Naughty Nellie

A blog devoted to cheese is more than overdue. Yes, I've mentioned it in the past, but cheese also deserves to be in the limelight every now and again, right? It just so happens that I've been eye-balling the stand at River Valley Ranch for several weeks now. Their goat cheeses look beautiful, and part of me is always envious of someone who can milk their own goats one morning and have a lovely log of cheese to show for it the next. Needless to say, their fresh cheeses are very fresh. However, I was tempted by the cheeses that had been given a bit more time to develop; the cow cheeses. The Tipsy Cow was the first one that got my attention, perhaps because of its name but more likely because of the gorgeous texture throughout and the slightly purple hue of the rind which apparently comes from soaking in red wine. But knowing what a big beer fan Gibson is, I finally settled on the Naughty Nellie, the rind of which is washed with Pike Place Brewery's beer of the same name.

Eager to give it a try that evening, I left it out for several hours so that it could come to room temperature, thereby allowing us to fully appreciate all the subtle nuances of this lovely cheese. The texture was exactly what I like in a cheese; soft but not runny, yet at the same time hard enough to slice thinly with a cheese slicer. Quite like butter, actually. But the flavor was a bit, well, unfortunate. It seemed like it had potential, but either we got a bad batch or the Naughty Nellie beer is just too much for a simple cow's milk cheese. It was very acidic and tangy, to the extreme. A bite of it kind of made me pucker, actually. But although unique in its flavor, I love a cheese that makes you stop and think. Nellie was a bit too naughty for my tastes, but that doesn't mean I won't try River Valley Ranch cheeses again.