Not too long ago, I tasted a creamy mildly crunchy cow's milk cheese called Pleasant Ridge Reserve. The exquisite flavor of this cheese is due to the fact that the cow's are grazing on 300 acres of lush Wisconsin pastures from early spring through the fall. This is a crucial difference between many industrial cheeses and artisanal cheeses. Artisanal cheeses, like this one, use milk from cows grazing a natural pasture.
Pleasant Ridge Reserve's complexity of flavors makes it the perfect cheese to pair with different jams and honeys. I encourage you to taste it with mirabelle jam. You can also eat it with freshly sliced apples and pears. Like any artisanal cheese, you don't have to pair it with anything to savor its array of aromas. Nevertheless, condiments seem to highlight this cheese particularly well.
Visit Uplands Cheese Company!
Pleasant Ridge Reserve comes from a small dairy farm in Dodgeville, Wisconsin that's operated by two families: Mike and Carol Gingrich and Dan and Jeanne Patenaude. The cheese was inspired by French mountain-style cheeses, such as Comté. Besides finding this cheese in Wisconsin, you can purchase it from Saxelby Cheesemongers in NYC. It's well worth the $26 per pound from Uplands Cheese Company.
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