#époisses

[wgm-beautiful-world]

Château d'Époisses - FRANCE

[dijonbeaune]

VIDÉO | Tête de veau et fromage d'Époisses dans l'Avallonnais

La semaine dernière, Bourgogne Magazine faisait escale dans l’Avallonnais. Gabriel Girard, passé par la maison Loiseau à Saulieu, propose une cuisine maison à bas prix depuis 9 ans dans son village d’enfance. Bienvenue au Bambou’s Café, à Savigny-en-Terre-Plaine ! Aujourd’hui en France, près de 70% des villages sont dépourvus de commerces. Gabriel Girard a grandi à Savigny-en-Terre-Plaine…

[foreigncheeseconnoisseur]

Époisses de Bourgogne- A delectable cheese, with a pork or sausage flavor with a hint of saltiness. A perfect cheese to spread on a warm peice of sourdough.

[operationnewsreel]

One of the normal ones?? Dude that's like the weirdest answer just name a cheese

Fine. Époisses de Bourgogne or something like that.

[ruou-tot]

Meursault Poruzots

Meursault Poruzots là chai vang đến từ thương hiệu vang Pháp n���i tiếng - Louis Latour. Hầu hết các loại vang trắng của Louis Latour đều được làm từ nho Chardonnay và Meursault Poruzots cũng không phải một ngoại lệ.

Hương vị rượu vang Meursault Poruzots Meursault Poruzots Louis Latour có màu vàng chanh nhạt với hương thơm nổi bật của các loại trái cây họ cam quýt. Mùi hương nhận thấy rõ nhất là chanh, táo, lê và bơ. Những ghi chú tươi mát này hòa cùng mật ong và hoa keo thơm dịu nhẹ, đem đến sự phong phú cho rượu vang. Hương thơm béo ngậy của kem mịn trộn lẫn với nốt hương từ gỗ sồi nướng và vani tinh tế, cân bằng lại mùi vị.

Thực khách sẽ dễ dàng cảm nhận được sự hài hòa của táo chín với sáp ong đầy ngọt ngào. Quá trình lên men malolactic khiến vị bơ trong Meursault Poruzots khá rõ nét. Hương vị nhẹ nhàng, đơn giản nhưng tinh tế ấy khiến người dùng mê đắm. Vị vani và gia vị nướng tạo nên một nốt trầm sâu lắng cùng một kết thúc tuyệt đẹp, khó quên.

Giá rượu vang Meursault Poruzots Meursault Poruzots có giá thành khá cao, dao động từ 3,420,000 đến 3,430,000 đồng/chai, tùy từng thời điểm và số lượng mua. Nếu quý vị muốn thử vị bơ đậm đà của Chardonnay thì đây chắc chắn là một loại rượu tuyệt vời và đáng để trải nghiệm.

Nếu quý khách đang băn khoăn không biết tìm mua rượu chính hãng ở đâu cho yên tâm thì Rượu Tốt chính là cơ sở xứng đáng được ưu tiên lựa chọn đầu tiên. Chúng tôi mang đến cho khách hàng trải nghiệm mua sắm giá tốt với các dòng sản phẩm đa dạng, chất lượng thượng hạng. Những phần quà thú vị như khui rượu, bộ ly, đùi heo muối hay thậm chí là một chiếc tủ rượu vang đang chờ đón quý khách “rinh” về nhà. Liên hệ ngay để biết thêm thông tin chi tiết về các ưu đãi hiện tại và giải đáp những thắc mắc của bản thân về sản phẩm quý vị nhé!

Thưởng thức rượu vang Meursault Poruzots Tiềm năng lão hóa của rượu vang Meursault Poruzots có thể lên tới 6-8 năm nếu được bảo quản đúng cách ở nhiệt độ 12 đến 15 độ. Mức nhiệt từ 12-14 độ được nhà sản xuất khuyến nghị khi phục v�� loại vang Pháp này.

Món ăn từ thịt trắng như gà sốt kem, gà tần, gà nướng tiêu, cá hồi áp chảo, cá đuối sốt bơ,... sẽ là những thực phẩm ghép nối lý tưởng với Meursault Poruzots. Risotto với nấm truffle trắng, bơ, hành hoặc pho mát (một loại cơm của Ý được nấu với nước dùng cho đến khi đặc sệt như kem, màu vàng của cơm tạo ra bởi saffron - nghệ tây) cũng được nhà rượu gợi ý ăn kèm. Có nhiều loại phô mai có thể ăn kèm với vang trắng, nhưng Époisses của Pháp (một loại phô mai mềm làm từ sữa bò tươi hoặc đã tiệt trùng, có vị cay nồng) là lựa chọn tối ưu nhất cho Meursault Poruzots.

Thông tin thêm về vùng Meursault và vườn nho Poruzots của rượu vang Meursault Poruzots Meursault là vùng rượu vang nằm ở phía Nam Volnay và Pommard ở Cote de Beaune, Pháp. Đây là khu vực chuyên sản xuất các loại vang trắng và là xã sở hữu diện tích rộng lớn nhất ở Côte-d'Or. Mặc dù không có chai vang nào được xếp vào phân hạng nhất - Grand Cru nhưng hầu hết các loại vườn nho ở đây đều thuộc loại chất lượng cao và thuộc phân hạng cao thứ hai - Premier Cru.

Với đặc trưng là đất đá marl, đá vôi từ thời kỷ Jura cùng vị trí đắc địa của vườn nho Poruzots đã góp phần vào sự phát triển toàn diện của nho, cho phép chúng chín đều, tạo nên hương thơm phong phú cho các loại rượu. “Poruzots” là viết tắt của “Porroux” - nơi nhiều đá. Cái tên này đã phản ánh rõ nét về loại đất của vườn nho đã tạo ra đặc tính trái cây và bơ chín cho Louis Latour Meursault Poruzots.

#wine #winelover #vangphap #MeursaultPoruzots #ruoutot

[swirlwineconsulting]

What am I supposed to smell in this wine?

Your eyes are shut tight and your nose is dipped genteelly into your glass, seconds later your head lifts and you ask “What am I supposed to be smelling here?” “What do you smell?”. Alas, what I smell and what you and your table mate(s) smell are rarely the same, and guess what? It doesn’t matter.

Your wine came with a list of tasting notes including words like: Bing and dried cherries, tropical fruits, cedar, black raspberries and melon, even wet stone, leather, pencil lead and barnyard. You spend precious time that could be spent enjoying your purchase trying to find the experience the reviewer told you to expect. Are you confused, disappointed that you couldn’t discern what you were supposed to? Let it go and let’s move on to all you really need to know to “sacar todo el jugo” as the saying goes in Spanish- “get all of the juice out” of the experience.

Like most passionate students of wine (especially those seeking certifications and advanced degrees), I spend a great deal of time sniffing through spice cabinets, ethnic grocery stores and farmers market stands, blooming flowers and fruit trees, freshly mown grass and hay, the ocean breeze, the wet pavement after summer rain (petrichor), the earthy smell of an open field after a heavy downpour (geosmin). I smell the differences between Oolong, Earl Grey and Lapsang Souchong teas; between Italian espresso roast and Cuban coffee; between uncured and smoked bacon. In other words, I stick my nose into a lot of places where it doesn’t necessarily belong-also looking for signs of faults in a wine like: locker room, dirty laundry, geranium, rotten egg, burnt rubber, cooked garlic, or skunk.  I volunteer at a local farm to smell freshly-dug earth and the growth stages in the lifespan of heirloom tomatoes. I grow seasonal veggies and herbs on my patio so that I can enjoy the scent of my Meyer lemon tree in bloom and the lingering smell of tarragon on my fingers at harvest. Many wine lovers are also great cooks who recognize the variations in aroma of a ripe vs an unripe ingredient, uncut vs sliced, raw vs cooked or a fresh vs fermented one.  I recommend that anyone looking to more fully understand the vocabulary of wine begin by learning to smell, as many of the aromatic characteristics also reveal themselves on the palate.

For example, some well-ripened cheeses smell pungently of dirty socks. Not very appetizing to those who don't enjoy Époisses from France or Dutch Limburger but make sense to those who love them. The nuance of animal fat is especially prevalent in Syrah from France's Rhône Valley. A stone-like scent and flavor (some of us diehards have even licked the stones) are the hallmarks of Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley, Champagne and Chablis. Many southern French reds hint at licorice. German Riesling often smells faintly of gasoline – in a good way.

The Wine Aroma Wheel is a helpful tool for learning to describe the complexity of wines by categorizing their characteristic aromas in relation to fruits, vegetables, flowers, minerals, animals, wood, oak and yeast, etc. However, none of this is very useful to someone unfamiliar with the aromas listed. Sadly, today’s supermarkets offer little help in identifying the scents on the wheel as most fruits and vegetables, especially imported tropical fruits (mango, papaya, guava, starfruit) were picked before prime ripeness and lack smell as well as flavor. I once told someone who didn’t like papaya that they most likely hadn’t had a local, fully ripened one. How many of us have access to fresh gooseberries, green almonds, persimmons or quince whether unripe or ripened? What about boysenberries and dragonfruit? Was that lychee fresh or canned? How many have plucked a fig or olive from the tree, can differentiate between the scent of iris, jasmine or lilac? Ever ride a horse or wear Granddad’s old leather bomber jacket?  Do you smell your shitake, oyster and maitake mushrooms? See what I mean? This is not a game for everyone.

Having a common language for winetasting allows people of diverse backgrounds to communicate fluidly. Learning the basics is desirable and can add fun when sharing wine with others; but should not be stressful for the average consumer. At a recent tasting of wines from Bourgogne and Bordeaux, a heavily Aussie accented presenter swirled the glass before handing a juicy red Burgundy to me. He raised his glass to his nose as I did mine and we both said, almost in unison “Horsehair!”. The scent took us both back to the memories of saddling up a freshly brushed horse, while also hinting at the wine’s age and vineyard location.  A connection was made. A Jamaican-American wine and food writer I know often refers to Barbados cherries, Marionberries, Hibiscus or Sorrel flowers and sea urchin. Do these hold any meaning for you? If so, enjoy these bonus associations when they occur, if not move on.

Detecting aromas is not a parlor trick or for showing off. Your server at a restaurant should be able to detect most faults in the wine before pouring.  Let them examine the cork and discreetly sniff for off odors. If an off-putting aroma or bad taste slips by them, let them know, trust your judgement that the wine shouldn’t smell like a wet dog or taste like your kitchen sponge. A faulty wine is generally identifiable, so if this occurs with a bottle you open at home, cork it up and return it to the vendor, if possible. For this reason, I never tell attendees in my classes what to smell or taste; rather to “feel the sensations” of the wine. The important elements of a balanced wine are in its acidity, tannin structure, residual sugar level, alcohol by volume (ABV%), mouthfeel – assets that most people can detect - tartness, sweetness or the lack of it, the heat of alcohol and the thin or thick texture on the palate. After all, what the average drinker wants from a glass of wine is enjoyment.

If you fancy yourself “not average” by all means join me in exploring all the good and bad smells associated with wine – otherwise, as my class descriptions advise “Smell, Sip, Taste, Enjoy” and leave it at that.

[mexbeadyeyes-blog]

Back in November, Women In The Food Industry co-founder Mex Ibrahim attended a fun and beautifully put together immersive dinner experience at the O’Meara Theatre in London. Guests at the six course dinner were entertained by actors representing the characteristics of six very different French cheeses: Époisses, Beaufort Chalet d’Alpage, Neufchâtel, Saint-Nectaire, Brillat-Savarin, and Bleu d’Auvergne. For International Women’s Day we look across the Channel to four inspirational women who are responsible for making, training, presenting and promoting in the wonderful world of French cheese.

[fayes-fics]

Would you rather eat cheddar that smells of époisses (but tastes of cheddar), or eat époisses that smells if cheddar (but tastes of époisses)?

Hi again cheese Nonny!

Bloody hell these choices… I guess eat epoisses that smells of cheddar. Cos epoisses smell imo is worse than its taste.

Thanks for your asks 😂😁🧡🧡

[z3r0-c001]

époisses got me actin unwise

[moulin-girault]

À la table du moulin, tout simple :

Soupe aux légumes et plombs

Saumon cuisson basse température, sauce à l’oseille, poireaux et pommes de terre rôties.

Époisses

Fromage blanc au miel.

Pain au levain et Chinon blanc

[iyersfood]

A Cheese Documentary

Join Anne Saxelby, founder and co-owner of Saxelby Cheesemongers, for a crash course on how to impress your entourage with any fromage. From the firm and tangy to the creamy and salty, Anne lays out the best tools and techniques for serving nearly any cheese you could think of.

I found this very educational. I hope you do as well.

0:00 Introduction

0:33 Parmigiano-Reggiano

2:45 Gruyère

4:26 Havarti

5:22 Raclette

7:21 Tête de Moine

9:36 Swallow Tail Tomme

11:31 Goat Tomme

12:27 Bismark Clothbound Cheddar

13:54 Shelburne Farms Cheddar

14:56 Manchego

16:40 Gouda

18:30 Brie

20:32 Camembert

22:26 Coupole

23:46 Gorgonzola

25:25 Roquefort

27:32 Époisses

29:10 Winnimere

30:59 Mozzarella

32:30 Ricotta

33:23 Chèvre

33:51 Burrata

35:12 Provola

36:19 Queso Fresco

37:10 Feta

38:01 Labneh

38:38 Farmer Cheese

39:20 Mascarpone

40:02 Halloumi

41:16 Cotija

Saxelby Cheese Shop

[hellobyeokgo]

Lucian 2023 July Wine List

來試試 Lucian 七月酒單

第一杯 Antonio Lopes Ribeiro 'Biotite' 2020 嘗試 Loureiro 品種

一點甜 味道主要是 水果、香甜 有適當的酸平衡

第二杯 Chateau Pierre-Bise Savennieres Clos de Coulaine 2020 羅亞爾河谷的 Chenin Blanc

這杯是比較不甜的 Chenin Blanc 然而 Chenin Blanc 特有的 番紅花混合蜂蜜的香味 依舊明顯

搭配的起司拼盤 左邊的 Comté

中間的 Époisses 很臭 是新鮮的 發酵的臭味

右邊的 blue cheese| 尾韻滿鹹

酒單上 Kiralyudvar Tokaji Furmint 2019 我滿有興趣 但這次沒喝到 店員說這款酒不甜 我滿好奇不甜的 Tokaji 下次有機會再試試

[dijonbeaune]

Les trois lauréats du Grand Circuit du Patrimoine récompensés

Les trois lauréats du Grand Circuit du Patrimoine récompensés

[newswireml]

The Science Behind Your Cheese | Science#Science #Cheese #Science

The Science Behind Your Cheese | Science#Science #Cheese #Science

Fungi and bacteria play a big part in shaping the flavor and texture of cheese. BSIP / Universal Images Group via Getty Images Some cheeses are mild and soft like mozzarella, others are salty-hard like Parmesan. And some smell pungent like Époisses, a funky orange cheese from the Burgundy region in France. There are cheeses with fuzzy rinds such as Camembert, and ones marbled with blue veins…

[xtruss]

Science: The Science Behind Your Cheese! The Food is Not Just a Tasty Snack—It’s an Ecosystem

— Ute Eberle, Knowable Magazine | November 30, 2022 | NOVA—PBS

Fungi and bacteria play a big part in shaping the flavor and texture of cheese. BSIP / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Some cheeses are mild and soft like mozzarella, others are salty-hard like Parmesan. And some smell pungent like Époisses, a funky orange cheese from the Burgundy region in France.

There are cheeses with fuzzy rinds such as Camembert, and ones marbled with blue veins such as Cabrales, which ripens for months in mountain caves in northern Spain.

Yet almost all of the world’s thousand-odd kinds of cheese start the same, as a white, rubbery lump of curd.

How do we get from that uniform blandness to this cornucopia? The answer revolves around microbes. Cheese teems with bacteria, yeasts and molds. “More than 100 different microbial species can easily be found in a single cheese type,” says Baltasar Mayo, a senior researcher at the Dairy Research Institute of Asturias in Spain. In other words: Cheese isn’t just a snack, it’s an ecosystem. Every slice contains billions of microbes — and they are what makes cheeses distinctive and delicious.

People have made cheese since the late Stone Age, but only recently have scientists begun to study its microbial nature and learn about the deadly skirmishes, peaceful alliances and beneficial collaborations that happen between the organisms that call cheese home.

To find out what bacteria and fungi are present in cheese and where they come from, scientists sample cheeses from all over the world and extract the DNA they contain. By matching the DNA to genes in existing databases, they can identify which organisms are present in the cheese. “The way we do that is sort of like microbial CSI, you know, when they go out to a crime scene investigation, but in this case we are looking at what microbes are there,” Ben Wolfe, a microbial ecologist at Tufts University, likes to say.

Early on, that search yielded surprises. For example, cheesemakers often add starter cultures of beneficial bacteria to freshly formed curds to help a cheese on its way. Yet when Wolfe’s group and others examined ripened cheeses, they found that the microbial mixes — microbiomes — of the cheeses showed only a passing resemblance to those cultures. Often, more than half of the bacteria present were microbial “strangers” that had not been in the starter culture. Where did they come from?

Many of these microbes turned out to be old acquaintances, but ones we usually know from places other than cheese. Take Brachybacterium, a microbe present in Gruyère, which is more commonly found in soil, seawater and chicken litter (and perhaps even an Etruscan tomb). Or bacteria of the genus Halomonas, which are usually associated with salt ponds and marine environments.

Then there’s Brevibacterium linens, a bacterium that has been identified as a central contributor to the stinkiness of Limburger. When not on cheese, it can often be found in damp areas of our skin such as between our toes. B. linens also adds characteristic notes to the odor of sweat. So when we say that dirty feet smell “cheesy,” there’s truth to it: The same organisms are involved. In fact, as Wolfe once pointed out, the bacteria and fungi on feet and cheese “look pretty much the same.” (An artist in Ireland demonstrated this some years ago by culturing cheeses with organisms plucked from people’s bodies.)

Initially, researchers were dumbfounded by how some of these microbes ended up on and in cheese. Yet, as they sampled the environment of cheesemaking facilities, a picture began to emerge. The milk of cows (or goats or sheep) contains some microbes from the get-go. But many more are picked up during the milking and cheesemaking process. Soil bacteria lurking in a stable’s straw bedding might attach themselves to the teats of a cow and end up in the milking pail, for example. Skin bacteria fall into the milk from the hand of the milker or get transferred by the knife that cuts the curd. Other microbes enter the milk from the storage tank or simply drift down off the walls of the dairy facility.

Every cheese is an ecosystem of bacteria and fungi. These microbes were isolated from the rind of a Vermont blue cheese. The orange colonies with ruffled edges are the bacterium Staphylococcus xylosus and the white ones are S. succinus. The small round colonies are several species of Brevibacterium, and the fuzzy white colony is a Penicillium mold. Courtesy of the Wolfe Lab, Tufts University

Some microorganisms are probably brought in from surprisingly far away. Wolfe and other researchers now suspect that marine microbes such as Halomonas get to the cheese via the sea salt in the brine that cheesemakers use to wash down their cheeses.

A simple, fresh white cheese like petit-suisse from Normandy might mostly contain microbes of a single species or two. But in long-ripened cheeses such as Roquefort, researchers have detected hundreds of different kinds of bacteria and fungi. In some cheeses, more than 400 different kinds have been found, says Mayo, who has investigated microbial interactions in the cheese ecosystem. Furthermore, by repeatedly testing, scientists have observed that there can be a sequence of microbial settlements whose rise and fall can rival that of empires.

Consider Bethlehem, a raw milk cheese made by Benedictine nuns in the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut. Between the day it gets made (or “born,” as cheesemakers say) to when it’s fully ripe about a month later, Bethlehem changes from a rubbery, smooth disk to one with a dusty white rind sprouting tiny fungal hair, and eventually to a darkly mottled surface. If you were to look with a strong microscope, you could watch as the initially smooth rind becomes a rugged, pocketed terrain so densely packed with organisms that they form biofilms similar to the microbial mats around bathroom drains. A single gram of rind from a fully ripened cheese might contain a good 10 billion bacteria, yeasts and other fungi.

As a cheese matures, the lactic acid bacteria and other early colonists give way to other species of bacteria and, eventually, fungi, in a process known as ecological succession. The details of which species are present depend on exactly how the cheese is made and ripened, and what variety it is. Adapted from B. Mayo et al. / Foods 2021 / Knowable Magazine

But the process usually starts simply. Typically, the first microbial settlers in milk are lactic acid bacteria (LABs). These LABs feed on lactose, the sugar in the milk, and as their name implies, they produce acid from it. The increasing acidity causes the milk to sour, making it inhospitable for many other microbes. That includes potential pathogens such as Escherichia coli, says Paul Cotter, a microbiologist at the Teagasc Food Research Centre in Ireland who wrote about the microbiology of cheese and other foods in the 2022 Annual Review of Food Science and Technology.

However, a select few microorganisms can abide this acid environment, among them certain yeasts such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast). These microbes move into the souring milk and feed on the lactic acid that LABs produce. In doing so, they neutralize the acidity, eventually allowing other bacteria such as B. linens to join the cheesemaking party.

As the various species settle in, territorial struggles can ensue. A study in 2020 that looked at 55 artisanal Irish cheeses found that almost one in three cheese microbes possessed genes needed to produce “weapons” — chemical compounds that kill off rivals. At this point it isn’t clear if and how many of these genes are switched on, says Cotter, who was involved in the project. (Should these compounds be potent enough, he hopes they might one day become sources for new antibiotics.)

But cheese microbes also cooperate. For example, the Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeasts that eat the lactic acid produced by the LABs return the favor by manufacturing vitamins and other compounds that the LABs need. In a different sort of cooperation, threadlike fungal filaments can act as “roads” for surface bacteria to travel deep into the interior of a cheese, Wolfe’s team has found.

By now you might have started to suspect: Cheese is fundamentally about decomposition. Like microbes on a rotten log in the woods, the bacteria and fungi in cheese break down their environment — in this case, the milk fats and proteins. This makes cheeses creamy and gives them flavor.

The microbes that colonize cheese come from many places. Some are intentionally added to the milk, while others drift there from the environment and from the cheesemakers themselves. Details of temperature, salt, acidity and other variables determine which of the colonists survive and dominate as the cheese matures. Adapted From F. Irlinger et al. / FEMS Microbiology Letters 2014 / Knowable Magazine

Mother Noella Marcellino, a longtime Benedictine cheesemaker at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, put it this way in a 2021 interview with Slow Food: “Cheese shows us what goodness can come from decay. Humans don’t want to look at death, because it means separation and the end of a cycle. But it’s also the start of something new. Decomposition creates this wonderful aroma and taste of cheese while evoking a promise of life beyond death.”

Exactly how the microbes build flavor is still being investigated. “It’s much less understood,” says Mayo. But a few things already stand out. Lactic acid bacteria, for example, produce volatile compounds called acetoin and diacetyl that can also be found in butter and accordingly give cheeses a rich, buttery taste. A yeast called Geotrichum candidum brings forth a blend of alcohols, fatty acids and other compounds that impart the moldy yet fruity aroma characteristic of cheeses such as Brie or Camembert. Then there’s butyric acid, which smells rancid on its own but enriches the aroma of Parmesan, and volatile sulfur compounds whose cooked-cabbage smell blends into the flavor profile of many mold-ripened cheeses like Camembert. “Different strains of microbe can produce different taste components,” says Cotter.

All a cheesemaker does is set the right conditions for the “rot” of the milk. “Different bacteria and fungi thrive at different temperatures and different humidity levels, so every step along the way introduces variety and nuance,” says Julia Pringle, a microbiologist at the artisan Vermont cheesemaker Jasper Hill Farm. If a cheesemaker heats the milk to over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, for example, only heat-loving bacteria like Streptococcus thermophilus will survive — perfect for making cheeses like mozzarella.

Cutting the curd into large chunks means that it will retain a fair amount of moisture, which will lead to a softer cheese like Camembert. On the other hand, small cubes of curd drain better, resulting in a drier curd — something you want for, say, a cheddar.

Storing the young cheese at warmer or cooler temperatures will again encourage some microbes and inhibit others, as does the amount of salt that is added. So when cheesemakers wash their ripening rounds with brine, it not only imparts seasoning but also promotes colonies of salt-loving bacteria like B. linens that promptly create a specific kind of rind: “orangey, a bit sticky, and kind of funky,” says Pringle.

Even the tiniest changes in how a cheese is handled can alter its microbiome, and thus the cheese itself, cheesemakers say. Switch on the air exchanger in the ripening room by mistake so that more oxygen flows around the cheese and suddenly molds will sprout that haven’t been there before.

But surprisingly, as long as the conditions remain the same, the same communities of microbes will show up again and again, researchers have found. Put differently: The same microbes can be found almost everywhere. If a cheesemaker sticks to the recipe for a Camembert — always heats the milk to the relevant temperature, cuts the curd to the right size, ripens the cheese at the appropriate temperature and moisture level — the same species will flourish and an almost identical kind of Camembert will develop, whether it’s on a farm in Normandy, in a cheesemaker’s cave in Vermont or in a steel-clad dairy factory in Wisconsin.

Some cheesemakers had speculated that cheese was like wine, which famously has a terroir — that is, a specific taste that is tied to its geography and is rooted in the vineyard’s microclimate and soil. But apart from subtle nuances, if everything goes well in production, the same cheese type always tastes the same no matter where or when it’s made, says Mayo.

By now, some microbes have been making cheese for people for so long that they have become — in the words of microbiologist Vincent Somerville at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland — “domesticated.” Somerville studies genomic changes in cheese starter cultures used in his country. In Switzerland, cheesemakers traditionally hold back part of the whey from a batch of cheese to use again when making the next one. It’s called backslopping, “and some starter cultures have been continuously backslopped for months, years, and even centuries,” says Somerville. During that time, the backslopped microbes have lost genes that are no longer useful for them in their specialized dairy environment, such as some genes needed to metabolize carbohydrates other than lactose, the only sugar found in milk.

But not only has cheesemaking become tamer over time, it is also cleaner than it used to be — and this has had consequences for its ecosystem. These days, many cows are milked by machines and the milk is siphoned directly into the closed systems of hermetically sealed, ultra-filtered storage tanks, protected from the steady rain of microbes from hay, humans and walls that settled on the milk in more traditional times.

Often the milk is pasteurized, too — that is, briefly heated to high temperatures to kill the bacteria that come naturally with it. Then, they’re replaced with standardized starter cultures.

All of this has made cheesemaking more controlled. But alas, it also means that there’s less diversity of microbes in our cheeses. Many of our cheddars, provolones and Camemberts, once wildly proliferating microbial meadows, have become more like manicured lawns. And because every microbe contributes its own signature mix of chemical compounds to a cheese, less diversity also means less flavor — a big loss.

[lefondbk]

Tonight’s #thursdayvegprixfixe features #porcini noodle soup. You could say it’s not quite not quite #ramen. You’ll also get a cabbage salad with #Époisses and vanilla buttercream cake with chocolate ganache. #greenpoint (at Le Fond) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrEADgjhsvT/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=krvjpeu1gnpl