{"id":2919,"date":"2024-09-22T04:26:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-22T04:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/a-cheese-pros-5-ultimate-holiday-cheeses\/"},"modified":"2024-09-22T04:26:23","modified_gmt":"2024-09-22T04:26:23","slug":"a-cheese-pros-5-ultimate-holiday-cheeses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/a-cheese-pros-5-ultimate-holiday-cheeses\/","title":{"rendered":"A Cheese Pro\u2019s 5 Ultimate Holiday Cheeses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Editor\u2019s note: We love hearing from cheese professionals and learning about their favorite cheeses. This week author and contributor Hannah Howard shares her winning picks.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A few years ago, I made the mistake of hosting a small holiday celebration without cheese. \u201cNo cheese?\u201d my guests asked, their faces falling in disappointment. I immediately regretted my omission. I won\u2019t repeat that gaffe.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

How is it already the holiday season? Time is playing weird tricks on me. As I get ready to celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, and the new year with friends and family, my mind is on gifts, travel, and\u2026cheese.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are so many cheeses to get excited about this time of year \u2013 I could have made this list a whole lot longer. Some are only available seasonally (hi there, Vacherin Mont D’Or), while others just remind me of Champagne toasts and pretty dresses (La Tur just screams party!). Here are five cheeses I can\u2019t wait to dig into this festive season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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La Tur<\/span><\/a> <\/h2>\n
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\"La

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La Tur photo courtesy Caseficio Della Alta Langa<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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If you love cheese that has the texture and decadence of ice cream that\u2019s just starting to melt, you\u2019ll fall for La Tur. It\u2019s made in Italy\u2019s Piedmont region, which borders France and Switzerland at the foot of the Alps. It\u2019s a dense, creamy little wheel made with a blend of cow, goat and sheep\u2019s milk. Ta Tur is soft-ripened, with enough complexity for a cheese snob \u2013 the goat\u2019s milk lends tang; the sheep\u2019s milk adds richness \u2013 and enough approachability for a newbie. Toast to a sweet new year with a bottle of sweet bubbly Alta Langa DOCG from the same region. The effervescence makes a refreshing match for the rich cheese.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Sandeman Port Washed Harbison Mini<\/span><\/a> <\/h2>\n
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\"Jasper

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Special Wash Mini Harbison photo credit Jasper Hills<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Harbison is my desert island cheese. The folks at Jasper Hill in Vermont wrap the baby wheels in strips of spruce cambium, the tree’s inner bark layer, harvested from their own woodlands. As Harbison ripens, it develops a pudding-like gooeyness, perfect for dipping right into with a piece of crusty baguette (or a spoon), and a subtle mushroomy funk. For the holidays, Jasper Hill is launching mini Harbison wheels washed in Founder\u2019s Reserve Ruby Port from Sandeman. The port brings aromas of rich red fruit and campfire. Close your eyes and you\u2019ll taste vanilla and oak trees in wintertime. Curl up by the fire and savor a few spoonfuls with Raincoast Crisps and your favorite juicy red or port.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Vacherin Mont D’Or<\/span><\/a> <\/h2>\n
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\"Vacherin<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

When I worked at Murray\u2019s Cheese, the annual appearance of Vacherin Mont D’Or was its own holiday. The sprue-wrapped cheese hails from the Swiss-French border, near the mountain d\u2019Or. It\u2019s made with winter milk that comes from the same cows that produce Gruy\u00e8re in the summer. The cows produce less milk in the winter, but that which they do give is richer in fat, which is preferable for small, soft wheels like Vacherin. Carefully slice off the top and you\u2019ll be rewarded with the oozing, funky, woodsy center. Eating it is the transcendent experience that cheese nerds wait for all year.<\/p>\n

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Beemster XO<\/span><\/a> <\/h2>\n
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\"Beemster

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Beemster XO photo credit \u00a9 Beemster Cheese<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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When I worked behind the cheese counter at Fairway, Beemster XO was an easy win. I\u2019d sliver off a piece of this crumbly amber-hued beauty and people\u2019s eyes would light up. The Gouda<\/span><\/a> is aged for more than two years in the countryside of North Holland, where it develops rich flavors of butterscotch, whiskey, and pecan. It\u2019s studded with an abundance of crunchy, mouthwatering crystals that lend a joyful crunch. It\u2019s both savory and sweet \u2013 the candy of cheese.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Stichelton<\/span><\/a> <\/h2>\n
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\"Stichelton\"

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Stichelton photo courtesy of Stichelton Dairy <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My British husband and I started chatting on Christmas day, eight Christmases ago (thanks, Hinge!). I was just home from my NYC family tradition of movies and Chinese food, and he was across the pond about to partake in his own family tradition of Stilton and port after dinner. If you\u2019re a Stilton fan \u2013 and you should be \u2013 there\u2019s no better time than the holidays to bring out Stichelton, a small production version made with raw milk on Nottinghamshire\u2019s Welbeck Estate. The creamy, fudgy blue has notes of caramel and a bright piquancy that\u2019s welcome after a rich holiday dinner, with or without a drizzle of wildflower honey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Editor\u2019s note: We love hearing from cheese professionals and learning about their favorite cheeses. This week author and contributor Hannah Howard shares her winning picks.\u00a0 A few years ago, I made the mistake of hosting a small holiday celebration without cheese. \u201cNo cheese?\u201d my guests asked, their faces falling in disappointment. I immediately regretted … Okumaya devam et “A Cheese Pro\u2019s 5 Ultimate Holiday Cheeses”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}