Our Favorite Cheeses at a Glance
Cheese. The FavorFlav editorial team can’t imagine life without it. We’ve said it before: a day without cheese is a day not lived. Our favorite cheeses at a glance.
Raw-milk farmhouse cheese
A favorite among most of the editorial team: aged raw-milk farmhouse cheese, matured for at least 9 to 12 months. It can be a little crumbly. Deliciously tangy and full of flavor. With those little salt crystals that crackle in your mouth. Preferably no combinations with cumin or chives, but pure and natural. At most, a little good mustard. Eaten straight from the hand or with rustic Menno bread with a thick, crunchy crust and farmhouse butter.
Taleggio
A super-creamy, square cheese with an orange rind from northern Italy that melts beautifully. Stir it into risotto, put it in the ultimate cheese toastie and, of course, serve it on a cheeseboard. Do pay close attention to which one you buy, because factory-made versions are considerably less delicious. If it comes from a farm, the flavor is much more pronounced (and therefore more delicious).
Chaource
This is your go-to if you love super-creamy cheeses — Chaource delivers like no other. But it also has plenty of flavor: very fresh, almost slightly tangy. If you see Chaource on a restaurant menu, don’t hesitate. If you buy Chaource yourself (fortunately, you can even get it at Albert Heijn these days), take it out of the fridge well in advance so it’s extra soft when you eat it.
Époisses
A creamy, washed-rind cheese from the village of Epoisses of the same name in the Côte d’Or (Burgundy). The cheese is usually served on a spoon — otherwise it runs away. It’s an explosion in your mouth. The flavor is incredibly full, spicy and intense. Époisses is definitely one of those cheeses you have to learn to appreciate. After that, you probably won’t be able to live without it.
Tomme de Savoie
For the cheese snobs among us, or the anti-nationalists who aren’t particularly fond of Dutch cheeses (Is that possible?! According to colleague M., it is). So do you, like M., turn up your nose at aged Beemster or a piece of Gouda eaten straight from the hand? Then get some Tomme de Savoie. This semi-soft raw-milk cow’s cheese with a gray rind and pale-yellow interior has a pleasant, slightly grainy texture, a good bite, a fresh, tangy flavor, smells of damp French caves and is perfect with a torn-off piece of baguette.
Délice de Bourgogne
A Friday-afternoon guilty pleasure, even before drinks begin. Extremely creamy, buttery and therefore wickedly delicious. Extra fresh cream (or crème fraîche) is added to this cow’s-milk triple-crème soft-ripened cheese. Only when it contains at least 75 percent fat can a cheese be called triple. The result is a buttery-soft cheese that melts on your tongue, with a subtle bitterness. Fantastic with a blanc de blancs Champagne, or a fruity Pinot Noir.
Pecorino
Italian cheeses also truly belong on every drinks platter. You can always wake us up for gorgonzola or burrata, but the ultimate favorite here at the office is sheep’s-milk pecorino. The hardest variety is the best known. It’s delicious eaten as is, but also works wonderfully in pasta.
