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Say raw-milk cheese and smile

By JULIA WATSON
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- If how we define ourselves in how we dress and the choices we make over where to shop for food can also characterize us -- not just our decision as to which supermarket chain we patronize, but which particular branch.

It's most apparent when you take the subject of cheese. Read on to discover if you're voguish, cosmopolitan, or a touch conservative.

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Go to Fresh Fields' P Street store in downtown Washington, and you'll find mountains of cheeses in a display that goes around three sides of a large area of floor space. They come not only from "boutique" farms in Vermont and Wisconsin, but from Spain, Italy, France and England. The choice is definitely "foodie" oriented. Among the classics are quite a few containing unexpected extras, like nuts, ripples of crimson, slivers of olive, mushrooms, and dried fruits.

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"We have a young clientele," said the assistant slicing open a wheel of Spanish Manchego. "They like experimenting."

Shop at the Georgetown store, and you'll find a lesser space devoted to cheese but a greater focus on a much wider range of cheeses from Europe: obscure goat's and ewe's milk cheeses, high-fat creamy French cheeses matured directly in boxes, unfamiliar Italian blues, and an impressive stock of raw-milk cheeses.

The cheesemonger here is passionate, encouraging his customers with tastes of his favorites. The majority of his shoppers are Europeans, who buy items to eat on a daily basis. "They really appreciate the unpasteurized varieties." He is working, he says, on teaching his American customers to relish them.

Head for the cheese counter only a couple of miles up the road at the Tenley branch, and you will find cheese takes up very little space.

Unpasteurized cheeses make rare appearances among the Jarlsbergs, Emmenthals, Goudas, ready-cut lumps of Wisconsin cheddars and New York sharps. "I can't really sell anything unusual," says the cheese man sadly. "Not even a raw-milk Neal's Yard English cheddar. People worry that cheese is unhealthy."

The FDA has placed raw-milk cheese under scrutiny, weighing whether to ban its import. Goodbye, genuine Parmesan.

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Yet the acidity in cheese is not only unfavorable to pathogenic bacteria but will kill any off in three months. Few British -- or European -- cheeses are sold younger than 60 days.

"Well-made cheese is virtually never the cause of food poisoning," writes Dr. John Gilbert Davis in his four-volume "Cheese." "Raw-milk cheese nearly always has a fuller flavor than pasteurized milk cheese. ... The farmhouse maker should normally not need to have recourse to pasteurization. Such a need would indicate extremely careless methods of production for which there is no excuse."

So if cholesterol is the worry, pick a low-fat cheese -- goat, mozzarella -- a hard, not a creamy cheese. But don't deny yourself the pleasure of a perfect sliver on the end of your knife with crusty bread, a fig or a grape. And venture into the central branches of Fresh Fields to try some real treasures.

Here's how to use up leftovers. This, too, should not cause alarm. Soufflés are simple, especially if you use one more egg white than yolks.

Cheese soufflé

Serves 4

1 ½ oz. butter

1 oz. flour

scant 1/2 pint milk

6 oz. grated cheese (Cheddar is best, Gruyere is good, but if you're using a creamy cheese, make sure 2 oz. is either a hard cheese, or Parmesan to add flavor)

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4 large egg yolks, 5 whites

freshly grated nutmeg and black pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Butter a 6-inch-diameter soufflé dish. Bring the milk to a boil.

Over medium heat, melt the butter, then add the flour. Stir till it turns crumbly and goes a nutty gold, then tip in a small amount of hot milk, stirring to incorporate. Gradually add the remaining milk to make a béchamel sauce, still stirring. Add cheese and seasonings. Separate eggs, dropping in yolks one by one, incorporating each completely. Whisk whites to firm peaks, then carefully fold in, leaving no white streaks. Pour into soufflé dish and place in oven. Turn heat down to 375 degrees F., and set timer for 30 minutes. Serve at once with a green salad.

Fresh Fields: 1440 P St. NW, (202) 332-4300; 2323 Wisconsin Ave. NW, (202) 333-5393; 4530 Wisconsin Ave. NW, (202) 237-5800, and other locations.

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