"goat cheese" news and stories

What happens when cheesemakers blend the best of goat's milk and washed-rind cheeses? Imagine the sweet grassiness of a soft-ripened chèvre, like Andante's Acapella, combined with the gaminess and spiciness of a washed-rind cheese, like Sablé de Wissant.

Ziegenhof Leiner's Zigorome is just such a cheese hybrid from Sulzberg, Germany. This washed-rind goat cheese, just 150 g (5.5 oz), is brushed with a brine (a combination of water and salt) during a four-week-long aging process that gives the rind its light orange-like color and sticky touch.

In France, cheese is typically eaten at the end of the meal, and many restaurants even serve it as a dessert. So it's not shocking that when developing a cheese and vegetable (shallots and chives) dish, Fromagerie Foucher's Hugues Foucher would look to the ever-popular macaron for inspiration.

The black-greenish powdery film of vegetable ash that runs through the middle of cheeses is often mistakenly identified as mold. In cheeses, such as Humboldt Fog, this layer of edible ash is purely aesthetic. But, when it comes to Morbier, a French cow's milk cheese, it's all about giving the impression of preserving tradition. Hundreds of years ago the line of ash separated the morning milk from the afternoon milk; sadly, that's no longer the case. Interestingly, this custom is being revived and reworked by an American dairy, Prairie Fruits Farm in Champaign, Illinois. In their pyramid-shaped Krotovina (shown above), vegetable ash divides the cheese into two distinct parts – goat's milk and sheep's milk.

When it comes to cheese, surprisingly, there is a universe of caramel and butterscotch flavors to explore. Often occurring in aged cheeses, such as French Mimolette and Dutch Roomano, the sensation of savoring the candy-like flavor happens thanks to the type of milk used to produce the cheese and the process of affinage. This is certainly the case with an aged piece of Capricious, a goat's milk cheese from Achadinha Cheese Company in Petaluma, Calif. Below its rustic brown rind is a yellowish white paste and a caramel-like treat.

This time of the year, with temperatures routinely in the nineties, no fruit is more refreshing than watermelon. Those seeking a break from the heat can enjoy the cool taste of chilled watermelon salad with feta cheese. To find out the best way to combine the sweet and salty components, we turned to Chef Glenn Harris from restaurant Jane in New York City. He shared the recipe for one of his signature dishes that's on the menu at Jane until mid-September – "Watermelon & Yellow Tomato Tartare with Baby Arugula and Catapano Goat Cheese Vinaigrette." (Catapano is a soft and creamy, feta-like cheese made with goat's milk from Catapano Dairy Farm in Peconic, N.Y., near Long Island's North Fork.)