Alpha Tolman is an Alpine-style cow's milk cheese from Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Vermont, made from raw grass-fed milk and aged in the Cellars at Jasper Hill. The recipe takes its cue from the cooked, pressed wheels of the European Alps, but the milk and the cave do the rest of the talking.

The paste is dense and pliant, slicing cleanly under the knife with that easy melting consistency Alpine styles are known for. Up front you get less sharpness and less acidity than a cheddar of the same age, then nutty, buttery, fruity notes through the middle. As the wheel matures it gets bolder, with caramelized onion and a meaty, savory depth that sits on the finish.

This is the cheese to reach for when you want something that melts as well as it eats. Shave it on a sandwich, build a Mornay sauce out of it, fold it into a fondue, or just put it on a board on its own and let the Vermont pasture do the work.