The Scoreboard - 21 March 2013

Current Cheese tally = 22
Cheese rate required (as of 21/03/13) = 21.9178
Assessment - ahead of the curve (just)
Cheeses to go = 78

#22 Fromage Des Clarines

Fromage Des Clarines is a brie style, cow's milk cheese made in the Franche-Comte region of France bordering Switzerland. It's a cheese I've spied on many a shopping trip to the Vic Market but have overlooked till today.

This cheese was fell upon by a mob of unruly public servants and devoured within minutes (on thinly sliced baguette as is appropriate). Luckily, I was able to fight through the throng gathering only minor injuries to get a taste myself.

Under the soft velvety rind, Fromage Des Clarines had a pungent oozy inner with flavour of buttery mushroom. You could eat this with a spoon, on your own, in a dark room, and the world would be a better place.

Unfortunately I ate it in a bright room, at work, with some very nice colleagues and as a result the world is only a slightly better place, and, I was left wanting more.

It comes in a round box - that's class that is.







Is cheese is good

#21 King Island Washed Rind

Confession time. I'm not a King Island cheese fan. I find it a little bland and it's usually sold under ripe. But when the cheesemonger has a new cheese for you, and you're working your way to a ton then you're really obliged give it a whirl.

So what does King Island, a well established cheese maker with product in every Australian supermarket do to keep up its market share - it recognises the demand established by smaller makers (hello Milawa and nicely done) for new varieties - like washed rind - and it makes its own. And I'm sure that it's breadth of distribution will mean it finds conumers. But....

King Island Washed Rind was a light-weight, nonthreatening meh of a curd. It  was a reasonably ripe and soft piece so should have given a bit more in the flavour flav department. And to be fair it had the basic characteristics of a washed rind. It's got the typical musty, earthy aroma and the washed orange looking rind, but the slightly caramel flavour was probably developed for the mass market, and so lacks oomph.

AND WASHED RIND IS ALL ABOUT THE OOMPH.






Is cheese is good

#20 Monte Enebro

Monte Enebro is a Spanish goat's milk cheese that turns blue vein cheese inside out, literally. The cheese makers use the same mould used in Roquefort production but instead of injecting it inside to create the veins of blue we know and love, they've surprised us by using it on the surface.

And the surface is where the flavour lives. It delivers an intense, sharp and acidic stab to the taste buds, balanced by the beautiful creamy, inner cheese. Inside it's a little greyish blue close to the rind, but gets paler the closer you get to the centre.

This is not a traditional cheese, despite it's ancient look, Mont Enebro was only developed 15 years ago and is produced from a single dairy in the walled Spanish city of Avila.

Thanks again to Bill's Farm for an excellent and memorable recommendation for the blue cheese lover.








Is cheese is good

#19 Prom Country Woolamai Mist

Prom Country Woolamai mist is made by the Red Hill Cheese folk who are fantastic cheese producers. If you ever get the chance to visit their cellar door has a fine tasting room set among the gum trees of Red Hill, and of course great cheese to graze upon.

Prom Country is the sheep's cheese range now produced by Red Hill, and the Woolamai Mist is a very one of the better locally made brie style cheese that I've come across. It was so good it could have ben mistaken for French. We were lucky enough to get a perfectly ripe rectangle of the stuff that was enveloped in a soft white rind, the inside was rich and oozy.

Wollamai Mist had a balanced flavour of buttery saltiness that meant it was devoured by us and the kids far too quickly. Better get some more I guess.

My only quibble is with the geographic confusion in the branding of the cheese. So Red Hill is on Mornington Peninsular and makes a range of cheeses called Prom country which must be a reference to Wilson's Prom and then the cheese is named after Woolamai which (whether its the cape on Phillip Island or the area inland of San Remo is unclear) is in neither Prom nor Peninsular.

Perhaps they should settle on one spot? Perhaps I should just eat the cheese and not think about it so much.



Thanks again Bill's Farm.



Is cheese is good

#18 Berry's Creek - Mossvale Blue

Number 18 was, coincidentally, another Gippsland cheese this time from Berry's Creek Gourmet Cheese.

The Mossvale Blue is one of a handful of blue's made by Berry's Creek and from our tasting, and the description on their website, its at the milder end of their range and of the spectrum of blue (Spectrum of Blue - a fine 70s space rock band?).

The Mossvale Blue was creamy in texture and mild in flavour - it's not in your face. Not a smear survived our encounter.



Mossvale Blue is named after the Mossvale Park, the site of a great little musical festival which I had the pleasure of attending earlier this year featuring a heavenly host of soul artists.

Another from the Milawa Cheese Shop. 

Is cheese is good

#17 Old Telegraph Road Tomme from Jindi

Last weekend was a camping weekend and (despite the heat) a couple of cheeses accompanied us to be eaten in the great outdoors.

Jindi's Old Telegraph Road Tomme was a highly appropriate cheese for our table as we were camped not far from Jindvick where its made.

The Tomme had a washed rind-like flavour with a very creamy texture. The brown rind looked ancient enough to have surfaced at an archeological dig. It gave a healthy kick of ammonia which put off a couple of sensitive souls at the table but everyone was a fan of the soft, mellow inner which had a butter yellow look about it.

Its good to see some Jindi about after the listeria issues earlier in the year - their old telegraph road range looks like it should make a solid and delicious contribution to the ton of cheese tally over the rest of the year.


Another great recommendation from Chrissy at the Milawa Cheese Shop in North Carlton.



And here is the obligatory link to the Tomme Tomme Club.

http://youtu.be/6Vl1m5FYlAo


Is cheese is good

#16 Bluette tome pur chevre au bleu

Blue cheese divides the world in  much the same way as Michael Jackson. Some love it. Others think its a bit off.

I am in the latter camp on Michael Jackson (albeit recognising the genius of the Jackson 5 and his early solo work) and the former camp when it comes to the subject of blue vein cheese.

I cut my teeth (so to speak) on blue castello 20 years ago, the training wheels of blue vein, and undertook a pilgrimage to Roquefort on my first visit to Europe. I love the stuff.

Bluette tome pur chevre au bleu was a welcome addition to my ton of cheese tally.

It's a Basque goat milk cheese from the French Pyrenees produced by Onetik.

Crumbly, dense and moist. An ancient looking brown rind wrapped around a pale, yellow-tinged cheese with deposits of blue scattered within. The taste is sharp and creamy.

Merci Beaucoup to the French Shop at Vic Market for this recommendation.








Is cheese is good

#15 Pont Salut

Pont salut is a creamy, cows milk cheese made in the Brittany region of France. It's a well known cheese I'd heard of, but not sampled so what the hell I thought, lets add it to the ton of cheese tally.

And this is a cheese with a terrific little back story involving exiled monks, the French revolutionary terror and restrictive trade practices.

But alas, its just not a particularly good cheese.

It's not bad - just a little disappointing, much like my grades at University.

I mean this is a French cheese exported world wide, but all it reminded me of was those soft cheeses from the supermarket cabinet that you'd use to ween your kids off kraft singles. Even there it failed, because the 7 year old didn't like it (her heart was stolen by D'Affinois a long time ago).

Pont salut illustrates the perils of the Internet where I found it featured on a stinky cheese list. Apparently it's smell gets much stronger with age but there was little aroma to my sample.

So how did it taste? Not unpleasant, soft and creamy in texture a little sweet and a lot bland.The Taylor Swift of cheese (with apologies to my daughter who is a big time TF fan).

The lesson here - take the recommendation of a good cheesemonger over the internet any day.


Is cheese is good (usually)

#14 Saint Angel Brie

Saint Angel is a French triple cream brie.




Saint Angel Brie = butter.

Beautiful gorgeous butter transformed into cheesyness.




Nothing more to say really.

Is cheese is good