Welcome to the France 44 Cheesecutter! Every month, we will aim to explore a new area of cheese and provide our opinions and recommendations. We want to help you decide month by month which cheese is best to melt on your grilled cheese, which soft cheese is best to take with you on a picnic, and which stinky cheese pairs best with that bottle of bubbly in your fridge.
While the flavors of cheese itself can very intensely based on milk type, coagulation process, and aging environment; sometimes cheese makers will also add botanicals to the cheese to further affect the end result. Usually these add-ins are classic pairings to the base cheese, but sometimes they have an effect on the cheese making process itself resulting in an even more complex outcome that would have been impossible without certain botanical additions.
Botanical cheeses will represent the changing seasons as well with different mix-ins depending on what is available when the cheese is being made. Spring botanical cheeses often see additions like fresh figs and honey whereas when Fall rolls arounds, we’ll start to see intense black peppercorn rinds and rich truffle carpaccio included.
So whether your picking up a beautiful springtime wedge of Alp Blossom, or looking to add a pepper-y kick to a Sunday dinner with Belper Knolle, there’s a delicious botanical cheese option waiting for your cheese drawer.
What to Consider:
- Texture: Botanicals can be added into all different types of cheese at all different stages of the cheesemaking process. Are you looking for a soft fresh chevre or drier, crumbly cheddar?
- Purpose: In what way are you utilizing this cheese? Are you serving this cheese on a platter with meats, jams, and other cheeses or grating it over a warm pasta dish as the finishing touch?
- Flavor: Botanical cheeses can have many potential additions ranging from sweet figs and honey to spicy peppers and savory herbs.
- Feeling: What kind of feeling do you want to have when you eat this cheese? Are you looking for something romantic, feeling adventurous, or are you searching for something comforting and nostalgic. What niche is this cheese fulfilling in your kitchen? Are you eating this as part of a romantic meal with a loved one? Gifting it to your friend who’s always searching for that next culinary obsession?
Flavor Bomb: Belper Knolle
Belper Knolle is one of those cheeses that is immediately charming to anyone who happens to pick it up in the cheese case. It’s an extremely hard, small ball of cow’s milk cheese infused with garlic and pressed into black pepper giving it the taste of a full meal in one cheese. It’s best suited as a finishing cheese on any bowl of pasta or fresh spring salad where you might also use pecorino or parmesan. It’s ritualistic nature evokes the grating of a black truffle making it incredibly unique and the perfect foodie gift.
Seasonal Specialty: Alp Blossom
Alp Blossom is a Bavarian cheese that’s covered in locally sourced edible alpine flowers and herbs. It’s an absolute stunner of a cheese that could replace any Mother’s Day bouquet of flowers. The cheese itself is perfectly savory and salty whereas the rind brings in a beautiful sweet floral flavor (and you absolutely should eat the rind on this one!). It’s seasonality makes it the perfect cheese to celebrate the changing of the seasons! Pair it with bresaola to enhance the meatiness of the paste or on a cocoa nib cracker to bring out the sweetness of the rind.
Most Meltable: Jake's Nettle Gouda
This incredbly creamy gouda Jake’s gouda is aged for just a couple months, giving it that super creamy and meltable texture. This particular gouda has Jake’s nettle mix of several herbs all throughout. This creates a self-seasoned savory cheese with delicious notes of garlic and parsley and onion. Melt this into your next Mac and cheese for a savory twist or snack on it with wildflower honey on rosemary crackers to enhance the herbaceousness.
For the Goat Lovers: Petit Chevre au Piment D’Espelette & Fromage Frais
- Petit Chevre au Piment D’Espelette: This tangy young chevre features a gorgeous, bright red rind that’s been pressed with the Espelette pepper. The chevre itself is acidic and bright and the pepper rind adds a slight enjoyable kick that helps to round out this beautiful French cheese.
- Fromage Frais: The fromage frais series comes from the Nettle Meadow creamery in New York State. Known for running a separate sheep and goat sanctuary, this cheese maker places a lot of pride in sourcing delicious and ethical milk for their cheeses. The fromage frais cheeses are whipped fresh chevre with seasonal mix-ins such as fig & honey and a fresh herb-y mix in the spring time. This light and airy option is fantastic on toast or whipped together with eggs for creamy well seasoned omelette.
