I have long been a fan of hand-crafted cheeses. A friend and I go to the local food co-op's fall tasting of wines and cheeses every year in order to pick out what we are going to put on the Thanksgiving appetizer cheese board.
Over the years I have become very fond of cheeses from Neal's Yard Dairy: http://www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/about.html . I especially like the cow's milk cheeses like the Montgomery's Cheddar and Keen's Cheddar. I have tried a number of sheep's milk cheeses, but haven't developed a taste for those yet.
Last year as part of the Slow Food auction, I bid on and won a gift certificate for a pound of aged cheddar from Shelburne Farms in Vermont. I redeemed it before Christmas and received not only a pound of their Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese, but also a copy of a lovely cookbook, Cooking with Shelburne Farms. I adore cheddar and can just sit down and eat it, but I wanted to do something special with this cheese.
I also received a Williams-Sonoma gift card for Christmas. With it, I ordered a pound of Beecher's Handmade Cheeses from the Pike Place Market: half a pound of Flagship, a year-old semi-soft cow's milk cheese, and half a pound of Marco Polo, a creamy cow's milk cheese blended with green and black Madagascar peppercorns.
I wanted to do something with these cheeses that let the flavor of the cheeses come through. Something simple. So for a special dinner, I made grilled cheese sandwiches. I got a nice loaf of bread from the local food coop--a large grain loaf that crisped up beautifully. And to made each sandwich even more special, I cooked some bacon so that each sandwich was striped with it down the middle. I grilled three sandwiches, one with each cheese.
With just a little butter on the outside of each piece of bread, I grilled each to a nice golden brown. All three of these cheese are made from cows milk, and are not the bright orange of their artificially colored grocery store counterparts. The cheeses melted quickly as I grilled the sandwiches and oozed out from the edges of the bread.
My husband liked the Marco Polo best. He loves pepper and its inclusion gave the sandwich a slight bite that was a pleasant combination with the bacon. I thought the Flagship made the creamiest grilled cheese sandwich I have ever eaten. I made another one days later without the bacon, and it was sublime. But the Farmhouse Cheddar was also fabulous, and less crumbly just to eat out of hand. I have a half a pound of it left and will try a recipe from the Shelburne Farms cookbook with it.
I have always loved cheese and have greatly enjoyed getting to know handcrafted cheeses--certainly they weren't available in my mother's 1950s kitchen, although I am sure she would have loved them. There are some fine ones made locally where I live, and I will continue to buy them mail order whenever I can. Shelburne Farms has a great mail-order catalog, and the farm itself has a guest lodge and is open for tours: http://www.vtcheese.com/members/shelburne/shelburne.htm . Check out Beecher's Handmade Cheeses as well: http://www.beechershandmadecheese.com/ . Their webpage boasts that they make "The World's Best Mac & Cheese." I am sure you could do a wonderful job at home yourself with their cheeses. Until then, find a local cheese, some handmade bread, and treat yourself to a great sandwich.
