The Artisanal Premium Cheese E-Newsletter
-12/04/06-

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NEW! It’s finally here and just in time for the holidays! Made in France, our custom-made, hand-crafted, wooden gift box is traditionally used by cheese makers to encase delicate cheese for transport but we think it’s the most festive way to send gifts this holiday season. It's also the ideal container for storing your cheeses in the refrigerator.

We offer a wide selection of our collections in our gift box or you can customize your own 3- or 5-cheese collection! You pick the cheeses, we add the crackers and dried fruit, and then pack it up for one lucky recipient! What could be easier?

Don't Forget - Shop Now, Ship Later!

World Cheese Collections Our selections of artisanal cheeses is sourced from around the world. Working with cheese makers and affineurs, we have created dynamic new collections that highlight our favorite cheeses of the world.	Cheese And Wine Pairings Combinations of cheeses and their pairings can provide palette-pleasing variations in flavor and bring textural and visual contrast to your cheese board.

Question: We all know that cheese tastes good, but what are the health benefits to eating cheese? Find out in the next Artisanal e-newsletter!
- The Artisanal Staff

Last Time We Asked: Is there such a thing as artisanal "low-fat" cheese? What does it mean for a cheese to be made from skim milk versus whole milk?

Answer: Low-fat cheese of the supermarket variety is made with skimmed milk -- that is, milk from which the cream has been largely removed. However, fat content has a discernible effect on texture, and manufacturers often try to mimic the sensation of fat with gums and stabilizers. Their goal is to try and make a low-fat cheese taste less... well, low-fat.

Artisanal producers have taken a different approach. They are largely unconcerned with the overall fat content of their end product, instead seeking high quality in taste and appearance. Sometimes, though, the cheesemaking process naturally yields a cheese that is lower in fat. Low-fat cheeses have historically been the result of a cheesemaker trying to make the most of his/her raw materials in times of need. Gaperon, for example, was traditionally made with buttermilk, left over after the cheese was made and the butter churned. Parmigiano-Reggiano (while not a low-fat cheese, per se, because of its density) is made with skimmed milk, the rest of the cream being used to make Parma butter. Ricotta is made from the whey left over after the milk is curdled and the curds ladled off.

Industrially produced low-fat cheese lacks real flavor; and it requires the consumer to eat more of it than the full-fat variety to really feel sated. While many artisanal cheeses may be higher in fat, ounce per ounce, than their supermarket brethren, one doesn't need much to get one's cheese fix. Perhaps it is in this sense, then, that one can call artisanal cheese "low-fat": an ounce of fine cheese has more flavor than a pound of the factory stuff -- A little dab'll do ya.

Do you have a question for our trivia section?
Send it to editor@artisanalcheese.com and we may use it in a future newsletter!