by Austin Coe Butler
Cowgirl Creamery’s Mt. Tam is one of the most iconic and awarded triple crèmes made in the United States. If you’ve had only one artisanal cheese made in the United States, this was probably it. And there’s good reason why. It’s flavor and texture are remarkable, which has led to numerous gold medals at the American Cheese Society and Good Food Awards. Mt. Tam is also the result of pioneering and radical practices.
Cowgirl Creamery was founded by Sue Conley and Peg Smith who met as college students at the University of Tennessee in the 70s. They were heavily involved in the social and political movements of that time, and after a road-trip to the Bay Area they decided to relocate to Berkeley and work at establishments of California cuisine like the Obrero Hotel and Chez Panisse. (At this same time, Laura Chenel was producing chèvre for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse.) Conley and Smith befriended dairy farmer Ellen Straus, and when they started producing cheese in an old hay barn in Point Reyes, they were dedicated to using local, organic, single source milk from the pasture grazed cows of the Straus Family Creamery.
Just as American winemakers were moving to emphasize the terroir of the Sonoma or Napa Valley, Cowgirl Creamery was also emphasizing the locality, place, and terroir of West Marin County. Even after the company moved the majority of their production to Petaluma, they still create their washed-rind Red Hawk in Point Reyes owing to the dense fog, sea spray, and unique microbial and yeast communities in the air that give Red Hawk’s rind its signature color and flavor that varies with the seasons. They still use the same brine they’ve washed that cheese with for the past fifteen years.
Mt. Tam was, and still is, revelatory for American consumers who had only ever had bland, bodega brie. Here was a brie-style cheese that was being made according to the highest standards in the United States and not being mass produced abroad for import to a country with stringent pasteurization laws. While many think of it as a brie, it’s a unique creation of its own. During the cheesemaking process, Mt. Tam’s curd is washed. This washing process, common to goudas, removes lactic acid and makes for sweeter cheese and gives Mt. Tam its sweet cream notes. After the curd has been formed into molds and the young cheeses have drained overnight, they are brined in a salt-water and whey solution. Its stout shape and added height gives the cheese a fudgy core that most flat, disc-shaped brie-style cheeses never achieve. You’ll find all the classic bloomy-rind, brie flavors like button mushrooms and a rich, buttery cream-line, but with added complexity. For that reason, it’s incomparably accessible and versatile.
There’s no wrong way to serve this cheese–with a dollop of bright apricot jam, alongside fresh fruit, cured meats, or olives. Slice the top off, broil it, and drizzle it with spicy chili crisp. Any way you choose to enjoy it, it deserves its place on your Easter cheese board as a true American original.