Well, this sure brightened my morning

Culinary Arts College has named I Make Cheese as one of the 50 Best Cheese Blogs on the Web!  Woohoo!

26. I Make Cheese This home cheesemaker writes this fantastic blog that will get your taste buds moving. The wine picks are just as good and will have you hankering for a treat every time you stop by to read.

And while I'm posting:  If you like whole grains, be sure to click over to my other blog, Eating Rules, and enter the Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Giveaway, for a chance to win an awesome sampler pack!

Please don't try this at home

See, the irony here is that it's probably the only place you could try it.  Are you (and your baby's momma!) hardcore cheesemakers enough to do it?

Then again, I'm not sure why many of us are first repulsed, then intrigued.  Shouldn't it be the perfect food?  Nevertheless, I feel compelled to say it:  Ugh!  (Counterpoint: the pics on his blog look terrific!).

Chef Daniel Angerer makes cheese from two gallons of his wife's breast milk.

"Skier's curd cure stumps cheese whizzes"

Every so often I head over to Google News and type in "cheese" to see what comes up.  Often it's a bit distressing, but other times it can be quite amusing and, well... topical:

Does ski sweetheart Lindsey Vonn owe her downhill gold to an obscure cheese curd she slathered on her badly bruised shin? We may never know, but good luck finding her topfen outside Austria.

Full story here and here.

Hervé Mons' Pasteurized Camembert

My friend Wendy sent me this New York Times story on a new Camembert made from pasteurized milk that aims to be as good as ones made with raw milk.  (If a cheese is made with raw milk it must be aged at least 60 days before it can be sold in the U.S.  That doesn't work so well for Camembert!)  Time for a trip to Whole Foods!

Oh, and I'm also adding "Make my own Camembert" to my list of 2010 New Year's Resolutions.  I've been shying away from trying to make (intentionally) moldy cheeses... until now.  Stay tuned...

Update:  So apparently H. Mons made a deal with Whole Foods so that they'd be the only distributor of his cheeses.  That'd be fine by me, I guess, except every WF I've been to (in both Los Angeles and San Diego) has been sold out since the holidays!  They keep telling me they're waiting for another shipment, and to stay tuned.  So until then, no camembert for moi!

Camembert Cheese

What's the environmental impact of cheese?

My friend Michelle just sent me this article from Slate about the environmental impact of cheese.  Interesting topic.  Two quick take-aways:  Sheep are gassier than cows or goats.  Soft cheeses are better for the environment than hard cheeses (due to higher yields and lower energy needs for processing and aging).

One blatant omission, though: The article doesn't say anything about how far the cheese needs to travel to reach your plate.  Buying local makes a big difference... and making your own cheese at home is as local as you can get!  (Gotta use locally-produced milk, of course).

15-Year Cheddar, now available

Every so often I like to run a Google News search for Cheese News and see what comes up. Usually, I'm pleasantly surprised. This morning I learned that Hook's 15-year cheddar is now available. Yes, that's FIFTEEN YEARS. Said another way, they've been aging this cheese since 1994. I know aging like that is pretty typical for a fine spirit, but cheese? That's a completely different story.

I had the privilege of trying their 10-year cheddar last year as part of a swanky Scotch & Cheese Tasting at the Beverly Hills Hotel (see pic below) and it was absolutely divine. Sharp and flavorful, of course, with bonus little crystals that seemed to burst in your month. A bit like Pop rocks meets cheddar. Okay, I exaggerate, but you get the idea (they're actually just crystallized Calcium Lactate).  Oh, and in case you're wondering, it paired exquisitely with the Glenfiddich 30.

At $50/pound, it might be the priciest cheese I've encountered yet. I bet it's well worth it.

http://www.hookscheese.com/

That's the 10-year cheddar at 9 o'clock.

Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling

From Boston.com:

Last Monday, May 25th, the annual Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake was held near Gloucester, England. In a tradition that dates back at least 200 years, possibly much longer, groups of fearless competitors chase an 8 pound (3.5 kg) round of Double Gloucester Cheese down an extremely steep and uneven hill, with a 1:1 gradient in some parts. Thousands of spectators gather to watch the five downhill and four uphill races, and to celebrate the winners and console the losers afterward. Injuries such as broken bones and concussions are commonplace, but the event continues to grow in popularity. The winner of each race is awarded the delicious round of cheese they were chasing.

View all the pics; they're hysterical!

NYTimes: "They Do the Work, You Reap the Yogurt"

Nice New York Times article today on making Yogurt at home!

The Curious Cook

They Do the Work, You Reap the Yogurt

By HAROLD MCGEE

"It is worth making yogurt once in a while just to know how good it can be and to experience the everyday miracle of fermentation."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/dining/15curi.html

3rd Annual California Artisan Cheese Festival

Next weekend will be the 3rd Annual California Artisan Cheese Festival, in Petaluma, CA.

Alas, I just learned about this event, and won't be able to attend. If you're interested, though, check out their website -- http://www.artisancheesefestival.com -- and then let me know how much fun you had!

"Magic Cheese" Ponzi Scheme

It's been quite awhile since I've written. My apologies!

Although I had a great success over the Holidays with an aged-in-olive-oil Manchego, I haven't had much time to report about it... I'll get my act together soon, I swear!

In the meantime, this cheese-related news will have to suffice.

Suspected bomb turns out to be... string cheese

Okay, so I haven't posted here in awhile, as I've been so busy with work and haven't had time to make any cheese lately (dangit!). So I thought instead it might be nice to do find some interesting cheese-related news, and then post it here. A quick Google News search for "cheese" turned up this article. I couldn't make this stuff up....seriously.
______

CENTERVILLE, Utah (AP) — A piece of string cheese made to look like a bomb forced the temporary closure of a Centerville grocery store. Police were called to Dick's Market over the weekend for a report that a someone had left a device covered in duct tape near a dry ice cooler.

The store remained closed for two hours while bomb-sniffing dogs and a bomb technician investigated.

They eventually found the device was a piece of cheese.

Centerville police Lt. Paul Child said juveniles are suspected of planting the item in the store.

He says the closure caused thousands of dollars in losses to the store, including from milk, ice cream and other items that spoiled during the closure and had to be thrown out.

Information from: Standard-Examiner, http://www.standard.net/

Even more information (sort of): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_Cheese_Incident

Officials seize illegal cheese

Tainted cheese fuels TB rise in California
Unpasteurized dairy products linked to reemergence of ancient disease

I just came across this interesting scary article about the perils of making cheese from unpasteurized milk. US Law says that if cheese is made from unpasteurized milk it must be aged for at least 60 days. That gives it enough time for any "nasties" to die off. Apparently many Hispanic immigrants in Southern California are eating queso fresco made from unpasteurized milk, and then catching a rare form of TB. Yikes!

Full article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24954041