Oka recipe creates Fromage de la Trappe in Manitoba.
Remember that film The Notebook? The one starring Ryan Gosling that’s about a monk who made washed-rind cheeses and kept secret notebook of brining techniques?
That version of the film is actually an NFB doc called A Monks’ Secret. (You won’t recognize Ryan Gosling–he plays the actual notebook. Amazing immersion into a role.) The doc is a story of Fromage de la Trappe, the cheese you see above.
Fromage de la Trappe comes from Manitoba and is made by Brother Alberic at the Cistercian Abbey Our Lady of the Praires. The old recipe was passed to him by the Trappist monks in Quebec (at Oka Abbey de Notre-Dame-du-Lac).
The original Oka recipe was sold to Agropur in the 1981 when the Oka Abbey in Quebec could no longer sustain the demand for the cheese. The factors may have been more than economical–monks do not want to be known as cheese makers, cheese making is simply a means to an end so perhaps the business was in conflict with their values. It may have also been hard to find people to keep making cheese in general as they got older and their numbers got smaller.
Fromage de La Trappe (left) and Agropur Oka (right)
One of the original Oka cheesemakers, Father Oswald had kept a notebook that was passed on to the Manitoba monastery when they started to make cheese as a source of income. The caveat that came with the hand-written notes was that should the Monks ever go out of the cheese business or the Abbyy close, that notebook would be destroyed (never to fall into a non-religious hand). This cheese is God’s business and no one else’s..Due to the craft secrets in notebook, what started out as a mediocore cheese, became something unique and flavourful.
Celebrating a ribbon for Louis D'Or
- Celebrating Louis D’Or.
And I cannot sign off before leaving you with a picture of Jean Morin, celebrating after his raw, organic milk cheese Louise D’Or received 3rd place in the Best of Show category. And we’re looking at over 1600 cheeses entered. That’s right he’s feeling smug. He damn well should!
cheese and toast 
Thanks for this Oka lesson! I knew that there was something a little off about Agropur’s version.
By the way- you’re at a *cheese conference*!?!??!?!!! I’m pre-volunteering for any future cheese-related assistant positions. Have cheese, will travel. Hell, I’ll even swim.
-J 🙂
I hoped you would read this. I had you in mind! Interesting isn’t it. Same recipe, different touch.
Well, actually, I wasn’t going to mention it since I know you write for the masses (of cheese-obsessed lurkers who still haven’t commented on your Oka posts) but I knew you wrote this one for me and of course I was tickled pink. Thank you, Sue! I am, quite possibly, your cheesiest fan.
P.S. My visiting mom (originally from Lac St-Jean, many many childhood memories of stopping to buy warm curds from bonneted white-coat ladies at La Fromagerie Perron) had not yet been initiated to a raclette-! Fondue is more the name of the game in the Saguenay-? Anyhoo, we fired up my prized vintage T-Fal with an Oka-esque cheese this weekend- alas, the cheese’s name wasn’t on the sticker. I’ll inquire at my local Alex Farm next time I pop in for a wedge. Needless to say my mom *adored* the raclette and the cheese- so fun. Leftovers pour une ce soir… oui!
-J
Jeepers, here I was thinking I knew my Oka…
Guess I’m going to have to start cultivating a few long-forgotten family ties with relatives out in Manitoba to get me some of that Trappe!