HOW CHEESE REFINERS VAN TRICHT AGE CHEESE TO PERFECTION

Cheese selection

Cheese refining starts with selecting: you choose a cheese you want to work with. No matter how much knowledge you have about cheese refining, if your base product is not up to par, you will never be able to develop a great cheese. That is why cheese refiners Van Tricht imposes important strict quality requirements on their cheese producers.

To start with, cheese refiners Van Tricht only works with traditional cheeses made by experienced, artisanal cheesemakers. They know better than anyone how to perfectly balance the color, taste and aroma of their cheese. Industrially made cheeses are not usable, because they contain processed milk and therefore can hardly evolve.

Secondly, they have a preference for cheeses made with raw or non-pasteurized milk. This results in more complex flavors and more depth.

Thirdly, they mostly go for farm cheeses. Farm cheese is a protected term (French: fromage fermier, Dutch: boerderijkaas) that indicates that the farmer only uses milk from his own cattle to produce the cheese. It’s about small-scale production in which quality is more important than quantity. This means that farmers who make these cheeses attach great importance to the welfare of their animals. They give them a lot of space and also pay special attention to their nutrition. In the summer months the dairy cattle graze outside. In the winter months they get dried grass (hay) from the same pasture. The fact that they eat the same grass from the same environment all year round is very decisive for the taste of the milk. A cow that grazes continuously near the coast will produce a different type of milk than a cow that always grazes in the mountains.

Finally, they prefer cheeses produced with summer milk. Summer milk is richer than winter milk and produces a smoother cheese. For long ageing mountain cheeses such as Comté and Parmesan cheeses, they uniquely use cheeses made with summer milk. The cows then eat fresh grass but also flowers and herbs that are characteristic of the altitude and bring certain flavors into the milk.

Cheese ripening

Cheese refiners Van Tricht consciously buy young cheese from the farmer that is still ripening. The ageing is decisive for the final taste. Because every cheese needs a different care, cheese refiners Van Tricht has nine ripening chambers. Such a chamber is a modern cooling system in which you can regulate the temperature as well as the humidity and air circulation. So you can create the perfect conditions for cheeses of a certain type to age nicely. Some cheeses ripen for 2 to 3 years. On average, cheeses stay in the ripening cell for about 6 weeks. During this time, cheeses evolve into the best version of themselves. Give a young cheese that tastes slightly sour and tart the necessary time in a ripening cell and it can become well rounded in flavor.

Cheese refiners can also wash cheeses to develop a given taste. Cheese refiners Van Tricht makes beer cheese in collaboration with De Koninck. During this process they wash the cheese with a beer such as Duvel or Bolleke. They can also play with texture: a brie that ripens shorter, for example, is less runny. So an important part of refining is knowing exactly what the customer wants.

Cheese tasting

In the ripening cells of cheese refiners Van Tricht rest about 400 types of cheese. At Only Cheese you can taste and buy 120 of them. The selection varies with the seasons.

Cheese is, by the way, a good source of vitamin D, which is less easy to obtain in the winter. There's also nothing cozier than sitting around the table with delicious pieces of cheese and a nice beer or glass of wine during the winter months. So be sure to go to Only Cheese and get advice from experts.

• vantricht.be