Carr Valley Mobay

Carr Valley Mobay Cheese is one of Wisconsin cheesemaker Sid Cook's many original creations. It combines a layer of sheep milk cheese and a layer of goat milk cheese with a layer of grape vine ash down the middle.

This cheese is fabulous! Its flavor is mild enough so that cheese novices can enjoy, but it has far more personality than most other mild cheeses. The wedge I brought to Jenn and Ken Shockley's party last weekend disappeared within mintues.

The inclusion of vegetable ash is now a popular thing among artisan cheesemakers, but I have been unable to obtain any reliable information about the nature of this product. The only thing people tell me is "Don't worry, it's edible." That's nice to know, but I would like to learn more about how it is produced. For example, the ash used in Carr Valley's Mobay is more flavorful than the ash found in some Cypress Grove Chèvre. The Mobay ash has a "blued" flavor, as if the penicillium molds that produce the blue veins in blue cheese were introduced to the ash.

To be honest, I'm not certain whether the whiter, more strongly flavored half of the Mobay is the sheep milk cheese or whether the milder, more yellow-tinged half is. Even the staff at Premier has been unable to reach a consensus on this matter. Conventional wisdom has it that goat cheese tends to be whiter than sheep cheese. However, the whiter half of the Mobay tastes a bit like the Italian sheep cheese Pecorino Romano.

I purchased my Mobay at Premier Gourmet. It can also be ordered from the Carr Valley website. I guarantee you will like this cheese.