This small island is home to less than 2000 people - it's main industries are fishing (cray and abalone), beef, wool, kelp and most famously dairying.
The environment is quite pristine - pastures are pollution and chemical free. No feed supplements or growth additives are used.
It's also home to that most well-known dairy - King Island Dairy.
Cheese Maker: King Island Dairy
Cheese Type: Discovery Scrubbed Brie
Location: King Island
The first thing that you will notice, even before opening the box is the definite aroma of mushrooms - a very pleasant aroma.
Opening the box, you'll find your golden ingot of sorts - well, it is a gold wrapped bar.
As you unwrap it's almost like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", no lucky ticket but there's an increase in that mushroom scent.
You might be asking what exactly is a "scrubbed brie"?
It's a cow's milk Brie, made using traditional French techniques that is wrapped Brevi Linens then hand scrubbed to give it those earthy, mushroomy aromas. It has a distinctive saffron skin - it's not as intense as a washed rind cheese and would be a good introduction to this genre of cheese.
As you cut through you'll notice is soft texture, it's almost butter like colouring. Taste wise, it's soft and creamy with delicate mushroom tones.
It is best served at room temperature - you'll notice that it would become softer and have that wonderful gooey characteristic.
It really is a great cheese for a cheese platter - it's a bit unusual but it should be something everyone would enjoy.
Tagged with Cheese
when sailing from sydney to hobart, a friend of mine got yacht-wrecked on king island. i couldn’t imagine anything more wonderful than to be marooned there for one week waiting for engine repairs.
ReplyDeletethe photos are beautiful, as always. they are so vivid i could actually smell the mushroom fragrance before i even read about it. exquisite photos.
While the king island dairy cheese is nice...you should give the honey cinnamon yoghurt and the king island cream a shot. Although probably not if you're watching your figure.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anna - you'd almost hope the repairs would take longer just to spend more time on King Island.
ReplyDeleteHi Jenu - I have had both those products and like the rest of the range they are very good.
Such a shame Cin - to be so close! It does look like it's a fabulous place to just relax..and eat!
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget the wonderful King Island Cream I had on a trip to Oz.
ReplyDeleteBrits and Ozzies know how to do cream. Sadly America doesn't seem to be able to get it right.
It would be hard to go past Devon and Cornwell - they are the cream of the crop. I think the quality of our cream is getting better - the best cream (and I'm not sure if it's still made) was the Fitzroy Conservatory Clotted Cream.
ReplyDeleteCream really shouldn't come out of a can!
this brie looks to die for. I am a big fan of brie but a lot of them taste pretty much the same. This looks like one to try.
ReplyDeleteDo give it a try Jen!
ReplyDeletei had the pleasure of cooking for 12 japanese visitors and i used king island products and one of those was the cheese the visitors loved it but couldnt take home the products unfortunately they said,great cheese great meat great king island,
ReplyDeleteHi Clinton - sounds like it would have been a fantastic meal - no wonder they were so impressed.
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