Cheese Profile: Invierno

by Austin Coe Butler

Queso del Invierno, or simply, Invierno, is Vermont Shepherd’s “winter cheese” as its Spanish name suggests. But while it is a “winter cheese,” it is firmly rooted in the summer months. Long before Yesenia Ielpi met David Major, she would spend her childhood summers milking cows on her father’s farm in the Dominican Republic. Invierno is a nod to those summers spent in the Dominican Republic, but also, as a cow and sheep mixed milk cheese, the unification of the Ielpi and Major family.
This semi-firm cheese is made of mostly Jersey cows’s milk from Ranney Ridge Farm, a small organic dairy farm just down the road from Vermont Shepherd. I’ve written previously of the challenges of milking sheep in our posts on Vermont Shepherd’s Verano and Landmark Creamery—sheep only produce a small volume of milk for five or six months during the winter and spring and are weary of being milked. The majority of Vermont Shepherd’s sheep’s milk goes to making their celebrated Verano, leaving just enough of this precious milk to add to Invierno.
Invierno is a winter cheese because, while it is made during the summer, it is ready to be eaten during the early winter after five months, and continues to ripen and age through the long Vermont winter in the cave the Majors excavated and built themselves. The cheese easily ages up to 9 months.
Whereas Verano is nutty with a lovely red fruit streak of strawberries and cherries running through it, Invierno has a richer, tangier, more savory flavor with a paste that is a lovely golden straw color indicative of Jersey milk. In contrast to Verano’s granular texture, Invierno has fudgy texture that is deeply satisfying to sink your teeth into. It pairs nicely with a big Cabernet on a cool evening or sessionable beers like a Pilsner or Pale Ale for warm afternoons. It is the perfect cheese to enjoy outdoors on a picnic or in the backyard alongside the grill as we finally move into spring after our own long winter.

The Pairing: Comte Revisited

by Karina Roe

This week we travel back in time to revisit one of our all-time favorite Pairing cheeses: Marcel Petite Comté. This legendary cheese hails from the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, a large region in eastern France that encompasses not only some of France’s finest cheeses, but also some of the country’s most heralded wines. Marcel Petite ages his wheels of comté in a defunct military bunker that was cut into the side of one of the Jura’s famed limestone hills. This is the perfect setting to age comté: the cool, steady temperatures of the bunker provide an ideal environment for the slow maturation and complex flavor development that we love so much in this cheese.  

But there’s nothing Petite about this Pairing! We matched it up with the mellow, silky tones of the Domaine Carrette Saint-Véran ‘Les Mures’. The nutty notes in the comté melt into the creamy butterscotch flavors of the wine, and a cleansing acidity comes through on the finish to get you geared up for the next bite. This 100% Chardonnay comes wholly from the Les Mures vineyard, allowing the Carrette family to showcase a singular terroir that features clay-limestone soils (perfect for Chardonnay) on steep, north-facing slopes. Oak is used judiciously, so as not to cover up the beautiful fruit and mineral notes that already make this wine sing. 

Cheese Profile: Alemar Cheese

by Joe Kastner

Here at the Cheese Shop of France 44, we sell cheeses made in all sorts of exciting locales- from the towering, picturesque mountains of Switzerland; to sweeping Welsh grasslands; to coastal Spanish islands. But some of my favorites come right from our backyard. The cheeses we sell that are made closest to home (barring our house-made mozzarella, of course) come to us from Alemar Cheese, and they’re made right here in Minneapolis!

Alemar has been around the cheese scene for a little while now, having opened in 2008 with their original operation based out of Mankato. The company was founded by Keith Adams, a California native, who named it after his two daughters, Alexandra and Mariel. The first cheese they started making then was the Bent River Camembert-style, an earthy, tangy, spreadable nod to the classic French standby. Just a couple years after opening, Bent River was already winning awards with the American Cheese Society, a feat that did not go unnoticed. 

We’re happy to sell Bent River at our shop, as well as a couple other offerings from the local makers. Blue Earth is their larger-format Brie-style cheese; another soft, spreadable one that tastes like a delicious mushroom butter. This is one that we cut-to-order at the counter, in case you just need a little snack for the road. Another option we carry is Good Thunder, a washed-rind soft cheese that’s actually treated with Surly Bender beer during its aging process, putting a fun MN twist on this traditional Reblochon-style. This pungent little square is for all you strong-cheese lovers, with a bigger kick than its siblings and a bready, sometimes fruity flavor. 

Keith and the team at Alemar have always attributed a lot of their success to the great milk that they get from local Minnesotan farms. They moved up from Mankato to the Food Building in Minneapolis in 2019, but still get their milk from the same trusted local farmers. Starting with delicious cow’s milk from trusted dairy partners is a great way to help ensure only the finest end product is being produced. Keith and his team, including Head Cheesemaker Charlotte Serino, are some of the more prolific Minnesota artisan cheesemakers in recent history, and we are super excited to try whatever they come up with next!

Stilton vs Stichelton

by Austin Coe Butler

“Stilton is a quintessentially British cheese,” wrote Ned Palmer, which makes it all the more hilarious that an arguably more traditional form of Stilton known as Stichelton is made by an American, Joe Schneider. Why is this? Schneider legally cannot call his Stichelton Stilton because it is made with raw milk.

In 1996 the Stilton Cheese Makers Association registered a protected designation of origin (PDO) for Stilton and in the process specified that it must be made with pasteurized milk. This took place in the context of a number of food scares involving listeria monocytogenes and Mad Cow Disease that shook the British public. Overnight, Stilton makers who still made Stilton with raw milk had to either install a pasteurizer or get out of the game. (A curious aside: this new PDO designated that Stilton could only be produced in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire, which means that Stilton can no longer be made in Stilton!) Since Schneider legally could not call his cheese Stilton, he settled on the old Anglo-Saxon name for the town—Stichelton. Schneider, I believe, would like to be welcomed back into the fold. When he’s not at the dairy, he can be found protesting in front of Parliament with a placard proclaiming, “I Can’t Believe It’s Not STILTON.”

What’s the difference between Stilton and Stichelton? We sell Colston-Bassett Dairy’s Stilton, which is the premier Stilton. It is made delicately by hand and matured several extra months before being pierced to allow the blue mold to bloom resulting in a well-balanced paste. (If you’ve ever had metallic, tinny, and bitter blue cheese, it’s because there’s too much blue mold in it.) Colston Bassett Dairy’s Stilton has brilliant indigo marbling and an ivory paste with notes of sweet cream, a tingle of spice, and sometimes a bubblegum or cotton candy sweetness hiding in there. Stichelton by its nature is wilder, almost feral at times. It’s bright buttermilk tang is accompanied with savory notes of malt, brewer’s yeast, baffling complex. Each wheel has some new flavor squirreled away in it. But for all its volatile and surprising flavors, it has the characteristic crumble and luxurious creaminess of Stilton.

Talking and writing about food can be exhausting, though, and there’s no better way to understand the difference that to taste it. Taste the difference side-by-side. On this dreary, drizzly weekend, go full English and have a few pints of Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale alongside these two fine English blues.

The Pairing: Wrangeback + The Chook

by Sophia Stern

We only have one Swedish cheese in our case, which makes it pretty easy when customers say “I had this one cheese… it was so good…it’s from Sweden”. Bingo, it’s Wrångebäck. This Alpine-esque cheese is a fan-favorite. It features an addictively creamy texture and a buttery, umami flavor similar to Gruyère and Comté. Wrångebäck is balanced with a bright, acidic quality, making for a smooth finish. A sparkling red is the perfect pairing to handle this this beefy, creamy, bold Swedish cheese. We’ve chosen The Chook Sparkling Shiraz from Australia as a semi-sweet and spicy balance to this rich, savory cheese. 

Wrångebäck isn’t just delicious, it’s Sweden’s oldest and most historic cheese. Officially, Wrångebäck dates to 1830, but some version likely goes back to 1225, when the farm it’s made on now was established by monks. Known today as Almnäs Bruk, the farm is located on the western coast of Lake Vättern, the second largest lake in Sweden. Production of Wrangeback thrived from the 1800’s to the mid 20th century. However, World War II halted the making of artisan cheese in Europe. A move towards industrialization reallocated the milk from Almnäs Bruk for commercial use. It wasn’t until 2008, when the fourth generation family owner decided to restart making Wrångebäck. With the help of 82-year old cheesemaker, Hans Stiller, the original recipe and methods of Wrångebäck were reinstated to Almnäs Bruk. 

Today, Almnäs Bruk is a thriving farm and historic estate with extraordinary respect towards the land. The diverse landscapes are maintained with attention to the species that call the farm home. Grasses are allowed to grow tall so the birds can nest and thrive. The cows eat feed made from the land they live and graze on. The cattle breeds are varied and unique, some rare and saved from extinction by the Almnäs Bruk team. They enjoy changing landscapes, from open pastures to ancient forests. The cheesemakers preserve their hard-won terroir by thermalizing the milk, instead of pasteurizing, saving the microorganisms that make Wrångebäck so unique and delicious. 

Enter The Chook, a sparkling Shiraz from south Australia. This New World wine is full-bodied, showing off the ripeness and intensity for which Australia's Shiraz’s are known. Notes of dark berries, tobacco, and cola bounce around this bottle. It’s standard to pair alpine-style cheeses with reds, but since Wrångebäck is so rich, so dense, so creamy, The Chook's bubbles offer a relief. The sweetness in the wine eases the beefier, savory qualities of cheese, making Wrångebäck extra addictive. This pairing screams to be featured around a BBQ. The wine is fun and cola-like, while the cheese is perfect alongside some grilled meats or ideal melted on a burger.

Meet Your Monger: Carol Ann

How long have you worked for F44, and how has your role changed over the years? 

Ten years this May! I worked behind the counter at both the St Paul & Minneapolis shops, ran the St Paul Cheese Shop from 2013-2019 and now I am in charge of catering and gifts. Oh, I also met my now husband at France 44.

What does your life look like when you’re not crushing it at F44?

I spend a lot of time in the pool, and soon the lake. Open water swimming is my favorite. 

Name the best meal you’ve had recently (besides one you’ve made yourself…) 

PS Steak. Besides the food being amazing, the atmosphere and service were fantastic. It was one of the best dining experiences I've had, up there with Corner Table and the Bachelor Farmer (pour two out). 

Give us a brief glimpse into the life of a Catering & Gifts Director…

I return inquiries for gift boxes & catering, process any orders that have come in online, set up deliveries, communicate with the kitchen staff, and work the cheese counter on busier days. St Paul Cheese Shop is known for some pretty crushing lunch time business, so I like to relive my glory days of slinging sandwiches and selling cheese. 

How do you take your coffee? 😎

First coffee of the day black. If I need something sweet, latte with coconut milk and hazelnut syrup.

Meet Your Monger: Maura

Describe your current position and your day to day role at f44? 

My current title is Operations Manager, but all that really means is that I’m usually the most organized person in the room. I was the Cheese Buyer for three years, but now I work with our team of four monger-buyers to try and make sure the cheese case stays full, but not too full. On any given day I’ll be making signage, entering invoices, visiting our St. Paul shops, and generally moving cheese from one location to another! 

What cheese do you have in your fridge right now? 

Not to be a cheesemonger cliché, but a better question would be what cheese don’t I have in my fridge right now. Cheesemongers (we’re just like you!) are definitely guilty of letting stray bits languish in the crisper drawer for too long, at least I am. Drunk Monk is my ride or die snacking cheese. I always have a good supply of Cravero Parmigiano Reggiano for fresh grating. I’ve been really enjoying Veronica Pedraza’s goat cheeses from Blakesville Creamery lately. And I’d be remiss without a good chunk of Pleasant Ridge Reserve in my fridge; it’s perfect for any occasion, and I find it holds up to refrigeration remarkably well. 

What’s your favorite season of Top Chef? 

I tend to remember the people rather than the locations. I’m a sucker for the Voltaggio brothers. Brooke Williamson is a marvel. The All Stars seasons always make for good television. I miss the days of Hugh Acheson though; his zingers live rent free in my head now. 

What’s your current favorite retail item in the shop? 

Easily the Amour de Cerise. They’re these French cherry gummies coated in hazelnut praline and chocolate. I don’t even especially like cherries or chocolate, but I would eat these candies until I became ill for sure. The Inna Fresno Chili Jam is a staff-wide favorite for good reason. Despite the moniker, it’s not spicy at all, by any standard. As a native Minnesotan I genetically resist anything pepper-based, but once I tried it with soft cheese it became an absolute obsession. It has all the fruity notes of chilis without any of the heat, and it’s just the right amount of sweetness to balance out virtually any cheese.

Cheese Profile: Lincolnshire Poacher

by Austin Coe Butler

Lincolnshire Poacher represents everything I love most about the contemporary cheese world. Grounded in tradition, but with an exciting, contemporary twist, Poacher blends two discrete and storied styles–Alpine, like Comté and Gruyère, and West Country Cheddar–into a surprising original. The name Lincolnshire Poacher refers to an English folk song called “The Lincolnshire Poacher,” which sings of the joys of poaching and cheekily evading the magistrates, gamekeepers, and wardens of the world. It is the unofficial anthem of Lincolnshire County, and there’s something renegade and revelrous in this cheese as well. It’s a cheddar but shirks the regulatory trappings of a West Country Cheddar to take its place as a contradictory “new traditional” cheese.

            Brothers Simon and Tim Jones are “cheese farmers,” in the parlance of Bronwen and Francis Percival, cheesemakers who keep and tend to the animals whose milk the cheese from, or, as Simon Jones says simply, “We grow the grass, milk the cows, and make the cheese.” Like so many great cheeses, it begins with the land. Made at Ulceby Grange Farm, in Alford, Lincolnshire, the farm had been in the family since 1917, but it wasn’t until the 90s that Simon Jones began to make cheese from the dairy cows his father cared for.  Geologically, Lincolnshire County has not been ripe for dairying. The loamy and clay soils make it difficult to grow pasture and graze cows. However, the Ulceby Grange Farm sits atop the Lincolnshire Wolds, a range of low, open hills or “wolds,” that is fortuitously composed of limestone and chalk, revealing a rich, red soil that is perfect for growing lush pasture and grazing dairy cows. Their herd of Holstein-Friesian and Ayrshire cows dine on spring grass and sweet clover, then, in the autumn and winter, a silage of spring beans, winter wheat, grass, and maize all grown on the farm, which allows them to produce rich, fatty, and sweet milk.

            This milk is then set into curd and cooked, cut, and stirred at a higher temperature and to a finer texture than a traditional English cheese—a distinctly Alpine technique. The curd is then cheddared, milled, and hand-salted before being pressed for 36 hours. The truckles of Poacher are then aged on wooden slats, and once a month they are turned by the Jones’s cheese turning robot, Florence. Like an Alpine, this cheese develops a natural rind that is ruddy and speckled like granite.

            All of these steps have a big impact on flavor. Cooking curd at a higher temperature and finer texture expels a lot of whey, resulting in a drier cheese that benefits from a long maturation. Truckles of Poacher are aged for a minimum of twelve months, and can go up to three years, which your standard regulation West Country Cheddar couldn’t stand. The result is a paste that is dense yet open, delightfully craggy–like a Cheddar you can see the individual curds, but like Comté of Gruyère those curds are dense, waxy, and creamy. The flavor is nutty, complex, and bursting with juicy tropical fruits like pineapple.

            When Poacher was first sold, it was so popular that the local shops had to ration it in 1/4 lb. slices to customers! Luckily, we’ve got enough Poacher to send you home with an honest chunk. Stop by the shop today to try Lincolnshire Poacher and you might be singing your own lyrics to the tune of “The Lincolnshire Poacher” about the joys of eating this rascally cheese.

The Pairing: Cabezuela + Mauny Cremant de Loire Brut

by Sophia Stern

It’s rare we get a pairing right on the first try. We tend to go back and forth between several bottles before finally settling on what hits just right. But now and then, we open our first pick, take a sip and a bite, and it’s perfect. Thus is the story of this week’s pairing. We’re featuring La Cabezuela Tradicional Semi Curado and Château de Mauny Crémant de Loire Brut, a delightful duo that helps each other shine. 

Like many stories we feature on this blog, Cabezuela begins with people in search of something meaningful and long-lasting. In 1991, couple Juan Luis Royulea and Yolanda Campos Gaspar decided to leave their communication and journalism careers for something different. They bought and effectively rescued Quesos La Cabezuela, an old creamery in the Guadarrama mountains outside of Madrid. To revamp the creamery, Juan and Yolanda turned their attention to the native breed of goats living in the area. The hearty, rugged Guadarrama goats were approaching extinction, but by exclusively using Guadarrama goat milk from local shepherds, the Cabezuela creamery revitalized the goat population, preserving the traditions and history of the land. 

Though the creamery makes a handful of cheeses that reflect the land and preserve the local history, we’re highlighting the Tradicional Semi Curado, which we just call “Cabezuela”.  This style of cheese, semi-firm and super creamy on the palate, dates back to at least 1750, when the Guadarrama goats were originally used for cheesemaking. Continuing the cheesemaking traditions into present day, the goats still graze on the mountainside pastures, eating thyme, acorns, heather and diverse grasses which impart a herbal and distinctly unique terroir into their milk. Guadarrama goats only produce 2 liters of their milk a day, about half as much as other goat breeds. The uniqueness of the land and the limited milk supply make Cabezuela a cheese we’re truly lucky to see in our case. 

Château de Mauny Crémant de Loire Brut is the ideal wine to handle this cheese. Hand-picked in the Loire Valley, this 80% Chenin Blanc, 20% Chardonnay sparkling beauty is bright and refreshing. The clean bubbles of the Crémant break through the richness of the Cabezuela and the floral, peachy notes balance the funkier qualities of the goat milk. On the flip side, the savory notes in the cheese bring out an intrigue in the Crémant which otherwise reads only crisp and floral. This pairing satisfies and shines. Most importantly, the cheese is a delicious reminder of the connections between quality food and tradition, and how they are revived by each other. Enjoy this pairing knowing the food you eat preserves history. Or with honey. Whatever you prefer. 

Meet Your Chef: Victoria

What does your day-to-day role look like at France44?

-I split my time between coming up with and getting our weekly specials on the shelves, building catering orders, supporting all of our food production departments (cooks, butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers, alike), and working with the future Events team to plan and create new menus and programs for the concept.  I also drink a lot of coffee and sample a lot of tasty tasty France 44 food.

What restaurant(s) have you been to recently that really got you jazzed?

- I'm a ride or die Parkway Pizza fan. I get pretty jazzed about picking up a pizza in the way home every other week.

Outside of work, how do you like to spend your time?

- I'm a pretty hardcore gardener, which I lovingly dedicate most of my time to. I'm also a rock climber, a baker, and have year-round ice cream and boba dates with my favorite France44 alum.

How do you take your coffee?

- If I'm eating breakfast, I take my coffee black.  If I'm drinking breakfast, I'll take an oatmilk latte with caramel--might as well satiate the caffeine fiend and the sugar tooth with one hit.

It’s almost spring! What has gotten you through this MN winter and MN winter 2.0?

- n/a haha

What excites you most about our new event space?

- I'm thrilled to be working with the team we've put together for this space, and can't wait to see our plans and ideas to make this blank canvas into a concept that can bring our community even closer over hand-picked and crafted food and drink.