Past Newsletters

Vol. 5 No. 3

40°S Longitude An Island of Fine Cheeses and Friendly People

King Island's "Roaring Forties" Blue Cheese

Roaring 40's Blue Cheese hails from King Island, located south of Melbourne at the Western end of Bass Strait. This small island in the Great Southern Ocean is one of the few lasting remnants of the land bridge that at one time linked the island of Tasmania to the Aus-tralian mainland. King Island is an exceptionally pictures-que spot on a fine day, but ferocious westerly winds which blow directly down the 40°S Longitude can, and do, create treacherous seas. These winds came to be known as the Roaring 40's, and are the basis for the mys-tique inherent in King Island's history. Hundreds of ships and thousands of souls have been lost in shipwrecks on its rocky shoreline. All around the island, you can find memorial cairns which tell about the lives of those shipwrecked, their brave rescuers, and the lighthouse keepers who worked tirelessly through the night. As you follow the maritime trail, youll find yourself transported back to the days when travel by ship was a very risky adventure.

It was these very tragedies that gave the island its unique ambiance, and literally seeded the foundation upon which the island's dairy industry now rests. During the 15th and 16th centuries, as the Roaring 40's swept their fury across the trade routes causing shipwrecks, straw mattresses from many parts of the world drifted ashore. Their seeds germinated in the rich island soils and created the lush pastures that set the King Island dairy industry apart. The dairy herds graze on these verdant, dense pastures, supplementing their rich diet occasionally with a helping of kelp washed up after heavy storms. There is no need for the artificial feed supplements and stock growth additives that other farmers have come to rely on. And so, King Island cows have become renowned for producing the sweetest, creamiest, purist milk, leading to an array of fine dairy products and award-winning cheeses many of which are acclaimed throughout Australia, and rapidly building extraordinary reputations in the international market place

Tasting Notes

Unlike typical French blue cheeses (e.g. Roquefort) made from ewe's milk, Roaring 40's Blue is made entirely from cow's milk which gives it a milder taste. Roaring Forties is a full bodied blue with a honeyed, slightly nutty quality and great aftertaste. It is a rindless cheese, matured in wax, which helps it retain moisture and creates a smooth and creamy texture. A Roquefort style mould is used to create this singular and exciting cheese style. Try pairing it with a smoky Australian Shiraz and, if you can find it, a currant walnut baguette. Delicious!

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Roaring 40's Blue is a choice pick for connoisseurs with a penchant for sweet delights. Its flavor is greatly enhanced by pristine natural resources, unscathed by pollution and human encroachment. These advantages, along with the year round grazing season, complement traditional island cheesemaking recipes to create this famous, untraditional Blue. Roaring 40's Blue is recognized by the most pres-tigious dairy and agricultural institutions in Australia. And in 2002, Roaring 40's Blue won “Champion Cheese” at the New York Fancy Food Fair, which is regarded as the most distinguished fair in the USA- attracting the finest quality products worldwide. Even if youre not typically a fan of blue cheese, this one usually wins people over with its buttery smooth, nutty flavor. Enjoy!

FYI - King Island: Currently, there are less than 2000 people on the island - the main livelihoods being fishing, kelp harvesting, beef, wool production, tourism, and the most renowned industry on King Island - dairying. If you care to know more about this beautiful island and its famous cheeses go to www.kingisland.org.au/-default.asp and www.kidairy.com.au/ and www.kingisland.org.au/kiship.asp. We think it sounds like a great vacation spot!

Morbier

Morbier Du Livradois comes to us in a fourteen pound wheel. We cut and wrap it in special papers to preserve the flavor and allow the cheese to breath this is very important for storing most cheeses. This European delight is made from raw cow's milk from the Savoie region in France, adding depth to the flavor and giving it a sweet taste and the smell of fresh hay. Aptly named (the word Morbier means "small market town"), Morbier was originally made by cheesemakers who lived in the village of Morez in the Jura Mountains of France. Situated in a deep valley, a few miles from the Swiss border, Morez is now surrounded by ski resorts - Les Rousses, Prémanon, Morbier, Bellefontaine, etc.

About two hundred years ago when Morbier was first made, the cheese-makers used left over curd from Comte production - Morbier was made strictly for the cheesemakers consumption. The look of this AOC cheese is quite distinctive with a horizontal gray-black line running through the middle of it. This "line" is actually a mixture of edible vegetable ash. The cheesemaker would press the leftover curd from the evening's production of Comte into a round mold and cover that curd with a thin layer of ash to prevent it from drying out. The next day he pressed the leftover morning curd on top of the ash. (Yes, cows need to be milked twice a day!) You could tell which layer of the cheese came from the evening milking, since it tastes fruitier than that from the morning milking.

There are lots of stories about how that ash became part of this cheese. One that sounds plausible is that the curd was left to sit by the fire overnight until the morning milking, and the ash from the fire blew on to the settling Curd. Others say soot from the bottom of the kettles was intentionally rubbed on the evening layer to keep it from drying. Our favorite story is that a clumsy cheesemaker dropped a freshly made cheese… and to hide the soiled side, he placed another layer on top. Traditionally, a half wheel of Morbier would be propped up by the fire. As it started to melt, the cheese would be scraped on to crusty bread or hot potatoes. As the tradition suggests, Morbier is a wonderful cheese for melting! Bon appetit!

The Auvergne where both Morbier and Cantal originated, lies in the heart of the Massif Central, a mountain range with a chain of long extinct volcanoes, or "Puy." The Allier is rich farm country with gentle hills and huge forests. The landscape of the Puy-de-Dome and Cantal highlands changes into sweeping glacier valleys, lakes, waterfalls and wide plateaux. There you will find unspoiled Medieval towns and mountain villages. And in the wilds of the Livradois, remote stone and slate roofed "jasseries, burons, or actives" - ancient summer farmhouses on the plateaux. As you might expect, the people here are warm and friendly.

Much of the flora and fauna common in the wilder parts of France are not found in other parts of Europe. You will see many varieties of wild orchids (e.g. the elderflower, pyramidal, and marsh), the spring anemone, wild pansies and narcissi, maiden pinks, and the great yellow gentian. Clover, all sorts of wild-flowers, and wild onions are some of plants the cows feast on, and what a cow eats really does flavor the milk they produce, and the resulting cheeses. It's kind of like adding fresh fruit to make a milk shake, but this way it's added before the cow is milked. A charming place to visit - from spring until late autumn, there are country fetes held to celebrate the harvest and the movement of the herds to and from their mountain pastures. And you will find numerous markets where you can trawl through piles of bric-a-brac.

Tasting Notes

This AOC cheese is uncooked, pressed, and allowed to mature for two months, then it is brushed with brime and allowed to age at least another two months. During the maturing period, Morbier develops a natural fine creamy-brown crust or rind. At maturity it is semi-soft, yet firm, and has a complex fruity flavor with a slight zing sophisticated, yet liked by many. The ivory-yellow pâte is often described as supple, springy, and silky when touched - dry and sticky at the same time. Not only serving as a divide, the vegetable ash separating the cheese layers makes an aesthetic, dramatic presentation and has a complex, bold flavor. Mobier is a cheese that can steal the show when it comes to cheese platters. Companion wines include light fruity reds, Arbois red or white, Pouilly sur Loire, and tangy white wines like Muscadet and Sancerre.

FYI - AOC: About 40 cheeses in France, including Mobier and Cantal, have been awarded The Appellation d'Origine Controlee. This designation guarantees that the cheeses have been produced within a specified province, region, and commune, follows traditional recipes and production methods, monitors affinage (maturity), and maintains the highest prescribed standards.

Cantal

We purchased our Cantal from Livradois in twenty pound wheels called Cantalet Dore, since the wheel is smaller and more manageable than the traditional sixty pound wheel. One of the oldest of the French cheeses, Cantal was report-edly enjoyed over 2000 years ago in ancient Rome, as mentioned in writings of Plinius, the older one. The Roman cheese markets included many fine examples coming from the French Jura and the Central Massif areas due to their effective transportation network. The part of France called Cantal is located in the higher, southern portion of the ancient province of Auvergne on the edge of the Massif Central, a symmet-rical volcanic mass culminating in the 6096 foot high precipice known as the Plomb du Cantal. Sheets of solidified lava flow extend to southeast and north and many streams find their way to the Allier, Dordogne, and Truyère rivers - now sources of hydroelectric power. The Livradois Mounts plunge down to the fertile plains of the Limagnes, and through wet, jonquil-carpeted valleys open to panoramas of the Puy and the Forez mountain ranges. As you might imagine this region is famous for its waterfalls.

In the high country an alpine pastoral economy prevails. Roads twist through valleys, climbing up to the wooded crests, and only the farms dispersed in hamlets reveal the paleness of the granite. Cattle graze on aigades (mountain pastures) from May to September while the herdsmen spend their summers in low stone seasonal shelters making Cantal cheeses it takes the milk of 30 cows to make a 110-pound wheel of cheese. Everywhere there are structures that are being renovated, inviting tourists to imagine what it would have been like to live in these mountains hundreds of years ago - burons (old farm buildings where cheese was made), the "four banal" (communal baking ovens), water mills, "cow shoeing" sheds, etc. And we are told you should be on the lookout for mouflon (wild sheep), roe deer, pine-martens, buzzards, and chamois (cliff goats with big horns). If you are in the right place at the right time, you may be lucky enough to see a black woodpecker!

Tasting Notes

This AOC cheese, named for the mountains, is often referred to as a "French cheddar," although the recipes for Cantal and Cheddar are very different, and so are the resulting textures. When young, it has a mild, buttery flavor that, over time, develops into a pleasant bite, reminiscent of sharp cheddar. Cantalete Dore is a smaller version of a Cantal wheel similar, but more manageable. Under the hard gray-gold colored rind of our Cantalete wheel hides a soft, slightly sour, hazelnut core. This is a cheese that becomes a great snack or even a desert when accompanied by many fruits - apples, grapes, pears, or a bowl of mixed berries. Like the other Auvergne cheeses, it works well with light fruity red wines such as Beaujolais, Corbières, and Côtes du Rhône.