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This is sort of a funny cheese for me to write about.
I don't usually advertise it, but goat cheese is not my favourite. It's a very sad situation for a cheese lady to be in. I want to love them, and I try them often, but some goat cheeses really don't appeal to me. This is why however I can convert non-goat cheese eaters, and convince them to try some. The fact that I understand the difficulty with learning to love the "goats" is why I can suggest some that are a little different, that even I like.
Having admitted that I don't love all goat cheese and have been known to describe some as very 'goat-y' and 'barnyard-y', there are some that I like much more than others. I find that the more aged cheeses from the Loire Valley are some of my favourites, as well as some firmer goat cheeses like Queso de Cabra al Vino from Spain. Although the cheeses are aged and you would think that would make them stronger, they also take on nuttier, earthier flavours that appeal to me more than fresh goat cheeses.
Sainte-Maure Caprifeuille is a great example of the naturally aged cheeses form the Poitou-Charentes area. This is a raw milk goat's cheese made by Sèvre et Belle, a medium sized French producer. The cheese is made from goat's milk supplied by famers in the area. The quality of the milk is ensured and tested by the company, but the production is kept with small farms to support a more traditional method of keeping and maintaining the herds.
Once the milk is collected and cheese made the curd is hand ladled into various shaped molds. The hand ladling process is a labour intensive step that many industrial producers would certainly not take the time to do. It's this hand ladling step however, that ensure the delicate texture of the cheese as it breaks up the curd less than machine filling would. Once the mold is filled with curd, it is left to drain for 2 days. The molds have many small holes to allow the whey to escape, and by the end of the two days the cheese is ready to be taken from the mold and aged.
The St Maure Caprifeuille is a small log shape, approximately 280 grams to start. However, because the cheese are aged naturally and packed in wooden boxes with only straw and a slatted wooden top, they are constantly ripening and changing. Sometimes the cheeses are much firmer and a little drier when they arrive to us, other times they are very soft and almost runny on the outside. The average texture would be firm and dry in the very core of the log and softer on the outside with the natural wrinkly crust. Sometimes this style of goat cheese, which includes Crottin, Chevrot, and Pouligny Saint Pierre, grow small flecks of coloured or white mold on the outside crust. This is mold specific to these cheeses and is natural, and entirely edible. That doesn't mean you have to eat it of course, you can cut it off or avoid it, but it is a part of the cheese that isn't unusual to see.
The reason I like this cheese is the nice rounded flavour it has. Yes it definitely tastes like goat, but it is not sharp and tangy like a fresh goat cheese, its flavour is more a lingering richness, with a finish of hazelnuts and a texture strangely of peanut butter. This common French style of naturally aged goat cheese is a pleasure to see when at a market in the Loire Valley. There are pyramids, logs, cylinders and buttons and every age is available, from 2 days old to 2 months old.
The variety of goat cheese is increasing in Canada as well, and there are now some beautiful shaped and aged goat cheeses being prodded here as well. Maybe it won't be too many years before you can go to the farmers market in Canada and see the same selection!
Allison Spurrell along with her mother Alice Spurrell are the proprietors of les amis du FROMAGE and the award winning cheese & wine bistro Au Petit Chavignol. She is a judge for the DFC Canadian Cheese Grand Prix and the PNE Artisan Cheese competition. She is also a member of the Guilde des Fromagers Confrerie du Saint-Uguzon and the American Cheese Society.
Les amis du FROMAGE w buycheese.com w Kitsilano 1752 W. 2nd Ave T 604-732-4218 w East Van 843 E. Hastings St T 604-253-4218
Au Petit Chavignol w aupetitchavignol.com w 843 E. Hastings St T 604-255-4218
