Stroudwater Tomme

Producer

Silvery Moon Creamery

Country

United States

Region

Maine

Size

8 in diameter x 3.5 in height

Weight

4 lbs

Website

www.silverymooncheese.com

Milk

Cow

Treatment

Raw

Classification

Firm

Rennet

Microbial

Rind

Natural

Style

Alpine-style

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.”

Named after the Stroudwater River, which runs through the farm’s town of Westbrook, this raw cow’s milk tomme-style cheese is aged at least three months.

Tasting Notes

Smell is pleasant, lactic and tangy with notes of hay. Texture of the off-white paste is creamy yet dry—smooth if a little chalky—and surrounded by a brownish rind. On the palate, an earthy flavor builds up to a late burst of lactic tang. Sour becomes the dominant flavor, and increasing in the aftertaste. Bright, grassy and resin aromas hint of a pine forest in summer. Towards the rind, barnyardy and bitter flavors increase.

Pairings

Pair Stroudwater Tomme with a sweet, fruity beverage such as mead, or with a Riesling.