Tasty Recipes and Resolutions for 2024

Are you feeling adventurous? Savor the judges' top pick! Crafted by North America’s most decorated cheesemaker, Sid Cook, Carr Valley Gran Canaria® has won 22 awards, including Overall Best USA Cheese Outright at the 2022 International Cheese & Dairy Awards. This rich mixed-milk masterpiece is olive oil-cured (an homage to traditional Canarian cheesemaking techniques) and aged. It's fruity, nutty and deliciously complex; pair Gran Canaria® with a chocolate stout or amplify its sweet notes with chocolate espresso beans.

You’ve resolved to try cheese in new, exciting ways this year. Now what? Explore the possibilities of tasting contrasting flavors! Pairing the earthy, salty flavors of decadent blues like Salemville® Amish Blue and Carr Valley Glacier Penta Crème™ Blue with sweet maple syrup, hot honey or fruity port wine moderates the cheeses' intensities, providing balance. Enjoy them in desserts or bites to make salty-sweet treats for blue cheese skeptics and lovers alike.

Mundane was so last year. Create culinary magic in 2024 with flavored cheeses! The State of Cheese boasts beauties lovingly rubbed with spices, garlic and herbs, specialties soaked in wine and whiskey, and varieties studded with fruits and spicy peppers. Our cheesemakers are constantly innovating. Taste how Kindred Creamery Ghost Pepper Colby Jack transforms traditional chicken alfredo and award-winning, creamy Sartori Black Pepper BellaVitano®, hand-rubbed to peppery perfection, takes veggies over the top.

Promise to use that rind! After indulging in a wedge of parmesan or asiago, save the rind for soups, chili and stocks. A chef's secret, cheese rinds add depth of flavor with little effort. "The essence of the cheese remains, and the liquid makes a great finishing sauce," says Executive Chef Luke Zahm. Rinds form as cheeses are guided to their peak ripeness during aging. Mostly, rinds are edible, but some are hard and chewy, and they'll soften during simmering.

Add the best cheesemaking with unique cultures and ingredients, a rigorous grading program, and a twist of whimsy, and you get Deer Creek Cheese. Owned by Licensed Cheese Grader Chris Gentine, the dreamer behind tasty, innovative, and highly awarded cheeses like The Rattlesnake, The Blue Jay™, Vat 17 World Cheddar and more. Chris partners with Master Cheesemakers, using his razor-sharp palate to craft characterful wheels. “We're fortunate to work with great Master Cheesemakers and have that ability to sit down with them and do what we do,” says Chris. "There's an honor to the industry."