Bleu Mont Dairy Bandaged Cheddar

Bleu Mont Dairy Bandaged Cheddar

Last night, I arrived at the gym, only to realize I’d left my running shoes at home; I immediately understood this to be a sign from god that instead of exercising, I should be spending the evening eating good cheese.

On the return home, I stopped at Marion Street Cheese Market and got a bandaged cheddar from Bleu Mont Dairy (of Blue Mounds, Wisconsin). This was pretty expensive fromage (something like $35/lb), but it was a 2006 American Cheese Society winner, so I gave it a shot.

Now, I basically evaluate cheddar in terms of sharpness: if it’s sharp, I usually like it; if it isn’t sharp, I usually don’t like it. This excellent cheddar called into question that simplistic standard.

Bleu Mont Cheddar is aged around 12 months, so it’s not sharp, but it did have a very firm and dense texture, almost crumbly, flecked lightly with salt crystals, and with a deep butteriness that I don’t usually associate with cheddar. Checking their site (http://tinyurl.com/yqurtv), I found that their cows are grass-fed and that the onset of winter may have lead to fattier milk and thus richer cheese.

This is a nibbling cheese (I don’t think I’d use it in, say, a toasted cheese sandwich – too subtle), and it has prompted me to reconsider the standards by which I judge cheddar. Sharpness, clearly, is not the only or even main determinant of a cheddar's goodness.

Hammond