The Magic of Landaff

A few of the Erbs' Holsteins out to pasture

The first time I heard that we brought in a new cheese called Landaff, I did a double take:

"You mean like the wizard from Lord of the Rings?"

No, that's Gandalf. My bad.

As it turns out, there's no wizardry involved in making Landaff, but there is lots of good cheesemaking practices. Cheesemakers Doug and Debby Erb use only raw milk from their own herd of Holstein cows, and make the cheese themselves on the farm. This keeps the milk incredibly fresh--it goes straight from the cows to the creamery, where the cheese is made the same day.

The cows are fed a diet of mostly corn and grasses, all grown on their property. Right now, you can taste the rich flavors of the luscious summer grasses the cows have been munching on. As the seasons change, the cows' diet will change too, and the milk they produce will reflect that change. This is the first time we've carried Landaff, so we're really looking forward to seeing what autumn and winter Landaff tastes like!

Given that the Erbs do pretty much everything on the farm themselves, it may come as a surprise that they send their cheeses off to be aged in Vermont, at The Cellars at Jasper Hill. Trust me, though, this is a good thing, and actually a very traditional practice in Europe.

Aging cheese can be a significant undertaking. Every cheese has its own regimen of care--most need to be turned at least once a day. Some need to be brushed down periodically or washed with salt water, wine, beer, or some other liquid. All need to be kept in a cool, moist environment to age properly. It can be a complicated and time-consuming process that small farmers like the Erbs would rather not deal with (their cheese requires about 2 months of aging).

The Cellars at Jasper Hill: Cheese Heaven

I'll be sure to write a more detailed post about Jasper Hill Farm and Cellars, but for now, all you need to know is that they have a large cheese cellar built just for the purpose of aging great American cheeses like Landaff. They have done many wonderful things for American cheesemaking. The partnership between the Erbs and Jasper Hill is a perfect example: it allows the Erbs to focus on what they do best--make great cheese--and allows us to eat some incredibly good local cheese.

Not All Mozzarellas Are Created Equal

Anyone who has been to Italy, particularly Naples, knows that there's something special about the mozzarella di bufala made there. But what exactly is the difference? What's so special about Italian mozzarella?

The most important factor is the milk source: as the name suggests, mozzarella di bufala is made from the milk of water buffalo. This milk is rich in protein, calcium and milk fat, much more so than cows milk. This is extremely important to mozzarella, because it is a fresh cheese, meaning it is not aged like most cheeses you're familiar with (cheddar, brie, taleggio, etc). Aging is a big part of where a cheese's flavor comes from--so with an un-aged cheese like mozzarella, the milk has to do all the talking!

The other major factor involved in mozzarella is the freshness. In Naples, where mozzarella has its origins, they've been raising water buffalo for their milk for hundreds of years, and if you buy a piece of mozzarella there, chances are it was made that same day. With fresh mozz, the fresher the better.

That said, obviously, there aren't any water buffalo farms near Marblehead, and unless anyone plans on pasturing some on Gatchell's Green, we don't expect to find any nearby any time soon. So to get authentic buffalo mozzarella, we have to go outside of Massachusetts. Most buffalo mozzarella in the US is flown in from Italy, and can be had at just a few days old.

The other option is locally made cows milk mozzarella. Cows milk doesn't provide the same rich, sweet flavors of buffalo milk, and so sometimes the cheese can be somewhat bland. However, it is often (though not always!) fresher, since it spends less time in transit than the Italian one, and there are some good producers out there who make some delicious cheeses. We've been carrying Maple Brook Farms mozzarella lately and have absolutely loved their cheeses. They don't have quite the flavor of the buffalo milk cheeses, but they come awfully close!

I visited a mozzarella maker in Naples a few years ago and got to watch them make a batch of buffalo mozzarella. Here's the process.

Start out with fresh curds in a traditional wooden barrel.

Add hot water. This causes the proteins in the curds to link together, making the curds combine into a thick, doughy mass. The Italians will actually refer to it as "dough."

They knead it a bit for consistency. Yes, this is basically a giant ball of mozzarella here.

They tear off a small pieces of the "dough" and rip them up into small balls of mozzarella. The word for tear in Italian is mozzare, which is where the cheese gets its name.

Finished mozzarella.

An American Pig

Pig is big. Whether you like it or not, it is hard to open up a menu at any restaurant and not see pork chops, pork belly or Chef Lynne’s favorite—bacon! But this is not a blog about bacon, this is about proscuitto.

Iberico ham in salt cure

First, some ground rules. Dry-cured ham legs tend to all be labeled with the Italian word for it, prosciutto. The most famous example, of course, is Italy’s Parma Prosciutto, but it doesn’t have to come from Parma, or even from Italy, to be absolutely delicious. There is Speck, Italy’s smoked version; and Spain’s versions, Jamon Serrano and Jamon Iberico (a.k.a. the $100/lb prosciutto, pictured here in various stages of curing). These dry-cured prosciuttos have long histories and complex flavor profiles that come from the meticulous aging process.

Iberico ham shortly after salt cure

Then there’s La Querica Farms of Norwalk, Iowa, who introduced their Prosciutto Americano in September 2005. The response was incredible, with many claiming it to be the best prosciutto…ever! In 2006, La Quercia added another winner to their repertoire: La Quercia Rossa—the first and only single-breed, dry cured ham made in the USA.

Perhaps like many of you, I did not quite realize the importance of breeding until tasting La Quercia Rossa. Breeding plays a key role in dry cured ham quality because it actually influences muscle structure, muscle fiber, water holding capacity, fat quality and internal meat characteristics. Since prosciutto flavor develops from the inside, these factors are especially important. La Quercia Rossa is truly an experience.

Like Spain’s Jamon Iberico, La Quercia uses only the finest pork breeds (Berkshire or Kurobuta pork), which are known for the color, flavor and tenderness. For those of you who splurged and tried Jamon Iberico when we had it for sale when it first came out, do you remember the sweet, nutty and not too salty flavor? And how about the way the fat melted on your tongue? Well, here at Shubie’s, we loved the experience so much, but were not always so crazy about the price. So imagine how excited we were we tried La Quercia Rossa and were absolutely blown away! It melts in your mouth, has an incredible nutty flavor, but with a beautiful subtlety and none of that oiliness or heaviness. And the best part, it’s priced more like the prosciutto di Parma than the Iberico at only $24.99/lb.

There’s a world of prosciutto beyond Italy, and now even we in the US have a prosciutto of amazing quality to brag about. Give this amazing domestic prosciutto a taste—I’m sure you’ll love it as much as I do.

La Quercia uses sustainable farming techniques, and only sources its pigs from farms that raise their pigs humanely on open pastures. Read more here!

Iberico ham, later curing stage