Chevre: Kesong puti with a French flair

Early this week, my proletarian taste had a sampling of burgoise palate. It was a gathering of the Cheese Club of the Philippines and as is their usual wont, they lined up an array of cheeses from mountainous Europe and club members had a field day sampling these and chasing it down with red wine. For someone born and raised in Pandacan and whose idea of cheese is keso de bola for Noche Buena, cheddar cheese sold tingi from the sari sari store, and kesong puti, the Cheese Club event was an eye opener.

The experience reminded me of the words of a Frenchman about the art of drinking fine wine.  “ It’s not just the sipping of the wine that makes this bacchanalian ritual a pleasure,” he says. “It’s the talking about it later that elevates the consumption of wine into something special.”

It’s the same with cheeses. While most of us mere mortals partake of cheese only when it comes with pan de sal, conneisseurs of this product see this milk derivative not merely as a food item but a product of art.  And as items of artistic creations go, there is no limit to creativity in the making of cheese. And like all works of art, each cheese variety comes with its own tale of creation. 

And the cheeses from the alpine regions of France, Switzerland, Italy and Spain are indeed products of art. They are literally tasteful, others, wonderfully pungent, and some, a mixture of strong and mild aromas. Yet all of them are delicious, to the taste of connoisseurs, that is.

And by the way, if an expert in the arts is called a connoisseur, an expert in cheeses is an “affineur.” So there.

Let’s take the Roquefort cheese from France. This blue cheese from the vast volcanic plateau north of Aubrac is so pungent but it’s malodorous smell is aromatic to the initiated. It is made from raw milk of sheeps grazing the snowy slopes of the French Alps.

Then there’s Vacherin, (from French word Vache, meaning cow) a seasonal cow’s milk cheese. Its a white, soft type cheese, very flavorful and so soft and gooey it has to be sold in a container, otherwise, it will seep out. It’s a spreadable cheese like the commercial chiz wiz nut which is an inferior comparison.

Another cheese of the French kind is Morbier, an aromatic and surprisingly mild cow’s milk cheese defined by a dark vein of vegetable ash streaking through its middle. It is aged for at least 60 days before serving. No wonder Durian smells better.

From Switzerland comes Kuntener cheese, another gooey, spreadable cheese. It smells rotten, and in fact, is covered by white mold and is sold this way with the mold still there. This cheese is a product of the “reblochon” style process which is an interesting story by itself.

Reblochon literally means “second milking.” During the medieval period, dairy farmers are taxed according to the liters of milk each cow has produced. To avoid paying so much taxes, the farmers do not fully milk their cows so that the taxmen would only count the milk already in the pans. Once the government taxmen leave, the farmers milk the cows again. This milk from the “second milking” is the one used to produce the Kuntener cheese. Perhaps, this should also be called the “tax evader cheese”.

Another Swiss special is Hoch Ybrig, a mountain cheese made of cows milk in Schwyz, Switzerland during summer months. It has a slightly granular texture and full-falavored nuttiness. Its unique taste comes from being washed in a white wine brine. Hoch Ybrig is excellent in a fondue or accompanied by grape mustard on a baguette.

From Italy comes Fontina Val d’Aosta from the alpine region of Italy with the same name. Its is straw-colored, dense, and slightly eleastic. It has small round holes like the cheese we see in TV cartoons.

Spain’s pride is the Tortita de Barros, made from unpasteurized milk of the Merino sheep. This sheep is not known for producing much milk, but its thick, rich production is of superior quality when used for cheese. This cheese comes in paste form, is soft, buttery and slightly acidic in taste. Blends well with baguette but am sure this would do well on other forms of bread too.

But the surprise of the evening was the Chevre cheese. It comes not from France where goats are called chevre, but from Davao City. It’s a white cottage cheese made in Davao from goat’s milk and using French cheese-technology. You may describe it as “kesong puti with French flair”. It has a salty, buttery flavor one looks for in cottage cheese. It’s French affineur claims it goes best with baguette.

But i guess it should also do well when taken with pan de sal. After all, for a someone raised in Pandacan and whose cheese club experience comes only once in a blue moon, having kesong puti on a pan de sal dipped in kapeng barako is an everyday special.