Kohaku Smoked Cheese

The colour shows the degree of smoke from light to strong. Usually we go for the mid range, but if you require a light smoke or a strong smoke, please let us know and we will prepare this for you. It's rather like ordering a steak, rare, medium rare or well done.

This cheese has an interesting story.

We have a long and very fruitful collaboration with Kamimura Shuzo, an awamori distillery in Uruma, Okinawa. One of their excellent liquors, Danryu, is matured in whiskey barrels. The wood gives the awamori a yellow colour and slightly whiskey-like flavour. When the barrels get old and leaky, they give us the wood, we then crunch it up and smoke cheese with it.

Many people recommend cold smoking for cheese. We prefer to hot smoke it. Slices of our pecorino cheese are placed on a grill directly above the smoking chips. The cheese is smoked very rapidly to just before it melts. It is then wrapped and kept overnight to allow the smoke oils to penetrate the cheese.

Cheese smoked with these chips has a rich and very "meaty" taste, very similar to bacon or ham. It is quite different to other smoked cheeses.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

This cheese pairs best with beer. It is perfect with a strong beer, IPA, something with a "kick" to it. It certainly isn't bad with wine, but because it's a strong cheese, it's best to pair it with a strong wine, a full bodied red, for example.

Because of its strength, Kohaku also goes well with spirits, with awamori or whisky, of course, or brandy.

A good friend and fellow cheesemaker recommends using it as a topping on a hamburger. Excellent suggestion! Melted onto chicken breasts or as a topping on pizza are also highly recommended!

Similar to: Smoked cheese, bacon, ham
Often ordered with: Black Pepper, Garlic