England is mostly known for its heavy cow cheeses, mixed perhaps with spices or onion or some sort of alcohol, and while this can be very good it also gets a little... a little too monotonous for me. Enter Ford Farm, the folks who brought us the Coastal Cheddar of a couple weeks ago, and today a nice departure from the bovine; their goat's milk Billie's Goat Cheddar.
Made with the same quality control measures and attention to classic English cheddaring technique as their more traditional offerings, this goat cheddar is refreshing and, though young and thus mild, very tasty indeed.
Origin: England
Milk: Goat, pasteurized
Rennet: Vegetable
Affinage: 2-5 months
Notes: Website advertises a mild, mellow, and smooth flavor derived from 100% pure goat's milk. Good thing they fished those twigs, leaves, and other impurities out of the milk before making cheese. I wonder if they sometimes get a little laugh by slipping some cow milk in there and pulling a fast one over on us customers thinking we're purchasing a goat's milk cheese when the name is Billie's Goat Cheddar.
Made with the same quality control measures and attention to classic English cheddaring technique as their more traditional offerings, this goat cheddar is refreshing and, though young and thus mild, very tasty indeed.
Milk: Goat, pasteurized
Rennet: Vegetable
Affinage: 2-5 months
Notes: Website advertises a mild, mellow, and smooth flavor derived from 100% pure goat's milk. Good thing they fished those twigs, leaves, and other impurities out of the milk before making cheese. I wonder if they sometimes get a little laugh by slipping some cow milk in there and pulling a fast one over on us customers thinking we're purchasing a goat's milk cheese when the name is Billie's Goat Cheddar.
Thoughts: Although the flavor is certainly more mild than I usually go for in goat cheeses, this cheddar displays some of the complexity possible in a goat cheese. At first a little meaty, the creaminess of this relatively soft cheese comes in midway through the bite and leaves in its wake the delightful sweetness of goat’s milk. A very un-goaty goat cheese that leaves more of the sweet on the palate than the savory, it certainly is smooth, mild, and mellow. Once could go much worse in purchasing mild-aged goat cheeses, Billie's Goat is an example of mild done right. With some fig jam or a fruity red wine it's truly a delight.
Caution
I do not actually think the professionals at Ford Farm are in the business of hoodwinking, bamboozling, or hornswoggling their customers, I just find the proud profession that their goat's milk cheese is made with none other than goat's milk to be kind of like bottled water having an ingredients list.
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