Sarah Starace, owner and cheesemonger at The Curd Nerd, joins Cheddar News to celebrate American Cheese Month.

Between Bells

Celebrating American Cheese Month Wit 

Hi, I'm sarah that she's monger and owner of the curd nerd in Syracuse new york. Today I'm cutting into florida's tropical before. I tell you about this beauty. I want to mention that May is american cheese month american cheese meaning artists and cheeses made in America. There's a time and a place for sliced american cheese, which has its own celebratory day in october May is all about the amazing cheese coming out of the United States. So cheesy. I love it. Just like that. Tiktok said May is american cheese month from goat cheese. The cheddar cheese to all artisan cheeses in between made in America. We could think of a better way to celebrate than to have the cheese monger on herself. So welcome to the show Sarah star. Ace owner and cheese monger over at the curd nerd sara. Such a pleasure to have you here. Thanks so much for joining us. So, first off, your Tiktok's have thousands and thousands of likes. Did you ever expect cheese to be getting you such a following on Tiktok? Not at all. I posted those videos sort of thinking maybe a friend would see them or I could download them and send them to my mom, but I certainly did not think millions of people would be watching me cut cheddar. Right. Well part of the appeal, I think also to you is you're also introducing us to so many other ones that maybe we didn't know about. For instance, I've seen one about the alp blossom, which is coated with flowers and herbs. You have another one that is, has layers of ash and herbs and stuff like that inside of it. Why do you think people are so obsessed with the different kinds of cheese videos that you make? I think people really love to hear and learn about food in general and I think cheese is one of those foods that is just like internationally loved and it's something people don't really think about. You kind of put it in everything, you don't really think about what goes into the cheese so much. And so to get a little insight into the behind the scenes of what makes cheese tastes so delicious, I think is what has people so interested in learning more. Okay, so you also use this term a lot in your videos called cheddar ring, which by the way, I feel like we need to be using on our network a lot as well explain what that means. So, cheddar ring is actually a process of curd acidification. It's what makes cheddar cheddar. So kurds have to get cheddar curd and essentially more acidified. And this is when you get those like sharp notes that cheddar is so commonly associated with Sharp is really just a colloquial term for acidity in cheese and the acidification process is chattering. Do you feel like the, because there's such a large swath of different cheeses out there, you have so much material to work with? Or is it sort of the other flip side to this, You're maybe thinking, oh God, there's only this amount of cheese I can work with here. Does it make it difficult to make videos here? Oh, not at all. There's so much cheese just in America alone, we produce like millions of pounds of cheese a year and there's so many small unknown cheese makers all over the country. I really try to highlight as many as possible being in the central new york region. We try to carry and talk about as many central new york cheeses as possible. And that alone is a couple 100 cheeses. I can think of off the top of my head. So of course you're joining us from Syracuse new york where you're obviously located. How is Tiktok sort of impacted your business? Because you're fairly new company. You just started this just a few years ago. How has Tiktok maybe helped the company so far? Tiktok has boomed my business. I, we get people in every day that are like, I saw you on Tiktok and I lived down the street and I didn't know you were here and we've had people come in from now. We've had people coming from all over the country sort of, I had someone in the other day, who is from, I believe south Carolina and he happened to be in central new york for business and his wife sent him in to buy cheese from us because she found us on Tiktok. So what do you, what do you think Tiktok can maybe take you and your company from here. I mean, how do you sort of leverage Tiktok to continue to grow this business here? Well, we're hoping to introduce shipping soon. So when we opened thinking we would be a small community cheese shop in central new york, I didn't really think shipping would be something that would be necessary for the business. Um, but then now with Tiktok, I think I'm going to have to start shipping nationally. People want cheese all over the nation and that are really interested in buying it from someone who is so happy to educate about it. Well, okay, look, you have to cheese notes here, me and my co host tenant over who are not bringing this conversation now because we actually have a cheese plate here, which we love eating. But I want you to sort of tell us the sort of cheeses that we have here that you've told us to have. We have this one right here. What's this one that is? Mount tam had a little piece of her myself. Mount tam is from cowgirl creamery in point, Reyes California. It's an organic triple cream. So triple creams are essentially breeze creamier sister Triple cream retains a lot of the butterfat that is typically skimmed out for things like brie. Um, so it has a good, incredibly dense fudgy pillowy texture and tends to taste like heavy cream. Salted butter that looks a little bit like white mushrooms are a little bit of earthiness to it. Oh my gosh, this is great because we both love bree. Okay, Hannah, what are you tasting in this one? It's very creamy. Oh, that actually is way creamier than breed, wow. Okay, okay. Next one, sir. What's this one? Right here in the middle, right over here, it kind of looks like we've got Cabot cloth found Cabot cloth bound is a collaboration between Cabot cooperative creamery, which everyone knows and Jasper Hill cellars. It started in two, they started making this cheese in 2003. This is a traditional cloth bound cheddar. Um so it's it's bound in cheesecloth and then aged. It has an incredibly nutty aroma and there's not a lot of savory, salty, tangy. A little caramel on the end there, like a little sweetness. I love this. This might be my favorite so far. Okay, this is great. I love a good sharp cheddar. That's really good. Okay, what do we have? Finally here, what's this last one? It kind of looks like a local, I don't even have Oma, which is one of my all time favorite cheeses. I love the shoes so much. It's a washed rind. So it's one of your stinky er cheeses. This is from von trapp farmstead, which Sebastian crap started and does with their family in Wakefield Vermont. Um It's also aged at Jasper Hill sellers. It's a little pungent. It has a little bit of sweetness. You get some notes like roasted peanuts, cured meat, cultured butter. Mm hmm. What are the best things to pair these cheeses? I really love to pair cheeses with a really simple cracker. Something that has like limited flavor. Because really you want cheese to stand out. And then when thinking drinks, I like to pair cheese in general with something that's a little bit bubbly, beers tend to pair really well with cheese. Things like Prosecco or champagne or sparkling wines in general tend to do really well. Um, and in general, it's kind of a mix and match for pairing with cheese. Whatever tastes good to you is a great pairing. And that's what I tell everyone right not to be a good employee of this company, but I love this cheddar. It's really, it's really, really good sarah. It's such a pleasure to have you here. Sarah star. Ace is the owner and cheese monger over at the curd nerd