Diana Pittet's Great Cheddar Adventure

Diana Pittet returned from 8 months traveling the world to visit cheese producers bursting with knowledge to share. On February 3 she hosted a talk and tasting the the back room at Jimmy's No. 43. The tasting featured 5 English farmhouse cheddars and a real English cask ale.

Here's a virtual taste of the evening:

Keen’s Cheddar -An unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese made by the Keen family at Moorhayes Farm in Somerset for over 100 years.

Montgomery’s Cheddar - An unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese made by Jamie Montgomery in Somerset.

Isle of Mull- An unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese made by Jeff and Chris Reade on a remote Scottish island. The soil and climate in western Scotland is different from Somerset, resulting in a more acidic and fruity cheese.

Sparkenhoe Red Leicester- An unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese made by David and Jo Clarke. It’s savory and satisfying and much younger than the clothbound Cheddars, only four or five months old.

Stichelton- An unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese made by American Joe Schneider in Nottinghamshire near Sherwood Forest. It’s syrupy, toasty, and savory. It sure looks like Stilton but don’t call it that! That would be against the law!

And to drink:

RCH Brewery’s Pitchfork (Somerset, 4.3%)- it is not everyday you get to try a real English cask ale!

Farnum Hill Cider (New Hampshire, 6.5% to 7.5%) - This cider may be made in New Hampshire, but it’s still the taste of Somerset and a great companion for Cheddar.

Wild Meliades (Hudson Valley, 12%) - A uniquely produced organic apple wine. crafted by Enlightenment Wines. "Wild Meliades" is unfiltered and sulfite-free, with sophisticated floral notes produced by the complex interactions of an airborne wild yeast ecosystem, which develops independently in each 5-gallon cask. Every cask offers a one-of-a-kind experience, unmatched in depth or subtlety; this particular cask was brought to Jimmy's 43 by request and is not available anywhere else.

New World vs Old World Cheddar

Diana Pittet is traveling the world right now writing about cheese for her lovely blog, Cheddarbound. Last year, she led a guided tasting of new world and old world cheddars in the Tasting Room at Jimmy's No. 43. If I remember correctly, we tasted Cabot Cloth Bound, and 1 other Vermont cheddar as well as 2 English - Montgomery and Mrs. Quick's Borough cheddar.

Ewes Make Great Cheese

3 Corner Field Farm in Shushan, NY is all about lamb and sheep, sheep and lamb. Every week we buy their lamb chorizo sausages, which is one of the most popular menu items at Jimmy's No. 43. We serve it with a yogurt (tzatziki sauce) made from the same sheep's milk. We also frequently feature one of the sheep's milk cheeses on our cheese plate. Learn a little more about one of our favorite producers in this informative article.

From Anne Saxelby

Our favorite cheese monger, Anne Saxelby, keeps a tidy little cheese shop at the Essex Street Market. Originally built by mayor Laguardia in the 1940's, the Essex Street market is one of only 3 surviving publicly owned community market sites in NYC. Anne has built a regional following as a destination shop for American farmstead cheeses. For a quick, online fix see the Saxelby Cheese website at www.saxelbycheese.com.

Anne also writes a nifty little blog. Here is an excerpt from her blog, Saxelby Cheesemongers:

"...sheep and goats (to a larger extent) don't make much in the way of milk. Traditionally, cows, sheep, and goats are pregnant and dry (i.e. not producing milk) all winter long, and have their young ones and begin to produce milk again in the springtime. It's just nature's way of giving the animals a break, or a little maternity leave, if you will.

...all that down time on the farm is about to come to a screeching, baa-ing halt! As I write, thousands upon thousands of kids and lambs are being born in barns across the northeast and across the country. This kidding and lambing extravaganza is a noisy but joyous harbinger of spring, and also of good cheeses to come. When the kids and lambs come, so does the milk, and our cheese makers are at the ready to turn it into some scrumptious and delectable fromage...."