Hello dear readers! Today’s cheese is a lesson in egalitarian cheese eating. The bright lights and fancy names, DOP this and AOP that, it can all distract one from the bottom line of the whole enterprise: does it taste good? At our weekly farmer’s market the cheese stand always has an overwhelming selection, and this tempting number was on sale. Now usually I shy away from cheeses with truffle added. Cow or goat, European or American, ‘truffle ______’ is all too often code for mediocre cheese that someone is trying to spice up with (usually equally mediocre) truffle shavings.
But, you know, it was on sale.
It had no name but ‘french truffle goat cheese’. This is like calling your store brand cola ‘tasty-cola’. But whatever.
Origin: France
Rennet: ?
Milk: goat, pasteurized
Affinage: 4 months
Notes:
The snow white paste is absolutely riddled with black truffle shavings, and the yellow rind holds a paste that is surprisingly crumbly, like a mature cheddar.
Thoughts:
Really good! First you get a rich rush of creamy and tangy goat cheese, then a second wave of umami goodness when the truffles hit the palate. The cheese has notes of sweet cream and caramel, making for a decadent flavor when combined with the truffle. This is easily one of the best truffle cheeses I’ve ever had, and brother I have had a few. The smallest morsel is packed full of flavor, every bite a roller coaster of delightful goodness.
There are a few weeks every year, during Advent, where our local farmers market and therefore our cheese stand disappear, only to be replaced by a (admittedly very charming local) Christmas Market. Sure, you can get pottery and candied almonds and mulled wine and fried dough and Wurst and ornaments and more mulled wine and knitted scarves and cured pork and gingerbread.... but you can't get cheese. You show me a Christmas celebration without cheese and I'll show you a celebration that needs to go back to celebration school and learn to celebrate better.
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