A selection of Mercer cheeses

My father and his wife recently returned from a trip to Auckland, and stopped in at the Mercer Cheese shop just off State Highway 1 just North of Meremere, and purchased lots of different cheeses.  After dinner the other night, we tried a few. The rest we have in the fridge waiting for us - perhaps our Friday night treat with some wine.

A decent spread after dinner.

I have not written about Mercer Cheese before, but Sandi and I have met cheese maker Albert Alferink numerous times over the last 5 years or so.  Albert's cheeses have  won countless medals over the years at the NZ Champions of Cheese Awards, and Albert himself has won the Champion Cheesemaker Award (for the highest scoring cheese at the awards).  Being one of the traditional Dutch cheese makers in New Zealand, his specialty is Gouda - and it is fantastic.  In fact, Sandi and I used a Mercer mature Gouda as the bottom layer of our wedding (cheese) cake.  But more of that later, as I'm sure I will write about the Gouda one day in another post.

Today's cheeses on the menu were:

Walnut Gouda
This was a young, soft Gouda.  There were plenty of walnuts, and they were well distributed throughout the cheese. The flavour was quite sweet, a little diacetyl/buttery and fresh milky as you would expect.  The mouth feel was soft and creamy, and the nuts add an interesting alternative texture.  We thought this was a little under salted for a Gouda, but this may be because it was so young - as it matures and loses moisture it should come right.  But the slightly lower salt/sweet taste went very well with the walnut flavour - the result being that the young cheese as we ate it was absolutely delicious.  However we would like to see what this particular cheese would be like in a 3-6 months after a bit more maturing - even better?!

Goat Gouda
We have tasted the Mercer pecorino (sheep cheese) before, and it is fantastic.  Well the Goat Gouda is pretty good too.  It had the typical paler colour of many goat cheeses.  The cheese seemed to be quite well aged, as shown by the crystals in the body and the texture.  However, it had still retained a creamy, smooth and soft mouth feel typical of many goat cheeses.  Along with the strong savoury flavour, pineapple notes and balance between sweet and salt, the cheese was very difficult to stop eating.

Blue Vein (cow)
This appears to have been a 'special', perhaps one off batch.  The piece we tried was a rectangular piece of cheese with a little blue mould on the outside but only a little on the inside where there were a few spaces of 'mechanical openness'. We found the cheese very bitter around the areas of blue, but pleasant where there wasn't any blue.  The taste of the blue seemed young to me, so I might try and ripen it on in my garage maturing 'cave' and see if it mellows out with a bit of age. Not one of Albert's best experiments, but given some of his previous trials I have tried, there is still much promise.  

Beautiful video about affinage/Neal's Yard Dairy

I recently came across this short video that shows briefly what affinage means, but it also brings back fond memories of the people we worked with for a short time at Neal's Yard Dairy.  It was great working with such passionate people and you can see why the cheese they sell is so good.



Affinage from FoodieTV on Vimeo.

#45 - Goat Camembert by Over The Moon Dairy

On our way home from visiting a friend in Hamilton, we called into Over The Moon Dairy in Putaruru to see what cheesy treats they had in store.  The New Zealand Cheese School also operates from the same location, and between Sue, Neil and their cheese makers there is always some interesting cheese in the pipeline that may not be available at other retail locations.  The other benefit in buying direct from where the cheeses are made is that often there may be cheeses that are perhaps a little too ripe to be sent through the normal distribution chain to shops around the country - there may be only a few from a particular batch but it is possible to pick up some exceptional cheeses.

Case in point - when we dropped in there was a Manager's Special on the Goat Camemberts, and they felt nice and ripe, so for $3 we grabbed one without a second thought.  These were 10 weeks old and needed to be eaten straight away.

The rind appearance showed some age and a little colour suitable for a ripened camembert.  There was no 'goaty' aroma at all, which suggested the cheese had been made with good quality milk and with care during manufacture.

The paste was perfectly ripened all the way through - it was soft, creamy and smooth but not runny. It also had a lovely clean white colour typical of goats cheese.  The rind texture had a slight bite, but was still tender and not too thick - the texture balanced well with that of the cheese.

The flavour initially had a clean hit of goat milk, with some complex mushroomy and gentle herby flavours coming in.  The overall flavour was not as complex as a traditional French Camembert (which can often be a little too much for many people anyway), but still had loads of flavour - much more than many of the "Camemberts" on the market in New Zealand.

Between four of us this cheese did not last very long.  The more refined of us ate it on crackers (it didn't need anything else) but I just scoffed most of mine on it's own.  What a delicious cheese - I certainly will be looking for more next time we pass through Putaruru.
       

#44 - Blue Mistake by Crescent Dairy Goats

Back in March when I was on my way home from the NZ Champions of Cheese Awards, I called in at Crescent Dairy Goats near Kumeu just north-west of Auckland. I have already written a little about Crescent Dairy Goats in a previous post here.

Jan Walter kindly allowed me to taste through most of her 14 cheeses, which ranged from fresh cheese, to farmhouse hard ripened cheese at multiple ages, mould ripened styles and a washed rind.  But the one that caught my imagination was called "Blue Mistake". As Jan explained, some of their "farmhouse" hard style cheeses had a little openness in the curd and started growing some blue mould whilst they were maturing.  Rather than give up on the cheese like many large manufacturers would have done, Jan kept aging the cheese, and eventually when it was quite mature it was vacuum packed.  There were only a few pieces left, so rather then asking Jan to open one up for me to taste, I purchased one to take home and try out later on.  I definitely did not regret that decision.

The Blue Mistake had a great looking rind, all dark and blotchy with mixed moulds.  The aroma of the cheese was earthy, slightly "blue" but not strong, and lacking the strong lipase/fatty acid aroma many strong blues have (think Danish blues).  It was a lower moisture cheese so the blue enzymes hadn't run rampant over the rest of the cheese flavour development.

The texture of the Blue Mistake was actually more moist and less firm than expected. The flavour was salty and earthy.  There were some free fatty acids from the blue mould, but these were nicely in balance.  It had quite a subtle but complex flavour - made me think of some cheeses I have tried from Europe where the animals have been fed on a mixed pasture rather than a straight grass pasture. The blue was mostly around the outer 1/3rd of the cheese - although in this case that can't be considered a defect as the blue wasn't originally intended to be part of the cheese!

What I really like about this cheese was that the cheese itself was delicious and complex on it's own, with the blue mould adding an extra aspect to appreciate.

Washed rind cheese experiment

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was given a cheese on my visit to Lonely Goat to see how it went when I looked after it at home.  As best I can determine, Rae from Lonely Goat had washed some of her medium style cheeses (about 1.2kg rounds) once or twice with a solution containing B.linens, and had then vacuum sealed the cheeses.  The cheeses had been made in mid august 2013, so by the time I was given mine in December I estimate it would have spent 3 months sealed up and refrigerated at 4°C, with no further rind development.  So I was interested to see whether I could re-establish the rind flora at home and what sort of rind would develop.

 

First I had to find myself a spare fridge I could operate as a small ripening cave.  Thanks to Trade Me, I found a cheap fridge and also a temperature controller (the type used for controlling cool rooms) so that I could select a specific ripening temperature and have reasonable control rather relying on the fridge thermostat.  Finding and purchasing these, and then giving the fridge a really good clean took me a while, so by the time I was ready to get the cheese out of its sealed bag and into my new ‘cave’ it was already 7 months old.

So in the middle of March 2014, I removed the cheese from its bag, wiped it down, and put it on a rack in my fridge/cave.  I started by washing the rind every few days with a weak brine solution (about 3% salt in a cup of boiling water, then cooled).  i didn't have any B.linens culture to add to the brine, so had to hope there was still something left on the cheese surface (and in the "environment") to get a decent rind culture to develop.

The cheese on day 0 after the first wash.  At this point it was already 7 months old but looks quite young, almost like it was recently made.

Initially I started with a temperature of 10°C.  A day after the first wash, the rind was just tacky, I thought it was too dry.  So I put an ice cream container of water in the fridge next to the cheese to help add moisture and keep the humidity up.

Three days later, with another wash in between, I thought the rind was still a bit dry, so I increased the temperature to 12°C to try and reduce the amount of moisture condensing through refrigeration, and I also placed a plastic cake container over the cheese to help create a high moisture environment.

Ten days after starting, there was an obvious pink/creamy coloured culture forming on the rind.  It was what I had been hoping for - slightly tacky to the touch, but not wet.

The fridge cave environment.

After 10 days, a culture is developing on the rind.

A week later, I removed the cake container as I didn't want the cheese getting too moist, but I gave it a few more brine washes.

After a month in the fridge/cave, I stopped washing with brine, and instead just used a damp cloth to clean up the rind and just keep it moist.  At this stage, the rind had large areas of lighter colour which were dry, and I assumed these to be some sort of combined growth of bacteria and mould.  For the remaining few weeks, I didn't quite give the cheese the care I should have, what with travelling for Easter etc.  A weekly wipe was all it got. 

After 3 weeks.

When we cut the cheese open to taste, it was nearly 9 months old, and had spent approximately 7 weeks in my fridge cave. The rind was dry with flaky, powdery areas which we assumed to be minerals drawn to the rind due to the pH rising on the surface as the rind flora grew.  These powdery patches could easily be scraped off with a knife to improve the appearance of the cheese.

Cheese was cut 7 weeks after we first removed it from the vacuum bag and put it in the fridge.  

The cheese was reasonably crumbly inside, so I suspect it had lost a reasonable amount of moisture, but also the texture suggested to me that the cheese was probably reasonably low in pH originally.  However the texture was pleasant, with a moist mouthfeel.  Unfortunately I don’t know what the cheese tasted like when I received it, so I can’t really compare it to that.  But I can describe what it was like when we had finished ripening it.  The flavour was slightly goaty but not in an unpleasant billy goat way, and with a little contribution from lipase activity. There was a slight bitterness.  The rind tasted slightly earthy but not “smelly”.  

It was a tasty cheese, but it didn't quite all balance together as a cheese to eat on its own – however it has been an experiment so that is to be expected.  It was very nice on a cracker with some of our home made crabapple jelly, and was also great in a frittata and salad.  

Lonely Goat, Wanganui, NZ

Back in December I visited Rae and Brian Doughty at Lonely Goat, near Wanganui.

 

Rae and Brian make small batches of goats milk cheese from their 40 milking does, predominantly Saanen, with a few British Alpine and Anglo Nubians thrown in the mix.  Before setting up their little factory, they had milked goats to supply a large New Zealand goat milk company, and became interested in cheese making.  Originally self taught from books, after attending the New Zealand Cheese School they won two silver medals in 2010 at the NZ Champions of Cheese Awards.  The attention to detail shows is shown by the cleanliness and tidiness of their cheese making room.  Rae makes a variety of cheeses including feta, halloumi, small amounts of camembert, and a fresh cream cheese style, while Brian looks after the rest of the farm.  This is a retirement project, so batches are small and hand made, and generally only available in the local region.  Rae and Brian have a stall at the Wanganui Farmers Market, and the cheese is available at a few delicatessens in the surrounding region.  I will feature a couple of Lonely Goat Fetas in an upcoming post. 

Rae and Brian in their cheese room overlooking the garden and farm.  Courtesy of Lonely Goat.

 Rae also likes to experiment with recipes, flavours and coatings. While I was visiting, Rae showed me some cheeses that she had been encouraged to make by Calum Hodgson, a cheesemonger from Auckland.  Calum had urged Rae to try a washed rind version of her gouda style cheese, and Rae had washed a few with a solution of B.linens but then decided not to continue washing them and had vacuum sealed them.  It turns out Rae doesn’t like washed rind cheeses all that much.  But she gave me one to take home and see what I could do with it.  This sounded like a good challenge, and a good excuse to get myself set up with a spare fridge for ripening cheeses which I was always saying I “would do sometime”.  In my next post, I will talk in more detail about my little experiment with ripening the cheese that Rae gave me.

#43 - Vigneron by Woodside Cheesewrights

In February we were on holiday on the Fleurieu Peninsula south of Adelaide.  In 42 degree heat (that's over 105 deg F for those in the USA) we took a look around the Willunga Farmers Market in the McLaren Vale (most famous for its wines).  We found a little stand selling cheeses (yes, from a refrigerator!) and were attracted by a small goat milk cheese wrapped in vine leaves.  This reminded me of the French Banon, which is also made from goats milk, but is wrapped in chestnut leaves.  I had researched a little about Banon during my studies, but have not tried it myself - so we thought we woudl try the Vigneron.

Vigneron is made by Woodside Cheesewrights, a small producer in the Adelaide Hills region.  During production it is washed in white wine, presumably before it is wrapped in the vine leaves.  There was also some white mould under the vine leaves.  As I mentioned, it looks fantastic and is beautifully presented.  I couldn't wait to try it out!

We first cut the cheese in half.  It had a pleasant goaty aroma (not like a billy goat), with a slightly earthy note form the leaves.  There was quite uneven ripening through the cheese - the bottom side was turning quite liquid, and the top half was still an acidic, unripened curd.  Although in a goats milk cheese like this the unripened acidic curd still has a nice smooth texture (where in a cow's milk cheese I would expect it to be chalky and unpleasant).  Still, the overall difference between the two parts of the cheese felt like we were eating a nicely ripened goat camembert and a fresh lactic curd cheese both in one mouthful.  

Flavour wise, the ripened part was sweet, with some mushroomy notes from the rind.  There was a distinct flavour imparted from the vine leaves, with a slight bitterness at the end.  I quite liked the overall flavour of the cheese, but my wife and father-in-law both found something in the aftertaste that they did not like - so I was able to finish the whole thing myself (not all in one go - but in two sessions). 

Overall, an interesting cheese.  Perhaps it will not suit everybody, but worth a try at least once.  To give credit to Woodside Cheesewrights, the specific cheese we tried was probably not the best example of Vigneron available, given the number of awards this cheese has won.