David Gremmels shares his blue cheese house dressing recipe which has been evolving for over a decade.
Rogue River Blue Cheese Special Reserve
Cows Milk | U.S.A.
Imagine an artisanal blue cheese with a moist and creamy marbled texture, and an extraordinary fruit aftertaste with hints of pear brandy that remind you of Christmas! This is the Rogue River Special Reserve, which has been a favourite of Will’s since 2003 when he was invited to a dinner in London to celebrate the first American raw milk cheese to be exported to Europe in over a century.
Regrettably, it looked like Australian cheese lovers would miss out on experiencing Rogue River, because blue cheese made from raw milk doesn’t meet our overly strict food standards (with the exception of Roquefort). So we were absolutely delighted when Rogue Creamery’s David Gremmels offered to experiment with blue cheese made the same way but using pasteurised milk, just for us!
Like the original, the new cheese was hand-made in Oregon from rich organic milk collected from the farm dairy’s single herd in autumn. After inoculation with selected blue mould spores, it was macerated in Clear Creek organic pear brandy, and wrapped in shiraz vine leaves picked from local vineyards during the equinox. A year of careful ripening followed and, much to everyone’s surprise, David and Will discovered that the new blue tasted just as good as the original.
This cheese has been a much-loved member of the Will Studd Selected range ever since. And in October 2019, it received recognition of being named World Champion Cheese at the World Cheese Awards in Italy – the first time an American cheese has ever won the top award. It truly felt like Christmas! …Which is fitting, really, as the Special Reserve is only released in November each year, with strictly limited availability.
Please note, this product is only available in Australia
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