Good Enough to Eat: 8 of the Prettiest Cheese Coatings

We know there’s sometimes a bias against flavored cheeses, but not all flavored cheeses have added inclusions, some cheeses have coatings. There’s no denying that cheeses coated in flowers or herbs or even wine are often showstoppers. Some of these coatings add flavor, others don’t, but they all yield very pretty cheeses.

Most cheeses coated in something are goat or sheep’s milk cheese, for the simple reason that coatings stay put on soft cheeses, but there are exceptions. While we’ve focused on mostly artisan cheeses made in the U.S., there is a strong tradition of coating cheeses in ash, spices, herbs, and even truffles in Europe.

Flowers

Capriole’s Tea Rose Goat Cheese — Tea Rose photo courtesy of Capriole

Spring blossoms are the natural partners to fresh cheeses. For color and beauty, flowers add a note of flavor too. Marigold will bring in a touch of bitterness along with ripe citrus and a whisper of anise. Lavender and rose are both strongly floral and should be used judiciously. Other flowers may include delicate violets and chamomile. We swoon over Capriole’s Tea Rose Goat Cheese for its creamy curd and flavors that pair with a cup of tea, pastries and a crisp rose. For a European version of a flowery cheese, try Alp Blossom from the Bavarian Alps, made by Hofkäserei Kraus.

Ash

Boxcarr Handmade Cheese Rocket’s Robiola — Rocket's Robiola photo courtesy of Boxcarr Handmade

Ash isn’t going to add flavor, but is a component in the cheese making process, that protects the cheese during the ripening process and helps neutralize the acidic surface. Used for centuries, ash today is made with carbonized vegetables, ground into a fine powder. In that process the vegetables no longer have their original taste. An excellent, classic and beautiful example includes Valencay with Ash, a French, pyramid shaped goat cheese with a historic connection to Napoleon. From North Carolina’s Boxcarr Handmade Cheese you can try their Rocket’s Robiola, a rich and earthy pasteurized cow milk cheese.

Herbs

Cowgirl Creamery Pierce Point — Pierce Point photo courtesy of Cowgirl Creamery

Sage, rosemary, tarragon and thyme. These strong herbs add pungency and pair with all sorts of cheeses. Sage with its strong camphor taste, rosemary with assertive pine and thyme will add a slightly lemony, earthy flavor. Brin d’amour aka Fleur du Maquis, a ewe’s milk made on the island of Corsica, France is a soft cheese coated with thyme, oregano and juniper and tastes slightly of honey. Another example is Cowgirl Creamery Pierce Point, a triple cream cows milk cheese from Northern California worth tasting over and over.

Leaves

Rogue Creamery’s Rogue River Blue — Rogue River Blue photo credit Beryl Striewski

Many of our most beloved and ancient cheeses are carefully wrapped and aged in leaves that add subtle hints of the nut associated with the tree, a bit of dark, damp notes and a subtle woodsy-ness. Examples worth trying include Valdeon, a Spanish blue, wrapped in sycamore leaves and Occelli Foglie di Castagno, a sharp Italian sheep’s cheese, aged in fresh chestnut leaves. Rogue Creamery’s Rogue River Blue, a cow’s milk cheese crafted in Oregon is aged in fig leaves from a local vineyard. Of course, check the label to see if the leaves are edible. Read more about Rogue Creamery Rogue River Blue.

Paprika

Extremaduran Ibores hand rubbed with pimenton de la vera — No machine-readable author provided. Ardo Beltz assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Paprika - pimentón in Spanish - is a powder of dried, mild, fruity ground chile peppers. It’s popular as a brick red coating not uncommon with Spanish cheeses, such as the highly aromatic, aged Canary Island goat cheese, Queso Majorero, DOP. Extremaduran Ibores, a semi-hard, unpasteurized Spanish goat cheese, hand rubbed with pimenton de la vera is another example. This is our go-to cheese for crepes.

Pink peppercorns

Capri pink peppercorn photo credit Westfield Farm

Pink peppercorns are not true pepper, but in fact a trio of similar berries from different trees and bushes. The slightly floral spice has a mild touch of heat, and that pink color adds a berry-like tinge. Sample Capri, a fresh goat cheese with a bright curd balanced with a dusting of pink peppercorns from Westfield Farm in Hubbardston, Mass. A French version of this cheese is Fleur Verte.

Red wine

Fratty Corners from Pennyroyal Farm — Fratty Corners photo credit Pennyroyal Farm

Wine-soaked cheeses will have a distinct hue and if left to soak very long, the wine will penetrate a hard cheese with dedicated veins. The flavors added can be subtle but robust but will always taste of the wine. Fratty Corners from Pennyroyal Farm in Boonville, CA. takes things to the next level using a berry heavy pinot noir and the pomace, creating a gorgeous dark purple hue in stark contrast to the luscious white cheese. Read more about cheeses bathed in wine.

Truffle

The most famous and flavorful option for a cheese rind coating is of course the elusive truffle, namely in the guise of Sottocenere al Tartufo. The heady, rich aroma of the dried and ground truffle and mix gives a velvety grey appearance to the rind of the semi-soft, cow’s milk cheese from Venice, Italy. Try it stirred into polenta or pasta, but the cheese also stands alone.