Each month, your Neighboring Food Co-ops feature our region’s artisan cheesemakers by offering a specially selected cheese at great price. Look for the “Cave to Co-op” sign in the cheese section at your local food co-op. To find one near you, visit www.nfca.coop/members.
This month’s special cheese is Chin Clip from Mt. Mansfield Creamery, Morrisville, VT
Mt. Mansfield Creamery was established in June of 2009. The cheese facility is in the heart of Morrisville, in the old United Farmers Creamery building where cheesemakers Stan Biasini and Debora Wickart built their own cheese caves in the basement.
With the creamery four miles from the farm, Stan transports their milk to the creamery on cheese making days. Debora milks the cows and still ships to St. Albans Cooperative. They make small batches of cheese only 8 to 12 times per month and increase production according to demand. They milk registered Holsteins and Brown Swiss cows that are on rotational grazing in the summer months and fed grain and hay during the winter.
Debora milks about 30 cows per day and receives awards for the quality of milk she produces. Stan, a graduate of Paul Smith’s College, has put his chef days behind him to concentrate on their recipes for cheese.
Chin Clip is based on a recipe from the Austrian Alps and has a complex yet smooth buttery flavor that finishes with nutty notes. They wash and brush the rinds to keep them thin to ensure that their products are one hundred percent edible. Aged four months, this natural rind cheese has complex flavors and pairs well with red wine. Stan is also a ski and snow-board instructor and likes to name their cheeses after his favorite ski trails. Chin Clip is named after a notoriously difficult ski trail on Vermont’s Mt. Mansfield.
Check out this recipe featuring Chin Clip and find more recipes from March 2022 when Chin Clip was also featured as the Cave to Co-op cheese.
Potato Galette w/Chin Clip and Rosemary
Pre-heat oven to 400°F
- 1 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, washed, skin on, sliced 1⁄4 inch thick
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 Cup grated Chin Clip cheese
- 1⁄2 medium onion, peeled, cut in half, then sliced thin
- 1 T fresh rosemary, minced
- Pinch of nutmeg
- salt & pepper
In a medium bowl, toss the potatoes with the olive oil. Arrange half the potatoes in the bottom of an non-stick oven-proof skillet. Sprinkle with the cheese, onion, half the rosemary, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Layer the rest of the potatoes on top, overlapping the slices. Add more salt and pepper and the remaining rosemary. Cover loosely with foil and using a heavy oven- proof plate, or another skillet, press down on the potatoes and place the skillet in the oven. After 20 minutes, remove the skillet and flip the potatoes out onto a dish, then slide them brown side up back into the skillet. Return to the oven and cook for another 20 minutes or so, until everything is brown and crispy and the potatoes are tender. Remove from the oven, slide the potatoes onto a plate and serve cut into wedges. 6 servings.
Cave to Co-op is a partnership between Provision International and the Neighboring Food Co-op Association (NFCA) to support local, artisanal cheese producers in our region and make their products more easily available to co-op shoppers. The NFCA is a network of more than 40 food co-ops in our region — including yours — that are working together to advance their vision of a thriving regional economy, rooted in a healthy, just and sustainable food system and a vibrant community of co-operative enterprise. For more information, please visit www.nfca.coop.