Warren: Another wonderful Ontario cheese milk producer this time from Conn Ontario also fairly close to Stratford.
Hugh: This is Ewenity Dairy and Ewenity Dairy’s been around for few years, probably they’re best known she use is this one here the Utah which is large style which means basically it’s modeled after the best year European sheep’s milk just like Manchego but a bigger more complex lemon taste. The cheese maker’s been around for few years and they’re just now expanding into newer and more unusual styles of cheese. So, I’ve got a sheep’s milk wash rind on the right, the roux.
Warren: Why is that so rare?
Hugh: Usually, washed rinds are made with cow’s milk. Sheep’s milk will sometimes behave in strange ways when you--
Warren: It’s much more temperamental.
Hugh: Yes, temperamental, difficult to work with. There are also not as much of it. So, it’s not as many sheep’s milk producers, not as many sheep’s milk have wash rinds. One of the very few Ontario producers that works with raw milk, so of these cheeses here I’ve got two raw milk cheeses, the Utah—which is a raw milk version of the Utah and the—which is a large bloomy rind, really soft runny raw milk cheese.
Warren: Now, does that translate the flavor because I’m finding this to be the most flavorful of the soft sheep’s milk.
Hugh: Raw milk usually is going to directly translate the taste. There’s going to be bigger, more complex flavors in raw milk than in milk that’s been pasteurized. And as long it’s been aged 60 days, you’re entirely welcome to use raw milk in your cheese making. So, this one at two months when it’s released is pretty much at the perfect stage of ripeness. So, you’ll never get one of this that’s under ripe.
Warren: So, pasteurization, while boiling out some of the harmful bacteria also eliminates some of the tasty?
Hugh: Boils that have all the flavor. Good pasteurized cheese is—
Warren: I won’t say olive because this is still a fine cheese.
Hugh: That one’s being pasteurized.
Warren: I know that’s what I’m saying, I see this is still fine cheese.
Hugh: Basically, a good pasteurized cheese is one of the cheese maker has added flavor back into, added all of the cultures that gives the cheese its flavor back in after they’ve been boiled out.
Warren: Let’s talk about this one.
Hugh: This one here is a small ferment cheese called the —. It makes a whole range of really small sheep’s milk. This one, the—is very dense rich sort of similar to Crottin or a Chabichou from France. A big, strong, sheepy flavor, a lot of grass, almost lanolin or meat-taste to it, and they ripen really quickly and beautifully so the insides will often be almost liquid, really runny and flavorful.
Warren: And then they also produce a wonderful feta?
Hugh: They do. This is raw milk feta and this is a strong feta. If you like big fetas, these one’s sharp, it’s salty, it’s powerful, ton of taste that goes well beyond what people expect from fetas.
Warren: Some that’s going to stand up well to strong olives something like that in the—
Hugh: And really dense and firm as well so it adds a lot of texture in anything you use it on.
Warren: And these are also very popular with our restaurants, all of these products?
Hugh: These ones are really popular at restaurants because they’re small, they’re local, they’re artisan, very few people know about them and they make great cheese.
Warren: High quality.
Hugh: Absolutely.
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