Ewephoria Aged Sheep's Milk Gouda

Our friends from London have become, for the week, a part of our friends from Fire Island. I do not think that we will become their friends from Bigbury on Sea next year but we should make it their way to go skiing. Anyway, when they came out, they brought several different kinds of cheese's from Murray's Cheese Shop at Grand Central Terminal. One of these cheeses is "Ewephoria," a aged sheep's milk Gouda from Holland.

Ewephoria was developed several years ago by CheeseLand, a Seattle based importer of Dutch Cheeses (source: SFGATE), who worked with a farm in Holland. The cheese, an aged gouda which is somewhat sweet, was developed for the American market. The cheese has an aged Gouda texture and mouthfeel, and also the pleasant aftertaste that aged Gouda tends to have. Although not "dessertlike" it really does have a different taste than traditional aged Gouda cheese. It also has a pretty good price.

Although I personally don't like the name, Ewephoria is a good cheese. The review in SFGate by Janet Fletcher is correct; it would taste best as a dessert cheese. Its mildly sweet taste would not be offset by a sweet dessert wine and it retains many of the qualities that I enjoy in a traditional aged Gouda.

Beware of Cheese in Leaves!!!

Although this may be an absolute generalization, I am officially coming out against cheeses that are wrapped in leaves. After last weeks drubbing of Sarl Beillavaire "Montrachet", the lovely wife purchased an attractive looking cheese named La Rossa. This soft cheese, from Italy, is covered in Brandy soaked cherry leaves, and looked great. Its when you unwrap the leaves that the problems start happening.

The cheese has a yellow and white striped soft rind. It is aged 30 days and is made from a combination of cow and sheep's milk. After I removed the leaves, I couldn't decide if the actual cheese was attractive or not. Sometimes I thought it looked pretty (it sort of does in the photo), but at other times I thought it looked a little like fish skin. The cheese itself does not taste bad; in fact it does not taste like much of anything. It's sort of like cream cheese. With leaves.

If anyone knows any leaf wrapped cheeses that they like, please post and let me know!

PS: Some people really liked this cheese. You can look here for an alternate point of view.

Berkswell Cheese From Neal's Yard Dairy. Expensive But Good

I first became conscious of Neal's Yard Dairy when we were in London in January, although we did not visit their store as we went to the closer to where we were staying La Fromagerie. In addition to selling cheese in England, Neal's Yard Dairy is a company in London that finds and distributes farm-made and artisinal cheeses from Great Britain. One cheese that they distribute here is Berskwell Cheese, which I found at Zabar's. Berkswell is produced by the Ram Hall Dairy farm, which has been making cheese since 1989 and exporting it to the US for the past 10 years.

Berkswell cheese is an aged sheep's milk cheese. It is made with vegetarian rennet. The rind is thick and quite pitted, but tasty. The cheese itself is a very smooth sheep, without the crumbliness you often find in others such as Manchego. The rind is edible and tasty. It really is a rather exceptional piece of cheese. Which is good. Because it really had a rather exceptional price. Now, having recently been in London, where a trip to Subway can run $15, I am not surprised. But I would save this one for people who really love cheese or for yourself. They will cut you a small piece if you ask.

Ciabot: Pretty Cheese For the Holidays

The lovely wife bought Ciabot for a gathering because, well, it looked lovely. And it does. A rinded wheel, it comes wrapped in plastic with its own little ribbon. Even the label that comes with it is stylish. And why not? Ciabot is made by Cora, an artisinal Italian cheese make known for wrapping cheese in leaves. Ciabot is made of cow and sheep cheese. It stored well (although only briefly) in our refrigerator, and warmed up quickly to a mildly gooey, minimally tangy cheese. It is not strongly flavored but definitely tastes like something. It would be good early in a cheese plate. In fact, it is on the cheese plate at the Gramercy Tavern. All in all, a good cheese that looks great. We bought ours at Zabar's, although it seems to be more widely available.