Casco Bay Dulse
- Producer
- Silvery Moon Creamery
- Country
- United States
- Region
- Maine
- Size
- 3 in length x 3 in width x 0.5-1 in height
- Weight
- 0.5 lbs
- Website
- www.silverymooncheese.com
- Milk
- Cow
- Treatment
- Pasteurised
- Classification
- Semi Soft
- Rennet
- Microbial
- Rind
- None
- Style
- Fresh
- Flavor
- Flavor added to paste
Silvery Moon Creamery is located at Smiling Hill Farm near Portland, Maine, which has been in the Knight family since the 1700s. The Knight’s Holstein cows graze outdoors seven months per year, and in the winter they eat haylage from the farm’s pesticide-free pastures.
Silvery Moon Creamery was born in 2003 from a partnership between cheesemaker Jennifer Betancourt, who first learned the art of cheesemaking at the Squire Tarbox Inn on Westport Island, and later at Cornell University, and the Knight family. Today cheese production continues under the direction of Dorothee Grimm, who was born and raised in Germany and worked for years as a researcher in microbiology. After moving to Maine, Dorothee took cheesemaking classes from different local cheesemakers and made yogurt and cheese at home before applying for a position at Silvery Moon. “I still work in microbiology, pampering the good microbes and keeping the bad ones out,” Dorothee says. “But now, I can eat the results of my work at the end of the day.”
To produce Casco Bay Dulse, the milk is first gently batch pasteurized–at a lower temperature for a longer period of time than in a continuous pasteurizer—in an effort to preserve the integrity of Smiling Hill Farm’s raw milk and to produce a more unique and flavorful cheese. Milk is then cultured and renneted, and the curd is cut and ladled into molds without further heating. The process is the same as in the production of Silvery Moon’s Queso de Verano, except that in this case layers of of dulse—a red seaweed harvested off the coast of maine—are incorporated into the squares. The dulse, supplied by VitaminSea Seaweed in Buxton, Maine, is known for its nutritious protein, mineral and vitamin content.
Tasting Notes
Smelling of fresh cream with hints of sourness, this is a mild and springy-textured fresh cheese punctured with colorful layers of the seaweed. Flavor mild, slightly sweet with a yogurty tang. Notes of toast and sesame seeds can be detected.
Pairings
On a cheese plate, pair Casco Bay Dulse with honey. Or simply crumble it over a salad.
