Adams House Goes From Wine to Cheese In Effort to Uphold Gourmet Reputation

Many of Adams House's well-fed Goldcoasters are rapidly winning recognition for their gourmandise as well as their gourmanderic.

The trend away from the mere state of being well-fed towards a more refined expertise started several years ago when a resident tutor, Scymour O. Simches, founded the Adams House Wine Tasters Society. The organization became so popular that another separate group was formed this year.

After debating the comparative merits of Swiss versus Limburger this fall, two resident tutors, Norman G. Shapiro 3G and Andrew G. Jameson 3G, and Robert C. Larson '54 decided to form the Adams House Cheese Tasters Society which has held six meetings and is already plagued with growing pains.

Starting with only a few men in the "cheesy" set, the Society attracted 19 men to its meeting, "English Night," at which the members sampled English cheddar and Stilton cheese.

Preserve Congeniality

"Since this is a House function, we can't and don't want to restrict membership," Jameson says. "But to preserve the atmosphere of congeniality, we'll have to divide into two groups if the number of House members who manage to wedge in time for a wedge of cheese every two weeks increases much more."

Membership in the Cheese Tasters is quite unique. To join, a man simply comes to meetings; his dues are equal to the total amount spent for the evenings repast, divided by the number of men present.

"So far, we haven't had a meeting at which the total cost exceeded 30 cents per man," claims Jameson, who is the club's chief buyer and researcher. But no one has complained because he didn't get enough choose.

"Congeniality is the basis of the club," Jameson says. "But," he adds, "our object is not just to sit around and gobble cheese. Like gourmets we're learning to appreciate the cheese and its historical background," he says.

The regular formalities of the meetings consist, of course, in the sampling of cheese. The members taste two or three different varieties at each meeting. "We're looking forward to the day on which we can have our first sample of camel's milk."

At the meetings the comments of each member are recorded. The members sample the cheese looking for four different qualities--its color and appearance, texture, aroma, and flavor.

One That 'Stank'

The minutes show that there was only one cheese which the members thought 'stank.' Norwegian goat cheese had a taste that was rich, sweet, flat, condensed milk, and oily. It had the appearance of peanut butter and with its sour-like aroma, it was unanimously despised by the entire group.

To improve the flavor of the cheese, crackers are also served at meetings, and to wash down the flavor of one cheese before sampling another, wine is served.

Like fine connoisseurs, the Cheese Tasters have paid close attention to the wine they choose. After six meetings, the group definitely prefers an unsweet red wine and chooses Burgundy over Chianti.

The selection of cheese is a much more difficult and varied process. The group uses imported cheeses exclusively; according to Jameson, there are over 400 varities of imported cheese.

After exhausting the store of cheese offered by the various delicatessens in the Square, the group is looking for new sources. "We're going to start buying from Jordan-Marsh import department, then when we exhaust their supply we'll switch to Macy's in New York," Jameson explained.

Cheese for their next meeting, "Far Eastern Night" is coming from a delicatessen in East Boston that sells Greek and Turkish cheese.

Jameson, working for his doctorate in history, has become so interested in the history of cheese, that he is considering writing a book on it.

His interest was first aroused when he studied two years ago at the University of Paris. "After eating cheese at every meal for almost two years, you begin to develop an affinity for the stuff," he said.

The club has tended away from well-known cheese, favoring instead ones like Romadour, Kummelkaese, Bel Paese, and Brie. Their cheeses have come from all over Europe and were produced by all the 18 methods of production.

Discussing the prospects of writing a book on cheese, Jameson deplores the lack of good information on this food. He says, "There's lots of trash at the B-School on methods of production and so forth, but nothing really describing the importance of cheese."

Jameson does have scattered evidence about the importance of cheese in history. "Many of the 400 varieties are really alike, but they have different names because of the locality they're used in," Jameson says. "Danish Blue is just a polite American name for Roquefort."

Plum Conoisseurs

With Jameson's scholarly research and Shapiro's managerial finesse, the the group has gotten off to a strong start and Adams House is again winning further acclaim its plump connoisseurs of good food.

A further refinement to the club's activities was offered at the last meeting by Robert L. Loud '56, a hungry musician who calls upon the Cheese Tasters for nourishment. At the last meeting, the guitar-playing Loud, introduced an old English ballad about cheese, which the club has since adopted as a theme.

Jameson is rueful that the bibliography in cheese is not more plentiful. He painfully feels this lack when preparing a report to the members on the cheese that they are sampling at the meetings.

This includes notes about the native origin of the cheese, the area of distribution, the method of manufacture, and a description of which of the 18 families of cheese the sample belongs to.