Congratulations to our Fan Photo of the Week winner Gianaclis Caldwell, whose cheese resembles a blanketed baby. We’d like to rock this babe in our arms—and then spread it on crackers! Gianaclis’s photo has even inspired us to make our own cheese. Try this simple homemade mozzarella recipe by Anya Firisen. Yum!

We know you’ve all been drooling over our Winter Cheese Plate… now we’re giving you the chance to taste it yourself!

WIN A CHEESE PLATE

We’re choosing five lucky bloggers to win a Cheese Plate Party with culture. How does it work? Each Cheese Plate Party blogger will host a party featuring our winter cheese plate, take photos and write about both the party and the plate, and have their blog post featured on our website. In addition, each winner will get to host a giveaway on their own blog.

In this blog series our intrepid intern Molly will find and interview American cheesemakers attempting to re-create traditional European cheeses. Learn about the difficulties as well as the benefits of this type of cheese making, as well as how terroir and the idea of a cheese tied to a location so distant changes when that cheese is made in a new location. Also, each week you’ll have a chance to win an issue of culture: the word on cheese. Last week's winner was Ashley Robin!

In a blog about traditional European cheeses, I'd be crazy not to write about Roquefort. The poster child of the legally-protected, this sheep's milk blue is perhaps the best example of how closely a product can be tied to a place--in terms of both chemistry and culture.

In this blog series our intrepid intern Molly will find and interview American cheesemakers attempting to re-create traditional European cheeses. Learn about the difficulties as well as the benefits of this type of cheese making, as well as how terroir and the idea of a cheese tied to a location so distant changes when that cheese is made in a new location. Also, each week you’ll have a chance to win an issue of culture: the word on cheese. Last week's winner was Amber A.!

Photo credit: Dimitry B.

In this blog series our intrepid intern Molly will find and interview American cheesemakers attempting to re-create traditional European cheeses. Learn about the difficulties as well as the benefits of this type of cheese making, as well as how terroir and the idea of a cheese tied to a location so distant changes when that cheese is made in a new location. Also, each week you’ll have a chance to win an issue of culture: the word on cheese. The winner of last week's prize was Michele!

In this blog series our intrepid intern Molly will find and interview American cheesemakers attempting to re-create traditional European cheeses. Learn about the difficulties as well as the benefits of this type of cheese making, as well as how terroir and the idea of a cheese tied to a location so distant changes when that cheese is made in a new location. Also, each week you’ll have a chance to win an issue of culture: the word on cheese. Read on to learn more!

Today's competition and record entry of 2,785 cheeses for the 2012 World Cheese Awards was first whittled down to 55 cheeses that qualified for the prestigious award of Super Gold. Among them were (hurrah!) three cheeses from American cheesemakers: Baetje Farms, Jasper Hill and Rogue Creamery, with the latter two (with Harbison and Rogue River Blue) making it through to the final round of judging of only sixteen cheeses.

Rogue Creamery also went on to win Best American Cheese, with David Gremmels present to receive the award (see picture).

The World Cheese Awards are happening RIGHT NOW in Birmingham, UK, and our own Kate Arding is reporting straight from the judges floor! While we anxiously await more first-hand accounts, get the award results live on your phone with this app. The results will be posted tomorrow, November 28th, so install the app ASAP if you want to stay on top of the World Cheese Awards!

To install the app, follow these simple instructions:

1. Type the following into the web browser on your smartphone, not on your computer: www.worldcheeseawards.com
2. Save the app to your home screen on your device
3. Press Add to Home Screen
4. Give the app a name of your choice (e.g. World Cheese Awards)

That's it!

Last summer, along with Paola, my cheese friend, we paid a visit to Maplebrook Farm in Vermont, makers of Italian style cheeses such as Mozzarella and Burrata.

Although I've seen Mozzarella made several times, I'd never seen the burrata process before - or how they get the creamy bits into the middle.

By way of some background, Maplebrook Farm was founded in 2003 after a chance encounter when Founder, Johann Englert, came across Al Ducci's Groceria in Manchester, Vermont during a visit and when she tasted their mozzarella, it transported her back to her time in Italy during college.

One of my favorite visits in my recent trip to Wisconsin was our tour and tasting at Chalet Cheese Cooperative led by Master Cheesemaker Myron Olson, who is the only certified Limburger maker in the US (Myron is also certified in Baby Swiss, Brick and "German Brick," or bierekase). He is a tome of information, and a jolly, contented, white-mustached soul who is both proud and practical.