Have you ever felt the flutter of butterflies in your stomach after biting into a new cheese for the first time? Our good friend Madame Fromage was recently charmed by mozzarella’s smooth and swanky second cousin, Melville, a fresh, cow’s milk variety from Mystic Cheese.
In her post, Madame waxed eloquent over Melville’s satiny texture and pristine complexion:
If Melville could be anything other than a cheese, he would be silken tofu. Because he loves silk. All fabrics really, as long as they are high quality. Melville is made from from fresh Connecticut milk, aged a total of 7 days, and has been created in the style of Northern Italian Stracchino — a pliable, adaptable, impossibly fresh style of cheese that is beloved for melting.
Madame Fromage recommends incorporating the cheese into this farro recipe from Smitten Kitchen. You can also substitute Melville for mozzarella in this Prosciutto and Fig Jam Panini, or take advantage of its meltability by stuffing it into arepas.
Melville’s maker Mystic Cheese was founded just one year ago in 2013, making it as fresh as the cheese itself. Cheese technologist and co-founder of Mystic, Brian Civitello, uses “cheese pods” specially designed for each specific variety of cheese he makes in order to keep the finished product as close to the source as possible. In Melville’s case, milk fresh from the udder is pumped directly into the pod’s vat to undergo pasteurization, which ensures the cheese’s signature clean, fresh-faced quality.
Melville is named for the famous author of Moby Dick (which also contains a good amount of cheese). Inspired by the fictional whale’s anatomy, Brian refer’s to the cheese’s consistency as “blubbery.”
If you can find that descriptor appetizing, by all means use it! But otherwise you can rely on soft, silky or sleek. This cheese is all of those things, and more. One taste, and we promise you’ll be all buttered-up and blushing.
Note: Melville and other cheeses from Mystic are currently only available in limited quantities in shops and restaurants in New England and around New York City.
Photo Credit: Madame Fromage
Amanda Minoff
Amanda graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine with a degree in English Literature and Art History. She is a reader and writer of fiction and loves cheese that tells a good story.
