Some of you may be wondering why the flow of posts seems to have slowed to a crawl. The answer, in a nutshell, is that we’re now tackling the job of transcribing the 20-30 hours of interviews we’ve done so far. By the time we’re done, I hope that we’ll have a nice little oral [...]
Archive for April, 2008
Transcription Hell
Posted in General on April 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Tasting Notes: Sartori Bellavitano
Posted in Photos, Tasting Notes on April 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The folks as Sartori told us that their Bellavitano cheese, an original creation, was difficult to explain. This is undoubtedly true on one hand (the texture is unique), but it is also has some familiar flavors that help a taster get a handle on its essence.
Bellavitano has some of the flavor of an aged cheddar, [...]
Tasting Notes: Crescenza-Stracchino
Posted in Photos, Tasting Notes on April 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
When we visited BelGioioso, Master Cheesemaker Gianni Tofolon explained how BelGioioso comes up with their original cheeses – when the bosses are away in Italy, the cheese makers take the opportunity to make something new. You might think that a company that makes such wonderful aged parmasean style cheeses wouldn’t keep innovating, but they do, [...]
Cheese by the Book
Posted in Media Mention on April 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Kudos to The Capital Times for rounding up all the various cheese-related books pouring out of the gates over the next couple of years. In addition to our own upcoming contribution, Jeanette Hurt has written The Cheeses of Wisconsin: A Culinary Travel Guide (due in July), and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Cheeses of [...]
Yet Another Cheese Mouse
Posted in Photos, Travel Log on April 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It’s not clear that we’re going to visit every giant cheese mouse in the state of Wisconsin, but it seems likely we’ll get 90 or 95 percent of them. Here’s one from Kris’ Cheese to Please, a charming cheese shop in Plymouth, where we visited master cheesemaker Jeff Mattes.
Return to the East
Posted in Photos, Travel Log on April 10, 2008 | 1 Comment »
As previously detailed, our trip back to the eastern part of the state turned into an exercise in gluttonous abandon, featuring Antigo bacon, De Pere chocolate, Cedarburg cinnamon rolls, Sheboygan brats and ample cheese.
Our first stop was in Antigo, where we visited one of Sartori’s two masters, Larry Steckbauer. His story — of how his [...]
Probably the Biggest Cow in Plymouth
Posted in Travel Log on April 10, 2008 | 1 Comment »
A somewhat more cheese-related roadside attraction: Antoinette, the Plymouth, WI, commemorative gigantic cow. Antoinette’s sign celebrates the National Cheese Exchange, established in 1882 in Plymouth. The cheese exchange later moved to Green Bay, before getting sucked into the whole Chicago commodity market scene.
RAAAR Welcome to Marshfield
Posted in Travel Log on April 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This has nothing to do with cheese, but I absolutely loved this rusty dragon sculpture that dominates one of Marshfield’s main drags. The dragon looks… charmingly exuberant. The creator, if my brief and feebleminded Internet research is correct, is Clyde Wynia, proprietor of JuRustic Park.
Oh, I guess “main drag” is a little punny.
Sartori SarVecchio – Tasting notes
Posted in Tasting Notes on April 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
An aged cheese should not merely be an ingredient, it should be its own food: a food you can serve to friends by itself or with a piece of your favorite bread. If you don’t really understand why you would pay good money for an aged cheese, pick up some SarVecchio. Like the American [...]
Tasting Notes: American Grana
Posted in Tasting Notes on April 7, 2008 | 1 Comment »
When, after tasting five or six different BelGioioso cheeses, I told master cheesemaker Gianni Toffolon that American Grana was my favorite, he hugged me. He’s emotional about the cheese he makes, and that’s understandable; Grana is remarkably good.
An 18-month aged parmesan, it lacks any of the crystals or unpleasant dry crunchiness that sometimes come with [...]
