The star of pandemic-era cheese-boards, cheeses preserved in oil are gaining a following in the U.S.
Preserving cheese in olive oil is an ancient practice in the Middle East, but American consumers are just discovering the potential. In recent years, a handful of new producers and new flavors have brought more excitement to this category, and the cheese-board boom has given these marinated products an extra boost. The tasty oil, consumers are learning, is like a gift with purchase. And who doesn’t love a two-fer?
Labneh (yogurt cheese) rolled into balls and preserved under olive oil is a beloved breakfast staple in Lebanon and Syria. But that wasn’t the culinary tradition that motivated Laura Chenel, the young California goat farmer who introduced the idea in the U.S. with her first marinated cabécou in 1984. Chenel had spent time in France and no doubt spotted the glass jars of oil-submerged chèvre in neighborhood bistros and wine bars. Back in Northern California, where she launched her eponymous creamery in the early 1980s, Chenel packed jars with thin disks of goat cheese and topped them with oil perfumed with fresh thyme, rosemary, and black peppercorns. That blend remains the creamery’s top seller today, although the company recently dropped the name cabécou in favor of “marinated goat cheese.”
“We do ours a little differently than others,” says Madeleine Coggins, trade marketing associate for Laura Chenel’s Chevre in Sonoma. The creamery’s plain goat cheese logs are sliced and dried on racks, then packed in tubs with the marinade. The drying step helps the slices stay separate in the marinade, says Coggins.
The company has two main competitors in the marinated-cheese niche: the Australian import Meredith Dairy (its Sheep & Goat Cheese is pictured above) and the California-based Chevoo, whose founder is Australian. The shared origins are no coincidence; oil-marinated cheese is huge in Australia. Chevoo founder Gerard Tuck recalls 15 to 20 different marinated cheese producers battling for shelf space in Australia when he moved his young family to California eight years ago. Small wonder that Tuck landed on marinated cheese when he decided to launch a business in the U.S., where the product hardly existed.
Chevoo sold its first jar in late 2015. Today, the company employs 30 people and produces oil-marinated goat cheese in six flavors, using trendy ingredients like Urfa chili, smoked salt, and fennel pollen. “The step we don’t do is milk-to-curd,” says Tuck. Instead, the company buys goat curd, adds seasonings, extrudes the mix into cubes, and packs the cubes in jars with herb- and spice-infused oil. In 2019, the last year the American Cheese Society held a competition, Chevoo all but swept the marinated goat cheese category, receiving five of the six ribbons awarded.
Say 'Cheese'
Unlike its competitors, Chevoo focuses almost exclusively on retail sales, which proved fortunate when the pandemic hit. Consumers may have stopped entertaining at home but they dived deep into elaborate cheese boards, with marinated cheese an easy and photogenic addition. “Our Instagram followers went up 2-1/2 times in 2020,” says Tuck, “and that was largely driven by people wanting to post their cheese boards. It was insane.”
Chevoo rival Meredith Dairy, the category leader in Australia, has had “astronomical” growth over its decade in the U.S., says its U.S. sales representative Ian Griffith. “We’ve had at least 20 percent growth over the last three to four years,” says Griffith, a notable feat given that the company has not expanded its line beyond its original product, a fresh cubed cheese made with blended goat’s and sheep’s milk and marinated with black peppercorns, fresh garlic, and thyme.
Even Griffith doesn’t know the ratio of goat’s to sheep’s milk, but the former predominates. The sheep’s milk adds buttery richness to this delightfully soft and creamy cheese, yet the overall impression is light and lemony.
Surprisingly, given its enormous success, Meredith Dairy Sheep & Goat Cheese remains a farmstead product. Owners Sandy and Julie Cameron, who transitioned from ranching to dairying 30 years ago when wool prices cratered, now have the largest sheep and goat dairy farm in Australia, producing primarily fresh cheese and yogurt.
“We make cheese within 12 hours of milking,” says Griffith. “That’s one of our claims to fame. Super-fresh milk gives you that really clean taste.”
All three of these producers use a blend of olive oil and canola oil to prevent the product from congealing in the fridge; olive oil alone would solidify. Consumers accustomed to draining the oil from tinned tuna or marinated artichokes may not realize that the marinated-cheese oil can enhance salads and cooked dishes and is useful for at least a week after the cheese is consumed.
“The big barrier is education,” says Coggins. “People are still learning about this type of cheese. There’s only about 10 percent household penetration for goat cheese, and this is a specialized subset of goat cheese.”
Tasty Oil
Retailers can help build the category by offering usage suggestions, producers say. Drizzle the oil over hot pasta or bruschetta, or dip crusty bread in it. Add lemon juice or wine vinegar to the oil to make a salad dressing or use the flavorful oil to dress steamed chard or spinach. Whisk the oil into store-bought mayonnaise to make an artichoke dip. Use the cheese in place of feta in a Greek salad; dollop it on pizza or in a frittata; or warm in a ramekin and serve with crostini and radishes. In Australia, marinated fresh cheese is popular on avocado toast, either on top of the smashed avocado or underneath.
“We certainly do better in stores that have a designated cheese department and someone who can talk about our cheese,” says Griffith. “Usage suggestions are huge.”
Producers predict this niche will blossom as consumers get comfortable with the novelty and appreciate the extended lifespan of marinated cheeses. There is probably room for a cow’s milk version and more flavor innovation. “The category will grow,” predicts Tuck, “in lockstep with consumers’ understanding of how to use the product.”
Janet Fletcher writes the email newsletter Planet Cheese and is the author of Cheese & Wine and Cheese & Beer.
Image: Janet Fletcher/Planet Cheese