Second Mouse Cheese Co 'Frieda' & 'Henri'

Frieda
Washed Rind
100g squares

Henri
Semi-hard
2kg wheels

Cow's milk
Central West
secondmousecheeseco.com.au  

At about this time every year, I share my latest finds from judging at the Sydney Royal Cheese & Dairy Produce Show. This year I discovered two cheeses - Frieda and Henri. I had 'met' Frieda a few years ago, when she had just been created by cheesemaker Kai Woltman, of Second Mouse Cheese Co. Since then, I've watched her evolve and she is now looking (and tasting) stunning, with her proud orange rind, silky interior and bold but balanced flavour.

Second Mouse Cheese Co
'Frieda'

Frieda is named after Kai's mother, who was still alive when Kai created the cheese in her honour. "She had a very strong personality," says Kai, "so it made sense to create a washed rind cheese for her." Kai grew up in Germany, and lived across the road from a cheesemaker who produced Tilsit. Like most Germans, he ate cheese every day.

When both of Kai's parents passed away a couple of years ago, he decided to create a cheese named after his father, Henri. Kai's father and family had a small dairy in Germany, and they made fresh cheeses for their own enjoyment. "My father was a sweet, kind man," said Kai, which is reflected in the sweet, milky flavours of Henri (the cheese).

Second Mouse Cheese Co
'Henri'

The cheese is a unique semi-hard style - "not Gouda, or Edam or Swiss," explains Kai, but inspired by all of those classics. It has a lovely natural rind and golden interior, which is strewn with small 'eyes' reminiscent of proper Danish Havarti. The supple texture balances beautifully with the mild, milky flavour, and it finishes with a lovely sweet note.

Both cheeses are a fitting tribute to their namesakes.

La Stella Latticini 'Nodini'

Stretched curd
Cow's milk
Sydney
30g each
www.lastellalatticini.com.au

"Passion, as everyone knows, is red." That's the first thing you'll read when you open the La Stella Latticini website. "In our case, though, it's white."

My passion is finding beautiful new cheeses, and this is the first Nodini I've come across in NSW. They're "little knots" that fit in the palm of your hand, made in the same way as fresh mozzarella or bocconcini, but hand-tied into a knot instead of shaped into a ball.

La Stella Latticini
'Nodini'

I judged the Nodini at the Sydney Royal Cheese Show last month, and awarded them a gold medal, along with La Stella Latticini's beautiful burrata, and light-as-a-cloud ricotta.

It wasn't just the shape that caught my eye, but the beautifully fine filaments when I tore the knots apart. Fine filaments - like shredded, cooked chicken breast - are the mark of fine craftsmanship in stretched curd cheeses, and these are the finest I've seen in years. And the flavour was clean and sweet, and marvellously milky.

How to eat? Simply with cherry tomatoes, basil and olive oil, or with the Autumn bounty of fresh figs and a drizzle of pomegranate molasses.

Pecora Dairy 'Mezza'

Semi-hard
Ewe's milk (East Friesian)
Southern Highlands
random weight wedges
8 weeks-8 months maturation
www.pecoradairy.com.au

Most wine-lovers are prepared to pay more for an aged bottle of wine, but would the average cheese-lover fork out a few extra dollars for a matured cheese?

It's a dilemma many small cheesemakers face - how to balance cash-flow with a desire to produce cheeses that require maturation of more than a few weeks. Think of it this way - every 1kg of cheese sitting quietly in a cheese maturation cellar represents around 10 litres of milk that the cheesemaker has not yet made any return on.

Pecora Dairy 'Mezza'

At peak maturity of 8 or 9 months, Pecora Dairy's "Mezza" has all the richness, complexity and elegance of the best Basque-style cheeses, the best-known of which is Ossau-Iraty.

It's a shame, then, that most of the "Mezza" sold is barely a few months old. The younger version is a very pleasant cheese with clean, fresh flavours, but the aged version fills the mouth with toasted nuts and caramel and lingers with a hint of lanolin on the finish. And there's something magical about the very fine-grained texture, which is smooth and dense and utterly scoffable.

(Scoffable, by the way, is not a technical term, and unlikely to have been used by any of the judges who recently awarded Mezza a gold medal at the Sydney Royal Cheese Show.)

So my plea is two-fold: please, wonderful cheesemakers, have the confidence and patience to give your beautiful cheeses the time they deserve to fully develop their potential. And please, dear consumers, reward their efforts by paying a little bit more for these cheeses that are aged to perfection.

Little Creek Cheese 'BBQ Cheese'

Haloumi-style
Cow's milk
Central Coast
Approx. 200g random weight packs
www.littlecreekcheese.com.au

Summer may have ended, but it's never too late to throw another piece of cheese on the barbie.

I discovered this appropriately-named "BBQ cheese" (aka haloumi) while judging at this year's Sydney Royal Cheese Show. It was the only gold-medal cheese in the Haloumi class, and I was delighted when I found out it came from this small producer on the Central Coast.

Little Creek 'BBQ Cheese'

The Little Creek Cheese team consists of Russell & Sue Parsons, and Sue's son Alex Nelson, and they've been making cheese in the old Wyong milk factory for almost two years. Milk comes from the Riverina co-op and the cheeses are sold at the factory and various farmers' markets on the Central Coast.

So what makes a gold-medal-winning haloumi? When seared in a hot pan (we don't use oil when judging), the surface should caramelise evenly, and the inside should soften without running too much. The texture shouldn't be tough or chewy, and the salt shouldn't overpower the fresh, milky flavours.

Little Creek's excellent example ticks all of those boxes, and comes with a catchy name too. After all, isn't it what most of us do with haloumi?

Bangalow Cheese Co 'Nashua'

Washed rind
Cow's milk (mixed Friesian/Guernsey/Jersey/Swiss Brown)
Northern Rivers
150g discs
6 weeks maturation
www.bangalowcheese.com.au

I love this cheese. I first discovered it at the ASCA Sydney Cheese Show in 2009, where I nominated it as best cheese in show. Sadly, my affection was not shared by the other judges at that particular show, and another cheese took the gong on the day.

Clearly, I was ahead of the times, because at the Sydney Royal Cheese Show in 2010, it won Gold in its class, as well as Champion Bovine Cheese and Champion Fancy Cheese.

Bangalow Cheese Co 'Nashua'

Cheesemaker Justin Telfer washes the infant cheeses in a salty brine, then lets a little bit of bloomy white mould develop on the surface. His approach is very much about allowing the cheeses to develop distintive characteristics depending on the season, and the subtle changes in each batch of milk.

Like many Australian washed rind cheeses, 'Nashua' is at its best in Autumn. When perfectly ripe, its texture is soft and pillowy, and it oozes invitingly when cut. The best batches have a distinctive hint of earth and truffles in amongst all that golden gooeyness.

After a break from the limelight last year, 'Nasha' was back to form at this year's Sydney Royal where it again earned a Gold medal in its class, and the Trophy for Champion Fancy Cheese. Not bad for a little hand-made cheese from a little town in the Northern Rivers.

Pecora Dairy 'Jamberoo Mountain' Blue

Blue mould
Ewe's milk (East Friesian)
Southern Highlands
~700g barrels
10-12 weeks maturation
www.pecoradairy.com.au

At exactly this time last year, Michael & Cressida McNamara did a really brave thing. They entered their 'Jamberoo Mountain' Blue into the Sydney Royal Cheese Show. With just under 1000 products entered into the competition that year, it might not seem like such a bold move, but here's the thing: the McNamara's had not yet sold a piece of their precious blue cheese.

Pecora Dairy
'Jamberoo Mountain' Blue

They had, however, been making cheese for over 6 years, with around 150 experimental batches, before building the confidence to launch their creation. Their hard work and determination to make an excellent product paid off, when they won the only Gold Medal in the entire class of Sheep's Milk Cheese in the show.

As a judge at that show, I recall being excited and intrigued at this exquisite blue cheese that I'd never come across before - and even more excited when I learned that it was made by a new producer from NSW.

'Jamberoo Mountain' Blue's character is still evolving, but the most recent batch I tried had delicate flavours of white flowers and apricots, with that tell-tale sheep's milk sweetness. The texture was moderately firm, with a very creamy mouthfeel. It really is ewe-nique!