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Queso Oaxaca (Silvery Moon Creamery)

Producer
Silvery Moon Creamery
Country
United States
Region
Maine
Weight
10-16 oz
Website
www.silverymooncheese.com
Milk
Cow
Treatment
Pasteurised
Classification
Firm
Rennet
Microbial
Rind
None
Style
Pasta Filata (mozzarella-type)

Silvery Moon Creamery is located at Smiling Hill Farm near Portland, Maine, which has been in the Knight family since the 1700s. The Knight’s Holstein cows graze outdoors seven months per year, and in the winter they eat haylage from the farm’s pesticide-free pastures.

Silvery Moon Creamery was born in 2003 from a partnership between cheesemaker Jennifer Betancourt, who first learned the art of cheesemaking at the Squire Tarbox Inn on Westport Island, and later at Cornell University, and the Knight family. Today cheese production continues under the direction of Dorothee Grimm, who was born and raised in Germany and worked for years as a researcher in microbiology. After moving to Maine, Dorothee took cheesemaking classes from different local cheesemakers and made yogurt and cheese at home before applying for a position at Silvery Moon. “I still work in microbiology, pampering the good microbes and keeping the bad ones out,” Dorothee says. “But now, I can eat the results of my work at the end of the day.”

Inspired by the traditional Mexican cheese of the same name, Queso Oaxaca is a pasta filata cheese which is cultured and then stretched by hand in the traditional manner (fresh chunks of curd are dunked into very hot water until they’re malleable and can be shaped). Instead of being shaped into a ball as in the case of mozzarella, the curd is hand-stretched into a wide ribbon and then rolled up like a ball of yarn. It can be cut and used in the same way as mozzarella, or it can be pulled apart like string cheese.

Tasting Notes

With a moist, buttery yellow surface and a mild scent, this Queso Oaxaca is thick and springy in texture, with strings that are firm when pulled apart yet become tender in the mouth. Flavor is buttery and creamy, and notes of ham and grass can be detected.

Pairings

Pair this Queso Oaxaca with a light, fruity white wine such as a Sauvignon Blanc.

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