Posted in Beer, Beverages, Cheese, Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge, Ireland, Pairings, St. Patrick's Day, tagged Ardrahan, Cashel Blue, Cheese, Coolea, Crozier Blue, Dick Willems, Dicky Willems, food, Helene Willems, Jane Grubb, Louis Grubb, Mary Burns, Sinead Willems, St. Patrick's Day on March 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Ardrahan
St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and what better way to celebrate than with an Irish cheese plate? Our team at Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge have put together a selection of some of our favorites and Eric, our Cambridge beer buyer, has given us a list of fantastic beers to pair with them. Best wishes for a safe and happy St. Patrick’s Day. Éirinn go Brách! (more…)
Posted in Beverages, Wine, tagged Ameztoi, Ardrahan, Bardolino Chiaretto, Blue Ledge Farm, brosé, Château Musar, chicken liver mousse, Commanderie de Peyrassol, Coturri, Getariako Txakolina, Gubbeen, Lake's Edge, Le Fraghe, Mas de la Dame, Mas Sainte Berthe, Musar Jeune, Peyrassol, Ròdon, rosé, Rosé du Mas, Rubentis, sangria, Sonoma Mountain Rosé Wine, Wine on June 2, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Brosé: [broh-zey] –noun a pink wine enjoyed with friends.
‘Tis the season… to drink pink, of course! Everyone and anyone who knows me, knows that once spring has sprung and things are starting to blossom and turn green, all I’m thinking is pink.
The rosé wine display at Formaggio Kitchen
I wait all year for this season to arrive and look forward to the array of rose-colored bottles that appears on the table at our Cambridge location. So, when a fellow monger asked me to write a little something about rosé for the Formaggio Kitchen blog, I figured it was the perfect excuse to revisit some old favorites while trying some new pinks too! (more…)
Posted in Cheese, tagged Ardrahan, brevibacterium linens, brine, Cato Corner Farm, Cheese, Despearado, Drunk Monk, Drunken Hooligan, food, Hooligan, Langres, Manigodine, smear-ripened cheese, stinky cheese, Taleggio, Twig Farm Washed Rind, Vacherin Mont d'Or, washed rind cheese on May 12, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Ardrahan, an Irish washed-rind cheese
While studying to be a pastry chef, I started working as a cheesemonger. In a restaurant, the pastry chef is sometimes given the responsibility of overseeing the cheese plate. While the chef might be well-trained in the art of pastry-making, it is less common for them to have in-depth cheese knowledge. As a student, I needed to get a job and I decided to kill two birds with one stone and take a job where I could learn more about cheese. Little did I know how much I would get sucked in to the wonderful world of cheese… (more…)
Posted in Cheese, Education, FAQs, tagged Ardrahan, Bayley Hazen Blue, Cheese, cheese rind, Jasper Hill, rinds, Tomme Crayeuse on January 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
This is one of the most common questions that I get when I work on the cheese counter. My answer: yes, usually I do. Pretty much all cheese rinds are easily digestible. The primary exceptions are cloth-bound and wax rinds. After that, it’s pretty much personal preference.
Tomme Crayeuse
A rule of thumb – cheeses tend to get stronger the closer you get to the rind and the rind itself will be the strongest tasting part of the cheese. If you are tasting a cheese for the first time and aren’t sure whether you will like it, start with a nibble from the center-most part of the ‘paste.’ Then, if you like what you are tasting, gradually work your way outwards. If you like all of the paste, give the rind a go!
Having eaten cheese for a while now, I know there are some rinds I definitely don’t like, rinds that most folks don’t eat: Parmigiano Reggiano is one example (grilled parm rinds are an exception!) and Comté is another, even though it has a natural rind. My stomach could digest them – I just don’t like the way they taste or feel in my mouth. That said, there are some cheeses I love that are particularly scrumptious, in my opinion, because they have delicious rinds. Among these, I would include Tomme Crayeuse, Jasper Hill’s Bayley Hazen Blue and Ardrahan.
Ardrahan
They are all very different styles of cheese – Tomme Crayeuse is semi-soft cheese and has a very earthy, mushroom-y flavor profile, underscored by its natural rind.
Bayley Hazen is a medium-strength blue cheese that tastes really nutty – the rind is like a distilled version of this fantastic nuttiness. Ardrahan is an Irish, washed-rind cheese. Its rind is brine-washed and this saltiness shows through – sometimes enough to
Bayley Hazen Blue
make me think of the ocean while sometimes it manifests itself in more of a peanut-y flavor. Either way, it is really snackable (oh, and great with beer!).
My advice – give the rind a try! If you don’t like it, you’ll know for next time. On the other hand, you may just discover another reason to love a cheese!
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