Move over steak, there’s a new girl in town and she wants some space on the grill. Guernsey Girl, the newest cheese from Upper Canada Cheese Co. (which also produces Niagara Gold and Comfort Cream) will be your go-to summer treat. You won’t even need a cheeseboard – or a plate – you can just transfer the crisped slices straight from the barbecue into the eager hands of your guests.
As the name suggests, Guernsey Girl, which is meant to be heated, is made with the rich, golden milk of the Guernsey cow. Uncooked it is dense with a pliable texture and has the soft, creamy hue of a peeled banana. Once pan-fried or grilled, the exterior of the slice will become caramel brown, crispy and slightly sweet, an irresistible contrast to the melted, salty interior. The mild tangy undertone pleasantly cuts through the buttery main show. The contrast in textures is especially mouthwatering when you slice the cheese fairly thin so that the “crisp to soft” ratio is high, leaving the slender centre warm, chewy and supple. Biting into it is like biting into a perfectly crisped grilled cheese sandwich.
The inspiration for the cheese was broadly based on the Cypriot cheese halloumi, and more specifically on Scandinavian bread cheese. Bread cheese is a fresh cheese (not aged) known as Juustoleipa or Leipajuusto that is grilled before being packaged. The exterior “crust” gives it a bread-like appearance.
Vivian Szebeny, managing partner at Upper Canada, is quick to emphasize that though the idea for Guernsey Girl was based on various styles of cooking cheese, it is its own product. “I find it caramelizes a bit more beautifully due to the high fat content of the Guernsey milk,” Ms. Szebeny says. “The Guernsey milk also imparts a fuller, richer flavour than that found in other similar styles of cheese. So it is not a halloumi, not a bread cheese, it’s Guernsey Girl.”
Guernsey Girl is a result of six months of experimenting with the cheese-making process. When the first tests were done for Guernsey Girl, the moulds were overfilled with curd so that when pressed the result was a tight unit of cheese. But this overfilling resulted in a lot of “breakage” (waste) since surplus cheese had to be trimmed off the edges of the block. The team at Upper Canada then came up with a pressing technique unique to their new cheese. They custom-designed stainless steel weights, exactly the right size and mass to press the cheese properly without losing any of the final product. Once pressed, the cheese is poached in whey, which gives it a “squeak” in the mouth and the ability to hold its shape when heated. Since it is a fresh cheese, a batch can be made one day and ready to be consumed the next.
Not only is this Ontario cowgirl ready to eat right out of the gate, she’s also a sure shot for summer entertaining.
Sue Riedl studied at the Cordon Bleu in London.
