She is quite the treat!
Madelaine is a soft oozy sheep’s milk cheese made by Fromagerie Nouvelle France in Québec, Canada.
In 2009, bother and sister Jean-Paul and Marie-Chantal Houde decided to launch into a new project. Together, they built a small dairy on their family property, annexed to their family farm.
Over the years, Jean-Paul had amassed a wealth of farming experience. As for Marie-Chantal, she took her experience as a cheesemaker in France and started working on how to best transform the farm’s amazing milk into cheese.
A spectacular first
In May 2010, they released their first cheese. Actually, the semi-hard Zacharie Cloutier would go on to win many awards in the region.
Since then, they have added more cheeses to their range, including our featured La Madelaine. For this cheese, Marie-Chantal uses pasteurised sheep’s milk from their farm. After adding culture and rennet, she shapes the curds into a square mould. At 2 months, this lovely cheese has a fluffy white mould rind.
On the nose, this farmhouse cheese has a strong barnyard aroma and its ivory pâte oozes spectacularly at room temperature. When ripe, it has an earthy flavour with notes of dry hay.
How to pair La Madelaine
Pair your Madelaine with a dark cherry paste on a cheese board or spread it on a warm Montréal-style bagel and enjoy with grapes. Wash it all down with a sparkling Cider.
