Commercial raw cheese maker add----what's your take?

[qdog1955]

 All the natural Enzymes are still living! The milk is never heated past 103 degrees during the cheese making process. They are truly raw cheeses. This low temperature preserves all the natural enzymes. Many so-called 'raw' cheeses are actually heated to 160 degrees! Just shy of the legal definition of pasteurization, yea right, but not exactly raw either!

They are a Living Whole Food A slight puffing-up of the shrink wrap is normal (especially in the aged cheese) and not to be feared. In fact it is a good sign. It's proof that it's truly living food. It is breathing!

Made from 100% Organic Raw Milk from our own grass-fed Jersey herd. It is not just raw. It is not just grass-fed. It is not just organic. It is all three plus local and artisan too!

Our Baby Swiss is very Creamy: Swiss is usually made from skim milk. (If you slice it thin and hold it up to the light it looks translucent) Ours is made from full-fat jersey milk just like the rest of our cheese. The difference is remarkable.

It is truly PA Artisan made: It is one of a kind. made in small batches, by hand.

Attention Vegetarians: We use vegetable rennet for the starter enzymes instead of the more common animal rennet.

Even the Salt is the Best: We use Celtic Sea Salt to make sure that even a detail like the salt is pure, unbleached, unrefined and untouched. Why mess with a good thing?

[awakephd]

To me it seems a bit ... over-sold.

As far as I recall, enzymes are chemicals, not organisms, so describing them as "living" seems problematic.

LT pasteurization occurs at 140°, so "just shy of the legal definition" seems problematic.

I've never actually encountered a cheese described as "raw," though I have encountered cheeses labelled as made from raw milk.

If someone is actually heating the cheese to 160°, I'd be very surprised -- unless we're talking about mozzarella, in which case, I don't believe you can make it without that step. If we are talking about the milk being heated to 160°, I certainly would object to it being called "raw [milk] cheese"; do we have any evidence that that is, in fact, happening?

Baby Swiss is a distinctly different cheese than Swiss -- and neither label is actually very helpful at all. Are we talking Gruyere-style, or Emmentaler-style, or ?? Jarlsberg, or ??

Actually, it is clear that they are not making any true Swiss styles such as Emmentaler, etc., since all of them require heating to more than 103°. Likewise, no parma-styles, montasios, etc. Perhaps they limit themselves to mesophilic makes?

I don't recall ANY of the cheeses I have made puffing up in the vacuum bag. At the very least, I would be very hesitant to say that doing so is automatically a good sign. (Late blowing, perchance?)

Is unrefined sea salt really pure, or does it contain various impurities? I don't really know, but by this point, I'm finding it hard to believe anything ...

Shall I go on, or have I picked enough nits? (Methinks you caught me in a snarky mood ... )

[Sailor Con Queso]

Pure dribble.

[Alpkäserei]

Most of these point are violations of common sense cheese practices, i.e. hype for no valid and beneficial reasons. Exchanging good practice for sensationalism.

If i'd heat the milk up to 160 degrees when making my cheese, I doubt I'd be able to press it together very well, and after any time of aging at all it would be a solid mass of stone.

If I didn't heat my milk up to 125 or so, then it simply would not work. It would be a different cheese.

And I assure you, it's quite alive and well. Just because SOME bacteria die at 110 degrees doesn't mean they ALL do.

Your cheese is creamy, therefore it's better?

Well, actually, there's a reason we take the cream out of a lot of our cheeses. Fat doesn't break down like protein, and it tends to turn rancid with age. Also, a 'creamy' cheese tends not to be as pliable and for an aged cheese just isn't as good.

Emmentaler doesn't work with full cream. In fact, Swiss law mandates that they remove cream from it, or else they can't call it Emmentaler.

AS to making a deal about the salt, well that's just pure ignorance.
I refuse to use so-called 'natural' salt because most sea salts contain chemicals and minerals that I don't want near my cheese. They'd impede or alter the action of the bacteria. Salt comes from a hole in the ground, and is 'refined' by boiling and grinding it.
I usually use salt as a measure for people following the food crazes without actually knowing what they're talking about.

My salt of choice? Morton canning salt. Pure salt, nothing else. And it's dirt cheap.

I'll pass on the vegetable rennet, thank you ma'am

Really, I guess any cheese is 'raw' until it's been cooked or processed into something else, if you consider what that word actually means. Even a cheese made from UHP milk is by definition raw if you haven't done anything more to it since making it 

OK, I've had my fun for the day...

[qdog1955]

O.K.-----your impressions are pretty much what I thought-----just making sure I wasn't being close minded-----now, this is the farm that I get my raw milk from, and it is a very clean and well managed operation----but I really have to wonder when I see this kind of hype-- and the thing is---it works---they sell alot of stuff----including eggs, chicken, pork, beef and it all has the same type of hype----all natural and at twice the price.
  In a way I have to admire their sales strategy-----because it works-----but on the other hand I have to wonder at the fairness to the average consumer----the one that doesn't understand that advertising isn't always about FACTS.
Qdog

[Sailor Con Queso]

This kind of marketing hype has made the terms "natural" and "organic" completely worthless. It's ironic that "organic" milk is almost always ultra-pasteurized and the worst choice in the world for making cheese.

I agree with Alp on the Sea Salt.

[awakephd]

Okay, following up in a slightly less snarky mood ...

I wonder if what has happened here is that the farm has described what they feel are the key selling points of their cheese to a PR firm; the PR firm doesn't really understand what all of it means, but they put together the ad campaign, making sure to use all the buzzwords they can. For those who don't know anything about cheese making, it all sounds really good. For those of us who DO know about cheese making, it unfortunately has the opposite effect!

I've seen this kind of disconnect between marketing and reality in some other arenas ...

[Sailor Con Queso]

I own a design & marketing company as well as Boone Creek Creamery. The client should ALWAYS review and has the final say so. Ultimate liability for fact checking is with the client.

[Gobae]

Pure dribble.

I think the word you're looking for is drivel (nonsense, twaddle, claptrap, balderdash, gibberish, rubbish, mumbo jumbo, garbage)

Of course you could say the ad has been liberally dribbled with buzzwords.

[awakephd]

I own a design & marketing company as well as Boone Creek Creamery. The client should ALWAYS review and has the final say so. Ultimate liability for fact checking is with the client.

Oh yes, I fully agree -- I looked back and realized my remarks might have sounded like a disparagement of marketing companies, and that is not what I meant at all. On the contrary, the marketing company is "excused" for not knowing all about making cheese -- that, as you say, should be the responsibility of the client!

[Sailor Con Queso]

Actually I meant dribble and not drivel. Dribble is when someone is "spewing" so much nonsense that a trickle of liquid runs out the corner of their mouth. Unfortunately people like that often just keep talking to cover up inaccuracies. That "ad" was full of dribble.

[amiriliano]

What a load of marketing BS!

[qdog1955]

OOPs-----they forgot to mention ---It' gluten free
Qdog

[H-K-J]

And no GMO's?