What is Raw Milk Cheese?

Before I turned into The Cheese Ambassador, I loved shopping for and learning about gourmet cheese (confession: I still do). At each outing, I would spend close to an hour talking to the cheese monger and sampling little morsels of cheese goodness. We would compare the boldness of cheddars by age, the odiferous aromas of washed rind cheeses, and the bite of blue cheeses. But when we considered raw milk cheese versus pasteurized milk cheese, I have to admit that this difference wasn't so apparent. And just to prove that all of my questions weren't a ploy to fill up on free gourmet cheese samples, I would happily take a few wedges home to continue my culinary education. Even after several "blind" samplings, my taste buds still couldn't discern the difference. Was I missing something here? Wondering what the hype was all about, I started to research whether there really was a benefit to raw milk gourmet cheese.

Once I embarked on my epicurean investigation, I quickly discovered a pretty heated debate about the benefits of raw versus pasteurized milk and whether the difference has any effect on gourmet cheese. Raw milk is unpasteurized milk. It comes straight from the source and has been utilized in this manner for thousands of years. Most gourmet cheese (and other dairy products) are made with buffalo, cow, goat or sheep milk. Pasteurization is a sterilization method developed in the nineteenth century by French scientist Louis Pasteur. The Industrial Revolution required milk to be mass produced and transported to urban centers. Factory farms were notoriously unsanitary and as a result, milk transmitted highly contagious diseases. Pasteurized milk has been heated to at least 145 degrees. Pasteurization was and is currently employed as a solution to contain these pathogens and allow milk to be safely consumed and employed in the food supply.

So what's the problem with pasteurized milk? According to raw milk advocates, when raw milk is produced from healthy animals, in sanitary conditions it is more flavorful and creamy. It also contains beneficial and nutritious bacteria, enzymes and vitamins that are destroyed by the pasteurization process. In the United States, raw milk is regulated by the state. Twenty-eight states allow the sale of raw milk for human consumption.

In all states, raw milk can be used to make gourmet cheese, however it must be aged for at least 60 days to allow the acids and salts in the cheese to kill the potentially harmful bacteria such as listeria, E. coli and salmonella. This goes for gourmet cheese produced in the US or imported. You may notice many raw milk cheddars, goudas and blue cheeses in the cheese case - they have been aged for more than 60 days. But when it comes to softer gourmet cheeses such as fresh goat, mozzarella, Brie, Camembert, etc., they must be crafted with pasteurized milk. But is there a difference in taste? Unfortunately (and fortunately), the only means of sampling raw milk Brie and deciding for yourself is to pack your bags and head to Europe (although, Quebec is closer). I have enjoyed Brie on the Seine and it did seem to have a more intense, mushroomy flavor. But doesn't everything taste better is Paris? And in sampling the raw milk varieties of gourmet cheese and comparing them to pasteurized versions here in the States, I can't say one was definitively superior because of the raw milk. There are so many factors that play into flavor of cheese such as milk type, aging, make recipe, etc. (we'll save that for another article) it's hard to pin point the precise one. One thing is for certain. Raw milk cheeses are produced from milk hailing from small and exceptionally clean farms. They are typically artisanal cheeses and handcrafted in a traditional manner - no doubt a special gourmet cheese treat. So in the name of research (wink wink), experiment and discover for yourself if there is a taste difference with raw milk gourmet cheese.