cheese

Pairing the best local cheeses with your favorite local beers.

Toma Primavera
What’s a cheese plate without boldness? This one has it in spades. Toma is a washed-rind, raw milk tomme from Cherry Grove, a biodiverse farmstead near Princeton. Let it sit out a good while and a whiff of almonds and cultured butter will hit the air. Taste it and get all that, plus a tang reminiscent at once of briny caper berries and blackberry.
Pairing: Try something on the spicy side like River Horse Belgian Freeze or Philadelphia Brewing Co. Winter Wünder. Going in the opposite direction with a sour or tart beer, such as Weyerbacher Riserva, would work nicely as well.

Clover Creek Cheddar
Fair Food has partnered with cheesemakers David and Terry Rice at Clover Creek to bring their unique cheddar to the perfect cellar age, just for us. Of course, as with any quality farm cheese, it starts with the milk. David and Terry use the raw milk from their own herd, a motley crew of Heritage Breed dairy cows, whose milk only goes to the cheese room when the cows have been feasting on fresh grass seasonally.
Pairing: A robust IPA like Victory Hop Wallop or Stoudt’s Double IPA would pair nicely.

Wakefield Dairy Bouche
Wakefield Dairy’s bouche is made from raw organic cow’s milk and aged two years. This artisan, European style, cave-ripened in the cheddar family is from Amish Cheesemaker Aaron Lapp at Wakefield Dairy in Lancaster. It possesses a winning browned  butter superior flavor to the paste with a darker savory pepper and clove quality to the rind.
Pairing: A nice, nutty brown like Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale.

Buttercup Brie
A classically French-style Brie is a must have on any cheese plate; and this one is made right across the bridge in Lawrenceville, NJ, with heritage breed Shorthorn and Jersey Milk. Cherry Grove’s cheesemaker Kelly Harding takes a wonderfully fatty milk and crafts cheese that tastes like a gourmet mushroom butter stuffed between a rind. Any leftover? Make a killer grilled cheese with apple slices and apple pepper jam.
Pairing: A full-bodied but dry stout such as Victory Donnybrook or Sly Fox O’Reilly’s Stout. Or, try a bottled alternative such as Lancaster Milk Stout or Weyerbacher Old Heathen.

Noble Road
A raw milk bloomy-rind style cheese that’s not afraid to bring the funk. Said funk varies wildly, ranging from ballpark peanuts to Asian pears to blanched asparagus; seemingly bound by a particular patch of grass the cows grazed on the day the milk was taken – but it is always consistently delicious. This rare delight is aged in cavelike conditions just to the legal age of sixty days before it comes to us. Emily Montgomery makes the cheese on her fifth generation Poconos farmstead, Calkins Creamery.
Pairing: A spicy Belgian style beer such as Weyerbacher Verboten or Sly Fox Saison Vos is recommended.

Blue Suede Moo
As millions of Britons have known for ages, the holidays can’t be complete without Stilton. Well this isn’t exactly Stilton, but it’s an idiosyncratic local take that came to central PA cheesemaker Mark Dietrich Cochran by way of a British cheesemaker a decade ago. Since then, Mark has been honing the recipe with Keswick Creameries own raw Jersey milk and the hijinks of wily blue mold. A craggily, natural rind crumbly cheese; the texture sits thick like buttermilk and the flavor presents a mole-like spectrum. Dark chocolate, paprika, cracked pepper, and sesame paste—it’s all there between the rind.
Pairing: Try a barleywine like Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot or a dark coffee beer such as Tröeg’s Java Head Stout.

Tomme De Ewe
This is a new on-the-scene raw milk sheep cheese from Amish cheesemaker Amos Miller in Lancaster County. Aged four to six months, Tomme De Ewe has a beautiful look on the rind, aged as it is in an Italian-style basket mold. Flavors of browned butter and the scent of your wool sweater after an autumn hike in the woods dominate here.
Pairing: A mellow, smooth porter such as Yards General Washington’s Porter would work great.

Puddle Duck Creek
If you just choose one soft cheese for your cheese plate, make it this one. It looks like a little marshmallow puck, with a golden yellow interior. This petite gem is creamy for sure, with herbaceous notes and a feisty peppery rind, but holds its form nicely at room temperature. Puddle Duck Creek is from the Arrowsmith Family and Hillacres Pride’s rich Jersey cow milk, via Lancaster County.
Pairing: Strong golden ales such as Yards Thomas Jefferson’s Tavern Ale, Victory Golden Monkey, or Dogfish Head Midas Touch will work nicely.