I have an English Cheese “Dealer”. Dawn, Manager of Lavonia’s Southern Alpaca dates an Englishman whom she visits several times a year and he in turn visits Lavonia several times a year. Last October, he began following me on Twitter and sent me a message offering to buy cheese for me in London to send home with Dawn. Of course, I was not about to turn down this offer…
Geoff Adams-Spink is my new “Dealer” and has now sent/brought cheese to me here in Lavonia twice. The four English Cheddar
s I recently reviewed within my overview of Cheddar were part of one of his “hauls”, along with an aged Gouda (which he and Dawn found for me in the Netherlands and I will review soon), Rogue River Blue and St. Jude.
Per Geoff’s request, I sent him a shopping list and he and Dawn went shopping; Neal’s Yard Dairy being their first stop to find the cheeses I wanted. All the cheeses on my lists were made from raw milk and either never available in the US* or rarely found – mostly in specific “high-end” shops such as Murray’s Bleecker Street shop, DiBruno Brothers in Philly.
In creating my first shopping list, I visited the Neal’s Yard Dairy website and researched available cheeses, looking for raw milk cheeses that I could not find here. Especially cheeses never available in the US because of the FDA raw milk cheese sixty-day rule.
One of the cheeses I chose was St. Jude, a small disk of raw cow milk cheese which is soft-ripened and aged less than sixty days meaning it cannot be sold in the US. It can only be brought in by individuals for personal use. Dawn brought me two disks on her return trip in November and Geoff brought me another disk when he came to visit for Christmas.
The St. Jude disks sit inside a large cupcake-style paper which sits inside a wooden container. NYD wraps the disks with their cheese wrap and the label has the name of the cheese with the date is was produced. Unlike US retailers, no Best By/Use
By date; the FDA food code does not require these dates for cheese and most food products (eggs and some meats being the exceptions). The US Food code states that food can be sold as long as it is “wholesome”. Manufacturers and retailers add the Best By/Use By dates to avoid lawsuits and, If you are of a cynical nature, to sell more product. The hope being that people will toss outdated food even though most likely it is still “wholesome”. But I digress…
St. Jude is simply luscious; silky, creamy and savory with umami notes. The texture is fluffy like a fancy pudding. The NYD website compares the texture to mousse.
Sadly, you’ll need to find a “dealer” or head to London to enjoy St. Jude; but what’s sad about heading to London? I’m in…
Happily, Dawn is on her way to London in March with another shopping list from me…
*US Customs and Border Patrol allow most cheese to be brought back into the US for “personal uses”. For more information, review the CBP page regarding permissible cheeses and other food products. (When I returned from Paris, I brought back more than ten pounds of cheeses – as carry-on, which I declared – no issue at all.)
In addition to being an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional, I am a Certified ServSafe Food Production Manager with certifications that also include ServSafe Certified Instructor and Proctor. I am available for cheese events, cheese program development, cheese training, food safety training and 3rd party food safety auditing. See my About Me and Resume pages for more details or call me at 360 921 9908 to discuss availability.
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