A few months ago I was lucky enough to get a backstage tour of Murray’s Cheese, with its endless selection upstairs and its cryptic cheese caves in the basement. It inspired me to get deeper into cheese, although new found addictions to Humboldt Fog and Constant Bliss are about all I have to show for it. Fortunately, the second in command at Murray’s, Liz Thorpe, has just released a book that lays out the growing world of American-made cheese. It’s a lot more than glassine slips and bricks of cheddar. The Cheese Chronicles works in part as a travelogue, with witty descriptions of Thorpe’s cheese farm adventures, and in part as an overview, ideal for someone interested in unlocking the secrets of a little-known realm of family farms and artisanal production. “The way one gets into cheese, like everything in life, is to get into it,” Thorpe writes. After the jump, she gets into it with us.

American cheese is a complex subject, but your book does a great job of making it accessible. How hard is it for a newcomer to cheese to pull off a tasting, or a small dinner party? Pretty easy if they stick to a few basic rules. Three-five cheeses, no more. Portion an ounce per person per cheese. Try for a range of styles and milks: ideally cow, goat, and sheep should all be represented. Something runny, something stinky, something firm and nutty. You want to play up the variety. A few seasonal fruits (stone fruits in summer, apples, pears, or quince compote in fall/winter). Cider, wine, or beer. Precut for guests or separate knives if you’re putting out a spread. That’s it.

The insider’s picture you paint of Murray’s counter is pretty colorful. What’s a good way for a cheese newbie to approach a place like Murray’s? Take advantage of the fact that the counter people know what they’re talking about. That’s a dying thing in food retail. It helps a lot if you can tell that what you do like (cheddar, strong flavors) or what you don’t like. Another thing to help narrow is price point. If you say “I have $20 and want to do a cheese plate for a 15 people” the choices are very limited. You’ll save everyone time and hassle of tasting cheese that costs too much.

There’s a revelatory element in the way you describe some of your early experiences with artisanal cheese. Do you think that was particular to you and your love of cheese, or more a reflection of becoming exposed to the good stuff? Certainly the latter. I mean I am a big fan of cheese, but frankly so is just about every single person I have talked to. Most people like fat and salt as a jumping off point. I think also it’s not just about being exposed to “good” as in “expensive.” It was about tasting flavors that went beyond what I had previously had exposure to (swiss, cheddar, and jack).

In describing your early experience buying artisanal American cheeses at Murray’s, you say “The major criteria used to be ‘Is it edible?’ ” Are you surprised by how far the industry has come in such a short time? Yes! There’s more good cheese available than we can buy. The flip side of the coin, though, is that cheesemakers can get huffy when you don’t like what they’re making. While American cheeses are increasingly popular, we work really hard to ensure that we sell the best of what’s available.

You write that semi-soft cow milk cheese and block cheddar are the most overexposed of artisanal American cheeses. What are some great, but overlooked, American cheeses? Maple Leaf Jalapeno Jack. It’s creamy and buttery, the pepper bits crunch, there’s an incredible balance of heat and milkiness. You can melt it on anything, make a sandwich, nosh before dinner. It’s the best embodiment of what pepper jack strives to be. But those are not the cheeses that Saveur and Gourmet like to write about. The sex factor is considerably lower.

You recommend enjoying aged sheep cheese with “an austere, earthy red wine” rather than whites. Any specific suggestions for someone hosting a sheep cheese tasting? Do it in the fall because your choices are a lot broader, for one. I mean, red wines can be tricky to pair with cheese because of the tannin. It would be really fun to get a range of reds to try with a range of sheep cheeses. I bet you’d find the New World/warm weather wines like Aussie Shiraz and California Zin and Sicilian varietals are way too big, jammy, or alcoholic for the cheese, but a wide variety of Old World styles, even fuller wines like Barolo or Rioja, are consistently superb.