November 15, 2011 | New! Cheese from Quebec

Once known primarily for its cheddar and Trappist cheeses, there are close to 300 varieties being produced in the province today.  This Holiday Season treat your guests to some of Quebec's finest selection.  Quantities are limited and available at select locations.  

à Le baluchon
Type: Washed Rind Cheese
Source: Raw Milk

Behind every good cheese is a good story. Behind Le Baluchon lies a love triangle. “I fell in love with cows at 15 and Marie-Claude [Harvey] when I was 16,” says Michel Pichet, a farmer and co-owner of Fromagerie F.X. Pichet in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Quebec. 

The childhood sweethearts parted ways at 22, only to reunite at 42 – and luckily the cows were still in the picture. Now, their company, born in 2003, makes five organic cheeses with milk from their own farm. Le Baluchon was their first. 

Based on an Oka-style recipe, it's organic, raw milk, washed rind cheese that is aged a minimum of 60 days. The producers work hard to control all the critical points of cheese making to ensure consistency of flavour. As Ms. Harvey says: “When you taste Baluchon, it is always the Baluchon.” 

 

The monastery was founded in 1912 by exiled French monks who had moved to Belgium before relocating to Canada. The 50 to 60 men who now reside in the monastery live by the motto “pray and work.” And since 1943, part of the work at Saint-Benoît-du-Lac has been making cheese. It is the only cheese factory managed by Benedictine monks in North America. 

 

Their famous blue, Bleu Bénédictin, made since 2000, is an award-winner across Canada, most recently winning the blue-cheese category in the 2006 Canadian Cheese Grand Prix.

 

The Bleu Bénédictin stays in the ripening room for three months and the blue mould rind is kept on. This outer layer, and longer aging, help to add flavour and ripen the cheese further, making its texture smooth and creamy. (Source: Globe and Mail)  With a signature line of ash through its centre, French Morbier can be spotted by cheese lovers from a mile away. Unless it isn’t Morbier, but rather its Canadian doppelganger, a Quebec cheese named Le Douanier.

 

Created by master cheese maker Fritz Kaiser in 2000, Le Douanier won the Grand Champion award at the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix in 2004 and is a classic in Canada’s young artisanal cheese industry.

 

Le Douanier is a semi-soft cheese, made in three-kilo wheels, with a copper-coloured rind that is washed and brushed as part of its affinage. The dense, pale gold paste has tiny eyes and is split with a thin line of grey-blue ash made from maple wood.

 

The cheese is aged for a minimum of nine weeks, but its average ripening is closer to 10-12 weeks. Its aroma is mild and creamy, with a slight barny scent close to the rind. The texture is dense and supple with notes of fruit and nuts and a characteristic tangy quality that carries into its finish.

 

As for the name? The ash line in the middle is symbolic of the U.S.-Canadian border that is located within a kilometre of Fromagerie Fritz Kaiser in Noyan, Quebec. Fittingly, Le Douanier translates to “customs officer.”  (Source: Globe and Mail)

 

à Soeur Angele
Type: Soft Ripened Cheese

A double cream cheese made with cow milk, goat milk and a dash of cream. It has a fresh mushroom aroma accompanied by the taste of milk and goat’s milk cream. Le Soeur Angèle has a melting to almost runny texture and a tender centre. Manufacture by Kaiser Cheese maker 

 

à Roubine de Noyan

Type: Soft Ripened Cheese

 

A soft cheese derived from cow milk that possesses a mixed rind. This young cheese has a thin white rind on a coppery backdrop. An earthy mushroom aroma is accented by a subtle nutty yet buttery taste. The cheese has a melting or runny texture and a soft tender centre.

 

à Riopelle de l’Isle
Type: Triple Cream Cheese
Souce: Thermalized cow’s milk

Creamy, ripe, melt-in-your-mouth: Riopelle is cheese that lives up to the French reputation for seduction. Barely contained in its thin, bloomy rind is a salty, triple-cream cheese with a rich, decadent paste. Its texture is that of soft butter, leaving hints of mushroom and a light tang to linger on the tongue.

 

Riopelle's namesake is the famous Quebec painter Jean-Paul Riopelle, best known for his large, abstract, brightly coloured paintings on which he layered paint with a palette knife. Months before he died in 2002, Mr. Riopelle agreed to lend his name and artwork to the cheese label in order to promote the small, tight-knit community on the Ile-aux-Grues, where he was a resident.

 

As a soft cheese, Riopelle is not pressed. In the mould, the whey is allowed to drain from the curds through the effect of gravity and by turning the cheese regularly. It is aged for 60 days, and is best eaten at its peak of ripeness when soft, oozy and a little bit messy. (Source: Globe and Mail)