No UK entries made it, apparently none cleared customs for reasons not entirely clear.
List of the cheeses selected to be in the top 14:
The only US cheese to make the top 14 was Jasper Hill’s Bayley Hazen Blue (well deserved) but several others were recognized with a “Super Gold” designation: Directory - Guild of Fine Food
I have two of the Super Golds at home right now: Cypress Grove’s Humboldt Fog (a staple in my house) and Tulip Tree’s nightshade. Plus a Gold awardee, Jasper Hill’s Vault 5. We are really fortunate to have so many excellent American-made cheeses available.
it was interesting to go through the full list of us entrants tons of factory cheeses (murrays, belgioso) but also a few that I thought could do better and lots of non entrants
Large manufacturers have been entering the competition for years, and it is probably a good thing as it should encourage quality. I have used both the ricotta and American grana from Belgioioso and those are both good cheeses (at least for cooking, which is what I’ve used them for). A cheese like Humboldt Fog or Bayley Hazen are as good as anything produced in France. (And I say this as someone who has recently brought back a couple of kilos of cheese from France. I love cheese!)
I didn’t intend to slight the factory cheeses- likewise I have used both belgioso and murrays for cooking/ingredient cheeses and they are perfectly acceptable for that.
Humboldt fog has been a staple for many years and as a Seattleite Beechers flagship is always around. I just finished a jasper willoughby this week and was surprised to see it be the bottom US cheese.
It could be seasonality. Milk obtained at different times of the year will have an impact on flavor. At least from animals that are permitted to eat a fairly natural and thus seasonal diet. I don’t know if that’s specifically what’s going on here but it does happen with some cheeses and I believe Cypress Grove still works pretty naturally even though production must have expanded over the years. It also gets a little more of the blue (kinda salty) flavor the more it matures.
It could be seasonal or territorial changes in the goats’ diet, or it could be related to where the goat is in her milking cycle. Or maybe they use different goat breeds. Humboldt Fog is distributed widely enough that I imagine they use milk from multiple herds.
Also, like many cheeses, Humboldt Fog changes as it matures. Older cheeses develop a marked “cream line” under the rind, as you can see in the photo @TGibson posted.
One of my favourite party dishes is simply warm melted Humboldt Fog–heat really makes this cheese luxuriously unctuous. Good on its own or with sauteed or roasted mushrooms.
This 50% off at Whole Foods seems to be something new. It’s not the typical sale for a period of time. I guess it’s to blow out cheese that is getting old but I’ve now bought three different types and all have been in fine shape. I agree that some US cheese can hold its own in terms of quality vs France. What we don’t see is similar pricing so when something for $35/lb is knocked down by 50% I am happy to indulge. Keep your eyes peeled.
Nice catch! I don’t live near a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, so have to visit them when in Boston for work. Pleasant Ridge is a great cheese–I actually just got a wedge in an order from Saxelby’s.
Scored again. This ‘just’ a Campo de Montalban from a different Whole Foods than the previous finds. At this pace I will probably save enough to buy a new car or something this year.
The Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk from the past couple of years is a different cheese from the original Red Hawk. The original Red Hawk was a “mistake” cheese from way back when. Cowgril Creamery was making a cheese and they got the redish color on the skin of the cheese and said “wow this is pretty good” and were able to replicate it. This was caused by a local bacteria in Pt. Reyes. In fact when Cowgirl got bought out all of the production except for Red Hawk was moved to Petaluma (over the hill on highway 101 as opposed to Pt Reyes Station near the coast). Turns out Red Hawk was a Terrior Cheese that they were not able to replicate in the Petaluma creamery. Evidently they’ve finally been able to replicate the environment and no longer make Red Hawk in Pt. Reyes station. My wife and I don’t think the new Red Hawk is as good as the original
