the cheese blog

Brabander

Another new farm, another new cheese. Brabander is made by Fallsdale Farm in Tyler Hill, PA. It’s all natural and made from raw cow’s milk. One of the striking features of this cheese was the terrific, craggy washed-rind. It gave the cheese a lot of “character.”

Brabander is a “classic Dutch and Belgian farmstead raw cow milk cheese.” It has been cave aged (anywhere from 4 to 12 months). The texture was dry-ish and slightly crumbly. The aroma was slightly sharp, but not overwhelming. The taste though. It was very salty, from start to finish. I think in small doses, it was tolerable, but it quickly became a bit too much. It overwhelmed the flavor. It basically had a a sharp, salty taste and not much more. Similar to some other farmhouse style cheeses, this one would probably work really well in a grilled cheese. At a minimum, it really needed some type of sweet condiment to balance the saltiness, something like a cherry compote would have worked well.