Nevat: If You're Careful its All That

Ha ha, what a funny title. You may be wondering why I'm reviewing so much cheese. Well, first of all we bought it and I'm eating it. And I still haven't fully mentally returned from my Mexico trip, meaning I have not had any energy to cook anything except rice maker rice (tasty as usual)

Back to the cheese. The lovely wife loves Nevat, but I have always thought it hit or miss. The piece pictured above clearly was a bit under ripe when bought, although it aged a bit in the fridge for the past few days and actually tasted rather good today. Since I didn't know much about the cheese I did a little research to find out why the taste ranged from the sublime to the Phildelphia Cream Cheese.

The most comprehensive article on Nevat in the San Francisco Chronicle 2 years ago. In summary, it describes how Nevat is a goat cheese from Catalonia created by Josep Cuixart. This alone was a revelation, as I had always thought that Nevat was a French Cheese. The word Nevat means "snowy" in Spanish. Nevat is a three layered cheese: and edible rind, a soft, almost gooey middle, and a firm, more "chevre" like center. This is because the rind is injected with the penicillium mold (maybe it cures strep?).

The problem with Nevat is that it does not travel very well and has a peak period from 6o to 70 days after creation. The mature cheese should not be snowy white, but have little flecks of yellow in the rind. As you can see, we had at most the begining of this in this piece of Nevat. When ripe, its pretty awesome, like a combination of a good chevre and Camembert. When way to under ripe, it tastes like library paste and cream cheese. Insist on a taste before you buy and if it tastes good, serve within one to two days.