It’s that time again: February has an extra day this year, so at Shelburne Farms that means celebrating with a special, aged cheddar aptly named “Leap Cheese.”
While Shelburne Farms normally ages its various cheddars from six months to about three years, this special cheese has been aging since -- guess when? -- last Leap Day in 2016.
The farm’s famous Brown Swiss cows provide the milk for about 170,000 pounds of cheese each year. A batch of regular cheddar can weigh 600-700 pounds, explained cheesemaker Maddy Born.
The 700-pound batch of Leap Cheese was made in 40-pound blocks and stored in refrigeration for the past four years, Born said.
The cheesemakers have been checking the cheese just once a year since 2016. Each year, a cheesemaker took a sample from the middle of the cheese blocks to test the quality.
Born said that the Leap Cheese is special, not only because it ages longer than the other cheeses, but because it also has crystals that provide a grittier texture than a typical cheddar.
These cheese crystals are located both inside and outside of the cheese. Calcium lactate gives the cheese a crunch on the outside, while an amino acid called tyrosine provides the inside of the cheese with texture, Born said.
The cheesemakers translate that to having a “crystalline texture, butterscotch flavor, [and] floral aroma.”
Beyond the additional crystalline ingredients that set the Leap Cheese apart, Born said cheesemakers follow their usual process in creating this cheddar. “The process of cheese-making takes a total of nine hours,” she said.
She described the steps: “The cows are milked twice a day, and all of the milk produced goes into the vat for cheesemaking. Starter culture is added to start fermenting the milk, and then rennet is added to coagulate the milk. The whey is drained out and the curds are packed into slabs to solidify. These slabs go through a mill machine to be cut into larger curds, and then salt is added. The cheese is packed into a pressing machine overnight and put into the cooler the next morning.”
Unlike the typical cheddar that might simply get sliced onto a cracker or melted in a sandwich, Leap Cheese pairs well with scotch ales or whiskeys, according to the retail staff at the farm. They also suggest serving it alongside the farm shop’s orange-whiskey, cranberry-orange, and cherry marmalades.
Leap Cheese goes on sale Saturday, Feb. 29, in the Shelburne Farms Welcome Center and Farm Store from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Custom cuts will be priced at $28 per pound; half-pound sealed packages are $17.50 while supplies last.
