Cheese is quick and easy to prepare – with a crisp wine and a few simple accompaniments, it can be the better part (or all) of a perfect summer meal. In honor of the timely excellence of cheese, we’re staging a local culinary mashup featuring 4 cow’s milk cheeses from Briar Rose Creamery and the Cheese Tasting Flight Deck and 33 Pieces of Cheese Tasting Journal from Portland’s 33 Books Co.
Let’s Talk about Cheese.
I’m aware that the summertime heat lends itself to easy-to-make, easy-to-eat meals; Meals that require little to no actual cooking. Meals that are heavy on the light and light on the heavy. And yes, few things are heavier to eat than cheese – but please bear with me. Cheese is quick and easy to prepare. Paired with a glass of crisp vino and a few simple accouterments – a baguette, some jam or fresh fruit, a handful of nuts, perhaps – it can make a satisfying summer meal. Cheese is fragrant and profound. It’s imbued with the terroir of its origin– an embodiment of the sunlight, soil, and climate that produces it. One would be hard-pressed to find a more perfect example of food that is truly local. The ease of its preparation is just icing on the cake.
The Mashup.
This sets the stage for a local culinary mashup, where we bring together offerings from two talented local producers, resulting in a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts. This mashup features a tasting of 4 extraordinary, aged cow’s milk cheeses from Briar Rose Creamery, an artisan cheesemaker located in Dundee, Oregon and the recipient of multiple Good Food and American Cheese Society awards. The cheeses – Butterbloom, Maia, Fata Morgana, and Callisto – are produced by hand in small batches and have names steeped in mythology, with nods to magical caves, floating castles, springtime goddesses and faraway kingdoms.
Briar Rose procures milk from dairies across the region, including Perrin Family Dairy in Woodburn, who tend Oregon’s only herd of certified organic Ayrshire cows.
This rare heritage breed is favored by cheesemakers for its sweet, pure flavor and the unique way the cream is naturally dispersed throughout the milk. According to Briar Rose Proprietor and Cheesemaker Sarah Marcus, Ayrshires are also efficient grazers, and thus gentler on the land, thriving as grass-fed herds. In addition to Ayrshire, Briar Rose sources local Guernsey milk, prized for being rich, sweet, and high in butterfat.
For the second piece of the mashup, we’re performing the tasting using both the Flight Deck for Cheese Tasting and 33 Pieces of Cheese Tasting Journal produced by 33 Books Co, a Portland-based purveyor of tasting journals, kits, and tools. Founder David Selden’s offerings encourage learning and discovery and are designed to enhance the appreciation of many good and delicious things like wine, beer, coffee, whiskey and… well..cheese.
The flight deck cards allow the organizer of a tasting to capture standard identifying information like the name, milk, texture, and origin of each cheese, while the tasting journal’s unique flavor wheel allows each taster to rate each cheese on the following 16 qualities:
* Crystalline * Crumbly * Salty * Sweet
*Sharp/Tangy *Lemon *Grassy * Herbal
*Caramel * Nutty *Earthy * Moldy
*Stinky * Robust * Buttery/Creamy * Milky/Lactic
As with all 33 Books tasting journals, this one incorporates ink laced with the tiniest bit of the thing being tasted. In this case, it’s a few morsels of a semi-firm beer-washed sheep’s milk cheese made in Belleville, Wisconsin. (I have yet to bring the guide up to my nose to see if I can smell it, but I’m thinking about it.) To note, I also sprung for one of 33 Books’ Flight Boards, which are handmade by Selden himself using orchard-salvage Oregon Black Walnut. They are incredibly stylish and come with a convenient slot to display the flight cards. While the board and card are configured for a flight of three cheeses, I made some minor accommodations to squeeze in four:
Setting the Stage.
To maximize the aromas of the cheeses, I’ll serve them at room temperature, and we will taste in order of mildest to strongest, saving the deeper, more pronounced flavors for last. This will help preserve our palates throughout the tasting so that we can better appreciate the individual nuances between each cheese. To this end, I will keep accompaniments simple to help cleanse the palate between selections. For today’s tasting, I chose a flatbread cracker and slices of sweet-tart Washington pink lady apples. Unlike at a wine and cheese party where I might be a little more informal (and let’s be honest – tipsy), I’ll be methodical in my approach, first visually inspecting the exterior (Is there a rind? Is there mold?) and the interior (What color is it? Are there holes or veins?). Then I’ll cut off a piece to get a sense of its weight and texture (Rubbery? Delicate?), and to appreciate its full aroma. Upon tasting, I’ll take high level notes, and then work through the 33 Cheese Tasting Wheel to develop a more nuanced profile. I’ll share my observations along with Briar Rose’s cheesemaker notes for comparison.
The Tasting.
Briar Rose describes Butterbloom as a butter bomb, and I agree in the best possible way. I’m not sure I truly appreciated all the different ways butter can present itself before really sitting down to enjoy this lovely, soft cheese. The first thing that occurred to me in looking at it alongside the Maia is how tall and fluffy it is by comparison. I was immediately reminded of a 1970’s magazine ad for boxed cake mix that compares two cakes – an ordinary mix and then one that bakes up lighter and fluffier. Butterbloom is very much the fluffy cake. I was also taken by the gorgeous, long striations in its bloomy, delicate rind, resembling long, slow ripples in a pond. As I cut a piece, it felt like sticky butter on my fingers, and when I brought it to my nose, I was rewarded with aromas of sweet, lemony frosting. It was incredibly creamy, and the initial taste brought a lush buttery top note with a slight sharpness that quickly melted into an earthy chocolate note and then relaxed into comforting buttermilk pancake batter. It was an utter treat and an excellent first stop on our tasting journey.
Whereas Butterbloom is fun and pleasant, Maia has what comes across as a more serious flavor profile with greater depth. While round and buttery like Butterbloom, it bears an almost cabernet sauvignon top note with a sweet, grassy finish accentuated with fudge and caramel. The texture is soft and luscious. It’s approachable like Butterbloom, but with some unexpected (and welcome) points of interest. Whereas Butterbloom is out skipping through a sunny meadow, singing and picking daisies, Maia is at home in her room writing really good poetry.
Fata Morgana photo credit: Briar Rose Creamery
Fata Morgana is Briar Rose’s gorgeous basket-shaped, rindless feta-style cheese. Full disclosure – as a Greek woman with definite opinions about what constitutes good feta, I wasn’t sure what I would think about a local version – made with cow’s milk, no less. But when I took my first bite of Fata Morgana, I was tempted to ask everyone to leave the room so that I could spend a little more focused time with it. I wanted to sort out exactly what it was that I found to be so profoundly delicious. It’s crumbly, but firmer and not as crumbly as the feta I’m accustomed to. It also seems slightly less salty. The package contains very little brine as compared to the small swimming pool that most feta comes in. Stripped of feta’s typical drama and intensity, Fata Morgana is left with an incredible flavor that starts with a slightly tart, lemony top note and gives way to an unmistakable browned butter finish. It was all that I could do not to abandon the tasting entirely and finish the piece (and possibly a second one) by myself. I look forward to exploring Fata Morgana further, mixing it into softly scrambled eggs or handmade pasta, and pairing it with different herbs. I have a hunch it has an affinity for fresh tarragon.
The final selection, Callisto, is named for the beautiful nymph from Greek and Roman mythology; skilled hunter, companion of goddesses and associated with the moon. Callisto is a semi-firm alpine-style cheese with a distinctive hoppy top note, an earthy body, and a sultry nutty brown butter finish. According to Briar Rose, it is meltable, like Gruyere or Fontina. I’m sure it would be phenomenal in fondue or wrapped in pastry as part of a creamy mushroom filling, but I don’t think I’d serve it to anyone I wanted to remain platonic with. Beautiful nymph, indeed!
In Summation.
The 33 Pieces of Cheese Tasting Journal has a spot for tasters to assign an overall rating to each cheese, but I couldn’t possibly do it. First, I’m cheese drunk (is that a thing?), satisfied and happy and in love with everything I tasted. I could see enjoying any of them again, in different preparations, contexts, and seasons. I enjoyed using the flavor wheel as a tool to help develop my palate and to recollect my observations and impressions. And I recommend you find your way to both local culinary mashees – Briar Rose Creamery and 33 Books Co – for a delicious experience and your own excellent culinary adventure.
Where to Find.
Visit Briar Rose at their farm store in Dundee, Oregon or find them at farmer’s markets across the greater Portland Metro area, markets and shops across the United States and at amazing restaurants across the Pacific Northwest.
Farm Store Address:
Briar Rose Creamery
19231 NE Fairview Dr.
Dundee, Oregon 97115
Farm Store Hours:
- Friday & Saturday: Open 12-5pm year-round.
- Monday-Thursday hours are by appointment only, year-round.
Email info@briarrosecreamery.com to set up an appointment.
(Briar Rose Creamery is unable to offer tours due to food safety concerns.)
And remember to find incredibly cool locally made tasting journals, kits and maps like the ones we used here at 33 Book Co