I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t like cheese. It’s right up there with chocolate and butter on the short list of foods that allow for unlimited excess. I can’t recall any time in my gustatory adventures where I’ve thought that a dish was overly cheesy. While there are plenty of people who don’t eat much cheese due to digestive, health or moral concerns, I don’t think cheese avoidance is ever due to an actual dislike of the fabulous substance itself.
One of the great advances for cheese aficionados has been the increasing enthusiasm for specialty cheesemaking in the United States. While Europe has featured artisanal cheesemaking for centuries, until recently it has been a relatively limited activity in the states. The New American Cheese explores this recent growth in American specialty cheesemaking in great detail.
Author Laura Werlin is a California-based food journalist and cheese advocate. Since writing this publication she has written two more cheese books, including The All-American Cheese and Wine Book, which won the James Beard award for best cookbook in 2004.
The New American Cheese is organized into two sections and with three major objectives. The first section takes a look at the making, tasting, pairing and general care of the cheese, as well as a short history of American cheesemaking. The highlight of this section is a lengthy dissertation on the “Art of Cheese Tasting”. Much like wine-tasting, there is an extensive vocabulary that is used to describe the cheese tasting experience. Werlin includes a helpful table that provides guidance, allowing the taster to elaborate on the aroma, flavor, texture and visual appeal of the cheese. While a fresh, creamy and smooth experience is a valiant goal, the acrid, pungent, sulfurous cheese with a gummy or slimy texture is best avoided.
The second section is the main body of the book and includes more than fifty specialty cheesemaker biographies, spanning most of the country. Not surprisingly, cheese states like Wisconsin, California and Vermont are well represented, but more “exotic” cheesemakers in Hawaii, Texas and Colorado are also included. The biographies provide fascinating details about the creation of the often one-of-a-kind cheeses as well as information about care of the animals that provide the milk. While cow’s milk predominates, goat and sheep cheeses are well represented and often provide some of the more interesting and unconventional stories. A list of the different cheeses created at each site is included, often with some tasting thoughts. Werlin describes a sheep’s milk cheese called Graviera from Skunk Hollow Farm in Vermont in mouth-watering detail:
“The cheese is naturally apple-like, a little mushroomy, rustic and herbaceous. The apple notes balance the cheese particularly nicely.”
While many of the cheeses are just sold locally or regionally, contact information is included, allowing for mail orders or tours. I enjoyed that many of the biographies include a cute photograph of the farmer or cheesemaker as well as the cheese label. A picture of a smiling Jennifer Bice and one of her goats from Redwood Hill Farm in Sebastopol, California adds a fun, personal touch to her cheese story. Some of the cheese varieties are American originals like Mossholder cheese (a brick-style cheese), still made in Larry and Lois Mossholder’s basement in Appleton, WI, or Muscoot (a wild-ripened cheese like Camembert) made at Egg Farm Dairy in Peekskill, NY.
Accompanying the various biographies are dozens of recipes, prominently featuring the various locally made cheeses. The recipes are quite tantalizing, including standard dishes like macaroni and cheese, old European traditions like rarebit, or more modern creations like Orzo Feta Salad with Grilled Shrimp and Mint-Scallion Chutney. The recipes are well written and include helpful preparation and serving suggestions. My efforts with the red pepper gougere and the baby Swiss soufflé were delicious successes.
Werlin writes in a pleasant and appealing style, definitely stimulating this reader’s appetite on numerous occasions. She also does a wonderful job describing the passion and enthusiasm of the various cheesemaking artisans. Photographer Martin Jacobs contributes beautifully with gorgeous photographs of the various cheeses, animals and farmers and also includes many pictures of the prepared recipes. In my opinion, superior photography is often the difference between a truly excellent and a simply average cookbook.
The New American Cheese is a delicious work that would be a rich addition to any cheese-loving chef’s culinary library. It also provides an entertaining behind-the-scenes look at the world of the local cheesemaker, providing tasty tidbits for cheese lovers everywhere.
Recommended:
