My wife and I went to the farmer’s market here this weekend and what did I happen to spot? Brunkow Cheese had a stand!! I’d read about their cheese spreads over at Conglomerate so I had to sample some. I was not disappointed.

I ended up taking home three spreads: jalapeño cheddar, bacon cheddar, and horseradish cheddar. My wife loves the bacon cheddar, which interestingly is the only one made with pasteurized milk (because of the bacon). All of them are all natural, with no preservatives and are very tasty. My personal fav is the horseradish cheddar, because I *love* horseradish. These are wonderful, full flavored spread, so if you’re in the Midwest and happen across Brunkow at a market, buy some!

Oh, and I did get a bag of cheese curds while I was there as well… squeaky fresh good cheese!

Tomme de Fedou is another ewe’s milk cheese which hails from France. I couldn’t find any good sites about the cheese to link to, so you’ll have to take my word for it. This is a pretty mild cheese, soft, but not completely creamy, and slightly pocked. It has the same smooth texture as other high-fat ewe’s cheeses, with just a mild twinge of “sheep”. There’s nothing spectacular about the cheese, it didn’t make me swoon, but on the other hand, I think it is a solid, tasty cheese that would be just right for snacking.

Cheese time! This week, I sampled another raw ewe’s milk cheese called Torta del Casar. Torta del Casar is a semi-soft cheese, which I’ve seen described as having the consistency of pudding. My piece was a little firmer than that but it was still definitely on the soft side.

I found this to be a very delightful cheese… it had a smooth texture and a very fruity taste with a hint of nuttiness… slight tang in the aftertaste, but not overly “sheep”.

Here’s another review over at The Cheese Diaries. I don’t know that I would call this cheese, “pinnacle of human achievement in the field of soft and semisoft cheese” but it was very, very good.

I’m a blue cheese fiend. When it comes to cheese, I say, “Bring on the mold!” Well today, my cheese monger did not disappoint. I asked for something “creamy and mild… something between a Gorgonzola and Roquefort” and she said, “St. Agur” without hesitation.

Sure enough, St. Agur is one delightful blue cheese. It hails from the Auvergne region of France, the village of Monts du Velay. It’s a cow’s milk cheese and fairly young, which yields a nice, smooth and mellow flavor, not as bold as an in-your-face Gorgonzola. I noticed just a hint of pepper but virtually no sourness… it makes a killer dessert cheese. And the texture is spot on… creamy, but not too soft, it just melts in your mouth. It has such a great balance of texture and flavor, I think even those who aren’t as nuts about cheese as I am would love this one.

After yesterday’s unfortunate cheese experience I decided to play it safe today, with an old stand-by goat’s cheese, bucheron.

Ah, bucheron, you are almost chevre! It’s a typical goat offering, nothing offensive whatsoever, just pure goaty goodness. It’s actually a little bit more chalky than a chevre. And it’s round! It comes in logs, and how can you not like that? So you get a nice little round of goat cheese goodness.

I actually think the flavor is a little stronger than chevre, but not in a bad way. It has a nice, citrus-like tang in the aftertaste which does remind me a bit of the precious Humboldt Fog which is always a good thing.

Yes, after the “cheese whose name shall not be spoken” this was a very nice retreat into the familiar.

Oh, my. It was bound to happen… on Halloween, nonetheless. I’ve met a cheese I do not like. There. I said it.
This was an unfortunate one… it was recommended by someone who shall remain nameless. When I remarked that Humboldt Fog was a personal favorite, they suggested I try this one. I’ve decided they don’t like me.
Le Lingot du Quercy would be a raw goat’s milk cheese, but because it is younger than the 60 day aging requirement imposed by the FDA, it’s gotta be pasteurized. Damn them! Maybe. Perhaps, just perhaps, the pasteurization process is so offensive to this cheese that it injects the distinct taste of… hmmm…. ass? which so offends me.

The cheese does resemble an ingot. Whoo. That’s about as close to gold as it gets. It’s a pungent, tangy cheese with a flavor that might have reminded me of Camembert were it not for the overpowering tones of, well, ass. It’s a runny cheese, nearly liquid, in fact, you could almost eat it with a spoon. Yum! Spoonfuls of ass!

Okay, I’m just going to stop now. I did not like this cheese.