Tag: 37

Editor’s note: A few weeks ago, we posted about our recent visit to Consider Bardwell Farm in West Pawlet, Vermont. After our visit, we made our way north to Greensboro, home of Jasper Hill Farm. We were going to do a write up on that too, but a young lady at Jasper Hill asked if we’d post something she wrote. So instead, we will be featuring her as a guest blogger. Her post is below.

Hello.

My name is Maple, and I like you. A lot. Please pet me.

I am, how do you humans say? Ah yes, The Best. And the prettiest. And the humblest too. Also, I am very young. Just six months! It’s so lovely to be young and pretty, isn’t it? It can easily go to your head. At least I’d imagine. I’m too humble for that. Tee hee!

I am the first heifer to be raised at Jasper Hill. It’s a great place to grow up! If you’d allow, I would like to give you a tour of my home.

Great!

This is where I live:

Beautiful, no? I spend most of my time hanging out in the open space between the two barns. Well, it’s much more than just hanging out; I suppose I was being humble again. Really I spend most of my time in that open space studying. I want to learn to make the best cheese possible, and I take my duties very seriously. And I’d probably be much more productive if I didn’t share the space with a pair of frenetic goats. There’s always kidding around. That was a pun. They are teaching me a little how to joke. Ha ha!

Most of my mentors live in the blue barn. My goal is to one day grow up to provide milk as rich and flavorful as theirs. And I tell ya, the folks at Jasper are doing a real good job turning it into incredible cheese. Just look at what’s happening in their caves!

 

Such wonder in those cellars! That’s Bayley Hazen right when it’s pierced, and then as it’s getting its blue on. And then stacks on stacks of Cabot Clothbound Cheddar. And finally, my pal Joe wrapping green Harbisons in spruce cambium. When you walk into his cellar, there’s soothing folk music bouncing off the walls, with the most pleasing acoustics. I certainly do not take for granted that I get to live at one of the most state-of-the-art, innovative, standard bearing artisanal cheese facilities in the whole country. I’m a real lucky duck. Joking again! As you know, I’m actually a cow.

At the very end of January, some humans from Murray’s came up to visit. They were tasting through all that Cabot Clothbound, selecting the batches that they want to sell. One of the things I’ve learned in my studies is that we here at Jasper actually have four distinct flavor profiles for our Cabot Clothbound. For example, one profile is Umami & Roasted, and it has a spidergraph that looks like this:

You can, in fact, read all about those flavor profiles here.

Murray’s, however, hand-selects their own wheels, not based on our profiles but rather on their own. They look for a deep, caramelized, almost candied sweetness. And they come up to the farm every quarter to do just that. Which is exciting for me, because everyone who visited was so great! Especially the copywriter, who is so cool and fun and has toned muscles.

I’d love to tell you more, but I want to hit the books some more before the sun goes down. Better get a moo’ve on. Ha ha! I had a lot of fun writing this letter to all you fine people and hope to get invited to do another one soon. Thanks for reading!

Curdiously,
Maple

You’ve known since childhood that “an Apple a day keeps the doctor away…” but now that you’re all grown up, you may have also discovered that when pressed for juice and allowed to ferment and age, apples can become just what the doctor ordered!  We’re talking, of course, about cider, that underappreciated cousin of beer and wine that shows up in force at bars and bottle shops this time of year, announcing to all that Autumn is here. 

At its simplest, cider is nothing more than the juice of pressed apples, fermented by the yeasts native to apple skins.  It has a long history in the United States, going back to the first English colonies, and was more commonly consumed than beer in the years before the German and Irish immigrant populations and their beer brewing traditions became fully incorporated into the American melting pot.  Nearly wiped out entirely by Prohibition, cidermaking has seen a renaissance in the last 40 years in parallel with craft brewing, winemaking, and artisan cheesemaking.

While we might associate ciders most often with the autumn colors of New York and New England, they are produced throughout the year and around the world, from the warm and wet English West Country; to the rolling fields of Normandy and Brittany; to the rustic, rugged mountains of the Basque Country.  These regional ferments evolved in response to the same geographic, economic, and cultural constraints as the cheeses consumed in their vicinities, and as such make brilliant terroir pairings.

We’re delighted to share a flight of cheese and cider pairings from three esteemed cider and cheese producing regions, so that you can break free of the repressive stranglehold Pumpkin Spice has taken upon our society, and celebrate fall with the simple bliss of a classic harvest beverage.

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Cidre Bouché 2016 Unfiltered Hard Apple Cider

Domaine Dupont (Pays D’Auge, Normandy, France)

From a region of apple growers influenced by their winemaking countrymen to the South comes this crisp, elegant, pleasantly sweet unfiltered Apple Cider; a perfect complement to its Norman counterpart, Camembert.

• Deep amber-bronze color and a clean nose with subtle citrus and berry notes
• A creamy mouthfeel, with rich, velvety effervescence like cream soda
• Its flavor profile is a rounded, focused sweetness reminiscent of red grapes. It makes its presence known right away, and then recedes, making room for powerful brine and cooked broccoli flavors of farmstead Camembert

Pairings:  Murray’s Camembert; Murray’s Brie Fermier; Jasper Hill Moses Sleeper

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Shacksbury Dry Hard Apple Cider

Shacksbury Cider (Vergennes, Vermont)

This light, tart, rustic cider is a cocktail of 10 distinct heirloom apple varieties grown in Vermont and England, fermented in part by yeasts native to the apples themselves.  Aged over six months, its sweetness is present but dialed back, laying the stage for firm, lactic, tangy cheddar to work its magic.

• A pale yellow color, with yeast and funky barnyard aromas
• A light, smooth, clean mouthfeel, punctuated by large bubbles
• Dry, as its name suggests, with a prickly tartness, it is a wonderful complement to the tangy fruit and sweet cream notes in its Vermont counterpart, Cabot Clothbound Cheddar

Pairings:  Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, Murray’s High Plains Cheddar, Murray’s Cavemaster Reserve Stockinghall Cheddar

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Byhur “24” Sidra Apardunia

Astarbe Sagardotegia (Astigarraga, Basque Country, Spain)

An intensely dry bubbly with a hint of bitterness, produced from two proprietary apple varieties on a 450 year old estate in the heart of Basque cider country.  Pairs wonderfully with Ossau-Iraty, or as a substitute for Champagne alongside a decadent a triple crème.

• Dark, yellow-orange color and clean, tart, green apple aromas
• Light and crisp on the tongue, highly effervescent, and as dry as they come
• With a balanced flavor profile, long finish, and slight hint of bitterness, it showcases the complex sweet, savory, pecan, and lanolin of Ossau-Iraty and other rich Basque sheep’s milk cheeses.

Pairings:  Ossau-Iraty, Pyrenees Brebis, Roncal, Nettle Meadow Sappy Ewe, Brebirousse D’Argental, Cremeaux de Borgogne

Written by: Tyler Frankenberg, Murray’s Cheese

When the first crisp breezes of autumn are in the air, you know it’s time for Oktoberfest – that boisterous celebration of Bavarian heritage that despite its name falls in mid-September, heralded by clinking steins and the joyous pulse of oompah music.

Marzen, the style of lager traditionally drunk at Oktoberfest, is named for the month of March, when it was produced in compliance with medieval Bavarian law that prohibited brewing during the summer months.

Given that Oktoberfest beers are consumed in full liter increments, it’s no surprise that they are known for supreme drinkability.  But don’t mistake this genre for swill – here are three unique American and German Marzens that make excellent complements to some of the world’s finest cheeses.

Oktoberfest Marzen-style Lager

Blue Point Brewing Company (Patchogue, NY)

Consider this your warmup round, or appetizer – a light, sweet, floral, thirst-quenching brew that invites savory accompaniments and thus lends itself to a wide range of possible cheese pairings.

• A golden-hued, light bodied, very balanced and highly quaffable lager
• Pleasant yeasty and floral aromas accompany a dominant malty sweetness – a perfect complement to equally light bodied, but lemony and tangy soft goat’s milk cheeses
• It’s so easy to drink this beer, you might forget to move on to the next two if you’re not careful!

Cheese Pairings:   Humboldt Fog, Chabichou du Poitou, Pico Picandine, Westfield Farm Capri, Bucheron

2017 Oktoberfest Marzen-style Lager

Sierra Nevada (Chico, CA) & Brauhaus Miltenberger (Miltenberg, Germany)

With this American-German collaboration, Sierra Nevada and Brauhaus Miltenberger offer a brew that packs more punch without sacrificing drinkability.  Its forward hoppiness does well with cheddars and fudgy Alpine style cheeses.

• Deep, hazy amber tone with aromas of dewy grass and subtle tangerine notes
• Creamy mouthfeel with a focused citrus-peel bitterness that conditions the taste buds for a rich, nutty and tangy pairing – think American cheddars and Alpine-style cheeses
• There’s more here to be savored, but don’t mistake this for sipping beer. Drink, eat, repeat!

Pairings:  5 Spoke Creamery Tumbleweed, Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, Consider Bardwell Rupert, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Milton Creamery Flory’s Truckle

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Smoked Marzen-style Lager

Brauerei Heller (Bamberg, Germany)

The final selection, from Bavaria’s historic Brauerei Heller, fires on all cylinders, making it a superb accompaniment to strong, buttery blues and sweet fruit preserves.

• Dark mahogany color, with aromas of smoke and black cherry syrup
• Light to medium body, with a slightly tart lingering finish, this Marzen nevertheless drinks like a heavier beer due to the intensity of the smoke
• Time for dessert – sip this bad boy alongside a rich, creamy blue cheese topped with cherries in syrup or preserved walnuts

Pairings:  Chiriboga Blue, Persille de Rambouillet, Cambozola Black Label, Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese, Fourme d’Ambert

Written by: Tyler Frankenberg, Murray’s Cheese