by Austin Coe Butler
Like Uplands Cheese’s Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Rush Creek Reserve is another old world cheese made in an American context. Having spent a season in the Jura making Vacherin Mont d’Or, Rush Creek Reserve is cheesemaker Andy Hatch’s tribute to that classic cheese. Like Mont d’Or, Rush Creek Reserve is made at the precise moment in the autumn when the cows transition from diverse, fresh pasturage to cured hay and the milk becomes richer and higher in fat. This autumn, hay-fed milk lends itself to an indulgent, rich texture like custard or pudding.
Once the autumn milk is set with rennet, the curd is cut by hand and then ladled gently into small forms (the autumn’s milk, while richer in fat, is less in volume than the summer’s milk). The forms are then flipped and allowed to drain overnight before being brined in the morning and wrapped in a girdle of boiled spruce bark cambium. This bark not only gives the cheese its structure, but imparts a woodsy flavor that compliments the cured meat flavors found in this cheese. The cheeses are left to ripen in the storeroom and, after the sixty day maturation minimum placed on unpasteurized cheeses in the United States, the cheeses are sent out just in time for the holiday season.
There is festive air about this cheese beyond its arrival during the holidays, though. As a soft, seasonal cheese, it’s only available from late October to January, and the anticipation that builds among staff and customers to opening a Rush Creek is like opening a present. Andy’s wife, Caitlin, also paints a beautiful watercolor poster that accompanies each year’s batch. This fanfare and celebration is a fitting end to the grueling cheesemaking season when Andy and his staff are often working seventeen hours a day making not only Rush Creek Reserve but the last batches of Pleasant Ridge as well. The cows go dry, the days grow short, and the meditative practice of washing and tending to the wheels of Pleasant Ridge for the next season begins. By the cheese’s nature, it is meant to be shared. Once opened, it should be consumed, and its size is a bit too large and rich for someone to solo, though a few of the cheesemonger’s at France 44 try to each year.
Like all cheese, Rush Creek Reserve is best at room temperature. Let it temp up over the course of five or six hours, or bring it up in a warm oven by removing the paper and wrapping the cheese in foil or placing it in a ceramic crock. (Uplands Cheese offers an oven crock made by Wilson Creek Pottery explicitly for this purpose.) Once the cheese is up to temp, slice the top rind off and serve it with a spoon. While this cheese is made with delicacy, there’s no need to be precious with it; it’s excellent dolloped on roasted meat and vegetables, and each winter Andy freezes a few Rush Creeks and takes them to the local pub where they deep fry them.
Customers often talk about how this is the perfect cheese for the holidays when friends and family are around, and we couldn’t agree more. With small gatherings becoming more viable for people and this holiday season likely to be the first time many of us have celebrated our respective holidays or seen their family members in a long time, this gorgeous cheese is the perfect holiday centerpiece to serve and enjoy with your loved ones.
Please note that this cheese is so highly anticipated that you won’t be able to take one straight from our case just yet! If you’d like one as soon as possible, you can preorder them online to ensure pick up staring October 29th.
(Rush Creek Reserve 2021 print painted by Caitlin Hatch)