If only we could always introduce ourselves with cheese, I think the world might be a
friendlier place overall. I’m fortunate enough to get to in this case, at least. I wanted to
put together a plate of locally made cheeses for you, and in doing so, give you an idea of
how I got into cheese, which, if you haven’t heard, nobody really plans on doing. This
plate has 3 cheeses on it: one cow’s milk, one sheep and one goat. I also added some
local honey because, as you will discover later in the post, pairing is at least half the fun
of enjoying how you’re eating what you’re eating. So here they are, my locavore allstars. Lovely to meet you!
Pleasant Ridge Reserve
Uplands Cheese Company: Dodgeville, WI
This cheese holds a special place in many a monger’s heart. For me, there are a few
reasons. I grew up working at Zingerman’s Delicatessen, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where
I learned that you can make bad things with great ingredients, but bad ingredients will
never make something great. For me, this means that simple beginnings can lead to the
greatest discoveries. Andy Hatch and the folks at Upland Cheese Co. live this in their
craft. Their Jersey cows receive royal treatment of delicious grassy diet and the milk is
tested for protein and fat content (both flavor & mouthfeel contributors) daily. I must
also mention that this wheel of this cheese is included on my plate because it was one of
the last of the batch that I was lucky enough to help select at Uplands last year. Pastoral
is fortunate enough to be able to select a batch of Pleasant Ridge Reserve every year and
lay claim to all of it. Which gives us (and our customers) the unique opportunity to taste
a cheese with the same beginnings, the same history, over time. To watch the kids grow.
When I went to Uplands we tasted through 8 or 9 different batch dates, which Andy had
selected for us beforehand. I remember being astonished at the flavor differences in the
cheeses made from milk merely days apart. Notes of pineapple and tropical fruit in this
wheel, savory onions and beef broth in the next. We went with something a little in the
middle: a dense, brothy batch with hints of browned butter, dried pineapple and marcona
almonds, which finishes with the unmistakable childhood memory of buttered popcorn.
It was truly a learning moment.
Dante
Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Co-Op: Plain, WI
Some cheeses I’m just drawn to. I put this on my plate because to me, this cheese is my
first taste memory of seasonality. Because we get wheels from different batches year
round, it is my veritable box o’ chocolates. This sheep’s milk cheese is oft described
behind the cheese counter as a marriage between Manchego, that classic aged cheese
from La Mancha, Spain, and Pecorino. Always rich and tender in mouthfeel, with a
finish so long that it carries into the next bite, it is sometimes reminiscent of ginger and
lychee, sometimes mutton and wet earth. The range of aging on the wheels we get takes
us from a firmer grating cheese that makes me crave hot pasta, to slightly more moist and
oily, which I love with the biting acidity of balsamic vinegar. The concentration of fat in
sheep’s milk is a buoyant vehicle for these ranges of flavors.
Fresh Chevre
Prairie Fruits Farm: Champaign, IL
New employees at Pastoral are required to attend a basic pairings class, not only a level
setting for gaining familiarity with individual elements, but all about transforming
components into something else, exposing a 3rd ‘higher’ flavor, an opportunity for
renaissance between 2 (or 3 or 4 or 5) different elements. This opportunity to note
previously undiscovered nuances and new textural experiences is a nod to each
ingredient. It’s about recognizing diversity in products we taste every day. One classic
pairing that we tried at the class I attended as a new employee is a fresh goat cheese with
a saison-style (French farmhouse-style) beer. We had Prairie Fruits Farm fresh chevre,
no more than 3 days off the farm, with Saison Dupont, one of the most acclaimed saisonstyle ales. The chevre is rich and creamy with a distinct acidity that stops just short of a
ricotta-like puffiness in mouthfeel. The flavor is all fresh cream, sweet and milky as a
baby’s breath. The beer is crisp and refreshing, lending to the cheese a stronger lemony
element typically found in goat’s cheeses with a bit more age on them, and washes the
cheese off the tongue in a wave of mild malty effervescence. This was my pairing ‘aha’
moment. The 2 came together on my palate, and something clicked. Something
irreversible. On my plate I pair it with an herbaceous honey to highlight the fresh grass
and clover notes, and the spongy, springy texture of the curds.