CHEESE is one of life’s exquisite bounties. And like wine and bread, cheese is a fermented feast. At the dawn of agriculture, when wild cattle, sheep, and goats were first domesticated, milk was a perishable product. Left sitting around for a few days, it turned naturally into curds and whey, and when the first farmers drained off the whey and pressed the curds, they had cheese. It’s still made that way, except that the curdling agents are rennet and specific strains of bacteria. In other words, it’s still a natural product, a collaboration between animal, human, and bacteria. Conventional cheesemakers have developed a slew of additives to preserve and texturize their processed cheese food. But as you might suspect, organic cheese is not only additive-free but is made with milk from organically raised animals that are fed organic feed of the kind nature intends for ruminants.
It’s not hard to find organic cheese from grass-fed cows. I typed “organic cheese from grass-fed cows” into my Internet search engine and got pages of sources. So if you can’t find it at the store, many of these sources will ship.
NUTRITION
Just as with milk, cheese from grass-fed cows is five times higher in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a potent cancer fighter, than from dairy cows fed grains. Nutri-tionists encourage people to get more Omega-3 into their diet, and pasture grass with some weeds present contains more Omega-3 than Omega-6 essential fatty acids, while corn and soybeans (the grains usually fed to cows) contain far more Omega-6 than Omega-3. That’s why cheese from grass-fed cows has an excellent ratio of these two essential nutrients. Finding a source of grass-fed organic cheese is a way to do that.
And there’s more: Organic cheese from grass-fed cows has higher levels of beta-carotene and other vitamins than cheese from grain-fed animals. The reason goes back to the concept that naturally fed organisms grow into thrifty plants and animals. Cows are meant to eat fresh grass or hay in the winter. Fed the diet nature intends for them, they give less milk but better milk. Better milk makes better cheese.
TYPES
Cows’ milk cheese is only part of the picture. Sheep, goat, and water buffalo cheeses are also produced organically.
We’re all familiar with goat cheese—both chevre from France, feta from Greece, and American goat cheese, among others. Of all the American goat cheese I’ve tasted, the most amazingly delicious is Hubbardston Blue, produced in Hubbardston, Massachusetts.
Sheep milk cheeses are made in France, Italy, the United States, and many other places. In Italy, the word for sheep is pecora—hence, pecorino. They are full-flavored, rich, and made in many styles.
The original mozzarella cheese is made from water buffalo milk in Campania, the region around Naples, and also in Apulia and Basilicata. After the rennet is added to the buffalo milk, the curds are allowed to sit in the whey for some time before the whey is drained off. The curds then are transferred to a tub of boiling water where they are stirred with a paddle. ....read more
Share This Article
