{"id":25234,"date":"2011-11-05T14:07:06","date_gmt":"2011-11-05T18:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/?p=25234"},"modified":"2025-08-21T10:00:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T14:00:43","slug":"brooklyn-cheese-shops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/25234\/brooklyn-cheese-shops\/","title":{"rendered":"A Cheese Lover&#8217;s Guide to Brooklyn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong> <\/strong>The grass-based Cricket Creek Farm in Williamstown, Massachusetts runs a cheese CSA out of Picado y Vino in Park Slope and regularly produces five cow\u2019s milk cheeses, including the semi-soft Berkshire Bloom, the ch\u00e8vre-like Cricket Creek Fresh (whose five variations include Lavender &amp; Honey and Sundried Tomato &amp; Kalamata Olive) and Maggie\u2019s Round, a sharp, semi-firm raw, whole-milk cheese.<\/p>\n<p>All of the above work well on a cheese board (see below for cheese plating tips), and Brooklyn native\u00a0Suzy Konecky says the Tobasi, a grassy, semi-soft raw cow\u2019s milk cheese aged 3-4 months, \u201cmelts beautifully for cooking and makes a divine cream sauce.\u201d Konecky\u2019s always experimenting with new varieties, like a double cream Bloomy Rind cheese and rustic hard grating cheese.<\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 359px;\" width=\"272\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 10px; background-color: #e9e9e9;\" width=\"450px\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>The Skinny on Brooklyn Cheese Shopping<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-25246 lazyload\" title=\"Stinky Cheese\" alt=\"Stinky Cheese\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/stinky-cheese.jpg\" width=\"144\" height=\"219\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-25246 lazyload\" title=\"Stinky Cheese\" alt=\"Stinky Cheese\" src=\"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/stinky-cheese.jpg\" width=\"144\" height=\"219\" \/><\/noscript><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>If you want to get to know the story behind that delicious, smelly food, these nine dairy destinations will make picking the cheese just as fun as eating it\u2014well, almost. <\/em><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brooklynslate.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brooklyn Slate Company<\/a> sells gorgeous cheese boards made from red and black upstate slate. (See list of stockists <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brooklynslate.com\/pages\/stockists\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebrooklynkitchen.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Brooklyn Kitchen<\/a> carries cheese boards, knives, planes and even buttons,<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bklynlarder.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bklyn Larder<\/a><em>,<\/em> 228 Flatbush Avenue<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stinkybklyn.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">StinkyBklyn<\/a><em>, <\/em>215 Smith Street<\/li>\n<li>Bedford Cheese Shop, 229 Bedford Avenue<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bierkraft.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bierkraft<\/a><em>, <\/em>191 Fifth Avenue<\/li>\n<li>Blue Apron Foods, 814 Union Street<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fairwaymarket.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fairway<\/a>, 480-500 Van Brunt Street<\/li>\n<li>D\u2019Vine Taste, 150 7<sup>th<\/sup> Avenue<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>A Fromager Shows How to Make a Fabulous Cheese Plate<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A crew of dairyheads recently joined forces for \u201cHow to Milk It,\u201d a night of cheese and butter at the Brooklyn Brewery. Fromager Tia Keenan got the crowd\u2019s entertaining minds churning with tips on preparing the ultimate cheese plate. With wistful expertise, Keenan advised, \u201cEating should be like a dream, familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.\u201d Here are her recommendations for making that dream happen on your cheese plate:<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Cheese<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1) Infuse your plate with contrast in the cheeses\u2019 taste, texture and appearance<br \/>\n2) Always include something mild, simple and clean, like a soft, fresh ricotta or ch\u00e8vre.<br \/>\n3) Incorporate another relatively mild cheese that\u2019s lightly aged but with a bit more flavor, like a slightly acidic goat\u2019s milk cheese.<br \/>\n4) Have a couple of \u201cmiddle of the road\u201d options between the subtle and the stinky. In her sample slate, Keenan included one toothier, firmer cooked, pressed cheese (cooked, pressed cheeses \u2013 like Parmigiano-Reggiano \u2013 have their curds heated before being pressed) and another washed in brine.<br \/>\n5) Include a funkier option for bold palates, like a complex, veiny blue.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Its Companions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1) Don\u2019t underestimate the importance, and potential, of the foods your cheese is macking it with. Buck the run-of-the-mill fruit and nut mix and experiment with unconventional pairings (like toasted nori). Keenan chose a 75% dark chocolate (never milk!) for a fresh, young blue cheese.<br \/>\n2) Bring contrast to your condiments through a mix of sugar, acid and heat and variety of textures. Keenan\u2019s sample plate featured strawberry jam (for sugar), curried mustard (for acidity) a spicy olive oil (for heat) and a nut brittle (for crunch and sugar).<br \/>\n3) There are a few ways to draw out the flavor of a cheese through its accompaniments. You can: mimic or contrast the cheese\u2019s flavor, focus on pleasant texture couplings or pair based on a food the cheese tastes like (e.g. pairing a nutty cheese reminiscent of almond butter with fruit preserves).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The grass-based Cricket Creek Farm in Williamstown, Massachusetts runs a cheese CSA out of Picado y Vino in Park Slope and regularly produces five cow\u2019s milk cheeses, including the semi-soft Berkshire Bloom, the ch\u00e8vre-like Cricket Creek Fresh (whose five variations include Lavender &amp; Honey and Sundried Tomato &amp; Kalamata Olive) and Maggie\u2019s Round, a sharp, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":25950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[315,314,325],"tags":[508,669,306,84,421],"class_list":{"0":"post-25234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-day-trips","8":"category-dining-nightlife","9":"category-new-york","10":"tag-cheese","11":"tag-csa","12":"tag-farm","13":"tag-shopping","14":"tag-sustainable"},"acf":[],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":25950,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/6471853311_b64c760058-300x224.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}