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Many people probably never heard of  lactic cheese, but it is worth getting to know.  The process to make this cheese is the same as for making chevre, or goat cheese.  The difference, of course, is that cow’s milk is used in the lactic cheese as opposed to goat milk.

The cheese is good refrigerated for about 2 weeks (if it lasts uneaten for that long). Mix it with herbs or spices, or in Smoked Salmon Cheese Dip.

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Specialty Food Gifts to please professional chefs and home cooks.

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We add it to just about every meal we eat. Just as the deer and buffalo sought it out in the Kanawha Valley near the location of today’s J.Q. Dickinson Salt Works because their bodies needed it, so too do ours.

Salt is often that final touch that brings a dish together. It can pull a dish into balance. It can bring out the natural flavors of the center-of-the plate star. But while we may add salt to most dishes it is rarely the unquestioned star in and of itself.

Here, in this dish that straddles the line between sweet and savory, main course and dessert, it is the salt that is the key. Two different J.Q. Dickinson Salt Works salts—the Heirloom Salt and the finishing touch of Ghost Pepper Salt—feature on the palate. Beyond that it is salt that makes that center-of-the-plate element (the fresh cheese) possible.

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