The hunt was on for cheese! Any cheese, please!

Rummaging, I was, through the refrigerator searching for cheese; any cheese! I couldn’t find a single morsel. Nothing behind the half-full bottle of Sun Luck oyster sauce, nothing behind the mayo, nothing under the celery or the bok choy, nothing on the other side of the box of butter.

My anticipation was rapidly fading.

Wait! What’s that? I recognize that wrapping! Quel Fromage! What, oh what had I pushed all the way to the back of the top shelf and forgotten? More importantly, was it still edible or had it become just another moldy science project?

Lordy! Lordy! A wee bit of cave-aged Gruyère! Thanks be to the good god of all that is cheese!

I remember having used most of the originally purchased wedge in a 3-cheese sauce for macaroni, but with a shy ¼-cup of Gruyère left, there wasn’t enough for a sauce.

Gruyère is one of the firm raw cow’s milk cheeses of Switzerland that crumbles readily, but is well known for its superb melting capability. It’s the basis for any good Swiss fondue, and is preferred for au gratin onion soups. But I didn’t have enough for such.

The only recourse was to simply open my mouth and savor and enjoy each sliver and crumble. And enjoy it I did!

Because of the aging in a cave for at least 6 to 13 months to, in some cases, 3 years, and the process of washing the wheels of cheese, the taste of this Swiss cheese is more intense, more complex than some other Swiss cheeses. And especially more flavorful than most Swiss cheeses bricks and slices found in the supermarket.

I felt it stood on its own merit by eating it, rather than including it in a sauce—it was delicious! I love the words used by Sam Gugino, in the September 2008 issue of Wine Spectator magazine: “…a rich mouthfeel and a long finish.”

I didn’t eat it with crackers or apple slices because the taste was ever so slightly salty with a hint of sharp, and musty, and a complexity because of the aging, that I didn’t want to be distracted by any other taste.

In The Cheese Plate, authors McCalman and Gibbons say, “… one of the best things about Gruyère is that it’s salty on the attack but not on the finish.” I totally agree!

I did learn that a very good American Gruyère is made by the Swiss family, Wisconsin-based company Roth Kase.

Amazing the taste power in that slightly less than ¼-cup of Gruyère.

Advantages of an 800-year old Italian Tradition ...

Pasta al dente, sauce bubbling ready, I had tossed in a bit of smoked salmon given to me by a friend. It all smelled heavenly! I had a small wedge of Reggiano Grassi Parmesan and grated enough for my spaghetti and I was soon in gastronome heaven!

Wait a minute now … gastronome seems a bit pretentious, so I looked it up: “Gastronome – a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment (especially good food and drink) bon vivant, epicure, epicurean, foodie, gourmet sensualist—a person who … “ I got the picture.

Food is a sensuous experience for me, but let’s get real! I hate being labeled, so let’s ditch the gastronome label. I digress …

When I reached into the frig for the cheese, I noticed my roomie had a readily identified green Kraft container of 100% Real Grated Parmesan Cheese. I’ve used this brand of grated parmesan cheese my whole life. If there was spaghetti or ravioli or whatever Italian dish on my dinner table, there was Kraft Real Grated Parmesan Cheese right next to it. I must admit, in all that time I consumed it, I had never read the label. Container said it was real cheese, it was parmesan, it went onto my pasta.

But now that I’m educating myself about cheese, I read labels:

Kraft
100% Real Grated Parmesan Cheese
No Fillers
Ingredients: Parmesan cheese (pasteurized part-skim milk, salt, less than 2% of enzymes, cheese culture, cellulose powder to prevent caking, potassium sorbate to protect flavor) aged 6 months.

Well now, powder to prevent caking and a preservative. They're not cheese.

A little investigation and I found that commercial parmesan cheeses common in North America typically differ from Parmigiano-Reggiano in several ways:

The cheese is aged for a shorter time, i.e., Kraft cheese is aged 6 months, whereas Grassi Parmigiano-Reggiano is aged a minimum of 18 months, Zanetti UCI Parmiagiano-Reggiano is aged 2-3 years. The longer the cheese ages, the more complex and desirable the taste.

The curds for Parmigiano-Reggiano are cut into fragments the size of wheat grains, which is much finer than the fragments created in the manufacture of the American version of Parmesan. The smaller curds drain more effectively.

American Parmesan is mechanically pressed to expel excess moisture.

Parmesan wheels in the United States average 24 pounds. The size difference can affect their salt saturation during the brining process; a typical 75 pound Parmigiano-Reggiano wheel contains two-thirds less salt than the average Parmesan.

It is often sold grated. Cheese will lose much of its flavor if it is grated, then stored. Better taste if you grate only as much as you’ll need for the meal.

There is no outside body regulating or supervising the quality of the raw ingredients or of the production process in the United States. In Italy, Parmigiano-Reggiano is completely regulated. No additives are permitted and cows must be fed a special diet—no silage—the milk is considered “grass-fed.” To produce the cheese, morning and evening milk are combined, skimmed, then heated in copper vats under the watchful eye of a master cheesemaker who knows just when the curd has set. The concave wheels are cured in brine for about 24 days and then placed on racks where they are turned and brushed continuously throughout curing. The regulating body comes in and tests throughout maturation of the cheese and does not add the coveted export stamp to the wheel unless it adheres to all production stipulations.

I’ve not researched … yet … who in the United States makes and sells a domestic Parmesan. But I did find a recipe for making Parmesan cheese in “Home Cheese Making” which includes recipes for 75 cheeses you can make at home and then recipes for cooking with cheese. Author Ricki Carroll writes her book in an easy to follow manner, and throws in all sorts of cheese lore. She’s also the owner of New England Cheesemaking Supply Company, which provides information and cheesemaking equipment and supplies.

Jumped around a bit this time, but the end result was spaghetti that was a totally satisfying taste sensation. Why go to all the time and effort of preparing good spaghetti and then cut it off at the knees by shaking on Kraft Parmesan, when you can quickly and easily grate your own and make the meal Benissimo!


Home Cheese Making, Ricki Carroll
Culture, the word on cheese, Spring 2009
The Cheese Plate, Max McCalman and David Gibbons
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cheeses of the World, Steve Ehlers and Jeanette Hurt

Pecorino ...

Another sojourn to Quel Fromage in Fairhaven. This time to explore a different classification of cheese: Pecorino

In Italian, the word for sheep is pecora. Pecorino is a form of the word commonly used to designate a family of sheep’s milk artisan cheese.

During my childhood, Mom always kept a tall, green cylinder of powdered Romano cheese or Parmesan cheese in the frig, which I liberally shook out on my spaghetti or pizza or pasta … even cooked veggies, et cetera. I still have one of those in my own refrigerator.

So, I wanted to see how a real grated Romano would taste. This trip I bought a bit of Fulvi Pecorino Romano and Pecorino Ginepro.

I also bought some Salumi Salami, a dry salami made in Seattle.

Fulvi Pecorino Romano

Made with raw sheep’s milk—no additives, no hormones—in Rome, Italy and aged one year.

Although Pecorino Romano originated in the countryside outside of Rome, all are made in Sardinia today, except one: Fulvi. This is why it is referred to as "genuine" Pecorino Romano (see protected designation of origin—PDO). Sheep milk from the Lazio region goes to dairies in the village of Nepi, where, according to a traditional, time-honored recipe, it is handmade into giant, 65-pound wheels.

I found its strong, salty presence over-powering to eat by itself, but it is excellent and well matched grated on pasta with a hearty tomato sauce, or a rustic stew or soup. For my taste, a little goes a l-o-n-g way. When grated onto hot food, the slivers blend well, but don’t totally melt. It also had a crunchiness, like a crystallization to the texture. If you want to add an intense salty “kick” then this cheese is made for YOU!

The printed information on the Quel Fromage sales receipt suggested eating it with drizzled honey as a dessert. So, why not? This is an adventure, right? Sorry, drizzled honey didn’t work for me. BUT, I also tried a clover honey on the Pecorino Ginepro and I loved it! More about that later in this article.

Quel Fromage wine pairing: Merlot or Sangiovese.

Pecorino Ginepro

Made with raw sheep’s milk. Washed in balsamic and juniper seeds and aged 4-5 months in 6-lb wheels. I found this semi-hard cheese to have a woodsy, understated sweet taste rather than the sharp, salty finish of the Romano. Much more subtle than the Romano, but it also grated well and it was a tasty addition to my fresh greens salad with sliced tomato.

It was also recommended with crudités or with dry salami and sopressata.

I also had it with the Salumi Salami, and a Tuscany flatbread (sweet tomato with asiago and cheddar) I had picked up at Haggen’s just down the street from Quel Fromage. I didn’t drink it with wine, but with a cup of hot, black French roast coffee … where was my Italian roast when I needed it!

Suggested wine pairing: Nebbiolo, Fiano di Avellino, Piemontese red, or Malvirà Trinità.

A bit about PDO …

It’s my understanding that some Italian cheeses have a PDO status (Protected Designation of Origin) under European Union regulations. A cheese can only use the “Romano” in their name if made in Lazio, Sardinia, and Tuscany regions in the provinces of Rome, Grosetto, Cagliari, Nuoro, Oristano and Sassari. I think it was because so many cheeses claimed to be or called themselves a Romano, that the term lost its credibility or its definition. Hence, the PDO status. I think other designation cheeses have comparable protection, but I haven’t learned that much about the matter.

Oh, yes ... Honey. So, I tried drizzling honey on the Pecorino Ginepro and it was a pleasant surprise! The sweet and the salty complemented well. So, I pulled out some apricot preserves and some raspberry preserves and tried the Ginepro with both of them. Not bad! I liked it better with the apricot preserves perhaps because there were larger chunks of the fruit in that preserve. But, the honey was the best complement.

There are a great many other Pecorino cheeses, but this was a nice entry experience. I want to try Pecorino Toscano, which according to Max McCalman and David Gibbons in “The Cheese Plate,” has a “deep, warm, fruity flavor that pairs well with fruits such as plums and peaches.” It certainly sounds like an Italian sheep cheese of a different flavor!

Oh, and another thing I learned was to grate only what you need, leaving the rest of the cheese stored intact. Flavor is lost in grated form.

I’ll never look at my tall, green container of Romano and Parmesan cheese the same again!