TIP OF THE DAY: Salad With Goat Cheese
 Salad with a creamy, fresh goat cheese crottin, halved. Photo courtesy Vermont Creamery, one of America’s greatest producers of goat cheese. Read our review. |
Whenever we see a goat cheese salad on a menu (chèvre is the French word), we order it.
Typically served with mesclun or frisée, sometime with beets, sometime with toasted walnuts or pecans, it’s one of our favorite foods. And it’s so easy to make. We’ve hesitated to make it at home too often, because we love creamy, fresh goat cheese so much that an entire 10.5-ounce log can disappear at one meal. But we devised a new strategy: Buy one or two crottins at a time. A crottin (crow-TAHN) is a small, individual-size goat cheese shaped like a drum. But the name means something earthier in French: “dropping” or goat/horse dung. Why stick a cheese with a name like that? As the crottin ages, it becomes dark and hard and bears a resemblance to the animal dropping. Mostly, though, it’s enjoyed when fresh or moderately aged, resembling only a delicious, drum-shaped cheese. The small size makes a crottin, whole or halved, a popular pairing with a salad. |
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Crottin is the signature goat cheese shape of the Loire Valley; Crottin di Chavignol, an AOC-designated cheese, has been produced in and around the village of Chavignol since the 16th century. Use a crottin or a one-inch slice from a log of goat cheese. You can buy a plain log or one rolled in ash, herbs, peppercorns and other spices. Or, roll a plain log in the coating of your choice before slicing, Cheese |
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Salad Greens
Vegetables
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Fruits Long considered an alternative for those with cow’s milk sensitivities, people who are lactose-intolerant (or otherwise have difficulty digesting milk products) can often enjoy goat cheese with impunity.
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