I don’t generally like lactic coagulated cheeses. They are usually just one-note sour, without much depth or complexity. And I’m not sure how much I like B. linens (stinky feet) cheeses, not because I dislike the stink (I kind of like it, go figger) , just because they’re also IME pretty one-note. So an Epoisse combines both, lactic boringness and stinky feet.

. . . or does it (ominous music)?

They get their semi-daily bathing in either a salt or brandy brine.

After two months, despite the “peau de crapaud,” (toad skin), they are kind of pretty in their ugliness:

And so wildly different in taste, depending on where from the cheese you take them. Some parts just very lactic and sour tasting, others a sort of mild and fairly characterless paste, others with a surprising depth.

And the rind wasn’t bad, either.

Now they are going into the fridge. They did make me reconsider lactic cheeses.

Yum!

-R