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Archive for the ‘United States’ Category

A Toast to St. Patrick and Henry Knox

Posted in Beer, Beverages, St. Patrick's Day, United States, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 15, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Eric's St. Paddy's Day Beer Recommendations
These days, St. Patrick’s Day is mostly a secular celebration of Irish culture and a day of mindless consumption of way too much Guinness or green beer. As a Boston native, and history buff, March 17 is as much about Evacuation Day as it is about the shamrock-toting saint (read more about Evacuation Day). As the beer buyer at our fancy little food store, I prefer to celebrate both events with a couple of bottles of exemplary craft brew.

Although the craft brewing revolution in Ireland is alive and well, there’s none to be had on this side of the pond and until I find a source, I’m recommending a few domestic ales for your celebrations. (more…)

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A Visit with the Erbs: Landaff Cheese

Posted in Cheese, Local, Producer Profile, Travelogues, United States, tagged , , , on February 17, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Landaff CreameryFellow monger, Erin, and I drove up to the Cellars at Jasper Hill before the holidays. The object of our journey: to pick up 40 wheels of Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, 20 wheels of Landaff cheese and a number of other Jasper Hill cheeses: Constant Bliss, Weybridge, Hartwell, Oma, Winnimere and Caspian. En route, we stopped to visit with the makers of Landaff cheese, Doug and Deb Erb in Landaff, New Hampshire. (more…)

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In Wisconsin: Rush Creek, Buttercream Frosting and Rotational Grazing

Posted in Cheese, Travelogues, United States, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 3, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Uplands' Pleasant Ridge Reserve and Edelweiss' Gouda & EmmentalerIn the first week of November, I traveled to Madison, Wisconsin for the Second Annual Wisconsin Cheese Festival. Retailers and cheesemakers from across the state massed at Monona Terrace, a convention center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, perched on the edge of Lake Monona.

There were all sorts of tours, tastings and seminars on offer and it was hard to choose between them all but, in the end, I chose three. The first was a panel discussion entitled “The Art of Grass-based Cheeses.” Panelists included: Mike Gingrich from Uplands Cheese, Bert Paris of Edelweiss Graziers Co-Op and Bruce Workman of Edelweiss Creamery. We tasted through several cheese flights, including, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Edelweiss Gouda and Emmentaler. We also tried two wonderful buttercream frostings (made with butter from grass-fed cows) and learned about rotational grazing methods. (more…)

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Cheese, Beer + BBQ: A Memorable Day at the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival

Posted in About Us, BBQ, Cheese, Local, Special Events & Field Trips, Travelogues, United States, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

The call time was 6 a.m., but our first guests — just as excited as we were — were standing outside our door at 5:40.

Gradually, the rest of our sleepy customers arrived, picked up their coffee and croissants, and by 6:30, all 32 of us were on the road, headed for high adventure in the Green Mountain State. Our destination was the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival, a gathering of about 50 local cheesemakers, 30 breweries and wineries, and a host of other food artisans making everything from mustard to nougat. The event, in its second year, was held last Sunday at the breathtakingly lovely Shelburne Farms estate outside of Burlington, and this year we organized a bus to bring our customers to the festival — a first-of-its-kind trip for Formaggio Kitchen.

The Shelburne Farms estate sits on Lake Champlain.

The Shelburne Farms estate sits on Lake Champlain.

We personally knew many of the cheesemakers at the festival and were excited not only to see them, but also to introduce them to our customers. (more…)

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A-Whey We Go!

Posted in Cheese, Producer Profile, Travelogues, United States, tagged , , , , on July 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Pigs drinking whey at Jasper Hill FarmOn a recent trip to Jasper Hill Farm, I had the distinct pleasure not only of tasting many delicious cheeses made and aged here in New England, but also of getting acquainted with some inhabitants of the farm who happen to be just as fond of dairy products — or by-products as the case may be — as I am.

The farm has acquired its group of piglets for the season, and man, do they love whey!

Farms producing milk and making cheese from it inherently find themselves with loads of whey, the liquid that separates out from the milk when cheese curds are formed. There are some great uses for this tangy liquid — in some cases, you can use it to make traditional ricotta and other cheeses. Or you can use it in the kitchen in place of water in breads, sauces and stews. Or you can just drink it straight, as it’s filled with protein, vitamins and minerals. You can really only consume so much whey though, and inevitably you can’t keep up with production. So the question becomes: what to do with the rest? (more…)

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Snackable and Cheese-worthy: Effie’s Oatcakes

Posted in Breads, Crackers & Snacks, Pairings, United States, tagged , , , , on June 25, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Although there are an abundance of things to snack on here at Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge, Effie’s Oatcakes have become a fast favorite of mine. These delicate oatcakes are part cookie and part savory cracker. They are made using a carefully guarded family recipe with origins in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

(more…)

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The American Chocolate Revolution

Posted in Chocolate, Producer Profile, United States, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Mast Brothers chocolate barsThough we may think of Europe as the epicenter of fine chocolate, America is arguably home to the world’s most exciting community of up-and-coming chocolate makers.

What you see in America that you don’t necessarily see elsewhere is a growing crop of “bean-to-bar” chocolate producers – artisans who are working directly with raw cocoa beans, often sourced directly from farmers. In their small labs in places as unlikely as Utah and Missouri, these producers are seeing the cocoa through from its raw form to its natural end — beautiful bars of chocolate that showcase as much of the flavor and character of the original bean as possible.

It sounds like a relatively straightforward process, but it’s actually unusual. A lot of chocolatiers buy pre-made chocolate from larger companies, melt it down and make their own bars or confections. This is not to say their products are necessarily bad or inferior, but just as we support small-craft cheese and wine at Formaggio Kitchen, we also like to support small-craft chocolate as much as possible. (more…)

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A Long Time Customer Favorite: Salty Oats Cookies

Posted in Cakes & Cookies, Producer Profile, United States, tagged , , , , , on June 8, 2010 | 6 Comments »

Salty Oats cookiesMy father has always said that if you make something well, people will go out of their way to get it. I suspect many folks would do just that for Terri Horn’s Salty Oats cookies. (more…)

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A Continuing Education in Coffee

Posted in Beverages, Coffee, Producer Profile, Travelogues, United States, tagged , , , , , , , on June 2, 2010 | 2 Comments »

A newly-flowering coffee plant

A newly-flowering coffee plant

My journey into coffee began in high school, with a styrofoam cup and copious amounts of milk and sugar.

I would snag some each morning during my first-period study hall, usually from one of those brown-rimmed glass pots. The addiction became full-blown in college, and when I entered the world of work, like many, I continued to depend on my morning cup as a necessary comfort. (more…)

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Will Travel for Beer

Posted in Beer, Beverages, Producer Profile, Travelogues, United States, tagged , , , , , , on May 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

We love cheese at Formaggio Kitchen, but we also love our beer.

You’ll catch a lot of us on the staff stopping by local beer tastings, seeking out new and hard-to-find bottles, and regularly checking out (and sampling) the rotating taps at our favorite Boston-area bars. A few of us also brew our own beer – recent undertakings have included a clone of Stone Ruination IPA, and a beer brewed with fresh cranberries that somehow ended up measuring a whopping 2% ABV (we lovingly call this one “Granny Cran”).

Whenever we can, we also visit breweries to see beer-making in action. It’s fascinating to see beer brewed on a large scale (though many of the craft breweries we like are still considered small players in a giant market), and it’s enlightening to talk to brewers about what goes in to making certain beers and why they taste the way they do. We’ve previously field-tripped it to Sixpoint, Ommegang and Brooklyn Brewery (see related post), all located in New York. Last month, I stopped by Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware, and last week, a group of us headed to Portland, Maine, to visit Allagash Brewing Company. (more…)

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