Art Chowder November | December, Issue 24 | Page 42

E
very season knows conviviality; it is not limited
to a time of year.  Groups of us dining together
provide an opportunity to savor each other’s
company, stories and the best the world of food and
wine can offer.  Happily, good wine does not have
to be expensive; its companion in the fraternity of
fermentation, cheese, also proffers diversity at the
table. Fresh cheeses, those offered for sale within six to nine months of
milking, reflect seasonal changes in diet of the animal producing
the milk.  Naturally, aged cheeses minimize the ability to discern
“seasonality” by the slow process of the cooler type of Maillard
reaction which “darkens” the color and flavor of the cheese as it
matures over years.  Fresher cheeses best express seasonality — but
even these aged, harder cheeses display richness from summer and
fall milk that winter milk cannot manage. 
Like wine, cheese also has places and occasions in
which it struts its best.  Consider the seasonality of
cheese.  Agricultural produce provides us with a sort
of tidal calendar of the growing season; fresh halibut
hails the spring equinox, ramps the last of spring,
peaches mark high summer; why should cheese
seasons be a mystery? As wine expresses the land, weather and culture in which the grapes
grow, cheese portrays the species of the dairy animal and its diet
as it varies by the time of year.  While the animal eats the freshest
clover, sprouts, flowers and grass that spring and summer have to
offer, six months ago the same cow was eating dried hay and grasses
— producing slightly different milk through which cheese and butter
echo the change.
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ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE