Harvest Jack 8 oz. bar

$9.79

This cheese will delight you with a unique blend of herb and vegetable flavors.

Approx. 8 oz.

Description

“a unique blend of herb and vegetable flavors”

This cheese will delight you with a unique blend of herb and vegetable flavors.

Over many years of cheese making we have often added in some seasonal  cheeses. Some of these were so delicious for the season that we decided to keep making them all year long.  If I had to ascribe a Monterey Jack cheese to each of the four seasons, it would go as follows:

  • Winter- Orange Cranberry Jack
  • Spring- Spring Onion Jack
  • Summer- Joy’s Tomato Basil Jack
  • Fall- Harvest Jack

Our Harvest Jack perfectly captures the delicious combination of herbs and vegetables gathered from a bountiful summer garden. Harvest Jack easily wins the award for the largest variety of ingredients added to a cheese.  It is packed with ingredients and seasonings, so that shredded, small cubes or slices, each bite is full of flavor!  

I have found, over the years, that many people have a misconception of Monterey Jack Cheese, thinking that all “Jack” is “Pepper Jack.”  At first blush, Harvest Jack might look spicy with its colorful specks of parsley, dill, garlic, celery flakes, spinach flakes, black pepper, and tomato.  In reality, it’s mild and flavorful, but with zero heat!  It’s a very child-friendly cheese and I love slicing it up for my toddler.  Try cutting it into cute shapes and adding to a Bento-style lunch!

Ingredients

Production Process

Milk from a local dairy is first pasteurized before it is ready for cheesemaking.  When the milk is at ninety degrees the first ingredient, cheese culture, is added to the milk.  Cheese culture, which activates the milk and turns the milk sugars into lactic acid, is also a key ingredient to identifying the cheese’s character after aging.  The next ingredient added is rennet.  This ingredient is an enzyme that causes the milk to coagulate, a very fascinating part of cheese making, as the cheese sets up like custard in approximately twenty minutes.

It is then time to cut the curd.  This is done by placing curd knives into the vat.  These curd knives are basically sets of wires that run horizontally and vertically and cut the entire vat from top to bottom into quarter inch cubes.  These cubes are very soft and fragile at first but as they cook, they firm up and continue to release more whey.  Cooking the curd is a very delicate process as we heat the vat with steam from ninety degrees to 102 degrees only allowing it to rise two degrees every five minutes.  When the curd is completely cooked we will have 600 pounds of curds from 6000 pounds of milk.  Approximately ten percent becomes cheese.

Monterey Jack cheese is a washed curd.  Monterey Jack, Colby, and Longhorn are all examples of washed curd cheeses.  After the whey is drained, we add water back to the vat and rinse the curd.  The next step is to dry the curd.  After the curd is sufficiently dried, we add salt to neutralize the acidity in the cheese.  The salt also acts as a natural preservative.  The whey that has been drained is eventually spread on neighboring farm fields as fertilizer.  Whey is a byproduct of cheese making but when processed, can be found in other foods we eat as well as some animal feeds.

It is at this point that we add the specific ingredients that give Harvest Jack it’s unique flavor. The hoops are lined with cheesecloth, and once filled are all ready to go into the press.  When put under pressure, the curds knit together to form perfect blocks of cheese.  More whey will be expelled from the blocks while under pressure.  The next day the cheese will be removed from the press. It is then packed air tight and placed into aging.  Our Monterey Jack cheese is a fresh cheese and ages for about one to two months before cutting into loaves.

monterey jack history

An American original, Monterey Jack was first invented and made in Monterey Bay, California by Spanish Franciscan missionaries during the late 1700s and early 1800s.  In 1882, David Jacks, a dairy owner and businessman began marketing it throughout Monterey and eventually all throughout California. People soon began to refer to this semi-soft, white creamy cheese as “Jack’s Monterey” or Monterey Jack’s Cheese” eventually earning the name Monterey Jack.

Over the years this simple cheese has been flavored in many different versions, including our Harvest Jack.

Semi-soft Cheese Family

Harvest Jack is a flavored Monterey Jack cheese.  Monterey Jack is a semi-soft cheese.  It shares this family with the following similar cheese types:

  • Brick, dry- and washed-rind
  • Fontina
  • Havarti
  • Limburger
  • Muenster

Source:

Reference Manual for US Cheeses

Attributes

  • Color: Creamy white with additions of vegetables and seasonings.
  • Texture: Semi-soft, pliable, creamy and smooth. Finely diced vegetables sprinkled throughout.
  • Flavor: Delicate and buttery with a slight tartness. Vegetables and seasonings
  • Typical Composition: 44% maximum moisture, 50% milk fat solids. 
  • Performance Characteristics and Applications: Excellent melting cheese. Good for soups, sauces, toppings, and casseroles. Also good slicing and shredding cheese for sandwiches and salads. 
  • Storage/Shelf Life: Harvest Jack can be stored in the refrigerator for up to six months, unopened. Cut pieces should be wrapped tightly in barrier film and stored away from other pungent foods, as these cheeses will pick up flavors and aromas quickly. Proper sanitation when handling these cheeses will greatly increase their shelf life and quality. Freezing is not recommended.
  • Curing/Aging: 1 to 3 months.

Uses

  • Our Harvest Jack is packed with seasonings and ingredients, so when grated, it has a lot of flavor!  Great for topping grilled burgers or chicken.  
  • Create a domino effect with a slice of cheese and ring bologna.  
  • Cut into shapes for ‘bento box lunches’
  • Melts quickly.

Key Benefits: Easy melting. Good slicing and shredding. Convenient forms and flavors.

Guarantee

We guarantee all products to arrive in satisfactory condition to the address given if delivery can be made when first attempted. Delivery services will not forward our packages and many of our gifts can’t stand reshipping. We cannot assume responsibility for perishable products if we are given an incorrect address.

shipping

Orders are shipped Monday through Friday. Consideration is given when shipping to warmer climates to ensure fastest shipping methods. We ship our products UPS or USPS.

processing

Orders are processed and shipped Monday through Friday. When shipping to warmer climates, we avoid shipping over the weekend.

Delivery time

Time Most orders arrive between 3-6 business days, depending on processing time and destination. If you would like your order to arrive on a specific time frame, please make note of this in the comment section of your order.

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