Frog City Cheese
106 Messer Hill Road
Plymouth Notch, VT 05056
802-672-3650

Part of: Vermont 08 – Cheese & Tasty Things Tour

The are too many good cheese places to visit in Vermont. We tried to make it to as many as possible and unfortunately some of the ones we made it to closed before we got there. OK, so really there was only one we got to after it had closed and the only reason we swung by was because it was on the way.

Frog City Cheese is located in the Plymouth Cheese Factory which in the President Calvin Coolidge Historic Site in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. This is where Calvin Coolidge grew up and the Plymouth Cheese Factory is where Coolidge made cheese. I grew up Northampton, MA, where Coolidge spent some time after going to Amherst College, so I have a special affinity for this place.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to try any cheese since we got there after they closed. Nevertheless, it sounds like they make a unique and tasty bit of cheese. The style they make is called a granular curd cheese. Here is how they describe it:

“ Granular curd cheese, or stirred curd as it is also known, is made from raw cow’s milk. This cheese was typically hand-made in New England farmhouses during the colonial period and is rarely made today. This cheese has been described as tangy, rich, open bodied, old fashioned and uncomplicated.

The present day process still includes many of the precise hand processing techniques, which make the cheese what it is. After cultures and rennet are added the milk is precisely heated before the curds are cut and then stirred mechanically in the cheese vat. After the mixture “cooks,” the whey is drained and the curds are moved to a draining table with buckets. The curds are stirred by hand and salt is hand mixed into the recipe. Finally, the curds are hand packed into dressed molds and place into a mechanical press where the rest of the whey will be squeezed out.

The next day the cheeses are removed from the molds and placed on racks in the drying room. They remain there for 5-7 days and are placed in coolers for aging. At 2 months the cheese is considered ‘Young’ and ready to eat. It will become tangier as it ages and labeled ‘Mature’ between 8 – 12 months.

Dear Frog City Cheese,

I am sorry we didn’t get to taste your yummy, yummy cheese. Next time we are up there, we will stop by.

Sincerely,

Luke & Carolyn