"goatcheese" news and stories

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.

Before you get the wrong idea, this isn't a blog post about cheese-themed choir pieces sung by nerdy high school students à la TV's 'Glee.' Instead, it's about Acapella, a smooth creamy goat's milk cheese that harmoniously blends a peppery taste from its ash-coated rind with an herbal aroma emanating from its soft cake-like paste. So, what about this cheese from Andante Dairy in Petaluma, Calif. evokes a cappella singing? We spoke with Soyoung Scanlan, owner of Andante Dairy, to find out how this reference to music reflects not just the pure taste of goat's milk, but also the handmade process involved in creating the cheese.

A cheese's name has a lot to do with its distinct shape. This is especially true with goat's milk cheeses, since they are shaped like everything from logs and discs to pyramids and hearts. So, although the name Snowdrop may not seem seasonally appropriate, it absolutely makes sense when admiring the cheese's round snowball-like size and its bloomy, bright, wrinkly white rind covered in penicillium candidum, the white mold also found on wheels of Brie.

Indeed, the reasons why Haystack Mountain Snowdrop is named after its shape have to do with a lot more than just its physical appearance. According to Maureen Reagan, sales manager at Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy in Longmont, Colo., the shape is partially responsible for the cheese's milder flavor and firmer texture when compared to the dairy's other goat's milk cheeses, like Haystack Aspen Ash and Haystack Peak.