A student at University of Guelph learns how to pour Camembert-style cheese into forms.
Cheese smarts: Get what you need for a career in cheese was the CheeseLover.ca post garnering the most views during 2012. Thing is the post was written in June 2010 and needs updating, so we better get to it. Two other older posts rounded out the top three, so we better get cracking on new material that’s compelling.
In 2012, there were 33 new posts, growing the total archive to 190 posts. There were 64 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 22 MB. That’s about a picture per week.
For every 25 completed surveys submitted by January 31, we will award two FREE tickets valued at $80 to the Festival’s Artisan Cheese & Fine Food Fair. Winners in the draw will be notified in February.
No, you don’t need a million dollars to start making artisan cheese commercially. The proof is in the photo which shows how Adam Blanchard does it at Five Brothers Artisan Cheese, Newfoundland’s only artisanal cheese company. As Kelsie Parsons discovered:
Adam doesn’t have an expensive pasteurizer, a huge vat or other impressive equipment. His production facility consists of a commercial kitchen where he makes cheese in stock pots on the stove top and he cuts the curds with a fillet knife. He ages his cheeses in reworked refrigerators. Five Brothers produces mozzarella, queso fresco, cheddar, brie and the occasional blue.
Kelsie crossed Canada last summer visiting cheesemakers to gather material for an upcoming book on the Canadian artisan cheese scene. He’s a guest blogger at Cheese and Toast maintained by Sue Riedl. Click here for Kelsie’s take on new Canadian cheesemakers to watch. His post is the source of the photo and anecdote published here with thanks.
The photo of Four Cheese Potato Gratin that caught my eye at Evil Shenanigans.
I kid you not. A week after I made Four Cheese Potato Gratin as a side for a holiday dinner, I dreamt of the wonderful aroma of four cheeses melting in warm milk. Even now, when I close my eyes and inhale, it’s as if I were standing in front of the open oven.
There is no better smell to warm the heart on a winter day.
I picked the recipe described by Kelly Jaggers in her blog Evil Shenanigans because of the mouth-watering photos she published. That’s her gratin above. Mine appears below.
The Four Cheese Potato Gratin as it came out of my oven.
Instead of just any parmesan, I went with the real deal, Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy.
The only thing I’d do different the next time is add a pinch of salt and pepper between layers and use more cheese than the recipe suggests, say, four cups total instead of three.
Riopelle de l’Isle: A world-class triple-cream—made in Canada.
I enjoy eating cheese from around the world but my passion is for fromages fins, artisan cheese made in Canada. When I hear someone praising an imported cheese to high heaven, my immediate reaction is: What do Canadian cheesemakers produce that is just as tasty, if not superior?
Call me chauvinistic, but I’d rather go with Riopelle de l’Isle, the first triple-cream artisanal cheese produced in Canada. It was launched in 2001 by Société Coopérative Agricole de l’Île-aux-Grues, located on an island in the St. Lawrence River northeast of Québec City, and quickly became a huge success.
A wedge of Riopelle reveals a creamy and incredibly smooth centre beneath a thin, bloomy rind. Leaving an exquisite hint of butter, it is absolutely enchanting.
Named for Jean-Paul Riopelle, a world-renowned Canadian artist.
Jean-Paul Riopelle, the world-renowned painter who spent the last years of his life on l’Île-aux-Grues, gave his name and the image of one of his best-known paintings to the cheese. In return, part of the profits financially help students of the island who wish to attend high school or university.
Laliberté: a triple-cream created by award-winning chessemaker Jean Morin.
If there were no Riopelle to be had, I’d select a another Québec beauty, this one created by Jean Morin at Fromagerie du Presbytère in Sainte-Élizabeth de Warwick, Québec:
Laliberté, a triple-cream cheese made with whole organic cow’s milk from the family dairy farm across the road from the creamery. It’s such a rich dairy delight!
Given the critical and commercial success of Riopelle over the last decade, Canadian producers of cheese on an industrial scale now also offer triple-creams:
The factory cheeses are OK, if you can get past the modified milk ingredients used in their manufacture, but the artisanal producers who use pure milk are the ones who deserve and need the support of Canadian cheese lovers.
Especially with recent rumblings from Ottawa that Canada’s producers of artisan cheeses may face greater challenges in the future. A report in the Ottawa Citizen indicates the Canadian government and European Union are close to a deal that would see a substantial increase in exports of European dairy products—mainly cheese—to Canada in exchange for greater access to European customers for Canadian beef, pork and canola.
