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Saturday, March 20, 2010

My new cheese: Hawks Mountain







I like this cheese so much that I named it!
I've been waiting five months for this; it's the result of my quest to make a mountain cheese, or at least my idea of a mountain cheese.  It's rugged on the outside, but tender and delicious on the inside.  This morning, I gave it the omelette test with local araucana eggs, and it passed with flying colors!







This cheese is made using traditional methods, and I'm pretty sure you could make it anywhere:  no special equipment needed.  Which is fortunate, since all but one burner on my stovetop have given up. 

Although I must admit, I love the special equipment, techniques and doodads that go along with cheesemaking.  In real life, I'm a technical person, so all the discipline around temperature, cultures, pH, time, salinity, pressure, and humidity, fascinate me.  The forms, moulds, cheesecloths, draining mats, presses, racks and refrigeration units..... so much to consider.

This cheese isn't too particular, however.  It's a washed-rind cheese, which means that during the aging process,  a couple of times per week it gets a brine rubdown, with a bit of extra culture to bring on the color and flavor.   It just happens that the milk, the culture, the technique, have come together in a very nice way.




So it's named for Hawks Mountain, which sends water and wildlife our way.




2 comments:

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