You may remember my mention that the Farmstead Wine and Cheese counter opened recently in the Alameda Marketplace. Jeff and Carol are its friendly, enthusiastic and well-informed propietors. When I first walked in and introduced myself to Jeff, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they'd heard of our site. After the usual discussion of the pleasures of raw milk cheese, I mentioned that I wanted to try Torta del Casar. I doubted I could find someone would carry it, since the Cheese Board didn't. "I can order it," said Jeff. "Come back next week, and we'll probably have it." Sure enough, the next time I came by, he had it proudly displayed next to cash register. Although I was about to go out of town for two weeks, I purchased one, for fear of it running out before I got back.
Finally, last week, at the Cheese Diaries tasting, I managed to crack it open. It was worth the wait.
I first heard about Torta del Casar in Jeffrey Steingarten's seminal (in my mind, at least) chapter, Cheese Crise, in It Must Have Been Something I Ate. He had described it, along with Camembert de Normandie, as the "pinnacle of human acheivement in the field of soft and semisoft cheese." I was further intrigued when I read that Stephen Jenkins, in The Cheese Primer, described the paste as "pudding soft." It was also listed in the Saveur 100 recently. Naturally, I assumed I'd never be able to get ahold of it in the States, so I was very excited to get ahold of it when i did.
Torta del Casar is a raw sheep's milk cheese from the Extramadura Province of western Spain, near Portugal. It is often compared to Vacherin Mont d'Or, because of its runny texture. Jeff at Farmstead had suggested warming it in the oven before slicing off the top, and scooping out the paste. It was a tantalizing proposition, but when I checked back to see how he had fared in this endeavor, he told me that it had fallen apart (but it was still delicious). During our tasting, I decided to simply let it come to room temperature. I might have been too impatient, though. It did not have the runny, molten texture of a Vacherin Mont d'Or. It was not even spreadable, so we wound up slicing it. However, it was indeed delicious. Once it warmed on our fingers, it became very supple and creamy. It was rich and nutty, with an initial sharp tang that balanced out with a hint of bitterness. The tanginess was also a nice lift after all the Camemberts we'd been tasting. According to Max McCalman, in The Cheese Plate, its curds are coagulated with cardoon thistle extract, which lent some slightly herbal and floral notes. We drank a lovely 1997 Guigal Côte Rotie with it, generously provided by Christine and Ari.
I would definitely have this cheese again, but its large size is a little prohibitive - it comes in 2 - 4 pound rounds, and because it's supposed to be runny, it is difficult to buy it cut. As much as I love this cheese, it would be tough for me to finish by myself before it went bad. I also was disappointed that it wasn't as runny as I expected (but that might have been because of my impatience). Julianne, Max's co-host, made the brilliant suggestion of placing it inside a hollowed-out loaf of pain au levain. It will be another cheese project for me to anticipate.
Posted by connie at January 23, 2004 11:39 PM | TrackBack