Cheesy Taste?

I went to a cheese tasting last night with my food group where we tasted ten “uncommon” Italian cheeses:

1. Pecorino Brinata – a very mild soft sheep’s milk cheese only aged for 20 days. Not only does the rind look like that of a brie, it tastes just like a young brie also.

2. Caprino with Truffles – a fresh goat’s milk cheese covered with fresh truffle slices after it is aged. While the taste of truffles surprisingly permeates throughout the cheese, it is strongest near the side closest to the truffles.

3. Rochetta – this cheese was the one that made the evening worth it for me. It is a rather innocuous cheese made from a mixture of cow, goat and sheep milk, but is one of those cheeses that’s great to serve to company. Tasty (and salty) without being overwhelming.

4. Pecorino Toscano – a 30-day sheep’s milk cheese. Nothing spectacular about this cheese other than it showed the differences between a very slightly aged Pecorino (the Brinata) and how a different style of rind treatment can affect the texture of the cheese (this one is much firmer).

5. Castelmagno – a very rare cow’s milk cheese that is notable mainly for its flakey texture. Don’t get me wrong, it has a great taste, but the mouthfeel is what really stands out.

6. Piave Vecchio – another cow’s milk cheese and my favorite of the evening, especially to eat by itself as a snack. It is similar to a Parmigiano Reggiano, but with a more nutty flavor. It also has that firm texture with bits of crystallinity that I adore in a cheese.

7. Parmigiano Reggiano Cravero – a very nice 2-year-plus aged cheese. But nothing new or noteworthy (and it seemed to suffer from following the Piave Vecchio, I would have preferred to taste it first of those two).

8. Vento de Estate – a sheep’s cheese with a very floral flavor. It’s wrapped in hay for aging and has a very herbal (and almost minty) flavor the closer you get to the rind.

9. Ubriaco – a cow’s milk cheese soaked in wine and then aged under pressed grape skins (the “must” from wine making). Initially pleasing fruity flavor that after a few bites started to taste just like Juicy Fruit gum.

10. Pecorino Fossa – another sheep’s milk cheese (as are all Pecorino cheeses) but this one is buried in the ground after its initial 3-month aging. The smell is exactly that of a horse ring – a dusty, horsey smell with a hint of manure. And it tastes exactly how thrush (an anaerobic bacterial infection horses get in their feet) smells. Exactly. All I could think of was that someone needed to squirt some Koppertox (a dark green copper solution that is used to treat thrush) on the cheese!

As people where posting about their favorite cheeses from the tasting on the food forum afterwards, someone asked (and I am paraphrasing from memory) if anyone had taken the time to memorize which cheeses were goat, sheep or cow milk cheeses, how they differed from each other and which areas in Italy produced which cheeses.

The post made me wonder if it isn't simply enough for someone to discover just one more new cheese they like? Something other than the usual Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino or Gorgonzola... especially if the person is not a cheese aficionado. Is learning anything additional just more Parmigiano Reggiano grated on the Fettuccine Alfredo?

For those with a foundation of cheese tasting experience to build on, it is certainly worth the extra effort to ensure that the background data is considered and learned during a tasting. But I worry that stressing the factual aspects can be too much of a deterrent to the beginner. If they think they must walk away from a cheese tasting knowing this, that and the other, the whole thing can become too daunting and they may not ever go to one.

Isn't any broadening of one's horizons desirable? Even if just by a millimeter? While working in various scientific fields, I've observed that with a totally novel idea the most one might be able to hope for after the initial exposure is a vague impression tucked away in the back of the mind. Full understanding is rarely something that occurs immediately. It requires contemplation and re-exposure.

So for beginning cheese tasters, I think just encountering the range of flavors is a great beginning and simply deciding which flavor is preferred is an even larger step. Being able to recite from memory the origin, history and trivia of various cheeses is something that will come with time and experience (and, often, the chagrin of those around you who tend to quickly tire of the subject).

Anyway, I’ll climb down from the cheese-box now. And you… yeah, you… don't take my word for it... go out and taste some cheese!