Tales from the Cheesemonger

March 2005

Raw Milk Cheeses

There are cheeses that become familiar fare, so much so that you almost forget about them, until one day you taste a piece and it’s as though you’ve meet a new friend. This is especially true of raw milk cheese that has more variable taste components and a fuller window on the territory that gave it life.

Pasteurization (heating milk to a degree that kills harmful bacteria) was an important development in food safety that promoted public health in a time when refrigeration meant block ice. It’s a wise idea for many cheesemakers, but with proper handling and aging raw milk cheese can still safely be made in the U.S. Federal law dictates that any raw milk cheese be 60 days old or older to eliminate any detrimental bacteria. Consider, however, that along with the bad goes the good, which means that the cheesemaker must re-introduce bacteria in the beginning stages of the process to make up for the loss.

Seasons also dictate the spectrum of any given cheese, with higher butterfat from better pastures in the Spring and late Fall, while Winter and Summer extremes make for inferior feed and so less preferable cheese. This is a rule of thumb, not necessarily true for every style of cheese, but if you follow an artisan cheese that you favor, try it over the course of a year and notice how it swings.

Since Beecher’s opened in November 2003 we have stocked two raw milk goat cheese offerings from Juniper Grove out of Redmond, Oregon, northeast of Bend – the Crottin and the Tumalo Tomme.

When I spoke with Pierre Kolisch, the proprietor and cheesemaker for Juniper Grove, he agreed that the current batch of Tumalo Tomme benefits from superb late-Fall pasturage. Even for those who claim to not like goat cheese, try this one right now and you’ll be converted. Start with how it looks: wrapped in simple brown paper, opened to reveal an orange moon flecked by green molds. When it’s cut, the springy-textured white paste shows nicely spaced ‘eyes’ (holes) about the size of those found in havarti. Then the taste: smooth, not ‘goaty,’ but earthy enough to remind you this isn’t cow’s milk. Fruity flavors emerge with hints of cherry or strawberry. The finish is pleasant. The habit is forming. You’ll want more.

Welcome Back

A returning duo of cheeses to the Beecher’s cheese case is the washed rind selection from Bingham Hill in Fort Collins, Colorado: Harvest Moon, a cow’s milk cheese; and Angel’s Feat, made from sheep’s milk. Bingham Hill experienced a terrible loss of inventory last summer when their refrigeration failed, so we are especially happy for them that they have recovered.

Washed rinds fall into that ominous category known as “Stinky Cheeses” – olfactory wonders that smell much stronger than they actually taste. The process used to create washed, or smeared-rind, cheeses involves bathing or rubbing unripened cheeses with a saline or alcohol solution to promote the growth of molds known as B. linens. This is a labor-intensive endeavor which adds to the cost. A golden-orange color distinguishes the look of this category of cheeses and is evidence of the healthy growth of B. linens that can also cause the surface to be moist.

Other cheeses we carry in the washed-rind category include Cowgirl Creamery’s Redhawk, Colorado Caprine’s Four Corners Round and Tumalo Tomme. Famous imported cheeses that you’ll want to compare these to in the greater marketplace are Taleggio, Pont L’Eveque, Limberger, Muenster, and Epoisse. Imported cheeses like these are generally stronger flavored for the European palette. For instance, Limburger in Germany is one of the strongest smelling cheeses in the world, while its American counterpart introduced by German immigrants is far milder.

If used as an ingredient, a washed-rind cheese can add a depth of mysterious flavor to an otherwise familiar dish. I recently made a corn soup with bacon and roasted Greek red peppers that sprang to life only after I added a small piece of Tumalo and allowed it to melt, but not over-cook, into the soup.

And lastly, check out an amazing web site dedicated to Northwest regional cheeses: Tami Parr’s Pacific Northwest Cheese Project. This cheese hobbyist knows her curds from her whey and is a helpful guide to new cheeses that are flying under the radar.

Bon Fromage!