Food Wednesday at the NY Times...

[lsanderson]

The New York Times
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October 4, 2006
The Earth Is the Finishing Touch
By MARIAN BURROS

BY going underground, Mary and David Falk have stayed on top of most artisanal cheesemakers in this country.

For 10 years, at their Love Tree Farmstead in Grantsburg, Wis., they have been aging cheeses in caves dug into a hillside, their concrete walls painted with pictographs. The Falks say it’s the only way to produce deeply flavored, nuanced, natural-rind tommes and wheels like those of European cheesemakers.

“We believe in fresh-air aging, pollens, molds, humidity,” Ms. Falk said. “And we’ve positioned our cave so that it is surrounded by a wildlife refuge. It’s really a head trip to see semis pull up in the woods to get the cheese. It’s like from ‘The Twilight Zone.’ We wanted something that worked on the natural rhythm of the area. We took the microflora from what was there; we get humidity from the springs.”

Over the past few years, the Falks have been joined by a number of other cheesemakers, particularly on the East Coast, who want a more natural way of aging to give each cheese its own character. Stepping away from above-ground hermetic aging rooms with artificially controlled temperature and humidity and from ripening cheese wrapped in Cryovac or sealed in wax, these cheesemakers have started a little construction boom in caves and cellars, getting a bit closer to the way cheese was aged for centuries.

Jeff Roberts, a co-founder of the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese, who is just finishing the first “Atlas of American Artisan Cheese,” to be published by Chelsea Green next June, said there are at least 35 caves and cellars in the United States, with seven more under construction. As cheesemaking and the appreciation of good cheese have matured in the United States in the past few years, American cheesemakers have begun to better understand the place of microflora — bacteria, yeast, molds — in the process of aging cheese. In these new caves and cellars, cheeses are exposed to an array of the tiny organisms local to the area.

“Caves are not only great in terms of maintaining temperature and humidity but they also reflect the unique microflora communities,” Mr. Roberts said. “The microflora interacts with cheese; the cheese obtains a certain level of quality and so does the microflora. The cheese evolves over time and you can’t regulate it. It has a powerful connection to place.” More

Eggs Take Their Place at the Dinner Table
By MARK BITTMAN

IT symbolizes fertility and beauty, and it has an unrivaled simplicity of form. It represents one of the most perfect of foods, from just about every standpoint: nutrition, flavor and versatility. And it has an unrivaled ability to stand alone or to contribute to other dishes.

What it doesn’t represent is dinner.

Meet the still underrated egg, everybody’s favorite breakfast food in a world in which people eat a real breakfast once a week. The egg, the cheapest form of complete protein you can find, at about a dollar a pound. (Eggs cost less outside of cities, where a dozen are still a buck; more if you go organic or really local, which are both good options.) The egg, which people are suddenly jumping for in upscale restaurants even though they can’t conceive of having it for dinner at home, except in an emergency. The egg, a surprising choice. More

Australia’s New Threat to Riesling Royalty
By ERIC ASIMOV

WITH the fervor of the vinously disenfranchised, riesling lovers have long worshiped the trinity of Germany, Austria and Alsace. Each produces wines that are distinctive expressions of a grape that is both the most versatile and the most undervalued in the world.

Germany has its vast reach of riesling styles, from dry and stony to delicately sweet to gloriously syrupy. Austria’s rieslings are dry, focused and minerally, while Alsace’s are dramatic, sometimes unpredictable.

It’s a shorthand formulation with the virtues of neatness and accuracy, yet it sometimes feels smug, as if these riesling powers are unassailable. It practically begs for an interloper, one that will stir things around, win a few friends and influence some people.

Behold Australia, land of fruit bombs and salesmanship and industrial wines with cute critter names. Australia, yes that Australia, has stepped into the sacred circle and poured its rieslings into the chalice for judgment. More

Food Stuff
A Taste of Roman Cooking, Before Tomatoes
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

The cookbook attributed to the second century Roman writer Marcus Apicius is thought to be the earliest in the Western world. One ninth-century copy, from the Fulda monastery in Germany, was acquired in 1929 by the New York Academy of Medicine, along with thousands of other culinary books and documents. Thanks to the Culinary Trust, a division of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, its binding has been restored and it can now be viewed by scholars, by appointment. A photocopy can be seen in the academy’s rare book room, 1216 Fifth Avenue (103rd Street), also by appointment: (212) 822-7313.

A new edition in Latin with an English translation, “Apicius, a Critical Edition,” by Christopher Grocock and Sally Grainger (Prospect Books, $80), and a recipe book, “Cooking Apicius: Roman Recipes for Today” by Ms. Grainger (Prospect Books, $19.95 paper), are sold at amazon.com and Kitchen Arts & Letters, 1435 Lexington Avenue (94th Street). More

Comments

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

I do believe that these are our beloved Sheep Cheese people from the St. Paul farmer's market.

Yes, it is very good cheese!

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

It is indeed. I happen to know all of the cheeses listed(no shock) and think the world of some of those people, I have a soft spot for Jasper Hill Farm.

Now if we could just get Mary from Lovetree to sell her cheese to retailers or at least me.:)