying and eating food made near by and in season

SCENESTRY- conspicuously cool

SIMULACRUM- something that has a vague, tentative, or shadowy resemblance to something else.

SUSTAINABLE- “… meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." - Brundtland Commission, 1987 &

"A dynamic process, which enables all people to realize their potential, and to improve their quality of life, in ways which simultaneously protect and enhance the Earth's life support systems. (Forum for the Future Annual Report 2000). http://www.grc.cf.ac.uk/lrn/resources/sustainable/definition.php 10/27/07

TERROIR -a product has a distinct association with the land on which it was produced, a 'sense of place' that a product has. http://barismo.com/labels/defintion.html

VAT- a large container used to hold or store liquid ex: milk.

FOOTNOTES

[10]Petrini, Carlo. Slow Food Nation (Rizzoli Ex Libris: New York, 2007), pp. 96, 114, and 135.

[1] http://www.newamsterdampublic.org/who-we-are

[1] Murray’s Cheese Shop tasting notes 2007

[1] Russ Federman, Niki. Personal interview. 22 October 2007.

[1] Zarin, Cynthia. “BIG CHEESE.” The New Yorker. August 2004: pp.45

[1]http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com

[1] Witchel, Alex. “The Counter History.” The New York Times Magazine. October 2007:

Pp.67

WORKS CITED

Brickley, Zoe. Personal interview. 13 October 2007.

Kaufelt, Robert. Personal interview. 24 October 2007.

Kaufelt, Rob. And Thorpe, Liz. THE MURRAY’S CHEESE HANDBOOK. New York: Broadway Books, 2006.

LaValva, Robert. Personal interview. 10 October 2007.

Murray’s Cheese Shop tasting notes Pleasant Ridge Reserve 2007

http://www.newamsterdampublic.org/who-we-are

http://www.newamsterdampublic.org/about-the-market/authentic

Petrini, Carlo. Slow Food Nation (Rizzoli Ex Libris: New York, 2007), pp. 96, 114, and 135.

Petrini, Carlo. Slow Food Revolution (Rizzoli: New York, 2005), p.304

Roberts, Jeff. The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2007.

Russ Federman, Niki. Personal interview. 22 October 2007.

Russ Tupper, Josh. Personal interview. 22 October 2007.

Saxelby, Anne. Personal interview. 12 October 2007

Simon, Susan. Dinner. 16 October 2007.

http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com

Witchel, Alex. “The Counter History.” The New York Times Magazine. October 2007:

Pp.66-67

Zarin, Cynthia. “BIG CHEESE.” The New Yorker. August 2004: p.45

[1] The definition of quality, as defined by Carlo Petrini in the book Slow Food Nation, is good, clean and fair. Good: respects the product’s original characteristics; Clean: respects the earth and the environment; and Fair: refers to social justice in the production of food.

[2] All green text is defined in the Glossary of Terms. See page 22.

[3] Robert LaValva has worked for ten years as a planner for the city of New York, where he established an urban composting program. He has worked for Slow Food and instituted a consortium for raw milk cheese producers, and programs to help preserve heritage foods, managed Slow Food’s 2005 Urban Harvest Festival, and is dedicated to reviving NYC’s historic tradition of public markets to include sustainable regional food.

[4] Susan Simon is a cookbook writer and this is from a conversation we had over dinner.

[5]Made of raw cows’ milk from 9 cross breeds. Mike Ginrich the cheese maker describes it as follows “Our cows graze lush pastures from early spring through fall just as all cows did before industrialization of our food system. The result is milk that has excellent nutritional value and more varied and subtle flavor notes as expressed in the delicate flavor profile”. Mike Gingrich worked for Xerox prior to his farmstead.

[6] “Less than 1% of fourth generation businesses make it in the United states…it is a rare thing”

[7] Cynthia Zarin in The New Yorker quotes Liz Thorpe in Big Cheese August 23, 2004.

[8] Taken from Slow Food’s Foundation for Biodiversity mission statement “Recognizing that the appreciation of gastronomy must include the additional step of safeguarding our gastronomic resources”

[9] The late owner of the Second Avenue Deli, whom was murdered during a robbery in 1996.

Get Ready For Yummy Winter Veg!

2007-10-24T14:05:00.000-04:00

Murray's special friend Nina Planck joins forces with lovely Brooke Parkhurst to explore delicious fall foods on ABC News' Eat & Greet.

Click on the link to find out what to stock up on at the Farmers' Market to make delicious seasonal dishes....with cheese, naturally.....

Video Link:

http://abcnews.go.com/abcnewsnow/Recipes/story?id=3718273&page=1

All about cheese!

2007-10-24T13:42:00.000-04:00

Here at Murray's Cheese, we love visitors! Especially if they are as nice and curious as 'Amateur Gourmet' Adam Roberts who dedicated the third installment of his AGTV to an introductory cheese education at our Bleecker Street Counter.

Check out the link and learn about cheese and barns.....

VIDEO LINK: http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2007/10/agtv_all_about.html

A Dedication to Burrata!

2007-10-10T12:01:00.000-04:00

Why dedicate a lengthy spin on this one cheese, Burrata? It is just about the most heavenly fresh cheese I’ve ever tasted. A most luxurious “simple cheese” and a well-off relative of the common Mozzarella. It’s best eaten by plopping in a bowl, snipping off the knot and digging into the creamy goodness with a hunk of bread or scattering the wet cheese across a salad of late harvest heirloom tomatoes that are still around at the farmers’ markets.

I touchdown at Bari, Italy, the runway surrounded by a dusty green oasis of olive trees. I revive myself with two shots of espresso after a sleepless overnight trip from New York. And fighting the jet lag, with the help of Murray’s Apulian friends, Roberto and Sabina, we visit the makers of our plump balls of Burrata.

We drive to the downtown area of the little town of Andria and walk into a tiny cheese shop. Memories of the old Murray’s come flooding back, though it’s not quite as stuffed to the gills as we’ve always been. Stepping through an ancient side door I find the cheesemaking room. Two guys elbow each other in front of three tubs waiting for their fifteen minutes of fame from the camera crew that’s trailing us.

Smooth describes the curd and the guys’ handling of it. These are old pros in making pasta filata (also known as pulled curd) cheeses. They humor us with a full demo on the making of our darling Burrata. First, animal rennet is added to pasteurized cow milk to form the curds. They are worked over on a drain table and a large bundle is immersed into extremely hot water. Pulling it like taffy, it becomes an extremely pliable, smooth cheese. This is where Burrata parts ways with Mozzarella, which would simply be tugged off in small balls from the mass of expanded curd.

After the bulge of curd is fully stretched, the cheese show really begins. Within seconds a portobello sized cap of cheese is being stuffed with a handful of gooey strands of Straciatella, to make the indulgent guts of the balls. Straciatella is a barely formed extremely fresh cheese, full of cream and delicate threads of infant mozzarella. Pulling the curd a little further, it gives enough to form a knot to hold it all in. And this is the way it goes on, six days a week, eight hours a day. Our Burrata goes straight to the airport in Rome the same day it’s made. And when it arrives in NYC on Fridays, it is still amazingly fresh with a tender exterior and interior.

The tricks go on. Treccione, a braided loaf of Mozzarella is turned out in a minute. And using a tiny pair of scissors, an innocent ball of cheese is turned into Porcellino- a miniature pasta filata elephant! Scamorza is a little bit different. Curd is treated like a square of dough, jelly rolled and then pulled. Oak chips and a brief smoking give the diminutive Scamorzina Affumicata intensity, while still holding onto its tenderness.

This month we celebrate the diversity of the pasta filata family with Caciotta, Caciocavallo, Burrata, Scamorzina, Arrotolato Farcito with Speck, Silano Affumicato and Manteca (butter filled cheese) all made by the Caseificio Olanda cheesemakers. Stop by our stores, we’ll be sampling all month!

--Sarah Zaborowski

Director of Merchandising

Matt Corbett, Executive Chef at Punch/ Wined Up, Recommends:

2007-08-31T12:19:00.000-04:00

Re-Discovering the Flavors of Spain

When discussing the topic of Spanish cuisine in today’s world, it is almost essential to divide it in to two categories: traditional and progressive. Most anyone in the food world will agree that some of the most progressive and forward thinking cuisine is emerging from this country from names like Adria, Arzak and Andres. However, forward thinking needs to be rooted on a strongfoundation of flavors and textures and traditions.

This simple, tapas inspired dish is one of bold flavor, contrasting texture and brilliant color. It combines a few of the most essential ingredients in the Spanish pantry. It will accommodate 4 guests a starter course or you slice the cheese thinner and serve it family style as a platter.

6 ounces Manchego

4 pieces of Piquillo peppers, seeds removed, cut in to thin strips

4 ounces of Membrillo (Spanish quince paste)

2 ounces of Marcona almonds

2T dry Sherry, such as Manzanilla

3T Extra Virgin Spanish olive oil

pinch high quality sea salt (optional)

Allow the Manchego to stand at room temperature for 20 minutes prior to serving. Slice the cheese in to 4 equal parts and place on an appetizer size plate. Divide the Piquillo peppers, Membrillo and Marconas in to 4 equal parts as well and arrange on the plate so as not to touch any of the other ingredients. Finally, spoon the Sherry and Olive Oil over the top of the cheese and serve immediately. For an extra dimension of flavor and texture, sprinkle a high quality sea salt on the cheese after it has been arranged on the plate. Sample the condiments individually and in pairs to determine which best suits your palate.

Have you seen this cow?

2007-08-22T13:19:00.000-04:00

robbbbbb

you remember the calf on the roof of the car?

felicitas, tasio & I stopped off at cornell to have a
look at the campus as I'm sure you & nina do often
with young julian and, in the midst of thousands of kids
(& their parents) returning to school for fall semester
we got pulled over by the cornell university campus police
somewhere around the school for agriculture & sciences
only to be questioned about the 'cow on the roof of the car...'

fortunately, we'd already been quizzed while at the head
of the gorge at watkins glen state parkby a state policeman,
who said,
what's with the cow...

and, once I explained about murray's cheese
& being a food-making dairy farmer
it suddenly got unbelievably complicated...

until tasio walked up & told the state trooper:
we're taking the cow to the farmer's market
to let kids ride on it...

it turns out, a couple years ago some kids stole the cow
and her calf off the roof of the cornell creamery
where they make & sell the ice cream
and then, after some deep time & mystery,
the cow was discovered early one morning,
grazing the infield at the big red ball field...
yet her calf, to this day, has never been seen
( I think the cow might even have been stolen twice)

sergeant scott r. grantz of the cornell university police
explained, with genuine apology, when I handed him my card
(with a picture of a cow on it) that it would have been
a dereliction of duty for him to not have pulled us over,
seeing as they still had that cold case case concerning
the calf lost @ the cornell creamery

I immediately offered to donate the animal
on the roof of our automobile while explaining that
he was a 'blue & white' bull calf of about 8 or 9 months
which would never be seen at the side of a lactating holstein
and sergeant grantz seemed to appreciate both the offer
& the animal insight

but I was thinking
maybe murray's ought to get a new calf for that cow
@ the cornell creamery
the problem is: the fiberglass holstein calf
in my nasco.com farm catalogue
is something like $1,800...
which is absolutely crazy

(it might be necessary to look deeper into this subject)

-Trick

Affineur Zoe Discovers Synchronicity at ACS

2007-08-15T15:36:00.000-04:00

Summer Camp for Caseophiles - or - My First Trip to ACS

Imagine hundreds of us, fidgeting in the summer heat, loitering around outside the convention center. We’ve been camped out here all weekend, and as the moment draws nearer to the main event our anticipation is palpable. Finally, the doors swing open and we scramble through, cherished tickets preceding us.

This isn’t about the Police concert last weekend – though the crowd’s demographic is much the same. No, in this case we are the moths and the American Cheese Society’s Annual Conference and Grand Festival of Cheeses is our lantern in the night.

Twelve hundred different cheeses, all crafted in the US of A, artfully displayed and ready for whiffing, sniffing, nibbling and expounding upon. Each table, arranged by category, is endless. Breathtaking. They are draped with fat bunches of grapes, bejeweled with fresh figs and tumbling with the season’s blueberry harvest. Life-like murals of farm life, sculpted from cheese, are the crowning glory. Complimentary beverages circulate and condiments abound. I am in heaven.

And then I want to hurl. I probably eat half a pound before I realize that I should be taking notes so that I can report back to the crew on the latest and greatest in cheese. And I haven’t even gotten to the Cheddars yet. Still, I press on - barely scratching the surface of this bounty. Now and then a cheese hero breaks my concentration (Is that Cindy Major of Vermont Shepherd fame?!?) and I am forced to taste that last one again. The rush of cholesterol actually makes me dizzy. The rest is a blur.

This was by far the most satiating part of the weekend’s activities: I won’t be able to eat more cheese for at least a day or two. The lectures on dairy science and HAACP plans, though, I just can’t get enough of. Seriously. The experts leading these seminars are as well versed in all things cheese as anyone in the world. And they’re telling me everything they know.

Cheese retailers, cheese makers, cheese mongers, enthusiasts, distributors, legends, Canadians – everyone is there, mixing it up, making deals and trading secrets. And now I’m a part of it. A rookie for sure, but at least I’m on the team. It makes me want to keep practicing; improving my stats and developing more sports metaphors to explain the mystery of affinage to anyone who will listen.

For those of you who couldn’t make it - keep an eye out for this year’s winners. (My nod goes to the wildcard champ ‘Barely Buzzed’ a coffee and lavender coated revelation) In fact, buy all of them at once and eat them as fast as you can for a little taste of what you missed this year.

And here’s my message in a bottle to ACS – I can’t stand losing you. I’ll be watching you in the Windy City 2008 – warning rival tasters, “don’t stand so close to me,” with a new game plan for victory so I don’t have to turn on the red light again.

Requiem for the Small Family Dairy Farm

2007-08-14T09:35:00.000-04:00

by Tom Lyson, CFAP

Does a rural development policy that over the next fifteen years puts out of
business more than 6,000 family run enterprises and replaces them with100
large consolidated operations really make sense? It is time for everyone
concerned about the future economic and social vitality and viability of rural
New York to seriously address this issue.

This policy sets the stage for the collapse of small farm dairying in New York.
Areport published last summer by Cornell’s Program on Agricultural and
Small Business Finance, “Future Structure of the Dairy Industry,” shows
that the number of smaller dairy farms in New York, those with under 200
cows, are projected to decrease from about 7,300 today to only about
1,100 by 2020. The decreased milk production caused by the projected
disappearance of the 6,000 dairies will be compensated by the increased
production of a small handful of very large dairy farms. These large
consolidated farms (averaging about 1,400 cows) are projected to increase
in number from 120 today to 213 by 2020. About two-thirds of New York’s
milk will be produced by these 213 farms.

As long as the price of milk remains low, small dairies are forced to either
get big or get out, and agricultural lenders seem increasingly reluctant to
make operating loans to small producers. In the world of conventional farm
finance, bigger is better, less risky and more profitable. As the number of
small operators dwindles, their cows and sometimes their land are being
merged into large consolidated operations.

Economists like to talk about efficiencies and economies of scale associated
with large enterprises, but whether large dairies can thrive without the
current system of agricultural subsidies is an open question. Clearly,
federal agricultural subsidies now favor large operators. In Wyoming
County and Cayuga County, the two New York counties with the most
large dairy operations, tens of millions of dollars have flowed to the
biggest dairy producers over the past seven years as crop subsidies
and waste management assistance.

For example, most of the large dairies in New York are classified by
the government as CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations).
In the dairy industry, CAFOs are farms with 700 or more cows.
To deal with nutrient management on these farms (i.e., waste disposal),
the federal government is earmarking billions of dollars in outright
grants. Under the EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentive Program)
provision of the 2002 Farm Bill, large dairies are eligible for up to
$450,000 each to relieve the financial stress associated with
complying with the new environmental regulations.

The seemingly endless low prices dairy farmers receive for their
product, the tightening credit market, and a system of subsidies
that favor the largest producers have led to a Wal-Mart-like
agricultural development policy. The shortcomings of Wal-Mart
are well known. When Wal-Mart comes to town, Main Street businesses
typically suffer. With their increased production, the largest dairy
farmers in the stateare putting tremendous pressure on the
smaller producers. If the predicted consolidation of the dairy industry
takes place, by 2020 the mantra of the New York milk industry
is likely to be a Wal-Mart-like “Low Milk Prices Everyday.”

Some of the 6,000 dairy farmers who leave the business may find
other jobopportunities in agriculture, most likely as wage laborers.
But it is our experience that most dairy farmers simply retire or,
if they are lucky, find employment in other fields, often out of state.
The situation is grim not only for the smaller dairy farmers
and their families, but for the small businesses that provide
the infrastructure and support for family dairy farming.

When family dairy farms disappear, so too will these businesses.
The NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, the Farm Bureau,
Cornell University and the rest of the agricultural community have
yet to address the issue of what rural New York will look like in 2020
after the 200 Wal-Mart-like dairies displace the 6,000 family
operations. We owe it to the small dairy farmers, the businesses
they support, and the rural communities of the state to start that
conversation immediately.

Thomas Lyson is a Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Rural Sociology at Cornell
University and the Director of the Community, Food, and Agriculture Program.

He can be reached at 607-255-1684, or by visiting www.cals.cornell.edu/dept/devsoc/faculty_profile.cfm?FacultyID=47

Raw Milk in the News

2007-08-08T10:42:00.000-04:00

The New York Times Dining section explores clandestine milk clubs.

Liz's Cheese Tour, Ithaca New York, Part 1

2007-08-01T17:50:00.000-04:00

With so many guidebooks available, I’m setting out to tell the broader story of real American cheese, and I’ve got until June, 2008 to do it. Ever wonder why there are practically no producers of sheep milk cheese? Or why Vermont seems to suck in young entrepreneurial types like moths to the flame? Or why formerly desert landscapes in California have become the home of (traditionally) grass-eating cows? I do.

I love the cheese; it’s what brought me to Murray’s more than 5 years ago. But the longer I do this the more I’ve started to wonder why and how we’ve gotten to our present landscape in American cheese (and American food in general). The teeny-tiny obscure-o producers are fascinating and fun to find, but there is an entire of larger producers that support whole local dairy economies through their purchases of fluid milk that go to foundational, but less sexy cheeses, like Cheddar, Jack and Colby.

Part of writing my book is traveling to various areas and talking to producers: the big, the small and the renegade. Last weekend I was in upstate New York, zooming around the greater Ithaca area to visit a goat cheese producer (Lively Run), a sheep cheese producer (North Land Sheep Co.), and two cow folk: Finger Lakes Farmstead Cheese Company and Sunset View Creamery.

I began at Susanne Messmer’s place outside of Trumansburg. Lively Run began in 1982 in Interlaken, and is one of the oldest goat cheese producers in the country. Clue number one right there. One of the oldest in the country, and it only dates to 1982. That’s a key theme, I’m finding. The American renaissance of handmade, small production cheese is fuelled by the small goat dairies that began popping up in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. The culprit? Women looking to make yogurt and milk for their small children. Mainly this was women in northern California, but not always.

The land this way is beautiful, more like Maine that the Catskills I associate with “upstate” New York. It was one of those blowy days with liquid blue sky and huge, fat gray clouds rolling wavelike across the sky. Susanne’s house and barn are surrounded by flat fields of corn and stubby patches of sun-bleached wheat. Everything was bright and almost too clear to look at it, cold, clear, rattling wind. When Susanne came out of the make room her hands were sticky and damp from cheesemaking.

I was killing time while she talked to a couple from Pittsburgh, swinging through to buy some fresh chevre, and noticed four ducks with their beaks tucked under wing. It was a little offputting: they had that broken-necked look of peking ducks in Chinatown. When I wandered over and they sat up I realized I wasn’t looking some morbid lawn ornament.

Susanne and her husband Steve have bought Lively Run from the original owners, a couple named Feldman, who moved to Africa in 1995. After a 6 week crash course they began making cheese and moved Lively Run from Interlaken to its present location. In a barn built for cows, they’ve got 55 milking goats, a combination of Alpine (the mischievous ones), Nubian (the floppy-eared sweet ones) and Saanen (the generic white, bearded ones).

One of the things I’m trying to understand is: what’s wrong with New York State (in terms of cheese, I mean). Meaning…New York is the third largest milk producer in the United States. Factory cheesemaking (at its inception, in the mid 19th century), an extremely efficient and progressive thing, was invented in Herkimer and Oneida counties. There is a long, strong, and well established history of dairying in New York. Considering our size, though, there aren’t very many artisan cheesemakers. Why? And why when dairy farms are closing right and left, unable to stay in business on fluid milk production alone, are they not turning to cheesemaking to make a value-added product?

Susanne has a few thoughts. The first is actually the thought she gave me. Susanne’s German, and moved here when the Wall came down and her husband no longer needed to be in his military post. They were very committed to creating a program through which refugees could come to the U.S., learn skills and make a viable life here. This was their vision. The farm was very specifically chosen as part of this plan. Very rarely does a cheesemaker say they just fell into the business. I think it’s simply too much work to be accidental. Most of the time, people tell me that farms, or animals, or cheese was in their blood. More than a few times people have told me that they just can’t be still, they need a job that’s physical, and farming/cheesemaking fits that. Nota bene 1: you’ve got to really want to do it.

Back to Susanne, and New York. She was quick to point out that New York is a hard place to be a cheesemaker. In fact, I believe she said, “If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t do it in New York.” The 2nd highest tax rate in the country is a big part of that, but so are stricter regulations and government involvement. Over the weekend I started to see that New York’s well-established history as a milk and cheese producer on a larger scale, makes it increasingly complicated and cumbersome to operate on a smaller scale.

Add to that tradition a sizeable population of dairy farmers. And herein lies Nota bene 2: dairy farmer does not equal cheesemaker. The routine of dairying is more about farming than it is about milk. Cheesemaking, meanwhile, if it’s going to be good and successful, has to be about cheese, first and foremost. It’s got to be about gathering and holding milk to craft a product. It’s about marketing and selling that product. It’s about understanding the market enough to make a product people want, and these are all skills that many farmers couldn’t care less about. They’re happy being farmers. It’s what they like, it’s what they’re good at. Just because they have cows that produce milk doesn’t make them cheesemakers. Nota bene 3: milk does not equal cheese.

Lest you think that I took the word of a goat-milking lady with an interest in agro-tourism, I’ll have you know that I spent an afternoon with a 4th generation dairy farmer who said many of the same things, though his story includes a wife that was hellbent on expanding their business, and so there is now cheese. But that’s Sunset View Creamery, a story for another day.

Murray's LIVE!

2007-07-17T10:11:00.000-04:00

GET YOUR CHEESE INSPIRATION OVER THE RADIO

Rob Kaufelt, proprietor of Murray's Cheese and co-author of the Murray's Cheese Handbook, will be on The Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio, discussing French vs American cheeses with Leonard, Ruth Reichl and Anne Saxelby. Think tradition vs Whim. May the best curd win. Listen on Tuesday July 17th at noon or check the WNYC website for webcasts, podcasts and syndicated times.

Tricks of the Trade

2007-07-04T13:27:00.000-04:00

The New York Times Magazine ran a piece about making fresh butter and buttermilk this past Sunday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/magazine/01food-t.html?ref=dining

Making butter is a simple process resulting in an unbelievable product - dense, creamy, incomparable.

Want to learn more? A lot more? Check out Murray's Tricks of the Trade class, scheduled for August 14th. Trick Lango of White Cow Dairy, maker of wonderfully fresh yogurts, custards, and other grass-fed milk products is a master on the subject and promises to walk you through the world of dairy, one creamy, yummy soul-soothing detail at a time.

http://www.murrayscheese.com//edu_class.asp?number=CHEESECOURSE081407

More on that mysterious AOC...

2007-06-20T14:32:00.000-04:00

If you're interested in furthering your French cheese research, but don't necessarily have les francs to fly to France, check out Murray's Cheese Course July curriculum. The following classes promise to provide you with plenty more education (both intellectual and gastronomic) on the subject:

Raw vs. Pasteurized: Myth vs. Reality

The (A.)O.C.

Faux fromage? Quelle Horreur!

2007-06-20T13:13:00.000-04:00

The New York Times ran a story in today's Dining In/Dining Out section that explores the AOC designation of Camembert, and the possibility of a significant shift in the designation criteria. The article can be found at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/20/dining/20chee.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Rob Kaufelt responds to the article with this letter to the editor:

For an aging cheesemonger like me, the commodification of Camembert (‘If Rules Change, Will Camembert Stay the Same?’ June 20) in Normandy, France, is dire news. Having spent many years lauding this most perfect of raw milk cheeses, the notion that France would seriously consider granting this ‘faux fromage’ the coveted AOC status is a travesty.

Not that one can find these perfect treasures here in the United States, mind you, as raw milk cheeses aged less than sixty days are illegal and cannot be imported or sold here. Of course, not too long ago rules were a little lax and there was always the odd bit of cheese contraband to be had. Now, however, things have tightened up considerably and the opportunity to savor one of these little treasures must be had abroad. While our thermalized brands are tasty, anyone familiar with both versions will instantly notice they are a bit short of sublime.

Ironic, too, as just the other day a friend offered me a slice of Sandwich Mate plastic-wrapped yellow single for some burgers he was grilling up. While the Camembert only contains the finest milk, a little rennet, and a little salt, this icon of Americana contains water as its main ingredient; hydrogenated soybean oil, a transfat known to cause premature heart disease; casein, now almost 100% imported, usually from China and as undocumented as to its source protein or other content as melamine laced pet food; and assorted citrates, phosphates, gums and 250 mg of sodium per slice.

How comforting to be protected from one of the world’s great cheeses while the virtually unregulated ingredients in our industrial food supply may literally be poisoning us. That this has been our government’s policy for years is no news, but France? The French are the standard bearers of fine food and have a duty to hold the line on any bastardization of the food supply.

As for our own government, instead of insuring a steady supply of pure, natural, real foods, we are to be made ‘safe’ once again by substituting the ersatz for the authentic. Can we look forward to the day that all we eat comes from a foreign factory designed only to maximize its profit, and nothing to do with tradition or taste? On the other hand, although our government’s foreign policy may often be questionable, at least we are secure in the knowledge that they have made us safe from raw milk cheese.

Sincerely

Rob Kaufelt

Proprietor

Murray’s Cheese, Greenwich Village

Author of ‘The Murray’s Cheese Handbook”

June 20, 2007

Spend an Evening in the Garden with Murray's

2007-06-19T11:56:00.000-04:00

Please join us on Wednesday, June 27th for
An Evening in the Garden
sponsored by Murray's Cheese
at Central Park's Conservatory Garden,
one of the most magnificent spots in New York.
Murray's Cheese will have experts on-hand
to guide you through themed wine and cheese pairings
in each of the Conservatory Garden's three beautiful gardens.
Your support will directly enhance the maintenance
of this essential New York landmark we all hold so dear.

Today, the Central Park Conservancy is responsible for
84 percent of Central Parks $25 million annual operating budget.
Murray's Cheese is proud to be a sponsor of such a noble effort.
Join us, and help us keep Central Park spectacular.

An Evening in the Garden:
http://www.centralparknyc.org/support/benefitevents/gardeneve

HeadButler.com Experiences Real Food at Murray's

2007-06-14T13:55:00.000-04:00

June 13, 2007

Chicken with skin, potatoes with butter and milk -- this diet is what Nature intended? Nina Planck explains why.

Posted on headbutler.com

Her father was a college professor in upstate New York. Her mother started a school. But in the 1970s, Nina Planck's parents bought 60 acres in Virginia and, with their three children, started a new life --- as farmers.

The Plancks made a living selling produce at roadside stands and farmer's markets. Their children were forced to eat real food. They grew up healthy and strong. But in her teens, Nina became a vegan. She had been 5'5" and 120 pounds, "most of it muscle." Now she ran three to six miles a day --- and bloomed to 147 pounds, with less muscle tone.

Alarmed, she started responding to her natural hungers. And she learned two things:

1) "The more meat, fish, butter and eggs I ate, the better I felt."

2) "No traditional culture is vegan --- humans are omnivores."

Omnivores. Hmm. That should ring a bell; I was so impressed by Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" that I wrote a long, two-part review. Planck's book is a kind of sequel to Pollan, a hands-on guide to what you ought to eat, and why.

Planck's major proposition is that "traditional" food --- "foods we've been eating for a long time" --- is good for us. "Industrial" food --- "recent and synthetic" --- is bad for us. Worse, industrial food leads to the diseases of the industrial era: obesity, diabetes, heart disease. Real foods lead to health and vitality.

You want to eat the skin of a roast chicken? Please do. Like mashed potatoes moistened with butter and milk? Go right ahead. And, yes, eat meat: "Plant protein is always inferior to animal protein."

Some of this will be familiar --- there are echoes here of the Mediterranean diet. What is new to me is the unwavering emphasis on natural foods in their purest form: grass-fed beef, whole milk from pastured cows, raw milk yogurts and cheeses. And on cooking combinations, foods that work together to release more useful energy in your body.

The bad news here is the good news. Planck has done massive homework, and the book is clotted with science. On the plus side, that suggests her conclusions --- which will surely seem cracked to those who don't buy food products not labeled "low fat" --- aren't just the pet theories of the whole foods crowd. On the minus side, it means you need to read, pen in hand, to mark the good stuff.

But then, you should read "Real Food" as if you're going to school --- there are that many pointers to better living here. Like which "organic" foods to eat. Unless you have unlimited wealth, you'll notice your food bills are dramatically higher if you opt for an all-natural kitchen. If you have to choose, Planck says, it's better to buy grocery vegetables and wash the chemicals off. Save your money for organic, grass-feed beef --- if there are pesticides in animal protein, they're in the most concentrated form. Not healthy.

And there are charming factoids along the way. My favorite: "spring" butter, so named because it's produced by cows eating lush pasture in spring and fall. Priests used to bless it. If I could find some and slather it on real bread, I imagine I might too.

Inspired by this book, I went down to Murray's Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village and bought a sampling of raw milk cheeses and yogurt. The yogurt had creamy lumps that made me think twice --- until I had some. So that's what yogurt tastes like! Ditto the cheeses, all of them much stronger than what we usually get.

Thanks to Pollard and Planck, we have banished most of the products that our fellow citizens enthusiastically swallow --- for the kid, we've even been able to find Heinz Ketchup without High Fructose Corn Syrup. This week, we'll start making our own yogurt.

In a few weeks, I truly believe, we'll feel healthier. And be healthier too.

How can you not be interested in Nina Planck's book?

Infant Vegan Diet Discussed

2007-05-23T11:39:00.000-04:00

Nina Planck, author of Real Food and long-time friend of Murray's published an op-ed piece in this week's New York Times regarding the debate over the health benefits of a vegan diet -- particularly in relation to infants. It's an important discussion, and we recommend you check it out.

School's In Session!

2007-04-04T17:59:00.000-04:00

Hey Cheese Lovers,

Zoe Brickley, Murray's superstar affineur, is sitting you down for a serious lesson in cheese chemistry. Cheese is so much tastier when you understand what's going on deep down in those lactic molecules. Pencils out? Let's begin:

Chemistry of Ripening: The Cascade of Flavor

Three Main Processes

Glycolysis of Lactose- or the breaking down of milk sugars to lactic acid. Action is done
during primary fermentation by the starter culture. This is mainly a pre-aging process, though under the right conditions, starter cultures continue to affect acidity levels for several weeks.

Lipolysis- or the anaerobic fermentation or breakdown of butterfat to free fatty-acids
(FFA). These fatty acids directly contribute to flavor and texture. They also react with alcohols from primary fermentation to yield esters (flavor compounds). In some cases, like blue mold, the FFAs oxidize when the cheese is pierced and aerobically create fuel growth and create specific flavors.

FFAs are most abundant, or accumulate more in extra aged varieties of parmesan and some younger smear-ripened cheeses like Limburger. If lipolysis occurs too quickly or disproportionately to proteolysis, it can be a main reason for ‘off’ flavors and rancidity.

Lypolysis generally sets the stage for later reactions by creating new acids and alcohols. Unique flavors result from esters, alcohols, fatty and amino acids. The steps of cheesemaking and ageing must be carefully regulated to ensure that the correct ratio of reactions occur and yield consistent balances of flavor compounds, and thus the unique flavor and texture characteristics of each cheese type.

Proteolysis- or the anaerobic fermentation of milk proteins (caseins) to free amino acids
(FAA). This is the most important biochemical pathway for flavor and texture development. By products of proteolysis beside FAAs include other acids, alcohols, ammonia and sulfur compounds, and eventually esthers.

FAAs are not direct product of casein. First, casein is reduced to polypeptides, and then peptides, then finally to amino acids. Individual peptides are thought to contribute to the background flavor of many cheese families and may explain certain brothy, bitter, nutty and sweet tastes.

Original casein structure fixes water, making it unavailable for other reactions, and results in a drier appearance of the paste. Proteolysis releases the water from the casein structure explaining the ‘wetter’ appearance of well-ripened cheese, especially just below the surface of bloomy and smear-ripened cheese.

Sources for proteolytic and lipolytic enzymes:

Residual Coagulant: chymosin (animal rennet), pepsin, plant or fungal acids. The more coagulant that resides, correlated to more fixed moisture that will be gradually released as they go to work on the caseins over time. These coagulants are de-activated by high cooking temperatures, so residual coagulants are more important to raw and uncooked cheese types.

Starter Cultures: These act on the peptides released from the caseins as well as on lactose. Normal salt content kills off starter cultures over time in aged cheeses, if left unchecked, they can cause over-acidification and undesirable flavor compounds. If too much salt is used, starter cultures never have a chance to kick-off the flavor cascade, resulting is a bland and dry cheese (salt is hydroscopic)

Secondary Innoculants: B.Linens, P. Camemberit, Penicilium Candidium, Propionic Shermanii, Geo. Candidium. These are added to the milk at the time of coagulation, or applied to the surface of aging cheese. They are varieties of molds, yeasts and bacteria. Sensitive to environmental variables, they are intentionally added by the cheesemaker in order to precipitate specific flavor, texture, and aesthetic components in a finished cheese. Environmental requirements are considered in the Biochemical Pathway Matrix.

Plasmin: an enzyme naturally occurring in milk, plays a secondary role in character formation to proteolysis. This variable, though, is difficult to control or duplicate industrially. Plasmin content and action is possibly, a reflection of milk quality, which is affected by animal health and terrior.

Non-Starter, Ambient, or Contaminant Microflora: Undesireable growths are responsible for aesthetic flaws and some ‘off’-flavors. Some molds, yeasts and bacteria are naturally occurring in the ageing environment and positively contribute to cheese character and development. The environmental variables affecting ambient and contaminant growth is also considered in the Matrix.

Selective Agents for Microbial Activity (Environmental Variables):

pH: The pH levels during cheesemaking, and evolving levels during aging affect microbial, enyzymatic action, and thus cheese character. It should be noted that pH is closely related to calcium phosphate levels. Calcium is released from casein molecules after coagulation and later act as hydrogen (acid) sponges. Calcium and pH are usually positively correlated.

Moisture: Both the internal moisture of the cheese and external humidity are important for texture, flavor and rind development in a finished cheese. Often, cheeses with high internal moisture also have high acidity due to residual lactose from the whey, which ends up as lactic acid.

Salt: Salt content is important for the internal solution of the cheese as well as external applications and rind development. It can be applied in liquid form with brining, or as a dry rub. Salt can directly and indirectly affect all other selective agents. Keeping the right balance is extremely important for the cheesemaker and affineur.

Temperature: Temperatures during cooking and in the ageing environment are primary to microbial action. Excessive temperatures may foster contaminant and pathogenic growth, or simply overly-aggressive desirable growths. Lower temperatures can retard microbial action all-together.

Time: Lapses of time during cheesemaking, before and during curd separation, along with pressing affect most of the other environmental conditions. The length of affinage is integral to proper cheese development. An affineur must recognize when a more fragile, young cheese is ‘a-point.’ They must also know the optimal range for medium and extra aged cheese. These may become overly ammoniated, bitter or dry. Younger cheese rind growths may die, become too thick and unpalatable, or the cheese may lose textural integrity all-together.

Parmigiano-Reggiano, The Italian Way

2007-02-13T14:31:00.001-05:00

Watching Cielo work up a sweat cutting into a wheel of Parm at Caseus (see previous post) will make you really appreciate this Italian commercial. The fact that it's crazy and awesome is an added bonus. Enjoy!

The Caseus Repor(t): Murray's Represents USA in World Cheese Competition -- Comes in Last!

2007-01-24T17:17:00.000-05:00

I was a late draft for Caseus. Well, really more of a chaperone for Cielo and Frank, the two cheese masters of Murray's, competing in what, for the last few months we’ve been calling the Cheese Olympics.

It was a grueling start with overnight international travel and transfers. We almost lost Cielo at customs, due to his ever changing hair color. Finally we arrive at 7.30am at the Lyon Eurexpo for the beginning of Caseus, but the guys have been up since 5.00am prepping.

Frank Meilak puts on his game face as he prepares for battle.

Many competitors have already gone through a national challenge to claim their place at this international competition. This is the second Caseus event ever and the first in which the US has competed. So this means Murray's = USA! And of course we put on a show for the timid Europeans.

The first event starts at 7.45 and the contestants have one and a half hours to recreate a cheese counter. Right away we can see the difference in style. The US works ferociously; with Cielo tearing off cheese wrappers, clapping and yelling, “Lets go!” at the start. Both Cielo and Frank work with tremendous speed and determined, focused faces.

Frank and Cielo channel their decades of experience in counter preparation.

By 8.05am it is clear that the world of cheese is quite different around the world. The Japanese are so exact, with pre-cut cheeses (shouldn't this be illegal?) and a grid of their case. Japan uses bamboo sushi mats instead of straw under their cheeses.

Spain uses odd hexagon boxes to support thin foot long wedges of cheese with precarious balance, something like the Almodovar movies.

The French have nothing at all in their case, except for the custom cut mirrors that cover tiers in the case. (shouldn't this also be illegal?) All throughout the counter session, the judges scrutinize, ask questions and take furious notes. We, of course have no idea just what they think a “good case” looks like. In the end, Frank, with Cielo as his right hand man, produces a plump case that looks like a mini Murray’s with delicious descriptions on each cheese. But, to the crowd's severe disapproval, France takes one of the top scores for their counter: A truly minimalist setup with ghastly blue lighting (also illegal?) and so few cheeses that would be depleted after a couple of hours of business in Paris or NYC. You can decide from these photos; whose counter would you prefer to shop in?

The Dainty and Sterile French

v.

The Robust and Magnificent Americans!!!

Next up the team is divided. Frank covers the blind taste test with descriptions and Cielo handles multiple choice questions. Both feel strongly that they have aced the exams.

Cielo begins the next event in which he has 35 minutes to break down a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano AND using only a quarter-wheel, create 20 pieces of 400 grams each. His training has been just that for the last few months, ripping open Parm behind the cheese counter timed on a stopwatch. No one has dared open a wheel in his presence. Super Cielo dazzles the crowd, grunting as tennis pros do, dividing the wheel like a mad man. Mouths drop; the French have never seen anything like it and the Belgian film crew zooms in to capture his karate-like moves. Meanwhile, on the left, Japan is still daintily plying the wheel with knives.

Samurai Cielo takes his challenger (a huge wheel of Parm) head on

The final product of a skilled master, ready for the judges' scrutiny

Click below for video footage of the master at work:

Caseus

Midway through the parm cutting, Frank begins to compete in the selling event. The judges tell him the scenario: 20 guests for dinner and, oh we’re double parked outside so you’ll have to move fast. Luckily, Frank’s twenty-something years with Murray’s has certainly made him an expert in this. Suddenly Frank reveals himself to be a most charming cheesemonger, grinning from ear to ear and displaying a superior knowledge of cheese.

The final exam is a presentation of Abondance, and Cielo explains the ins and outs of production and enjoyment of the cheese.

All along, none of these events have fazed me, at least until the awards ceremony. Music blares, spotlights twirl and the contestants walk onstage, flags flying high, all shown on the big screen. The patriotism has hearts beating fast as the results are revealed. Bronze goes to Italy, Belgium walks away with the silver and......France earns the gold medal! In this case the prize is actually an unusual totem pole of a cow, sheep and goat on a pedestal.

Even in the face of defeat, our boys are standing tall.

Sadly, the US comes in dead last, but, in recent developments we've found out that there was a rules & regulations section that we never received! We think sabotage for sure and smile about how many rules we must have broken along the way.

So, we leave disappointed, but also with a long list detailing how we will certainly beat the pants off of the rest of the cheese world in 2009! (And the French aren't invited because they won!)

-Sarah Zaborowski
Director of Merchandising & Cheese Olympics Correspondant
Murray’s Cheese

Caseus is Coming!!

2007-01-03T12:26:00.000-05:00

I’ve only heard about Caseus. It’s the stuff of cheese lore. Granted, the first competition was only held last year and the Americans weren’t even invited. But everyone else was.

The competition (we liken it to the Cheese Olympics) is overseen by cheese guru Herve Mons. His summary of last year? “Majestic performance, emotions, suspense…”

I’m not sure about that, but here’s what goes down. Teams of two from France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the UK, Sweden and Switzerland convene in Lyons for a full day of cheese competition.

Blind tasting and identification. Cutting an 80 pound wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano into perfect 1-ounce portions. Creating a cheese display. Defining your identity and representing your country in the greatest cheese glory ever. Are you going to be super-organized, precise, nay, even militaristic like the Swiss? Are you friendly, boozy and free-form like the Irish? How well have you mastered the cheese?

In this 2nd Caseus Murray’s is representing the entire United States with its dynamic duo: Frank Meilak and Cielo Peralta. Frank has been at Murray’s forever and practically runs the place. He started as a delivery boy and 21 years later he’s the Retail Master. We’ve got Frank on blind IDs and merchandising. Then there’s Cielo. He’s our Counter Maven. We guess he’s single-handedly sold more cheese than any one Murray’s employee in his 11 years of cutting and serving cheese to our customers. Cielo’s the lucky guy who gets one knife set and the pressure of a stopwatch to cut up the enormous wheel of Parm.

The two have been tasting, prepping and training straight through our crazy holiday season, in hopes of taking the gold, or in this case the weirdly bulbous trophy that demarcates the Caseus champion.

Of course, Murray’s proprietor Rob Kaufelt is one of an elite team of judges. We don’t expect to be lucky enough to have him judge Frankie and Cielo.

Competition wraps up on the 20th of January, and we’ll get an up-to-the-minute report from France. Stay tuned for all the gory details…

--Liz Thorpe, Director of Wholesale

A Taste of Puglia

2006-11-30T15:48:00.000-05:00

For the holidays this month we celebrate Puglia. If Italy is the boot, Puglia is the heel, extending along the coast of the Adriatic Sea from the Gargano Peninsula around to the Ionian Sea and the Gulf of Taranto. It is a land of olive trees and beaches and memorable cheeses, Romanesque churches and small ports, the round stone trulli huts of the Murgia. I have recently returned from my buying trip and we have filled the shops with all good things from the region.

Castel Del Monte - Puglia's Most Famous Monument

In the town of Corado we visit Giuseppe del Console, the genius of oil, whom I’d met a decade before. He takes the best coratina olives and presses them in the old fashioned way, gently squeezing the fruit to produce the most aromatic of oils; low in acidity with a very strong flavor, an intense fruitiness with a smell of artichokes and burnt almonds. This is the oil that burns the back of your throat, a searing hotness I love when the oil called for must match the intensity of the food. This extra virgin has the highest levels of polyphenols, whose antioxidant properties are far from the mellower oils further north. Giuseppe advises us to use but a little though I never do.

The Backroom of a Local Cheese Shop

We visit Antonio Fiore, a third generation taralli producer – those little round crackers that to me are superior to all other crackers. It is easy to see why: made only of the best flour (farina di grano tenero, a soft wheat flour), white wine, and extra virgin oil, they crumble in your mouth. No risk here of crackers full of transfats. I buy many flavors, including fennel and pizza, whole wheat and onion, knowing Frankie and the boys back home will like these. In the 17th century they substituted for bread, and were eaten with wild chicory and bitter broccoli served with oil. This is part of what they call ‘la cucina povera', for the cuisine of Puglia is the cuisine of poverty.

The Cheese Case in Andria

A poor land, invaded over and over, century after century, this means pasta made without eggs; bread from the hard grain durum wheat; many vegetables but little meat; local sautéed olives and cippoline agridolce, sweet and sour; fish eaten crudo or fried in oil; and fava beans with cooked potato. And of course the cheese: fresh ricotta and the best mozzarella in the world, creamy burrata, scamorza fat and smoked; and then more seafood: gamberone and pulpi, grilled or raw.

Dinner at the Local Seafood Restaurant

We stop for lunch with our friends Roberto, Sabina and Cinzia at Antichi Sapori, where the great chef Pietro Zito serves us splendid plate after plate: caciacavello with candied apples; pecorino with red onion; whole fried onions like small flowers; leeks with chili and stuffed artichokes. How this small place in the small village of Monte Grasso has become a veritable I Bulli of the region is no mystery. Pietro is so busy he closes Saturday night. We taste his scamorza di capra-goat milk scamorza aged in his cave-and I order some for my shops.

Borat, The Waiter

After lunch we visit a biomasserina, an organic working farm overlooking the sea, and agriturismo with ten perfect rooms. We promise to return here, to eat outside on the terrace surrounded by fig and olive trees, the ancient structures restored with hand chiseled blocks of Murgia stone, the white gray stones made famous in the Castel del Monte and the Romanesque masterpiece in nearby Trani. It is called the Lama di Luna, sliver of the moon, and here one can rest in peace.

At Giovanni Mucci’s chocolate factory we taste the artisan chocolates his family has produced for four generations, the antica fabbrica di confetti. The family is so famous they run a candy museum in nearby Andria. Only the finest ingredients are used here: chocolate from Belgium; pistachios from Bronte, in Sicily; and teneralli, the local almonds from nearby Bari. I order a dozen flavors to put in glass jars behind the counter, to scoop into little bags for a holiday treat for my customers—espresso with liquid centers, and liquorice, and limoncello. All these are sugar coated in great ancient vats, a mere 200 grams of sugar to coat 60 kg of candy. I have a small sample bag here on my desk as I write.

A Street Mime in Lecce

On the flight home, I think of the great emperor Frederick II -the emperor known as stupor mundi, “the astonishment of the world”- and what he built in Puglia during the 13th century, when the region was at its height. I think of how he learned math and poetry, architecture and astronomy, and I wonder why the world seems small now. How Frederick reached out to the Jews and admired the Muslims for their advanced civilization, and wonder what will become of things.

A Fishing Boat Heads Out on The Adriatic

But my own needs have been well met; I have met some wonderful people, and eaten their finest foods: the ricotta forte and cimi di rapa; orichiette drizzled with oil; pane di altimurra, the yellow semolina bread with the hard crust, dunked in many different oils; and the cardoncelli mushrooms now in season. We have eaten with the great food writer Nancy Harmon Jenkins, mother of our friend and chef Sara back home. We have visited the small producer of raw milk burrata in Andria, and tasted rucola spread on crostini made with wild arugula and pecorino. Now it is time to return and bring these things home, and hope our luggage is not lost again.

-Rob Kaufelt
Proprietor
Murray's Cheese

Liz's November Faves

2006-11-02T15:30:00.000-05:00

From the Logsden, Oregon cheesemaker River’s Edge is the formerly named Tillamook Burn. Now it’s called Up in Smoke. There was an enormous fire in Oregon colloquially known as the Tillamook Burn. Unfortunately there is also a very territorial cheddar maker called Tillamook Cheddar that called their lawyers over this diminutive little goat cheese. River’s Edge takes a ball of impeccably fresh, pasteurized goat cheese made from the milk of their free-ranging Alpine goats, and wraps it in hand-harvested maple leaves. The tidy little package is smoked for a final product that reminds me of hot dogs, in the only the very best ways. Hot dogs, hot cider, crisp pumpkin patches, smoldering wood. In short, super autumnal. I love this with a hunk of baguette and the tobacco-earthiness of Oregon Pinot Noir.

Finally, a little weirdo of a cheese from Portugal. My mother tells me that “olive” was my first word. Before mama and da-da, I was able to squeak out “ay-ya” and I often went to bed with a bottle of hot cocoa and a pitted, canned black olive on each of my ten fingers. I’d like to believe that my palate has improved (or at least my pairing inclinations), but I’ve always loved the briny, vegetal tang of olives. No surprise, then, that I am moderately obsessed with new Amanteigado Mini coming in from Setubal, just south of Lisbon. This is a farmhouse version of the famed D.O. cheese Azeitao. It’s got no D.O so it goes by this vague moniker loosely interpreted as soft-thistle-renneted-ewe’s-milk-cheese. It’s got intense olive flavor, piquant, salty, with a crushed flower aftertaste. Get yourself a tiny knife and gently saw around the perimeter of the mini wheel. Peel the top off, insert finger, lick. Repeat. If you are having company I would recommend a piece of bread or breadstick in lieu of your finger, unless the relationship is appropriately intimate. A minerally Albarino should work well, alone or in a group.

-Liz Thorpe, Director of Wholesale

Nora at the American Cheese Society

2006-07-26T14:01:00.000-04:00

For the past several months, I have been looking forward with fervent anticipation to an event that most people don’t even know exists. In fact, I didn’t know it took place until about a year ago, myself.

The American Cheese Society holds a yearly conference to unite cheese professionals with cheesemakers, retailers with distributors, and cheese freaks with cheese geeks (which, upon further reflection, may prove to be one in the same). This year’s conference took place in Portland, Oregon, much to the delight of all conference participants. And for good reason: Portland is home to a burgeoning food culture, based largely around local farms and a multi-weekly farmer’s market upon which most Portland residents and many of the best restaurants in town heavily rely.

And now, most importantly, some words on cheese. I eat a lot of cheese. Actually, I’d even venture to say that I eat with the best of them here at Murray’s. Running our educational facility, The Cheese Course, sometimes means that I’ll eat 3 or 4 full cheese plates a week, on top of the regular sampling, pairing trials, and tastings. The three days in Portland brought things to an all time high (or low, depending how you swing it). Periods between panels consisted of cheese breaks, that is, tables boasting copious amounts of blue-veined, soft-ripened, and uber-aged gems. Several panels incorporated tasting into their discussions. And the Festival of Cheese, the grand culmination of the weekend, featured over 900 cheeses, yogurts, and butters. Needless to say, I put it away so to speak.

My position as education coordinator was also what sent me to the conference in the first place. As Juliet Harbutt mentioned in her opening speech welcoming all conference participants, education is The Next Big Thing in the cheese world. Indeed, of late there has been a buzz in the cheese education community about the possibility of fromager certification (the cheese version of a sommelier certification). Of greatest interest to me and largely why I pursued traveling to the conference was a panel discussion on this exact topic, headed off by a group of five that has been working on this effort. We received a progress report from the committee members, which outlined a five year plan that will guide this noble attempt for professional certification and accreditation standards for educational institutions. The committee also set forth certain criteria for a tiered, three-level fromager certification, from basic to advanced to master.

The room was crowded, and housed an enthusiastic group teeming with ideas. Participants discussed who the target audience would be for fromager certification, suggested the formation of certain subcommittees—be it one to settle on a standardized vocabulary for cheese types or one to determine other educational ideals for cheese instruction— and even questioned the name “fromager” for a hot minute. This undertaking is a difficult one, and one that requires participation— for funding the certification or otherwise—from interested or impassioned parties. We all agreed that certification is an important step for the cheese industry, one that would legitimize ours as reputable and academic in addition to gastronomic. I thought of how I welcome students to Cheese 101 at Murray’s, stating that the introductory class is the perfect first step one can take in his/her cheese education. Yes, there is such a thing as cheese education, I’ll remark. I often get a couple of chuckles, but I think most people, especially after taking the class, get it. This, I told myself, is encouraging. Positive, exuberant feedback I receive from students after classes here is encouraging. The conference and the participants in the educational committee was encouraging. The five year plan for fromager certification is encouraging. All of these points, just to name a few, have validated my efforts to continue the educational program here with a renewed spunk and serious commitment.

One of the greatest parts of wandering the city was visiting the farmer’s market at the University of Portland. As artistically inclined as I wish I was, I’m just, well, not. But even I couldn’t help but pull out my camera and snap some shots (over 40 in the end, actually, I just couldn’t help myself) of this dynamic market. What surprised me most was the diversity of offerings from individual vendors. At one stand, bunches of bay leaves, gourds, and garlic, at another, bouquets of sweet pea flowers, purple long beans, Asian spinach, and blueberries, and at another, freshly picked wildflower clusters, squash blossoms ripe for stuffing, Oregon’s famed marionberries, and white cucumbers.

I couldn’t help but draw a comparison between the food cultures of the Pacific Northwest and New York: they’re much more alike than different, and both are propelling the turn that American food culture has been taking a turn towards local and for the better. Like many of us borough dwellers, it seems that our friends on the opposite coast are starting to center their diets and appetites around the freshest, most recently harvested, seasonal foods.

How fitting, I thought, is Murray’s ongoing participation in the new Real Food farmers markets here in Manhattan, which are helping to further facilitate a food culture supported by local farmers, and vice versa. And might our Real Food markets someday grow to the size of Portland’s?

Hope so.

- Nora Singley,
Director, The Cheese Course

For the Love of Cheese: Diane at the ACS

2006-07-25T17:55:00.000-04:00

Before the actual ACS conference begins, the cheese judging competition takes place. Let me begin by explaining the gigantic feat accomplished before the judging starts. Nine hundred different cheeses are sent by over 150 cheesemakers to Portland. A forty foot long refrigerated trailer is rented by ACS and attached to a loading dock at the Oregon Convention Center which is a ‘light rail’ ride away from the conference hotel. The big 3, Competition Chairman David Grotenstein, Chairman Emeritus John Greeley and all around amazing cheese Receiver Debra Dickerson arrive the week before, to begin receiving the cheeses. The cheeses fall into 22 main categories like Fresh Unripened Cheese, American Originals, Flavored Cheeses, and our favorite Farmstead Cheeses which are then split into sub-categories yielding 91 categories in all. The cheesemakers are invited to send their cheeses with no identifying characteristics (well, they must be in their usual form - so maybe we cheese people recognize our favorites - but I for one certainly can’t tell one block of large cheddar from another.)

These cheeses come in and are labeled with secret codes (identifying the cheese maker, sub-category and cheese #). The refrigerated trailer - a dark, spooky, cold (41 degrees, lit rather poorly by hanging industrial light bulbs) - is set up, stuffed to the gills with speed racks - rolling shelves with removable aluminum trays often used to wheel around food in the business. The speed racks are organized by sub-category and hopefully in alphabetical order. One must keep in mind also that never before have this many (more than 900) cheeses entered the competition (the last few years hovered around 750). And each new location and year presents its own unexpected challenges. (One this year was the inadvertent miscommunication of the deadline for cheese arrival.) The one thing I saw over and over was that the people running the show are supremely dedicated to fairness and inclusion: to presenting all 900 cheeses in their proper category and in the most pristine condition possible. No corners cut, no decisions made with expeditiousness outweighing these high standards.

I arrived on Monday morning, one day before the judging would begin. We wished all the cheeses had arrived but of course many were, as yet, undelivered. As I learned the system and saw the scope of the task I just gaped, eyes wide: how can this all get done? May I add that almost everyone is a volunteer. Only the Executive Director of ACS , Marci Wilson, new this year, enthusiastic and excellent, and some wonderful FSA people are getting paid for this project. While some people are, of course, sent by their companies, this intense work is done mostly for the love of cheese.

So, as Debra received more cheeses, mostly from local cheesemakers, Elizabeth Kooiman (wife of conference co-chair Tom) and I spent hours double checking about two thirds of the 900 entries to see if they were checked in, correctly marked with no identifying labels or boxes and all pieces of one lot on the same tray. The choice was to do this in the freezing cold and dark trailer - with the AC going on and off and blowing on our soon to be stiff necks - or, our choice, wheeling the heavy and cumbersome speed racks in and out of the trailer. I had arrived a bit late at 10:30 in the morning and when we finally finished at 7:00PM I was sure I would need a shoulder operation in the morning. I was vastly relieved when the computer whiz Silverstons claimed me for the less physically demanding task of adding up the judges score sheets for Tuesday and Wednesday.

This year there were 12 pairs of judges- up from 10 to accommodate the increase in cheese. For a more in depth description of scoring see my last year’s blog on the competition when I was a judge. But this year what amazed me was the organizational feat: getting the right cheeses out of the truck through a 5 minute walk through the bowels and then carpeted halls and passageways of the convention center to the judging room to the table of the right set of judges (pre-planned) in the right order at the right time. As a judge last year, I had no idea what chaos might be going on behind the scenes. I didn’t give a thought to how the cheeses miraculously appeared on my table. This incredibly complicated task was again supervised by Debra D., assisted by the esteemed Daphne Zepos and three steadfast cheese angels sent from Beecher’s Handmade Cheese in Seattle, and a woman named Sabra from Seattle. The judges have their first categories and now I’m in the front of the room with the Silverstons who have streamlined the computer system from last year. These people are amazing volunteers because they are not officially cheese people - they are a retired couple from Texas who absolutely love cheese, having stepped up to fill this need and have continued to refine the system. So now come all the opportunities for more glitches - which ALL must be dealt with, figured out and satisfied in a way that will assure the highest quality of competition. The score sheets have to be checked, mostly by me, and later verified again by Karen Silverston, to make sure every cheese has been properly identified and evaluated by both judges. Missing cheeses must be tracked down. Ties for first place in any category must be re-presented and broken. The judges train early on Tuesday morning so things don’t whip into gear for us score keepers until lunch time. We have a significant number of cheeses to complete that day. Apparently everything went quite swimmingly compared to last year. My backlog file rarely got out of control and Michelle the young and energetic woman from FSA pitched in everywhere.

And did I mention - aside from keeping the judges happy we also must hurry up and finish categories (resolve ties, select first place) so the speed trays can go back to the cool truck because the cheese reigns supreme. Some of the same cheeses must come back the next day for the second round to select the “Best in Show” but also this is the cheese for the crazy Festival of Cheese which is the culminating night of the conference where we cheese heads plus some paying customers go to a cocktail party staring these very same 900 cheeses. So not only does everything have to be right and fair, it’s got to be quick. Kathleen Shannon Finn managed the “triage” table in the back of the room preparing to send the correctly marked and organized cheeses back to the truck. We worked from 8AM to 7:30PM that day, though the pace didn’t pick up till lunch time. I was supposed to eat dinner with a friend from Portland who insisted he show me a glimpse of the Gorge before sunset so I didn’t eat some Kobe beef sliders at the Rogue Brewery until 10PM (and Portland closes down early on weekdays!) and I was famished. I’d eaten almost no cheese all day, just one wonderful judge had left large leftover plugs of cheese on her paper plate in case she needed to revisit her scores. And that was luckily my favorite category - farmstead cow. I was involved in some necessary discussion over her score sheets and got to sneak a taste. A room redolent of cheese and not a drop to eat until then.

The second day was initially more of the same. I knew not to show up at 8AM because there wouldn’t be score sheets for me till the judges finished their first categories, but by now we were all in the groove, which was good because the first round needs to be completely finished, judges sent on a much deserved but short break and then quickly figure out all the first place winners, any stubborn late ties, and bring back those blue winners to the twelve tables for round two, where every judge tastes every category winner, grouped somewhat logically on the 12 tables, to pick the very best to line up for the final round for Best in Show. There were 74 first place winners. A fair amount of categories had no firsts because a cheese must score 91 points out of 100 possible to place in the highest range.

Now we’re talking excellent cheeses, but in all shapes, sizes and flavors. From Bittersweet Plantation’s new White Chocolate Praline Butter to Redwood Hill’s Garlic-Chive Chevre to Wilamette Valley’s Cumin Gouda. And in the more traditional categories: the Cowgirl’s Pierce Point, Blue Ledge Farm’s Crottina and Leelanau’s Aged Raclette. Out of this amazing batch - no offense but we all know that the low salt or marinated categories ain’t gonna win- you can sense or smell a winner. Even if you are the non-hired help and are not officially tasting. Well, at this point, when we were cleaning tables preceding the final round, Nicholas from La Brea Bakery, Dany Schutte from San Francisco’s Whole Foods and I are darting about for some succulent crumbs.

Best In Show this year was awarded to Cabot Creamery Cooperative for their Cabot Clothbound Cheddar which was aged at Jasper Hill by those Kehler brothers, and has been carried at Murray’s for some time and has been a staff and customer favorite since it hit the case. It’s a great cheese! My co-workers attending the conference tried their best to elicit the secret winner from me, but my lips were sealed until the awards ceremony Friday night, two days hence.

- Dr. Diane Stemple

Stacy at the American Cheese Society

2006-07-25T15:42:00.000-04:00

Many thanks to Rob Kaufelt for sending our Murray’s crew, Amy, Nora, Diane, Tom & myself to Portland for this year’s American Cheese Society Conference. We wore many hats, as all are wont to do at Murray’s Cheese, NYC. The experience was, inspiring, rejuvenating, humbling, affirming, bonding, and back-breaking (Big Cheese!).

Overall Observation: Cheese people are very cool.
We met so many people with moving stories, great ambition and real excitement for cheese and all that it entails.

Highlights:
Cruise of the Willamette (wil-LAH-mit) River:
‘City of Bridges’, docks of houseboats, jetskis of waving folks, it was sultry and sparkling out there on the water at sunset. Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB) set up a serious spread for Wisconsin cheese lovers like us.

Opening Ceremonies:
Allison Hooper - ACS President and Juliet Harbutt - culinary author and educator were engaging, funny and real. Lewis and Clark discovered Oregon and these happening ladies kicked off the rediscovery of the wide world of cheese in a big way.
Cheese from W(h)ales…that story killed!

Up Close and Personal:
People of the cheese have full and interesting lives and are not afraid to let you into them. We had a lovely dinner with Marilyn, David, Stan, Sid, and the rest of the WMMB team at ‘Wildwood’ in the Pearl District. The atmosphere was very shui, tough-guy chefs on stage, and excellent food and drinks. Bartenders in Portland seem to genuinely like to make artisanal cocktails! Refreshing.

Sessions:
Fromager Certification - I want to live in a world where I can evaluate my knowledge, give it a fun title and validate my choice of the retail cheese industry. There are levels of expertise proposed, Certified Cheese Specialist, Fromager, Master Fromager, and Mac-Daddy Cheese Guru (I kid). Investors in the future of this excellent proposal welcome.

Dessert Wines Paired With American Artisan Cheeses – Definitely my favorite session. The speakers on the panel were thouroughly enjoyable, particularly Max McCalman who led a rousing round of applause for full-figured gals; historian Donnal Mixon who schooled the group on the ever-elusive topic of ports and dessert wines; Jessica Little from Sweet Grass Dairy; and Jill Giacomini Basch from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. Her story of four sisters making their 48-year-anniversary-celebrating parents’ dreams come true was so touching; I forgot to eat my cheese! Family and being kind and respectful to each other are concepts that are alive and well in the cheese community. Especially refreshing.

Emphasis:
Education is the key to the rise of cheese in the proverbial and literal food chain. I know I’m going to study harder and teach smarter.

Drama:
Cell phone abuse was surprisingly minimal. Except when it wasn’t. The “Who Killed My Cheese” aka “Rumble Cheese” session was a challenge. Jingling neighbor, barely air, soft-talkers, and late-comers in the back made the interactive dialogue a little hotter than the panel expected. And FYI Seattle Chef, there is quality affinage in the US and you’re a ‘HOME’ click away. Also, I appreciate that you like French cheese, I do too. But to say it’s better than American cheese at the American Cheese Society conference?! Interesting choice.

Our Night Off:
Paley’s Place – Former NYC modern dancer Kimberly and James Beard Award winning chef Vitaly Paley gave us a fabulous dining experience. The place was overrun with cheesers enjoying (word of the week) their boards. Nice knockers Kimberly! (doorknocker collection people…behave)

Juggling – The International Juggler’s Association had their conference simultaneous to the ACS (coincidence or does the street performance set love cheese too?). To the ‘Renegade’ finale on the rooftop we went. It was a freakish diversion with swords and marshmallows, but the only thing in the air was Matt Hall’s balls and 90% humidity.

The Pool:
Nora and I took a heatwave break one day. Sorry, no cameras allowed in the grotto.

What the FOC:
The Festival of Cheese – So much time, muscle, and talent went into the beautiful displays. Sculptures, pyramids, cheesefalls and henges looked almost as good as they tasted. Congratulations to all the participants and winners that created such a stunning event!

Cheese Sale:
The proceeds from the cheese that didn’t get inhaled at FOC go into a college education scholarship fund. Cultivating future mongers, one pound at a time.

Moral of the Story:
Spreading education, excitement, love, and energy of the cheese and the people of the cheese is what the American Cheese Society conference means to me.
Thanks again for the adventure!

Haiku:
‘Children of the curd
Shall be heard, Feds can’t foil
Fruit of the soil.’

Eat It Raw!

Stacy Van Voorhees
Monger-On-The-Spot
Murray’s Cheese

Tom at the American Cheese Society

2006-07-25T12:26:00.000-04:00

Oregon, July 2006. - The view out the plane window was of the snowy peaks of Mts. Hood, Rainier and St. Helens. The USA Today weather map in my lap was all red and orange as the nation baked. It was about 95 degrees on the ground when we landed. America is a dynamic place.

I was bound for the American Cheese Society’s annual conference and “cheese-off”. 680 people gathered to review the state of various unions and consider myriad possibilities; 950 cheeses entered for consideration. Cheesemakers, distributors, retailers, authors, chefs, and foodies came together for 4 days of stinky business. I was traveling with my wife and colleague, Stacy. We’d be joining 3 more co-workers from Murray’s; Amy, Nora and Diane. Here are some thoughts about the organized events.

We saw familiar faces as soon as we landed. Andy from Jasper Hill and Jonathan from Taylor Farm plus Jamie and Steve from Shelbourne Farms were all at the hotel-shuttle counter. Turns out, we’d been on the same plane. Nice.

Our friends from Wisconsin organized a wonderful cruise of the Willamette River the first evening. We acclimated to our new surroundings in good company enjoying good cheese and good beer. Also, very nice.

Next morning, the conference kicked off with a rousing keynote speech from
Juliet Harbutt relating her experiences sourcing and selling cheese in Europe. Her passion for the products assured us that we’re not lunatics and we’re not alone.

The first seminar I attended was on aging (cheese, not me). It was geared towards cheesemakers and focused on what happens in that magical period between milk and mature cheese. Golly, the science part is complicated. I love these lessons because they remind me just how fragile and alive this stuff is.

Then came a discussion on “selection” involving the folks from Neal’s Yard and Appleby’s Cheshire. I questioned the English-ness of it, but rose above it. We compared 4 samples of the cheese highlighting differences due to age, starter or both. The practical example at the end was a taste of ‘Oregon Rarebit’ – local chef Vito Paley prepared an Appleby Cheshire/Rogue Chocolate Stout rarebit over Dungeness Crab bits (neither age nor starter mattered much at this point). Very nice indeed.

Next session was on pricing. A producer, distributor, and retailer sat on a panel revealing the factors that go into pricing the cheese every step of the way to the consumer. It’s a wonder they’re not all $100/lb.!

Slow Food USA presented the American Raw Milk Cheese Presidium - a voluntary protocol among like-minded raw milk cheese producers setting the bar very high in preparation for the next round of regulation by the FDA. Also at stake is the raw milk cheese tradition in the EU! The lesson for everyone: run a clean operation from cow to customer. We’ve come too far to let one careless outfit set us all back, whether it’s a producer, distributor, retailer, or chef. We all have a responsibility to care for these cheeses when it’s our turn.

The Judging Committee took everyone through the steps involved in evaluating a cheese entered in competition. Most interesting are the number of categories added as the years pass because Americans keep inventing new cheeses.

I also attended a delightful session by Mary Keane about Cypress Grove Chevre. The development of her business over the years is an example of figuring out how to do a thing as you go along. Cypress Grove has evolved from a single cheesemaker and some goats into one of the nation’s largest artisan creameries, operating here and in Europe. Particularly revealing was seeing how the people involved in an operation give it its identity and wherewithal.

Finally, imagine discussing the pairing of 6 cheeses with 6 wines and 6 beers with an audience of 100 people at 10 in the morning. No doubt, the most ambitious session of them all: “Traditional Pairings Challenged” will be re-tooled before it’s attempted again. This one needed a bouncer not a moderator. Not so nice.

It was a good week for the industry, the people, the cheese, and for the Murray’s crew. We’re all very glad we went. We found new cheeses, made new friends, and got a good sense of where our company stands in this business – right out front where we want it. Time together away from the shop helps folks work better when they’re back together on their home turf. We’re re-energized in the American cheese department and have a shared adventure under our belts.

Before returning east, Stacy and I got a quick sip of wine country by visiting a few Willamette Valley vineyards. We took in beautiful views of rolling hills on a hot afternoon. Luckily, Mt Hood was “out” that day with its big, white top and, sure enough, I saw someone checking his skis at the airport. Yep, America’s got a lot of good stuff going for it.

- Tom Van Voorhees,
Store Manger, Bleecker Street

Nora, Amy, Tom & Stacy

Amy at the American Cheese Society

2006-07-25T10:43:00.000-04:00

What a way to spend a birthday--eating my way through 900 cheeses with a few of my favorite co-workers!

My objective as the American Cheese buyer at the American Cheese Society conference this year was to find cheeses that will add a new flair to our counter. What I realized is that Murray's is so cutting edge, that we have representation from so many states, all milk types and from dozens of producers. We are on the cutting edge! For example, we now carry 22 of the winners and more at different times of the year!

However, you can be sure that in the coming weeks, you will see a few new ones that we all agreed were outstanding among the mountains of cheese we tasted.

I was honored to be asked to represent Murray's on a panel called "Effective Packaging." Based on the success of Murray's By Mail, we were selected to represent the retail-to-customer options. The session was given to a standing room only crowd of interested participants.

Dining in Portland was top notch! The staff at Murray's was invited to a dinner sponsored by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board that included some of the state's established and up-and-coming cheesemakers. It was great to sit down and discuss the cheeses made by these lovely folks.

Next time you are in Portland, be sure to check out Wildwood, a great restaurant that features lots of local specialties like halibut, salmon and hazelnuts and wine of many local varietals. The undulating wood ceilings made conversations flow in a magical way. Have you ever been to the whispering wall outside the Oyster Bar in Grand Central? If not, you absolutely must (and visit Murray's Grand Central while you are there!). This restaurant uses the same mastery of acoustics to carry words right to your ear. Keep an eye out for new cheeses from Wisconsin on Murray's counter.

One of the most interesting and informative sessions I attended was regarding the progress of the Cheese of Choice Coalition.

The CCC was formed when there was a threat that the laws against raw milk cheese might tighten. I recall when I first started working at Murray's in 2002, we had a list of signatures of people who supported CCC's efforts. Your voice of support was heard!

At this point, the law that states that any cheese intended for sale must be aged for 60 days or longer if it is made with raw milk. The CCC has enlisted the expertise of Dr. Catherine Donnelly, professor of Food Microbiology and specialist in food-bourne illnesses to help make a case to the FDA about the value and safety of raw milk cheese aged 60 days or longer. Not surprisingly, bureacracy has slowed progress. Dr. Donnelly's publications will be available to the public in the coming months. Stay tuned, though!

- Amy Sisti
Director, Murray's By Mail

Gone Local

2006-06-05T16:11:00.000-04:00

June is busting out all over. This week I’m local down in Somerset, England. Local here means hanging out with Jamie Montgomery, maker of one of the world's best cheddars, and talking cows with him one day, and tasting his latest cheese, Ogleshield.

Next day, it means eating some farm raised organic beef from the farmer down the road. He lives in what he calls his hidden valley, a spectacular place with an old farm where he was born and raised, and where the Black Angus steer live a life of peace and contentment.

Day after that, I'm studying up for the local Bath and West Show, an annual event in these parts, where I’m guest judging the local cider, a brew made famous over the years and perfect with a hunk of Somerset cheddar.

The point is this: I like to eat local, shop local, find out who the best farmers are, the ones that respect the animals and the land, the ones who know how to make food that tastes best, and eat that, eat what I want, to my heart's content. Try it.

This month we go local at Murray’s Cheese with the best regional cheese and dairy from Maine to Maryland. And check out our new cart at the Real Food Markets starting June 17 at Cowfield's, milk made foods from the region we live in. Pick up a copy of Real Foods, the new book by Nina Planck, and find out why real is local, and local is best.

Meanwhile, over in neighboring Gloucestershire, they had their bizarre annual cheese rolling competition yesterday. They roll an eight pound double Gloucester down a steep hill and hundreds of people throw themselves down the very steep Cooper's Hill after the cheese. Twenty-five people were treated for injuries, two hospitalized. The winner, (Jason Crowther, 24), keeps the cheese. Gone local indeed!

- Rob Kaufelt

Rob Visits Keen's Cheddar

2006-04-24T15:36:00.000-04:00

We take artisan cheddar for granted these days, but in truth, there’s not that much of it left down in Somerset, England anymore. Tamasin and I went up from Cross Farm in the Quantocks to Moorhayes Farm in Wincanton, about an hour’s drive up the back roads, to meet George and Stephen Keen and see their operation.

The family has been farming since 1898, and now Stephen and his wife Jennie, and his brother George with his wife Sue, and their sons Nick and James, respectively, carry on the family tradition of cloth wrapped, raw milk handmade cheddar from the milk of the 250 or so Friesians they raise. They sell all they produce, of course, and can’t make any more; not unless they can buy some nearby fields and raise a few more animals.

They drink their own raw milk everyday, it ‘keeps us healthy’ Stephen says, and they make one vat of cheese a day, too, about 24 of the 56 pounders we sell at Murray’s. They were surprised to learn we sell around fifty wheels a year, though I suppose we might easily sell a hundred. For them, the ideal age to eat the cheese is twelve months.

First thing we ate were some salted curds, about five hours after it was still milk, with the texture of chicken breast. The milk comes in at nine in the morning, and they add animal rennet and some starter culture that comes in sterile and frozen that then gets thawed for the next day’s batch. The whey is separated for cream, about nine gallons of it, and the rest of the whey gets mixed with slurry for the fields.

The starter cultures are rotated to avoid the pharge floating around the atmosphere; they used to make their own starter but the pharge interfered, but they avoid what most use, which is DVI, a mass produced direct to vat inoculation; eg, powder; this is a pint bottle put into a milk churn that serves for an entire vat of milk.

The cheddaring you have seen or read about. The curds are blocks first, then cut and turned, all done by hand, and salted and left to stand around twenty minutes before being turned into metal molds. They go into a horizontal press, and later change from the original heavy cloth they are made in to a blue cloth overnight. Next day they take them out of the blue cloth and dip them into hot water for thirty seconds, then hand lard them with what looked to us like Danish lard, good enough for baking pies (not that I’d know).

The lard is smeared on by hand, three layers in all, then in for another pressing, a three day process altogether. There is more than a half kilo of lard per cheese, which is why their cheeses tend to blue less, all the cracks filled in nicely. The cloth is muslin from India. In this way, each step meticulously made by hand (which they tell us now makes them unique in all the land), they are able to produce one hundred fifty tons per year.

The cows come outside about this time of year, and yes, the spring milk is preferred. The cows get buffer feed of maize, barley and wheat, so the cheese is consistent but only to a point. Anyway, the cheeses next head into the aging room, around ten degrees C with 90% humidity. The cheeses are tagged with the date and for authenticity; no tag, then don’t accept the cheese as the real thing, they told us. I asked Frankie; he says they are always tagged.

We tasted several batches. February cheese was creamy, mild and lactic. December cheese was a little harder, a little sharper, but still creamy. No surprises; the surprise was the quality. I began to think that I had underestimated my own taste buds for many years; it is hard to imagine that any cheddar is better.

George is concerned with his cows, and the science of rumen, and what is going on in each of the cow’s four stomachs, and how to keep the stress out of each as well as the cow itself. The October cheese was fudgy, still mild, but the August batch finally had that complexity we seek, smoother, not claggy, with a lingering finish. George is truly a man to ‘let nature do its thing’ and doesn’t much care for the problems that develop in a cheese much older than a year. The May cheese, at eleven months, had lots of flavour, and grassy notes, without a trace of bitterness.

Part of this he attributes to the live starter; George feels the vegetable ones don’t work, and are one of the key principles of great cheddar. In summary, these principles are: made in Somerset from the best grass; the cheesemaker’s own herds; raw milk; pint starters; animal rennet; hand cheddared; cloth bound; and aged a minimum of eleven months, and never more than eighteen.

The Keens do what their grandparents did, though with a bit more technology, not too much, and they do it six days a week. Along with Montgomery’s and now Westcombe, they have made Slow Food’s Presidium as the only artisan Somerset cheddars. We are very proud to carry Keen’s at Murray’s, and I look forward to having them visit us soon.

Making Mons

2006-04-04T13:22:00.000-04:00

by Liz Thorpe

At its most basic, affinage is the practice of aging cheese. Cheese folks will tell you affinage is the art of aging cheese. The affineur, of course, being the artist.
Art more than science, because temperature and humidity are the easiest factors to control in a cheese cave. What of the molds and yeasts, invisible, ambient little darlings unique to one animal’s milk, one region’s grass, one cave’s packed soil floor? Or the changing seasonal diet that, in one fell swoop, increases fat content, decreases protein, and modifies the flavor profile of rich, raw milk? What will be the impact of these seemingly tiny variables?

A good affineur will know, or have a fairly certain guess, before laying a hand on the wheel, wedge or round in question. As this ancient art of cheese maturation begins to take hold in the United States, with American producers building Little House on the Prairie-type rooms into their hillsides, and urban meccas like Murray’s constructing subterranean grottos in the middle of Manhattan, the work of French affineur Hervé Mons makes me realize how far we have yet to travel.

Hervé is a third generation affineur, working with his brother Laurent to oversee several small shops around Lyon, and guiding his aging facility outside of Roanne. I hesitate to call them caves, lest you imagine a dank, stone room carved into the mountainside. Caves like this do exist, but most serious facilities are run with mechanical precision. Hervé’s looks something like a long, white shed sitting alone in the middle of a field. The primary work area is limited to staff properly dressed in hats, jackets and clogs that never see the light of day, or the potential contamination of sidewalks, driveways, and hallways. Each cave is a lean, vaulted room where like cheeses are grouped with like, all the better to share their molds and bacteria. The floor is dirt, with stones, which retain the necessary ninety or so percent humidity. The planks are wood, usually spruce, as pine is enormously expensive. Small goat cheeses reside in one room; thick, crusty tomme-style cheeses in another; massive mountain wheels of two or more years in a third.

It wasn’t until I visited Hervé and some of the farms he works with, that I understood the truth of an affineur. Hervé’s starts in the dark, and the cold, at about 3:15 in the morning. The hotel we leave from has no coffee to offer because it is, arguably, the middle of the night. Hervé has recently had his license returned after multiple speeding offenses. The apparent benefit of the fast ride (twenty extra minutes of sleep) is immediately outweighed by the intense and persistent nausea of driving up endless hairpin turns at 130 kilometers an hour. Hervé is totally unfazed because he never sleeps more than four hours a night.

The traditional buron, or cheesemaking hut.

Our rush is to reach the buron of the cheesemaker Marcel, high atop the Massif Central. The buron is the traditional stone hut of the region, occupied by men at high altitudes who still make the annual pilgrimage skyward to make cheese. The Massif Central is a broad, flat expanse, the now-dormant plain of a former volcano, in the middle of Auvergne, at the bellybutton of France. On its flatness, you feel at the top of the world.

View from the buron.

Marcel’s day also begins in the dark, and the cold. He is one of eight remaining producers of the cheese Salers du Buron, a highly regulated farmhouse cheese not unlike Cantal, but far more complex. It can only be made from May 1-October 31, though snow often truncates the production season. It must be made of the raw milk of the Salers cow, with their burnished red coats and solid, curving horns. The milk must be gathered by hand, which is why the day begins so early.

The Salers cows.

By first light Marcel and his compatriots are out in the fields, separating mothers and calves; Hervé pulls up in a spray of dust; I focus on smiling and not throwing up. The men have one-legged stools bound to their waists so they can rock back in balance as they squat at the udders of some 70 cows. The wayward calves are strapped alongside, as Salers cows won’t milk without their baby present. The calves begin to nurse, are pulled away to siphon milk for the cheese, and are returned to finish breakfast. The men milk into wood buckets that are emptied into a wooden barrel strapped to a broken-down cart. The cart is pulled, I kid you not, by a blind and ancient donkey. One slap of the flank and the donkey, unaided, winds his way back to the cheesemaking room. He has made the same trip each day, all summer long, for fifteen years.

The ancient donkey, transporting milk.

As the popularity of Salers has waned, and the producers willing to work brutally long hours for little more than a piece of nostalgia have disappeared, Hervé has struggled to keep the cheese alive. Going so far, in Marcel’s case, as to purchase cows, sealing their partnership, and increasing the raw material available to make more cheese.

Following the rickety donkey on his last walk of the morning Hervé points at the calves, inquires about the rain fall, notices how much hay has been necessary this dry summer to augment the wild grasses. He chats with the young baker who wants to learn this craft, continuing to make Salers when Marcel cannot. Later, he expresses doubt that the young man can stand the lifestyle, and sure enough by summer’s end the baker declares that he will not return the following year.

The tiny, warm, damp cheesemaking room has two doors: one open to the plain, and a second, closed, leading to the aging room. Flies have gathered in the protection of the still air; the men agree a storm is coming. While Marcel begins the first of the day’s two cheese batches, Hervé flits around. Grabbing a nibblet of curd from last night’s make, already expressing the sour, slightly gamy flavor of Salers, he considers the squeaky texture, the finish, the curd size. He dips a finger in the barrel of milk, helps wash the equipment down with whey, a natural sanitizer that will run out the door to the pigs. He disappears into the adjacent, rudimentary kitchen to help with morning coffee.

I am mildly shocked that an aging room exists at all, since Hervé is supposed to be the ager. This dark cellar of cheese wheels has one tiny window, at ground level, through which a steady breeze circulates. One its invisible gusts, Hervé explains, come particles from the earth, the dandelions, arnica and mountain flowers that grow rampant, the essence of this space. To remove the Salers too young would destroy its character entirely.

It is this depth of understanding, this relationship not just with the producer, but with the breed of animal, the process of cheesemaking, the land, the difference between June and September, rainy season and dry spell, this ability to champion a 2,000 year old tradition while guiding, advising, and adjusting it, this is what makes a good affineur an artist, and far more than an ager of cheese. Hervé Mons, far more than any other individual I have met, is gifted in his ability to master these things simultaneously. He does not buy cheese and age it. He ferrets out the best potential and becomes a partner, helping producers to make better cheese, and ultimately, to survive as farmers.

Step-by-step...

Coagulating milk, and beginning to cut the curd.

The curds coagulate.

Marcel works his magic.

Stirring the curds, in whey. Until several years ago a
traditional wood board was used for stirring. Today it's plastic.

Marcel scoops out excess whey.

The curds sit for 12 hours, developing
characteristic sour, slightly barny flavor.

The curds are wrapped in cheesecloth.

Marcel pats the curd and begins the pressing. Curds are
turned, stacked & pressed a minimum of 15 times!

The traditional weighted press.

The wheels begin to mature in a tiny room
of the buron. I do not join them for long.

A cross made from the first butter of the
season sits above the cave entrance.

Taste it for yourself! Buy Hervé Mons cheese.

Murray's Goes To Gracie Mansion

2006-03-15T08:47:00.000-05:00

Meet Julia and Stacy, Murray's "fromagettes" (mongers-on-the-spot). We are brought in by discerning cheese lovers having fabulous events to introduce Murray's cheese to their guests. This month, we had the opportunity to show the Gracie Mansion Conservancy Benefit Event what we can do.

[Click here to read the full story]

The good, the bad, and the ugly

2006-02-13T21:38:00.000-05:00

The good:

The great thing about Wednesday’s New York Times Article “Low-Fat Diet Does Not Cut Health Risks, Study Finds” is that it might mean we are turning the corner away from a food culture that champions synthetic, chemically altered foods that protect us from our favorite food villain: FAT. As cheesemongers we appreciate the terrific potential of this kind of shift in our culture. Cheese could actually move from the ranks of forbidden to recommended food. Then Oprah would not have to put a caveat in her magazine next to the Murray’s Selection holiday gift box suggestion- telling you to be sure you find a good cardiologist before you consume.

We would welcome this kind of change. At Murray’s we are fans of products made with ingredients we recognize: milk, salt, and rennet to name just a few. This change would do more than support our belief that eating largely whole and unprocessed foods- even the sweet and fatty stuff- in moderation, plus exercise is the equation for a healthy America. A shift in our diets towards whole foods could also alter the entire way our food is produced.

The bad

New York City recently slashed whole milk from the lunch line in all of its public schools. While we empathize with the complexity of the federally funded lunch programs in public schools their decision raises serious concerns. In our minds, Mr. Naczi of Dairy Management Inc (parent of the American Dairy Association) summed it up best in this statement, “Milk consumption in this country is in a 20-year decline because of competition from soft drinks; obesity is on the increase. I don’t know how you can take a decreasing graph and blame obesity on this product.” They are canning whole milk because it is easier to do than removing chocolate milk from the line up, or decreasing the number of soft drinks and other synthetic, processed foods consumed by their students.

Whole milk contains fats that are vital for your body and those fats contain vitamins that aren’t available from other sources. The synthetic vitamins that they add to low and nonfat milks are not the same, in fact they have been linked to some health problems. Adding insult to injury, industrial skim milk is not made from liquid milk, it is reconstructed from dry milk and during the process cholesterol is oxidized which actually raises cholesterol in the body. And besides, when is someone going to talk about the amount of sugar and processed food in children’s diets? We challenge the schools to figure out how to feed their students nutritious food made from whole ingredients that tastes good. We encourage anyone who says it can’t be done to read about successful efforts by some of our favorites Alice Waters (www.edibleschoolyard.org) and Jamie Oliver (www.feedmebetter.com).

The ugly

While there are some amazing advances in American artisan foods there are seriously scary things happening on the processed side. Take “Pizza Cheese” the bastardization of Mozzarella that Pizza Huts around the world use on top of their pizzas. We give you this tidbit from The Milkweed a small, dairy industry monthly, “Pizza Hut’s cheese supplier- Leprino Foods- uses a silicone-based industrial chemical in the patented manufacturing of “Pizza Cheese: That chemical- Polymethylsiloxane- has no FDA approval for use as a food ingredient.” What is this about for Pizza Hut? Money. Leprino adds so much starch and water to the “cheese granules”, before flash-freezing, that they don’t melt properly.

The reality

We understand that the logistics, economics and ecology of food production are complex. But our bodies are also complex and we can’t help but think that maybe the best way to remain healthy is to feed our bodies food it understands- food that is made up of ingredients we can pronounce.

Profiles in Cheesemaking: Myron Olson, Chalet Cheese Cooperative

2006-02-06T16:30:00.001-05:00

For some cheesemakers, the love of the trade has much to do with the opportunity to be innovative, to create new varieties that they can call their very own signature cheeses. For Myron Olson, general manager at Chalet Cheese Coop, a small, alpine-style factory in the hills of southwest Wisconsin, the love of the craft is all about tradition and a fervent belief that, for some things, the old ways are best and must be preserved.

Olson, one of the elite corps of Wisconsin Master Cheesemakers, has made his mark by championing a cheese not likely to win any popularity contests or grab the spotlight on fashionable restaurant menus. It’s smelly, it’s misunderstood and, according to Olson, it’s a cheese for which you almost need a mentor. It’s Limburger, and, as America’s last traditional Limburger maker, Olson happily fills the mentor role for anyone who will listen, taste and give Limburger a chance.

A surface-ripened cheese that originated in Belgium, Limburger is made at Chalet the old-fashioned, labor-intensive way—as it has been for more than 60 years. Once formed, the individual pieces of cheese, which are the shape and size of small bricks, are laid side-by-side on specially cured pine boards. “You want the bacteria to grow on the boards. It inoculates the cheese and protects it from other bacteria that could grow,” Olson says.

Held in a cool, very moist cellar the little white bricks are hand washed with a B-linen bacterial solution called a “smear” and turned twice over a seven-day period. During this time, the bacteria introduced on the surface of the cheese begins to work its magic, ripening the cheese from the outside in and beginning Limburger’s transformation from a firm, chalky, salty cheese when young to a buttery, pungent, aromatic delicacy when fully aged. Finally, each piece of cheese is hand-wrapped in parchment and waxed paper and readied for shipping.

In fact, Olson says the key to enjoying Limburger is to know when it was made. When very young, up to one month old, it’s firm, crumbly and salty, much like Feta, he says. At six weeks, it’s softening on the corners but still has a firm center that’s salty and chalky. At two months, the core is almost gone and the body is smooth and creamy. At three months or more, it’s developed an intense smell and flavor; it’s spreadable, pungent and almost bitter. “If you like it now, you’re a real Limburger lover,” says Olson, a big, gentle man whose face lights up and eyes twinkle when talking about his favorite cheese.

Committed to carrying on the Limburger tradition, Olson laments the fact that his area of Wisconsin, just outside of Monroe in Green County, used to be home to more than 100 small cheese plants making Limburger, among other Old World varieties. “We’re the only one left—not just in Wisconsin, but in the whole country,” he says. “Sales declined over the years as the old timers died out and consumers started preferring blander cheeses, but they’re on the rise again. People are looking for more fully flavored foods again, and they there’s big interest in handcrafted, authentic regional foods. Our Limburger sales rose significantly last year.”

In addition to its notorious flagship cheese, Chalet produces traditional Swiss, Aged Swiss, Organic Swiss and meltingly creamy whole milk Baby Swiss varieties; Brick and German Brick; Muenster and petite Muenster; and traditional Cheddar cheese varieties.

Myron Olson
Chalet Cheese Cooperative
N4858 Highway N
Monroe, WI 53566
(608) 325-4343

1999 Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker, LARRY STECKBAUER: Antigo Cheese Company – Antigo, WI

2006-02-06T16:30:00.000-05:00

In 1973, Larry Steckbauer was fresh out of college with a history major and geography minor, and a career in urban planning was on option on the table. He retuned to his home town of Antigo, where his father once was an ice-cream maker and fluid milk bottler, and where Larry began feeling the pull of the dairy industry. That same year, he began his 26-year cheesemaking career at the Kraft Cheese plant in Antigo, becoming a licensed cheesemaker in 1981. He has never regretted his decision, and is now proud to join the upper echelon in his profession as a Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker.

In 1993, after Kraft announced it would close the Antigo plant, Steckbauer led a group of employees who sought to keep the facility in operation. With community support, dairy farmer loyalty, and tremendous assistance from Kraft and Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, the plant was purchased by employees and community investors, giving birth to Antigo Cheese Company, which has thrived ever since.

Steckbauer refined his cheesemaking skills over the years, studying at the Center for Dairy Research (CDR) at the University of Wisconsin. Once he learned about the Wisconsin Master Cheese Maker program, he decided it was a opportunity he wanted to investigate for himself and his company.

With the full support of Antigo President John Jacobs, Steckbauer enrolled in what he described as "an incredible learning experience," and his today certified as a Wisconsin Mater Cheese Maker in Parmesan and Romano cheeses.

"This was a special personal goal for me and I knew it would be a tough program," he says. "But the CDR makes it as user-friendly as possible. I traveled to Madison just twice a year, in Spring and Fall. The written exam was open-book, so I could complete it at home during a specified time-frame. Since I begin work at 3:00 a.m. and work at least a 10-hour day, this was a critical point for me. I found that as I did the test research, I learned so much more than just the answers to the questions. Another great program benefit was having cheese graders come to the plant on a periodic basis to test our cheese. I recommend the program highly and it's made me feel really proud."

Antigo Cheese Company plans to promote Steckbauer's achievement as a Wisconsin Master Cheese Maker. The company feels it's a significant product benefit for its customers. The company's business has grown steadily because of its commitment to quality. The number of accounts it sells to has grown from five when the company formed in 1993, to more than 80 today. Meanwhile, production increases 10 to 15 percent per year. The plant has produced Parmesan cheese for over 50 years and stepped up production several years ago with Italian-style specialties Romano and Asiago.

In 1997, Antigo introduced a unique specialty product, Stravecchio, Parmesan aged for 20 months, and their own retail product line, WISANTIGO.

Antigo Cheese Company has won several awards, including the prestigious Wisconsin State Fair First Place Govenernors Sweepstakes blue ribbon in 1995, 1996 and in 1998 for the Italian Grana category, and the Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year Award in 1996 for the emerging companies category and as a Manufacturer of the Year in 1998.

Steckbauer and his wife, Sally, an accountant, are proud parents of Ben, 18, Anne, 16 and Sam, 11.

Mr. Steckbauer can be reached at (715) 623-2301

Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker Sid Cook, Carr Valley Cheese – La Valle, WI

2006-02-06T16:29:00.000-05:00

One of the greatest pleasures Sid Cook gets from his life long journey as a cheesemaker is the personal freedom it affords him: the freedom to travel, to discover delicious cheeses from around the world and to bring them back to Wisconsin as inspirations for his own unique creations. A proponent of specialty cheeses long before they became the current rage among American gourmands, Cook is best known for producing high-quality, artisanal aged Cheddars. He now takes particular delight in trying new things, however, and in coming up with new varieties that he hopes will become as well-known "Wisconsin originals" as Colby and Brick.

The Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker program has helped him in this quest. "Jim Path, at the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, urged me to get involved in the program," Cook says. "I resisted, thinking I really didn't need it, but once I got started I found it to be extremely valuable. Most of my cheesemaking experience has been hands-on. But I now better understand the technical side and the theoretical side. That's what's allowing me to make the new cheese varieties. It's opened my knowledge base so I can do new things."

Among the varieties Cook produces at Carr Valley's plant in La Valle and a second plant in Mauston are Fontina and Cheddar, in which he is certified as a Master Cheesemaker and specialty proprietary cheeses such as Canaria, Me'nage, Benedictine, Mobay and Marisa, named for his 14 year old daughter. Many of his new creations are small batch mixed-milk cheeses that he's had success selling to high-end restaurants and to specialty food stores nationwide, as well as to customers at Carr Valley's own retail stores.

A fourth generation cheesemaker, Cook grew up in a cheese plant and has been involved in making cheese for nearly 40 years. "My family lived at the cheese plant," he says. "When you opened the kitchen door, there was the plant. I started helping out a lot before I was 12 and got my cheesemaking license when I was 16. After high school, I went off to college and got my B.A., in political science, but I came back and got involved in the family business."

Carr Valley in La Valle has been in business for more than 100th years. "My mom's family started one of the first cheese plants in Vernon County in the 1890's," Cook says. "And Carr Valley Cheese dates back to 1902. So our roots run deep here."

Cook says his father, Sam Cook, has been his biggest mentor in life and in cheesemaking. He also credits his uncle, Floyd Burt, for teaching his father the art and business of cheesemaking, and he points with pride to the fact that his 18 year old son, Sam Jr., just got his cheesemaking license.

Lucky for Wisconsin specialty cheese fans, the Cook family tradition is stronger than ever. Sid hopes to start working soon on getting Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker certification in two varieties of his own creation.

Profiles in Wisconsin Cheesemaking: Mike Gingrich, Uplands Creamery

2006-02-06T16:28:00.000-05:00

Growing up on a Midwest dairy farm instilled in Mike Gingrich a love for the land and a deep appreciation for farm life. Even after marrying his high-school sweetheart, Carol, and leaving the Midwest for California on a career path with Xerox Corp., his yearning for rural life endured. When children arrived, Mike and Carol decided the time was right to make a life change and return to the farm. “I had such fond memories of my childhood on the farm. I wanted our kids to have the same experiences, so we bought a small farm in southwestern Wisconsin. We had only about 30 cows, but it was enough to convince us that we had made the right decision,” Mike said. Eventually, the couple partnered with friends Dan and Jean Patenaud to buy a postcard-perfect 300-acre farm near Dodgeville, Wis. They manage it using a traditional, but no longer common, rotational grazing style of farming. Says Mike, “We’ve never looked back.”

Neither has he looked back on another life-changing decision: the decision to use the uniquely flavorful milk from his farm to produce a signature artisan cheese. “The farm was operating smoothly and didn’t need both Dan and I to manage it, so we began looking for another venture. Cheesemaking seemed a natural choice, particularly given the quality of our milk. I had it evaluated by experts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who confirmed that it did have flavor components related to pasture grazing that were different than conventional milk. I’d also heard repeatedly from old-time cheesemakers that spring milk made the best cheese. Armed with those insights, I became hooked on the idea of doing a seasonal cheese that would showcase our unique milk supply.”

Gingrich went to work getting his cheesemaking license and researching a wide variety of cheeses to determine what he’d make. “Our style of farming and milk production, with the cows moving from one fresh pasture to the next from spring through fall, resembled the traditions followed for centuries in the alpine regions of southeastern France,” Gingrich said. “Ultimately, we settled on a farmstead, raw-milk Beaufort-style cheese. The aging techniques we use were developed in the Middle Ages, when cheeses similar to ours were aged in limestone caves and washed frequently with a brine solution. We named it Pleasant Ridge Reserve because our farm is located on lands within this Uplands region once called Pleasant Ridge. The terroir of our farm is so important to the quality of our milk, and ultimately to our cheese. And our cheese is made right on the farm, so we wanted it to have regional identification.”

Pleasant Ridge Reserve is widely recognized as one of the best artisan cheese made in America. In 2001, its first year of production, it took Best of Show at the prestigious American Cheese Society competition. It was named America’s best cheese in the 2003 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest, and made a repeat performance at ACS in 2005, taking Best of Show for a second time. It is the only cheese to have ever won both the ACS Best of Show and the U.S. Contest top prizes.

They journey into artisan cheesemaking has brought Gingrich unexpected pleasures and nurtured in him an even stronger belief in the importance of farming, of the land and of local food production. His happiest moments as a cheesemaker? “Seeing the sheer joy and sense of discovery on peoples’ faces when they taste my cheese for the first time. That’s a great feeling,” he says.

Uplands Creamery
4540 County Rd. ZZ
Dodgeville, WI 53533
608-588-3443
www.uplandscheese.com

Mountain Cheese: January 15-31

2006-01-16T10:20:00.000-05:00

Our January adoration of mountain cheeses is about more than winter instinct to consume as much firm, beefy, eggy, eminently cook-able cheese as possible. Mind you: this instinct is operative, for what is more appropriate in gray, sleety dreck than a copper pot lazily bubbling with melty ropes of Gruyere, Appenzeller and Hoch Ybrig? Throw in crusty hunks of baguette, a bottle of Beaujolais, a group of moderately drunken friends, and you’re in business.

But it’s more than our animal impulse to hunker down and eat rich foods. It’s also our desire to have the finest cheese at any given moment, in season, perfectly illustrating the potential of its type or style.

When we say mountain cheese, we’re talking primarily about (duh) cheese made in the mountains, specifically the Alpine spine running between France and Switzerland. These are the granddaddies of cheese: wheels typically run between 70 and 150 pounds, are made of unpasteurized cows’ milk, and, in their finest incarnation, are produced from the milk of summer-gorged cows browsing their way across the alpage, or alpine, fields dotted with tiny grasses, wildflowers and abundant herbs.

The history of these cheeses falls at a brilliant intersection between practicality and pleasure. Small, remote, mountain towns struggled with a limited area of farmable land, and clearing the cows from valleys was essential to maximize the summer growing season. As snow receded, villagers and their cattle followed the lush grasses up the mountainsides, a migratory journey continued to this day and known as transhumance.

These remote and seasonal conditions are key to understanding the cheesemaking process that yields alpine cheese. Long winters challenge the ability to create enough food, yes, but particularly enough food to last until the growing season begins anew. In the case of fresh milk, perhaps the most perishable food of all, more cheese is no help unless it can last for many months. Thus, the demand to produce age-able cheeses.

Grazing and milking quickly evolved into a communal process, maximizing available milk and dividing the intense labor demands of cheesemaking. More milk makes for more cheese, or in this case, bigger cheese. Big size is a big part of lifespan, but a big, wet cheese will not last. How to produce a firm cheese, with less water? One that would not spoil over many months of aging? The answer lay in a two-step process of cutting the cheese curds into tiny bits, and cooking the curds at temperatures of 122 to 129 degrees Farenheit to expel as much whey (liquid) as possible. Afterwards, large wheels were further pressed to exude additional moisture.

By summers’ end, each small cooperative faced the return journey with only a few, very large wheels, more easily transported than hundreds of small rounds, and better designed to last through the winter.

Considering the similar cheesemaking conditions, the consistent use of cows, and the comparable techiques, it is no surprise that mountain cheeses share texture and flavor characteristics. And here we find the pleasure.

Look for large wheels with a firm, somewhat elastic paste that dissolves creamily in the mouth. Many are pockmarked with olive pit-sized holes. Relatively low acid means many of these cheeses will not taste “sharp,” but rather, “sweet.” (Remember that weird nutty sweetness of Swiss cheese when you were a kid?) The taste is like toasted hazelnuts, fried eggy, with a hearty dose of brown butter, beef jerky, and fruitiness, as in the fermented fruit of wine.

A fascinating story, but why are we pushing these big guns in January? Beyond the predilection for fondue, it’s because these summer-made cheeses come into season, into their finest form, in the dead of winter. Most are aged nine to twenty months. All are made between May and September. Meaning younger wheels produced in the Summer of 2005 are just coming into their own. Older wheels produced in the Summer of 2004 are at their apex. Some of these summer productions are so exceptional they warrant specific names. For example, Beaufort is Beaufort. Beaufort d’Alpage may only be so called when it is produced from the summer milk of Tarine and Abondance cows that graze on the alpage.

There are exceptions, and you’ll know them immediately by their soft, bulging, weeping interior. Clearly, these little guys are not firm, not big, and you may correctly deduce, not cooked or pressed. They are seasonal aberrations, and are special because they are made with the milk of these alpine roving cows, during those months down in the valleys, inside, eating hay. Their milk is fattier and their cheese is made for immediate consumption. Look for the hallmark Vacherin Mont d’Or, bound in spruce bark. Its year-round Swiss imitator, exceptional in its own right, Forsterkase, and the Vermont interpretation of Forsterkase, from Jasper Hill Farm, known as Winnemere (and washed not just in brine, but in brine infused with a Lambic-style ale brewed from ambient yeasts in the cheese cellar.)

What really blows us away is to line up five or seven of these cheeses, side by side, and taste them blind. It’s apparent that they are all closely related, but the nuance and distinction between them is remarkable. The aged Appenzeller, which lolls in a vat of herb-infused brine, next to the distinctly fruity note of Hoch Ybrig, thanks to regular washings in white wine-infused brine. The aggressive crunch of meaty, cave aged Gruyère is classic for cooking or eating straight-up. The French give us sisters that taste like diametric opponents: sweet, mellow Comté soothes before a bit of peppery, vegetal Abondance. And though central Vermont is hardly alpine, nascent cheesemakers Thistle Hill (Tarentaise, note the pun on the breed of cow typically used for French mountain cheeses) and Cobb Hill (Ascutney Mountain, it may not be an Alp, but is a local mountain near Hartland Four Corners) have harnessed a cheesemaking tradition that dates back to the first century B.C. and produced remarkable interpretations of Abondance.

We invite you to experience what 2,000 years of history can make with pristine milk and a little practice.

In Search of Bitto

2005-10-23T10:17:00.000-04:00

Chris Munsey, Fromager at Murray's and cheese adventurer spent several weeks this fall exploring northern Italy and tracking down new and interesting cheeses (some of which are now being featured at Murray's!). The story starts up in the mountains of Lombardy...

The trip had sounded ideal back in New York- a visit to a small cheesemaking operation located in the Italian Alps, to observe the creation of Bitto, a traditional alpine cheese that Murray's was about to introduce to New York. I had met my Italian friend Vitto in Milan and drove north along a road just a hairswidth wider than our compact Fiat to the small town of Introbio. Here we met with Giuseppe a representative of one of our Italian cheese distributors who supposedly had information on where to find the cheesemaker, Marco Giacomini. However, the real situation was shaping up differently.

Giuseppe stared at me gravely through his rectangular chrome rimmed glasses: "Signore, after reaching Chiavenna you must hike for at least three hours up into the mountains. It has been raining for days and might still be raining. I'm not sure about the directions. I don't know if there is anywhere to stay up there either. "

Was he serious? "Well isn't there a path up to cheesemaking hut? How do you get there when you visit Marco?"

"Me? Oh I don't know, I've certainly never been there myself."

So here we are: a drive to the village of Chiavenna ahead of us and then a three hour hike up a mountain; possibly in the rain. And it was already three o'clock in the afternoon. Our chances of getting lost up on a remote mountain looked pretty good, but this would be our only chance to see Bitto being made. My enthusiasm for cheese won out over good sense.

"Great! Giuseppe, you have been an immense help, thanks so much"

Vitto and I set out for the car to muddle things out on our own. Just as we were about to drive off, Giuseppe ran out and handed me a small piece of paper. "This is Marco's cell phone number. It doesn't usually work, since he is so far up in the mountains, but just in case…" explained Giuseppe and cheerfully bid us on our way.

We zipped along the narrow, winding road towards Chiavenna, a steep cliff on one side and a dizzying drop-off one thousand feet straight down to the valley below us on the other. As the sole Italian male in the car, Vitto was driving, while I tried to call Marco, the cheesemaker. On the third try, the number worked and a loud friendly voice greeted me: "Pronto?".

Luckily for us, almost everything we had been told before was a gross exaggeration of the truth.
Marco was happy to have us visit his calecc (the small stone cabins where cheesemakers stay during the summer to make Bitto). There was even a rifugo (a rustic mountain pension) en route where we could stay. We arrived in the picturesque village of Chiavenna and began to hike. The sun was shining and the path to the calecc was meticulously well marked. Benches strategically placed along the way allowed one to rest and take in the gorgeous green valley.

Just as the sun was setting, we came to the rifugo, one of approximately 10 ancient stone buildings in a little village perched on the side of the mountain. The proprietors of the rifugo were a pleasant couple who cooked up a feast: buckwheat tagliatelle and freshly picked porcini mushrooms, followed
by a hearty venison ragu, delicately steamed balls of polenta with sage and a dark, rustic Valtellina wine. To finish the meal, a board was laid out with slices of a fragrant, deep golden hued cheese and pears. Bitto produced on this very mountain! I took my first bite and became immediately addicted to this rich, nutty, tangy cheese. New York was going to love this cheese!

The rest of the evening was spent up on the rooftop porch of the rifugo, gazing at the stars, sipping the throat-burning local grappa and pondering what other fantastic discoveries would surprise us along the way.

After literally falling into unconsciousness the night before (nothing like a little grappa to help fall asleep) my alarm clock woke me with a start. It was still pitch dark out and up at the Calecc, Marco was probably already started with the morning milking. Vito and I stumbled groggily from bed and went down to drink steaming, thimble-sized cups of strong dark espresso, before setting out to find our first authentic Italian cheesemaker.
The sun quickly burned through the morning mist as we climbed up the steep trail. We crested a ridge and right in the middle of the path was a cow, tranquilly munching away. We must be getting close!

We crossed two narrow fast-moving rivers, past an old abandoned stone dwelling and there in front of us was the calecc. Situated in a natural amphitheater shaped clearing, ringed with steep cliffs, the little stone hut almost blended in with the surrounding boulders.

Marco, a sturdy, ruddy faced young man emerged from the door of the cheesemaking room and greeted us: "Ciao, come on up!"

He, his wife and another farmhand had just finished milking their seventy Brown Swiss cows, the traditional bovine breed used to make Bitto in this area. In order to meet DOP (protected denomination of origin) status as an alpine cheese, Bitto must be made at an altitude of at least 1,500 meters and can only be produced from June until September. 700 liters of milk from the morning milking were being heated in a large shiny copper kettle to produce what would be the last wheels of Bitto produced this season.

We watched as Marco expertly cut the curd with a traditional wooden knife until it was a mass of pea-sized chunks. He explained that it was very important to cut the curd into very small pieces in order to obtain a dense, smooth compact cheese - a sign of a properly made Bitto.

He then scooped large amounts of curd into cheesecloths and pressed them into molds. A flat wooden board was set upon the curds and then a heavy rock followed to press the excess whey out of the curds.
The wheels of fresh cheese would be soaked in salt brine overnight and matured upon oak boards for 70 days. At least one to two years of additional aging would result in a top quality Bitto. Some connoisseurs prefer Bitto at a much older stage and wheels that have been aged for up to 10 years can sometimes be found!

After he was finished making cheese, Marco pointed out the markings on the rind of the cheese, which indicate that exacting standards to qualify for DOP. A long busy summer for Marco was drawing to a close. Tomorrow he would lead the cows down from the mountain to the valley, where they would spend the cold winter months.

Tomorrow Vitto and I would be in Piedmont near the French border, in search of another amazing Italian cheese currently being featured at Murray's.

to be continued…

The Continuing Adventures of Princess Wendy

2005-10-12T17:21:00.000-04:00

Hi. I'm the writer here at Murray's, so I guess it's time I wrote an entry for the blog, right?

Many of us at Murray's are involved in interesting extra-curricular activites. Yes, sometimes we emerge from the caves, in search of non-cheese-related (gasp!) endeavors. For instance, in the beginning of my Cheese Career, I helped to start a community radio station in a pleasant town in New England. We had no license, which was fun for awhile, as we were pirates (argh!) but then the FCC shut us down. Whoops. Anyway, now that I'm in NYC, I continue my affiliation with non-commercial radio by volunteering weekly at WFMU. They're not pirates, they have a license. ANYWAY. Some of the staff know I work with cheese, and they ask me cheese-related questions, or test my cheese-related musical knowledge.

On Tuesday, Mike Lupica, WFMU's Special Events Director, Monday night DJ, and all-around Swell Guy, sent me an email about a rather fantastic story from Canada.

Here's a teaser:

Quebec firm abandons lost cheese
Last Updated Mon, 10 Oct 2005 13:50:57 EDT
CBC News

A Quebec cheese company has finally given up on finding $50,000 worth of
cheese it sank underwater in an attempt to make it taste better.

Last year, La Fromagerie Boivin dropped 800 kg of cheese into the water of
the Saguenay fjord, north of Quebec City.

Letting it sit 50 metres underwater was supposed to produce a cheese that
would taste unique, but the company had major trouble finding its sunken
cheese.

Go here
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/10/10/cheese20051010.html
to read the rest.

I think this is rather timely, considering Murray's is about to kick off our "Scary Cheese" Promotion.

"The Cheese-Creature From The Black Lagoon"?!?

If they find it, we might have to sell it.

Yours In Cheese,
-Wendy M. Levy

Digging for Cheese?

2005-08-11T08:36:00.000-04:00

Nina Planck was recently sighted in front of Murray's Bleecker Street. Rob Kaufelt says she was planting something, but we think she's digging for Cielo's secret buried cheese.