Michael Claypool & Sasha Davies Explore America's Artisan Cheese World at CheeseByHand.com
Cheese By Hand is a unique project embarked upon by wine and cheese mavens Michael Claypool and Sasha Davies. Their estimable goal is to travel across the country, interviewing farmers and cheesemakers about their craft along the way. Their primary aim - one that Artisanal holds near and dear - is to promote understanding and support for handmade products and to celebrate the diversity of our country's farms and agricultural system.
The scope of the Cheese By Hand project is immense. Sasha and Michael have ambitiously sought out cheesemakers in all four corners of the nation - from Maine to Florida to Texas to Alaska. By the end, they'll have visited almost 40 dairies in 4 months! In addition to posting write-ups and pictures of farm visits on their site, our guides have been conducting audio interviews with the folks they meet. It is a powerful thing indeed to hear an artisan discuss his or her product - both the positives and negatives - with passion and conviction. Using multiple mediums, Sasha and Michael have succeeded in offering us a unique perspective on American artisan cheese.
To that end, Artisanal Premium Cheese celebrates Independence Day by offering up five glorious American cheeses from their journey: Cabot Clothbound Cheddar (produced by Cabot - matured by Jasper Hill) and Bayley Hazen Blue from the consummate professionals at Jasper Hill Farm, the delicate goat's milk Bonne Bouche from Vermont Butter & Cheese Co., mildly blue Classic Blue Log from Westfield Farm, and the ever-popular Humboldt Fog from Cypress Grove Chevre.
Artisanal Staff American Cheese Selections
Bayley Hazen Blue
: Mateo Kehler has been making Bayley Hazen Blue from the raw milk of his herd of Ayershire cows since the fall of 2003.
Bayley Hazen Blue $18.50 per lb
Bonne Bouche: While living in France, Allison Hooper learned to make traditional ripened goat's milk cheese on small farms. This no doubt served as inspiration for the Bonne Bouche, a new handmade cheese from Vermont Butter and Cheese Company...
Bonne Bouche $9.00 each
Cabot Clothbound Cheddar: This cheddar is the result of a unique collaboration among cheese craftsmen in Vermont. Cabot Creamery makes sixty clothbound wheels each quarter, and then ships them off to be skillfully matured by their family team in the cellars at Jasper Hill Farm.
Cabot Clothbound Cheddar $19.00 per lb
Classic Blue Log : Made in western Massachusetts by Bob Stetson and his wife at their small dairy, the Classic Blue Log has won numerous prizes in US cheese competitions. It posesses a lovely fine-grained texture, with a rich and tangy flavor.
Classic Blue Log $7.25 each
Humboldt Fog: Made at Cypress Grove in McKinleyville, California, by cheesemaker Mary Keens, Humboldt Fog is a gorgeous, 5 lb wheel of young goat sprinkled in vegetable ash, then left to develop a pillowy white bloomy rind.
Humboldt Fog $19.50 per lb
Try an All American Accompaniment or Accessory with Your Cheese!
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Fruit Nut Crostini:
Lovely multigrain crostini
from the Wenatchee valley in Washington state! $10.00 each
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Tupelo Honeycomb:
Intensely flavored honey from the
honeybees of southern Georgia. $20.75 each
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Slate Cheese Board:
Made from rustic natural slate,
mined in Vermont. $35.00 each
An educational experience and broad perspective that only two masters can impart!
With Max McCalman & Waldemar Albrecht
6:30pm-8:30pm; Monday, June 26
For one night only, two of our most popular instructors, Max McCalman and Waldemar Albrecht, are teaming up to bring you some fantastic cheese and wine pairings garnered over their years of travel and tasting. Come and join them as they present some of their stellar findings and share with you some of their anecdotes and experiences from the cheese world beyond. We here at Artisanal take great pride in having the best, most knowledgeable staff in the cheese world and, for one night, are promising the wider educational experience and broader perspective that only two masters can impart - a class where the whole is even greater than the sum of its parts!
Reserve your spot.
With Waldemar Albrecht, Paula Lambert, and David Gremmels
6:30pm-8:30pm; Monday, July 10
Meet some of America's best cheesemakers! Join Fromager Waldemar Albrecht with special guests Paula Lambert, acclaimed owner of the Mozzarella Cheese Company in Dallas, Texas, and David Gremmels, co-owner of the Rogue River Creamery of Central Point, Oregon, as they lead you in an exclusive, unique tasting of their amazing cheeses. These shining stars of cheesemaking are in town for NAFST, the Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center, and have agreed to lead this exciting experience for you. Learn first hand how the experts do it, revel in their delicious cheeses and see who else stops by to share his/her expertise and award winning cheeses! Don't miss this opportunity!
Reserve your spot today.
Enroll in one of any of our many classes today!
Trivia from the Cheese Caves
Question: What is cheese, anyway? Is cheese just moldy milk? Are sour cream, crème fraīche, and cream cheese considered cheese?
Find out in the next Artisanal e-newsletter, or find the answer on our website today!
- Tyler Hawes, Artisanal Cheese Buyer
Last Time We Asked: What is a 'protected' cheese? What does a cheese need protection from? What do the acronyms DO, DOC, and AOC mean?
Answer: Though it may sound like it, a 'protected' cheese is not covered
with an impenetrable rind or secreted away behind fortified walls. Instead, the governments of the EU and its constituent countries have extended legal protection to certain products to ensure that only those
items genuinely originating in a specific region can be labeled for sale as such. With these standards in place, consumers can be sure that the product they purchase is exactly what it claims to be - a high-quality foodstuff inextricably linked to its terroir.
The law protects the names of wines, cheeses, meat products, olives,
beers, regional breads, fruits and vegetables - even pizza! Often, the
law not only indicates the geographical locale - it can also regulate
the most minute details of production. Roquefort cheese, for
instance, must be made near the town of Roquefort in Aveyron, France,
using a certain type of sheep's milk, starter culture, mold, etc.
Parmigiano-Reggiano can only be produced in the the Italian provinces of
Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna, and Mantua, according to strict
guidelines.
The acronyms DO (Denominación de Origen - Spain), AOC (Appellation
d'Origine Contrôlée - France), DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata -
Italy) indicate the level of government protection in their respective
countries. The European Union standard designations are known as PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), PGI (Protected Geographical Indication), and TSG (Traditional Speciality Guaranteed). It should be noted that the laws designating geographical protection are only binding in Europe.
Artisanal Premium Cheese carries many protected cheeses, including: Gorgonzola Piccante and Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy, Roquefort from France, and Mahon from Spain. Try some of these today!
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