Frieda.
She is the Matriarch of the Second Mouse Cheese family; a pungent, oozy and earthy cheese which is well suited to many pairings. But what's with the name??
"I've never heard of a Frieda before!" say many market customers who are meeting her for the first time. And rightly so. She's a unique cheese style with a unique name to match.
I often shy away from likening Second Mouse cheeses to other, more well known European cheeses because they are our own creation. Made with milk sourced from the Central West and our own techniques, she reflects the terroir and handling of her origins and makers far more than her distant French cousins like Langres or Pont-l'Eveque.
However, there are similarities in the nature and flavours of this pungent cheese family. The addition of a mild salt brine to the surface of the cheese creates a perfect environment for yeast growth that gives that distinctive aroma.
The aroma can be described as both delicious and disgusting, depending on your viewpoint. Yeasty, meaty, barnyard-y and stinky are all good descriptors. But above all else, the flavours of this style of cheese are STRONG!
And hence her name; Frieda. Given to her by the Second Mouse Cheese founder Kai, he named her for the strongest woman he knew. His mother.