Thursday, November 4, 2010

Day 81

Tomme de Savoie Cheese: I'm sure a lot of you have wondered why I haven't included more cheeses with this project. It's not that I haven't wanted to, and with the seemingly infinite varieties, I could probably devote a blog to trying a new cheese every day for a year. Despite my love for fromage, it's cost-prohibitive for me to try too many. It's hard to buy small portions of most exotic cheeses, and even small pieces in boutique shops can be quite expensive. However, when I noticed this selection at the Ansley Kroger a few days ago, I decided to try. The store has a habit of marking select cheeses down when they become overstocked, so I snagged this piece for $0.99 - a small investment for a brand new taste.
This piece was labeled as "tomme de savoie," and the description said it was a semi-soft, raw milk cow's cheese. I know very little about cheese, and like wine, some of the descriptive terms can be a bit outside of my comprehension. I should start by saying that the rind really didn't smell good, and I had to wash my hands to get the funky odor off my fingers. I know that's typical with some cheeses, and not always an indicator of flavor. Anyway, I cut a small piece from the middle and took a bite. It reminded me of brie, although not quite as strong, with a nice nutty saltiness. Pretty tasty. I'm not sure how to describe it further, but the label says it has an "intense aroma of wet straw and mown grass," with a "fruity fragrance."

Overall, I liked this one. I'll keep on the lookout for more affordable cheese deals, and if anyone knows of any more, please let me know.
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3 comments:

  1. davidhiNovember 5, 2010 at 2:43 AM

    Before I left Atlanta, I tried a similar experiment: sample a different a cheese six days a week. I lived less than a mile away from Star Provisions, and they have an amazing cheese shop. I didn't keep a perfect pace, but in a couple of months I got through about 55 different cheeses (since then I'm up to ~90 in my journal).

    They ranged in price from about $20/lb. to $60/lb. (for some of the soft-ripened imported cheese). Some of my favorites that were <$25/lb. were:
    * Yellow Moon Farmhouse
    * Yellow Moon Canebrake Gouda
    * Hawes Wensleydale
    * Cantal
    * Roaring 40's Blue
    * Comte
    * Roth Kase Buttermilk Blue
    * Aged (Vecchio) Piave
    * Valbreso Feta

    The Yellow Moon ones come from a dairy in Alabama and tend to be pretty reasonably priced (and very good even if price wasn't an issue). I could go on and on with others I liked, but I'll leave it there.

    BTW, I've had a variety of Tommes (Alpine cheeses of that style), and I've gotta say I wasn't really big on most of them. As far as styles go, most of them didn't wow me. The Gruyere family of cheeses (Gruyere, Comte, Beaufort, etc.) and other hard/semi-hard Swiss cheeses (Appenzeller, Emmental, Hoch Ybrig) were much more consistently hits for me.

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  2. davidhiNovember 5, 2010 at 2:51 AM

    Oh, and FYI, you can buy smaller pieces cut to your request at Star Provisions. That's how I did it. Of course, you can't get much less than maybe 1/4-1/5 lb., depending on the size of the wheel; obviously there is a limit to how thin they can cut a wedge from most of the hard cheeses without shredding them. But that's maybe $5-7 assuming you stay under $25/lb.

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  3. Chris FranciscoNovember 5, 2010 at 10:51 AM

    Thanks for the info - I will definitely check out Star for some cheese options. With me having a whole year of new things to try every day, I try to keep costs down, but I don't mind splurging every now and then!

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