Whey Tasty
'You can make a really fine cheese with pasteurized milk.' Allison Hooper, co-founder Vermont Creamery
When Allison Hooper and Bob Reese from Vermont Creamery told a story about stopping to buy a butter churn that was sitting on the roadside back in the 80's, I pictured a small old wooden barrel with a stick coming out of the top. When I saw the giant metal vat they used to first start producing their European-style cultured butter, my romantic delusions of butter and cheese making were quickly replaced by the more scientific realty.
The butter room was not a quaint farmstead shed. The churn was not set into to motion by the turning of a pretty milkmaid or a handsome farmhand, but by an on-off switch. And, cheese making it seems is more biotechnical than I ever would have guessed.
When we first arrived at Vermont Creamery, we were treated to a buffet of crème fraîche, butter, various cheeses, plums and crackers. This came only an hour and a half after a fabulous multi-course feast at Farmer's Diner in Middlebury (details to come next week). As stuffed as CME and I still were, we had a small taste of everything on the buffet while we listened to Allison and Bob talk about the creamery's history.
We were in Vermont as part of a group of 30 people participating in a 'wheycation' offered by the West Village specialty shop Murray's Cheese. The Vermont Creamery specializes in creating artisanal cheeses, butter and crème fraîche. Someone in the group asked the question that was on many a mind: 'What exactly is crème fraîche anyway?' It is a rich cultured cream. The buffet also included fromage blanc, a new taste for my tongue. Fromage blanc is a French-style fat free cheese that is similar in consistency to yogurt.
Out of the buffet offerings, I most enjoyed the aged goat cheeses: bijou, bonne bouche and coupole. The bonne bouche is not only fun to pronounce, it was the most flavorful of the three. The cheese is ripened with the ash of poplar trees. Isn't it just wild that the ash from a particular tree can impart such a wonderful flavor into cultured milk from a goat? And who was the first person to think about using ash in cheese making?
If you're interested in learning more about different types of cheese, you can visit the Retailer/Press Resources page on the Vermont Creamery website. It contains recipe cards with information about and a recipe for each cheese. You can also read about the cultured butter, which because it begins with cultured cream, has a higher fat content than the standard butter sold in the U.S.
Before entering the creamery, we were asked to don white lab coats, hair caps and blue plastic shoe coverings. We stepped into and out of a shallow shoe bath as we entered the rooms where the cheese is dried and aged. The pungent smell of cheese mingled in my nose with a lingering chemical scent, perhaps from whatever is used to keep the surfaces in the rooms spotless.
After the aging and drying rooms, we saw huge containers where the curd is separated from the whey (which now makes me wonder, why was Miss Muffet eating both the curds and the whey?).
CME decked out in the creamery
And the butter... well, in addition to the first clunker of an industrial churn, the creamery had a custom-made high tech churn from France with an adjustable setting for the fat percentage. Fancy and neat!
As Allison led our tour from room to room, I began to understand cheese making is a complex process that requires an intricate balancing of micro-organisms. The wrong tiny bacteria or fungi can create a very large problem. In fact, an errant yeast in the curds and whey room (I'm sure it has a more technical name) ruined an entire batch of cheese. All surfaces in the creamery then had to be tested for the nasty little invader.
The tour was fascinating, but not very appetizing. I was a little relieved to shed the protective clothing and emerge back into the fresh air for more bites of tasty cheese.
Cheese drying with bay leaves
Perhaps most interesting, was the story of the creamery, their 25-year history and their relationship with local farmers. The artisanal techniques employed at the creamery may have developed out of French traditions, but their operation is all Vermont. Their goat and cow's milk comes exclusively from local farms, and they have a relationship with the farmers and the animals. (They even have goat nannies!)
And, although I've made it seem all very technical, it's the passion of Allison and Bob that make the creamery so successful. They have won quite a few accolades for the quality of the cheese and the butter. Allison shared a story about fellow cheese makers in France who could not believe her cheese was made from pasteurized milk, which is just unheard of in that nook of the world.
It was a wonderful visit. If you have an opportunity to visit a creamery, I highly recommend it! In the meantime, eat some cheese and stay tuned!
Next week... local in Vermont and local in LA. And a huge congrats to V. and J., not only on their nuptials but on throwing a great party!
'You can make a really fine cheese with pasteurized milk.' Allison Hooper, co-founder Vermont Creamery
When Allison Hooper and Bob Reese from Vermont Creamery told a story about stopping to buy a butter churn that was sitting on the roadside back in the 80's, I pictured a small old wooden barrel with a stick coming out of the top. When I saw the giant metal vat they used to first start producing their European-style cultured butter, my romantic delusions of butter and cheese making were quickly replaced by the more scientific realty.
The butter room was not a quaint farmstead shed. The churn was not set into to motion by the turning of a pretty milkmaid or a handsome farmhand, but by an on-off switch. And, cheese making it seems is more biotechnical than I ever would have guessed.
When we first arrived at Vermont Creamery, we were treated to a buffet of crème fraîche, butter, various cheeses, plums and crackers. This came only an hour and a half after a fabulous multi-course feast at Farmer's Diner in Middlebury (details to come next week). As stuffed as CME and I still were, we had a small taste of everything on the buffet while we listened to Allison and Bob talk about the creamery's history.
We were in Vermont as part of a group of 30 people participating in a 'wheycation' offered by the West Village specialty shop Murray's Cheese. The Vermont Creamery specializes in creating artisanal cheeses, butter and crème fraîche. Someone in the group asked the question that was on many a mind: 'What exactly is crème fraîche anyway?' It is a rich cultured cream. The buffet also included fromage blanc, a new taste for my tongue. Fromage blanc is a French-style fat free cheese that is similar in consistency to yogurt.
Out of the buffet offerings, I most enjoyed the aged goat cheeses: bijou, bonne bouche and coupole. The bonne bouche is not only fun to pronounce, it was the most flavorful of the three. The cheese is ripened with the ash of poplar trees. Isn't it just wild that the ash from a particular tree can impart such a wonderful flavor into cultured milk from a goat? And who was the first person to think about using ash in cheese making?
If you're interested in learning more about different types of cheese, you can visit the Retailer/Press Resources page on the Vermont Creamery website. It contains recipe cards with information about and a recipe for each cheese. You can also read about the cultured butter, which because it begins with cultured cream, has a higher fat content than the standard butter sold in the U.S.
Before entering the creamery, we were asked to don white lab coats, hair caps and blue plastic shoe coverings. We stepped into and out of a shallow shoe bath as we entered the rooms where the cheese is dried and aged. The pungent smell of cheese mingled in my nose with a lingering chemical scent, perhaps from whatever is used to keep the surfaces in the rooms spotless.
After the aging and drying rooms, we saw huge containers where the curd is separated from the whey (which now makes me wonder, why was Miss Muffet eating both the curds and the whey?).
CME decked out in the creamery
And the butter... well, in addition to the first clunker of an industrial churn, the creamery had a custom-made high tech churn from France with an adjustable setting for the fat percentage. Fancy and neat!
As Allison led our tour from room to room, I began to understand cheese making is a complex process that requires an intricate balancing of micro-organisms. The wrong tiny bacteria or fungi can create a very large problem. In fact, an errant yeast in the curds and whey room (I'm sure it has a more technical name) ruined an entire batch of cheese. All surfaces in the creamery then had to be tested for the nasty little invader.
The tour was fascinating, but not very appetizing. I was a little relieved to shed the protective clothing and emerge back into the fresh air for more bites of tasty cheese.
Cheese drying with bay leaves
Perhaps most interesting, was the story of the creamery, their 25-year history and their relationship with local farmers. The artisanal techniques employed at the creamery may have developed out of French traditions, but their operation is all Vermont. Their goat and cow's milk comes exclusively from local farms, and they have a relationship with the farmers and the animals. (They even have goat nannies!)
And, although I've made it seem all very technical, it's the passion of Allison and Bob that make the creamery so successful. They have won quite a few accolades for the quality of the cheese and the butter. Allison shared a story about fellow cheese makers in France who could not believe her cheese was made from pasteurized milk, which is just unheard of in that nook of the world.
It was a wonderful visit. If you have an opportunity to visit a creamery, I highly recommend it! In the meantime, eat some cheese and stay tuned!
Next week... local in Vermont and local in LA. And a huge congrats to V. and J., not only on their nuptials but on throwing a great party!
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