His Birthday Cheeses – or In Spring a Man’s Fancy Turns to Goat

Lingot du Quercy, Roves des Garrigue and Georgia Pecan

 Finally, the ordeal of moving behind me, I was heading out of town for some R ‘n’ R in the country. (And no, that’s not Rock ‘n’ Roll.)  Before hopping on the Pike, though, I stopped at Central Bottle to procure some cheese from David, the shop’s affable and extremely knowledgeable cheesemonger. Since one of my hosts had just celebrated a birthday, I wanted something special, something springtime and therefore something goat. For me,  fresh goat cheese is one of the culinary glories of this season. What I intended to be a quick stop lengthened as David had me try numerous samples from his great inventory of fresh goat cheeses. After much tasting and discussion, I had my three birthday cheeses and hopped on the Pike.

My first selection was Le Lingot du Quercy. Quercy is home to the famous Limousin oak trees.  ”Lingot” translates as ingot – and this is what this cheese resembles but an ingot with a soft, wrinkly surface.  The small format – 6 oz. – pale bloomy rind cheese is made in the French Pyrenees by a fermier cooperative, an association of small dairy farmers. Due to FDA regulations, the milk is pasteurized. The cheese ripens from the outside in and when ripe will be runny just under the rind with the center remaining firm. The rind is yielding and mild, the paste is smooth and rich, finishing a bit tangy. Perhaps not as exquisite as the Loire goat cheeses -  epicenter of the goat cheese world – but always reliable.

My second selection was the petit Roves des Garrigues from Provence. This button of a cheese was barely 10 days old with little or no rind, smooth, milky and herbaceous. Again, pasteurized milk.  The goats who provide the milk for this cheese feast upon the wild scrub known as “garrigue” – a mix of aromatic herbs such as lavender, thyme, fennel, rosemary and citronella. This bouquet of herbs, transmitted via the milk, flavors the cheese. This was my favorite.

The third selection was American – the French can’t get all the attention. Again, a small format cheese in the form of a truncated pyramid, an homage to Valencay. The cheese hails from Georgia – from the Sweetgrass Diary, a small family farm producing both goat and cow’s milk cheeses from their own herds.  After the cheese is formed, it is rolled in ground pecans before ageing – a touch of terroir. I found the finish on this cheese to be a bit sharp, so much so, that it detracted from my enjoyment of the cheese.

And so, in my quest for goat cheese to celebrate both my friend’s birthday and this vernal season, I’d found 2 winners.

Tagged as: Cheese, Goat milk cheese