the Friday Feeding; VOL. 9

It’s a warm happy place at the store right now with good people here and delicious smells floating out from the kitchen.  Just like coming home.  We have loved you bringing in your friends this week and are touched by former store owners connecting with us and grateful for the continued support of our LLC landlords, all to make this place feel like home for all of us. This is why we are doing this.

It’s Friday night pizza again…see the bottom of the post.

Many things get better with age.  Dave and I like to think of ourselves as better humans now then when our hair was jet black.  This old circa 1800 building that the store is in gets asymmetrically better as time marches on.  And many foods get better as they age…like wine and cheese and even vinegar.

A bit about cheese…

Cheese making was originally developed by our very, very early forefathers as a means to preserve milk from their animals.  A simple left-out-over-night ferment allowed the watery whey to be poured off lessening the moisture from the mass so it would last longer.  Short term storage was this original method but later on when stored in the cool temperatures of caves, they figured out it would last even longer and coincidently bacteria developed to create flavor. 

Farmstead cheeses, many of the cheddars we know and most all of the big-chain supermarket cheeses are all very young cheeses riffing off that original idea of simply preserving milk, but now codifying it with agents that speed-separate the whey to produce uniform solid blocks.  Not bad for a singular taste but missing from many of these cheeses is the age and it is the age that gives it flavor.

The artisanal cheese maker today still employs these basic techniques but with added scientific knowledge they can control the bacteria development with time, different milks and added botanicals or minerals that yield unique flavors and delectable textures.  This type of cheese has a burst of flavor when it hits the tongue and then a secondary flavor develops as it sits in the warmth of your mouth.  Honestly, it is a bone quivering experience to eat really good, perfectly ripe cheese.The artisanal cheese maker today still employs these basic techniques but with added scientific knowledge they can control the bacteria development with time, different milks and added botanicals or minerals that yield unique flavors and delectable textures.  This type of cheese has a burst of flavor when it hits the tongue and then a secondary flavor develops as it sits in the warmth of your mouth.  Honestly, it is a bone quivering experience to eat really good, perfectly ripe cheese.

The artisanal cheese maker today still employs these basic techniques but with added scientific knowledge they can control the bacteria development with time, different milks and added botanicals or minerals that yield unique flavors and delectable textures.  This type of cheese has a burst of flavor when it hits the tongue and then a secondary flavor develops as it sits in the warmth of your mouth.  Honestly, it is a bone quivering experience to eat really good, perfectly ripe cheese.

A good aged cheddar should crumble when you cut it and a good brie style cheese should ooze when you slice into it.  This is how you know they are ripe.  If you must buy the stiff supermarket brie cheese, it can be improved if you wrap it well and let it age in your refrigerator for 2-3 months.  It will soften and more flavor will develop.  And all cheese tastes best served at room temperature taken out of the refrigerator one hour before serving.

One of our good aged cheeses…the Harbison brie style cheese wrapped in spruce bark has its own unique nutty-smooth oozy flavor and the spruce wrapping helps hold the cheese in place while warming.  For an appetizer, carefully cut off the top ring of the cheese (about and 1/8”) then slip the whole thing in a 300’ oven for about 10 minutes until the cheese is warm and melty.  Once it comes out, plate it up and drizzle a bit of Pinecone bud syrup over it, sprinkle with pine nuts and serve with crackers.  The pine compliments the notes of spruce to transport your taste buds to a Christmas of yore. This is REALLY yummy.

If you haven’t already, try the Cabot clothbound cheddar we have in the case. Aged one year, crumbly creamy-tangy, it has won international awards. Yay America, yay New England!

A bit about wines and vinegars…

We all know about the drinkable beauty of an aged wine–how it gets smoother and more rich with age–the same is true for vinegar. In Italy, vinegar is as prized as wine is in France. A true Balsamic vinegar, aged well, takes on all the subtle flavor notes of its harvest and is used as a syrup. The stuff in the supermarket isn’t really true balsamic. We happened across by accident some VERY fine balsamic vinegar aged 12 years and 25 years. If you need an over-the-top special gift for a culinary friend we are offering them at our cost. Read more about them HERE and more about the vintner HERE.

and more gift ideas from right here…

Friday night pizza…

Order ahead 12” sour dough pizzas to take out or sit down and eat here.  $15.95 Call to order 603-783-9933, choose a time between 4PM-6PM to pick up.

Choose:

1. Meat ball  with red sauce
2. Cherry tomatoes, onion and bell peppers with basil pesto
3. Fig and gorgonzola with honey drizzle and olive oil (no garlic)
4. Cheese only on red sauce always by request

CLICK HERE to read our menu for the upcoming week.

Thanks for reading, your storekeepers,

Jane and Dave