Strathdon Blue is my kind of blue

Way, way, way up at the top of Scotland there's a small dairy right on the North Sea. How anyone managed to find this cheese up in parts unknown (and I have actually been to this part of Scotland and I assure you there is not a whole lot there) is beyond me, but I am glad that they did.

Song and I popped this cheese out of its beautiful blue wrapper this afternoon and were immediately smitten. Gooey and soft, it is nothing at all like the ubiquitous Stilton. The cheese is made using a mixture of Ayrshire (Scottish breed) and Holstein-Friesian milk.

Like all of our other cheeses from the British Isles, Strathdon Blue comes to us via Neal's Yard Dairy in London.

Fondue Party?

So it looks like we're going to serve up some fondue this Friday. I don't know anything about fondue. It's crazy that someone who works in a cheese shop is completely ignorant on the subject so I decided to wander out into the internets to find out some little known information about fondue.

First of all, what does fondue mean? Those of you guessing "bacterial petri dish" are close but that is not exactly it. It means "melted". I checked more than wikipedia on this one and it seems like it is the right answer.

The little pot that holds the melted is called a caquelon and the burner is called a rechaud.

There is a bit of etiquette involved. No double dipping! Dip once and only once. Allowing your lips or tongue to touch the dipping fork is considered rude. So don't even think about it.

Apparently my fondue party is not considered a success unless you are talking about it for weeks and weeks afterward. So you better have fun and talk about it for a long time.

Other fun facts:

• The first reference to fondue goes all the way back to Homer's Iliad
• Fondue was originally conceived as a preservation method. Take your really old bread and really old cheese and make it delicious by melting the cheese and softening your brick like bread. Genius!
• Tradition says that if the item you're dipping comes off of your fork: Men: Next round is on you and for Women: Kiss the man to your left (wacky, wacky internets, who knows if this is at all true)

No love from Minnesota Monthly (again)

Another "Best Of" issue of Minnesota Monthly and another snub for the cheese/specialty food shops around town.

I have some issues with Best Of compilations in general as long term blog readers may remember. Of course since then we were named "Best Cheese Shop" by the City Pages but that still hasn't really changed my opinion about best of lists.

I'm not actually positive why I care at all about this topic. Obviously it gnaws at me a little bit or I wouldn't be blogging about it two years in a row.

Here's the point: People like lists and they like to be told what is good and what is bad (I will admit that I am amongst those that enjoy the occasional list of the best cat groomer or forklift operators). There are so many choices out there that we look to magazines, newspapers, blogs, and other reviews to tell us where we should spend our precious (dwindling) discretionary income and scarce free time. I get it. Totally.

After the City Pages "best of" we saw a nice increase in business. So these editions obviously have some influence. So why isn't Minnesota Monthly using their influence to promote specialty food shops? They have a robust Food section with arguably the best known food critic in town.

I'm a broken record with this point but I can't resist beating it to a pulp: nothing beats shopping at a specialty store. I'm waiting for someone to make the cheese shop version of "High Fidelity". Actually I don't think of buying cheese as an elitist event. It's definitely a luxury in the sense that it isn't a staple like milk or sandwich bread (or in my case organic pop tarts) but it is not necessarily something only for the wealthy or the foodies among us.

I think both of our stores are very fun places to shop. All of our staff are people that I wouldn't mind sitting next to on a 6 hour bus ride to Chicago (though 9 hours might be stretching it). We have products that we're the only in the midwest to sell and some house made items that are just utterly fantastic. I haven't even mentioned our sandwiches yet...

I don't need to be validated by a magazine to know we're doing a good job, we have lots of loyal customers who tell us when we do something well or when our performance is less than stellar. That's not what it is about. Like I said, we may not even be the best cheese shop on France Ave or the best on Grand Ave.

Maybe there is some other thought behind the MinnMo "best of" edition. What that is I couldn't even speculate. Just be mindful that there is a whole world beyond what exists in those lovely little lists.

What it takes to work in the cheese shop + McClure's Pickles

Every week the cheese shop staff is given some sort of assignment. It is all part of the continuing training that happens here. We actually take customer service incredibly seriously and in the ideal world every one of the staff will know as much about the products we sell as I do.

With that in mind, this weeks' assignment involved everyone doing some research on a product we sell in the shop.

MC is a Saint Paul employee and she was assigned McClure's pickles. I think I'll let MC take it from here:

"McClure Pickles: Made in Detroit & Brooklyn by a pair of brothers (the McClures) who are genuinely passionate about pickles. One brother (Brooklyn) is a professional clown. In a serious, theatrical sort of way. They've recently been certified kosher. (And they have a mildly shocking advertisement video on their webpage--maybe cheese blog material?)"

Without further ado:

New in the Case

We're feeling our inner Spaniard this week. Tomorrow we are giving out sample slice of Jamon Iberico de Bellota and we've also added three new Spanish cheeses to our case.

Raw Milk Mahon--Spain is not generally known for it's cow's milk cheeses but this is a delicious, tangy cheese that has long been requested in our case. We, of course, prefer the raw milk version. Just packed full of flavor.

Queso de Murcia--That's right, we're stocking drunken goat. Of course we found a fancy one. Delicious, drunken.

Veigadarte--Fresh goat milk that is creamy and rich. Goat-o-licious.

The Case for Fermin Ham

As many of you who have visited our shop know we are proud purveyors of the coveted Jamon Iberico Bellota. We lovingly refer to this fantastically expensive treat as meat sashimi. The only supplier of Jamon Iberico Bellota in the United States is a company called Fermin. The reason only Fermin can import Bellota is very simple: hams for Bellota live only in Spain and Femin has the only USDA approved slaughterhouse in the country.

So what does that mean for all the other regular serrano ham out there? It means the pigs are not from Spain. Spanish ham not from Spanish pigs but from pigs raised and salughtered outside of the country (often in Holland). The pigs are then transported to Spain for curing.

That means Fermin is the only producer of solely Spanish Serrano Ham. We like that. This fact is enough to make us want to switch producers. But wait! There's more! From Fermin:

"The curing process which results in the Fermín Jamón Serrano is completely traditional. The hams are cured in drying rooms with open screened windows, caressed by mountain air as it wafts through the area where the hams are hung.

Most other hams available today are hung in temperature controlled curing facilities, where the conditions are artificially engineered to reproduce the mountain climate. Not so with Fermín. These hams are cured by the change of the seasons and the action of salt over time."

What else do I need to say to convince you? It's worth a try. Available in St Paul immediately and coming to Minneapolis soon. $13.50 for 1/2 a pound is 50 cents more a pound than our old Serrano and we think well worth it. We dare you to try this against other Serrano hams in town.

Our Newest Artisan Cheese

A major part of being a cheesemonger is searching for new cheese to sell in our shop. We can't always rely on cheese distributors to find the best of what is out there. Whenever I travel somewhere I taste whatever cheese I can find. Before the St Paul shop opened I took a trip to New York City and visited the finest cheese shops in the city.

That said, I am appalled that non of those fancy big city cheese shops had discovered this gem from the midwest. I think it must be east coast bias and snobbery. Here is a hand-dipped (!) beauty from our neighbors right next door in Wisconsin. It has a sticker seal of approval proclaimin "Wisconsin Finest Cheese" on the wax rind.

It is, we are led to believe, American cheese. I think they're referring to the fact it is produced domestically but I cannot be sure. The descriptors on the front are "Pasteurized Process Colored". Sure we're disappointed that this is not a raw milk cheese and I am not entirely certain what "process" refers to, but I think the fact that they went through the trouble of coloring the cheese makes up for a lot.

This is a limited edition cheese for us. We only have one to sell but it is priced to move at $79.99. The sell by date (I think they mean ripe date) is 11-4-09 so I there is plenty of time to pick out your favorite bottle of wine and plan a majestic meal around this truly artisan cheese.