Saturn Baby Swiss (revisited)

If we're being totally honest, I generally have a hard time appreciating "Saturn Baby Swiss," but as I gnaw away on a wedge of it as I write this post, it grows on me...

Like all of the other cheeses from Milky Way Meadows of Townville, Pennsylvania, "Saturn Baby Swiss" is aged at least a year before being sliced into wedges and packaged for retail by farmstead dairyman and cheesemaker, Adin Kuepfer. Sometimes his cheeses are aged longer, up to two years, depending upon supply and demand. Based on other batches of "Saturn Baby Swiss" that I've encountered, my guess is that this one is about a year or so old.

What I usually tell people who inquire about "Saturn Baby Swiss" is that is sharp - probably the sharpest cheese we carry. Sharpness is that mild-to-intense, acidic taste that comes from aged cheeses. "Saturn Baby" also has piquant characteristics that gives a certain aroma and mouthfeel that are sort of hard to describe. It's intensely tangy and earthy.

The more I analyze it, I realize that it's not so different from my dear "Tussey Mountain" Emmenthaler Swiss after all - although it's certainly not as sweet or buttery. The paste of "Saturn Baby Swiss" is very soft and dry, as a result of both are and styling, but the cheese as a whole is quite firm and dense. It's slices and grates beautifully as needed and also crumbles well at room temperature if desired. It tastes delicious alongside a dark and malty lager or a bock and I imagine it would be perfect in Chicken Cordon Bleu with Mushroom Sauce - or for my fellow veg-heads, maybe a Portabello Cordon Bleu with extra cream sauce!

Fun facts: 1.) Most of Adin's cheeses are named after celestial bodies. One exception to that rule is "Chore Time Cheddar," which was named, naturally, after the laborious endeavor that is "cheddaring" (as discussed in my previous post). 2.) According to our friend and local farmstead cheese buyer extraoridnaire, Abby Long of Three Rivers Grown, "Adin has even been known to grow barely in his greenhouse over winter" to keep his heard on fresh grasses year-round.