I was so thrilled to discover a grassfed kosher cheese (Mainland) at my local healthfood store. It is definitely a decent cheese, however it is not nearly sharp enough for my tastes so it doesn’t really fill my needs. I will stick to Cabot’s kosher sharp cheeses until I can find a grassfed cheddar that’s tastier.

The 5 Spoke I’ve never heard of nor seen, and I’m very excited to try to find it! They sound and look fabulous (OK, I’m a sucker for packaging). Do you have any of the 5-spoke in your fridge? Because I’d be much obliged if you’d let me know the contact info for the company, which I can’t find on google. I’d like to try to get my hands on some. For NYC people, it appears from a quick search that you can buy it at Dean & Deluca, Zabar’s and Westside Markets.

It’s encouraging that there are more high quality cheeses coming onto the market. Trader Joe’s is even carrying a very high quality sheep feta from Israel now, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover my local (rural upstate NY) healthfood store carries Meyenberg’s divine goat’s milk cheddar. I hope this is the beginning of a trend.

BS”D

Unless one keeps cholov yisroel exclusively, and does not hold at all by cholov hacompanies, I cannot see what all the fuss is about. There is a wonderful medium cheddar available cheap in Joseph Farms Sharp Cheddar. Yes, it’s true the mild is obnoxiously mild, but who wants mild cheddar anyway? I know I said I wouldn’t eat the Joseph Farms on principle, since their release of OK labeled nonkosher cheese cause me over $100 in loss, which they never addressed. The company may be a bunch of lowlifes, but the cheese is dirt-cheap. I’ve made up that $100 in savings over other kosher brands. And the thing I like about it is that it exhibits full flavor without bitterness found in a lot of “sharp” cheddars, and rarely are those cheddars labeled “Sharp” actually sharp- they’re usually medium. Some kosherbloggers may use a bit of cheese here and there, and they can afford to try expensive, limited production cheddars cheese, which may or may not up to the quality of Joseph Farms. But for me, cheddar is the workhorse of cheese, and we probably go through a minimum of 5 lbs/week, since it’s our primary protein source. Purchasing expensive cheddar or jack or mozzarella (if not fresh) is something we just would never do, unless the character was such that the cheese in question was, in fact, so distinctive as to be totally different from the norm or what was available. I don’t think any of these, from their descriptions, is so distinctive as to do it.

Avi,

Thanks for your comments on 5 Spoke Creamery. The Redmond Cheddar in your stores was from the first “run” and aged two months. You will see in a month or so a four month aged Cheddar which is sharper and in November you will see my Tumbleweed, an eight month, cave-aged Le Salers (Cantal) style cheese, which is unlike any kosher cheese seen here or even at small farms in Israel. All are farmstead, handmade cheeses from grass fed raw milk. I will have other, more unusual types availble in a few months, listed on the 5 Spoke website. Let me know what kind of cheeses you would like to see - who knows?

Craig,

I’m guessing the fuss is that it’s grass fed and from raw milk.

BS”D

Grass-fed and raw milk are nice marketing strategies, but the question is: do they indeed translate into more nuanced flavor? Perhaps a somewhat different flavor, but more nuanced? If the cheese has more nuanced flavor, is it due to the milk or the cheesemaking? There are so many variables, as you know, associated with cheesemaking, that a controlled study would need to be done in order to show even a correlation with the milk source, assuming the raw grass-fed, raw grain-fed, pasteurized grass-fed and pasteurized grain-fed (control) milks were all of similar herds, using the same cheesmaker under the same conditions. Remember, there is French raw-milk cheese that isn’t worth eating, and there’s the glorious stuff we all go ga-ga over. And I’m sure we have all tasted wonderul cheese from pasteurized grain-fed cattle. My experience has been that most claims are marketing-driven, and have little to do with reality. And when it comes to making health claims, there simply have not been any studies indicating validity of claims. CLA, for instance, may be a wonderful antioxidant, but research shows it’s potentially hard on the heart- the point is that there have not been studies at realistic doses to determine any particular degree of life-prolonging quality in either rats or people- good against cancer vs. bad against heart, which one ultimately wins? And the same is true of a wealth of product claims. The only things we know for a fact are that dietary fiber is life-prolonging for us- as is a high phenolic diet low in fat, and that less food above absolute starvation levels, the better. Oh, and also that low to moderate level chronic ingestion of alcohol (or other anti-stress drugs, perhaps), seems to be helpful in prolonging life. Most health claims seem to be based upon emotion rather than empirical evidence. It’s nice to have other cheeses which may present different flavors and textures. But I red-flag 5-spoke due to its having a web page devoted to unsubtantiated health claims. Just calling them “potential benefits” rather than “benefits” would be more legitimate, because most of these are discussing the chemistry of raw milk, which itself has not been proven to be beneficial to human consumption (in fact, the opposite has been proven, but mostly due to pathogens). I’m sure the cheese is wonderful. and exhibits the characteristics of its type, with few if any flaws. But that’s what I expect in a cheese- it’s not something for me to get excited about.

You know what would excite me? If wheels of quality kosher Stilton or aged Gouda or Italian Fontina or Esrom or Reblochon or Marroiles or true Muenster or quality American-made or Israeli-made substitutes, were to mysteriously appear at reasonable prices in new ventilated cheese cases in local kosher stores, sold by people who knew what they had and how to properly care for them.

BS”D

Of the cheeses I mentioned, the ones I never had were Fontina, Muenster and Marroiles. But I’ve had strong cheeses like Muenster and Marroiles before, and they can be great, and both of those are reputed to be among the greatest of the strong cheeses. I’ve had bland and buttery cheeses as well, but here’s a mouthwatering description of Fontina from The Cheese Book, Vivienne Marquis and Patricia Haskell, Simon and Schuster, 1965:

“Most of the cheeses in the bland and buttery group are, as we have said, good though not great. The exception that merits the word “great” is Italy’s Fontina- the best and the original of which is designated by its full name, Fontina d’Aosta. Just as the finest Parmesan cheese comes from a particular district in Italy known as the Zona Classica, the true and original Fontina also comes from a rigidly defined zone in the mountains of northern Italy near the Swiss border- the valley of Aosta…”

“How to describe Fontina d’Aosta? It’s physical attributes are easily catalogued. The chees it most resembles in appearance is a Swiss Gruyere- that is, it has a light-brown crust: it comes in wheels 12-15 inches in diameter and 3-4 inches thick; the cheese itself is a warm ivory in color, the texture fairly firm, and the surface broken here and there by tiny holes. But the flavor and character of this wonderful cheese cannot be so nearly categorized. For Fontina is a cheesemaker’s dream come true. Imagine being able to make a cheese that combines the sweet butternut flavor of a select Emmenthal with the special tang of a Gruyere- but with a hint of Port-Salut about it, making it more worldly than either Emmentha or Gruyere; a cheese that never liquifies, but neither does it remain quite solid- it is creamy, acquiring in the mouth a certai gloss not unlike that of Brie. This is Fontina d’Aosta, a cheese that belongs with the top dozen cheeses that are being made anywhere today.”

Just thinking of eating a cheese like that gives me goosebumps. In the days before I kept kosher (say, up to 24 years ago), I ate many of the great cheeses of the world, but never Fontina. Now that there’s a cheese renaissance in the USA, and more are imported than ever before, the cheeses available to me are largely either inferior or overly expensive. Still, I can remember, and I can dream.

It’s imported by the KosherItalia.com folks… very tasty.

BS”D

I looked at Zabar’s, and they don’t even claim it’s Fontina. They talk about Fontal, which they claim has been around since 1955, and is a cross between Fontina and Emmenthal in flavor (according to them), whereas Fontina has been made since the 11th century. Like the kosher version of Gruyere compared to the nonkosher, the Fontal doesn’t have holes like the Fontina, indicating a lack of propionic activity, which adds the distinctive character which characterizes all Swiss cheeses of note, as well as the best Swiss imitations from elsewhere, and of course, some other varieties (such as Fontina).

DeisCane, I’m sure it was good. The problem with kosher cheese, as well as other kosher food, is that we’re often stuck with crap. But even when we don’t get crap and actually get decent, good, or very good cheese (or food in general), it’s often a shadow of the best of its type that’s on the market nonkosher. We’re left to never experience the highs, even when we’re not wallowing in the lows. I’m sure it happens with nonkosher food as well, but at least there’s theoretical access to the best quality. Most of the time, people don’t need the best quality. But sometimes, I wish I had the ability to experience it. Especially since once upon a time, I had that ability, and I did so, but having taken advantage of my Jewish destiny of becoming mitzvah observant and experiencing spiritual highs, I’ve given up the ability to experience physical highs. And it’s not a matter of those physical highs being prohibited by Torah, but rather by supply and demand.

Hi,

Our company is preparing to release line of high-quality aged kosher cheeses. I’m reading this blog from time to time, I wonder if you have preferences of kosher cheese types which you think are missing in the market?

shimon

Port Salut!!!

Another cheese I’d like to see kosher is Old Amsterdam. I’m fairly sure I’ve seen an organic version so kosher shouldn’t be too difficult.

BS”D

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had quality cheeses which were Cholov Yisroel! Maybe it’s time to start up an artisinal cheesemaking shop…hmmmm do I want to be michig more? Yes!

New Zealand make some of the best cheese in the world. The air is cleaner and the grass is greener.

Be VERY aware that there are legal issues associated with raw milk in both federal law and the law of some states.
See an article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092700108.html

PS - Yes, I know that KO is not universally accepted.

Michael:

Even their Sharp? I found it to be far better than Miller’s. The Joseph farms mild cheddar is insipid, and though we bought a lot of it for the young kids, I had no great love for it. The Monterey and Moz were very neutral cheeses as well, ones not worth fighting for, except for the price, which was low (but increased every time I purchased). But the “Sharp” cheddar was a very reliable and flavorful medium cheddar (not sharp, in other words) but far better in my opinion than the other domestic kosher cheeses of that ilk.