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[1] For yourself or as gifts to your favorite cheese lovers, head to a great cheese store or to Perrystead Dairy. You can pick the cheeses yourself or send a gift card (photos #1, #2, #3, #4, and #7 © Perrystead Dairy).
[2] Intergalactic, the gold medal winner. The wrinkles are a signature of Geotrichum candidum†.
[3] The silver medal winner, The Real Philly Schmear Cream Cheese, is in another galaxy than the original Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
[4] Atlantis, a bronze medal winner, is a semi-soft cheese washed in seawater and speckled with bits of seaweed.
[5] Moonrise, a bronze medal winner, is a washed rind cheese made with a rare dual-coagulation process (photos #5 and #6 © Murrays Cheese).
[6] Intergalactic with great crackers and your favorite jam or preserves is a real treat.
[7] For yourself or for gifting. Front row: Moonrise, Treehug, Intergalactic. Back row: The Real Philly Schmear, Atlantis.
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Perrystead Dairy is a unique Philadelphia cheesemaker, focusing on creating original new styles of cheeses. It’s the pioneering urban creamery in the City of Brotherly Love.
And we love their cheeses, which are our Top Pick Of The Week. And we’re not the only ones to laud them.
The creamery* has been racking up awards for its artisan cheeses at competitions worldwide.
Its major international and domestic awards tally is 20 in only three-and-a-half years since its founding!
Two weeks ago, four Perrystead cheeses won gold, silver, and bronze medals at the annual World Cheese Awards held in Viseu, Portugal.
The industry’s most important cheese competition, the World Cheese Awards is conducted by The Guild of Fine Food in the U.K. It takes place in a different host country each year.
More than more than 4,700 cheeses were entered in this year’s competition.
THE WINNING PERRYSTEAD CHEESES
All are made with milk from grass-fed cows in Pennsylvania.
Intergalactic (A Lightly-Aged Cheese): Gold Medal
This delight is Perrystead Dairy’s signature cheese (photos #2, #6, #7). Truly is out of this world, this cube-shaped cheese with a Geotrichum rind† has won at four major competitions this year alone.
The soft, creamy, flavorful lactic cheese is made from curds coagulated with Iberian cardoon thistle flowers rather than animal rennet. Vegetarian rennet means that the cheese is acceptable to vegetarians.
Aged for 14 days, the cheese is herbaceous and creamy, with a hint of tang, olives, and grassiness. It has a melt-in-your-mouth wrinkly geotrichum rind (you must eat it!), followed by a gooey creamline and a fluffy center core.
“Intergalactic is a wink at our American melting pot,” says owner and cheesemaker Yoav Perry. “We use Portuguese thistle rennet, we coagulate it like Loire Valley goat’s milk [but with cow’s milk instead], and we age it like it’s an alpine Robiola.” Perry says. “Interdisciplinary plus lactic equals intergalactic.”
The Real Philly Schmear (A Fresh Cheese): Silver Medal
A fresh spreadable cheese with the texture of lightly-whipped cream cheese, The Real Philly Schmear has a creamy, old-world buttermilk tang, reminiscent of France’s fromage blanc.
If you don’t know fromage blanc, it has half the fat and twice the protein and calcium of cream cheese.
Beyond spreading it directly onto bagels, toast, and crackers, you can enhance it with minced fresh herbs or a drizzle of honey.
It may not be the economical way to make cheesecakes, dips, fillings, frostings, garnishes (for grains, soups, etc.), salad dressings, sauces, or even ice cream, but it sure is luxurious (photos #3 and #7).
Atlantis (A Semisoft Cheese): Bronze Medal
A tribute to Plato’s fictional island, this semisoft cheese is washed in sea water and speckled with seaweed varieties from the North Atlantic (because you can’t figure out where Atlantis was—all we know is that it was in the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere west of the Pillars of Hercules (which flank the Strait of Gibraltar).
With a deep umami flavor, Atlantis is herbaceous with notes of apples, asparagus, nori, and a light, sea-like salinity (the latter two not surprising given the seawater and the seaweed—photos #4 and #7).
Moonrise (A Washed-Rind Cheese): Bronze Medal
This washed-rind cheese is made in a rare dual-coagulation process using both traditional French calf’s rennet and Iberian cardoon thistle flowers (photos #5 and #7).
This combination of rennets ties the milk proteins together in a unique form, making the cheese silky while releasing unique flavor and aroma compounds.
It has the pungent aroma of a washed-rind cheese, and those of us who love them do eat that aromatic (some say funky) rind.
It’s a great melter‡ too!
GET YOUR PERRYSTEAD CHEESES
Head to Perrystead.com. Or…
See if your favorite local cheese shop has them.
Check out online e-tailers (should that be cheese-tailers?).
> The history of cheese.
> The different types of cheese: a photo glossary
> A year of cheese holidays.
> The 2024 World Cheese Awards winners.
> The top 14 winners. (The 4,786 entries were assessed by a panel of 240 judges to name 104 Super Golds, which were then by a “super jury” to find the top 14 cheeses in the world.)
ABOUT PERRYSTEAD DAIRY
For more than 18 years, Yoav Perry, the founder of Perrystead Dairy, has been dedicated to mastering cheesemaking. It began as a hobby that grew into an obsession, and then a business.
Seeking to create cheeses beyond the classics—his own proprietary recipes—he needed to find different ingredients than were readily available from most cheesemaker suppliers.
Tracking down hard-to-find cheese cultures, rennets, and molds for his cheeses turned into an import company that supplied and consulted for artisan cheesemakers in more than 30 countries.
In the process, he gained deep expertise in bacterial cultures, fabrication methods, and aging practices.
When he moved to Philadelphia, Yoav found a wealth of fine artisan dairies within driving distance of the city. He felt that the time was right to start his own creamery*.
In addition to great milk, Philadelphia also offered fine cheesemongers (distributors), world-class chefs, and a foodie culture.
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Yoav received an equipment grant from the City to produce artisan cheeses in Philadelphia proper. He turned a 140-year-old-stable with a junkyard in the front into a state-of-the-art creamery.
Following pandemic-related delays, he began to sell cheese in March 2021.
It’s the only certified operation within the city limits to make artisan cheese.
The creamery is located in Fishtown, a neighborhood northeast of Center City that attracts creative types, and is known for nurturing culinary, art, and music trends.
The neighborhood’s name derives from a key occupation of its original residents: Early settlers were fishermen who plied their trade on the Delaware River.
ABOUT THE GUILD OF FINE FOOD
The GFF has been championing independent food and drink retailers, and the producers, wholesalers and distributors that supply them, since 1995.
Its mission is to raise the bar for great food and drink.
Committed to supporting and encouraging business across the sector, the Guild advocates for the needs of the independents, celebrates their excellence, and creates a network of relationships between retailers, producers, and food lovers.
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*The difference between a dairy and a creamery: A dairy is any place that processes and distributes milk and milk products. It typically owns its herds of milk animals. A dairy can sell only the milk (including buttermilk, cream, condensed and evaporated milks), and/or can it turn their milk into other products: butter, cheese, ice cream, yogurt, etc. A creamery, on the other hand specifically focuses on the production of these other products from milk purchased from a dairy. A creamery does not have its own herds. [Note that while it’s called Perrystead Dairy, the company is in fact a creamery.]
A farmstead cheese is one that is made on the farm by the farmer, using only the milk from the farmer’s own herd or flock. The cheese must be made on the farm where the animals are raised.
†Geotrichum candidum is a yeast-like fungus or mold it is widely used in the production of cheeses: on bloomy rind cheeses such as Brie and Camembert; on certain goat cheeses, where it creates a brain-like pattern; on washed rind cheeses such as Saint-Nectaire; and on Alpine cheeses such as Tomme de Savoie. It’s not all beneficial, though: The fungus/mold can cause sour rot on certain fruits and vegetables.
‡Great melters: Cheeses that melt well are essential when you want a smooth, creamy melted cheese texture for dishes like casseroles, gratins, grilled cheese sandwiches, fondue, nachos, pasta dishes, pizzas, and quesadillas. Some popular melty cheeses are Cheddar, Colby, fontina, Gouda, Gruyère, Havarti, Monterey Jack, mozzarella, and provolone. Note that names of cheeses (and other foods) are capitalized if they are named after their area of origin (city, region, country). Other examples of capitalized cheeses (but not “melters”) include Asiago, Brie, Camembert, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and Taleggio.
Note that we don’t mention the two most popular melters in the U.S.: American cheese and Velveeta. They’re not real cheese. The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations defines them as “pasteurized processed cheese.” They’re a blend of natural cheese bits and other ingredients. Ingredients include milk, dairy fats and solids, emulsifying agents, whey protein concentrates, and food coloring. They are only required to be 51% real cheese.
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