Week 34 – Hanging with the boys!

As most of you can probably tell from my onslaught of Facebook posts the past few weeks have been pretty action packed for me, first with my company trip to Las Vegas, and then my girl’s trip to Los Angeles. All nothing but amazing experiences, but how I’ve been to two different states (three if you count Arizona for the Grand Canyon) and missed doing a proper cheese plate is a total ball drop on my part. However, in LA I did get a chance to meet up with my cousin Tony who had some nice cheeses for us to munch on while we sat and got caught up, so that’ll be coming down the pipeline for week 35. Until then, Byron, Dominic, and I managed to squeeze a TV/cheese night in before I left, cause, you know, mama needs her stories. Since winter isn’t coming for another six months or so Westworld has been our new TV jam (sorry American Horror Story, I’ll get to you eventually, but at this point you’ve let me down too many times). But lemme just say, we are only three episodes into Westworld, but hot damn it’s been good. There are only 8 episodes, and a whole lotta wheels in motion, I can only hope that the rest of the season lives up to the hype. So far I’m really digging it.

The cheeses: Sartori’s Kentucky Bourbon BellaVitano Ciresa’s Taleggio Forever Cheese Etxegarai

From left to right: Kentucky Bourbon BellaVitano, Taleggio, and Etxegarai.

Sartori’s Kentucky Bourbon BellaVitano: For this cheese night I had a craving for a hard, salty, cheese and the Kentucky Bourbon BellaVitano was exactly what I needed. From the name, you’d think that this cheese is made in Kentucky, instead, it’s made in Wisconsin, exclusively for Murray’s, and so exclusive that it’s not even of Sartori’s website. The Kentucky Bourbon BellaVitano is a pasteurized cow’s milk cheese, aged for five months, but not before getting a Kentucky bourbon

bath. The bourbon bath gives the exterior a sweet caramel-like taste, while the interior has a smooth, nutty, flavor with salty crystals throughout. While fantastic on its own, this cheese would pair well with just about anything; fruit, nuts, red wine, and bourbon of course. It tastes very much like a cheddar/Parmigiano-Reggiano blend and would also work well shredded on a salad or melted on a lasagna or pasta dish. Sartori is a fourth generation family-owned company, and offer an array of their flagship BellaVitano, all of which sound more interesting than the next. Some of the more notable ones are:

Balsamic BellaVitano ®

Merlot BellaVitano®

Raspberry BellaVitano®

Chai BellaVitano®

Espresso BellaVitano®

Citrus Ginger BellaVitano®

Chipotle BellaVitano®

Cognac BellaVitano®

Peppermint BellaVitano®

I went and checked Fred Meyer yesterday and saw that they carry the Merlot, Raspberry, and Espresso BellaVitanos so I’ll have to be checking them each out.

Ciresa’s Taleggio: Taleggio is a semi-soft, cow’s milk Italian cheese, named after Val Taleggio, which sounds like a woman’s name, but is a region of Lombardy, Italy where the cheese is produced. Production of Taleggio dates back to Roman times but gained popularity after WWI. It’s a washed-rind, smear-ripened cheese, typically aged for 40 days, although Ciresa ages their Taleggio up to 50 days for additional flavor. I’ve talked about washed-rinds before, but this was the first time I had run into a smear-ripened cheese. Smear- ripened cheeses are smeared with solutions of bacteria or fungi to enhance flavor and keep unwanted molds from growing. This process also typically gives the rinds a peachy/orange coloring.

Other examples for smear-ripened cheeses are some familiar names: Beaufort Limburger Munster

And some more exotic cheeses: Époisses de Bourgogne Oka cheese Reblochon

In the autumn and winter Taleggio cheese is made three times daily in large open vats. After aging for two to three days, the cheese is moved to an aging room, or sometimes traditionally cave-aged. For the following ten days Taleggio is dry salted by hand, and the remainder of the 50 day aging process Taleggio is washed once a week in a brine solution. The end result is a semi-hard pink/orange rind with a white, creamy inside that ‘pudges out’ at room temperature.

Taleggio is a stinky cheese but mild in flavor. It has a salty, meaty flavor, but there another flavor I couldn’t quite place, others have described that as tangy, acidic, and yeasty. It’s a table cheese, but also melts well and can be used in risotto, on top of polenta, or in an omelet. It pairs well with something sweet to balance the hearty flavor, grapes, currants, or sweet wines.

Forever Cheese Etxegarai: Etxegarai is made by the same folks that produce Idiazabal (week 23). Pronounced ee-zeh-ga-rai, it is an unpasteurized sheep’s milk cheese from País Vasco, Spain. Made with the milk from primarily the Latxa breed of sheep, Etxegarai is aged for six months, and smoked over Hawthorne and Cherry wood. Originally when the cheese was first produced, cheesemakers would place the Etxegarai near fireplaces to help dry the wheel out. However, having no chimneys, the cheese ended up absorbing the smoke, giving Etxegarai its flavor and orange colored rind. Forever Cheese’s website describes the flavor as “full flavored with a pronounced sheepy finish” what in the hell a ‘sheepy finish’ means is beyond me. If anything, the smoked wood lends a lot of flavor to the Etxegarai, while still having that chalky sheep’s milk finish. Referred to as “chorizo's best friend”, Etxegarai pairs well with nuts, quince, and red wines.

Week 35 coming soon! Until then, stay dry out there folks! Unless you’re not in the rainy, gloomy Portland weather like I am, and if that’s the case, than you can suck it.