Ask George: Do you have a favorite type of cheese? Lisa S., St. Louis
Indeed I do. It’s a semi-hard, French cheese with an incomparable taste and texture, the latter enhanced by a machine designed specifically to shave it into feathery, curly ribbons.
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The cheese is P’tit Basque (sometimes spelled Petit Basque), a pungent-but-mild sheep’s milk cheese produced in the Basque region of the Pyrenees Mountains. Unlike other French cheeses that have been made for centuries, this one is relatively new, first introduced in 1997.
It’s a buttery, benign, and less “sheepy” cheese, which may be why almost half of the P’tit Basque produced is sold in the United States. Those who like the flavor and texture of other mild sheep’s milk cheeses—like Idiazabal (a Spanish Basque cheese) or a younger Spanish Manchego–will enjoy P’tit Basque as well.
P’tit Basque comes in small cylinders weighing about 1.5 pounds each. The nutty, mild, almost sweet cheese is enjoyable when sliced thinly, but even more so when a girolle is used to cut it. A girolle is a contraption created to scrape cylindrical cheeses—like P’tit Basque and Tête de Moine—into rosettes that resemble chanterelles (girolles, in French). A sharp knife, turned like a crank, produces the thin shavings. Devotees say the device increases flavor and aroma by getting more oxygen to the cheese. All I know is it’s great fun and the resultant curlicues are addictive.
The BOSKA-brand girolle is available for $50 at Cindy Higgerson’s Larder & Cupboard in Maplewood. P’tit Basque cheese is available there, too, as well as at The Wine & Cheese Place, Whole Foods, and other specialty grocers. (Note that its price varies widely, from $18.99 to $30+ per pound.)
The girolle is an unusual gift, perfect for the person who has everything. It’s a hoot to break out the girolle at a party and watch the wheel of cheese disappear like a melting candle. That’s why I always recommend buying two.
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