An All East Coast Cheese Board – Miss Cheesemonger

Hello, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well! We’re almost to 1600 followers on Miss Cheesemonger’s Instagram account, which is AMAZING!!!! I get to interact with so many of you cheese friends on there! If you haven’t joined yet, do it now!

Today, we’re sharing an east coast cheese spread, or, as I like to call it, lunch. After M. Cheesemonger, my jewelry designing friend Kim from Porcelain & Stone, and I visited Dancing Goats Dairy by Newbury, MA, we stopped by the absolutely stunning Appleton Farms in Ipswich for a quick visit, then headed home (keep scrolling down for our visit photos!). Prior to that, we had visited Formaggio Kitchen just a few blocks away. Kim’s fridge was bursting with cheeses, and we needed to finish them up before leaving.

An East Coast Cheese Tasting. Food Photography by misscheesemonger.com — Thank you, Kim, for helping me set up the photo session!

From Dancing Goats Dairy, we had cheese maker Erin’s fresh chèvre with sea salt, the everything bagel chèvre, and beer jelly chèvre. The fresh chèvre was full of umami, with minimal tang. I loved the smooth, thick texture that just coated the tongue like frozen custard. I’d definitely use it in place of sour cream or cream cheese anywhere!

An All East Coast Cheese Tasting. Misscheesemonger.com. — Dancing Goats Dairy’s Chèvre with Sea Salt with Blushing Tart Jam From Doves and Figs. Kim of Porcelain and Stone made that beautiful little spoon!

Dancing Goats’ everything bagel was like a garlicky everything bagel, minus the bagel. There were poppy seeds, sesame, garlic, onion—all the normal everything bagel toppings. Maybe it’s my bagel-deprived, California-dwelling side talking, but I wanted to take that cheese back to SF with me to spread on our homemade bread.

I think the real gem in the Dancing Goats crown was their beer jelly chèvre. Made with Newburyport Brewing Company’s Plum Island Belgian White Ale, the jelly had an almost champagne-like delicacy, and rosy floral perfume. We all agreed that we loved it.

From Appleton Farms, we tried their Pinnacle and triple crème. Pinnacle, a tomme-style cheese, was fairly mild, slightly earthy in flavor, but with a nice toasted almond finish. The rind is a gorgeous mottled brown, orange, and green, and there are small eyes throughout the paste. M. Cheesemonger kept saying he wanted to melt it into his omelette, but he had already made it.

The triple crème, a bloomy rind, soft cheese, was a creamy, buttery delight that was as spreadable as Nutella on our toasts. Next time, I wouldn’t mind trying it with some pears and Marcona almonds.

Our only Vermonter (besides Kim) was Sterling by Sage Farm Goat Dairy. Begun by two sisters, this beautiful cheese is modeled after Valençay, truncated pyramid shape and all. Its paste was wonderfully fine in texture, as smooth as chocolate milk, and it had a charismatic, full flavor. I would love it on my cheese plate, or melted over some filet mignon.

To accompany everything, we had some chocolate-covered espresso beans from Taza Chocolate, Blushing Tart jam from Doves and Figs, and toasted bread. Kim made up some tea, and M. Cheesemonger made a mushroom omelette, French-style. Kim brought out her beautiful Laguiole knives, and one gorgeous Turkish knife, and all her pretty plates! It was a perfect meal, and a perfect way to get a sense of East Coast terroir.