Cheese: Tips on buying + some recommendations

Lately, my Friday night burger indulgence has been replaced by Friday night cheese.

I guess talking about cheese on my blog seems a little random, but I like to post about stuff I like, and I am totally into cheese lately. Last year my best friend Rachael and I took a cheese making class. One of the cheeses we made was ricotta. It was so amazingly rich and easy to make that I haven't bought ricotta since. If you haven't tried making ricotta at home, and you like to cook, please try it. I use a recipe that uses buttermilk, similar to the one found here at 101 Cookbooks. But I would like to try this one on Design*Sponge that uses lemon juice.

Ricotta is the easiest cheese to make, but making cheese in general is kind of like a form of art. I recently purchased a book called Mastering Cheese, and I am overwhelmed by how many different types of cheeses there are, who makes them, where and how they make them. And that there are so many of them, and how much one cheese varies from the next. I've even started a Pinterest board where I can keep track of cheeses I've tried and what they tasted like, as well cheeses I want to try, cheese accompaniments, and pretty photos of cheese. Seriously, what a dork.

I thought I'd do a cheese post to give some tips and recommend some of my favorite cheeses I've tried so far. Plus, I want cheese to be accessible. It is overwhelming to walk into a store with a cheese counter and not know what anything is, let alone how to pronounce it. You get that weird feeling like you're trying to be fancy and the dude behind the counter can smell your fear. That's what I feel like when I walk into a fancy restaurant. Like everyone knows I shouldn't be there. Am I the only person who feels this way? I can't be.

• The person behind the counter knows a lot about cheese (they should - it's their job), but they don't expect you to, so don't be afraid to ask questions and ask for samples. I recently went to a cheese shop and after the last customer was helped, I spent a good 20 minutes talking to the cheese guy – technically they're called cheesemongers, how cool is that? CHEESEMONGER. I told him what kinds of cheeses I already like, and based off that he gave me samples of cheeses he thought I might like. If I didn't like one, I told him (it helped to know what I didn't like about it) and we moved on to the next one. I ended up buying 2 new-to-me cheeses that I loved.

• If you don't have time to talk cheese with your CHEESEMONGER (it's never going to get old, people), do a little research ahead of time and make a list of some cheeses you'd like to try. Cheese.com is a very informative site that lists cheeses by name, country, texture, and type of milk. If you like goat cheese, click the link for goat's milk cheese and see what you find. If you know you like Manchego, you can do some research and find out that it's a sheep's milk cheese and go on from there. Plus, the description of Manchego tells you a few other cheeses that are similar.

• Another useful website I found, via cheese plate san francisco, lists a ton of different cheeses, tells you their country of origin, what kinds of milk they are made from, and – the real reason I bookmarked this site – how to pronounce them! 

• If you are super new to the wonderful world of cheese and don't even know where to begin or what kind of cheeses you like, go to your local grocery store and pick out a few already packaged cheeses as a starting point. All grocery stores will have basics like brie, goat cheese, bleu cheese, parmiggiano, asiago, and so on. Most will even have more than that. This way, you can get a feel for what you like and don't like and then you will have a jumping off point.

Here are a few of my favorite cheeses so far. I have to say "so far" because I feel like I've barely cracked the surface of cheese exploration!

Red Hawk by Cowgirl Creamery (photo from the LA Times)

This cheese has got me all fired up about cheese. I just tried it this past weekend and I can't stop thinking about it. It's mildly pungent and creamy, made from organic cow's milk from the Straus Family Dairy. It's rind is washed with a brine solution that gives it a reddish color. I actually just learned what "washed rind" means – brine or alcohol is washed over the cheese, creating a damp environment for certain molds and bacterias to grow. This results in a more "stinky" cheese.

Humboldt Fog by Cypress Grove Chevre

This cheese is pretty easy to find, and for that reason, you may have already tried it. It's a soft and creamy goat cheese with a layer of edible ash through the center. It's flavor is mildly tangy. Humboldt Fog has a bloomy rind. Bloomy rind cheeses ripen from the outside in, which is why when you cut into them you get a layer of creaminess or runniness just beneath the rind. For reference, brie is another type of (very different) cheese with a bloomy rind.

Red Dragon

Red Dragon is a buttery and spicy Welsh cheddar made with Welsh brown ale and mustard seeds. Since it really tastes like cheddar and a spicy brown mustard, this is delicious with cured meats and would even make a fancy grilled cheese. Kyle really liked this cheese.

Morbier

Morbier is a semi-firm cow's milk cheese that, just like Humboldt Fog, has a layer of edible ash through the center. What I found interesting about Morbier is that it's pretty stinky so you expect a pungent flavor, but the flavor is nutty and mild.

I plan on continuing Friday night cheese plates and trying new cheese and cheese accompaniments. This will be easy because cheese is becoming very accessible here in Orange County, with shops like Irvine Ranch Market, Whole Foods, The Meat House, Bru in Lake Forest, The Bruery, and the new cheese shop that just opened last week at the OC Mart Mix, as well as The Wine Lab which is opening soon at The Camp. My cheese journey continues. Luckily so does my Crossfit journey. I hope they balance each other out. :B