The Ultimate Guide To Cheese, with Anne Saxelby

What's washed-rind cheese? How is blue cheese made? What should I pair my cheeses with? We hit up an expert to get some answers.

Erin Mosbaugh

The world of cheese, like wine or single-malt Scotch, can be truly intimidating. Sure, you’d like to order the Moses Sleeper “pasteurized cow bloomy-rind cheese” because it has a cool name, but what the hell is it going to taste like when it gets to the table?

To help you navigate your next encounter with curds, we asked Anne Saxelby—one of NYC’s premier cheese experts—to give us the rundown on all things cheese. Anne set up her tiny Saxelby Cheese stall in the ancient Essex Street Market back in 2006, selling cheese sourced from small farms in the Northeast. Before that, she worked at the famed Murray’s in the West Village and traveled throughout Europe tasting pecorinos, gorgonzolas—the works. The endearing cheesemonger now supplies cheeses to some of NYC’s best restaurants and shops, including Gramercy Tavern and Épicerie Boulud.

In our guide, Anne explains the flavor characteristics of the five main types of cheeses: fresh cheese, bloomy-rind cheese, washed-rind cheese, natural-rind cheese, and blue cheese. Then, she delves into important questions like: “What should I eat my cheeses with?” “When should I not eat cheese rind?” and “Is imported cheese better than domestic cheese?” After reading our ultimate guide to everything cheese, you will be able to confidently order off the cheese menu at restaurants, determine the types of cheeses you prefer, and impress dates with cheese trivia like, “Blue cheese needs oxygen to grow.” (Trust us, that’s a sexy thing to say.)

If you’d like to get any of the following cheeses shipped straight to your door, you can order from the Saxelby online store.

Fresh cheese

Fresh cheeses are identifiable by the fact that they don’t have a rind. Examples of fresh cheeses are mozzarella, ricotta, queso fresco, and fresh chevre. Any cheeses like those—ones that are very fresh and very mild— all fall into the “fresh cheese” category. In flavor they tend to be milder, milkier, or tangier if they’re on the goat-cheese spectrum. They’re the simplest cheeses of the cheese world. They’re meant to be eaten within a couple days to a couple of weeks of when they’re made.
Bloomy-rind cheese

In general, if you like creamy cheeses, bloomy-rinds are going to be a good category for you. Bloomy-rind refers to anything that has a white, fluffy rind like you would see on a brie or a camembert. They’re called bloomy-rind cheeses because the white mold that’s on the outside, that forms the rind, actually blooms on the cheese as it ages. When the cheese is first made, you don’t see any mold development on the rind at all, and about a week after, you start to see this white, puffy mold growing all over the surface. So the rind blooms on the outside, and what the cheese-maker does is they’ll pat the mold down and flip the cheese, because you want it to grow but you don’t want it to grow too thick. If you’ve ever had a very cardboard-y, chewy rind that’s like this—that means the rind isn’t quite right, it’s grown a little bit too thick, and they haven’t done as good of a job as they needed to do patting it and flipping it. Flavor-wise, bloomy-rind cheeses also tend to be buttery because they’re high-moisture cheeses. And this mold on the outside has a distinct kind of button mushroom flavor, so you’ll definitely get little hints of mushroom. Sometimes, you’ll also get a yeasty flavor. Moses Sleeper from Jasper Hill Farm mostly has one strain of bloomy mold, called penicillium candidum, and that produces that mushroom flavor. But if they add geo tricum, which is a yeast, the rind will be not quite as thick; it’ll be a little more yellow, a little bit more tawny, and will give the cheese more of a yeasty flavor.
Washed-rind cheese

Washed-rind cheeses are really easy to recognize because they have orangey, reddish rinds. They are also generally the stinky cheeses. They’re called washed-rind cheeses because they are actually washed as they age. When the cheese is in the cave, the cheesemaker will wash the outside generally about two times a week with a salt water brine, or different kinds of alcohol are also used on occasion. Eau-de-vivre, spirits, beer, wine: those are all good things to wash cheeses with. What this does is it encourages a certain kind of bacterial growth on the outside, which shows up as this orangeish, reddish mold. It encourages the breakdown of the cheese into a softer, creamier texture, and also brings on more pungent flavors. In terms of flavor, washed-rind cheeses can be characterized as pungent, for sure. Meaty, beefy are flavor words that people use a lot. They can also be buttery. They can be egg-y. They can have a whole range of flavors—but tending towards savory, rich, intense. Washed-rind cheese is polarizing—people either really love them or they’re like,” No, stay away!”
Natural-rind cheese

Natural-rind cheeses are cheeses that are salted when they’re first made, and then they’re left in the cave to age, and whatever ambient mold is there growing in the cave is what’s going to show up on the rind. I like to use Square Cheese (a raw goat’s milk cheese from Twig Farm) as an example of the natural-rind cheese, because it grows a really gray, fuzzy mold on the surface, and this is just what was there in the cheese-maker’s cave. He didn’t put anything in the cheese to develop this kind of a rind. Natural-rind cheeses tend to be a little bit earthier in flavor, especially out towards the rind. They tend to be firm to semi-firm in texture, and can have a whole range of different flavors from grassy to floral to musky, in the case of the Square goat cheese.
Blue Cheese

Blue cheeses are very easy to recognize because they have the blue veining running through them. The blue veining is actually caused by a type of mold introduced to the milk or to the curds during the cheese-making process. As a catch-all category, you could call it penicillium roqueforti, which is named after Roquefort. The cool thing about blue is it needs oxygen to grow. When you first make a blue cheese, it doesn’t look blue at all. After about a week or two of aging in the cave, the cheesemaker will come along and poke holes, and wherever they poke a hole, the oxygen gets in and a vein of blue will show up there. Then, if there are any sorts of spaces in between the curds, the oxygen will find its way in and blue the whole cheese. Blue cheeses also have a huge range of flavors, but you could generally say that blue cheeses tend to be stronger. They can either be more peppery and spicy, or sometimes they can be chocolate-y and sweet. Fourme d'ambert is a French blue that’s very sweet—it almost reminds me of cookie dough—whereas gorgonzola can be more spicy and kind of peppery.
What should I pair my cheese with?

There are some really good crackers on the market. I feel like the Carr’s crackers are super boring; I’d rather just eat the cheese by itself. There are two crackers that I really like. The Hot Bread Kitchen lavash are really nice because they’re baked with really good olive oil, so they actually have a great flavor unto themselves. The other brand is Potter’s Crackers from Madison, WI. Those are so good. As far as accompaniments go, I’m kind of a purist. I like to eat cheese by itself, but fresh fruit, of course, is always great—whatever is in season. At this time of the year, apples and pears with cheese are really good, or anything made from apples and pears: compotes, chutneys, things like that. Honey is always great. We work with Claire Marin at Catskill Provisions to get her honey. There are similarities to all theses things: there are seasonal changes in the honey, seasonal changes in the cheese, so you can enjoy all these different flavor combinations. I like to put good honey, good cheese, and good preserves together and just see what works. We have a seasonal selection of jams and chutneys from Kelly Geary at Sweet Deliverance. Right now, we have an apple-chili-raisin chutney. That’s a really nice one to have with cheese. I feel like cheese and chutney is a British idea—you see that more over there than you do here. I would have that with cheddar, or with this cheese called Landaff, from New Hampshire. That’s a slightly softer cheese that has a more lemony, yogurt-y quality. Any British-style cheese that has a bit of tart, tangy quality would be really good.
What's the difference between cow, goat, and sheep's milk cheeses?

Cow is going to be the most mild in flavor overall. It’s going to yield cheeses that have a more buttery flavor. There’s not so much of an animal taste to cow’s milk, in general. You definitely tend to have more musky flavors associated with goat’s milk cheese. If it’s a young, fresh goat cheese, those flavors are going to be—you know—goaty, but a little bit tangy too. If it’s an aged goat cheese, you’re going to have a little bit of a sweetness, a little bit of a malty flavor, along with the goaty, musky flavors. Goat’s milk cheeses can be young and fresh, but they can be aged, they can be blue—you can make anything from that type of milk. The best way I can describe the flavor of sheep’s milk cheese is like a sheep. There’s that lanolin [wool wax], which makes the cheese a little bit oilier. There’s a bit of a wooliness to it. Not to make it sound off-putting, but in sheep’s milk cheeses you definitely taste the sheep. That’s also because sheep’s milk is the highest in butterfat. Both cow and goat’s milk tend to be in the 4-5% butterfat range, and sheep’s milk is 7%. Because fat is a vehicle for flavor, it picks up a lot more of those animal-y traits.
Recommended cheeses
Cow’s milk: Moses Sleeper from Jasper Hill Farm Sheep’s milk: Bohemian Blue from Hidden Springs Creamery Goat’s milk: Square Cheese from Twig Farm
Why is aging cheese important?

Aging a cheese is obviously really important. What goes into making a cheese beforehand is really important, as well, but then how the cheese is aged—and how long it’s aged—definitely impacts the flavor. In some ways, cheese is like wine, because different cheeses should be aged for different amounts of time to reach their optimal flavor. Some cheeses are ready younger; some benefit from longer aging periods. The important thing to keep in mind is, cheese is a living thing. I like to think about a cheese like you would a garden. You have certain things that need to be tended to every day, certain things that need to be tended to every week. You just have to understand the look and feel of all these different styles of cheeses, and you know what each cheese needs to reach its fullest potential. For example, a little goat cheese with a bloomy rind will need treatment that is very different from a big Alpine-style cheese like a Gruyère. The goat cheese will need to be flipped and turned more frequently and will need to be eaten quicker.
When should I not eat the rind?

The only rinds that people shouldn’t eat are those that are cloth or wax. Other than that, it’s up to you. If you like it, go ahead. If you don’t like, don’t do it. For me, I feel like the cutoff is sixth months. If a cheese has aged longer than six months and has a rind that’s pretty hard, I might not always eat that rind because it’s just a little too intense. Eating them can enhance the flavor of the cheese or it can hinder the flavor, depending on how strong the rind is. The rinds can be used in cooking applications. You can put them in soup stocks, and they’ll meld nicely. So, you don’t need to throw away your rinds.
Is imported cheese better?

There are certain regions where great cheeses come from. Ones that come to mind for me are the Loire Valley in France, where you can find little, soft goat cheeses that are all different shapes and sizes. Cheeses like Saint Maure, Pouligny Saint Pierre—they’re all made in the Loire. There are other great cheeses from the Poitou region: Chard Roule, Chard Bijou. It’s hard to find those cheeses here, because what comes over is the industrial stuff. They tend to be pasteurized, but to get the really good stuff, you have to be there. When you’re looking for good European cheese it’s almost more important to look at the name of the affineur [a person who ages cheeses] than it is to look at what type of cheese you’re buying. Just like when I buy wine now, I look at the back of the bottle to see who the importer is. Hervé Mons is someone that we work with. He ages cheeses from all over France that are really beautiful. He actually sells his cheeses at Whole Foods, too, so you can find them there. Rodolphe Le Meunier is another great affineur based in France. There’s Rolf Beeler, who’s a very famous affineur from Switzerland, who specializes more in those types of cheeses. Luigi Guffanti is a good one to look out for from Italy. They do a lot of bizarre stuff that you won’t find anywhere else. Most of the good cheeses stay in Europe or don’t get imported. So in that respect, it’s better to buy [domestic]. For example, with industrial taleggio versus Grayson from Virginia, you’d be better off buying Grayson, which is more similar to a traditional taleggio than the industrial stuff, just in terms of depth of flavor and freshness.

The Ultimate Guide To Cheese, with Anne Saxelby

Fresh cheese

Bloomy-rind cheese

Washed-rind cheese

Natural-rind cheese

Blue Cheese

What should I pair my cheese with?

What's the difference between cow, goat, and sheep's milk cheeses?

Recommended cheeses

Why is aging cheese important?

When should I not eat the rind?

Is imported cheese better?

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