CheeseReviews.org

Pecorino Sardo is an Italian sheep's milk cheese which can be either young or aged. We tried the aged version. One might be tempted to confuse it with Pecorino Romano (as I did until I actually looked it up), but it's really a different cheese.

Slightly sharp, fruity and cheesy, pleasantly salty. This stuff is absolutely delicious. It was a bit crumbly, but still sliced well enough. I've read it goes wonderfully on sandwiches, although we just ate it plain.

The cat liked it as well, even though he didn't seem to be in much of a cheese mood.

Pecorino Romano Cheese

Somehow I keep missing the Pecorino Romano on my cheese adventures. I'm not exactly sure how that happens. Perhaps it's that this cheese is just so damn powerful. A big wedge of this could last you many months.

Like (I suspect) many here in America, my experience with "Romano" had been limited to the grated Kraft stuff in the red can. Let me state for the record that real Romano (by which I mean Pecorino Romano) has zero in common with the grated canned stuff. Real Romano is very salty and sharp. So much so that carving off a slice and nibbling on it isn't a good way to use it. It's meant to be grated on other things. And sparingly at that. If you want some yummy cheesiness added to your pasta, try Parmigiano Reggiano. But if you're looking for something sharp and tangy to balance other strong flavors, Romano is an classic and unique way to go.

A little bit goes a long way. But there's really nothing else like it. Salty right up front, sharp, tangy, earthy.

Also, don't confuse this with Pecorino Toscano or Pecorino Sardo. Those are still hard sheep's milk cheeses, but they're much milder and better for nibbling.

Since we're trying lots of good cheese, Parmesan for our proposes will mean Parmigiano Reggiano which is only made in a certain part of Italy. And I'll take this opportunity to be a wee bit snobish. If you want your food to taste salty and waxy, the American Parmesan which comes in the green can is certainly adequate. But if you want good food you need to use the real thing, and you need to grate or shave it fresh.

Having said that, Parmigiano Reggiano isn't some magical mana from the gods that will blow you away with it's wondrousness. It's just really good Parmesan. The fact that it has a real texture is good as well. Crunchy cheese? Yes.

When I worked in an Italian restaurant in Missoula one of the tasks was to go down to the basement and grind the big wheels of Parmesan. We'd always assume that tasting a few of the chips was an important part of getting things ground up properly. Good times.

The cat however wouldn't have anything to do with it. He gave me this look like, "What? That's not food. Are you trying to confuse me? Isn't there some brie in the house?"

I used up the last of the Italian Parmigiano Reggiano in my four cheese mac & cheese a few nights ago, so it was time to restock. And as I was wondering through Whole Foods to the grab some of the real stuff I spotted an American variety - Antigo's Stravecchio from Wisconsin. Hmmmm..... This looks interesting.

And interesting it was. A bit less hard, more moist, richer flavor, slightly different tang, less rind, not quite as salty. But still darn good Parmesan. In fact I'd say I might like this parm better for nibbling than the Italian stuff. It seems to be more about the flavor and less about the texture.

Still..... At the end of the day it's not Parmigiano Reggiano. Since it's less "rock-like" it doesn't grate as well without crumbling, and it melts much faster when grated on finished dishes as garnish. But I'm quibbling at this point. Bottomline - It's really good cheese. And finding an American company making great Parmesan is a good thing all by itself.

One of the cool stories about the Antigo Cheese Company is that the original company decided to close the plant in 1993. But the employees and the dairies decided to buy the whole thing and keep it running. Good for them, and good for cheese.

When I think about washed rind trappist cheese I don't think about Canada. Well, Mr Cheese, time to think again.

Oka was invented by monks who had been kicked out of France in 1880. They were familiar with making Port Salut cheese, and oka is their version of that cheese. Fast forward to today when most Port Salut is commercially made and comes with an odd waxy covering, while oka retains it's smelly rind and it's handmade character.

Smelly rind aside (and it was only very slightly smelly) I found the cheese to be a bit milder than Port Salut. Which seems odd. It was nutty, creamy, and fresh tasting. Slightly sweet. Nice flavor. Semi-soft texture.

Since I'd never had any fresh Mozzarella before as opposed to the rubbery crap they sell at the mega-mart) I decided to grab some of that for the review.

Fresh Mozzarella tastes nothing like the stuff you're used to grating on your pizza. It's not rubbery for one thing, and it has a taste that is quite distinctive. Very sweet, and more like cottage cheese in character. Very mild flavor. If I can get some larger balls of this I'd love to try making some pizza with it.

One cool thing about the Mozzarella - The "buffalo" Mozzarella is actually made from water buffalo. Italian water buffalo. I told my wife that and she flat out called me a liar. Maybe we're just too sheltered over here in America, but it's just hard to imagine herds of water buffalo wandering around Italy.

I forgot to see if the cat liked it.

Mimolette is a cheese that looks very oddly like a cantaloupe. Supposedly this is just by chance, but the likeness is so obvious that one wonders. We got our sample here from Whole Foods, already sliced into thin wedges. There was o indication of age, but I'm guessing 18 months.

One of the interesting things about this cheese is that the dimpled rind is created by cheese mites which chew on the cheese and are periodically brushed off. One wonders why they wouldn't just kill the mites and try keeping the cheese out of the sorts of places mites are proliferating. But apparently mites gnaw on lots of cheese and it's all part of the wonderful artisanal process. And the fact that these mites get to gnaw extra long so that the cheese looks like a cantaloupe is just chance. Hmmmm.......

Anyway. The cheese is quite yummy. It's an aged edam style cheese. It's hard but not crumbly. Mild. Sweet and slightly fruity. Nutty. Slightly oily, but not in a bad way. Very good for nibbling on and with great melting qualities. Plus, it's just too much fun to say "Mimolette".

This cheese is served at a wide range of ages so you might find it soft and creamy if you get a younger one.

For those wondering, the cat loves Mimolette.

Manchego is one of Spain's signature cheeses. It's a D.O. protected cheese produced in La Mancha in central Spain, and is made from sheep's milk.

Since this cheese is made by several manufacturers and may have a variety of ages, the sample you find may vary slightly from what we tried here. But in general, Manchego is a very distinctive cheese with a rich spicy flavor. I've heard terms like roast lamb, pepper, "zesty and exuberant" tossed about when trying to pin down the flavor. And for a cheese, perhaps one could go so far as "zesty". But let's not get carried away. More than anything it just tastes like cheese. Really good cheese to be sure, but still....... In a blind taste test, no one will mistake it for roast lamb.

I'd say it's spicy, rich, complex, and woodsy. Semi-hard with a rind that is probably inedible. Very yummy.

The wife and I both love Manchego, as does the cat. The flavor is so distinctive that I've always gobbled it up plain before it had a chance to make it into any cooked dishes, but I'll have to get around to that at some point.

If you haven't tried Manchego I strongly suggest you head down to your cheese monger right now and grab some.

Liptauer is one of the Monty Python "cheese Shop" cheeses, and as such I must try it. But as I've documented before, deciding just exactly what form of "Liptauer" I need to try to cross it off the list is problematic. A few sources say that Liptauer is a cheese in itself, while the vast majority say that it's a cheese spread made with spices and junk. Making the issue more problematic, some of the sketch versions give the cheese as "Lipto", which certainly is a cheese.

In the end I decided to go the easy route and just mix up some Liptauer spread. In my defense, the sketch also names Boursin, which is a cheese spread made for mystery cheese.

Most recipes for Liptauer are some variation of - cream cheese, Feta, Quark, or Lipto mixed with butter, capers, paprika, and caraway. And it varies enough that you can make a semi-legitimate batch as long as it has some manner of soft cheese and paprika. I decided to go with Quark cheese, paprika, capers, and caraway.

I must say this wasn't something I'll ever eat again. Maybe I just don't like paprika enough. Or maybe putting it in cheese is something you need to be from Austria to enjoy. So...... crossing it off the list.

In the picture above, the quark is the white cheese.

This is the good stuff. Very much like a fine cheddar, but with some of the sweetness you'd expect from an aged gouda, with a bit of the tanginess very reminiscent of a good parmesan.

One would think that by so many different things together in one cheese you'd get a big mess, but no so. The cheese has won numerous awards. And even if it hadn't, it certainly caught my attention right away.

To the horror of many I'm sure I made a macaroni & cheese with this stuff. Hey, we have a lot of cheese to eat and it has to go somewhere. And the wife had already announced that the Midnight Moon gouda was going to be our nibbling cheese this week. So........... mac & cheese it is.

That was some damn good mac & cheese.

Lincolnshire Poacher is farmhouse created by Simon Jones 1992. Nice to know that in the Internet age we're still inventing great new cheeses.