Today we have a lovely little Wisconsin cheddar, from Carr Valley.

More below the cut.

Biographical Information:
Carr Valley 4 Year Cheddar
Obtained from: Madison Whole Foods (University Avenue)
Price: $14.99/lb

This cheddar comes from local cheesemakers Carr Valley, whose cheese I’ve sampled around town over the last year or so. I think I had a four year organic Carr to review but it looks like it slipped my mind. Hmm.

At any rate, this is basically your high-grade, Wisconsin sharp yellow cheddar. It’s largely comparable to Brennan’s Four Year Cheddar, though obviously a bit pricier, as I believe the Brennan’s sells for about 9 dollars a pound. You can taste some more bitter notes in this cheese, and it’s a tad drier. It feels a little older, though obviously not by much; aside from being another 4 year cheddar, it doesn’t have the calcium crystals that cheddars develop as they get older.

This is a fine middle of the road four year cheddar, nice for crumbling, tasty as a topping. I personally have a slight preference for the Brennan’s Four Year, but I could see going with Carr Valley for variety. It’s a bit more assertive so it would probably do better as a cheese for sampling; as a component of cooking, you might want to go with the Brennan’s. If you are particularly averse to, or in favor of, bitter cheese, then you can obviously make your decision based on that as well.

Whatever floats your boat.

Final Scores:
Me: A-

Today’s cheese I picked out for one reason and one reason only, purely on impulse:

By the pound, it’s the most expensive cheese I’ve ever had.

Below the cut for more.

So I was wandering the cheese counter at Whole Foods, as I am wont to do, in search of something new and perhaps exotic for the old Cheese Blog. I examined this and that, and happened to pick up a tiny piece of soft blueish cheese when I see the price tag, which at first I think has to be a misprint:

It wasn’t. This little beauty is 44.99 A POUND. Ouch.

Biographical Information:
French Raw Milk Roquefort
Obtained from: Madison Whole Foods (University Avenue)
Price: $44.99/lb

I had to have it. Even if it’s only a tiny sliver, and even if that tiny sliver cost as much as a pound or more of a nice four year cheddar. Even if it cost over 6 times as much as the perfectly respectable and quite tasty Roth Kase blue cheese I reviewed a while back.

It would be mine. Thanks to my roommate’s lucrative paycheck, oh yes… it would be mine.

Mwahahaha.

At any rate, I got this baby home and forgot about it for a while, but eventually we cracked it open for a veggie plate, whence I sadly neglected to get pictures.

This cheese is… well, it’s very good, actually.

This Roquefort is a sharp blue, in essence.. a tiny bit gritty and extremely, extremely strong. The blue/bleu flavor is almost overpowering, not unlike a habanero is for hot peppers; it washes over your tongue in a wave. It’s also very salty.

However for me the most noteworthy quality is that it doesn’t just melt in your mouth, it liquefies in a moment, dissolving away into nothing. This is a fascinating experience for cheese.. I swear it melts like a very soft ice cream, only it’s not cold. It must have a phase transition just a tiny bit above the refrigerator case temp or some such. It’s really neat, as far as cheese goes.

Ok, so how to review this one. The roomie thought it was ok, she found the strength overpowering, whereas I loved the novelty. If you like a strong bluey cheese, then brother, you’ve got a winner here. Plus you can show off your love of snooty French cuisine in its cheesy finery.

Final Scores:
Me: A-
Roomie: B

Who needs integrity though, when you have a great Wisconsin cheese to try?

Biographical Information:
Roth Käse Moody Blue
Obtained from: Madison Whole Foods (University Avenue)
Price: $7.99/lb

Bad jokes aside, this is quite the cheese for 8 bucks a pound. As you would expect from a blue, it’s a crumbly cheese with a lot of liquid, very rich, slightly sour and possessing that distinctive ‘bleu’ flavor, along with the moldy filaments of blue stretching throughout the cheesy mass.

The Moody Blue is a bit different from your standard high quality blue cheese, however. It has an extra sort of buttermilky creaminess to the taste, which stands out when you first try the cheese. This buttermilk flavor then fades into the more expected blue qualities on your tongue, so it’s almost like getting two delicious cheeses in one convenient package.

In addition to a nice variation on the blue flavor, the Moody Blue has a very nice, smooth and creamy blue texture, neither too runny nor too dry. With blue cheese, even the really good ones, eating the cheese is often kind of a mess, with a lot of excess liquid sloshing around; that’s not the case here, and it’s a pleasant surprise.

In terms of serving this cheese, the Moody Blue goes very well with a vegetable plate, or added to an alfredo sauce for a little bit of a kick. At some point I might add a little to some macaroni and cheese… hmm, macaroni and blue cheese, aghghghg….

In conclusion, the HCT Cheese Blog can heartily recommend this one for all your affordable high-end Blue Cheese needs.

Final Scores:
Me: A
The Roomie: A-

Sadly, this is one classic that’s better left in the past.

Wisconsin Mammoth Cheddar
Obtained from: Madison Whole Foods (University Avenue)
Price: $3.99/lb

Yes, you’re reading that price correctly. This Mammoth Cheddar is the least expensive cheese we’ve ever reviewed here at the HCT Cheese Blog, comparable in price with some stuff from the Kraft section of your local market’s dairy department.

The cheese itself is a standard, stereotypical orange color, with a nice softness to the touch when you examine it in the store. Combined with the lower price, this means you can buy a great big squishable hunk and have your very own cheese plush toy (at least until you get hungry).

This is a very young cheddar, as the store pointed out in its display, so I expected it to be very mild, but I was shocked at just HOW mild it turned out to be. This cheddar doesn’t really taste like a cheddar at all. In fact, in terms of both texture and flavor, this is a Colby.

I don’t like Colby much, and never have, even as a child. Colby cheese differs from cheddar largely in that it lacks the ‘cheddaring’ process that makes it sharper and richer, so I guess that it figures that a cheddar that wasn’t given a great deal of time to age might turn out like a colby… still, I was disappointed. I had been hoping for a soft, very mild but-still-cheddar cheddar, possibly something smooth and creamy with a lot of moisture in it, suitable for sandwiches. Instead I got a colby, all springy and with that distinctive colbyish sour blandness. Blech.

We tried using this Col-Cheddar with a variety of meals, and it didn’t stand out in any of them particularly. The texture, while pleasant in the store, isn’t anything special on the plate, and the taste is.. well, there isn’t much really. It’s a poor substitute for our usual cheddars from Brennan’s.

The roommate largely agreed with me, though I’m not sure she shares my general hatred of the Colby Arts. In the end, a huge hunk of neon orange colby makes for a better toy, wrapped in cellophane, than a cheese for this blog.

Final Scores:
Me: C-
Roommate: C-

Biographical Information:

Brennan’s Blue Ribbon Blue
Obtained from: Brennan’s (Madison West Side)

First, before the review, I’ve got to show off a neat trick with this cheese. When you buy it in the store, you can see that the cheese isn’t… exactly… blue.

More of a brownish color. When I got this cheese, Brennan’s actually had a display with samples out and a sign stating that it would TURN blue… after exposure to the air.

This I had to see. So I made sure to take before and after pictures when I opened the package, and….

Sure enough! It turns blue. Well, blue-grey.

Color changing cheese. Wisconsin is great.

Yes, I’m sure this isn’t unique to them. Who cares?

As a blue cheese, Blue Ribbon Blue is definitely better than average, rich with an oily tang to it. It goes quite well with a veggie plate. Not as sharp as a lot of blue cheeses, however, and it is sadly not our favorite blue cheese since we came to Wisconsin. We’ll have to get another piece of that cheese sometime to review… but I digress.

Final Scores:

Me: B+ (89 percent)
Roomie: B-

First, the housekeeping. In order to get a more granular review system, and because I was brainwashed by the American educational system, I’m changing this blog to the standard US grading system, rather than the previous (mostly) numerical review system.

Essentially I can rate on a 1-100 scale now and then peg it with a letter for easier referral. Earlier, I was basically ranking them with 3 being average, 4 very good, and 5 being great. I would translate that as 3 = C, 4 = B, 5 = A… roughly. A lot of the 3s would probably be more like B-s, or a C+. I may go back and convert them all into letters later, but if not, just remember that scale.

Ok, now, on to the review!

Biographical Information:

American Grana (Wisconsin Made)
Obtained from: Brennan’s (Madison West Side)

Despite being marketed as a direct replacement to parmesean, as you can see on the above packaging, I’m not sure that this Grana is terribly analagous. It is a hard, dry Italian style white cheese, but it’s also milder and somewhat more moist than a block of Parmesean. It also possesses a subtle, interesting flavor, which my roommate in particular had a fondness for.

It grates quite well, and it goes nicely on pasta.

So, on the new, standard scale, I would give it about a B-.  For a second opinion, I asked my roommate, who liked it somewhat more and gave it a solid B.

Final Scores:
Me: B-
Roomie: B

More below the cut.

Biographical Information:

1. Edelweiss Aged Gouda
2. Obtained from: Whole Foods Madison (University Avenue)

Overall, this was a pretty solid cheese. It’s rich, soft, and fairly flavorful for a gouda. It’s pretty basic I guess, but you can certainly tell that it’s a high quality product, creamy and delicious.

If you get a chance, try it.

My Review: 4/5 Stars

Biographical Information:

1. Blue Mont Bandaged Cheddar
2. Obtained from: Madison Whole Foods (University Avenue)

This is grade-A, super hippy, only-in-Wisconsin cheese territory folks.  I can’t locate a website for the Blue Mont cheesemakers itself, but there are quite a few cheese selling websites up that talk a bit about the farm and the process used to make this and other Blue Mont cheeses.

Bleu Mont Dairy lies in the beautiful rolling hills near Blue Mounds, just west of Madison, Wisconsin.
Bleu Mont Dairy is part of a farmcommitted to sustainable agriculture and renewable energy. The farm sits atop a ridge near Blue Mounds State Park in the picturesque driftless region of southern Wisconsin. Even from a distance, the main power source — a 10kw wind generator — can be spotted above the treetops.
A long driveway leads past a field of rotational organic gardens up to the passive solar home and newly constructed underground cave, greenhouse and orchard. Besides assorted organic cheeses, Willi and his partner Q’uitas grow in-season garlic and asparagus.

…

Organic milk is sourced from local dairies and cheesemaking takes place either at Cedar Grove’s facility or at the nearby Uplands Dairy, makers of Pleasant Ridge Reserve. His artisan cheeses are made with milk from certified organic and rotationally grazed cows.
However, Willi brings all his cheeses back to Bleu Mont for aging. Having constructed a straw bale “cave” in 2003, Willi recently finished construction of a vast undergroun [sic] cave that has been built into the hillside adjacent to the house.
Cheeses are aged on cedar boards and both the temperature and humidy [sic] of the cave remain constant without any artificial or mechanical help.
With help from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Dairy Research, Willi traveled to England to learn from several cheddar producers.

From Marion Street Cheese Market

Organic milk, underground cave, aged on cedar boards, wind-powered super-hippy cheese.  No wonder it costs almost 27 dollars a pound.

Now, to review the cheese itself; this is a good cheddar.  Mild, dry for a cheddar, nice rich, slightly sharp flavor.  Sort of a cross between a cheddar and an asiago.

However, by the standards of local cheddar, I just don’t think it’s anything exceptional.  I appreciate the attention to detail and the green power, organic milk, etc.   Ultimately though, unless you can get a very small piece, like I did, I can’t recommend spending this amount of money on this particular cheese. It’s just too pricey.

My Review: 3/5 stars.

Second Opinion by the Roommate: Basically the same, 3/5 stars.

Wisconsin Ricotta.

Fortunately for the blog (which officially pursues Wisconsin cheese whenever possible, for cost, for availability, and for freshness), Whole Foods had just the thing.

Biographical Information:

1. Wisconsin Ricotta (Grande Wisconsin Del Pastaio Impastata)
2. Purchased From: Madison Whole Foods, University Avenue

The ricotta is very smooth and creamy. Slightly mild, and less gritty than many of your mainstream grocery store ricottas.

I put the ricotta on top of some spaghetti with basil tomato sauce. Then I baked it for a while, and added mozzarella to melt and get gooey, and some fresh basil from Ridgeland Harvest.

Hmm. Delicious.

4/5 Stars for the Ricotta.

First up, the biographical information:

• Smoked Provolone
• Purchased from: Brennan’s Market (Madison, West Side)
• Made in Belgium, Wisconsin
• 2009 American Cheese Contest Score: 98.25

• Whole Milk Mozzarella
• Purchased from: Brennan’s Market (Madison, West Side)
• Made in Wisconsin

Now for the reviews:

The provolone is really quite different from any provolone I’d had before, smoked or otherwise. It was… intense. Richer, with a strong tangy acidy aftertaste. Pleasant, but one of those cases where the
high quality Wisconsin cheese is a departure from the stuff you get in the rest of the country.

4/5 Stars, Recommended.

The Whole Milk Mozzarella… hmm. Not that memorable in some respects, but very melty. As I recall, it is richer, being whole milk vs. skim or part skim mozzarella, but that sort of goes without saying. Given that I primarily got it to put in Lasagna though, melting well is a big plus.

3/5 Stars

Here you can see them, layered into said Lasagna. They congealed very nicely into a single, cohesive layer of gooey dairy goodness, which I’ve never managed to get the cheese in a lasagna to do before.

Here is the final product, ready for the oven.

The green bits are some chopped garlic scapes from our CSA farm, Ridgeland Harvest.

Pasta is delicious.