17.Oct.09 Cheese of the week: Dill Havarti
Why would a blog/website centered around the music industry and culture have a feature column on cheese? There’s no reasonable answer but allow me to craft a BS response to that question…
There are many fine things in life we enjoy – top shelf drinks, the hadrest-to-get-just-released-music, upscale chillout lounges and music venues, high quality audio production equipment and software, bitchin’ gear, fly kicks, baller shades and that is just scratching the surface. Among those things listed, there is a little void which can only be filled by fine connoisseur, artisan dairy products sourced from around the world. For realsies.
So we’re gonna see how long we can keep this going. Partly for the LOLZ and partly because we really do like a nicely crafted cheese…
This week’s cheese is not the fanciest cheese ever conceived, nor is it particularly expensive. Let’s call it a nice entry level cheese. Easy to appreciate and not off-putting to the average consumer. We picked up a piece of Denmark’s Finest Dill Havarti (priced at a meager $7.99/lb) this evening from the local specialty grocer. Havarti is a semi soft, washed curd, Danish cow’s milk cheese typified by its buttery flavor, creamy texture and the presence of tiny holes throughout – similar to but much smaller than the holes found in your average Swiss cheese. It is considered a table cheese and is perfect for slicing, grilling or melting.
The particular variety we purchased contains dill mixed in and the flavor of the dill matched with the smooth texture and mild slightly salty flavor of the cheese makes for a very enjoyable palette that just about anyone would enjoy. I noted that this company’s recipe has a taste somewhat reminiscent of an herby cheese spread or dip you might find on a cracker and vegetable plate. Nothing particularly adventurous with this cheese but we expect it will PWN in a grilled cheese sandwich. We intend to put that theory to the test tomorrow at lunch time.
We will attempt to rate cheeses in a couple categories. For this first review, we will rate this cheese on it’s flavor, versatility, texture, wow factor and on how exotic it is. Next week we may slightly change this around until we get it to where we like it but this will work for now.
- Flavor: 6.5 out of 10 (not particularly exciting but very tasty)
- Texture: 5 out of 10 (kind of generic creamy texture, a little greasy if not served cold)
- Versatility: 8 out of 10 (you could use this cheese of many things)
- Exotic: 4 out of 10 (It’s from Denmark but that’s about it)
- Wow: 4 out of 10 (Oh look honey, it has dill in it. The kids would love this!)
Keep checking back every week for a new cheese review from your friends at Low Frequency! Next week we intend to try something a little more adventurous. Perhaps a nice Stilton or Camembert.
