| So many cheeses
so little eating time
There was snow on the hills this morning, but even on
a cold winter's weekend the Fyshwick market was still
crowded. We all want to eat what we want to eat, and
this is where a lot of Canberrans buy it, Thursday to
Sunday. The number of ethnic faces and whole families
shopping, add to the market's cosmopolitan credentials
but it's pretty much a fresh produce market, with just
enough small shops and stallholders selling other
foodstuffs to make it an attractive destination in a
world of ubiquitous 'super'markets. The biggest
delicatessen, the Deli Planet, has crowds three deep
at the counter waiting for their number to be called,
but to me, it's not a great place to buy interesting
cheese. Silo has the only cheeseroom in town and
although it's small they always have something
interesting and surprising (and accordingly priced,
it's not cheese for the masses). Today we didn't feel
like taking a ticket and after buying our latest
craze, a wholemeal fruit loaf from the Vietnamese
bakery, we went to the smaller deli next door, the
Mart Delicatessen.
They seem to be the only local place we can get
Milawa Gold in Canberra, (even if it is as shrink-wrapped wedges) but today the only cheese that caught my
eye was the Cambozola. It was just as well I recorded
the above image early in the lunch, or you'd be
looking at a scan of the label. The cheese is firm
outside, soft inside and almost buttery on your tongue
(that's apparently from the fresh cream that's added to the milk
in processing). with just a touch of the sharpness
from the blue mould streaked through it. Jan said 'Castello'
at first, which is another similar 'mass manufactured'
cheese to suit that popular taste style. The Cambozola
flavour was however a bit more balanced and
interesting, not at all bland. On a piece of fresh
crusty baguette, it was hard to stop eating.
Of course I had to look it up in the cheese books and
on the web, and found it's a modern, Bavarian made,
cows milk cheese, popular in Europe and from the use
in the USA recipes that are online, big there too.
Here's what I found.
The name Cambozola sounds a lot like Gorgonzola and
that's about what we expected when we bought it. This
intended perception has been the subject of dispute,
"Cambozola® cheese was
created in Germany in the 1970's as the offspring of
a marriage between French Camembert and Italian
Gorgonzola. The same unique blue mold that gives
Gorgonzola its delicious spiciness is added during
aging and the wonderful bloomy rind that surrounds
its exterior is similar to Camembert's. Much milder
than its parents, its rich consistency is achieved
by adding cream to the milk. Cambozola® has become
one of the most popular creamy blues in America
today."
Swiss Rose
"Gorgonzola (an Italian soft blue cheese), has
been registered as a PDO since 1996. Cambozola (a
German soft blue cheese) has been registered as a
trade mark in Austria since 1983. The Consortium for
the protection of Gorgonzola cheese applied to the
Commercial Court in Vienna for an order prohibiting
the marketing of cheese in Austria under the name "Cambozola"
on the basis that it amounted to an evocation of
"Gorgonzola" and, as such, infringed the Origin
Regulation."
The Worldwide Gourmet
The label says it contains Penicillium Candidium
mould and that's the white mold powder used to surface
ripen Brie, Camembert, most goat cheeses and pretty
much all
other white mold surface ripened cheeses.
Penicillium Roqueforti is the blue mold powder
used to vein cheese with the characteristic blue vein
of Roquefort Blue, Danish Blue, Gorgonzola, Stilton and
other blue style cheeses. It is added directly to
cheese milk or to curds.
(Nothing to do with cheese is Penicillium
italicum which is the white and powdery green mold
that grows on those oranges you forgot were in the
bottom of the fruit bowl.)
Because Cambozola is widely exported, and doesn't look
too moldy, it's apparently popular as a 'starter' blue
cheese for people that look suspiciously at most blue
cheeses. Don't be put of by that wimpy image though,
just make sure you serve it at (warm in winter) room
temperature to get all that creaminess in the flavour.
Long may it sell and it's now added to the personal
cheese list. Like most blue cheeses it goes well with
a fruit bread.
What's next?
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Update: 2009. There's cheese now at
Manuka Fine Foods and Essential Ingredient in Kingston.
It
appears that my encounter with Cambozola is very late in
the day, but that's what this diary records, - my
discoveries and it's my way of holding onto what I've
found by sharing it around.
If you want to see some scary pictures of fungi, (or
beautiful according to your taste) see the family that the
penicillum mould belong to, the
conidial fungi, at
http://www.mycolog.com/
See Chapter 4a.
A couple of weeks ago I
bought a small piece of hard cheese in the Kingston IGA
supermarket. I often pick through their bin of
shrink-wrapped portions as they have types I've never
tried, all cheap. The label on this piece said Mizitre but
we quickly worked out it was Myzithra (also spelt
Mitzithra) a Greek sheep's milk cheese usually eaten
fresh. When left for a few months in brine to go hard like
this was, it is used for grating. It's made with the whey
left from making Kefalotiri or feta with some added cream
or milk. It was pretty tasteless with a plastic texture
until I melted some, then it released the sheep's milk
flavour. Another cheese, another taste.
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