Berkshire Blue

I remember interviewing Michael Miller very well. Mr. Miller, a former newspaper publisher turned cheese maker, is the (usually) sole producer of Berkshire Blue Cheese, made in Massachusetts. I was interviewing makers of blue cheeses to get their opinions on what made their cheeses distinct, and I’d been a fan of Berkshire Blue for some time for its creamy texture and not-excessive salt content. Was the lower salt level deliberate, I asked? It turns out that this subject is one of many related to his cheese about which Mr. Miller is passionate. Yes, the salt level, less than half the industry standard for blue, was purposely lower, because, “You have to be able to taste the damn milk!” Despite his insistence on your tasting the milk and the blue mold first, with everything else “a distant second”, the blue flavor doesn’t hit you over the head here, as is the case with some other blue cheeses. In fact, Berkshire Blue is one of my favorite American blues.

The milk used for this cheese comes only from Jersey cows, and the cheese is made from unpasteurized (so-called “raw” milk). I know that raw milk and products made from it are a hot-button topic these days, but many cheese makers (Mr. Miller among them) believe that there are compelling reasons to use unpasteurized milk in their cheeses. The issue is simpler for me: I’ve eaten raw milk cheeses for years without incident, and I greatly enjoy the complex flavors I just can’t get in pasteurized milk cheeses. When people talk about Berkshire Blue as a limited-production cheese, they’re not kidding; depending on the season, between 60 and 210 wheels (each only three pounds) are made in a week. A mechanized, industrial cheese producer would consider an output like that the height of inefficiency, and so it would be for them, but these cheeses are all made by hand, so output is slow and small-scale.

Availability is good in Massachusetts, fair in Connecticut and New York City, and sketchy elsewhere, although some stores as far away as California and Texas carry this cheese. Do make an effort to find and try some; I hope you’ll love it as much as I do. You can find more information on the (minimalist) website, at www.berkshireblue.com.

By Stephanie Zonis