Cheese Book – Cheesemonger, A Life on the Wedge

Cheesemonger – A Life on the Wedge by Gordon Edgar, is the latest addition to my cheese library. Much of my cheese “home schooling” curriculum involves following cheese and food blogs. I found Gordon’s Cheese Blog, discovered that he wrote a book, and then found his book at amazon.ca.

I just finished reading his book this week and thought I would post a cheese book review.

Cheesemonger, A Life on the Wedge by Gordon Edgar was published March 2010. It is current. This is a chart of reader reviews of the book from Amazon.com.

Clearly, most people have enjoyed this book. Click the chart to read other reviews.

The cheese books that I have read so far have been cheese reference guides. There is nothing wrong with that. But those books are tedious to read cover to cover.  Cheesemonger – A Life on the Wedge is quite different. It is not a cheese guide, it is a story. It is the auto-biography of Gordon Edgar who is a San Fransisco based political activist, punk rocker turned cheesemonger. The book is filled with words, not pictures.

The book engaged me. The story is well anchored in reference to Gordon’s job as a cheesemonger. He describes his job through snapshots of his experiences with added insight into his perspective on it all. Occasionally the story slides away from cheese and moves toward his social and political views but those digressions are brief and they to help understand Gordon, the person, better. The book succeeds at capturing Gordon’s wit and good humour. I often found myself smiling at his quips, opinions and observations.

This book provides insight into the cheesemonger profession. Through his story I learned more about cheese, cheese retailing, cheese making and farmers.

I believe this book will appeal to most people working in the cheese industry. It is also a good read for cheese fans and curious bystanders to the cheese industry, like me.

I enjoyed this book.

Do you have any cheese book recommendations for me?

Balderson Royal Canadian Cheddar – Aged 2 Years

Balderson Royal Canadian Cheddar - Aged 2 Years

Balderson Cheddar is a made by the Balderson Cheese Company in Winchester, Ontario. Balderson is respected as a quality maker of Cheddar cheese in Canada. Their cheese is well distributed and can be found in nearly every grocery store that I can recall.

The Balderson story begins in 1881 when dairy farmers in Lanark County, Ontario, formed a dairy collective to pool their milk and produce cheddar cheese in a cooperative factory. The factory was built at Balderson Corners named after John Balderson, a British army  sergeant who homesteaded in the area in the 1860s. The Balderson cheese reputation has grew steadily over time and is currently a leading (or possibly the leading) brand of cheddar in Canada.

This review is for the Balderson Royal Canadian Cheddar which is aged two years.

Balderson offers their cheddar at different stages of aging. Their premium series includes cheese aged as little as 3 months (mildest) and ranging to 18 months. The cheddar becomes drier, sharper and more expensive with age. The Premium Aged series ranges from 2 to 6 years.

Balderson Aged 2 Year Cheddar with Daelie's Biscuits

I like the Balderson Royal Canadian Aged Two Year Cheddar because, in my opinion, it is the “sweet spot” on the aging scale. At two years the cheese has developed a mild bite and some depth but it well balanced with the milky, smooth cheddar flavour.  The Balderson website suggests that their two year cheddar is the best all purpose cheddar for recipes … I would agree. It is my cheese of choice for home made mac and cheese, cheeseburgers and grilled cheese sandwiches. The Balderson 2 year cheddar is a wonderful snacking cheese . It is a staple in our house … a favourite of my wife and kids.

Kathy Guidi, author of Canadian Cheese – A Pocket Guide, says “Balderson is the benchmark for Canadian Cheddar, our Cheddar PDO” . Canada does not yet have a PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) but if they did I expect Balderson would be making application.

The Verdict: Balderson Royal Canadian Chedder Aged 2 Years is a recommend.

Biscuits for Cheese – Daelia’s Almond with Raisins

Daelia's Almond Raisin Biscuits for Cheese

The nice people at Daelia’s sent me a swag bag (it was really a box) of their Biscuits for Cheese. I jumped at the chance to try these because I am developing an understanding of the importance of food pairing. Finding a good marriage of a cheese, wine (or beer), crackers, biscuits, fruit or nuts can take cheese appreciation to the next level.

I have found that the best crackers for cheese are mild in flavour, low in salt and dare I say bland? They work mostly because they shadow a cheese, jelly or spread.

The Daelia’s Biscuits for Cheese are different. These biscuits are interesting and flavourful. They stand on their own. They don’t compete with the cheese, they compliment it. That is the idea with a pairing. The magic is in the combining and interaction of flavours to deliver the ultimate taste enjoyment. Daelia’s Biscuits for Cheese do just that.

The biscuits come in three types, each intended to be matched with different styles of cheese. Daelia’s Almond with Raisins is suggested to be paired with aged cheddars, goat cheeses and blue cheese. Daelia’s Hazelnut with Fig pairs well with blue cheese and sheep’s milk cheeses. Daelia’s Pumpkin Seed Rye pairs well with Brie, Camembert, Comte, Gruyere and washed rind cheeses like Oka. This review is specific to the Daelia’s Almonds with Raisins Biscuits for Cheese.

The biscuits are packed into a plastic tray to prevent breakage. There are 15 biscuits in the package.

Daelia's Biscuits for Cheese - Almond with Raisin

The biscuits are generously filled with raisins and large chunks of almond pieces. They look good.

Daelia's Biscuits for Cheese Almond with Raisin

I decided to pair the Almond with Raisins biscuits with Balderson 2 Year Aged Cheddar.

Daelia's Biscuits for Cheese Almond with Raisin Paired with Balderson 2 Year Cheddar

What does Daelia’s Almond and Raisin Biscuits for Cheese taste like? Before tasting them I thought these biscuits appeared similar to Melba Toast in thickness, texture and appearance. I guess I was expecting them to taste similar. Don’t judge a book by its cover. The Daelias biscuits are significantly more flavourful. The taste of almond, raisin and peppery spice go very well together. The blend works. The textures of the crunchy almonds with chewy raisins make for an interesting and pleasant mouthfeel. I ended up eating several of the biscuits alone and enjoyed them on their own accord. Next I tried the pairing … a piece of Balderson cheddar followed by a Daelia’s biscuit. The pairing was spot on. Then I put a piece of cheddar on the biscuit and ate it in a single bite. Again … good stuff.

The verdict: The Daelia’s Almond and Raisin Biscuit for Cheese paired wonderfully with the Balderson 2 Year Aged Cheddar. It was even better than I expected.

I am going to review the other two flavours of Daelia’s Biscuits separately so I can pair them with the recommended cheeses.

These biscuits are an easy way to step up a cheese board and enhance a cheese tasting experience.

Daelia’s Biscuits are available in Toronto at Pusateri’s, Nancy’s Cheese, Sheffler’s Delicatessan (St. Lawrence Market) and Summerhill Market. In Mississauga at Whole Foods (Square One). In Quebec at IGA. In Vancouver at Thrifty Foods and County Grocer.

Disclosure: These biscuits were provided to me by Daelia’s to try and review.

www.daeliasbiscuitsforcheese.com

How to Recognize Bad Cheese

If you were wondering what bad cheese looks like, or how to recognize bad cheese, wonder no more. This photo by Terry Border illustrates all of the tell tale signs that a cheese has gone bad!

I hope that this Friday fromage funny put a grin on your face.

Creme Brie L’Extra Processed Cheese Spread

Creme Brie L'Extra

I came across this interesting container of cheese while shopping at my local Michael-Angelo’s Market. I’m thinking … brie in a cup? This could be interesting. The container is small enough to hold in your hand and it is made of paper. That makes me think it is recyclable and earth friendly.

Creme Brie L'Extra Lid

The lid reveals that this a Processed Fine Cheese Spread, part of the Agropur Signature series. Now I’m a little confused and a little curious as to what I will discover under that lid. I was tempted to lift the lid in the store but I was not sure what was beneath. I did not want to break a seal.

Removing the lid reveals a plastic seal that can be torn away.

Creme Brie L'Extra with the lid off

I removed the lid to unveil a gooey creamy white cheese. I had set the cheese out for about an hour to bring it to room temperature. That is my procedure with all cheese. Cheese typically is more flavorful at room temperature. I’m not sure that was the right idea with this cheese because the cheese was even more runny than Brie paste at room temperature.

Creme Brie L'Extra

The consistency was quite thin. I would describe it as either thick yogurt or thin pudding. I placed a knife in the container for a picture and the knife would fall out within a minute under it’s own weight.

I spread some Creme Brie L’Extra on some Carr’s Table Water Crackers.

Creme Brie L'Extra on Carr's Crackers

I had to take the picture quickly because the cheese would flow over the edges of the crackers as they sat. With this product you cannot spread crackers in advance to serve them.

The Creme Brie L’Extra on Agropur’s website describes this product as being based on “Crème Brie L’Extra, Canada’s best selling brie”. Hmm “Canada’s best selling Brie”? … I guess I better try some regular Crème Brie L’Extra soon.

They continue to suggest this spread as:

“Ideal on crackers, on baguette bread and perfect for bagels! Crème Brie L’Extra can also be used as a dip, in a fondue or as a key ingredient in a sauce.”

What does Creme Brie L’Extra taste like? This cheese is smooth, creamy and very mild. It leans more towards processed cheese than Brie paste. Brie is mild to begin with, but this is the mildest Brie I have yet to try. The good news is – no rind in there. Although brie rind is edible I see a lot of people avoiding it.

I liked the Creme Brie L’Extra cheese, but not in a savour every moment kind of way. It was more of a spread it quickly, pop it in your mouth, have another – sort of way. I assume bringing this cheese to room temperature enhanced the flavour which in hindsight is a good idea because the flavour is so light. My wife tried this cheese. She likes milder cheeses and she enjoyed it. However, it just didn’t have enough pizzaz to get me excited.

I think the container is designed to be a single serving because once the plastic seal is removed I was not convinced that replacing the paper lid would keep the cheese fresh for very long. I ended up draping a piece of saran wrap over the top and then replacing the lid.

The verdict: Creme Brie L’Extra is a convenient, mild, cheesy cracker spread. I would suggest this cheese for the cheesy timid.

Creme Brie L’Expert is made in Canada at Agropur’s St-Hyacinthe, Quebec cheesemaking facility. It was introduced in September of 2011.

Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Agropur, or this product, in any way. I just buy it, try it and review it.

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Grandma Singleton’s Creamy Wensleydale Cranberry Cheese

Grandma Singleton's Creamy Cranberry Cheese - Wensleydale with Cranberry

Grandma Singleton’s Creamy (Wensleydale) Cranberry Cheese is imported into Canada by Agropur. Grandma Singleton’s Cheese comes from Mill Farm, Longridge, Preston, Lancashire, England.

I will admit that I was attracted to this cheese by the packaging. The cheese is wrapped in a plastic that looks like burlap fabric. It looks like it came straight from the farm. There is a picture of motherly Grandma Singleton on the label and she is surrounded by cranberries and leaves.

What I did find strange was that the word Wensleydale does not appear on the front of the package … anywhere. You have to pick up the cheese and turn it over to learn that it is a Wensleydale style cheese.

I can only assume that Singleton’s did some marketing experiment and found the phrase Creamy Cranberry Cheese to outsell the phrase Wensleydale Cranberry Cheese and therefore the label was changed accordingly. Even more ironic is that Wensleydale is far from creamy.

The Singleton’s Cheese Company  began when Duillia Singleton began making cheese on their family farm back in 1934. Currently Singleton’s offers 30 different cheese products exported to 30 different countries under the guidance of Grandma Singleton’s great grand-daughter, Tilly Carefoot. All of the cow’s milk to make Singleton’s cheese comes from within a 12 mile radius of their dairy. They make and mature the cheese on-site.

Grandma Singleton's Creamy Wensleydale Cheese with Cranberry

What does Grandma Singleton’s Creamy (Wensleydale) Cheese with Cranberry taste like? Singleton’s has classified this cheese as a dessert cheese. It is creamy white with small cranberries generously scattered throughout. The cheese is mild, milky, salty and balances well with the sweetness of the cranberries. I found the cheese to be dryish and crumbly but complemented well by the soft moist texture of the cranberries. This is not a cheese for spreading. It is a stand alone and really requires no pairing since that part has already been done for you by inclusion of the cranberry. Did I like this cheese? – Yes. It is visually attractive. It is a different style as opposed to cheddar, gouda or blue cheese. It works on a cheeseboard … especially a dessert cheese board.

Due to the crumbly nature of the cheese it makes a good salad topping. I crumbled some on a spinach salad with pomegranate and blueberries. It turned out marvelous.

Grandma Singleton's Wensleydale with Cranberry Cheese on Spinach Salad

I wish the front label said Wensleydale, but apart from that, everything else about this cheese works.

Beaver Cheese

For the past year I have been on the lookout for Beaver cheese. I have had no luck finding any yet. In Canada we have BeaverTails, a fried dough pastry that is flattened to look like a Beaver’s tail. BeaverTails are typically topped with sugar, cinnamon or other goodies.

Canadian Beavertail - photo by Henry Ko (Flikr)

My internet searches have led me to Venezuelan Beaver Cheese, a fictitious cheese mentioned in a Monty Python Comedy sketch. Unfortunately the cheese shop in the sketch did not carry it.

In case you were wondering … the cheeses listed in the Monty Python cheese shop sketch are:

Bel Paese
Boursin
Bresse-Bleu
Brie
Caerphilly
Caithness
Camembert
Carré de l’Est
Czechoslovakian sheep’s milk
Cheddar
Cheshire
Danish Blue
Dorset Blue Vinney
Double Gloucester
Edam
Emmental
Gorgonzola
Gouda
Greek Feta
Gruyère
Ilchester
Lancashire
Limburger
Liptauer
Mozzarella
Norwegian Jarlsberg
Parmesan
Pipo Crème
Pont l’Evêque
Port Salut
Red Leicester
Red Windsor
Roquefort
Sage Derby
Saint-Paulin
Savoyard
Smoked Austrian
Stilton
Tilsit
Venezuelan Beaver Cheese (fictional)
Wensleydale
White Stilton

With all of the clever marketing by cheese companies these days, I am surprised that nobody has applied the name “Beaver Cheese” to a product yet. It’s probably just a matter of time.

If you are reading this post and know where I can find some Canadian Beaver Cheese please let me know.

Landana 1000 Days Aged Gouda Cheese

Landana 1000 Days Aged Gouda Cheese

I was shopping at my local Michael-Angelos Market Place in Mississauga (Ontario, Canada) when I came across Landana 1,000 Days Aged Gouda cheese. They were promoting this cheese in the cheese case with a large eye-catching sign.

The advertising worked … they had my attention. I thought it was odd putting an “It’s New” sign on this very old cheese. I was thinking an “It’s Very Old” sign would be more appropriate, none-the-less I decided to bring some home for a try.

Landana 1,000 days aged Gouda comes from Holland and is a brand of the Vandersterre Group. It is a cow’s milk cheese. The cheese is formed into 20 pound wheels. The attraction, and uniqueness, of this cheese is obvious … 1,000 days of aging. The cheese spends 2.7 years maturing on untreated wooden shelves. During aging it loses 25% of it’s original weight as moisture leaves and the flavor builds.

What does Landana 1,000 day aged Gouda taste like? It’s awesome. I love everything about this cheese; the colour, the texture, the smell, the flavour. This is a semi-hard cheese although not quite as firm as Parmesan Reggiano. The cheese has a nutty, sweet, salty, caramel flavor. It is loaded with flavour but it is not overwhelming. There are tiny crunchy protein crystals in this cheese that provide a very pleasant and interesting texture. I found this cheese to be somewhat similar to Beemster XO.

Landana 1000 Days Aged Gouda Cheese

I would suggest pairing Landana 1,000 Days Aged Gouda with fruit such as grapes or apples. This Gouda is good.

I Like Mature Cheese but this is Ridiculous

In my quest for cheese knowledge I was researching “Mature Cheese” when I discovered this archived news story.

Normally, I would file such information away for future reference. However, this discovery put my head into a spin. I’ve had cheese go ugly in my refrigerator in just a few weeks. Evidently storing cheese in a bog is a much better method. Are you impressed by 3 year old cheddar? Be impressed no longer … because relative to a 1,400 year old cheese, three years is a blink of an eye.

The most fascinating concept about this story was that after pulling the cheese out of an ancient bog, carefully examining it, somebody actually decided to eat it. I am cheese adventurous but I have my limits.

credit: The news story is from the Sydney Morning Herald July 3, 1987.

Is your Cheese Tessellated?

Are you wondering what the heck is tessellated cheese?

I was wondering the same thing after some web surfing led me to people recommending tessellating the cheese on their sandwiches. The general opinion is that tessellated cheese is much better than non-tessellated cheese. I have a pretty complete arsenal of kitchen gadgets but I don’t have a cheese tessellator. I put the power of Google to work and found my way to a web page that provided answers - lefthandedtoons.

Tesselllating is arranging the cheese in a pattern that provides optimum sandwich coverage and minimizes cheese overlap. It makes sense. No special kitchen gadget needed, but rather the knowledge of technique.

Further research revealed that Subway restaurants, a popular sandwich franchise in Canada and USA, had not been tessellating the cheese on their subs, to the dissatisfaction of some customers. The lefthandedtoons website features an open letter to Subway addressing the error of their ways. I’m not sure if this is an urban myth, but it seems that Subway did change their cheese arrangement practices sometime after lefthandedtoons published their request for cheese optimization.

On a recent trip to my local Canadian Subway sandwich shop I payed close attention to the cheese placement. Indeed, my sandwich contained tessellated cheese!

Make the world a better place and practice cheese tessellation whenever possible!