New in the shop: Pepato is a sheep milk cheese with peppercorns in it from Italy. It is aged for about 6 months and is as dry as Piave, but more crumbly. It has what they call “ a mouth feel” (really the texture you feel in your mouth) that is silky. The sweet of sheep milk is nicely balanced with the spice and bite of the peppercorns. Usually I don’t like peppercorn in cheese because it often covers up the taste of the cheese, but Pepato has a wonderful balance. Speaking of peppercorn, we have just added to our meat counter Pastrami from NYPD that we are hoping to marry to our Ruby Kraut from Maine’s Thirty Acre Farm. Soon we will have our own unique Horton Rueben! We have also added a Californian made Pancetta: pork aged about 3 months and rubbed with peppercorn. Pancetta is considered the Italian version of bacon, made from the belly fat, is generously rich. Pancetta is lovely with pasta, though we are trying it in our collection of recipes for Pocket bread, soft tortillas and Brooklyn Bagels.
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We have just started carrying “Samoon” made right here in our Community Kitchen. A gentleman from Iraq, thirty years a baker, has started making them. He speaks almost no English, but his wonderful joy and energy speaks clearly. He works in the middle of the night, baking in his Tandoor oven, so as we walk into the Market in the morning we are greeted with heavenly smells. Samoon is a oblong shaped air pocket bread. We slice it the length, open it and fill it with any of our wrap ingredients. We hope to soon have a panini grill to make unique hot grilled cheese Samoon air pockets. Can you imagine melted Goat Gouda, Cotswold, Appenzeller, Piave, or even a blue like Point Reyes Blue! We will make these Grilled Cheese Pockets filled with yummy compliments- Carmelized walnuts, fig spread, Marcona almonds, dried cherries, Freedom Farm’s organic shallots, Maine wildflower honey,…..
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I found a photo of myself at thirteen. I had just moved from North Carolina to Maine, and I didn’t know many people. I was in King Middle School and turning 13, becoming a real teen. My parents let me have a teenage party in the basement. It was 1969, and I thought the coolest thing in the world would be to have fondu at my party. It had alcohol in it. The old fondu recipe included kirsch and white wine. There was only the classic recipe back then. Emmental,Gruyere, kirsch, white wine, and nutmeg. Those of us who remember the 60’s remember this taste with fondness. There are friends I have in Portland still who now own their own businesses and have their own families who remember this birthday party with delight. We danced and felt we were being “bad”. That taste brings back memories for all of us. Fondu fell out of popularity for decades after that. It seems to be coming back in the last couple of years, but of course, in a new way.
With all the European cheeses now available, fondu has become a very creative thing to do. A couple of years ago, I was asked to offer fondu at a fiddlehead gathering. I offered a Gorgonzola blue cheese fondu to dip the fiddleheads in. It was a hit. Now when customers come in and ask about fondu cheeses, we offer all sorts of possibilities. You really only need to have good melting cheeses, and also you can expand your dipping possibilities to steak and vegetables instead of the traditional bread. I like to try using Leyden, a Dutch cheese with caraway and cumin seed, Raclette, a raw milk, semi-soft cheese originating in Switzerland but best from France, Gorgonzola, of course, from Italy, and Cheddar. Alcohol could be beer, red wine, cider, or any variation of white wine. Spicing is wide open. People are continually experimenting. Basically, fondu is a blast and we’ve been selling it hot in the winter on our Fondu Fridays, because it is a cold weather comfort food.
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Warning, dog lovers! Yes, you love dogs, and you also love cheese. But I’ve had many stories over the years. The holidays are upon us, and you’re ready to buy that most special cheese. You come to my shop when I’ve stocked up on the most cheese for the year. The selection’s fantastic. You’ve sampled a number of beautiful artisan cheeses, from Maine, Spain, and Italy. You’re willing to pay for the best. It’s a special occasion.
The Garroxta from Spain is a perfect example. Goats on the southern coast of Spain graze on wild rosemary and thyme. The flavor comes through their milk. A natural rind, beautiful cheese; the taste is complex, rich and lovely. You’re hooked. You buy it. I’ve told you have to let it sit out for at least an hour to get the full flavor. But I don’t know you’ve got a dog. You take it home. You love your dog. It’s a beautiful, well-trained, purebred dog that gets the best of everything. You’re busy, guests, it’s the holidays. That most delicious, aromatic cheese is sitting all by itself out on a table, warming, getting perfect. But it is not alone, it has a new friend, your dog. If it had been just a regular Brie or a 3-month red wax Gouda, or even a Lappi from Finland, it wouldn’t hurt so much, but the Garroxta! Yes, it’s inevitable, your dog does get the best of everything, including the taste of goat’s milk permeated with rosemary and thyme. All of a sudden, you’re happy with whatever consequences your dog suffers, after consuming the entire wheel in 5 seconds. I promise I will have some Garroxta left for you at the shop.
Filed under: Cheese and Meats by kris
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I have raised my kids alone for the last 10 years. The twins just went off to colleges this fall and I have a very quiet home. I was so excited when they first moved out. I cleaned and cleaned, sometimes with a shovel and black construction bags. Room after room got assaulted. Rugs got thrown out. Everything got white washed, I moved furniture around, I staked the house out as MINE. One son said that I could not touch his bedroom period. I am saying ok for now. The other son said it was ok for me to hit his room. I was gleeful. The room stunk. “Sock turds” are socks that were once sweaty and dirty. They were ripped off of some boy’s foot and flown across the room. Eventually they collect dust and become encrusted and are hidden from view under beds or furniture. I figured my son must have an incredible collection somewhere. I bagged everything, cleaned his sheets, washed and vacuumed. I could not get rid of that stinky feet smell.
There is a whole category of cheeses fondly referred to as “stinky feet cheese”. These are washed rind cheeses. They are soft-ripened cheeses whose rinds have been rubbed or immersed in a solution of brine, wine, beer or grape brandy. Taleggio, Edel de Cleron, Vacherin Fribourgeois, and of course, Stinking Bishop, to name a few great ones. This helps to flavor the soft interior all the way into nutty and beefy flavors. The aromas of these rinds are far stronger than the interior, and rotten eggs or stinky feet comes to mind. Of course, don’t eat the rind, as you will then not be able to taste the lovely interior.
Anyhow, I noticed that I had left my computer bag in his room, and it too smelled terrible. I opened it to find that I had forgotten some of the Oka cheese that I brought back from Canada in the bag months ago. This is not a good way to keep cheese. It was a beautiful washed rind cheese when I got it in Montreal, and smelled just perfectly stinky back then.
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The two of us get out on the water or up to the mountains every weekend if we can. Now that I am an “empty nester” we can take overnight trips. This one was to an island in Casco Bay and my partner capsized. Not his fault, it got pretty rough out there, but we were very well equipped, even the Coast Guard and firemen said so. Without going into a lot of detail, let’s just say we tested the local ocean rescue system a lot that night. We ended up with 6 rescuers stranded with us on the island. Boats got stuck, one sunk, one got a gash in it and took in water. I was just worried, rightly so, that my partner might have hypothermia after being in the ocean for 45 minutes. So instead of having our gourmet dinner for 2, we had six guys around a huge bonfire and we shared our supper. Fresh lobster, asparagus, sweet potato, 8-year old Canadian Cheddar and Sake – well, no Sake, they wouldn’t let us have the Sake, something about hypothermia). They were a bit skeptical about the Fontal, but the firemen loved the Cheddar!
Cheddar, like wine and women, gets better with age. The best “vintage” Cheddar you might find in a regular grocery will be about two years old. That is the youngest Cheddar we sell. Right now we are selling nine different Cheddars at the shop. Habinero, Horseradish, Two year Vermont, Four year Vermont, Grafton Maple Smoked, Dubliner, R &R Silvery Moon Creamery Cheddar, Bandaged Vermont Cheddar and the Canadian 8 year Cheddar. I love the Portland Fire Department and I am happy to know that they love my cheese!
P.S. Bee Keeping festival on the second floor of the Market House, with free classes and day tablers sellng bee and honey products. You can call me at the shop for details
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Cheese is not my profession. It may be my passion, but it’s not what I was trained for. One of my sons is transferring to the University of Maine at Orono. I went there too. I got a degree from Orono after 7 years of undergraduate education at 5 different schools and 3 different majors. My degree is a B.S. in Education, with an art education major. I have no idea what that means, but I bet we all can have a laugh at a “B.S.” degree. I taught school and didn’t like my fellow teachers. I couldn’t see spending the rest of my life doing that. I farmed for 10 years. During that time, I also worked at my father’s smoke house, Horton’s Smoked Seafood in Waterboro, Maine, which – yes, he’s my Dad, but it was the finest smoked seafood business in the country. I’m still trying to get his secret recipes out of him. My children were raised on kohlrabi and smoked salmon. Farming and the smoke house were my real education.
My father and I opened the shop to sell his salmon 11 years ago. We brought in cheese to accompany the salmon. They do go great together, particularly a soft goat cheese or a triple crème. We found more people ate cheese than salmon. At the time, I could tell the difference between Gouda, Cheddar, Brie, and Swiss Emmental, and that was about it. My dad retired and I took over the shop. From then on, I learned about cheese by saying “YES” to absolutely every suggestion my distributors made, at least once. So my training is 11 years of buying and tasting and saying “YES.”
Why say all this? I know the taste of over 400 cheeses, very well. I choose about 200 to keep in the shop. I love to help people to find their way to the right cheese, for them, for the occasion. My experience is entirely hands on, and I appreciate the artistry of the cheese makers, particularly of the Maine Cheesemakers and their dedication. I know many of them personally and how hard they work. I adore teaching about cheese, and so, I guess, I’ve come full circle to being the teacher my degree says I am, but I am happiest to be known as the Cheese Lady.
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Today is a big day for the Portland Market House. It’s the grand opening of the second floor, with three new shops and seating for 50, but the big news in cheese for us is that we just got a new wheel of Piave into the shop. It’s a favorite of our staff to recommend as an alternative to Reggiano Parmesan. Not to undermine Reggiano, the “king of cheeses,” but we love to always find a cheese that our customer hasn’t tried yet. I frankly like Piave as a table cheese, even though it’s a hard cheese by the time we can get it in this country carrying the name “vecchio”(aged or hard). Piave is sweeter than Reggiano and a little lighter. It’s a cow’s milk cheese from the north of Veneto Province in Italy and named after the Piave River. I like it with a Merlot and a tomato and pasta dish. When I bring it home and temperatures are 30 degrees or below outside here in Maine, I might eat it straight in my hot tub with a good red wine and good friends.
It reminds me of when I get together with the “girls”: Every now and then, my girlfriends from my old neighborhood call to get together, our lives are so busy that it is not often, so it feels like a real gift. They come with their towels and bathing suit and stories to tell. They both have two or three jobs that they juggle, one married, one not. We talk briefly before getting into suits. As we walk down the stairs to the back yard we all are convinced that we may be a bit crazy, bare feet on stone and ice. These are always good times, in the steam and cold. Stories are shared only in the hot tub, but always with good cheese and wine. This time with Piave and Merlot.
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I have a customer who came in with a request to solve an unusual problem. You see, if you live in Portland, Maine, you probably live in an old house. I do. He does. This time of year, when the cold settles in for good, the mice move in. For him, it’s an annual event, and he knows it’s time when he opens his bread drawer and there’s holes in the bread bag. So, mice like cheese, right? But, he’d bought my 4 year old Canadian Cheddar, some Gruyere, and some Delice de Bourgogne on his own from my shop, and tried them all on his mouse traps. The mice ate well. The Delice, a great triple crème soft cheese (triple crème means cream has been added to the curd to make the cheese 70% or higher in butterfat), they just licked off without springing the trap. The Cheddar, that was too crumbly and they carried that off, probably with a good jigger of Scotch, which goes great with the 4 and 8 year old cheddars. He had high hopes for the Gruyere, the great Swiss cheese, but it also got eaten off the mouse traps. So, the question was, “What cheese should I buy for my mouse trap?” After a lot of back and forth, we decided we’d try something not too hard and not too soft, and kind of inexpensive too, because the mice really were eating too well. I sent him home with an Emmental from Switzerland, the classic cheese with big holes in it. It’s the cheese from the old black and white cartoons you used to see on TV that the mice just loved. The saga continues. The mice might be saving it all to make a great fondu.
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My brother has the most outrageous Thanksgiving dinner that I have ever heard of. His wife’s extended family, from both parents, come as well as our family. This year he will be serving 80 people all sitting down at the same time! My brother loves it. My kids love it. He has asked me to get the turkeys for him this year as I know many of the Maine farmers. John Bernstein from Maine-ly Poultry is supplying us with four, over thirty pound, fresh turkeys and six dozen eggs! My brother makes the stuffing and cooks the turkeys; the women mostly cook the veggies and potatoes. The children, supervised, make all the desserts. There are too many desserts and lots of mess and noise in the kitchen that day. I am always happy to see that in the midst of it all, he finds a way to escape for an hour or two to row out on the lake. Some years I have joined him. It is lovely out there, peaceful and serene.
Of course, being the Cheese Lady, I must bring the cheese. His daughter’s name is Eleanor, so I am required to bring some Eleanor Buttercup for her. Debbie Hahn of Hahn’s End Farm makes this cheese in Phippsburg Maine. This is a 6 month raw natural rind cow’s milk cheese. Debbie has won some terrific national attention in the American Cheese Society competitions. This cheese was named after her grandmother, “because my grandma was so sweet”, and so too is the cheese. This raw cow’s milk cheese with a natural rind is aged about six months and has a light bright sweetness to it. It is the sweetest out of all of Debbie’s cheeses. I really like it with fruit and any white wine.
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