Featured Cheese - December 2020

According to Trevor Hickman, resident of Wymondham in East Leicestershire and a Stilton historian, the background of the cheese is somewhat cloudy. A blue-veined cow’s milk cream cheese was produced by farmers at Wymondham as soon as pastures were enclosed, but the first written reference to Stilton cheese was in 1722. Other references made about the same time clearly indicate that Stilton was very popular even then.

Point Reyes Toma is all natural and made with cow milk, as well as being gluten-free and made with microbial (vegetarian) rennet. This semi-firm cheese is creamy with buttery flavor with a grassy tang finish making it the perfect cheese to go with just about anything. Toma also means “cheese made by the farmer himself” in Italian and that’s fitting as it’s made by a family-run dairy farm and creamery in Marin County.

Home to a wide array of livestock including more than 42 registered Jersey Holstein milking cows that produce over 600,000 pounds of milk each year, Spring Brook Farm is a 1,000 acre dairy farm that produces award-winning farmhouse cheeses. In fact, their Tarentaise cheese featured this month has won no less than 22 national and international awards to date, including the most recent honors of taking first place in the Farmstead Category Aged 60 days or more at the 2018 American Cheese Society show, and an extra-aged version taking Best of Show at the same event in 2017.

This soft goat cheese won 1st in its class at the American Cheese Society awards in both 2015 and 2017. It’s a bloomy rind cheese with a wrinkly rind and white paste. The cream line, just under the rind, will age from the outside in and become creamier and creamier as it ages. The paste is soft and melts on your tongue. It's buttery in flavor and as clean as goat cheese comes.

This Spanish firm mixed milk cheese is aged 6 months and uses a minimum of high quality 60% cow’s milk, 20% sheep’s milk, and 6% goat’s milk collected from local farms. While the cheese is being aged, the rind is repeatedly brushed and rubbed with olive oil, leading to herbal, vegetal and peppery aromas and flavors. The paste is light yellow with small eyes. The finish is particularly interesting, reminding us of savory bay leaves. Los Cameros Red Label pairs well with dry red wines and is traditionally paired with a fruit Dulce de Membrillo, a popular Spanish paste made from quince.