Homage to Fromage

Contributed by Caroline Hostettler

True Love

Was it the sturdy herby coating that made for the name of this cheese? Or was it the impression that only a big portion of passion combined with imagination and craftsmanship could create such a delicacy? It doesn't matter. The impact of even a tiny bite will wipe the profoundest questions far, far away and send the happy eater off to a delectable journey.


The Brin d' Amour, literally "Stalk of Love," is a sheep milk cheese from Corsica, the idyllic island situated closer to Italy than to its mother land France. The fresh and still snow white squares get coated with everything the meadows of the Maquis plateau offer: rosemary, thyme, oregano, juniper berries, tiny Pimentos and all kinds of grasses. They are then aged in caves for about one month.

By the time they are removed, the slabs look wild, smell intense and taste simply spectacular. Under the dry, almost crunchy and deep flavored rind hides a dense yet still moist cheese with a buttery richness and just the perfect mix of refreshing acidity and soothing sweetness. The moment when the teeth press the herbs into the dairy and the proud Mediterranean flavors marry with the shy lactic ones reminds one of, let's say, an intimate act. Greater balance cannot be found.

Brin d' Amour can be aged up to three, four months. It will become creamier and runnier from the edges towards the inside. The slabs produced between May and the end of summer are the most interesting, most accentuated ones. So get slicing now! Brin d' Amour not only tastes great on its own, but cubed up and tossed with some (tubular) pasta it makes for a quick and satisfying meal. A thin slice, heated shortly in a skillet, will perk up any kind of grain and or bean dish. Or go on a trip by finishing off some New Zealand lamb with a fat piece of Brin d¹Amour.

Now this is true love!

Speaking of Cheese...

No, no New Zealand

Gone are the times when sheep were kept because of meat and wool alone. New Zealand has realized that its lush and abundant pastures, its warm summers and cold winters and all its immigrants from traditional cheese producing countries in Europe make for an ideal dairy land.

Presently, it produces just like its big sister, Australia, a wide variety of high quality cheeses. From fresh goat milk rounds to some of the very best ever blues, from pretty bloomy to smelly washed rinds, fromdelicately young to robust aged wheels: New Zealand has it all.

To get a taste around here is pretty much impossible though. Unfortunate but understandable. The trip around half the world not only is very expensive, it is, in first line, pretty deadly for the cheeses.

Weeks, even months on a boat or days between airplanes and customs are situations not many cheeses tolerate well. So, for good New Zealand cheeses you have to travel to their land of origin. (Or you can console your self with some lamb and Brin d'Amour. See above!)

Caroline....