Stinky Cheese Tuesday, May 6, 2014

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***Today’s Stinky Cheese Tuesday has been brought to you by Jeff Japinga, Dean of the Doctorate Program at McCormick!***

A huge thank you to Jeff Japinga for being so kind as to bring in the cheeses for today!  He described it as being “a tour of Northern Europe” and “a very white cheese day”.  It most certainly is both.

Firstly, since three of today’s cheeses would be termed “swiss cheese” by your average American, a bit of an education liberally stolen from Wikipedia.

Three types of bacteria are used in the production of Emmental cheese: Streptococcus salivarius subspecies thermophilus, Lactobacillus (Lactobacillus helveticus or Lactobacillus delbrueckii subspecies bulgaricus), and Propionibacterium (Propionibacterium freudenreichii subspecies shermani). In a late stage of cheese production, the propionibacteria consume the lactic acid excreted by the other bacteria and release acetate, propionic acid, and carbon dioxide gas. The carbon dioxide slowly forms the bubbles that develop the “eyes”. The acetate and propionic acid give Swiss its nutty and sweet flavor.

That is where the holes come from, and also what differentiates all three of the “swiss” cheeses on hand for today.

We’ll start off with the Castello Danish Fontina.  It is a soft, mild cheese that has a bit of a bite to it, and quite a strong smell to it.  It should not be confused with an Italian fontina which typically has a much stronger flavor and is aged for quite some time.  This cheese actually reminds me a bit of a provolone with the same kind of peculiar sharpness to it, which comes from stopping the maturation process while there is still a lot of lactic acid in the cheese.

Next is the Kerrygold Swiss.  It is a mildly sharp, nutty swiss that just begs to be melted on a burger.  Kerrygold continues to impress me, being a cheese maker that has made so many different styles of cheese from all over Europe, but done them all so very well.

The last of our swiss cheeses is Tine’s Jarlsberg.  This is a Norwegian cheese that is like a drier, milder swiss.  Not quite a hard cheese, but not as soft as your average swiss, it has a very mild, nutty flavor and is one of my favorites.

I saved my personal favorite for last, with the Old Amsterdam Aged Gouda.  This is a nutty, hard, salty and buttery cheese with a complex flavor that just makes my taste buds sing.  It is an absolute joy to eat!

Again, a very special thanks to Jeff Japinga and the Doctorate of Ministry department at McCormick for providing today’s fare!

Until next week!