The oldest cheese in America also happens to be one of the youngest. The fresh little guy pictured here is only three to four days old when packaged, but the creamery has been making it since 1865. Correct me if you know better, but I don’t believe any domestic cheese has been in commercial production longer. More to the point, it’s delicious: moist, mild and milky, the perfect segue to spring.
Petite Breakfast, originally christened Breakfast Cheese, debuted in the aftermath of the California Gold Rush. Many miners, conceding failure, went to work on the docks in San Francisco, putting pressure on the local egg supply. A clever dairy farmer in nearby Marin County, just north of San Francisco, began sending his days-old Brie to the city via paddleboat so the stevedores would have some protein for breakfast—with a beer chaser, according to lore. From that genius idea, Marin French Cheese Company was born, and the cheese that started it all is still in the lineup. The company’s archives indicate that William Randolph Hearst was a fan and had Breakfast Cheese shipped to San Simeon.
The four-ounce Petite Breakfast is a charmer, rindless and delicate, with a vibrant sour-cream tang. Cream is added to the cow’s milk to bring Petite Breakfast to triple-cream status, but don’t expect the whipped-butter texture of a ripened triple-cream like Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam or Brillat-Savarin. Petite Breakfast is sliceable and simple in its direct lactic flavor, a case study in how a triple-cream cheese tastes in infancy.
photo: Marin French Cheese Co.
Petite Breakfast reminds me of the sort of fresh cheese you see on the breakfast buffet in some Mediterranean countries, typically with tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and olive oil. Like cottage cheese, it can swing sweet or savory. Drizzle it with honey and have it for breakfast with toast and fresh fruit or jam. Or dress it with olive oil and cracked pepper and pair it with greens. At the next opportunity, I’m going to melt it in an omelet with soft spring herbs.
I know I will hear from Vermonters telling me that Crowley Cheese is older, but it depends how you count. Crowley Cheese Company claims its namesake cheese originated in the Crowley family kitchen in 1824, but the commercial enterprise dates only (only!) from 1882. So I’m sticking by Petite Breakfast.
Marin French Cheese Company has a store locator to help you find Petite Breakfast near you.