 small tommes averaging 2 lbs each • aged at least 60 days 100% handcrafted 100% sheep milk 100% unpasteurized 100% delicious from beginning to end, this is how they evolve over 2 to 3 months...... Each wheel of "Fat Bottom Girl" cheese is totally hand crafted in the north Bay Area of California. This is farmstead cheese, not factory cheese, and no two wheels appear exactly alike. The cheese is made with the raw milk from a small flock of sheep who are never crammed into a barn or fed silage. Made only in small batches, Fat Bottom Girl is approachable and appealing to both cheese geeks & novices
alike. The rustic orangish rind is achieved by careful hand-rubbing with a special wash solution during the 2
to 3 month aging period. The cheese has a firm ivory paste with a toothsome bite and a touch of salt, conveying the subtle nutty & buttery goodness of sheep milk. Fat Bottom Girl is amazingly
addictive when paired with pepper jams. Enjoy this cheese with a light fruity California red such as petit
syrah & pinot noir, or light farmhouse-style ales such as biere de
garde & saison or a nice lager. Better yet, come up with your own fantastic pairing and let me know about it! I encourage everyone to always keep an open mind and palate. The cheese's unique whimsical shape began as an accident. I had taken some cheeses out of their forms to be flipped, but then had to run out to get ready for the afternoon milking. When I returned to the creamery, I saw the cheeses had flattened a bit under their own weight and were starting to get an asymmetrical shape with a fat bottom. It was a mistake, but it made me laugh. I quickly decided that I actually liked this funny look and continued to develop the process, coming up with the correct timing to achieve the desired shape. I found myself frequently referring to these yet-to-be-named cheeses as my "fat bottomed girls," which is a song by Queen that had come up on my iPod while working in the creamery. The name stuck.   This is a special limited edition cheese that is only available in VERY limited quantities. In fact, what you see in the photo is all there is! I only made one batch of this cheese - Lot Zero - which is made to the same recipe as Fat Bottom Girl, but I added an extra enzyme and aged it a little longer with the intention of creating a cheese with a little more tang, reminiscent of what you find in super aged Italian cheeses.  |
