Cheese of the month

Cheese of the month April 2014: Graukäse from the Ahrn Valley in Alto Adige/Italy

Veröffentlicht amAutorUrsula HeinzelmannHinterlasse einen Kommentar

Graukäse, grey cheese… doesn’t sound exactly sexy, does it? And on top of that unfortunate name, the poor chap habitually has to suffer disfiguration in the form of onion rings and vinegar. Folks, this is just unacceptable. Stop dissing Graukäse and dousing it with cheap acidity right now! Instead, start taking in its real taste. If you feel like totally blank now, surrounded by question marks – before you hit the escape button: this is about the northern Italian cousin of the German Handkäse-Harzer-Korbkäse family. » Weiterlesen…

Cheese of the month March 2014: Ziegen-Deichgraf from the Ostenfelde Dairy/D

Veröffentlicht amAutorUrsula HeinzelmannHinterlasse einen Kommentar

In my Heinzelcheese life, Friday means Markthalle Neun: from 6 till 7pm I’m sitting with non-German foodies around the big Eatdrinktalk table to drink wine, taste cheese and practice German in a totally delicious, easy way. As an equally delicious side effect, Friday is Heinzel-cheese-shopping day, because the Markthalle’s cheese offers are excellent. Therefore this month’s cheese comes from Kreuzberg… » Weiterlesen…

Cheese of the month February 2014: Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado Curado from Quinta da Serra da Gardunha/Portugal

Veröffentlicht amAutorUrsula Heinzelmann3 Kommentare

I know, I’m writing a lot about Portugal these days. But life rarely flows in a quiet stream, balanced, temperate and calm. Rather, it’s leaping and jumping ahead. And that means that at the moment the wild country on the Atlantic coast looms large in my world. After my beautiful excursion to the Alentejo in the fall (about which more here) I was slightly mad with myself for returning without one of the onctuous sheeps‘ milk cheeses from the center of Portugal. » Weiterlesen…

Cheese of the month January 2014: Ricotta from Torricelle, Paestum/I

Veröffentlicht amAutorUrsula HeinzelmannHinterlasse einen Kommentar

Since a few months there is a new stall at the farmers market at Markthalle Neun, the revived old covered market hall in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin. Alessandro Salerno for some reason is totally determined to provide Berliners with the absolutely best possible buffalo mozzarella. Although at least from an Italian point of view, buffalo is redundant in this case, because mozzarella per definition is made from buffalo milk, and anything else is called Fior di Latte and of a completely different texture and taste. » Weiterlesen…

Cheese of the month December 2013: Stichelton from Nottinghamshire/UK

Veröffentlicht amAutorUrsula HeinzelmannHinterlasse einen Kommentar

Winter without Stilton is like summer without Riesling, great meals without wine, life without love and friendship… well, you get the idea. But just as there is good Riesling and better Riesling and you might like some friends just that little bit more, there is good and better in the world of blue cheeses under the name of Stilton. And the best is Stichelton. » Weiterlesen…

Cheese of the month November 2013: Pouligny St Pierre, Berry and Touraine/France

Veröffentlicht amAutorUrsula HeinzelmannHinterlasse einen Kommentar

For most people in this part of the world November sounds somehow dark, melancholy and altogether grey. But first, at least for now the late autumn sun is still shining beautifully, second the grey is a great excuse after all the summer outdoors time to settle in at home (cook a lot! music! read!) and third (I know, this is supposed to be a cheese blog) with the right cheese on the table, things will look much better, immediately. » Weiterlesen…

Cheese of the month October 2013: Beecher’s Flagship Reserve, Seattle & NYC/USA

Veröffentlicht amAutorUrsula HeinzelmannHinterlasse einen Kommentar

No excuse for yet another offering from the English speaking cheese world! I’m fully aware though that American Cheddar from glasswalled facilities in both Seattle and midtown New York sounds like more show than content, more Disneyland than real character… but the American cheeselogic often works completely against what we European cheesaholics assume. Beecher’s Flagship Reserve is a gorgeous cheese, fullstop. » Weiterlesen…

Cheese of the month September 2013: Caerphilly from Gorwydd/Wales, UK

Veröffentlicht amAutorUrsula HeinzelmannHinterlasse einen Kommentar

Generally speaking Caerphilly doesn’t have a very good reputation in the UK. The blame for this mostly has to go to the large cheddar producers who cannibalized this fairly old cheese and turned it into a fast-maturing, boring cash cow. But there is an alternative, as brothers Todd and Maugan Trethowen demonstrate with their Gorwydd which is based on a traditional recipe, made with very good milk – and considerable talent. » Weiterlesen…

Cheese of the month August 2013: Piccolo from Carmelis/Okanagan Valley, Canada

Veröffentlicht amAutorUrsula HeinzelmannHinterlasse einen Kommentar

We writers are hunters and gatherers, and as I recently returned from five weeks in England, the US and Canada, my bags were full to the brim with goodies, impressions and wonderful memories. It should come as no surprise then that the cheese of the month stems from far away (well, at least seen from Berlin), that is from British Columbia, in western Canada. Contrary to common belief, polar bears, Inuit and snow are NOT the only features there. The good people of the Okanagan grow wine (and it can be very good – YES!) and some keep goats.  » Weiterlesen…

Cheese of the month July 2013: Grotteost from Hitra Gårdsmat

Veröffentlicht amAutorUrsula HeinzelmannHinterlasse einen Kommentar

I’d like to be completely open about one thing straight away: you won’t find this cheese just around the corner, even worse, you won’t find it pretty much around any corner. Nevertheless Grotteost, the cave cheese Bodil Birkeland makes on the Hitra island in Norway, is my cheese of the month. I mean, if this isn’t the right time of the year for at least some cheese-loving people to be attracted by the midnight sun and the North Cape…  » Weiterlesen…