THE NIBBLE Gourmet News & Views
Trends, Products & Items Of Note In The World Of Specialty Foods
Read all of our content on TheNibble.com, the online magazine about specialty food.
Archive for Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy
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June 22, 2008 at 8:30 am
· Filed under Contest, Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy, Pet Food
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Last year, we published an incredible collection of award-winning macaroni and cheese recipes from Tillamook’s annual competition. We’re thrilled to present this year’s winners. If you have a recipe that’s a national contender, check with Tillamook Cheese for the 2008-2009 competition rules; the deadline for recipe submissions is July 28, 2008. In the meantime, try one of these delicious recipes from this year’s winners, located on TheNibble.com:
-Autumn Comfort Mac with butternut squash, pancetta and cavatappi
-Jumbo Shell Pasta with white cheddar & chicken macaroni
-King Crab Mac & Cheese
-Mi Casa Chicken Pasta
-Pacific Northwest Macaroni & Cheese
-Shrimp Embrochette |
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June 21, 2008 at 8:30 am
· Filed under Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy
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People who love fine cow’s milk yogurt may become instant fans of sheep’s milk yogurt—smoother, richer and creamier. Old Chatham Sheepherding Company, producers of acclaimed sheep’s milk cheeses, makes an excellent sheep’s milk yogurt that is more nutritious and healthy than cow’s milk yogurt. The 100% natural line (no artificial thickeners, stabilizers, colors, etc.) also contains probiotic cultures. You also can cook with sheep’s milk yogurt: It does not break down at high temperatures like cow’s milk yogurt.
Sheep were the first animals to be domesticated as mankind transitioned from nomadic hunters to sedentary farmers. Eventually, man discovered how to transform milk into yogurt and cheese. While sheep and goats provided milk and cheese* to ancient civilizations and are still the staple dairy animals in many areas of the world, cows have replaced sheep in countries that have grazing land for them, because of their higher yield: A sheep can give just one quart of milk per day (a high-producing breed, 1.5 quarts); a goat, 3 quarts; a cow, 14 quarts. The lower yield is also why goat’s and sheep’s milk products are usually more expensive than their cow’s milk counterparts. |
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*Some well-known sheep’s milk cheeses include Feta, Manchego, Ossau-Iraty, Pecorino Romano and Roquefort.
Old Chatham Sheepherding Company has been delighting specialty food consumers for 15 years with its farmstead sheep cheeses—farmstead meaning that the products are made from the milk of the farm’s own animals. Starting with 150 ewes in 1993, the company now has more than 1,000 East Friesian purebred and crossbred sheep, and is the largest sheep dairy farm in the U.S. The fields and pastures are organically managed; while the company has not pursued organic certification, no hormones, routine antibiotics, herbicides or pesticides are used. Read the full review on TheNibble.com. |
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June 17, 2008 at 9:48 am
· Filed under Vegetables, Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy, Tip Of The Day
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| Fruits are frequently served with cheese, but vegetables are also a traditional accompaniment. Italians serve goat cheeses with radishes and pecorino romano with fava beans. Tomatoes in season are always delicious. Marinated vegetables—always part of a good antipasto—are a refreshing complement. Experiment to see what pairings you like best. Click here to learn more about fine cheese at THE NIBBLE. |
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Cheese and vegetables make a delicious
combination, these goat cheeses from
Harley Farms already have herbs and veggies mixed in. |
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June 3, 2008 at 9:16 am
· Filed under Vegetables, Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy, Tip Of The Day
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A lovely blue quail egg next to its larger cousin, the chicken egg. Learn about the different types of eggs at TheNibble.com.
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June 3rd is National Egg Day, and an opportunity to expand our horizons. Quail eggs are small and beautifully speckled in blue and brown. They make a spectacular first course or salad course, hard-boiled and nestled at the front of a lightly-dressed mesclun salad (set 3 eggs in a lettuce leaf “cup”). Check locally for quail eggs or search for them online. Boil the eggs for 5 minutes with a teaspoon of vinegar, and serve them warm or at room temperature in the shell. Provide ramekins of salt water so diners can simultaneously rinse and salt their eggs after they’ve peeled them. Snip some fresh herbs (chives, parsley, dill) into the salad, and you have an exciting dish that takes very little time to make. For more salad ideas, head over to THE NIBBLE’s Vegetables & Salad section. |
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June 2, 2008 at 3:59 pm
· Filed under Vegetables, Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy, Tip Of The Day
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| The most impressive courses can also be the simplest to make, a point that this easy dish proves. Starting with roasted or grilled red and orange bell peppers, alternate slices of fresh salted mozzarella, prosciutto and peppers to make a layered “Napoleon.” Top with whole basil leaves. You can make a short stack or, for a heartier course, make a tall stack and skewer with a long toothpick. Sprinkle the plate with shredded basil and extra virgin olive oil or a balsamic vinaigrette. In the summer, use delicious local tomatoes instead of peppers; when standard tomatoes aren’t in season, decorate the plate with a few yellow and orange grape tomatoes. Find more salad ideas for first courses at THE NIBBLE online magazine. And read up on all cheeses in THE NIBBLE’S Gourmet Cheese section. |
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This napoleon is made from Mozzarella Fresca, a Nibble Top Pick Of The Week. |
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May 23, 2008 at 8:55 am
· Filed under Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy, Entertaining, Tip Of The Day
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Mount McKinley, a Nibble Top Pick, is a shepherd’s-style aged goat cheese unfamiliar to most people: sharp, earthy and nutty. Photo by B.A. Van Sise. |
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The next time you’re deciding on what cheeses to serve, select the entire group from either goat’s or sheep’s milk. From fresh chèvre to blue to Parmesan- and Cheddar-like goat cheeses, for example, you and your guests will experience goat (or sheep) cheeses in a new light. People who may only be familiar with fresh chèvre logs and aged pyramids will be surprised and delighted by what the milk produces in other styles of cheese. Include quark, a yogurt-like cheese, for a complete picture. As an added bonus for those who have lactose problems, goat’s and sheep’s milk cheeses are easier to digest than cow’s milk cheeses. You can learn more about fine cheese in the Gourmet Cheese section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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April 23, 2008 at 11:38 am
· Filed under Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy, Entertaining, Tip Of The Day
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Flavored butter looks even more enticing when served in a lovely ramekin. This cultured butter is made by Beecher’s Handmade Cheese.
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Instead of bringing butter to the table in a rectangular brick, serve it in ramekins, like some fine restaurants do. In addition to plain butter, you can easily make and serve different flavored butters with style. Use a knife to score decorative cross-hatches on the top; and if you’re of an artistic nature, add a few fresh herb leaves or capers to the center or edges. Or sprinkle the top of sweet butter with sea salt.
Find recipes for flavored butters and read more butter tips in the Artisanal Butter section on THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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April 18, 2008 at 3:52 pm
· Filed under Top Pick Of The Week, Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy
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| Today, you can buy a piece of decent chèvre in any major city. But in the early 1980s, few people knew what chèvre—goat cheese—was. It was then that Allison Hooper learned how to make chèvre, as an apprentice cheesemaker in Brittany, and returned to Vermont with a passion to make it in the U.S. Fortunately, she found a business partner and an audience of chefs—then consumers—eager to serve her products. Vermont Butter & Cheese Company became a leader in the American artisan cheese movement, and Americans learned how to love chèvre. At VBC, as the company is fondly known, the goat cheeses were joined by European-style cow’s milk dairy products also relatively unknown to Americans: crème fraîche, mascarpone and even quark. And then came the great artisan cultured butters, higher in butterfat than American contenders and the zenith of butters, as you’ll read in detail in the full review. All of the cow’s milk products are certified kosher by KOF-K, are carried by fine retailers nationwide and are available online. Join us in exploring these award-winning, artisan dairy queens. Find more of our favorite butters and cheeses in the Butter & Cheese Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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 Crottin, the classic goat cheese shape from the Loire Valley of France, as made in the U.S.A. by Vermont Butter & Cheese Company. |
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April 18, 2008 at 3:48 pm
· Filed under Kosher Nibbles, Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy, Kids’ Food
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| Six special-edition, Spring-themed flavors of Breyers YoCrunch yogurt have replaced the core yogurt line for the season: YoCrunch with mini M&Ms candies, Oreo Cookies n’ Cream, Nestle Buncha Crunch, Butterfinger and Reese’s Pieces. The containers have a new look for springtime: themed packaging that features flowers, children at play and (aw, shucks) a baby chick with eggs. We tried the new flavors of YoCrunch recently and like them all, with the exception of the Nestle Buncha Crunch. While we enjoyed many a Crunch bar in an earlier life, the crunch nuggets that comprise Buncha Crunch taste like waxy fake food, most likely due to the confectioner’s glaze (lac resin) used to keep the nuggets crisp. Otherwise, we enjoyed mixing Butterfinger, Reese’s Pieces, M&Ms and Oreo in with our yogurt; and while this 1% milkfat line is largely vanilla-based (Buncha Crunch is made in a strawberry yogurt version as well), we’ll try it with strawberry, coffee and other flavors on our own. We like this product as a snack and dessert for kids, who want to eat candy and cookies anyway. So why not couple the junk food with a nutritious yogurt that delivers 6g of protein for the same 200 calories as a candy bar (with some live and active cultures, to boot)? The line is certified kosher OU-D. Read our full review of YoCrunch Naturals, and check out our other favorites in the Yogurt Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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 Healthy yogurt marries candy or cookie pieces to create a better snack food. |
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April 18, 2008 at 3:46 pm
· Filed under Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy, Recipes, Tip Of The Day, Breakfast
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 If you don’t have time to make scallion cream cheese, do the next best thing: Snip chives into a small dish so that guests can sprinkle them on top of the cream cheese. It takes two minutes to wash and snip the chives. |
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When we serve flavored cream cheeses at brunch, the scallion cream cheese is the first to disappear. But commercial brands are gummy and specialty store fresh-made is pricey. Here’s our trick: Buy plain cream cheese, preferably organic. Using electric beaters on slow, blend 8 ounces of cream cheese with 2 tablespoons of sour cream (you can add more for a more fluid spread). Add 2 tablespoons of chopped scallions, or more to taste. That’s it! We also love olive cream cheese: Purée roasted peppers and, instead of the sour cream, blend 2 tablespoons or more of purée to taste. Add chopped green olives stuffed with pimento. Strawberries, bananas, guava, papaya, mango and pineapple (canned) are great blend-ins for sweet spreads. Read about more of our favorite dips and spreads in the Salsas, Dips & Spreads Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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