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Oh, are you in for a treat. April is National Grilled Cheese Month, which means this is the month we collaborate with Cheese Queen MacKenzie Smith of @GrilledCheeseSocial for our 2nd annual grilled cheese themed box! Last year it was #SandwichGoals, and this year it’s Hot and Melty. MacKenzie has helped us choose three cheeses and three pairings that, in addition to making a fantastic cheese board, also make a truly transcendent flight of grilled cheese sandwiches. To gild the lily, all three cheeses are from Vermont’s Jasper Hill! We hope this box gives you a peak into the glorious world of the elevated grilled cheese—it’s a wondrous place!
Whitney by Jasper Hill
From the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, Jasper Hill Farm has done it again with one of their latest creations: Whitney. Whitney is a raw milk cheese made from the milk of Jasper Hill Farm’s own grass-fed cows and ripened in their famous Cellars. It’s made in the style of mid-elevation mountain cheeses of the Swiss Alps—and if you don’t know what that means, that’s ok, just know that the key takeaways are that it’s highly snackable, pairs easily, and melts super smooth. Whitney’s bouquet is toasty and inviting, and its fruity sweet, and slightly funky taste is perfectly balanced by its smooth creaminess. In addition to being a fantastic cheese for a grilled cheese sandwich, it’s also wonderful for raclette, in a fondue, or stirred into mac and cheese.
Jasper Hill's Whitney and Terrapin Ridge's Hot Pepper Bacon Jam
Cabot Clothbound by Jasper Hill
When the cheesemakers at Cabot collaborate with Jasper Hill, you know it’s going to be something special—behold, Jasper Hill’s Cabot Clothbound Cheddar! This cheddar is made by the Cabot Cooperative Creamery with milk exclusively from the Kempton family farm in Peacham, VT. When the wheels are just a few days old, they are sent over to Jasper Hills for aging in their famous Cellars, which are their temperature and humidity-controlled ripening caves. The young wheels are coated with lard and then wrapped in layers of muslin to encourage the growth of its natural rind. Then, Jasper Hill does its thing and ages them to perfection in their Cellars. This cheese was awarded 'Best of Show' in 2006 by the American Cheese Society and quickly became what some recognize as a new American classic, and we can see why—when mature, its flavor profile ranges anywhere from sweet and fruity to savory, toasty, and nutty. The texture is crumbly, but becomes creamy on the tongue.
Cabot Clothbound and Carolina Kettle Bee Sting Honey Sriracha Chips
Vault 5 by Jasper Hill
Another successful collaboration with Cabot Creamery, Jasper Hill Farm’s Vault 5 Cheddar is a result of hand-selecting vats of young cheese to be aged into a block cheddar in Jasper Hill’s Cellars. Vault 5 is a cheddar, but it’s got a unique Alpine-influenced flavor, with that’s bright and deep with a caramel finish. Its sweet-savory balance makes it an excellent match for food pairings—and especially with this month’s pairings. It’s got a semi-firm and smooth in texture that melts like a dream in a grilled cheese.
Vault 5 and Blake Hill's Raspberry Mostarda
Hot Pepper Bacon Jam by Terrapin Ridge Farm
We’re back with another killer condiment for your arsenal: the Terrapin Ridge Hot Pepper Bacon Jam! We’ve been a fan of Terrapin Ridge for a long time, so we’re so excited we could get them in this month for their curdbox debut. As soon as you open the jar, you'll smell that bacon smoke. Made with peppers, jalapeños, and real bacon, it's sweet, savory, tangy, spicy—is there anything it can’t do? This is one of those condiments that’s got so many different flavors going on, it almost feels like cheating.
Carolina Kettle Bee Sting Sriracha Chips by 1in6 Snacks
To add some crunch to this box, we have this pitch-perfect Carolina Kettle chips from 1in6 Snacks. They are light, crisp, and full of flavor—and that Bee Sting Sriracha means it’s bringing just a little bit of heat to pile on the heat for the Hot and Melty box. A MacKenzie Smith signature move is to add potato chips to a grilled cheese for irresistible crunch—but listen up, because order matters: what you have to do is make the grilled cheese in its entirety, without the chips. Then, once it’s ready, open up the sandwich and stuff them in at the very last second before you take a bite. That way, the chips won’t get soggy. Give it a try—you’ll never look at chips the same way again!
Raspberry Mostarda by Blake Hill Preserves
And to wrap it all up, we are featuring our old favorite Blake Hill. We had their Rosemary French Onion jam in our The Hills Are Alive box, and their Fresh Tomato Jam in our Pizza Party box. And now, this month we’re featuring their Raspberry Mostarda, which is from their line of condiments that are made specifically to go with Jasper Hill cheeses—how perfect is that? If you aren’t familiar with mostarda, it’s an Italian condiment that’s sort of a cross between a sweet jam and a savory mustard, traditionally meant to go with charcuterie but naturally it goes great with cheeses, too. This one is much closer to the sweet end of the spectrum, it's basically heaven-sent raspberry jam with a backdrop of spicy mustard—it tastes great with these cheeses, but we also just eat it by the spoonful, and we think that you ought to give that a try, too.
And that's our box! We encourage you to grab some bread and make some grilled cheese sandwiches, or simply devour the box as a cheese board as per usual. Until next month, bon appetit!
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