Coloradans spend a lot of time talking about beer. Green chile. Burgers. Pho.
Add cheese to the list. A proliferation of specialty shops over the past few years, plus expanded cheese selections in high-end groceries, has increased access to domestic and imported cheeses.
Restaurants are in on it, too — you’ll find creative cheese plates on menus from Beatrice & Woodsley to Z Cuisine. Throw in a burgeoning bunch of Colorado cheesemakers, and you have not just a passing trend, but a lasting culinary shift. Bring on the cheese!
Cheese, Please: How to buy it
The best cheeses usually come from specialty shops and dedicated cheese counters. Whenever possible, buy your cheese freshly sliced to order, not from a bin of prewrapped product. Top tip: Taste before you buy.
FRESH CHEESE
Examples: Mascarpone, chevre, cotija, feta
Look for: Bright, white to off-white colors, clean aroma.
Avoid if: It smells like sour milk.
SEMI-SOFT CHEESE
Examples: Asadero, fontina, Colby, Monterey Jack
Look for: Ivory to orange color, pliable texture.
Avoid if: You see or smell mold.
SOFT-RIPENED
Examples: Brie, camembert, cambozola
Look for: White rind, buttery flavor and texture.
Avoid if: The cheese looks rusty or gray.
WASHED RIND
Examples: Taleggio, limburger, münster
Look for: Semi-soft consistency, orange-ish rind, salty.
Avoid if: The rind is cracked.
SEMI-HARD
Examples: Cheddar, Gouda, Gruyère, Jarlsberg
Look for: Ivory to orange color, smooth and firm texture.
Avoid if: You see mold on the surface.
HARD
Examples: Parmesan, pecorino Romano, old Amsterdam
Look for: Rough surface, visible white crystals.
Avoid if: It looks completely dried out.
BLUE
Examples: Stilton, gorgonzola, Roquefort, Cabrales
Look for: Consistent veins, pungent aroma.
Avoid if: It smells like ammonia.
Sources: “Laura Werlin’s Cheese Essentials,” by Laura Werlin (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), “Cheese Primer,” by Steven Jenkins (Workman), “The Cheese-Lover’s Companion,” by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst (William Morrow)
Feh, Calories and Fat … L’amour Conquers All
By Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
A counter gal at the Cowboy Creamery in Point Reyes, Calif., handed out petite samplings of a tangy soft cheese.
“It has no more fat than parmesan, ” she said when a few of us “ughed” on hearing we had a triple-cream in our hands.
Surely, she didn’t say that.
It was a “pinch me, I must be dreaming” moment.
Another followed soon after. At The Truffle Cheese Shop on East Sixth Avenue in Denver, owner Karin Lawler cut a delicate piece of a smooth, earthy brie. It bore no resemblance to the hard triangles served at women’s-studies wine-and-cheese gatherings of my youth. She, too, made the comparison of the fat content in this delicious morsel to that of parmesan. Was this the green light?
There has been this sense that there is something wrong with cheese. And I don’t mean the disquieting, delightful fact that it is the meeting of bacteria, air, moisture and rennet (don’t ask if you’re fainthearted). I mean the tsk-tsk notion that there’s fat and calories in them thar lovely wedges and disks and cylinders.
A little online calorie-fat investigation does indeed find brie and parmesan in a neck-and-neck race. Brie — it can’t be — just wins with slightly fewer calories (95 to 112) per ounce and about the same amount of fat, 8 grams.
While this might be welcome news for derided triple-creams, it’s a publicity setback for parmesan, which had somehow started to seem like a dieter’s go-to cheese.
Yes, there are calories and fat — of the saturated kind, no less. There’s also earth-affirming pleasure, especially in the lovely and increasingly available artisanal cheeses made from organic milks.
Granted, it’s easy to come up with elegant excuses for indulging. Blessed with healthy cholesterol — and mindful of it — I treat cheese as a gift given to myself or shared with friends. Bought at shops like St. Kilian’s in my Highland neighborhood or at The Truffle in Capitol Hill, they even come wrapped like presents in cheese paper for transport. Cheese is my savory ice cream.
At The Truffle, I also had some Fleur du Maquis, a soft, mildly tangy, fluffy cheese from Corsica encrusted with herbs from the island like rosemary, thyme, savory and coriander. It is very similar in look and taste to the first sheep’s milk cheese I ever ate, Brin d’amour.
My reaction, to quote from the 1939 film “The Women”: “L’amour, toujours l’amour!”
Lisa Kennedy is film critic for The Denver Post.
Make Us A Cheese Plate!
Can you build a cheese plate for 6 for about $20? Three area vendors said yes. Warning: Inventory fluctuates, so be prepared to substitute.
JACKIE REBIDEAU, FROMAGE TO YOURS
“All of my cheeses are American artisan cheeses. I recommend 3/4 ounce per person per cheese, which makes 4.5 ounces of each cheese for the plate. I’m rounding up to 5 ounces. It’s cheese, for crying out loud!”
1. Les Frères, by Crave Brothers (Waterloo, Wis.) A soft cheese similar to Brie in texture but milder in flavor. Cost: $5.31 for 5 ounces.
2. SeaHive, by Beehive Cheese Co. (Uintah, Utah). A medium-sharp cheddar that is rubbed with sea salt and honey so it has a little sweetness to it. Cost: $6.56 for 5 ounces.
3. Serena, by Three Sisters Farmstead Cheese (Lindsay, Calif.) One of my personal favorites. It is described as a cross between a Parmesan and aged Gouda. Cost: $7.66 for 5 ounces.
Total: $19.53
HUGH O’NEILL AND IONAH DEFREITAS, ST. KILIAN’S CHEESE SHOP
“We have chosen a washed rind cheese, followed by two cheddars; a goat and a cow. All produced on this continent. We don’t think you’ll see this type of pairing in the cheese books, but we think it works quite well.”
1. Les Frères, by Crave Brothers, (Waterloo, Wis.) A mild farmstead cheese, a little like an Alsatian Munster. It has a flavor slightly reminiscent of a tart green apple and finishes with a moist mushroomy earthiness. Cost: $6 for 5 ounces.
2. Champion Mill Cheddar, by Jumpin’ Good Goat Dairy (Buena Vista, Colo.) These goats ramble around in the sage and rocky terrain of the Arkansas river valley. It has a buttery flavor and a salty, earthy finish. It’s got the the bite of the goat. Cost: $6 for 5 ounces.
3. Avonlea Cheddar (Prince Edward Island, Canada). A real gem made with raw cow’s milk. It is aged for a year and comes wrapped in cloth as is the English tradition, which tends to intensify the character. It is rich, sharp, wise, buttery and crumbly. Cost: $8 for 5 ounces.
Total: $20.
ROB AND KARIN LAWLER, THE TRUFFLE
“We recommend three cheeses of different milks, textures, and flavors. This time of year, when apples and pears are at their best, it would certainly be nice to have some ripe fresh fruit too.”
1. Ugly Goat Dairy’s Chevre (Spring Too Farm, Elizabeth, Colo.) This pasteurized goat’s milk cheese from farmer Michael Amen is tangy, sharp and flavorful without being too “goaty.” Perfect to spread. Cost: $8 for 4 ounces.
2. Vermont Shepherd (Putney, Vermont) This cave-aged, raw sheep’s milk cheese from Vermont is the perfect example of an American artisan cheese. The sheep are led from pasture to pasture daily to graze on fresh grass and clover, giving this cheese nutty, complex flavors. Cost: $6.66 for 3 ounces.
3. El Farcel de Villatzara (Catalonia, Spain) This new and delicious cheese is made with cow’s milk that has been washed in a coffee bath. It has a semi-firm paste, with a slight bitterness on the rind that makes it a natural pairing with an after dinner cafe con leche. Cost: $6.38 for 3 ounces
Total: $21.04.
How To Store Cheese
Rule 1: Eat it.
The best place to store cheese is in your belly. The Truffle’s Karin Lawler suggests buying only what you need right away. “Some people come in and ask for a pound of cheese. I say, ‘Why?'”
Rule 2: Give it some air.
Cheeses release several gasses like ammonia, and if these aren’t allowed to escape, your cheese will suffer. Wrap cheese loosely (Lawler suggests using foil, but wax paper also works) and refrigerate in the vegetable drawer or in a large, airtight plastic container that’s bigger than the cheese. Pop the container every day to refresh the air. For unfamiliar cheeses, ask your cheese seller for tips. Never wrap cheese tightly in plastic.
Rule 3: Sooner is better.
Fresh cheeses, like mozarella and queso fresco, lose moisture quickly and should be eaten as soon as possible after opening. Most medium-hard cheeses like cheddar will last up to a week, if stored correctly. After that, says Lawler, “Make a grilled cheese sandwich.”
As a rule, the harder the cheese, the longer you can keep it. Ungrated parmesan cheese lasts several weeks if stored correctly. Unwrap it every few days to give it some air. If you find the edge has dried out, trim it to expose the more supple cheese in the middle.
Rule 4: Keep it cool, not cold.
Store cheeses in the refrigerator at about 40 degrees. Never freeze cheese. They taste best at room temperature, so pull cheeses out of the fridge an hour before you serve them.
Rule 5: Know your molds.
In blue cheeses like Roquefort or Stilton, the right kind of mold is a good thing; without it, blue cheese wouldn’t be blue. Red mold is bad. Should blue mold appear on a cheese where it doesn’t belong — cheddar, brie, or gouda for example, beware.
Rule 6: Toss it.
If cheese smells off (not just strong, but rancid) or looks or feels significantly different from how it appeared when you purchased it, trust your instincts. “When in doubt, throw it out,” says Lawler.
Tucker Shaw
Stock Up!
Cheese counters are popping up all over the front range. Here are just a few.
The Cheese Co.
5575 E. Third Ave. (at Holly Street), Denver, 303-394-9911,
Fromage to Yours
8100 S. Quebec St., Centennial (in the Willow Creek center), 720-230-1100,
Market Europa
33 S. Pratt Parkway, Longmont, 303-772-9599,
St. Kilian’s Cheese Shop
3211 Lowell Blvd. (between West 32nd and 33rd avenues), Denver, 303-477-0374,
The Truffle Cheese Shop
2906 E. Sixth Ave. (between Fillmore and Milwaukee streets), 303-322-7363,
Coming Soon
The first Colorado Cheese Fest is Nov. 14 at the Embassy Suites Denver Tech Center. Events include a grilled-cheese- sandwich competition with some of Colorado’s best chefs (including Hosea Rosenberg, Michael Long and Scott Parker), plus workshops on serving and pairing cheeses with wine and beer. Much more, including lots of samples from dozens of exhibitors. Twenty bucks gets you in the door.
More info at .
