Goatlet
|GOHT-let|
Beneath Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in a lagering tunnel from 1850, Crown Finish Caves ages young cheeses from artisan producers. The most recent addition to their line is Goatlet, produced by Vermont’s Consider Bardwell Farm and then aged by Crown Finish. A mixed milk cousin to Consider Bardwell’s Pawlet, an Italian-style toma, Goatlet is a 20 to 80 mix of raw goat’s milk and raw cow’s milk with a yogurt-like tang and bright notes of lemon cream pie. The wheels have a lovely gray patterned surface engraved with a cheerful goat’s head.
This semi-firm cheese is aged for four to five months on wooden boards in Crown Finish’s caves. Beneath the former Nassau Brewery building, the old lagering tunnels are approximately 50 degrees Fahrenheit year round, making them the perfect temperature for affinage, or aging cheese. Producers, most located within 250 miles from New York City, create the young cheeses, then send them to Crown Finish to ripen.
For a hearty winter treat, snack on Goatlet alongside a rich oatmeal stout.