Week 21 – Hosted by Reina, special guest starring my mom!

As a belated Mother’s Day present my mom came out for a surprise five day visit. I had tried to make all sorts of plans; a winery visit, a boat day, but in typical Portland fashion, the weather went from being 80° and blazing hot on Friday, to 60° and pouring rain for the rest of her trip. Luckily, neither she nor I have any problem with lazy days. Especially spent in good company.

Reina, in addition to making all of the plans and arrangements (and being a generally great person), also had a small group of us over for a dinner.

The cheeses (top left clockwise): Garlic and Herb goat Rosemary and olive oil Asaigo Idiazabal Humboldt Fog

I had been meaning forever to try the Humboldt Fog at the recommendation of Jenny Bergener, I picked up the Asaigo simply because I know that it’s a good, sharp, cheese and the rosemary and olive oil sounded interesting, and Reina's mom, Toni, brought the garlic and herb goat cheese (who knew I was such a fan of goat cheese?). The guy at Fred Meyer (not to be confused with Cute Cheese Guy, this guy looked barely old enough to have a job without written permission from a parent) helped me round the plate out with the Idiazabal, which frankly, I think he just liked showing off his pronunciation (ee-dee-a-zahbel, I know, I’ve practiced.)

Idiazabal: Idiazabal is an hard, unpasteurized sheep's milk from the Basque County of Spain, typically from the Laxta breed of sheep, although sometimes also produced from the Carranzana breed as well. Idiazabal has been being produced since 1987, and is specifically made with a lamb rennet. After the cheese is pressed into molds, the inedible (again whoops, I absolutely left the rind on) rind gets salted, either by rubbing the exterior with dry salt or submerging the cheese in salted water for 24 hours. Idiazabal is aged for two months in cool and humid temperatures to avoid molding. At the end of that process some Idiazabal cheeses are then additionally smoked, using wood from beech, birch, or cherry trees, giving the rind and some of the interior cheese a darker color (and one can assume a more smoky flavor). Ours was unsmoked.

This was my moms favorite cheese of the night. It has a slightly chalky texture like a lot of sheep's milk cheese do, but has a buttery, salty flavor. It pairs well with a Rose wine which totally coincidentally we just happened to drinking anyway!

Rosemary and olive oil Asiago: You've had Asiago cheese. If you're anything like me, you just think

of it as Parmesan's fancier cousin right? Well, sorta. They both hail from Italy, although different regions, have similar tastes, but different cheese-making processes. Asiago is under the DPO, meaning quality and production are highly regulated. It's a hard, cows milk cheese, however, in the ten to fifteen centuries, was made with sheep's milk, called Pegorin. Around 1500 cattle began to replace sheep in the region and the with that change they began making what turned into Asiago today. To be considered authentic Asiago, it has to be produced in the alpine area of the Asiago Plateau, in the regions of Veneto and Trentino.

There are a couple different kinds of Asiago, without getting two heavily into it, the length of aging defines the type of Asiago, from fresh, Asiago Pressato, to an aged, Asiago d'allevo. Ours was a double aged (according to the label), so I'm assuming it fell under the latter. It's a widely liked cheese, which is why I picked it out, but with the rosemary and olive oil rubbed rind it didn't make very well for a table cheese. The rosemary overpowered an already strong flavored cheese. My mom and I noted that this would have been much better suited being melted or grated over a pasta dish.

Humboldt Fog: Humboldt Fog is a goat's milk cheese made by Cypress Grove Chevre (this being their flagship cheese), in Arcata, California, literally named for the ocean fog from Humboldt Bay. It's a mold ripened cheese, however, the dark line the runs around and through the cheese is not mold, but vegetable ash. Its a semi-soft cheese, aged for 60 days. It's a unique looking cheese, with a crumbly interior, and gooey exterior, in addition to it's bloomy ash rind.

Jenny I wanted to like this cheese so bad! I kept eating more and more trying to come around but I just couldn't. I liked the rind and the gooey outer part, but the center had a sour (they call it acidic) flavor that my palate just wasn't diggin. It should be noted that it was Reina's favorite cheese of the night and my mom also really liked it as well.

Garlic and Herb goat: I've reviewed a couple of these kinds of goat cheese now (week 5, blueberry

vanilla, week 9, goat with honey) so I'm going to skip talking about the aging and production process, I imagine they are the same. I'm a huge fan of Boursin's (cow's milk) garlic and herb cheese and this I liken to the goat cheese equivalent. Easily my favorite of the night, I could have had that little wheel all to myself.