I'm looking for a Forsterkase recipe

[mosborn]

I'm sorry if I put this in the wrong area...  Admin, please move it if it's in the wrong spot.

Any suggestions on where I might find a Forsterkase recipe?

Thanks

Matthew

[DeejayDebi]

Not finding anything but I'll keep looking.

[Cheese Head]

Interesting, the only decent info I could find is here in their raw cheese section.

Försterkäse (aka Bergfichte) is a classic "lumberjack's" cheese from Canton Thurgau in Northern Switzerland. The wheels of Försterkäse are made from cow's milk, washed in a white wine bath, and are then wrapped in fir bark. The combination of the white wine wash and the fir bark produces a spicy, woody flavor that is full of umami. The cheese has a smooth, velvety texture. Försterkäse's complex taste complements many wines, including Pinot Noirs, Gewürztraminers and most Alsatian white wines.

Also, Fork & Bottle website says:

It's called Stanser Forsterkase, cow's milk cheese from Switzerland, made by Joseph Barmettler, a Washed Rind cheese wrapped in fir bark, also called "Forsterkase"

Also here it says:

Foresterkase is rustic in appearance with a bright orange washed rind, and super sticky pâte. It is smoky, nutty, and woodsy. The texture is smooth and delicate with a long finish. The cheese is wrapped in chocolate pine bark. It’s bark is worse than it’s bite (pun intended.)

Nice picture of it here.

So it looks like 1) being Swiss I wood assume that it's a Swiss cooked cheese, and 2) it's a washed rind type cheese?

Sounds rare have you tried some and do you have a picture?

[Zoey]

I'm digging up old topics again... *sorry*

I just really love how this cheese looks. I wanted to post some more links, and I'm really interested in trying this cheese. I have some ideas on where to start, please comment (ideas below the links)

I've never seen this in stores, or had the chance to taste it. This thread is the place I heard about it first, and I doubt I will be able to taste it anywhere, so I'm basing everything on the looks of it. Basically, it's so beautiful and strange that that is reason enough for me to try it.

http://www.chaesundco.ch/09/bestof-produzenten-galerie.php?pid=20018&lang=en

(note the light yellow young cheeses and the darker red smear ones... meaning that the hoop has been there during aging all that time)

Queso Berghfichet Kase - Försterkäse

A video with loads of closeups
http://www.formaggiokitchen.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1289
(mentions the parameters "washed rind" and "cow milk")
http://www.schweizerbauer.ch/htmls/artikel_17584.html
(nice picture, no idea what the text means)
http://www.artisanalcheese.com/cheeses/Forsterkase
(mentions washing with white wine)
http://culturecheesemag.com/Kr%C3%BCmmenswiler%20F%C3%B6rsterk%C3%A4se
(very informative. mentions: thermalised cow's milk, retaining a lot of moisture in curds, 24hours in hoops in room temperature (maybe no pressing then or only own weight or so), then brine, then add strip of bark (kept in place by rubber band) that is previously sterilized in hot water and softened in the water to be able to curve to the size of the cheese, aged 6 weeks, washed 3 times per week)

- what bark? the quotes earlier in this thread suggest pine or fir, but I seem to recognize birch in the pictures... Birch is used for some traditional foods in Finland (other than cheese) so I could easily believe that birch is the way to go - although fir is most often mentioned
- maybe use bark as hoop, sort of resembling an outer brie hoop. probably the best way to achieve good knit between bark and cheese
- Sterilize bark in pressure cooker (would this be necessary)? It seems that wood itself has some antibacterial properties. But I don't know it that also is true with bark (since that's the most vulnerable part of the tree trunk, isn't it) and of course some trees are infected by mushroom growth or similar already while they grow... probably not cheese-compatible species though. I'm under the impression that pressure cooking quite efficiently destroys mushrooms / spores. But maybe normal boiling water would be fine too...
- curds and inocculation could be similar as with general smear ripened cheese, texture soft, but maybe on the harder side?

So, I probably wouldn't be able to recreate Försterkäse with these thoughts, but maybe Zoey's bark cheese instead... which would be great if it just tastes good.

[Zoey]

Correcting myself on the bark: it seems in the first link picture, that the bark of young cheese is dark and old cheese whiter. So I guess what I'm seeing is not birch bark, but fir bark that has white mold on it.