Puddle Duck Creek

My October cheese column in Grid Magazine features this pretty duckling, known as Puddle Duck Creek. It's a bloomy cheese from Hillacres Pride in Peach Bottom, PA. When I first picked up Puddle Duck at my local Green Aisle Grocery, I was struck by it's golden interior -- it looks like banana pudding. That's a good sign. As I mention in my column (see below), that gold coloring tells me that the cows were pasture-raised. Cows can't digest beta carotene in grass, so it shows up in the milk and subsequently in the cheese.

This is the first season I've seen Puddle Duck Creek. It's a great addition to the local cheese world -- dense and fudgy. It joins a couple other notable Brie-style cheeses from the area, namely Buttercup Brie, Noble Run, and Sue Miller's Little Chardy. If you live in the Philadelphia area, check out the Hillacres Pride stand at Headhouse Farmers Market. You'll see Sue Miller's Birchrun Hills Farm stand there, too. It would be fun to try her Little Chardy alongside Puddle Duck Creek since they're made from different breeds of grass-fed cows. Hillacres raises Jerseys, while Birchrun milks Holsteins.  

In fact, that's just what I might do this weekend.

If you find yourself with a puck of Puddle Duck, try serving it with cherry preserves and a sparkly wine or Duvel. You could also toast slices of Puddle Duck on top of baguette rounds and layer some sauteed mushrooms on top to pick up on the earthy notes. Add a sprinkle of chives, too.   

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Below: A screen shot from the October issue of Grid Magazine, p. 13