Your Cheese Needs to Breathe
On the small upgrades that change how everything tastes.
Letter from the Kitchen
Cheese Is Alive…
in the sense that it contains, and is created by, living, metabolizing microorganisms like bacteria, yeast, and fungi (mold). Especially in aged or soft-ripened cheeses, these microbes remain active, consuming lactose and changing the cheese’s aroma, flavor, and texture over time. National Institute of Health
I’ve stored cheese double-wrapped in plastic for most of my life. Or at least after Martha Stewart told me to do it.
Here’s what she failed to mention.
Cheese is alive. It needs to breathe.
Plastic suffocates it and traps moisture, which turns it moldy and affects its flavor. The reason every good cheese shop wraps your wedge in paper isn’t charm — it’s the correct answer. I know what you’re thinking…Much of the cheese we buy is in plastic. I don’t have a good answer to that one, but less plastic is good, so I’m moving in that direction.
I looked into buying European cheese paper in bulk and quickly realized I don’t need 500 yards of it. Then I found Formaticum — a U.S. company using paper manufactured in France. The sheets are the right size for most pieces. They come with little labels so I can write down what’s inside and when I bought it. They sell bags, too, which are simpler, but the paper wraps closer to the cheese, and I like it better.
This week is about small upgrades that make a difference. You can find a link to Formaticum below.
Last Week, You Answered
Every Answer Involved a Grandmother
Last week I asked: What is your best kitchen memory? Pick one — I’ll ask you again sometime.
The answers came in, and I noticed a pattern almost immediately.
Making lefse with Grandma. Teaching a grandson to roll out pasta. Watching a daughter who never cooked come home from India and put together a full Indian meal using recipes she made with her sponsor family and their community.
Every single response was either an older person teaching a younger person — or a younger person remembering being taught by their grandmother.
Sit with this. Depending on where you are looking, 30 to 60% of Americans say they are not comfortable in their own kitchens. They don’t have the basics. They were never taught.
We can fix that. We have to fix that. Not because cooking is some virtuous thing — it isn’t — but because feeding yourself well is one of the most basic ways we take care of ourselves, and it’s a skill that has to be passed along.
If you are the one who knows how to make the pasta, teach someone. Then, they can teach someone else.
Join Me at the Table
Summer Classes Posting Soon
I’m finalizing the summer schedule right now — a mix of what readers have been asking for and a few classes I have been wanting to teach for years. Pasta Immersion is on the list. So is the Mexican class that still doesn’t have a name.
If there’s something you’ve been hoping to learn this summer, hit reply and tell me. I’d love to build the calendar around what you actually want than guess.
These classes are limited to 6 people and fill up quickly.
The Podcast Hook
When the Movie Wasn’t Filmed in My Hometown
I did not expect to find out any of this on a podcast about salt.
Partway through my conversation with Mary Lower, I discovered she had worked on Field of Dreams. The small town Kevin Costner visits in the movie — where Doc Graham practiced medicine — is Chisholm, Minnesota. That is my hometown. Moonlight Graham was a friend of my grandmother’s. Sadly, the location scout for the movie opted to shoot the scenes in Iowa. Well, actually, that was very good for Mary. Chisholm was disappointed, yet very proud of Doc Graham and the reference.
Mary is now maintaining and reinvigorating Hacking Salt — the website and community her late husband Chris built. It is a genuine gift to anyone trying to eat well without giving up flavor, and I am glad she said yes.
Tomorrow — Friday, April 24, at 7:30 AM, Episode 4 — Mary Lower: Hacking Salt the Mediterranean Way
Friday, May 8 at 7:30 AM Episode 5 — Ashley Nathe: The Season Starts Here
After that, Episode 6 — Josiah Christensen, Pleasant Valley Mushrooms: the health science of different mushroom varieties
New episodes every other Friday.
What’s Happening in the Kitchen
Cookbook Shoots, Tortilla Marathon, and Flatbread
We spent the weekend in full cookbook-shoot mode — natural light mixed with kitchen studio lighting, which is a more interesting combination than either one alone, and, as tradition dictates, we ate most of the props afterward. We even managed a dinner party for three.
I spent hours on tortillas. I am still working on my technique and still learning how the different flours behave — flavors really vary, some puff better, some want less water than you would think.
One recipe didn’t make the cut this weekend: the Grilled Yogurt Flatbread with Middle Eastern Salad. I wanted to look at it again before shooting it — it had been a while. So we made it last night, and I remembered exactly why I loved this flatbread recipe. It is fast - as in ten minutes. It is zingy and delicious. We have also made it in the pizza oven. Here’s a link to the recipe for the flatbread only. The Za’atar recipe link is below.
The Skill: The New Basics
Grilled Yogurt Flatbread
The dough loves flour.
The Quick Win
Make the flatbread this weekend. It mixes in a bowl with a fork, comes together in minutes, and cooks on a hot grill or in a dry skillet.
The Most Common Mistake
Being stingy with the flour. This dough is meant to be sticky — stickier than you will be comfortable with — and it needs more flour on the work surface than you think. Roll it thin. And consider serving with good extra-virgin olive oil and fresh garlic.
One Tool Worth Having
I love the Garject — and I don’t like garlic presses. I did a short demo on Instagram.
Shop the Garject · Watch the Instagram demo
Recipe Spotlight
Za’atar — The Spice Blend
Sumac is not a specialty ingredient in the Midwest — it’s a native one.
The Soul
Za’atar belongs to a whole band of traditions across Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and the Levant — thyme or wild oregano pounded with toasted sesame seeds, salt, and the deep purple-red crunch of sumac. The flatbread above needs it. So do your roasted vegetables, your eggs, and the top of almost any bowl of yogurt you will ever set down. The word I use to describe it is “piquant”.
The Bridge
Sumac is not a specialty ingredient in the Midwest. Staghorn and smooth sumac grow across this region, and the berries have long been used by Indigenous peoples of the Upper Midwest — including for a tart, lemonade-like drink sometimes called sumac-ade. The culinary sumac you find in spice aisles is a closely related variety from the Middle East, but the plant itself is part of the land we cook on. Co-ops, Middle Eastern grocers, and increasingly bigger chains all carry it.
The Mediterranean Edit
This Week I’m Loving…
Two picks this week — thinking of cheese.
Formaticum Cheese Paper
I mentioned this at the top of the letter, so I’ll keep it short here. It is the U.S. distributor of properly made French cheese paper — two layers, breathable, moisture-managing, correct. Comes with labels, which I use — always. There is no way to remember what it is if you can’t see it. If you buy good cheese, stop letting plastic wrap ruin it.
Délice de Bourgogne
A triple-cream from Burgundy — and the moment it hits your tongue, you taste the cream, and its slightly funky quality. It feels indulgent because it is indulgent, and that is only a good thing. Wrap it in the paper above.
Cookbook Chronicles
A Weekend in the Studio
A very productive — and very yummy — weekend off.
No classes this past weekend, so we turned the kitchen into the test kitchen/photo studio it is supposed to be. We got three shots done, and I spent time on the Grilled Yogurt Flatbread (see above) along with the salad that goes with it. And worked out the actual recipe for what I’m calling Lemon Curd Frozen Custard. It’s not done, but coming soon.
The idea for the Lemon Curd Frozen Custard came after Mark put leftover lemon curd and homemade ricotta in the ice cream maker. That didn’t work perfectly, but it sparked the idea. I am quite excited about it.
I used my Grandma Beau’s (Beaumont) linens for the French Onion Soup shot, along with one of her soup spoons. I remember her telling me that the proper way to scoop soup with your spoon was from back to front. I have never eaten soup without thinking about that. Not once!
You are seeing the makings of the Mediterranean salad and a jalapeño chicken dish.
Before You Go — This Week’s Question
What’s the one dish you used to be scared to make, and now you make without thinking?
Just the one. Don’t overthink it.
Leave a comment — I read every one.
Until next Thursday — keep a good olive oil on the counter and don’t be afraid to use it.— Chef Laura