Featured Cheese - August 2023

Carr Valley Pinconning is made from an old recipe by Carr Valley Cheese Company in Wisconsin, which was established in 1902 and continues to employ the hand cheese-making skills of four generations. A mild blend of colby and cheddar cheeses, Carr Valley produces its Pinconning in large thirty-eight pound wheels which we slice into long narrow wedges for our club members. Carr Valley Pinconning is a yellow semi-hard style cheese with an open texture, which allows it to age quite well from mild to super sharp. This cheese is typically eaten instead of Cheddar or Colby, and works well in macaroni and cheese or in omelets and soufflés.

The most famous Dutch cheese, Edam, is made with partially-skimmed cow's milk, and is meant to be eaten within weeks of its creation, while it's still smooth. Pasteurized milk is heated and bacteria is added to increase the acidity level. Liquid rennet is added to create curd, and the curd is cut into tiny pieces, then heated, drained, molded and pressed. After the cheese is salted, it ripens and is exported wrapped in red wax.

This mouthwatering Basque cheese is believed to be one of the oldest in Europe, dating back 5,000 years. It's made from 100% sheep’s milk from the famed brebis sheep that graze in the valleys of Ossau and Iraty. These small creamy-brown sheep have helped make several well-known cheeses, including the famed Roquefort. Ossau Iraty is ivory in color with a natural dry thick rind that can range from an orangish yellow to a dark brownish gray. Aged for approximately eight months, this semi firm cheese has a slightly oily texture with a savory and sweet nutty flavor with hints of figs, hazelnuts, and olives.

Aged for 4-6 months, Flat Rock’s rind is a rich amber hue. Just under the rind the cheese itself is also a rich golden color. The paste is firm but still pliable and supple. It has an assertive aroma and an intense buttery, fruity, toasted hazelnut flavor profile that’s balanced nicely with a touch of lactic acidity and sweet grass. As it warms to room temperature, you can almost taste the terroir where the herd grazed as fragrances of bright vegetation emerge.

BiancoSardo’s texture is drier, similar to an aged Parmigiano Reggiano, crumbly with heaps of flavor crystals (tyrosine). It’s considered to be an 'old world' cheese. The flavor is savory and sweet from the sheep's milk, slightly herbal and earthy closer to the rind, and tangy, while offering a balanced amount of salinity. Though sharp and full flavored, BiancoSardo’s flavor profile and surprisingly creamy mouthfeel will please many palates.

Ombra, unlike any other Spanish sheep’s milk cheese, is a four-month aged small format wheel showing a natural mottled gray rind. The small round wheels, roughly two pounds each, offer a firm snowy white paste. As the cheese ages, it becomes studded with crunchy nuggets of crystalized amino acids and turns a warm buttery color. As the cheese warms to room temperature, butterscotch and bright tropical pineapple notes emerge...