|| 31 January 2021

Murray's Cheese Order

Not long after Thanksgiving, when the weather began to cool making it safer for shipping food products, and Murray’s Cheese offered a 25% discount for Cyber Monday, I placed my first order for cheese from the Murray’s Cheese online store.

You likely remember the previous Nouvelles in which I shared with you the recommendation for Murray’s cheeses made by the longtime reader of Chic & Slim Betty whose son is a cheesemaker for Murray’s.

For my premier order, I selected four cheeses to try based on my taste in cheeses — and on the descriptions and reviews for the cheeses on Murray’s Cheese’s website.

First of all I wanted to try Murray’s Stockinghall Cheddar that had won the 2019 Best American Cheese award. Stockinghall proved to be a wonderful cheddar.

My favorite way to eat cheddar is crumbled over a wedge of warm apple pie. The perfect accompaniment for an afternoon tea in autumn. Murray’s Stockinghall Cheddar made my okay apple pie into a luxury pastry.

I love feta cheese, and I ordered Murray’s authentic Greek sheep’s milk feta from the Thessaly region of Greece. This Greek feta comes in a nice little tub of brine. That feta went quickly. Especially in one of my favorite salads: pear, endive and feta. Though I had to substitute a green oak leaf lettuce and dandelion greens mix for unavailable endive.

A properly aged raw milk cheese can offer taste and nutritional benefits missing from pasteurized milk cheeses safely. (Aging brings the death of any bad bacteria in the raw milk cheese.)

The raw milk cheese I included in my Murray’s order was Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise whose creator based this American cheese on the French cheese Abondance. Murray’s describes this Tarentaise as having “spicy notes and a prickly pineapple finish.” I liked this cheese best when allowed to warm to room temperature and then spread on a slice of my homemade baguette baked from organic sprouted whole grain spelt flour.

The only cheese of which I have any remaining from my Murray’s order is an Italian picorino Oro Antico. Murray’s describes this picorino from Tuscany as setting the gold standard for picorinos. This aged sheep’s milk cheese has a nutty taste that is wonderful grated atop salad greens, especially those that are dressed in a high quality extra virgin olive oil and a good balsamic vinegar. It is also lovely over anything with tomatoes.

Murray’s has so many wonderful cheeses to choose from. For that first order, I somehow neglected to include a goat’s milk cheese (I am a great fan of goat’s milk cheeses) and ended up with two sheep’s milk cheeses. Not a problem. While the weather is still cold, I have time for ordering more cheese before the Texas heat descends upon Provence-sur-la-Prairie.

You can learn more about the cheeses and other related products offered by Murray's Cheese at their online store.

be chic, stay slim — Anne Barone