The cheesemonger who sold me the chunk of Foglie Bergere from Northland Sheep Dairy assured it would be just the ticket if I was looking for an intensely flavored sheep cheese, for which I actually wasn't. At the time. "It just tastes like pure sheep," he encouraged. More intriguing than convincing as a sales pitch, I went for it nonetheless.
The Cheesemonger: Foglie Bergere
Taste like pure sheep it does not, I found. (But of course don't forget everyone experiences taste individually.) Lanoline - or "sheepy" - flavors there were, but they were well balanced with undertones of hazelnuts and nearly-burnt toast. This is an austere cheese, not sweet and nutty like a mountain cheese, but with an earthy intensity and notes of straw and hay more often associated with cow's milk cheeses.
The end result was a supremely nuanced cheese with a distinct flavor spectrum. As a taster, each impression of the cheese was different from the next. And a long, multi-layered finish to boot, pairable with anything from a sweet plum jam to a dry Riesling.
At first evaluation, the Foglie Bergere is reminiscent texture-wise of a classic aged pecorino Toscano. With a crystalline crunch through and through, it actually resembles more closely a Parmigiano Reggiano.
Lucky is the cheese lover who unknowingly stumbles upon a cheese with as unique a texture as this. The crunchy bits of amino acid clusters, called tyrosine, are practically pin-pointable, and are by far the largest I've come across in a cheese. Conceived by Karl and Jane North in Freetown Corners, New York, this find is ultimately unlike any Italian cheese. It's entirely ewe.
Foglie Bergere is available at Stinky Brooklyn for $8.00 per 1/4 pound.
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Fascinating discovery. I appreciate the site's attempts to educate me about cheeses beyond pepperjack and swiss!
view Jim of ChewOnThat's profile
As a cheeselover who knows nothing about "fancy" cheese but wants to learn and likes reading these posts, statements like this crack me up: "the Foglie Bergere is reminiscent texture-wise of a classic aged pecorino Toscano. With a crystalline crunch through and through, it actually resembles more closely a Parmigiano Reggiano."
It's like trying to explain the difference between turquoise, indigo, and navy to someone who's never heard of blue. ha ha. Guess I better keep reading the cheese posts...
view Akino luna's profile
I find it so interesting that people love those crystalline structures in the cheese. Having a rather unsophisticated cheese palate, those crunchy bits feel strange and out of place to me. I guess I need to eat more cheese.
view Rog's profile
This has nothing to do with the cheese mentioned above but I had dinner at a friends house this weekend, where she served a fabulous soft cheese that was part sheeps milk and part cow. I've always hated the "sheepy" lanoline taste but this cheese is divine! It's called La Tur and is pricey (to me) at $22/lb but well worth it!
view foodiegirl's profile
Not a cheese connoisseur myself, but I love love love cheese, and one can never go wrong with the P'tit Basque (sheep's milk cheese, from the French Pyrenees). This is so good, it melts on your tongue and definitely no "sheepish" taste.
A great review here http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/06/29/WIG3RJL43R1.DTL&type=wine
It sells for $20/lbs at my local market, but I'm so addicted, I'm there every other day just for the cheese. I can't buy the whole wheel in fear that I'd eat it all in one sitting.
Anyone else know a better price? I'm open!
view callbob's profile
I love cheese. I'm also glad you guys are spreading the good word and introducing the readers to the joys of the not so common cheeses.
view Keisha Kornbread's profile
Nice review! I'm a little curious about the name of the cheese, and why it was chosen. Of course it's a play on Follies Bergere, but Foglie isn't a cheese pun. It means "leaves" in Italian, and brings to mind Pecorino Foglie di Noce, the sheeps milk cheese that's buried in walnut leaves and aged for a few months
Is the foglie bergere aged with walnut leaves as well, or just a sheepsmilk cheese that's reminiscent of those flavors?
view cheflaura's profile
The cheese is actually named "Folie Bergere" - and if you want to know more about the farm, the website link is incorrect. It's actually www.northlandsheepdairy.com.
Trust me, I'm the cheesemaker and farm owner.
view tripletree's profile