Mushroom Cheeses Worth Trying Now
Meister’s morel-flavored cheese. Photo credit Meister Cheese
Cheese and mushrooms are a natural pairing, bringing together rich, savory depth and earthy umami. When it comes to this flavor combination, most of the attention has gone to truffle cheeses, but there’s more to the category than truffles alone.
Other foraged mushroom varieties, such as morels and porcinis, are increasingly finding their way into cheeses. Some cheesemakers are taking their love of fungi to new limits by incorporating mushrooms directly into their cheeses, whether rubbed on the rind or blended into the curds. Here are a few cheesemakers making non-truffle mushroom cheeses.
Beehive Cheese's Queen Bee Porcini
Beehive’s Queen Bee Porcini. Photo credit Beehive Cheese
Uintah, Utah-based B-certified creamery Beehive Cheese is best known for Barely Buzzed, a cheddar rubbed with espresso and lavender, as well as other cheddars rubbed with specialty ingredients ranging from Hatch green chiles and Earl Grey tea. In 2020, the creamery unveiled Queen Bee Porcini, a version of its cheddar rubbed with porcini mushroom dust.
If Beehive hadn’t been open to suggestions, Queen Bee Porcini might not exist. Katie Schall, director of marketing at Beehive Cheese, explains that a friend of the creamery had a business selling dried porcini mushrooms, which generated a lot of dust in the storage containers. He decided to save the dust for Beehive since he thought it could go well with the company’s cheeses, and he sent them a mason jar with dried porcini dust to experiment.
A burger with Beehive’s Queen Bee Porcini. Photo credit Beehive Cheese
The porcini dust-rubbed cheddar was a hit — and since its debut, the cheese has been well received, even winning awards.
Schall sees its rising popularity with consumers who want something exciting and new. For the Beehive team, she says, that’s what innovation is all about: “We just listen to ideas, listen to our friends, listen to our employees, and give it a try.”
Melted Queen Bee Porcini stands out in cheeseburgers and mac and cheese; the cheese has brothy notes to it, and the mushroom element amps up the umami in any dish. Schall also recommends grating the cheese atop salads, baked dishes like roasted Brussels sprouts, and even popcorn, and serving it on a cheese board alongside brined veggies, olives, sweeter items like blackberry jam, and toasted and glazed nuts.
The creamery continues to refine its craftsmanship. For instance, it has shifted from sourcing its mushroom dust in Italy to working with a closer vendor in Oregon, allowing for greater expression of seasonality in the cheese.
“Over the seasons, the color of the porcini changes, so there will be variation in the rind of this cheese due to seasonality,” Schall says.
Meister’s Wild Morel & Leek Jack
Meister’s Wild Morel & Leek Jack. Photo credit Meister Cheese
For the fourth-generation, family-owned Meister Cheese, a morel cheese was a natural addition to its lineup. The creamery is based in Muscoda, a town that’s officially the morel capital of Wisconsin (each spring, the town is host to the Muscoda Morel Mushroom Festival). Meister’s Wild Morel & Leek Jack cheese has been an award winner and one of the producer’s top sellers since it was introduced in 1996.
Amanda Price, Meister’s Director of Marketing and a fourth-generation family member, says her sister — the “foodie of the family” — created the recipe the company still uses today. The Monterey Jack cheese incorporates morels and leeks directly into the cheesemaking process rather than applying them after production.
Because of its relatively mild flavor, the cheese goes over surprisingly well with people who are typically mushroom-averse. While “you’re still getting hints of it, I don’t think it’s only for mushroom lovers,” she says.
Meister’s Wild Morel & Leek Jack Spread. Photo credit Meister Cheese
Two years ago, the family added a Wild Morel & Leek Jack Spread, a creamier version of the original with more morels for an extra flavor boost. Price suggests swiping it on crackers or in a grilled cheese sandwich.
One of her favorite suggestions is pairing it with a baked potato.
“It gives you a potato leek soup or cooked noodle feel when you’re eating it,” she says. “It tastes like a walk in the woods.”
Shepherd's Way Farms Morcella
Morcella from Shepherd’s Way Farms.
Nerstrand, Minn.-based Shepherd’s Way Farms is best known for its sheep’s milk cheeses. Founded in 1995 as a sheep dairy by Steven Read and Jodi Ohlsen Read, the creamery has been producing sheep’s milk cheeses since 1998.
Morcella is the dairy’s soft-ripened sheep’s milk cheese with morels. It’s made only with spring and summer milk; morels are added to the curd during the cheesemaking process. The highly seasonal small-batch cheese is only available from April to June.
Cheesemaker and co-owner Jodi Ohlsen Read describes the bloomy rind cheese as having a woodsy flavor and says the landscape surrounding Shepherd’s Way Farms informs its character.
“We live next to the Big Woods, which is a state park that has morels in it. There’s a particular smell in the spring, because we’re in Minnesota after the snow melts,” Read says. It’s a quality that she hopes Morcella captures.
Read suggests pairing the cheese with Prosecco or spotlighting its flavor in a roast turkey sandwich. But her favorite way to enjoy Morcella? Simply alongside a crusty baguette and fresh strawberries.