Cheesemakers Anke Wismans and Maarten van Fessem of Dairy Farm De Driehoek in Oosterhout couldn’t help but cry when they opened the doors of their storage at the beginning of this year. Much of the old cheeses ripening there had melted because the cooling system had broken down. But they are not going to give up, they are now turning it into cheese fondue.
Maarten and Anke could not believe their eyes when they walked into the storage of the cheese farm. The cooling system appeared to have failed while the fans were running. As a result, it had become much too hot in the storage. Anke describes: “The cheeses had started to melt. Some had burst open and some were deformed. Months of work slip through your fingers.”
The cheeses that Maarten and Anke make on the farm have to be stored for a year to ripen. The cheeses that went wrong had been there for several months. “That is very sour. If the entire system had failed, it would not have been a problem. At the beginning of January it was cold enough in itself. But because the fans continued to provide heat, the cheeses started to melt.”
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After they had recovered from the initial shock, the cheese makers decided that they had to reconsider. Anke laughs: “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. We decided to taste the melted cheeses. Some actually tasted fine. But because they were melted, you got a strange feeling in your mouth. butter in your mouth. Then we decided to see if we could make cheese fondue out of it.”
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The melted cheeses were decrusted, grated and then fondue was made. A surprisingly tasty fondue according to Anke. “It tastes so good that we now have fondue made from all the melted cheeses that are still good.”
The cheeses were sent to the factory on Thursday. At the end of April, Anke expects to get it back in 11,000 jars and to be able to sell it. “They can already be ordered. And if things go well, we might continue to sell cheese fondue”, Anke concludes with relief.
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