Anna Thomas Bates
It’s just hitting the shelves Nov. 7, but Landmark Creamery’s Rebel Miel is already proving itself to be one honey of a cheese.
That’s not a review, just a point of fact based on how it’s made. The small-batch sheep’s milk cheese is new from the Paoli-based company, and will have two limited release dates in order to be available for Thanksgiving and New Year’s.
Rebel Miel isn’t just a cheese that celebrates the holidays, it celebrates collaboration. In fact, it’s almost collaboration on a meta level — a collaboration within a collaboration. The cheese’s rind is washed with Paint It Black, a hybrid beer/mead called a braggot made with Giant Jones Brewing’s Extra Stout and Bos Meadery’s wildflower honey mead. Honey is a key ingredient in a braggot, and in combination with the stout gives Rebel Miel an amber coating and a slightly fruity and boozy flavor.
“There probably are other cheeses in the world similar, but we weren’t inspired by anything international that we were trying to put a spin on,” says Anna Thomas Bates, co-owner of Landmark Creamery. “We just put together the characteristics we wanted.”
The 1½-pound wheels are smaller than Landmark’s better-known cheeses, such as Anabasque, Pecora Nocciola and Tallgrass Reserve, which are made in 10-pound wheels. In addition, Rebel Miel wheels are made with a basket mold that creates a pattern on the rind.
“We always wanted to do a smaller-format cheese,” says Bates. “We get that request from chefs a lot. The different size and shape set you apart in a cheese case. Shops are more likely to give a new cheese a try if it’s less of an investment.”
Bates came up with the name first, before ever imagining a cheese that might go with it. “Miel” (pronounced meeyell) is French for honey, which sparked the idea in the first place.
“Anna came in and said, ‘Do have any beer that’s made with honey?’” says Jessica Jones, co-owner of Giant Jones. “I said, ‘Yes, I do.’”
Paint It Black is currently available at Bos Meadery.
It’s a good match for the cheese, Bates says, because the flavor of the braggot comes through in Rebel Miel.
“People wash cheeses in all sorts of crazy things but sometimes you think it could have been washed in anything,” Bates says. “It doesn’t always transfer to the flavor of the cheese.”
With a cheese like Rebel Miel, rinds are washed with a brine or other liquids to encourage growth of bacteria and to add flavor. As science-y as that might sound, the end result for Rebel Miel is a rind that people might want to try, even if they generally avoid eating the rind.
“We tried to keep the rind nice and thin, so this would be a nice rind to eat,” Bates says.
The semi-soft cheese will sell for approximately $14 to $16 for a half pound. It will be available at Landmark Creamery and Provisions in Paoli, as well as Fromagination. It will also be on the menu at local restaurants, including Harvest and Heritage Tavern.
