Our enchanted experience at Birch, which we detailed in this post, featured a truly stunning Allium Soup, which was served along with a short-rib, leek skewer and focaccia.

I declared very clearly “I would change nothing. Ever.” It was a great dish. But the whipped ricotta served alongside got me thinking. Now I am guessing the fresh whipped ricotta served at Birch is very likely from a local source, as they make great efforts to feature local producers in their Milwaukee restaurant. But ricotta as a cheese style is clearly associated with Italian cuisine. Is there some way to make it lean a bit more “Great Lakes cuisine”? Enter Farmer’s cheese.

If you are not acclimated with farmer’s cheese, here is America’s Test Kitchen to explain, with no less an authority than the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Center for Dairy Research. We are using Lifeway’s Farmer Cheese, which is a European-style farmer’s cheese from their base of operations in Skokie IL. They focus on making kefir in the European tradition, and though founded by relatively recent immigrants, the tradition of farmer’s cheese goes back a long way in the Great Lakes region.

Farmer’s cheese is a simple, soft cheese, like cottage cheese with the whey removed, but it does have a nice sour profile like a goat cheese. We used the same approach as a whipped ricotta, which is simply to place it in a food processor with a bit of oil and whip away for a solid minute or two. The result should be very creamy. Then we added our beloved lemon thyme for a bright, herbal note.

You can serve the whipped farmer’s cheese like a dip with raw veggies or with a hearty, multi-grain bread and soup along the lines of the Birch service. But we elected to return to our well-trod smørrebrød approach with smoked whitefish.

A drop of the whipped cheese on each cracker, then flakes of smoked, Lake Superior whitefish, a bit more cheese topped with diced, roasted red and yellow beets, and a bit of lemon thyme flowers to top.

A delicious single bite as another, in our long line, of smørrebrød in the Great Lakes cuisine tradition.