{"id":28600,"date":"2016-09-23T14:25:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T18:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=28600"},"modified":"2021-08-24T17:01:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T21:01:00","slug":"bark-wrapped-cheeses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/bark-wrapped-cheeses\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodland Wonders: Bark-Wrapped Cheeses"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sun is starting to poke through the trees at 7 a.m. on a June morning in Vermont\u2019s Northeast Kingdom, where the forest air is resin scented and thick with rising dew. The sleepy town of Greensboro is just starting to stir, but Ron Hall is already hard at work. Other than a few chirping birds, the only sound in that forest is the scuff<\/em>, scuff<\/em> of blade against tree trunk, as he runs a two-handed bark scraper over the crusty outer surface of a freshly cut spruce.<\/p>\n

Once he removes the felled tree\u2019s outer layer, revealing a splotchy pink surface, Hall takes a small blade and makes a shallow, rectangular incision into the trunk. He grabs the corner of that rectangle and pulls\u2014a layer easily peels off. This is the inner bark; it\u2019s moist and flexible, almost like leather, and it\u2019s been protecting the ivory-colored layer just underneath (the tree\u2019s outermost ring of wood).<\/p>\n

On a nearby table, Hall slices the inner bark into skinny strips, letting them dry for the rest of the day until they\u2019re firm. Eventually, they\u2019ll be sanitized in a pot of boiling water and regain their flexibility before being wrapped around young wheels of Harbison<\/a> or Winnimere<\/a> at Jasper Hill Farm<\/a>. Jasper Hill makes between 1,800 and 3,600 wheels of Harbison per week, and Hall only has a few warm months to harvest; when trees go dormant in the fall and winter, that inner bark is no longer supple enough to peel off. Some days he works for 14 hours, cutting enough bark—with some help from his wife, Michelle—to wrap 1,700 rounds of cheese. \u201cWell, that\u2019s the life of a stripper,\u201d he says, chuckling.<\/p>\n

Hall\u2019s job title would be less of a punch line if he were in the mountainous Jura region that straddles the border of France and Switzerland. There he\u2019d call himself a sanglier<\/i>: a person who harvests the inner bark, or sangle<\/i>, of spruce trees to wrap around cheese. Ron\u2019s modesty about his work for Jasper Hill—one of many odd jobs he does around town throughout the year—belies the fact that he might be the only person in the United States practicing an iconic trade that\u2019s long shaped the traditions, forms, and flavors of one of Europe\u2019s most adored cheese styles.<\/p>\n

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Ron Hall removes the inner layer of bark from a spruce tree.<\/em><\/div>\n

Folklore and the Forest<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe forest is everywhere, or close, in the Jura,\u201d wrote French geographer Antoine Gioud in a 1952 journal article. \u201cThe Jurassien countryman knows it; he derives revenue from it, he works with it often, he is attached to it, he lives in it.\u201d No surprise that the name Jura itself comes from an old Latin word meaning \u201cforest.\u201d<\/p>\n

At high altitudes these are forests of spruce, or e\u0301pice\u0301a<\/i>: small, hearty trees that grow for centuries. Their wood is fine and sturdy, with compact and consistent rings, ideal for making planks to age giant wheels of the region\u2019s most famous cheeses: Comte\u0301<\/a> and Gruye\u0300re<\/a>. Plank making is considered an art here, requiring a subtle understanding of the trees\u2019 connections with seasons, weather patterns, and even the moon; bois tendre en cours, bois dur en de\u0301cours<\/i> (\u201csoft wood in a waxing moon, hard wood in a waning moon\u201d) goes an old local saying.<\/p>\n

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Ron Hall’s bark strips, cut into 14-inch pieces and dried.<\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

For centuries, after the cows descended from communal mountain pastures in fall at the end of Comte\u0301 and Gruye\u0300re season, locals put spruce to use in other ways. Village animals headed back to individual family farms, where they ate dry hay, which changed the milk composition: it was less fragrant and flowery but much fattier. Smaller cheeses made more sense—softer, creamier cheeses that could be spread or dipped into like a fondue. These early versions of now-AOP-certified Vacherin Mont d\u2019Or<\/a> (on the Swiss side) and Vacherin du Haut-Doubs (on the French side) became so soft and melty they\u2019d need to be bound to keep their shape, lest they turned to pancakes. Naturally, that vessel was made of spruce bark, which was flexible and easy to shape.<\/p>\n

While Andy Hatch makes cheese across the world in Wisconsin, he understands the tradition of switching to softer cheeses in wintertime. When he started working at Uplands Cheese<\/a> in Dodgeville, the farm was only producing one cheese: a hard, Alpine-style called Pleasant Ridge Reserve<\/a>. That style, Hatch says, has always expressed the complexity of the farm\u2019s raw grass-fed milk perfectly; those aromas of herbs and flowers blossom over time as the cheese ages. But cows in Wisconsin can\u2019t dine on fresh grass all year, so as soon as fall came around, Uplands would sell the milk instead of making it into cheese.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started thinking about the milk we sold in the fall,\u201d Hatch says. \u201cIt\u2019s really beautiful milk. The fat content goes way up … it wouldn\u2019t have the same flavor complexity that the grass-fed milk would, but it has a different quality, more weight.\u201d So he turned to France—where he\u2019d spent time learning to make cheese—for inspiration. Following the old-world seasonal model, he created a new bark-wrapped cheese called Rush Creek Reserve<\/a>, which he only makes in fall and winter. \u201cReally, we were just trying to match the character of the fall milk to the best cheese for expressing that character,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

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From left: Winnimere and Vacherin Mont d’Or<\/em><\/div>\n

Form and Flavor<\/h2>\n

That character—that creaminess—is one of the most beloved traits of bark-wrapped cheeses. When young, disks are about the texture of a kitchen sponge, able to stand up on their own. But the superhigh moisture content comes to life after a short initial aging period. \u201cThe ripening process liquefies the proteins and makes it so runny,\u201d says Hatch, who soaks his bark strips in a solution of yeasts and molds before binding the cheeses and washes the wheels frequently during aging. \u201cWith Rush Creek we really push the limits of liquidity, and it would be really difficult to handle that cheese without the support of the bark.\u201d Keeping it all together, the bark makes an otherwise-oozing cheese scoopable, points out Molly Browne, Jasper Hill\u2019s account manager and monger liaison. In that sense, she says, \u201cthe bark becomes a very important part of the structure of the cheese itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, cheese has an uncanny ability to take on aromas from its surrounding environment, and there\u2019s no doubt that woodsy flavors get pulled into the mix. French and Swiss researchers examining the volatile compounds present in Mont d\u2019Or–style bark-wrapped cheeses have found noticeable increases in terpenoid compounds, such as evergreen-scented pinene and citrusy-sweet limonene—the same fresh aromas that characterize hops and cannabis. Spruce bark is also rich in tannins, which can contribute welcome astringency and bitterness.<\/p>\n

\"From

From top: Extrabrebis and L’Edel de Cl\u00e9ron<\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Spruce flavors are more pronounced when a wheel of Harbison or Winnimere is young, says Zoe Brickley, sales and marketing manager at Jasper Hill Farm. \u201cIt\u2019s really pitchy and almost tannic, and just sprucey,\u201d she says. But as the cheeses age, developing distinctive characters and pungent aromas, new flavor combinations result. \u201cI think those aroma compounds [in the spruce bark] get metabolized and mix with what\u2019s happening in the cheese.\u201d In pasteurized, smaller-format Harbison, the spruce comes through in the cheese\u2019s mustard notes, while in larger, raw-milk Winnimere, it hints at smoked ham.<\/p>\n

Andy Hatch picks up that smokiness in his Rush Creek Reserve, too. \u201cCombined with the savory flavors of the cheese, the bark gives it that ham- bacon [taste],\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Molly Browne from Jasper Hill finds those rustic, woodsy flavors come as a surprise to first-time tasters. \u201cPeople always say, \u2018I\u2019ve never tasted cheese like this, what is this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And with the combination of spoonable texture and aromatic flavor, it\u2019s easy for newcomers to get hooked. These days more and more makers are adopting bark wrapping, experimenting beyond the AOP-certified versions with different milk types, new shapes and sizes, and new rinds; take, for example, white and fuzzy goat\u2019s milk Che\u0300vre Sangle\u0301, or oval-shaped sheep\u2019s milk Le Lou Claousou. While non-AOP versions can be made year-round, some—such as Jasper Hill\u2019s Winnimere and Uplands Cheese\u2019s Rush Creek Reserve—respect the practice of using only fall and winter milk. Much like the Mont d\u2019Or in Switzerland, these cheeses have developed a cult following; they mark the change of the seasons and hint at Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts to come. It\u2019s no wonder people line up to get their hands on them.<\/p>\n

So for now, at least, Jasper Hill\u2019s Ron Hall has plenty to do. While he didn\u2019t grow up harvesting bark like a Jurassien forest-dwelling sanglier, he\u2019s developed a subtle sense of the inner workings of the tree. Standing in the Northeast Kingdom forest, he runs his hands over the trunk, pointing out the tricolor composition: dark, crusty outer bark; pink, splotchy inner bark; and white wood still glistening with water. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty interesting, isn\u2019t it?\u201d he muses during a pause, before scraping and slicing the hot summer day away.<\/p>\n

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Humming Bark<\/em><\/div>\n
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A spruce-wrapped cheese<\/strong> lives up to its full potential when warm and melty. Take it out of the fridge at least an hour before serving, and let it come to room temperature. Don\u2019t cut it into wedges or remove its bark exterior; instead, dig in from the top. Gently removing the top rind with a knife is optional (leave it on to amp up the funky flavors). Another option, especially for Vacherin Mont d\u2019Or and Vacherin du Haut-Doubs: Wrap the wheel in aluminum foil and place in a warm oven for 15 minutes—or a few minutes in a campfire—before dipping in steamed potatoes or bread, fondue style.<\/p>\n

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Winnimere<\/em><\/div>\n

Tasting Notes:<\/h2>\n

Che\u0300vre Sangle\u0301<\/h3>\n