Feast of Seven Cheeses
A list of hunks to explore during the week of Valentine's
Let me give you an idea that will 1) assuage your despair with a mountain of dairy and/or 2) show your lover that you are a cheese ninja. For a Valentine’s love bomb supreme, create a Feast of Seven Cheeses.
Why? Seven is lucky. Seven means a different cheese for every day of the week. Seven is the Seven Wonders and also Seven Deadly Sins. To me, it’s also the name of a little French town where I like to spend my downtime – a place called Sète, on the southern coast, just a shimmy down from Montpellier.
On New Year’s Day, my partner Luc and I drove from his home in Belgium down to Sète with seven cheeses and a plan to relax for seven days, enjoying nibbles and seaside breezes. I can’t recommend cheese numerology enough. With seven cheeses in your possession, you can eat a different wedge each night, or rotate through all of them daily (in small portions of course) noting how their flavors change. It’s like a nightly Netflix series (Cheezflix?), only more nourishing. And you don’t need to buy much else, other than some rustic bread, some luscious beverages, and a big bag of greens.
So, let me offer you seven tips for seven cheeses if you want to treat yourself. Now, if purchasing seven wedges is not in your cards (‘cuz inflation), here are a couple creative wheys to work around that: invite 7 people to bring 7 cheeses, and call it a caseo key party. Or give your Valentine 7 caseo coupons for cheeses you will present them in the future. (“Caseo” — from the Latin word for cheese, cāseus).
Now, for 7 cheese tips that will bring you love and joy:
1. Pick one cheese with a flavor surprise inside.
You want a big reveal for cheese #1. Options: a truffle brie, a goat cheese with a stripe of pepper or ash, or a cheese with a flavor layer. This way you can taste the cheese, plus the flavor element. Like a couple, it’s a two in one.
On our recent road trip, Luc and I started with Zucca Nera, a stellar Italian goat cheese rolled in ash, with a layer of saffron cream. Alas, it’s not available in the U.S. because it’s a young raw thing, but let its saffron layer inspire you. You could always buy a fresh goat cheese, slice it half, and tuck in a few saffron threads. The combination of saffron and goat’s milk is glorious.
2. Find a creamy cheese you’ve never tasted before.
If you always lean on Brie or Camembert, reach for something new, like a cushiony Robiola from Lombardy or a local cream bomb made in your area.
On New Years, I took a chance on “A1652” – a battleship wedge from Switzerland that was described to me as a cross between Brie and Tomme de Savoie. I liked the look of it and its mushroomy promise. Indeed, it tasted like a slice of New York Cheesecake crossed with mushroom bisque. Bliss. Its name, by the whey, comes from a fort in the Jura Mountains where it is aged by a father-daughter team, Michel and Agnès of O’Lait Cheese Dairy.
3. See if you can find an island cheese.
Yes, an island cheese…like a Pecorino from Sicily, a hunk of Isle of Mull Cheddar, a wedge of Avonlea from Prince Edward Island, or Paski Sir -- a glorious sheep’s milk cheese from the Island of Pag (Croatia). Island cultures almost always have interesting cheeses. The search can be hard to navigate, but a creative cheesemonger can certainly help you.
Our pick? Luc and I pounced on a round of Brin d’Amour from Corsica. It’s a soft sheep’s milk cheese rolled in island herbs – literally, it’s like a breath mint of joy.
4. Pick a “pocket cheese.”
This should be a little round you can eat in one sitting. A goat cheese crottin from France, or a wee wheel of Vermont Creamery Cremont. Any cheese that can fit into the palm of your hand — or on a night stand next to a Champagne glass for a turophile turndown — will be perfect.
We opted for Palet de la Chartreuse, a tuffet of a mixed-milk cheese from the Massif de la Chartreuse (the Chartreuse Mountains), a rugged area I once visited and wrote about for an earlier newsletter. I can’t find any details on the cheese, but it was just the bonbon one craves before bed.
5. Snag a mountain cheese.
High-mountain milk is typically high quality milk (more about this in my book), and usually mountain cheese have lots of flavor from long aging periods in caves. Think Comté (Jura Mountains), Gruyére (Swiss Alps), Fontina Valle d’Aosta (Italian Alps).
I’m crazy for aged Comté, so in my stash, I brought an 18-month Comté along with a 24-month Comté (my next cheese) just to compare. If you can find these two wonders, do the same.
6. Look for a really aged cheese – 24 months or more.
This could be a beautiful hunk of aged Gouda (like the L’Amuse in my arms above) or a Parmigiano Reggiano. Or maybe you’ll find a 2-year Cheddar, or one that’s even older. Toast to longevity! Aged cheeses are usually intense in flavor. Pack a shard on a walk, or eat a little piece with a glass of Bourbon.
If you can find a 24-month Comté, look for a note of cocoa. Hard to believe, but it’s a flavor note I often detect in aged Comté and I love it alongside dark-chocolate-covered almonds.
7. Buy a blue that winks at you.
If you love blue cheese, this a good time to find a new favorite. There are so many, and I find that many people lock eyes with a single kind — i.e. Stilton — and never stray. If you’re nervous about blues, why not give it another shot? A gentle Gorgonzola Dolce can bring most people I know a riot of joy, especially if you serve it with a sweet condiment or a dessert wine. I like to eat a scoop of Gorgonzola Dolce from an egg cup with a small spoon – add an Amarena cherry on top, and you’ve got a little sundae.
Of course, I had to go all in for Roquefort – wildly salty, wildly lush. A few years ago, Luc and I did a Roquefort Roadtrip. Now I crave it whenever I’m in Southern France. Can you eat any other blue cheese on the French coast where the air basically smells like oysters and Roquefort (two of my favorite things)?
The answer is most certainly and most sweetly: Non!
Okay, if you feast on seven cheeses, let me know! I would love to hear about your treasure trove.
Follow the Whey: More Cheese Explorations
Virtual Valentine’s with Tria: If you live in the Philadelphia area, join me for cheese and wine tasting. I’ve curated a cheese box that you can pick up in advance, along with wines selected by Tria Wine Director Lauren Harris. Each package serves a couple — enjoy a sumptuous evening with us on Zoom as we taste each pairing. You never have to leave your couch.
A Cheese Journey to Belgium & The Netherlands: Join me for the lactic vacation of a lifetime! We’ve got just two rooms left for this tour focused around cheese, chocolate and brews. And yes, we will be visiting some of my favorite cheese shops, breweries, makers, and affineurs on this trip — including Betty Koster, the Dutch cave mistress I profiled for my book! If you know L’Amuse Gouda, Brabander goat gouda, or Black Betty — those are her cheeses.
Alp Blossom Podcast: This year, I’m serving as a Cheese Storyteller for a variety of PDO cheeses as part of a campaign called More than European Food and Drinks, Savoring Stories. This week, I created a video about Alp Blossom — a cheese rolled in meadow herbs and flower petals — to highlight the project. For the full story , you’ll please check out the podcast link.
Thanks for being my cheese lovers. I love you all!
~Madame Fromage
Yum. I adore all cheese, and make some sheep cheese and cow milk mozzarella regularly that feeds my soul. ❤️
As a lifelong cheese-a-holic, I'm always looking for new cheeses to try and these 7 look like a great place to start. fyi, my new fav - courtesy of good old Whole Foods here in Napa - is Campo de Montalban!!