Nasonville’s Blue Marble™ Jack Cheese: A New Wisconsin Original

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Gluten-free Cheese

At the Madison Cheese Trade Show The Lady attended last May, she ran into her friend Randy Johnson who was there representing Nasonville Dairy with Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker, Tom Torkleson. The two men were excited about a new “Wisconsin Original” that Tom had created with fellow Master Cheesemaker, Ken Heiman for Nasonville Dairy. Ken is part of the third generation of the Heiman family that has been running the Nasonville Dairy in Central Wisconsin for more than forty years.

Blue Marble™ Jack Cheese is the first of several traditional varieties being crafted with a new technique and secret cultures to bring cheese hounds a unique style of blue cheese in a convenient form. This new cheese is available sliced, shredded, chunked and in loaves. They are also developing this new style for cheddar and feta.

The semi-soft Monterey Jack body and texture is marbled with blue veins woven throughout the white curd making a beautiful-looking cheese that has a mild blue flavor.

For deli service, there is no cross contamination with the blue as it is inert after being heated to 185°. That means it can be sliced on the regular cheese slicer and doesn’t require a separate machine.

The texture, according to The Lady, is creamy and the blue is distinct but not over-powering. It is also not as salty as many blues. According to Tom, it has half the salt of traditional blues. Also, because it is such a “pretty” cheese, everyone agreed it would be a hit, especially in the deli case.

The Lady gives Blue Marble™ Jack Cheese 3 Paws out of 4 Paws (despite the fact that she has none…).

Serving Suggestions: This is a great melting cheese and would make one heck of a cheeseburger. Shredded it is ideal on pizza, for cheese dips, au gratin potatoes and buffalo wings.

Wine Pairing: As a “hybrid” cheese (blue and jack) The Lady suggests going with a Riesling.

Beer Pairing: Brown Ale

In addition to the Blue Marble, Randy and Tom treated the group to samples of the Nasonville Feta. Nasonville is the third largest producer of feta in the US. They make the Feta sold under the Boar’s Head banner.

The Lady loved this Feta and she’s not a big Feta fan. It was creamy and just salty enough. One problem The lady has with most Fetas is the excessive saltiness; not this one.

Again, even without Paws, The Lady gave the Nasonville Feta 3 Paws out of 4 Paws… I hope she doesn’t plan to make a habit of using my paws as though they were her own… sheesh… humankinds can be so annoying…