Cheese 101

People thought WE were nutty for cheese--going two hours out of our way on a trip up north to take in a day of the California Artisan Cheese Festival in Petaluma. But, in the first seminar, we met two (unrelated) parties who had driven all day Friday from Orange County and would drive back Sunday night. Now those are true CHEESEHEADS!

I stumbled across this festival online and will be seriously considering making travel plans next year. For those of us who adore cheese, what could be better than an event all about tasting and learning about one of our favorite foods. All I can say is that I'm glad we didn't get tickets to the elaborate dinner Saturday night as it was all we could do to roll ourselves up to the room and beach ourselves on our beds like great whales washed ashore!

But...what we missed was an exquisite Gala Dinner of six courses, all with local artisanal cheese, paired with boutique wines and prepared by a stellar roster of chefs, including one of our favorites: Duskie Estes of Zazu in Napa (see my Thursday, January 22, 2009 blog). Sigh.

With many seminars to choose from, we ended up with "Preserving & Advancing the Artisan Food Movement" , "Blues Around The World", "Cheese Appreciation 101" and "Artisan Cheese In Everyday Cooking".

Here are my notes from the Cheese 101, led by Judy Creighton from the Cheese School of San Francisco, everything you need to know about how to taste cheese and get the most out of the cheese tasting experience:
How To Taste Cheese:

1. Take a good look at your cheese. Just like when you taste fine wine, you swirl it in the glass to view the color and body--look at the color and texture of the cheese. Poke it with your finger! Is it soft, crumbly, curdy, firm?
2. Smell it. As you would judge the aroma of wine, assess the cheese aroma. Is it weedy, moldy, fruity, fresh smelling?
3.  Take a small bite and move it all around the mouth. Just like wine, again, you want it to hit every part of the palate so you can savor all the five flavors: bitterness, saltiness, sourness, sweetness and umami (a savory sensation caused by compounds such as glutamate) and the seven ancillary sensations: dryness (as in tannins), metallicness, hotness (of chilis), coolness (as in menthol), numbness, kokumi (heartiness from amino acid extracts--called mouthfeel in wine tasting), and temperature. All of the various combinations of these taste sensations result in myriad experiences in tasting cheese!
4.  Along with the above, note the texture of the cheese which can be a factor in whether or not you care for that particular sample.
5.  Note the aftertaste, which may be different than the sensations you have while the cheese is still in the mouth.

The American Cheese Society uses the following terms:
BODY: buttery, chalky, close (like a wine that is closed), corky, cracked, creamy, crumbly, curdy, defective rind, firm
TEXTURE: gassy (like Swiss Emmenthaler), greasy, hard, mealy, oily, open, pasty, rough, rubbery
APPEARANCE: runny, separation, smooth, supple, soft, soiled, spreadable, translucent, waxy, weak
BOTH AROMA AND FLAVOR: acidic, animal taste, barny, bitter, buttery, chemical, clean, complex, condensed milk, cooked, creamy, delicate, earthy, feedy-weedy, flat, fragrant, fresh, fruity, pleasant/unpleasant, malty, metallic, mild, milky, moldy, nutty, piquant, pungent, rancid, salty, satisfying, sharp, sour, strong, stale, tangy, tart, sweet, lacking in flavor, yeasted

Intrigued? Buy this week's wine special and try some cheese with it. See how the cheese changes when the wine accompanying it changes. Take some notes and compare with friends and if you have any super cheese pairings to suggest with one of this week's wines, please email and I'll post the suggestions next week.

Here are my general suggestions for cheese pairings with this week's wine special:
'04 Collier Falls Zinfandel--Muenster or Point Reyes Blue
'02 Collier Falls Cabernet Sauvignon--cheddar or Parmesan
'06 Collier Falls Primitivo--Gouda or Pecorino