Tag: food
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8 Weeks of Celebration Cheeses: Week 6
It’s hard to believe that we’re now over halfway through the holiday season. Time flies when you’re having fun! This week’s celebration cheese is a no-brainer for a list like this. It is easily one of the best cheeses in the world, and it is always one of the best cheeses in my case. There…
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Celilo is Here!
This weekend, an older couple came into the shop looking for Death & Taxes. While I knew exactly what cheese they wanted, I had to report that we did not carry it; in fact, I do not know of a shop in Seattle that does (please let me know if I’m wrong, people!). At that…
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Up Your Dinner Game with These Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
It’s not just decorative gourd season, it’s melty cheese season. And boy, is it ever. Last week, I extolled the merits of Switzerland’s tiniest mountain cheese, the mighty-smelling Tête de Moine. He’s just one of many cheeses waiting to grace your table in liquefied form with drippy deliciousness. There’s also Raclette, Morbier, Emmental, Gruyere, Comte,…
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Five Things that are Better with Cheddar
Cheddar has myriad uses in everyday American cooking. That’s a no-brainer. Why wouldn’t you put cheddar into the 1,0001 things we put cheddar in, like macaroni and cheese, casseroles, baked potatoes, stuffed bell peppers, Americanized Mexican food, grilled cheese sandwiches, and apple pie? In much of our cooking, shredded or sliced cheddar is an ingredient—one…
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A Cheese I Cantal Love Enough
It’s not enough for the French to have 6,000 types of native cheeses. They have to compete with the English on the one cheese that couldn’t get more English: cheddar. That’s right; the French have a cheddar, too. And it’s delicious. Really, ridiculously delicious. Sure, it’s not really a cheddar—and the French would probably not…
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Seven Pairings for Lovers and Friends
Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, I am crazy about cheese, And I guess I love you, too. Today is Valentine’s Day. Or, as you prefer it, Galentine’s Day or whatever. It’s kind of a last-minute holiday for many people. (Which is totally fine—it’s going to be OK, all right?) Regardless of what or…
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The French Like Reblochon, But the FDA Prefers Préféré
There are a lot of cheeses we can’t get in the US, thanks to the FDA’s strict rules on importing raw-milk cheeses. Anything aged fewer than 60 days can’t legally make it into the country, which rules out all name-protected bries and camemberts, as well as a whole slew of soft-ripened, fresh and young cheeses.…
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Three Reasons Why Pepper Pairings are the Hottest
Make no mistake: when I’m talking about “pepper pairings,” I mean hot peppers, chile peppers, spicy peppers! Whatever format they take, pairings involving hot pepper things are among my favorites. That’s not just because I live for food that makes my whole mouth go numb (although I’m not going to say I don’t enjoy foods…
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Just How Are Brie and Camembert Different?
A question that comes up a lot in the shop is, “what’s the difference between Brie and Camembert?” Typically, it starts out by someone holding up a small wheel of camembert while asking, “is this Brie?” The response of, “Nope, that’s a Camembert” is what gets the inevitable conversation going. Brie and Camembert are both…
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The Most Dangerous Cheese—But Also the Most Adorable
Let’s talk about one of the cutest little hard cheeses, Mimolette. Its name is adorable. (It’s pronounced “Mee-moh-let.”) It’s a little round ball; weighing around seven to eight pounds and measuring about seven to eight inches in diameter, Mimolette is fairly light as hard cheeses go. It kind of looks like a cantaloupe—or like a little…
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Ricotta: It’s Whey Better than it Seems
Growing up, I thought ricotta was kind of gross. It looked like cottage cheese, which reminded me of snot, and it tasted funny. Oh, how wrong children are about food. Or at least, how crazy it is that our tastes and preferences change and evolve so much as we age. Child-Courtney, in her pre-PhCheese primordial…
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Cutting the (Blue) Cheese
Last week we talked about Shropshire. I don’t have a video of anyone cutting Shropshire right now, but I do have one of me cutting a Colston Bassett Stilton from Neal’s Yard Dairy. The Shropshire and Stilton we carry, both from Neal’s Yard, are the same size and appear nearly identical on the outside. So…
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Brie Vs. Triple Cream: What are We Even Talking About?
Brie is a very popular cheese—and duly so. People love brie, they ask for it, and they smear it on crackers, bread, bagels, bake it in pastry dough, and dump jams and preserves all over it. I encourage this behavior. Triple creams are also very popular. A lot of people come in searching for “Délice”…
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4 Dishes to Start Your Day the Cheesy Way
Not everyone eats breakfast. But among those who do, many believe that it is the most important meal of the day. Unfortunately, there’s no definitive study to either support or argue against the importance of breakfast—or any meal, for that matter. Whether breakfast is a daily ritual in which you always indulge, or it is…
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12 Books to Kickstart Your Weekend Reading Plans
I am often asked what some good books are for people who love cheese and want to know as much as they can. The people asking are sometimes cheesemongers, sometimes customers, and sometimes random people amused by my obsession with cheese. So I’ve compiled a shortlist of titles that are a good starting place for…