Murray's Cave Aged Limited Shiso Chizu
This item is temporarily unavailable
- Pasteurized
- Vegetarian Rennet
- Age: 2-4 Weeks
- Cow Milk
- Sheep Milk
- by Murray's Cheese Caves
- United States
- ApproachableAdventurous
- SoftHard
Japanese ingredients and New York-made cheese come together in this fresh spring take on camembert. Our caves team wraps squares of unaged cheese from Old Chatham Creamery in sake-soaked shiso leaves (an herb in the mint family). The bloomy rind forms around the shiso, which infuses the rich, pudgy cheese with its herbaceous essence. A beautiful contrast to the buttery, bready notes. Serve Shiso Chīzu with Red Bee Honeycomb, Maine Crisp Co. Savory Fig & Thyme Crisps, and a generous round of sake.
“This is simply a stunner. I guarantee no one else will have seen a cheese like this before, so I always make it the star of the show. Maybe some olives or nuts on the side, but simplicity is best with this cheese.”
Cow's Milk, Cream, Sheep's Milk, Salt, Cultures, Enzymes, Shiso Leaves, Sake (Rice, Cultures)
- Shiso Chīzu was named in honor of the Japanese ingredients that make it unique—“chīzu” is cheese is Japanese.
- This seasonal cheese’s journey begins when unaged squares of Old Chatham Creamery camembert arrive at our caves from Upstate New York.
- Old Chatham’s camembert is made from pasteurized sheep’s milk and cow’s milk and cream, which give the final cheese a smooth, thick texture and salty, mild flavor.
- Our affineurs’ first step is to soak shiso leaves in sake and wrap them around the cheese, drawing on the robust European tradition of leaf-wrapped wheels in French, Italian, and Spanish cheesemaking.
- Shiso is an aromatic herb used often in Japanese cuisine with a minty, lemony, slightly bitter flavor. It’s related to mint and basil.
- The sake is Number 14 from Brooklyn Kura, a junmai ginjo-style sake made in Brooklyn with notes of cantaloupe, lilac, and licorice.
- The leaf-wrapped cheeses are then aged in our Bloomy Rind Cave for two weeks, where a downy white rind forms around parts of the leaves, leaving some pops of green showing.
- During that time, the paste develops a pudgy, yielding texture and aromas of rising bread dough, fresh butter, and a permeating essence of mint.
When you receive your cheese, unpack the order and refrigerate the items. We recommend using the cheese paper we send most of our products in to store the cheese. The cheese paper helps cover the items and stop them from drying out, while also allowing the cheese to breathe. Since cheese is mold, it's a living thing! If you cut off air circulation to the cheese, you can actually cause it to suffocate and spoil at a faster rate.
- At Murray’s Cheese Caves in Queens, New York, our experts age and mature cheeses to perfection, creating unique products that are exclusive to Murray’s.
- We built our caves to enhance the quality of our products, as well as to honor the craft of cheesemakers across the globe. The practice of aging cheese, known in French as affinage, was relatively rare in the United States when we built our first set of caves in 2004.
- The cheeses that mature in our caves are crafted in a variety of ways, which are reflected on their labels, described below.
- Cave Aged Original cheeses are produced from a Murray’s original recipe—we have a hand in every step of the cheesemaking process.
- Cave Aged Reserve cheeses are made in collaboration with some of our favorite cheesemakers. They send us unaged wheels, and we use unique aging techniques to produce something completely new.
- Cave Aged Limited cheeses are born out of our constant innovation and experimentation, only available for a limited time.
- Cheeses in the Cave Aged category are aged in our caves with methods that replicate the treatment they would’ve received from their original producer. This category is largely populated by bloomy rind cheeses that don’t fare well in transport.
- Murray's operates four caves, designed to ensure that each cheese matures in its ideal environment—the Bloomy Rind Cave, Natural Rind Cave, Washed Rind Cave, and Alpine Cave.
- The temperature, humidity, and microbial activity in each cave are controlled and monitored with the greatest precision.
