Australia's first raw milk cheese

I've now been selling Bruny Island Cheese Co's raw milk C2 for almost three months - one of the few retailers in Sydney with the privilege of doing so - and it's been fascinating observing peoples' reactions. While I had the cheese in stock for a few weeks beforehand, things only really kicked off with the Sydney Morning Herald and good living on 5th April, announcing a "Slice of History" and an "Australian first".

good living, Tuesday, April 5,  2011

For those of you who are not familiar with my current place of employment, it's not normally what you might call "busy". Apart from Thursday and Friday nights, when Sydney's cheese-loving public come out in force, things tend to tick away at a steady pace. We like to think of ourselves as a "quality over quantity" kind of retailer. That changed on Tuesday 5th April.

The first wheel (about 4 kg) sold out within 24 hours. The next wheel (around 6kg) lasted less than a week. For several days the phone rang constantly, and a steady stream of customers, keen to be one of the first to try it, walked through our doors. We had to start a waiting list until the third wheel arrived, by which time the hype and hysteria had subsided and things settled back to normal. We're on to wheel four now - which, incidentally, I think is the best yet - and C2 is now quite settled into its Sydney home.

Customer reactions were mostly along the lines of "wow, that's the best cheese I've ever tasted in my life!". Sales rep's from other suppliers (interesting how a major media event brings people out of the woodwork) were more subdued in their 'praise' with comments like "the flavour's a bit short" or "not sure about that tangy finish". Somewhere in the middle lies the truth.

One customer (a food writer) commented that the debate shouldn't be about raw vs pasteurised, but rather, how to actually eat cheese (the implication being that we lack a true culture of eating, and understanding food in general, in Australia). Yes, I think it helped that raw milk cheese is a controversial topic (of course people wanted to try what only recently would have been contraband), and the parallels between the food and fashion industries crossed my mind more than once.

We included C2 in a cheese & wine masterclass a few weeks ago, and as I began talking about raw milk cheese, one guest interrupted me with a question I've heard dozens of times - but why isn't it allowed in Australia? This question is normally accompanied by a puzzled look, similar to the one I get when I explain that same-sex marriage is illegal in this country too. To most educated, thinking people I meet, neither of these inequities makes sense. If thousands of Europeans can eat raw milk cheese every day, why can't we?

While it's tempting to think of C2 as opening the floodgates on the production of raw milk cheeses in this country, that certainly didn't happen after the Roquefort ban was lifted five years ago. It's no accident that Australia's first legally-available raw milk cheese comes from Tasmania, as that state's dairy authority took a cooperative and collaborative view with Bruny Island Cheese Co. All indications are that other states are not likely to be quite so sympathetic.

I've spoken to several cheesemakers in NSW who'd love to make their cheese from raw milk, but who've been told by their relevant state dairy body not to hold their breath. These producers are all small-scale, family-run, single-herd, on-farm operations, where the individuals who make the cheese also tend the pastures and milk the animals. Most are A grade certified. In short, the perfect case models for safely producing raw milk cheeses. The FSANZ regulations about "pasteurisation equivalent processes" may be national, but individual states effectively have a veto role in approving raw milk cheese production.

So, is raw milk C2 the best cheese I've ever tasted in my life? No. Is it the best cheese in Australia? No to that too. Is it a great cheese? Yes. Does it taste different/better/more complex because the milk wasn't pasteurised? Probably. Does it have the potential to be a really great cheese, perhaps even an Australian icon? Absolutely.

I look forward to watching C2 evolve as it settles into its flagship role. And I can't wait to taste some that's matured for more than 10 months. I reckon that's just when it begins hitting its stride.
                                                                          

Here's how the Sydney Morning Herald reported it on Tuesday 5th April: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/raw-deal-shakes-up-the-curd-mentality-20110404-1cypn.html

and Helen Greenwood's cover story from good living on the same day:

Why another cheese blog?

It used to be quite simple. When I took my first tentative steps towards cheese as a career, finding information wasn't that hard. There were great cheese books to read, colleagues to mentor me, suppliers who introduced wonderful new cheeses, and even a major TV series devoted to the world of cheese. Back then, it was simply about "which region is this from?", "is it made from sheep's or goat's milk?" and "what's the best way to cut and wrap this little baby?"

More than six years on, my cheese world is now a very different place. There are still some great books, but most are British or American with very little Australian content. The colleagues are still there - some near, some far away - but now it's the younger fromage-o-philes asking me stuff. And as for suppliers, well . . . there are exceptions, but many of them can't even pronounce the cheese names properly.

Blame it on my science background, but the more I learn about cheese, the more complex my questions have become.

This blog will be a place for me to share some answers to the sorts of questions other cheese people like me might have. The sorts of questions that can't be answered by suppliers or books, but which require a little more in-depth research and "back to the source" investigation. Such as, How can some cheese-makers claim their non-animal rennet is GMO-free? What's the difference between unpasteurised and raw? and Are starter cultures to blame for lack of flavour variety in Australian white moulds?

I'll also dabble in a bit of home cheese-making and the occasional cheese travelogue.

So, join me as I seize the day (and the cheese) and continue on my quest for cheese knowlege.