Castelmagno (8 Ounce) by igourmet.com
Refered to as the most important Piedmontese cheese, Castelmagno takes its name from the town of Castelmagno, where it has been produced since ancient times. Castelmagno is made of pasteurized, partially-skimmed cow's milk blended with a small amount of sheep's and goat's milk. It has a peculiar flavor that derives from a particular kind of grass (called "evax") that is native to the pastures of Cuneo, the sole province of its production. Castelmagno has a hard, brown rind cloaking a medium-hard interior of pearly white colour. Often times, edible blue-green veins can be found in the cheese, giving those sections a sharper flavor. It is aged for up to 6 months in natural mountain grottos. Overall, its flavor is quite savory with a mouth-watering, gentle saltiness. A rare cheese indeed - only 6,000 wheels are produced each year and perhaps less than 200 of those are exported to the USA.
Reader Reviews
I once bought this cheese from a high-end cheese store in the San Francisco area and it was the best cheese I had ever eaten -- crumbly, fragrant of earth and (for some reason) oranges, a deep complex flavor that just kept on giving. I hunted for it in Los Angeles, couldn't find it, finally tracked it down on line at igourmet. What I got was like so-so parmesan: hard and a little oily with no particular flavor. To igourmet's credit, they apologized and gave me a full refund, so I don't blame then. I've since read that the cheese is fragile and very hard to find in its best state, even in Italy. If you love good cheese, put in the effort to find a cheese store that carries this cheese at its best. Unforgettable. But don't try to buy it on line.
Available from Amazon
Price: $16.99
Updated on 8-14-2008.
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