Having been members of PennMac’s Cheese of the Month Club for several years now, from time to time, we’ll run into a repeat of a previous monthly theme. For the May edition of Cheese of the Month, we feared we might run into a problem, as the new shipment was centered on the cheeses of Holland, and we’d already written about Dutch cheeses in a previous post from 2014. Fortunately, this new shipment had four different cheeses, with only one even bearing similarity to the ones we featured before. So let’s get to it and have a look!
Even though we always get the same amount of cheese, each month I remain astounded at just how much cheese two pounds of cheese really is.
With help from the fantastic meat selection of Parma Sausage in the Strip District, we were able to put together a nice board that worked for PennMac’s May offerings: Prima Donna, Red Pepper Beemster, 1000 Day Gouda, and Leerdammer.
We kicked things off with the Prima Donna, a blend of Gouda and Parmesan that was dry yet creamy, with a grassy flavor. It was great with strawberries and bacon, and the notes on the package were definitely right — it goes very nicely with red wine! (But so little doesn’t.)
Next up was the Red Pepper Beemster. We had an aged Beemster last time we tried Dutch cheeses, but the red pepper infused throughout this cheese provided a nice extra kick of spice to go along with its salty character. It was very creamy in texture, making it great on a baguette, and a nice counterpoint to some tough dried, cured pork shoulder.
Third in line came the 1000 Day Gouda. It was (as you might predict based on the name) hard, dry, and crumbly — but also bursting with flavors both salty and earthy. It would pair very well with pickled mushrooms, and it was delicious with horseradish mustard and a little prosciutto. It would also work nicely with something tart and juicy, like blackberries.
We wrapped things up with the most aromatic of the cheeses, the Leerdammer. It was a little stinky, but very creamy and soft, almost spreadable. It complemented the spice of hot capicola very well.
All told, this was a solid and crowd-pleasing set of cheeses. These were all very approachable, with many pairing options available. We’d happily recommend any one of them.
We will return later this month with a new cheese review. Hope you’ll be back!