Reverie

You can almost always find a wedge of Reverie under glass on our kitchen counter.

Lisa Battilana, one of the owners of the Woodstock Farmers Market and a passionate board member of the VT Cheese Council, urged us to make an Asiago Pressato.  A mild, short-aged cheese that would appeal to kids or those wanting a milder cheese seemed worth a shot.

Pete dug into his library, reading up on the youthful Toma cheeses of the Piedmont, and developed a recipe to try.  At 60 days it was legal, if not particularly flavorful. In hopes that it would develop some thereness we waited a few months and gave it another try.  Better, but still not as interesting as we’d hoped.At five months it was getting there, but Pete had a hunch we were on to something if we could wait a while longer.

At 10 months Reverie develops the sour cream and allium notes and the dense we’ve come to love.  Turns out this cheese ages into itself between twelve and eighteen months— robust, complex, and very satisfying.

Reverie is a relatively quick make.  A brief coagulation followed by a small cut, the curd is stirred and heated. The curds are left to settle before being gathered into a dense pack. We cut blocks of curd from the pack and form wheels in cloth-lined baskets that spend a few hours under press.  The next day we move them to a cool room for brining. Over the course of aging, the simple rinds pick up  natural molds that inhabit the aging room, coming to resemble bluish-grey stones.