21 May 2004
Just Arrived: Sugar River Cheese Co.
During my weekly visit to the Butcherie this morning, I discovered the arrival of Sugar River Cheeses to Boston.
At least four varieties are on sale (White Cheddar/Chipotle, Monterey Jack/Tomato/Olive, Monterey Jack/Jalapeno/Cilantro, Prairie Jack/Green Peppercorns). I purchased the Chipotle and Tomato/Olive varieties. Both are delicious.
The cheddar is creamy and the chipotle flavor, which can be seen threaded throughout the cheese, is just right — slightly smokey and slightly spicy.
The jack is rich and crumbly, with intense flavor from flecks of sun-dried tomato and black olives.
At $4.99 per 8 oz. block it may be a dollar more expensive than your usual kosher Cheddar or Monterey Jack, but it’s certainly worth it.
¶
Cheeses also available at Whole Foods Market throughout the northeast.
We tried the white cheddar/chipotle this past weekend–it was delicious. Our lunch guests had the idea of sprinkling chunks of cheese onto the (pareve!) cholent. Definitely an interesting flavor and not something we could have pulled off with a lesser cheese. Thanks for the heads-up about this; I definitely would have missed it way up on the top shelf of the cheese display otherwise.
I bought two of the cheddar varieties (chiptole and roasted garlic & green onion) last week at the midtown NYC Fairway and found them to be unfortunately rubbery. The previous time I had Sugar River cheese it was sharp and crumbly (just the way I like it). It is possible that memory failed me and I was remembering one of the Jack varieties, which Jabbett reports to be crumbly as I remember. Has anyone done a side-by-side comparison recently?
Try the chipotle or roasted garlic melted. His green peppercorn is pretty awesome as well.I confess to my bias–the owner of the company is a friend, and a mensch at that.