XP: Epoisses recipe

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Peter Creasey

Peter Creasey
Personally untested but very appealing-sounding recipe...

epoissesrecipe.jpg
. . . . . Pete
 
I made an Epoisses tart once, from a recipe in Burgundy cookbook. There's a reason it is not common, it is not very nice at all and the smell from the oven as it cooks is disconcerting. The correct wine is Marc de Bourgogne.
 
Tom, quite interesting. Something to be kept in mind, for sure.

I'm guessing the enjoyment of eating the tart itself made the earlier "disconcerting" worthwhile.

. . . . . . Pete
 
Epoisses is a notoriously stinky cheese, stinkier than any you've experienced if you've never experienced it. I am not surprised that cooking it stunk up the kitchen. Did cooking smooth out the taste, Tom, or are you a fan? I can handle about one cracker with it spread on it and I'm ready to move on to something mild--like an aged Roquefort or a chevre sec.
 
Definitely a strong factor to consider before considering cooking Epoisses for a dinner partjy. ("strong" in more ways that one.)

A factor that hadn't occurred to me before this thread.

. . . . . Pete
 
I was at a big wine dinner at Eleven Madison Park, many years ago, when Humm was still new there. He planned to dress a tray of cheeses with marc and run them under the broiler to melt them (and we had something for spooning/dipping).

Anyway, they came out with the little round wooden boxes blackened, several smoldering, and two or three actually on fire. He seemed surprised, which is why the moment is memorable because, um, er, wood burns, you know? (And, did he not practice this beforehand?)
 
I am a bit surprised that people are so focused on the smell of the cheese or find it hard to eat....once you clean the rind, as one should, it is not that strong in smell or flavor.

I am much more disturbed by this bizarre recipe. Heat the Époisses, drown in a hefty amount of a maple syrup/verjus mix, add some (olive!) oil for more fat, and then complete the disaster with fried capers and thyme. To me this sounds revolting on so many levels.

And I just remembered that I did have an amazing cheese dessert with Époisses. At Schwa in Chicago. The dough from a perfectly ripe Époisses in a small shallow ramekin, overlayed by some crumble and some (lingon?)berry compote, both barely sweet. I usually think great cheese should be left alone, but that one was genius.
 
The recipe sounds nasty - count me out of mixing cheese, maple syrup, and capers, forever.

Epoisses is not really a stinky cheese, but it tends to get stinky after it leaves Burgundy. It is very frustrating. You can't even get good Epoisses in Paris. Anyway, what we call Epoisses is really 7 or 8 different cheeses, all very different. The Berthaut wheels we can get here don't even taste anything like the Berthaut wheels you get there, and almost never do it justice.

I remember an 11 Mad BYO Burgundy dinner where Humm flambeed the Epoisses. Dunno if it's the same one Jeff recalls but I don't remember any fire mishaps, and he definitely wasn't new there any longer. It was not a bad idea - the effect was basically like fondue, but having dinner and then fondue for some reason felt more gluttonous than having dinner and then a cheese plate, and I'd have sooner gone for the latter. A better idea was the version of boeuf bourguignon he made, where rather than slow-cooking the cheapest cuts of the cow, he quickly sauteed filet mignon and some mushrooms in butter and added a pre-made bourguignon sauce.
 
Good memories. And strange times. They also did a nice Piedmont truffle dinner. Both were efforts to bring in some revenue during the great recession when the corporate events and expense accounts dried up, but I think they only managed 2 or 3 of them before they determined that no amount of revenue was worth babysitting a room of wine geeks all night.
 
well now, is an eppoisses at full chat really that daunting? anymore than an alsatien munster that's turned into lava, or a tallegio that's stalking you from across the table? and vacheron mont d'or hasn't even been mentioned. it's really not that different that eating elmer's glue in kindergarten. and it seems like pretty much all of us survived that.

for those that have only known epoisses in burgundy, it's time to get out and see the real wide world.

and for the tariff averse, there's always red hawk from cowgirl creamery in Novato, california.
 
I've tasted Epoisses in Provence. Maybe the trip down from Burgundy somehow changed it, but it seemed pretty stinky to me.

I would readily admit that Limburger and Vieux Bologne are right up there and may surpass it in stinkiness, but that's hardly a recommendation. Nor do I look forward to eating an elmer's glue tart. You'll really have to come up with a better defense than this one.
 
I'm not defending, i'm commenting. what humans eat and what they don't eat is not rational. if I were in Korea i would not eat dog meat, where it is priced as a delicacy. in peru, (I think it is), I would not eat guinea pig. etc,

and then there's the 'gene' thing. for example, depending on a person's genetic makeup, cilantro tastes great, or it tastes like soap.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
Epoisses is a notoriously stinky cheese, stinkier than any you've experienced if you've never experienced it. I am not surprised that cooking it stunk up the kitchen. Did cooking smooth out the taste, Tom, or are you a fan? I can handle about one cracker with it spread on it and I'm ready to move on to something mild--like an aged Roquefort or a chevre sec.
Click to expand...

I'm very keen on Epoisses but it just wasn't very pleasant in tart form, it isn't really a cheese for cooking and I don't think any washed rind cheese is particularly good prepared in that way.
There are certainly plenty of other pungent cheeses out there-I'm a bit surprised by the suggestion above that the rind be removed before eating, I wouldn't do that with any washed rind cheese, one would lose a great deal both in quantity and interest.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
The recipe sounds nasty - count me out of mixing cheese, maple syrup, and capers, forever.
. A better idea was the version of boeuf bourguignon he made, where rather than slow-cooking the cheapest cuts of the cow, he quickly sauteed filet mignon and some mushrooms in butter and added a pre-made bourguignon sauce.
Click to expand...
Now that sounds good.
 
originally posted by Tom Blach:
I'm very keen on Epoisses but it just wasn't very pleasant in tart form, it isn't really a cheese for cooking and I don't think any washed rind cheese is particularly good prepared in that way.
Click to expand...

Vacherin Mont d'Or and Reblochon would like to disagree.

originally posted by Tom Blach:
There are certainly plenty of other pungent cheeses out there-I'm a bit surprised by the suggestion above that the rind be removed before eating, I wouldn't do that with any washed rind cheese, one would lose a great deal both in quantity and interest.
Click to expand...

Depends which one. Some definitely benefit from a bit of cleaning imho (ie scraping the smear off), Limburger and Munster come to mind. And Bernard Antony seems also more in the remove it camp, one reason being that rinds often are what makes wine cheese pairings unpleasant.
 
originally posted by Everett Bandman:
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
The recipe sounds nasty - count me out of mixing cheese, maple syrup, and capers, forever.
. A better idea was the version of boeuf bourguignon he made, where rather than slow-cooking the cheapest cuts of the cow, he quickly sauteed filet mignon and some mushrooms in butter and added a pre-made bourguignon sauce.
Click to expand...
Now that sounds good.
Click to expand...
I've seen Stroganoff recipes that work the same way. Not only is the better meat more tender but you cook it to medium rare (or rare) and then decorate it with whatever is your preferred traditional dollop.
 
originally posted by georg lauer:
originally posted by Tom Blach:
I'm very keen on Epoisses but it just wasn't very pleasant in tart form, it isn't really a cheese for cooking and I don't think any washed rind cheese is particularly good prepared in that way.
Click to expand...

Vacherin Mont d'Or and Reblochon would like to disagree.

originally posted by Tom Blach:
There are certainly plenty of other pungent cheeses out there-I'm a bit surprised by the suggestion above that the rind be removed before eating, I wouldn't do that with any washed rind cheese, one would lose a great deal both in quantity and interest.
Click to expand...

Depends which one. Some definitely benefit from a bit of cleaning imho (ie scraping the smear off), Limburger and Munster come to mind. And Bernard Antony seems also more in the remove it camp, one reason being that rinds often are what makes wine cheese pairings unpleasant.
Click to expand...

I meant putting in a tart, not all cooking-though it's a rotten thing to do to really first-class examples.

Should one compromise the virtues of a cheese to enhance its wine friendliness-or should one find another drink to accompany it?
 
Just to add that a pasteurised Berthaut Epoisses today tastes like Primula, a processed cheese in a tube of my childhood.
 
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