Naturally Lactose Free
Last year when the cheese kiosk opened, the island carried Oltermanni Baby Muenster. It didn’t sell well and The Lady discontinued it. At the time, The Lady was not sampling cheeses featured on the island; instead concentrating on building the popularity of the cheeses on the kiosk. She noticed that a domestic Muenster was growing in popularity and decided to give the Oltermanni another shot.
When she recently re-stocked it on the island, she decided to sample it and let the customers “discover” it. What The Lady discovered is that this is a delightful cheese and thankfully she brought some home for me to “discover” as well.
The first thing that caught my eye was that the labeling boasts “Naturally Lactose Free” and I wondered how that could be. I visited the Finlandia website and found the following explanation:
“Finlandia Imported Muenster, Oltermanni Baby Muenster, Gouda and Havarti cheeses are manufactured from milk, which is coagulated by heat and microbial rennet. After coagulation the cheeses are fermented with a souring agent containing lactococci and lactobacilli. Within 24 hours, these bacteria break down the lactose into galactose and glucose. These are fermented further to lactic acid. Therefore these Finlandia cheeses do not contain lactose or any other carbohydrates.”
Good news for my lactose-intolerant friends.
We don’t eat much Muenster around the manse, but I suspect that is about to change.
This cheese, imported from Finland, is cylindrical in shape and ivory in color. It is mild and buttery with a tangy finish; almost a lemony finish. Like a Colby, you can see the curds that were pressed into the mold.
I give Oltermanni Baby Muenster 3 Paws out of 4 Paws (cause that’s all I’ve got)
Serving Suggestions: We ate it with Beecher’s Original Crackers and green grapes. It was a perfect match for this cheese. This semi-soft cheese would work well in a mac n cheese (is there really a cheese that won’t?) and would be a killer in a Grilled Cheese, especially with Killer Dave’s Bread.
Wine Pairing: Gewurztraminer or dry Traminer
Beer Pairing: Harpoon Pilsner
Source: Pasteurized Cow’s Milk
The two strains of bacteria that are used in that cheese (lactococci and lactobacilli) are very common bacteria cultures found in nearly all cheeses. Most cheeses have very little lactose left in them, part of the natural cheesemaking process is to convert the lactose into lactic acid.
Thanks for the additional information regarding the “lactose” issue.