Holker Farm Dairy, Cumbria

Holker Farm Dairy is a small dairy run by Martin Gott and Nicola Robinson in Cumbria, England.  The land is on the estate of Holker Hall, the home of Lord and Lady Cavendish.  Situated on the Cartmel peninsula, the farm is a few miles away from Cartmel which is well known for its old Priory, and for being a foodie destination – including Cartmel sticky toffee puddings and chef Simon Rogan’s Michelin starred restaurant L’Enclume.   Also Cartmel Cheeses, which Martin runs with Nicola’s father Ian, and stocks traditional British cheeses, some European cheeses, and not least the very cheeses made at the Holker Farm Dairy. 

Sandi and I worked at Holker Farm for 5 months during the “summer” of 2012 (quotation marks on account of this officially being the wettest summer on record in the UK, and we were living in Cumbria - possibly the wettest part of England!).  Between us, we ran the dairy 7 days a week – making the cheese, washing the rinds, packing and sending to the major customer (Neals Yard Dairy), keeping the place clean, and generally learning a lot about artisanal/farmhouse cheese making. 

Martin and Nicola have a herd of approximately 100 Lacaune sheep.  In France, this milk would generally be used to make Roquefort, but at Holker it is made into a delicious washed rind cheese called St James.  Martin and Nicola have also recently purchased a small herd of Dairy Shorthorn cows to help even out the milk supply whilst the sheep are dry.  The cows’ milk is used to make a cheese called Brother David.  And during Autumn, when the sheep are drying off, the milks are mixed to make a cheese called Faellen (the Old English word for Autumn).  We have described each of these cheeses below. 

This is farmhouse cheese making - the raw milk from the sheep (or cows!) is pumped from the adjacent milking shed into the dairy, directly into the vats.  Before it has a chance to cool, starter culture is added to begin the ripening process.  The cheese is set with calf rennet until it reaches the required firmness, which depends on milk quality, the time of the season, and the weather (frequent rainy days kept us on our toes).  After cutting and resting, the curd is hand ladled into cloth lined moulds, and the necessary turning, pulling and draining operations are done.  The cheese is salted after a further day of resting, and is then washed and turned regularly over the next few weeks to develop an orange/pink rind.

# 24 - St James

This is a raw ewes milk, washed rind cheese.  The cheese is a flat square, and approximately 1.2kg.  We enjoyed making this cheese as it always developed good savoury, meaty, bacon flavours without many apparent defects or off-flavours.  Because of the artisanal nature of making cheese at this volume, the cheese can vary somewhat between batches.  The ideal St James has a glossy appearance, with a smooth texture, but is stable – i.e. it will not keep softening until it runs across the plate, but will maintain a gentle bulge when cut.  This was not always possible, and sometimes we had a slightly firmer cheese.   

As we found later at Neals Yard Dairy, as it ages the rind dries a little and is less bright orange, with some moulds developing much later, but the flavour maintains itself and some cheeses up to 3 months old have a flavour that no other cheese can match. 

St James that hasn't quite matured fully.

    

#25 – Brother David

This is a raw cows milk, washed rind cheese.  Brother David is a flat round and smaller than St James, approximately 700-800g, although the rind has a similar appearance to St James.  We found it more difficult to make Brother David, as the cows milk was not as robust as the Lacaune sheep milk, both in terms of cheese making/curd handling, and in flavour development.  We struggled to make a cheese without some bitterness in the rind, although this can also be said of some French washed rind cheeses.  Often there were similar meaty, savoury flavours as seen in the St James.  But overall we found the variability much greater in the Brother David. 

Brother Davids waiting to be packed, with the farm outside.

#26 – Faellen

This is a raw milk washed rind cheese, made from a mixture of milk from Dairy Shorthorn cows and Lacaune sheep.  It is made in a similar method to the St James cheese, and is a flat round approximately 700-800g. Although we only made this cheese for a month before our time was up at Holker Farm, we really enjoyed making it.  The sheeps milk seems to mask any difficulties from the cows milk and so we found Faellen easy and enjoyable to make – perhaps our previous four months experience helped as well.  Faellen develops a similar glossy, smooth, bulging texture and savoury bacony flavours as St James.  

Racks of Faellen.

#23 - Tourteau fromager "cheese cake"

Technically this is not a cheese. But it has cheese in it, so it counts in my books.  

We saw these impressive looking baked goodies in the Challans market at a number of different stalls.  This was not like the dense (but delicious) texture of a baked New York style cheese cake, but had a very light, fluffy texture somewhere between cake and bread.  In fact, the tourteau fromager didn't even taste all that cheesy - so can only presume it contained fresh, high moisture cheese in the mixture.  Some of us thought it was a little bland, although it would be nice with jam.

The most interesting feature, the dark black exterior, imparted a slightly blackened and bitter taste but this was pleasant as it was only a thin layer.  We can only assume this blackening is achieved with a layer of sugar on the outside and a hot oven temperature.

Definitely one to try when you find an example.  

Tourteau fromager

  

#22 - Brie de Meaux

Well we had to try a Brie de Meaux while we were in France!  This one was another supermarket purchased example which my godparents had in their fridge.  There was a slight grassy, cabbage aroma, but not overpowering.  The paste had broken down nicely all the way through to be glossy and bulging as it should - but not running across the plate.

The flavour was quite strong, a mix of savoury notes, some cooked cabbage, and with a slightly spicy finish.  Unctuous texture.

Brie de Meaux

#21 - Mimolette

This was an "extra-old" example made by Isigny St Mer, and we bought it from a Hyper-U supermarket.  I had been wanting to try this for some time, mostly because of the interesting rind.  In fact, the characteristic rough, pitted rind is caused by cheese mites.  The cheese is also coloured orange using annatto (a natural pigment).  

Mimolette was supposed to be originally based on Dutch Edam cheese, which is apparent from its shape and eye holes, but it seems to have developed it's own distinct characteristics as well.  Both have a reduced fat content compared to hard cheese favourites like Cheddar.  

Our example was typically round, with a very bumpy, crusty looking rind.  The "bubbles" in the rind will have grown in size due to the cheese mites as the cheese aged - so a younger cheese would have a smoother rind.  The cheese mites appear to have been removed and the rind cleaned well before the cheese was packaged for distribution.  The paste was a deep orange, with quite a firm texture.  We found it to be be very salty (presumably due to the cheese drying as it aged) and it had savoury, marmite and slightly fruity flavours.

Mimolette

  

#20 - St Nectaire de Fermiere

We had to try this classic. This particular cheese, being a fermiere cheese, will have been produced on the farm where the milk was produced - not in a factory away over the hills, although we purchased it from Fromagerie Beillevaire at Challans market.

Smells like potatoes and brown mould (i.e. earthy!).  Thick brown rind but a semi-firm texture inside.  The mouldy/cave/earthy flavour on the rind permeates through the rest of the cheese - and we thought dominated the flavour too much for our personal liking.  There was a small amount of mechanical openness in the paste, which had a smooth mouth feel and was slightly squeeky on our teeth.  There was not much salt in the cheese, which may have contributed to our feeling that the flavour was not as balanced as we had hoped.

A St Nectaire de Fermiere

  

#19 - Salers, France

We purchased this cheese from the Fromagerie Beillevaire stall at the Challans market, although we do not know the name of the specific producer.  

A cows milk cheese.  We had a portion cut from a large round of the cheese.  The curd looks young and not well knitted, a bit like a Lancashire, but there was a well developed rind.  The texture was moist but slightly crumbly and also fatty.  The flavour was acidic, with savoury notes but we did not think was balanced overall.  There were slight lingering farmy and acid flavours.

Overall an interesting cheese to try, but not one that excited us.

Salers

#18 - Sec deux (made by Vendee Chevre)

This long rectangular flat brick, around the same size as the logs previously described, had a colourful mixed rind of geotrichum and blue, green and white moulds.  Approximately half of the cheese paste was glossy and ripened, with the centre still showing the firmer but still creamy lactic curd.  The rind was slightly dry but the paste had a creamy texture.  The broken down outer paste had a sweeter flavour and even smoother texture.  

Chevre sec deux.

#17 - unnamed Buche (made by Vendee Chevre)

This un-named goats cheese log (it was simply labelled generically as a "buche") had an ash coating and a geotrichum rind.  It looks to have been matured more than the buche semi-affinage mentioned earlier and was also saltier.  The outer 1/3 of the cheese showed glossy breakdown.  A nice creamy, smooth texture, with more of a goaty/caproic acid flavour (but still in balance and pleasant).  Finishes with a spicy, black pepper after taste.

Tasty local buche.

#16 – Cremeurs (made by Vendee Chèvre)

Oval shaped cheese, with mixed rind (appears to be geotrichum and penicillium/blue mould).  Substantial ripening/ breakdown inside the rind leaving about half the cheese in unripened.  Rind is firm to bite but tender.  Texture is creamy, and there is a slightly spicy aftertaste with a hint of blue mould.    

Cremeurs, made by Vendee Chevre

#15 – Buche semi-affinage (made by Vendee Chèvre)

Small log with thin covering of white mould with mild wrinkling (looks like geotrichum).  Acidic curd is slightly drying when first tried, but it then becomes nice and creamy.  A little bit of ripening around the edges of the cheese but no real rind has developed yet.  Clean, fresh, zesty, light.  Can spread this onto your bread.    

Buche semi-affinage, by Vendee Chevre

First trip to France!

Finally we have got around to updating this blog.

In July we took our first trip to France, to visit Andrew’s godparents in the Vendée area of the Pays de Loire region.  We stayed in a small town near the coast and were able to take a few trips to some local markets.  At the biggest market we went to, in Challans, we purchased cheeses from a couple of local stalls.

Vendee Chèvre.  A small local prodcuer who was selling their cheeses direct at the market.  All were Fromage de chèvre au lait cru – raw goats milk cheeses.  The cheeses were just labelled with a simple description – buche, sec, affine etc.  There were about 6 types of cheese and a few fresh fromage frais type products available.  When Noël told the lady at the counter we were cheese makers from New Zealand, she gave us a few extra cheeses to take away!

Fromagerie Beillevaire – Maître Fromager.  A large cheese monger based in Machecoul (between Challans and Nantes), this large counter had many different types of cheese from around France.  They run tours of their cheese factory and maturing rooms but we did not have time to fit this in during the week.

What will follow is a flurry of new cheeses, raising our count from a measly 14!

Vendee Chevre stand at Challans market

Our daily lunch on holiday included all these cheeses.

#14 - Cropwell Bishop traditional Stilton (calf rennet)

#14  Cropwell Bishop traditional (calf rennet) Stilton

On our couple of days off from the dairy we drove over to Zouch, Nottinghamshire to stay at Andrew’s uncle & aunt’s little holiday home.  The main aim of our trip was to visit Melton Mowbray and some Stilton factories.  We tried a couple of the smaller factories (there are only 5 left that still make proper PDO Stilton) but unfortunately we couldn’t look through any of them due to health & safety regulations – which is perfectly understandable.  So we purchased a large chunk of Stilton from the small shop at the factory in Cropwell Bishop (at a very reasonable cost) and took this with us for a picnic lunch along with a large Melton Mowbray pork pie and some cherries (see picture!). 

The cheese we purchased was made with calf rennet – the traditional way.  It appears that a lot of Stilton produced now is made with non-animal rennet for vegetarians.  It would be interesting to compare the flavour of the two cheeses some time.  Our piece of cheese had nice even blue mould distribution in thin veins throughout the centre.  It looked medium in age – the paste was still creamy without the darkness/brown that seems to develop inside the rind on examples we have seen.  The mouthfeel was firm but nice and creamy, and the flavour was well-balanced.  I usually find Stilton to be a little bitter, no matter what the age, but we found this to have very little bitterness – which was in balance with the rest of the flavours and saltiness.  There was a savoury, slightly nutty flavour in the background.   A very nice piece of cheese. 

Lunch.  Om nom.  

#13 - Strathdon Blue

This cow’s milk blue cheese comes from Ross-shire in Scotland, but we purchased it from Cartmel Cheeses in Cumbria.   The sample we tried appeared to have quite a mixed rind with blue, green and white moulds, as well as some yeast/bacteria development.  The rind was quite thick, covering about 5mm of creamy, almost liquid, broken down cheese.  The paste in the centre was still quite light coloured, and had an appearance somewhat like Roquefort – with large mechanical openness that may have been enhanced by some gas development.  The mould in the centre was very light green in colour and was developed to a lower level than the outer rind would suggest.  The mouthfeel was generally creamy although slightly chalky with an acidic taste in the centre.  The flavour was of reasonably young mould – it had not developed the savoury, complex blue mould punch we were expecting.  Overall we thought this example was over-ripe on the outside compared to the centre.  We forgot to take a photo of this cheese!

We have tried more recent examples of this cheese from the same shop, and these were more consistently ripened throughout and with a more balanced flavour.

La Fromagerie in London

We recently visited La Fromagerie in Marylebone, London.  Run by Patricia Michelson, the author of "Cheese" (our Christmas present from Andrew's mum), it is a renowned cheese shop in London specialising in French cheeses.

Actually its a bit more than a cheese shop, it's a cafe too, as well as selling lots of organic veges, baked goods, cured meats & other delicious foods.  It has some celebrity fans like Jamie Oliver and is famous for its walk-in cheese room.  

Unfortunately Patricia wasn't around on the day we visited so we didn't get to meet her and get her to sign her book but we did spend a good long while in the cheese room looking at the huge range of lovely cheeses; Andrew was paticularly taken with all the small, beautifully crafted, soft goat cheeses.  We did taste a number of cheeses and selected three cheeses to take home for our friends to try - one white, one blue and one yellow.


#12 - Bocconcini di Capra

A white-mould pasteurised goat's milk cheese from Italy.  Its a relatively small round - about 10cm in diameter with a slightly open, soft, stabilised texture (at the time we tasted it) and a slightly firm rind.  The paste was really glossy and very white with a thin drier yellow rind and light mould coverage.  It had a fresh, goaty aroma along with the slight mushroom from the white mould and a lightly green flavour.

Bocconcini di Capra

#13 - Comte d'Estive 

A cow's milk hard cheese from France.  At 45% fat, this cheese struck us as particularly yellow compared to other hard types, enhanced by the alpine pasture the cow's graze on.  There is some drying out towards the rind, which is golden brown, firm, dry and slightly sandy textured from maturation in traditional cellars.  This was the favourite cheese of our London friends with savoury, fruity and slightly nutty flavours and distinct soapy undertones characteristic of this style.  

Comte d'Estive

#14 - Picos de Europa (Valdeon)


Picos de Europa/Valdeon can be made from solely cow's milk or a mixture of cow and goat's milk.  The example we tasted seemed most likely to be just cow's milk.  It is made in a round and wrapped in sycamore leaves.  A very white paste in the centre with slight brown staining from the leaves near the rind with substantial and even veining through the cheese.  This was my favourite cheese with a creamy, salty well rounded flavour and slightly earthy finish provided by the leaves.

Picos de Europa

Part of the cheese room showing the shelf containing all of the small goat cheeses.

Ogleshield at Borough Market

We visited the Borough Market last week, with the idea of having a quick look around and maybe grabbing something for lunch to take to Hyde Park so we could sit on the grass and enjoy the unseasonably warm sunny March weather.  This was our first trip to Borough Market, so it took a bit longer than we expected due to us getting excited about each stall we came to.  It was quite hard to choose something each for lunch, because there were so many delicious options.  In the end, Andrew chose a Melton Mowbray pork pie (surely this can never fail), and Sandi gravitated to the "Raclette" stall.  Next time we'll have to try the paella, west country cider, empenadas (this stall also has Havana alfajores from Argentina!), or the delicious sausages.  


# 11 - Ogleshield @ Kappacasein in Borough Market
This cheese is not actually Raclette, but made using a similar process and with washed rind.  There is an interesting page from Neal's Yard Dairy describing how the cheese was developed in the following link:  http://www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/cheeses/Ogleshield.pdf 


We purchased a "Raclette" plate, where the Ogleshield was melted under a Raclette grill and scraped on top of a pile of new potatoes and a few gherkins.  This was delicious.  We thought not quite as strong as a true Raclette (in terms of brevi/contribution from washed rind) and there was a little free fat but this did not really matter.  Nice stretchy melted aromatic cheese on fresh potatoes.  Just what we needed for lunch.  Nom.

Ogleshield melted over young potatoes and gherkins.  Yum.

Caerphilly and Neal's Yard in London

We arrived in London tired from New York, and our friends Hayley & Dave welcomed us with a selection of cheeses from the Borough Market.  Including an Italian cheese soaked in red wine, a nice French traditional mixed rind white mould cheese, and most excitingly for us, some Caerphilly.  Neither of us had tried Caerphilly before, and didn't really have a high expectation, as from photos it appears quite acidic and dry in the centre.  

Cheese #10 - Gorwydd Caerphilly.

This particular cheese is made from unpasteurised cow's milk by Trethowan's Dairy Ltd in Wales.  We thought this was a very nice cheese.  The centre is clean, acidic, but not overly acidic, and the salt was a little stronger than expected which seemed to help balance it all out.  It is a little crumbly in the centre, i.e. the texture we associate with a quite low pH cheese, but this does become creamy and moist in the mouth.  Closer to the rind the cheese has a creamier texture and a little more flavour.  This was delicious on a cracker, with some New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc!  A pretty good start to being in London. 

Neal's Yard Dairy

A few days later, we were very lucky to be able to visit the Neal's Yard Dairy railway arch maturing facility in Bermondsey, thanks to David Lockwood from Neal's Yard, who we met at the cheese show in Madison, Wisconsin.  It was very interesting to see so many UK & Irish cheeses being cared for - and interesting to try some of the more modern but local cheeses we had not heard of before.  We have also visited both of the Neal's Yard shops (Borough Market and Covent Garden) and were impressed with the way the cheese in these shops is the "hero" and not all crammed into some glass chillers.  

   

Gorwydd Caerphilly

Judging at World Championship Cheese Contest

World Championship Cheese Contest, Madison, Wisconsin 

5-8 March 2012

I was a little nervous before arriving in Madison, as this was my first time judging outside New Zealand, and seeing the calibre/experience of the other judges.  However we were soon made to feel very welcome and accepted.

We arrived on the Sunday evening, and had not been settled in our room for long when we got a call from Russell Smith, the Australian who is chief judge at the NZ awards.  Russell invited us down to have a drink at the bar, where we met a number of the other judges, as well as some of the “B team” (of assistants) and the organising team.  Everyone was friendly and most importantly passionate about cheese.  We were looking forward to the main event!

On Monday, the first day of judging, there was a judges breakfast in which we introduced ourselves, were shown the new electronic scoring system, and were shown how we should sample certain cheeses (many cheeses were to be sold after the show, so we were asked to sample them carefully and not damage them too much). 

This year the competition used electronic scoring sheets, on laptops and linked by network to the “back room”.  It took a little while to get used to (remembering where each attribute was on the sheet, the layout etc) but once we got the hang of it, it worked really well.  There was much less need for the stewards to run back and forth looking for signatures, sheets didn’t get lost, and scores were averaged quickly so that results could go on the internet quickly, or any ties could be dealt with quickly when the cheeses were still fresh in our memories.

The B-team are the people that make things tick.  There was essentially a pair of B teamers assigned to every pair of judges.  They make sure all the cheeses are presented correctly, that everything is carefully repacked afterwards and that every one of the more than 2500 cheeses is labelled & tracked.  After each cheese is sampled by the judges they use a process called “schmutzing”, not a term we had heard before, which is basically covering the holes in the cheese with vaseline to stop it drying out/contamination before taping it up.   Sandi had volunteered to be part of this team & got involved with everything from carting around massive wheels of gouda, to helping with the tasting of flavoured soft goat cheeses, endless schmutzing and entering the results for the sweet sixteen.  She thoroughly enjoyed it all, met some fantastic people & would definitely do it all again.

Each international judge is paired up with a local US judge – I worked with Sandy Toney of Masters Gallery Foods in Wisconsin.  Below are my thoughts on each of the classes we evaluated. 

Monday:  today judging started at 11am, and we had 54 samples in the “Sharp Cheddar (6-12 months)” to get through.  The first half of the cheeses we tasted were not particularly high quality overall, with a reasonable number of samples having some bitterness.  At least 15 of the entries had some foreign matter – mostly small black specks or lint – which was disappointing.  Once group of entries were immaculately “dressed” and wrapped – but each had a hair or some lint inside the wrap which looked like it came from the dressing procedure, which was a let-down (and a pity for the competitor).   One cheese had a pretty high amount of lipolysis, and there was also one quite fruity cheese – these were interesting samples but not characteristic of Cheddar.   Towards the end of the day we tasted some quite nice, balanced, rounded Cheddars – one of which we scored as the class champion (Cracker Barrel made by Agropur, Glenview for Kraft).  This entry later went on to the “sweet 16” gala judging event (more on this below).  Interestingly, the next morning we were asked to “complimentary grade” three more cheeses for this class (i.e. their scores could not be entered in the competition because the manufacturers had entered more cheeses than allowed in the class).  Two of these samples we think would have been top scoring in the class – which goes to show it is worth following the entry instructions.  

Dinner tonight was at Jonny Delmonico’s, a nice steak/grill restaurant with a delicious shared starter of calamari rings with sweet chilli sauce (this bowl was refilled a couple of times!).  But the steaks were huge, perfectly cooked, tender, and delicious – pretty much exactly what I felt like after a long day of judging.  Over dinner we were able to have a good chat with some of the other judges and organisers.  We made some great contacts, and everyone seemed to be very encouraging of us taking this trip we are on to explore the cheese world. 

Tuesday:  a 9am start for a long day of cheese judging.  First up was “Reduced fat hard cheese” with 25 entries.  Mostly Cheddar, although this class did gave us a bit of variety with some string, a Swiss block and some beautifully presented Dutch Goudas (one of which won the class).  Most of the Cheddars were bitter, as expected.   Class winner was a nice, mild Dutch Gouda from Beemster.    Next class was “Two year or more Cheddar” – another large category, with 44 cheeses.   A number of the 3/4/6 year old cheeses looked good with nice texture, only to be let down by bitterness or sourness.   Our top scorer and class champion was a well-balanced 2-year Vermont Cheddar from Cabot, which also made it through to the final “sweet 16” round.   

Dinner tonight was at L’Etoile, a fine dining restaurant that sources all its ingredients locally within 200 miles of Madison.  The meal was delicious – and we particularly enjoyed the dessert.  

Wednesday:  We started with “Reduced sodium hard cheese”.  Although there were 22 cheeses entered, we were told only 11 of them had actually arrived.  We were quite surprised at the quality shown in the samples.  It was quite difficult to separate the entries, especially with a number of different styles of cheese in this class.  The best samples in this category were a mozz block (class winner) from Lake Norden Cheese and two Provolones from Agropur good examples of their typical cheese types with little to suggest any sodium/salt had been removed.    We finished before lunchtime, which allowed some rest time before the final rounds.

In the afternoon, all the judges met in the Ballroom and we were split into groups of five.  Each group of five judges then evaluated ten cheeses (each cheese being the winner from its particular class) and the two highest scoring cheeses from each table went through the “sweet 16”.  The two cheeses to go through from our table were the two Cheddars mentioned earlier.   We then had some more time to rest before the big main event – a gala evening which had sold out (400 tickets).  The new idea this year was to hold the final “sweet 16” judging in front of the interested audience.  This was an interesting experience.  There were many samples of non-medal winning cheese from the competition cut up and laid beautifully around the ballroom in geographical groupings, as well as some stunning displays from some local artisinal cheese makers.  

After the crowd had looked around, sampled some wine and cheese, each of the “sweet 16” cheeses was introduced, and held up for everyone to see.  This really felt like the world championship: of cheese!  Then in our groups of five again, we rotated in sequence to each table where the “table masters” plugged and prepared the cheeses for us to evaluate.  I can’t really imagine what the audience thought – to me it doesn’t seem that exciting to watch someone evaluating cheese – but then again we are used to it.  I guess to the public the process we go through and seeing the different cheeses presented was interesting.  I did feel privileged to be able to sample these top 16 amazing cheeses.  In the end, when all the scores were averaged, the cheese selected as World Champion for 2012 was a reduced fat cheese!  Vermeer Gouda from FrieslandCampina.   This was a great cheese, everyone was surprised it was reduced fat – you really couldn’t tell; it tasted great and was well balanced.

A delicious wheel  of Emmental, with the cheese laden tables & judges' stations in the background

Andrew plugging some cheddar (nice hat!)

Andrew with his judging partner Sandy Toney of Masters Gallery, Wisconsin at their station

Andrew & Sandi in their respective hats

Part of the beautiful cheese display at the judging gala event

The winning cheese! (centre) with the big cheese trophy

Rogue Creamery

Rogue Creamery, Central Point, Oregon

As part of the homework required for the NZ CheeseMaster study I was doing last year, I researched and wrote about Smokey Blue, a smoked blue cheese made by Rogue Creamery.  So since we were in our campervan and headed towards this part of the world, we had to stop by and visit.

From reading the history behind the Rogue Creamery, I have to say I was expecting the location to be a bit more quaint – perhaps next to the river or nestled beside the hills.  The town of Central Point is in a big valley in hills, but the feeling was more of a typical US town spread out along an urban highway.  Never mind, as once we got inside the shop we were made to feel very welcome.  The shop looks into the cheddar making room which was having some maintenance.  The blue room is in a different, but attached, building which we unfortunately couldn’t see.  The shop itself has two cheese display cabinets.  Once full of various Rogue cheddars and other cheeses from Europe as well as the US (including some from Cowgirl Creamery, featured in a previous blog entry).  The second display cabinet was named “Blue Heaven” and indeed it was – with seven different blue cheeses (all made by Rogue) on display, each in stacks of wheels.  Once we got talking to Tom, the cheese shop manager, he gave us a run through of his favourites.  Tasting through all these blues in one go is a really good way to see the subtle (and not so subtle) differences that can be found in blue cheese.

#6: Oregon Blue.  This is the original and famous cheese made by Rogue Creamery back in 1956.  It is made from raw cows milk, and aged for at least 90 days.  It was firm to bite, creamy in flavour, with a light blue mould flavour.  Well balanced. 

#7: Rogue River Blue.  This immediately tasted more aged than the Oregon Blue.  A creamier texture, a stronger blue moudl flavour, with some floral notes.  A small amount of crunch in the veins, and a savoury aftertaste.  Whole wheels of the cheese are wrapped in hand picked vine leaves which have been soaked in pear brandy.  Rogue River Blue is only made from Autumn milk – this example was about 18 months old.

#8: Smokey Blue.  This is Oregon Blue cheese that has been cold smoked in whole rounds over hazelnut shells for 16 hours.  Quite a strong smokey flavour comes through, slowly at first, but this does not override the blue mould flavour or the saltiness of the cheese.  When swallowed the smoke leaves a slight savoury, bacony flavour.  We were told that it took a long time to perfect this cheese (playing with different smoke sources and conditions) and this shows, as the cheese we tasted was very well balanced – delicious. 

#9: Chocolate Stout Cheddar.  This was an interesting one to try after all the blues. Cheddar curd is mixed with some chocolate stout and pressed together – which gives a very lightly marbled cheese block.  The cheese itself has a slightly sweet, slightly yeasty/fruity note, mixed with a young cheddar texture and flavour.  Not quite the flavour I was expecting from the name – this is quite a delicate cheese. 

And lastly, to finish off with something unusual, Tom gave us a taste of a wasabi goat chevre.  Clean, fresh, slightly acidic as you would expect from a good chevre, but with a good punch from the wasabi as you swallow.  I would definitely eat more of this – but we forgot to ask where it was from… Vermont or somewhere on the East Coast I think.  We shall have to make a trip there sometime.  

"Blue Heaven" at Rogue Creamery.  

#3 to #5: Cowgirl Creamery, Point Reyes Station, California)

We found Cowgirl Creamery just down the road from our campsite after heading North along the coast from San Francisco the previous afternoon.  Surrounded by rolling hills, farms and lots of green grass (it is winter) is the little town of Point Reyes Station.  Here you can find a small supermarket, a mechanic, a gas station, a post office, and another shop ”Toby’s” that seems to do everything else.  As we sat outside drinking our coffee from Toby’s, locals called across the street to each other about their car troubles, enquired of each other’s health, and debated about the new bus schedule to the main town inland. Cowgirl Creamery started in this location.  They have now expanded and moved most of their operations inland to Petaluma, and also have two shops in San Francisco.  But here we visited their original location and the site where they still make their washed rind Redhawk cheese. 

#3:  Redhawk.  This is a triple cream washed rind cheese made Jersey cow milk, aged 3-4 weeks. It is around 250-300g, basket shaped with a light orange rind and only a small amount of white mould in surface depressions.  The rind has a light brevi/smear aroma, but the flavour is a little stronger and slightly bitter, but this seemed in balance with the rest of the cheese.  The rind was quite firm but not too thick, with a slight crunch.  They appear to use an adventitious smear culture from the factory environment, and we were told they had tried to move production to their larger factory in Petaluma, but couldn’t achieve the same product so moved production of the Redhawk back to the original factory in Point Reyes. 

#4.  Mt Tam.  We also tried Mt Tam, a traditional style white mould cheese with a very soft paste under a firm rind and a smooth, soft but unripened centre.

#5.  Wagon Wheel.  This is Cowgirl Creamery’s newest cheese, aged for 60 days.  It is European in style, based on Asiago, and matured in 10-12kg wheels.  It is pale yellow in colour and has a soft-medium firmness and a floral, fruity flavour.

 

#2: Flagship (Beechers Handmade Cheese, Seattle)

 The Beechers shop/factory is in a great location opposite the Pike Place Market in Seattle.  Glass on three sides of the small cheese making room allow both shop customers and those on the sidewalk to see what is going on in the vats.  At one end of the shop visitors can also view into a small controlled environment ripening chamber where a small number of cloth bound wheels are ripening.  These are the “Flagship Reserve” cheeses, and there are not many of them – most of the cheese appears to be made into 40lb blocks.

Flagship appears to be true to its namesake – the flagship of the Beechers factory – but they also sell a variety of other styles sourced from their own factory as well as others in California, USA and Europe.  Flagship is essentially a Cheddar style, but has slightly fruity and nutty notes, and is less sharp than we were expecting from a 12 month old Cheddar.  We learnt afterwards that they use thermophilic cultures for this cheese – or as they put it “we use cultures from Emmental and Gruyere”.

 A really good use for this cheese is in macaroni cheese – as they expertly demonstrate in the “famous mac’n’cheese” available from the cheese bar.  In this they use Flagship as well as another of their own cheeses, and I’m pretty sure some cayenne pepper.  It really is quite delicious – not the sort of package made, “American Cheddar” type of mac’n’cheese I was expecting in the US.   

Beechers location and view across Puget Sound

Flagship Reserve maturing

Mac'n'cheese with the raw ingredient being made in the background

Poutine

This is not technically a cheese, but a dish containing cheese, so it doesn't get the honor of #2. But Poutine was on our list of things we had to experience in Canada.  We found an East Coast Canada diner "Frenchies" which specialised in the stuff.  As the picture shows, it is simply potato fries with gravy and fresh cheese curds on top.  We had the most simple version (the one shown is the serving for two, but we couldn't finish it). Other dishes had extra toppings like bacon, brisket, smoked fish, you name it they had it.  It was pretty tasty, but to be honest it was pretty much what it looks like - a big pile of fries, gravy and curd.  And not very healthy.  But definitely glad we gave it a try.

The same evening, seeing as it was our 2nd wedding anniversary, we visited the Oakwood Canadian Bistro in Kitsilano for dinner.  These guys make everything (including bread, sauces, pasta etc) from scratch in the kitchen and source everything from within 100km of Vancouver.  I had the Dungeness Crab tortellini with burnt butter sauce (delicious) and Sandi had the pork belly, which was cooked properly and just fell apart without the need for a knife.  But the star of the show was dessert.  The "Nanaimo custard" was in fact a delicious egg custard made with milk from Nanaimo (a town on Vancouver Island) inside a Mason jar, and on top was a ganache with pecans and coconut thread.  So yum.

Poutine from Frenchies

#1. Armstrong Cheddar, Canada

#1 is not particularly exciting, but it's the first cheese we have tasted since leaving New Zealand.  It was Armstrong mature Cheddar which we purchased in the IGA supermarket at Whistler. 

This cheese is made by Saputo, sort of the Canadian Fonterra, but we suspect most Canadians would not have much of an opinion about Saputo given the relative proportion of dairy income in this country compared to NZ (where everyone seems to have an opinion about Fonterra, whether they know much about it or not).  But anyway, back to the cheese.  Typical Cheddar flavour, similar to a young Tasty cheese in New Zealand but with less grassy/oceanic note, quite well balanced although a hint of bitterness.  Interestingly, the packaging said the moisture content was 39% and the fat content 31%, so to us this didn't really seem like a true Cheddar.  When we melted it in some quesadillas it behaved more like an Edam/Gouda style which, as its composition would have suggested. 

Packaging was pretty simple (no picture sorry) being a clear flow-wrapped sleeve for this 250g block.  The cheese was quite hard to get back into the sleeve when we wanted to put it back in the fridge, but once we managed to poke it back in, the loose wrapping could be folded over to sort of prevent it drying out. 

Hoping #2 is a bit more exotic! 

Our mission

OK, we'll admit it, we are cheese geeks.  We know there are some fantastic cheeses made in New Zealand, but we are on a mission to discover more about traditional/artisinal cheeses from other parts of the world.  As we experience these cheeses and the culture that goes with it, we will post them on this blog for everyone to share.