My father and his new wife Kirsten (who is Danish) bought us a piece of nice Danish blue cheese when they visited us in London on their way back from a conference. They purchased it from a local cheese shop near where they were staying in Denmark. Based on the label, we know it is a cheese from Bornholms Andelsmejeri, a co-operative on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic sea. Dad and Kirsten had visited Bornholm a couple of years before and had visited the dairy factory, but unfortunately they could not bring back the cheese to us in New Zealand!
St Clemens is the "export" division/label of Bornholms Andelsmejeri, and the Danish Blue (or Danablu) made under this label has a great pedigree. It has been named "World Champion" twice at the World Champion Cheese Contest in Wisconsin (in 1980 and 1998).
Because the cheese we tasted was wrapped without a label, we are not totally sure which version of St Clemens Blue it was, but after tasting it we suspect it was possibly the 60+ version (meaning 60% FDM, or 60% of the non-moisture substance in the cheese is fat). This would be around 35-36% total fat content in this cheese. It had a clean outer surface (there is no real rind with this style of cheese) with a white, slightly creamy colour. The greeny-blue mould was distributed well through the cheese which had a regular open structure. The flavour was sharp, tangy, and salty with a rich blue mould flavour. The cheese was not very crumbly, as can be the case with Danablu, and had a nice creamy texture.
We had been given quite a large wedge of this cheese, and only tried a a little before we went on a trip to Paris. On our return 8 days later, our housemates had finished it all off, so we can only assume they liked it too! This was a cheese we liked and recommend for blue lovers, although perhaps it is not a cheese to try first if you are new to blue cheeses. We would love to visit the island of Bornholm and see for ourselves where this cheese is made.
Further info: http://www.st-clemens.dk
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