I hadn’t thought of farmer cheese as craveable, the sort of cheese you keep devouring after you’ve clearly had enough, but that’s before I met this one. “Six of us inhaled essentially the whole pound with honey and toasted walnuts,” a friend texted me. “I am obsessed.” And now I’m in the cult, too. Farmer cheese this tasty would make an awesome bagel schmear, but it really deserves to be the center of attention.
Sierra Nevada Cheese Company (no relation to the brewery) introduced its Gina Marie farmer cheese about three years ago but it just landed on my radar when my friend recommended it. “It tastes like whipped cultured cream cheese,” she wrote. “I’m walking to the store to get some more right now.”
The friend, Deirdre Bourdet, is a fellow food writer with a fine palate, so I wasted no time in tracking this cheese down. My nearest supermarket had it. Sierra Nevada, a California creamery, makes excellent natural cream cheese under the Gina Marie brand. It’s what I buy for cheesecake. The company’s farmer cheese is similar yet different.
Farmer cheese is always a fresh, unpressed, rindless cheese but some producers make it with reduced-fat milk. In my experience, the result can be rather dry and curdy. Sierra Nevada steers it in the opposite direction, using milk enriched with cream to about 7 percent milkfat. (The company’s cream cheese is richer yet.) Another departure: they use a kefir culture, a mix of 11 different bacteria strains, some of them probiotic, that surely contribute to this cheese’s captivating flavor.
Draining the curds slowly in muslin bags keeps the texture moist, silky and smooth. Brought fully to room temperature, the cheese is airy on the tongue, not dense and sludgy like some cream cheese. The flavor reminds me of yogurt, sour cream and cottage cheese all at once, rich and lactic with an appealing tang. The salting is spot on.
You can take this cheese in sweet or savory directions. The company’s sales rep, Meghan Rodgers, says she makes her cheesecake with it. Spread it on rye toast with smoked fish or sliced radishes or cherry tomatoes. Add a spoonful to your pesto. I love Bourdet’s suggestion of honey and walnuts. Surround with mixed berries, cherries, apricots or figs for an easy summer dessert.
Do bring the cheese to room temperature first. The texture gets creamier and the flavor blooms.
Sierra Nevada’s web site has a Store Locator and you can search by product. I paid $5.29 for a pound, which might make it the best deal in the cheese case.