cheese 63

middle-class household, known as Le their large exposed surfaces inevitably

Ménagier de Paris, includes this formula
“To recognize good cheese”:
Not at all white like Helen,
Nor weeping, like Magdalene.
Not Argus, but completely blind,
And heavy, like a buffalo.
Let it rebel against the thumb,
And have an old moth-eaten coat.
Without eyes, without tears, not at
all white,
Moth-eaten, rebellious, of good
weight.
But these rules wouldn’t work for young
goat cheeses (white and coatless), Roque-
fort (with its pockets of whey), Emmental
(eyefull and light), or Camembert (which
should give when thumbed). As always,
the proof is in the tasting.
These days, the most important thing is
to understand that bulk supermarket
cheeses are only pale (or dyed) imitations of
their more flavorful, distinctive originals.
The way to find good cheeses is to buy
from a specialist who loves and knows
them, chooses the best and takes good care
of them, and offers samples for tasting.
Cut to Order Whenever possible, buy por-
tions that are cut while you watch. Precut
portions may be days or weeks old, and
develop rancid flavors from contact with
air and plastic wrap. Exposure to light in the
dairy case also damages lipids and causes
off-flavors in as little as two days; in addi-
tion it bleaches the annatto in orange-dyed
cheeses, turning it pink. Pregrated cheese
has a tremendous surface area, and while it
is often carefully wrapped, it loses much of
its aroma and its carbon dioxide, which also
contributes the impression of staleness.
Cool, Not Cold If cheese must be kept for
more than a few days, it’s usually easiest to
refrigerate it. Unfortunately, the ideal con-
ditions for holding cheese—a humid
55–60ºF/12–15ºC, simply a continuation
of its ripening conditions—is warmer than
most refrigerators, and cooler and moister
than most rooms. Refrigeration essentially
puts cheese into suspended animation, so if
you want an immature soft cheese to ripen
further, you’ll need to keep it warmer.
Cheeses should never be served direct
from the refrigerator. At such low temper-
atures the milk fat is congealed and as hard
as refrigerated butter, the protein network
unnaturally stiff, the flavor molecules
imprisoned, and the cheese will seem rub-
bery and flavorless. Room temperature is
best, unless it’s so warm (above about
80ºF/26ºC) that the milk fat will melt and
sweat out of the cheese.

Cheese Crystals

Cheeses usually have such a smooth, luscious texture, either from the beginning or as
a hard cheese melts in the mouth, that an occasional crunch comes as a surprise. In fact
a number of cheeses develop hard, salt-like crystals of various kinds. The white crys-
tals often visible against the blue mold of a Roquefort, or detectable in the rind of a
Camembert, are calcium phosphate, deposited because the Penicillium molds have
made the cheese less acid and calcium salts less soluble. In aged Cheddar there are often
crystals of calcium lactate, formed when ripening bacteria convert the usual form of
lactic acid into its less soluble mirror (“D”) image. In Parmesan, Gruyère, and aged
Gouda, the crystals may be calcium lactate or else tyrosine, an amino acid produced by
protein breakdown that has limited solubility in these low-moisture cheeses.