"This is a February column, so you'd think I would be recommending fancy heart-shaped cheese for your little trysts. Every December I get preorder sheets offering "Valentine's Day Specials." Often, they are the same cheeses we can buy every day of the year, contorted into shapes that are supposed to look like hearts, but don't really. And, even if they did, one cut from a knife means that, for the rest of your nibbles, you are eating a broken heart. That is tempting fate, my friends."
""Alpage" means that an Alpine cheese is made with summer milk at the highest possible elevations. Traditionally, Alpine cows move up and down the mountain over the course of the year and cheesemakers live and make cheese in small shacks and domiciles that they can only access for a couple months all year. This elevation gives the best milk because, when the thaw comes to the mountains, the variety of flowers and grasses are the most numerous and interesting."
February prompts avoidance of mass-market heart-shaped novelty cheeses that are identical products reshaped for Valentine's Day. Heart-shaped cheeses lose appeal after the first cut, leaving a "broken heart" of nibbles. Three cheeses are recommended: two strong-value choices and one exceptional once-a-year release. Wheels of Gruyere Alpage have arrived despite Swiss tariffs that made many Swiss cheeses scarce and expensive. Alpage denotes Alpine cheese made from summer milk at high elevations, where cows graze a diverse mix of flowers and grasses. The resulting Gruyere Alpage tastes nutty, oniony, floral, and grassy. Navarro Mexican Manchego is introduced next.
Read at San Francisco Bay Times
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]