More wonderful cheese

My mood was greatly improved by today's arrival of the second Zingerman's cheese package. This set was cheeses of Switzerland. Normally Swiss cheese is not my first choice, but these were fabulously fabulous. Dinner was toast (of the Zingerman's loaf that comes in the lovely FedEx package), cheese, and salad, accompanied by dramatic readings from the extensive and entertaining packet of information that came along with the food.

The varieties:

L'Etiaz (pronouced, the Zingerman's folks tell us, LEY-tea-ah). This is a crazy, super-artisan cheese made to standards so exacting that the makers divorced themselves from the Switzerland Cheese Association because they felt it was too lax. "Pulling out of the government-supervised Gruyère program because it's not strict enough," our packet points out, "is like moving out of Montana because it's over-populated." Anyway, it is great: tender and sweet and complexly flavored. The texture was really amazing: it had a fascinating crunchiness just at the end, as if it were al dente or, as S. and I both independently thought, as if it had little sugar crystals embedded in it. Great stuff, my favorite of the three.

Antique Gruyère. Snark's favorite. This is just a lovely, small-production, well-aged Gruyère, smooth in texture but not at all springy. It has a rich, fruity flavor. It's basically like any Gruyère, just a dozen times better.

Antique Emmenthal. A classic Swiss cheese, with holes, also well-aged. It's dense and chewy in texture, and totally lacking the harshness that many lesser Swiss cheeses have. A nice winey flavor, assertive but not the least bit aggressive. It will be fabulous melted; we're making macaroni and cheese tomorrow.

Posted by redfox at August 29, 2002 09:24 PM (dinner reports)

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