Ash, Why Tho?
In a recent blog post, I went on and on about how much I love Malloy, a goat’s milk cheese from Barn First Creamery in Vermont. On of Malloy’s prettiest attributes is the line of ash running through the middle, and it got me thinking about all the beautiful and tasty cheeses that are made with ash. Some cheeses have ash through the center, some have ash covered rinds, some have both … why is this? What’s up with all the ash?
Cheesemakers have used ash for hundreds of years, especially in France. One of the best-known cheeses with ash running through the middle is Morbier, a traditional French cow’s milk cheese that has inspired the use of ash in many other cheeses. In the late 1700s, a few dairy farmers in the town of Morbier (Franche-Comté region in the northeast) started making their own cheese when the weather was bad enough to prevent them from dropping off their milk at the village cheesemaker. Since these farmers only had a few cows, they didn’t have enough curds from one milking to fill their cheese forms. So, they filled the large forms halfway with fresh curds from the evening’s milk and dusted the curds in ash as protection against unwanted molds. After the next morning’s milking, the farmers made enough curds to fill the forms the rest of the way, creating a cheese with a line of ash through the center!
Not only was ash used as an antibacterial layer inside cheese, but also on the outside of cheese. There are many specialty goat’s milk cheeses, like Sainte Maure de Touraine and Valençay, whose rind is dusted with a thin layer of ash to keep unwanted microbes off the cheese during maturation. Though the ash itself is tasteless, it had an unintended influence on flavor development by helping to neutralize some of goat’s milk’s natural acidity, bringing about a more balanced, not-too-tart final product.
Today, cheesemakers still take advantage of these benefits, using ash to protect their cheeses, balance acidity, follow tradition, and to make the wheels extra pretty! I am always here for a good ashy cheese, like my new love Malloy, and one of my old favorites, Tomme de Chèvre Céndre which is a dense, cakey goat’s milk cheese, covered in the grey dust. Try some of these cheeses if you can, they’re kick ash (almost got through the whole blog without a pun)!
For the love of cheese and another tasty tradition,
Kiri