About our Cheese
Made with 100% pure sheep milk and aged a minimum of six months, DANTE has a rich, nutty flavor with a firm and somewhat dry texture. Dante complements pasta, dried fruit and balsamic vinegar as well as medium red wines and semi-sweet white wines.
Made with a blend of sheep milk and cow milk and aged a minimum of six months, MONA develops a very distinctiv e, mild and pleasant taste with a firm and somewhat moist texture. Mona is served well with sweet, Port wine styles.
A fresher 100% Sheepmilk Cheese with a mild, pleasant flavor. Dante lamb is made from lightly salted Dante curd. It is squeaky and mild when new and ages to form a sharpness similar to a Jack cheese at about 6 months. A perfect “every day” cheese, rich and velvety. Sandwiches, snacks,or sauces, Dante Lamb covers it all. This cheese is a wonderful addition to vegetable and fruit salads. You can use it in just about any recipe that calls for cheese.
Tulum is a creamy blend of sheep and cow milk with a strong, slightly sour taste similar to Turkish Tulum. Tulum is a high moisture cheese with excellent melting qualities and a shelf life of two years in the block.
Dante Natural Rind is our rich buttery Dante, naturally aged in a Wisconsin cave lending old world musky notes. Perfect with your favorite reds. Expected Dante Natural Rind availability will start in June 2012.
Somerset is a classic Wisconsin 100% sheep milk white cheddar. It is very clean tasting with just the right amount of cheddar tang.
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Making Dante and Mona Our sheepmilk is produced with meticulous attention to cleanliness, as well as with respect for the environment and the well-being of our animals.
Member farms milk between 100 to 400 sheep seasonally, between February and September. During the spring and summer, the ewes, of the East Friesian or Lacaune breeds, have access to the greenest pastures available. Twice a day, the flocks return to the barns for milking. The milk is collected very gently, while the ewes are eating natural grains, and cooled quickly. The milk is picked up from the farms and used to produce our cheese.
The WSDC is committed to natural and sustainable farms leading to production of the highest quality cheese available. Dante and Mona are seasonally produced cheeses, assuring the unique taste of Wisconsin pastures is expressed in the cheese.
The incredibly rich, flavorful milk produced by our members is the start for what many consider to be the finest cheeses in the world. Sheep milk for our cheese is shipped fresh from our farms to Cedar Grove Cheese in Plain Wisconsin. There, world renowned cheese makers make our cheese in very small batches.
After gentle pasteurization, culture and rennet are added to form curd and the cheese is pressed into wheels that are approximately ten pounds each. Each wheel is then cured, with meticulous attention to humidity and temperature. All aging of our cheese is done by Jenifer Brozak of Bear Valley Affinage.
We believe our cheese is comparable in quality to the finest imported sheep milk cheeses available yet they are unique cheeses, owing their uncommon taste to the sheep, forages and cheese making tradition of Wisconsin .
Dante and Mona Product Features
• Seasonal production from grazing ewes.
• No production hormones.
• The nutrition of sheep milk is superior to cow milk in terms of protein, calcium and “good” fats.
• No preservatives are used in the cheese. Ingredients are: Milk, culture, rennet, salt.
Making our Dante Lamb Sheep milk for our cheese is shipped fresh, throughout the year, from our farms to a world renowned plant in central Wisconsin . There, cheese makers make Dante Lamb by hand, using traditional methods.
After gentle pasteurization, culture and rennet are added to form curd. Dante Lamb is simply the curd left over from Dante once all the Dante forms are full. This curd is placed in 40 lb forms and pressed.
Sales InformationAvailable at select retail locations and through several distributors Nationwide or Buy Cheese Now. If you are interested in wholsale purchase or distribution, please contact Paul Haskins at WSDC or email us at: sales@sheepmilk.biz. If you are interested in purchasing retail cuts of cheese or sample packs please contact Emily Meisegeier.