Say hello to Cornelia, the latest wheel from Murray’s Cheese’s Cavemaster Reserve program! A collaboration with California’s Point Reyes Farmstead in Point Reyes Station, CA, Point Reyes is also well known for their blue cheeses, and their Bay Blue won 2nd Place Best of Show at this year's ACS Competition in Sacramento.
The diminutive wheels start as pint-sized versions of the Point Reyes Toma before coming to the Murray’s Caves in Long Island City while still "green" (the term for a young cheese). Toma's (similar to the french word Tomme), are a class of simple (in technique although not in flavor), rustic cheeses, sometimes translated as “cheese made by the farmer himself”. Subtle variations in recipes, cutting times, pressing weights, temperature, washing and aging environments result in a rainbow of distinctive personality traits, so don’t make the mistake of thinking that if you’ve tasted one Tomme you’ve tasted them all. Indeed, although there is a “tomme appearance” that is somewhat common, there are also many tommes and tomas that come in different formats and rinds, depending on the cheesemakers approach.
The Cornelia is actually named in honor of the address where the original owner, Murray Greenberg’s, little shop on Cornelia Street was located, in Greenwich Village, before they moved to their more expansive location on Bleecker.
The Cornelia was developed over the last several months in Murray’s caves, by their Cavemaster, Brian Ralph and his team of affineurs (under the code name "Tiny Toma Project" — it even has a #tinytomaproject hashtag), eventually settling on an affinage plan that begins in the warm and humid washed-rind caves, where the wheels get brine-washed regularly, and then getting moved to the cooler natural-rind caves to finish out their aging. In this way they develop some of the characteristics of a washed rind (the reddish rind with a slightly gritty texture, some of the aromatic and flavor notes) but without pushing it into the more pungent and runnier traits one associates with that style normally (You can read all about the caves at Murray's here).
The rind is orangey-pink, with a frosting of white mold, and a light layer of crystalline accretions from the washings. The paste is smooth and rich, with a scattering of eyes, lightly bulging and oozing as it warms. The aroma is a bit musty, carrying over from the aging caves; the flavor is beautifully buttery, with a silky, melting mouthfeel (reminiscent of a higher-fat sheep’s milk cheese even though it’s made from cows milk), with notes of roasted peanut and buttered toast, earthy and a bit brothy once it comes to room temperature. This is an easy-eating cheese, and I wouldn't expect too many Cornelia's halves to make it back into the fridge once they've been put out on the board.
Murray’s actually has several “Cavemaster” cheeses, including collaborations with Consider Bardwell, Vermont Creamery, Old Chatham Sheepherding, Jasper Hill and others, check them out on the site.