Murray's Cheese Blog

December 1, 2015November 29, 2017

Fondue! We DO! Stay Warm & Satisfied with the Perfect Winter Comfort Food

What’s better than cheese? Trick question…nothing! But a big bowl of melty cheese (read: fondue) for dipping your heart out ranks really high up there for the best inventions of humankind. The days are getting shorter, and colder, and darker. Fondue to the the stomach and soul-warming rescue!

A quick fondue history lesson: The Swiss have been enjoying this goodness for a very long time. Homer’s Iliad–dated from about 800 to 725 BC–even mentions chowing down on a glorious mixture of goat’s cheese, wine and flour. Sounds like fondue to me! The custom makes a lot of sense. The Swiss have a storied cheese tradition–and cheese odds and ends could easily be warmed up in a big pot atop a fire and savored during frosty Swiss winters.

In 1930, the Swiss Cheese Union appointed fondue the country’s national dish – and the world has been gaga over it ever since. Here’s a can’t-fail recipe for classic fondue…but experiment away! Fondue is a perfect blank canvas for playing around. Alpine cheeses are classic choices and stellar melters, so they’re a great place to start. (Think nutty, savory Appenzeller, pictured below). Go ahead, add some kick with a little of blue, perhaps some creamy gorgonzola. Or introduce a funky note with Spring Brook Farm Reading.

Murray’s Classic Fondue

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove
150 g (approx. 3/4cup) white wine
4 oz (approx. 1 cup) Gruyère, grated
4 oz (approx. 1 cup) Comté, grated
3 oz Emmental, grated
1 tablespoon + 1 tsp cornstarch
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions:
1.Sprinkle one teaspoon of salt in the bottom of a small saucepan.
2.Cut garlic clove in half and rub the inside of the pan, starting at the salt.
3.Heat the wine on medium-high just until boiling. While the wine is heating, combine the cheeses and toss with cornstarch until evenly distributed.
4.Gradually add the cheese a half a cup at a time, whisking constantly until melted and smooth.
5.Add lemon juice and whisk until incorporated.

The Great Dipping Debate

Dipping…so fun! Here are some of our favorite fondue vehicle. What’s yours?

Cubes of your favorite bread
Crackers! Raincoast Crisps do the trick brilliantly.
Croutons
Apples and pears!
Veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, fennel spears, and baby carrots
Pickles and pickled veggies, like Rick’s Pick’s dilly Mean Beans
Fingerling potatoes
Salumi and cured meat. Yes to chunks of chorizo!

November 25, 2015November 29, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving! All-American Cheeses for your Holiday Table

We’re grateful to live in the land of the free and the home of much awesome cheese. We hope you’re gearing up and settling in for a holiday full of good friends, family, and feasting.

What’s Thanksgiving without cheese? Here are some of our favorite beauties, all crafted in the incredible country we call home. Pair this American bounty with apple butter, ripe pears and crunchy pecans for a pitch perfect autumnal platter.

St Mark’s (Our brand new Murray’s exclusive cheese!)

Guaranteed to make your guests love you! In the St. Mark’s (Street, ethos) spirit, we’ve taken a beloved traditional cheese and given it an avante garde spin. This complex, unctuous cheese is fragile—we keep it safe in a little red terra cotta crock. So cute. Plus, the crock helps St. Mark’s double as a perfect, personal fondue. Top with some fig jam and walnuts—or be a purist and leave it as is—and pop the cheese in the oven, or toaster oven, for a few minutes. It will get oozy, melty and glorious. Scoop up the creamy goodness with crusty bread for the perfect fall/winter treat. Pair with Beaujolais, or a crisp ale, and some Village swagger.

Cremont

A fantastic little cheese from the chevre pioneers at the Vermont Creamery. This one combines high-quality pasteurized goat’s milk (from the twenty family farms supported by the creamery) with cow’s milk & cream (from a local co-op). A slow, lactic set and a delicate, crinkly rind make for a rich, mouth-coating, earthy, and satisfying cheese.

Cabot Clothbound Cheddar

Twice a year, we hand select Cabot’s English-inspired clothbound cheddar aged by the Cellars at Jasper Hill. Our preferred flavor profile: a delicate balance of sharpness, slight nuttiness, and a caramelized, nearly candied sweetness. Produced from the pasteurized milk from a single herd of Holstein cows, our wheels hover in the 12-14 month range.

Pleasant Ridge Reserve

The talented cheesemaker Mike Gingrich makes this smooth, firm cheese from the raw milk of his 150-cow herd only during the summer months, when the cows can graze on the lush pastures and the cheese takes on a fruity, olive-y, addictive depth. Several months of aging intensify its flavors, especially the sweetness.

CaveMaster Reserve Greensward

Two years ago Murray’s and the Cellars at Jasper Hill embarked on a top secret mission to create an exclusive cheese for Eleven Madison Park’s Iconic New York menu.The result is a spectacular new pasteurized cow’s milk cheese…and Murray’s is the only place you can get it! Greensward will wow your guests. Promise. Perfect spoonable, silky texture. Perfect big, bacony flavor. Perfect notes of forest and resin from Greensward’s pretty spruce jacket.

Rogue Rover Blue

After decades of award winning production, the newest owners of Rogue –David Gremmels and Cary Bryant–decided to take it up a notch. For a special edition of the company’s classic ‘Oregon Blue Vein’ they start with pastured, raw summer milk. A fruity nuance is added to the dense, vegetal, smoky blue after several months of aging by wrapping the wheels with local pear “eau de vie” soaked grape leaves from a neighboring vineyard. Due to the highly seasonal milk supply and remarkable demand, availability is limited.

November 10, 2015November 10, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving from the Murray’s Family: Chef Amy’s Pumpkin Cheesecake

Thanksgiving is one of our favorite times of year. What a perfect holiday for cooks and cheese lovers. The autumnal bounty! The no-holds-barred fall feasting! There is so much to be thankful for.

Perhaps you’ve already been mulling over the menu for weeks. There are pies to bake, potatoes to mash, turkeys to carve…and cheese plates to be assembled.

We’re busy sourcing and selling our favorite cheese, charcuterie, chocolate, jam and other good things, so that your holiday table can be a happy, tasty place. We’re also cooking and baking like crazy.

Do you know our awesome Executive Chef Amy Stonionis? You should. Amy grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania foraging, hunting, fishing, pickling, butchering and cooking her heart out. She’s lived in Brooklyn since 2007. When Amy is in the kitchen, you can rest assured you’re going to eat very, very well.

When Amy generously presented us with her light yet lusciously rich cheesecake,we gobbled it up in mere moments. It’s hard to control yourself when faced with this sweet, perfectly spiced goodness. Here’s the recipe. We hope you make it and share it. Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Amy’s Dreamy Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients:
(Filling)
5 cups diced pumpkin
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups plus 1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2½ lb cream cheese, softened
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup heavy cream

(Crust)
1/4 lb (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
2 cups crushed graham crackers
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup light brown sugar

Directions:

To make the filling, cube and toss the pumpkin with olive oil, 1 tbsp sugar and cinnamon and roast in a 350 degree oven until tender, about 15-20 minutes.
Combine cream cheese, the remaining sugar, eggs, vanilla and heavy cream in a stand mixer. Add roasted pumpkin and mix until pumpkin is fully integrated into the wet ingredients.
In a separate bowl, combine melted butter with crushed graham crackers, cinnamon, and brown sugar.
Pack crust in bottom of a springform pan and top with pumpkin filling.
Bake at 275 degrees for 90 minutes.

November 3, 2015November 3, 2015

Murray’s Recommended Cider & Cheese Pairing Guide

Murray’s own Elizabeth Chubbuck, Vice President of Sales, teamed up with the expert David Flaherty, Beer & Spirits Director at Hearth Restaurant and the Terroir wine bars in NYC, to create the ultimate guide to pairing Cider & Cheese. Check it out!

October 27, 2015November 29, 2017

Boo! The Scariest Cheeses for Halloween

scary cheese — Scary gorgeous photo by Carey Nershi

Happy Halloween! It’s time for ghosts and goblins and other scary things. Cheese doesn’t have to be one of them, but it certainly can be. What better time than now for brainy rinds and sizable stink factor? There’s nothing to be afraid of. Promise.

Bonne Bouche: Bonne Bouche is the flagship of Vermont Creamery’s signature aged goat cheeses. Made with pasteurized goat’s milk, the curd is carefully hand-ladled into molds, lightly sprinkled with ash, and aged just long enough to develop a wrinkly, brain-like rind. Reminiscent of Loire Valley favorites like Selles Sur Cher, Bonne Bouche also pairs well with Sauvignon Blanc.Frighteningly good.

Murray’s CaveMaster Reserve Greensward: If giant, funky flavor and oozy goodness scare you, don’t read on. Creating a new cheese is hard work! After tons of experimentation, we’ve arrived at perfection. Perfect spoonable, silky texture. Perfect big, bacony flavor. Perfect notes of forest and resin from Greensward’s pretty spruce jacket. The perfect collaboration with Jasper Hill. For even more perfection, open a light Gamay, or bourbon, and dive into this beauty with pieces of crusty bread.

Époisses: Don’t be afraid of the stink! You may not know it, but Époisses is actually a French word meaning “completely worth the effort”—either that or “stinky but incredibly loveable” because the end result, a custardy bacon bomb, is oh-so-worth-it. One slurp of the intensely creamy paste of this French classic, and you’ll know why we go to such lengths to ensure that this unctuous pasteurized cow’s milk round, made in Burgundy, France, is so delightfully decadent. After near extinction in France during the World Wars, Époisses de Bourgogne was resurrected in the 1950s by our beloved M. Berthaut. After being carefully hand-ladled into forms and dry-salted, each wheel takes a turn in French cave. Tucked into a clever wooden box meant to ease transport to our fair shores, serving Époisses isn’t nearly as difficult as aging it—slice a crusty baguette and dunk away, adding a glass of Burgundian white for terroir-driven perfection.

Coupole: Another wrinkly beauty from Vermont Creamery. As it ages, the pristine, velvety edible rind softens the fresh chevre beneath to an unctuous creamline. The resulting two textures of its cross-section make for a stunning visual presentation; this is an ideal selection for a stand alone cheese or first position of a cheese plate. Pair with a dry, grassy white.