A worker owned co-op
since 1971

Month: January 2017

Cheese Board hands out pizza at the SF Airport

Someone at the Cheese Board had the idea that we should make and bring pizzas to the San Francisco International Airport to feed folks who had come out to protest Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration. About 10 of us met at BART and traveled with 30 boxed pizzas and napkins. We met a lot of people on BART with the same idea —not pizzas—but traveling to the airport to protest. We were glad we went. It felt like the beginning of doing something.

 

Enjoy these pictures.
  

January Newsletter

 

 

 


 

 

The Cheese Board Collective is committed to human rights, civil liberties, diversity, integrity, and a just economy. The bakery & cheese shop will be closing early on Saturday 1/21 to support the Women’s March and Rally. Please join us at the Oakland and San Francisco events.
Bakery/Cheese Hours
Saturday, 1/21
8am-3pm

Stay tuned for Pizzeria hours on 1/21.

 


 

We’re excited about the new oven that was installed over our winter break! We think that this will make our breads even better and we’re looking forward to sharing them with you.

 

 

 


Purchase Tickets Here

 


As cheese-mongers, we are frequently asked how long a cheese will last. That question can mean a lot of things because cheese is the convergence of complexity, simplicity, magic, science, and art. The short answer to this common question is: cheese probably lasts longer than you can manage to not eat it. But mold does happen, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

 

Here are the unofficial guidelines:

*If it’s a molding semi-firm or harder cheese, cut off the mold and eat the rest.

*If it’s a molding soft cheese, remove the mold and eat it as long as the smell and flavor of the cheese hasn’t changed. Usually this is a blue/gray/brown mold that can be scraped off and the cheese is otherwise in good condition. If you are unfamiliar with cheese, you may not know how the cheese should taste so proceed with caution.

*If the cheese is slimy in a way that it wasn’t before, probably don’t eat it unless you know what you’re doing.

*Pink discolorations usually accompany an ammonia smell and bitter, repulsive flavor. Discard.

*If the cheese is stinky in a non-desirable way (usually it smells like ammonia rather than umami and yeast), it’s on its way out. Taste it! Tastes good? Proceed. Tastes bad? Toss.

*Cheese that has lots of holes (like Asiago Fresco) or cracks (like Poacher) will grow a blue-gray mold in those holes that can be cut out, scraped off, and eaten around.

 

Mold is nature’s way of telling us that something else, other than us humans, has decided to partake in the cheese. This is often an integral part of the cheese-making process. Some cheeses are inoculated with mold spores which give rise to tasty flavors and pleasing textures. Penicillium Roqueforti, found in places like soil, caves, and moldy bread, is responsible for the blue marbling in of course, Roquefort, and a number of other blues like Stilton, Cabrales, and Point Reyes Blue. Penicillium Glaucum is the fungus used in a great many other blue cheeses like Gorgonzola, Bleu d’Auvergne, and Bleu de Gex. But mold isn’t limited to blue cheese! Geotrichum Candidum is a fungus that causes sour rot of citrus fruits and some vegetables. Under specific circumstances, it can be the source of a disease called geotrichosis!!! However, when it is added to milk during the cheesemaking process, it will produce the flavor and structure of brie.

 

One of the differences between industrial cheese versus traditional artisan cheese is the extent to which wild, unfettered, free-wheeling mold takes over. Many modern cheeses are made in sterile and extremely well-controlled environments so that only specific microbes are at work. This ensures the outcome of the cheese, so the flavor is consistent, as well as the safety of the cheese, to prevent harmful microbes like E. Coli and listeria. Traditional cheese-making practices, such as using raw milk, making cheese on a farm (in proximity to farm animals), and using cultures from previous cheese batches, can but don’t necessarily open to doors to harmful microbes. In the microbial-rich environment of traditional cheese-making, you can have dozens of bacterias, fungi, and yeasts that all pass on a wealth of flavors and complexities to the cheese. Some cheeses have an unpredictable variety of surface molds which also contribute to the cheese’s unique flavors. Often these surface molds spread to the interior of the cheese, especially if there are holes or cracks. This is common among British farmhouse cheddars. That molding is, in part, why they develop their complex, earthy, and rustic qualities.

 

Next time you pull a moldy piece of cheese out of the refrigerator, think about the life that exists on that fertile, milky, microb-land. Then thank those fungi for the cheese they have given us.

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Gluten Free Friendly Pizza Information

Ordering Instructions:

If you would like a fully cooked gluten-free friendly* pizza, when the pizzeria is open, please let a worker know before you get in line so we can start it for you. This pizza takes 15-20 minutes to bake.

 

We cannot take phone orders for the gluten-free friendly pizza.

 

Gluten-free friendly partially baked pizzas are available starting at 9 a.m., at the bakery, while supplies last.

 

*This pizza is not 100% gluten-free. While the crust itself is gluten-free, the environment we work in is not, and these crusts will have direct or indirect contact with gluten sources. We cannot recommend this product for those with severe gluten allergies or for whom cross-contamination with gluten is of concern.

 

Ingredients: Water, rice flour, modified rice starch, potato starch, sugar, tapioca starch, potato flour, canola oil, olive oil, yeast, salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, xanthan gum, cultured brown rice

Vegan Pizza Information

Ordering Instructions:

If you would like a fully cooked vegan friendly* pizza, when the pizzeria is open, please let a worker know before you get in line so we can start it for you. This pizza takes 15-20 minutes to bake.

 

We cannot take phone orders for the vegan pizza.

 

*Though many precautions are taken we cannot guarantee a vegan pizza to to be absolutely vegan. We make this pizza in house in an environment that has a lot of cheese and dairy products. We cannot recommend this product for those concerned about the possibility of non-vegan contamination.

 

The vegan cheese is made by NUMU Cheese. It is made with: water, coconut oil, potato starch, tapioca starch, soymilk powder, kappa carrageenan, calcium phosphate, vegetable color, salt, pea starch, natural flavor, lactic acid

Parbake Pizza Information

We have partially baked pizzas available at both the bakery and the pizzeria. You can finish them off in your oven at home to enjoy fresh, hot pizza at your convenience.  We have gluten-free friendly and vegan versions available as well, while supplies last.

HEATING INSTRUCTIONS: Heat oven to 400°F. When oven is fully heated, take the pizza out of the box and place it directly on the rack. Heat for 5-8 minutes. If the pizza comes with a sauce or salad on the side add it after the pizza is done. Enjoy!