I have always loved fall and winter. You know what's better than hot, sweaty summer discomfort; better than pit-stained tank-tops on sweaty men with hairy shoulders; and better than the smell of b.o. and back-alley public urinals? Warm blankets by the fire; sweaters, scarves, mittens, and completely-clothed strangers; a blast to the nose of caramelized oven-air from fresh batches of gingerbread or holiday cookies; averting those same fully advertised public urinals in fresh snow. The best thing of all about the colder seasons? The cheese.Winter cheeses are traditionally richer because winter milk is higher in butterfat late in the lactation cycle. Milk composition is also affected by diet changes in winter months, when feed is supplemented by grain and silage as colder weather begins to limit pasture availability. What winter milk lacks in grass-fed nutritional benefits and delicate flavor nuances of terroir, it emphatically reconciles with a body slam of intense, fatty, unctuous, creaminess.
And guess what America? Despite what the old-world traditionalist and globe-trotting, new-age, landed gentry might tell you, the finest winter cheeses in the world are not all found in Europe. Two of the very best seasonal cheeses are American born. Both Rogue River Blue and Rush Creek Reserve also happen to appear on my list of foods I would request for my last meal on Earth.
Just last year Rogue Creamery's Rogue River Blue was named one of the best cheeses on the planet at the World Cheese Awards in England. The Oregon cheese was one of the first American-made cheeses to be exported to Europe (and for a long time only one of two American cheeses being sold in Europe). It is without a doubt my very favorite blue cheese. If I could find it for under $39/lb, I would buy it by the wheel.
The cost is absolutely worth it. Released only in the fall and winter when richer milk is available, it disappears again around late February and March (depending on demand). It is creamy and peppery, with a sweet nuttiness owed to being wrapped in grape leaves that have been macerated in pear brandy. The green leaf-ensconced wheel is reminiscent of the of the Spanish blue, Valdeon, similarly wrapped in Sycamore leaves. Valdeon is a delightfully peppery blue in it's own right. But in a head-to-head match up Rogue River Blue is the Maserati facing off against a guy riding a Rascal in a street race.
The second amazing winter cheese is Uplands Cheese Company's Rush Creek Reserve from Wisconsin. In 2011, I experienced Rush Creek Reserve with a good friend and fellow cheesemonger for the first time. We were both left on the verge of tears. At its peak, Rush Creek is a spoonable, thick, joy-filled custard dance of bacony, beef brothy, woodsy, and sweet grassy flavors. It is a small washed-rind wheel wrapped with spruce bark and sold whole. I call it a friendship cheese because the whole wheel is meant to be eaten in one sitting with good company.
Rush Creek Reserve pays homage to Vacherin Mont d'Or, a cheese nearly identical in appearance and style. Like many winter cheeses, Vacherin follows an Old World cheesemaking tradition based on transhumans, or the movement of people and livestock with the seasons. In the Alps, after the summer months are over and the reckless partying up on the mountaintop pastures comes to a close, the herd makes its way down to the valley for the colder winter months. The milk during this season, while fattier, is less bountiful. Therefore, the cheesemakers don't have quite enough to make the larger wheels of hard Alpine cheeses. But they do have just enough to make the smaller gooey wheels of Vacherin. Uplands Dairy honors this tradition by only making Rush Creek during the winter months, and making their firmer, larger Alpine-style Pleasant Ridge Reserve during the spring and summer when the cows are on pasture.
Vacherin and Rush Creek have similar flavor profiles, but in many ways Rush Creek does it better (in my opinion). Vacherin is an exceptional cheese with many devotees. It is equally worth the anticipation of Winter. But it is slightly more vegetal and not quite as beefy, bacony, and bold as Rush Creek. If you have the misfortune of being a vegetarian, then Rush Creek is a far superior route to a meaty flavor fix.
Washed rind cheeses like Rush Creek and Vacherin are potently smelly, especially when un-refrigerated. So let's say you are carrying a wheel of Rush Creek reserve in your carry-on luggage. You should, then, be prepared to have everyone assume you haven't bathed.
On a recent trip back to NYC, the very friend who shared that weirdly existential moment of first eating Rush Creek kindly gave me a wheel to take home. Knowing that I'd be hard pressed to find Rush Creek Reserve anywhere in Texas much less in Del Rio, I guarded that cheese with my life and kept it in my carry-on near my jewelry and wallet. If someone shoved rotting vegetables and a gassy toddler into my backpack, it may have come close to matching the smell. This did not please TSA. The multiple other greasy, brick-like pieces of cheese next to it also did not please TSA.
There was a moment of terror in my heart when I suspected the Rush Creek reserve may have sufficiently warmed and become too runny, and thus, akin to a liquid. I began pep-talking my gut, imagining I'd have to sit next to the security line and eat the entire wheel by myself before going to my gate. It would not be thrown out. Fortunately, a quick scan and second trip through the x-ray proved it was not a foul-smelling explosive device.
I've traveled with cheese in my carry-on many times. Each time, my bag is searched. Each time I see the bemusement behind the askance looks the TSA agents give me. And I have to believe I've made their day a little brighter. I suppose a TSA agent's job is a lot of discarding shaving cream, reading the fluid ounces on obnoxiously-sized perfume bottles, re-scanning mouthwash. Pretty boring stuff. Imagine the joy of uncovering a sack of delicious winter cheese! Finding the most well-fed malodorous holiday traveler of them all! Maybe it's just my imagination, but I have to believe those winter cheeses performed a Christmas miracle: making a TSA agent smile.
Winter really is the most wonderful time of the year.
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