We Are Unsure How To Feel Knowing That Pig’s Milk Cheese Exists

(afagen)

While we consumers have grown accustomed to milk from animals besides cows being used to make cheese — like sheep’s milk cheese and goat cheese — there’s something a bit… different about pig’s milk cheese. Which is in fact, a thing.

It’s unlikely find pig cheese at your local grocery store, but one pig farmer in the Netherlands is at the forefront of the sow’s milk product, reports Vice’s Munchies channel.

Erik Stegink of Piggy’s Palace is making cheese in collaboration with a cheese store, and says the process isn’t so easy as it is when using cow’s milk or other dairy-producing animals, noting that the first batch was made with cow’s milk added as well.

“Pigs produce less milk in comparison to cows: every two hours they release the milk for about 30 seconds so you have to be quick,” he told Munchies. “Four of us were at it with coffee cups, and per time you only get about 100 milliliters. If you want to collect 10 liters—which is needed for about two pounds of cheese—you’re busy for at least 40 hours.”

He admits that he doesn’t think pig’s milk cheese is going to take off, making him a wealthy innovator in the process, but hey, if you can do it, why not?

“I consider it to be nothing more than a whimsical product,” he explains, adding that he and his fellow cheesemakers made it just because they enjoy it, and they were curious.

As for the taste, he says there are distinct differences — it’s saltier and creamier, yet grainier.

“It’s a completely different process and requires a lot of attention,” he says. “Several of the wheels were unsuccessful and this is the first one we dared to eat.”

Perhaps by the time pig’s milk cheese makes its way across the pond we here at Consumerist will have opened up a bit to the idea. Heck, we might even try it. Because if there’s one thing we know about cheese, it’s that it’s good.

Pig’s Milk Cheese Is Tasty, But It Won’t Make You Rich [Munchies]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist