Landaff cheese, made by Landaff Creamery in New Hampshire, and affinaged at the Cellars at Jasper Hill.
A Welsh farmstead (Caerphilly) style raw cows milk natural rinded tomme, with a firm, flaky, lightly eyed paste. With a lightly citric aroma, in flavor it is buttery, tangy, grassy, nutty and mild with just a little bit of sharpness and bite at the end. An absolutely magnificent melter and frequently spotted sandwiched between crackling bread at grilled cheese joints around town.
The San Francisco Chronicle has nice profile on Doug and Jenny Erb, the makers of Landaff, and how they came to produce this Caerphilly-style cheese. I love how the name of their hometown was the initial inspiration for their cheesemaking journey:
They knew that their town, Landaff, was named after a Welsh village, so Debby did some online digging to determine what cheeses might be typical in that part of the world.
A fine one, as it happens. Caerphilly, now made primarily in England, originated in South Wales, in the vicinity of Llandaff (the Welsh spelling).
The Erbs settled on Caerphilly as their model, and Doug went to England to work with Chris Duckett, the acknowledged master of artisan Caerphilly, and his disciple Jemima Cordle. Erb says that they shared all their procedures with him, and that the cheese he makes now - christened Landaff - follows their recipe. He can’t get the same starter culture, but his methods are otherwise the same.
Rumor has it the Erbs are now working on a Tomme Crayeuse style cheese as well, stay tuned.
Purchased at Beechers NY.
