Cheese Underground

Thuli Family Creamery

2013-06-09T17:34:00.002-05:00

One of the brother-owners of Darlington Dairy Supply, a company well known for providing the Wisconsin dairy industry with innovative, stainless steel processing equipment, is going into the dairy processing industry himself.

Ted Thuli and his wife, Angie, are about ready to open the doors of Thuli Family Creamery on the site of the old Ann Street garage in downtown Darlington. The creamery on wheels - one of Darlington Dairy Supply's claims to fame - has been customized to use solar power and craft an array of innovative dairy products, including:

1. Swiss Style Yogurt -- milk will be non-homogenized with 2 percent and whole milk versions. Smooth and naturally sweet.

2. Cream-line milk -- in white plastic 1/2 gallons.

3. Gelato -- the real deal, using pasteruized egg yolks instead of chemical stabilizers for smooth and thick consistency.

4. Drinkable Yogurt -- with three ingredients: milk, fruit and stevia.

While Ted designed the equipment and developed the recipes, Angie will be the primary operator and day-to-day manager of Thuli Family Creamery. After 28 years in the banking industry, she's "retiring" to work at the bank two days a week and will spend another two or three days a week crafting dairy products to sell in the creamery's on-site small retail store. Sons Blake, 27 and Kyle, 25, are also involved, helping their parents build the creamery and get it up and running.

"Of course what I'd really like to do is make Swiss cheese," Ted says with a grin. Both his grandfather and father were Swiss cheesemakers, and Ted is a Wisconsin licensed cheesemaker himself. "But this is the way to go right now. We're going to fill a product niche and see what we can do."

Already, the family's dairy logo is drawing second looks and smiles. The whimsical cow wearing a bell with a Swiss flag represents the family's heritage. Angie says they'll have a future contest to name her.

Of course with Ted Thuli - featured in 2010 on the hit History Channel show, American Pickers, nothing is ever done in a routine manner. Visitors will notice a giant shark head greeting them as they approach the creamery - the same shark head that was used at the 1974 premiere party of the movie "Jaws". Its missing front tooth will be filled with foam cheese. The creamery boasts an attractive wooden viewing deck for visitors, and the Thulis imagine school children and groups will visit often.

The family creamery marks a dream come true for Ted, who has traveled the world working at Darlington Dairy Supply with his mother and two brothers. The company was founded by his father in 1958, and since then, Ted has built cheese plants in China, Ecuador, Caribbean Islands, Mexico and all over the United States.

"It's pretty neat to do this in my own hometown," Ted says. "I think it will be good for downtown Darlington, and it will be good for us. Win-win." Congrats to the Thulis!

GetCulture Inc. Opens in Madison

2013-05-31T09:27:00.003-05:00

If you're an at-home or beginning cheesemaker, I have excellent news to share. Madison's long-time cheese culture supplier, Dairy Connection, is opening a retail store today on the east side and will sell small amounts of rennet, cultures, cheese forms and all cheesemaking supplies to the public.

Located at 501 Tasman Street in Madison, GetCulture Inc. is connected to the main Dairy Connection building. It's a cute little shop with lots of awesome stuff for cheese geeks. Dozens of small, hard-to-find plastic cheese forms line one wall, along with stainless steel pots and pans, cheese cloths, and a whole cooler full of microbial, vegetarian and veal rennet. A nice supply of cultures - including those for yogurt, kefir and most any kind of cheese, are also available in small, easy-to-use and experiment-friendly sizes. It's like the dream shopping experience for a hobby or beginning cheesemaker.

The grand opening is today and tomorrow, May 31 & June 1, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Lots of door prizes - including two tickets to the August 3 American Cheese Society Festival of Cheese in Madison - are up for grabs. You'll also get to meet store co-managers, Katie Potter and Valerie Tobias, both experts in cheesemaking supplies.

If you can't make it to the open house, no worries! GetCulture Inc also has a website at www.getculture.com, where they sell everything online. Lipase? Check. Coagulants and rennet? Check. Fermented cheese cultures? Check.

"We're excited and a little nervous to see how the new store does," Valerie says. "We're off the beaten path, but people have already been finding us, plus we have an online store, so customers should find everything they need."

The GetCulture Inc store is a long-planned offshoot of Madison's renowned Dairy Connection, launched in 1999 by Dave and Cathy Potter. For nearly 15 years, the business has supplied ingredients to some of America's best-known cheesemakers, specializing in serving artisan and specialty cheese companies.

In fact, more than two-thirds of all awards handed out to American cheesemakers at the 2011 American Cheese Society annual competition went to companies that count on Dairy Connection for their supplies. That's a pretty good track record!

Congratulations to everyone at Dairy Connection on your new venture. I know I'm happy to have a great place to recommend supplies for small and beginning cheesemakers.

Becoming a Cheesemonger

2013-05-28T16:31:00.000-05:00

As my inbox and voicemail boxes begin to reach maximum capacity of unanswered messages, I thought perhaps I'd better explain why it may appear the Cheese Underground Lady has fallen off the face of the earth. No worries, I'm still here. These days, I'm just working under a pile of cheese wearing a name tag that says: "Jeanne C: 1st Year of Service".

That's because, in an attempt to gain the 2,000 hours of paid work experience I need to qualify for and then take the ACS Certified Cheese Professional Exam (the only exam of its kind offering professionals in the cheese industry the opportunity to earn the distinguished title of ACS Certified Cheese Professional), I've started working three days a week behind the cheese counter at Metcalfe's Market, a family-owned group of specialty grocery stores in southern Wisconsin.

The upside: I get to open, cut, wrap and talk about 500 different cheeses with hundreds of customers a day, giving me WAY more respect for every cheesemonger whose job I thought I knew. My co-workers think I've lost my mind when the overhead announcement stating a pallet of cheese has arrived results in me jumping up and down like a kid on Christmas morning with a pile of presents under the tree.

The downside: I may be reaching the upper age limit of being able to to stand, bend, reach, pull, push and heave wheels of cheese all day, so it's a good thing I'm doing this before I get any older. Let's just say that at the end of each shift, ibuprofen is my friend. Oh, and I've lost 30 pounds since I started. Booyah!

Back in January, I began a crash course with an amazing team of co-workers, learning the ropes on how to stock, face, cut and wrap cheese. Nearly five months later, I feel like I've hit my groove, and can adequately answer almost any question a customer throws at me. I also know where the secret stash of super cool demo baskets live, have braved both the boiler room to retrieve giant green trash bags, and survived the cavernous underground walk-in cooler in a successful search for lost boxes of fresh sheep's milk cheese.

What's really surprised me, however, is how much I enjoy the customers. Some of my favorites continue to be the ones who are never really sure what they're looking for. They know they like cheese. They know they once had a cheese they loved. They just can't remember the name of the cheese, or anything about it. Challenge accepted.

Once in awhile, we get lucky and a customer will just mix up a name - such as: "Do you carry Pleasant Valley Gruyere?" Then we guide them to the Wisconsin section and hand them a piece of Pleasant Ridge Reserve with a smile.

The hardest questions are the ones like this: "I'm looking for a cheese that I sampled here a couple of weeks ago. It was white. I remember it being salty." Then the guessing game begins. More often than not, we're actually able to discern what we think the customer tasted and they leave a happy camper. To date, I've never had a customer get angry with me. I've come to the conclusion that cheese just naturally makes people happy.

Working with cheese - actually handling it day in and day out - is a much different beast than writing or talking about it, which I've done for most of the past 10 years. Thank you to the crew at Metcalfe's for putting up with me, and I look forward to the next two years (or more!) together. Who knows, I may never leave. :)

Thank You Anne Topham, Grande Dame of Goat Cheese

2013-04-29T16:00:00.000-05:00

Those of you who braved the last of Wisconsin's never-ending winter last week at the Dane County Farmer's Market may have noticed a familiar face missing. That's because Wisconsin's grande dame of goat cheese, Anne Topham, retired this spring after nearly 30 years of making French-style fresh chèvre and handcrafted aged goat cheeses for the market.

While Anne would never dream of taking credit for starting the Midwest's love affair with chevre, all credit surely does go to her and partner Judy Borree for introducing Wisconsinites to fine French-style goat cheese. The pair started milking goats at their Fantome Farm near Ridgeway in 1982, after Topham took a break from studying for her doctorate in education policy studies at UW-Madison.

At the time, no one else in the region was making goat cheese. So, like any good academic, she went to the library. She read cheesemaking books in French, took the University of Wisconsin cheese technology course, and visited pioneering California cheesemaker Laura Chenel. Then she and Judy started experimenting. A pet pig ate their first mistakes. Later, better cheeses went to the Dane County Farmer's Market, where the pair had to literally give it away in order to get customers to try it, because no one in Wisconsin had ever heard of goat cheese, much less eaten it.

“We cajoled people into trying our cheese at the market. We thought if they tried it, they would buy it, and we were right,” Topham said. She soon began to learn as much from her customers as she had from her books and expert advice.

“Sometimes, a customer might say last week’s batch was too salty so I would measure more carefully the next week. Others would tell us we were making a cheese that you could only find in the mountain farms in Puerto Rico, or that it was similar to the fresh cheese made by the nomadic people in Afghanistan. And here I thought I was only making a gourmet French-style goat cheese!” Topham laughed.

Although many would agree Topham has long since perfected the art of making cheese, she never stopped learning new techniques. She traveled to France in 2003 to study affinage – the art of ripening cheese, went to Italy in 2007 to study the making of Parmigiano Reggiano, and volunteered time in 2010 teaching cheesemakers in Ecuador how to add value to their dairy farms.

Along the way, she learned just as much as she taught, and after every trip, “It made me come back and want to tear up everything I had and start over,” she says. Her 2003 trip to France to study affinage was one of the first study trips by a Wisconsin cheesemaker on the subject.

“Seeing the mechanical caves in France definitely changed my advice to starting farmstead cheese owners," she said. "Building and planning for such spaces and learning ways to perfect ripened cheese really helped take farmstead and artisanal cheesemaking to the next level here in Wisconsin."

Thirty years after having to give away fresh chevre to customers in order for them to try it, it's a bit ironic that Cook's Illustrated dedicated an entire section to "The Best Fresh Goat Cheese" in its May/June 2013 issue. Editors compared nine different chevres from the United States and France, recommending Laura Chenel's Fresh Chevre Log as its overall winner. While Anne's cheese wasn't involved in the study (she makes only enough cheese to sell at the market each week), it's likely Fantome Farm chevre would have placed high on the list.

At age 73, Anne says she doesn't plan to stop milking a few goats or making a little cheese. She's just not going to make it for sale anymore. The next chapter in her life might include some consulting for beginning cheesemakers, something she's done quite often along the way, most of the time for free. With 30 years of cheesemaking knowledge, she's still got a lot to offer. Look for her walking - not working - the farmer's market on Saturdays, still talking and sharing stories with former customers.

Wisconsin Artisan Cheesemaker Guild

2013-04-22T15:47:00.003-05:00

It's spring, so time for me to start a new organization. Shockingly, it's all about cheese.

After talking with dozens of small and artisan Wisconsin cheesemakers looking for opportunities to get together and learn more about their craft, today marks the debut of the Wisconsin Artisan Cheesemaker Guild. Similar to other state cheese guilds, it's a member-based organization offering networking and educational opportunities for beginning and current artisan and farmstead cheesemakers.

Already at 28 members strong, the guild is intended to be a sister organization to Wisconsin Cheese Originals, a 200-strong membership organization catering to cheese education for consumers. Together, both organizations celebrate Wisconsin artisan and farmstead cheesemakers.

Here's how it works: currently, the guild is open only to beginning or current artisan or farmstead cheesemakers (future associate memberships for retailers may be added - stay tuned). Guild members pay an annual fee of $150 per company. All employees of member companies are invited to attend or participate in all activities. Some activities, such as specific educational workshops or tours, have additional fees to help cover expenses. All events are listed at www.wicheeseguild.com.

In support of the guild, the Wisconsin Specialty Cheese Institute (WSCI) is helping sponsor us for our first two years. All guild members become WSCI members and gain access to WSCI programming and benefits. Current WSCI members who are also artisan or farmstead cheesemakers are encouraged to join the guild to be invited to all events. Only new guild members who are not already WSCI members need pay the $150 guild membership fee.

So, bascially, the guild is an opportunity for smaller cheese companies to gain access to more information about cheese aging, new cheesemaking styles, and to visit other cheesemakers in Wisconsin and abroad to expand their knowledge. I plan to organize at least two educational workshops and two membership meetings per year.

Upcoming events scheduled so far in 2013 include:

June 17: Affinage for Artisan Cheesemakers
The guild welcomes Michael Kalish for a half-day workshop in Madison. Trained by Hervé Mons, Luigi Guffanti, and cheese makers across France, Switzerland, and Italy, Kalish will discuss the art and practice of aging cheese. Attendees will learn the variables that affect affinage, as well as rind development, identifying defects, and developing a wash. As the former operations manager at Artisanal Premium Cheese in New York, Kalish apprenticed three years with European cheesemakers and affineurs, including 10 months managing the “tunnel de la collonge” at Herve Mons Fromager-Affineur in France. Cost for guild members to attend is $45, which includes lunch.

September 17: Know Your Mold
The guild hosts Dr. Benjamin Wolfe, microbiologist at Harvard University, for a half-day workshop. Dr. Wolfe is currently working on several cheese microbiology projects, including the ecology and genomics of staphylococci isolated from cheese rinds, DNA sequencing methods for measuring fungal biodiversity in cheese rinds, and comparative genomics of the fungus Geotrichum candidum. Attendees are encouraged to bring in their cheese rinds so Dr. Wolfe can help identify molds and provide other insights. Cost for guild members to attend is $55, which includes lunch.

In addition, the first Guild Membership meeting is in the works for late May. Artisan cheesemaker and guild member Brenda Jensen of Hidden Springs Creamery near Westby, will host a tour of her dairy sheep farm and farmstead cheese operation. Guest speaker Dr. Mark Johnson, senior scientist at the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, will update cheesemakers with information on the Center’s current cheese research projects, as well as plans for the new Babcock Hall as it relates to artisan cheese making. Attendance is free to guild members, but attendees must register in advance. Stay tuned for more details.

I look forward to hanging out with Wisconsin guild members in the coming months. Remember, if you are thinking about becoming a cheesemaker, or are a current farmstead or artisan cheesemaker, you are welcome to join us. Learn more here.

The Next Wisconsin Cheesemaker: Jennifer Digman

2013-04-02T06:27:00.003-05:00

A Wisconsin dairy farmer interested in developing artisan goat cheeses in southwest Wisconsin has earned the 2013 Beginning Cheesemaker Scholarship from Wisconsin Cheese Originals, a 200-member organization dedicated to celebrating Wisconsin artisan cheesemakers.

Jennifer Digman, owner of Krayola Sky Dairy in Cuba City, was selected by a committee of industry leaders for the $2,500 annual award. Digman is mid-way through the requirements of earning a cheesemaker’s license, and is working to complete her apprenticeship hours.

As you know, Wisconsin is the only state in the nation to require cheesemakers to be licensed, an 18-month process that involves attendance at five university courses, 240 hours of apprenticeship under a licensed cheesemaker, and a written exam at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture.

After using the scholarship money to earn her license, Digman said she has dreams of building an on-farm creamery to craft fresh, hand-dipped chevre, aged mixed milk artisan cheeses, and hand-washed Alpine-style cheese.

“I look forward to working side-by-side with my daughters, teaching them the Old World secrets of shepherding our animals and crafting cheeses,” Digman told me. “Being a female in a male-dominated dairy industry has had its hurdles, but with the help of some amazing mentors, I am blessed to understand the traditions of making great cheese.”

A committee made up of industry leaders selected Digman out of a field of 11 highly-qualified applicants. This marks the fourth year Wisconsin Cheese Originals has offered the $2,500 scholarship to a beginning cheesemaker. Past recipients have coincidentally all been women using sheep or goat's milk to make cheese, a testament to the growing number of women putting Wisconsin on the map as the dairy artisan mecca of the nation.

Congratulations, Jennifer!

Shearing Sheep at Hidden Springs Creamery

2013-03-27T19:27:00.001-05:00

Welcome to spring in Wisconsin, when thousands of sheep lose their winter coat in favor of a new, naked spring wardrobe. This week, I was lucky enough to "help" - and I do use the term "help" loosely - sheer 450 sheep at Hidden Springs Creamery, a dairy sheep farm near Westby.

Farmstead cheesemaker Brenda Jensen and her husband, Dean, are increasing their flock in an attempt to make award-winning sheep's milk cheeses year-round (Brenda's Ocooch Mountain, a six-month aged nutty tomme was recently named to the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest's top 16 cheeses, out of 1,702 entries). Typically, their sheep would have been shorn in early March, but because Wisconsin seems to have forgotten it's spring, they held off shearing until warmer weather.

First of all, let me say shearing sheep is serious business. At Hidden Springs Creamery, a three-man contract crew arrived bright and early Monday morning to set up three electric shearing stations in the Jensen's hay shed/sheep loafing barn.

Once the stations were set up, the men did pre-shearing exercises to limber up their backs. After all, shearing a sheep takes between two and five minutes, of which the shearer is bending at the waist the entire time.

Going in, I was a little afraid shearing sheep might be a bit traumatic for both me AND the sheep. I had visions of "ringing pigs" as a kid, holding squirming, squealing piglets while my dad pierced their noses (we pastured our pigs and having a ring in their nose kept them from rooting and escaping under fences. Despite my protests, my dad assured me it was worth 3 seconds of pain for the pig to be able to live its life outside instead of in a crate, and as an adult I now have to agree with him).

Turns out, I worried for nothing. Because once limbered up, the sheep shearers chose a sheep from the pen, herded it onto their wooden board, and very simply and matter-of-factly, turned the sheep onto its back.

Yes, you read that correctly. Sheep are lifted up and turned onto their back, so that all four of their feet are sticking up in the air. I knew sheep were stupid, but I didn't realize they (thankfully) were stupid enough to allow this to happen without so much as squirming or even making noise. In fact, sheep look fairly bored during the entire process. Simply unbelievable. Here's a look at shearing a sheep:

First, the sheep is turned onto its back and the shearer works on the belly. This wool is kept separately, as it's not nearly as valuable as the overall fleece. The picture below is the typical look of a sheep during this process, as it lays there, listless. You have a feeling she's thinking: "I wonder what's for dinner?"

Next, the sheep is rolled onto its side, with its head between the shearer's legs, and then sheared on both sides. The goal is to remove the entire fleece in one piece. David, the lead shearer, averaged just under 2 minutes a sheep. A good shearer prides himself in doing it under four. David is a master.

When finished, the sheep is unhanded and allowed to get up and walk away. Most, like this one, however, continue to just sit there until the shearer scoots it outside. Yes, these are pretty wild animals.

After the sheep is persuaded to actually leave the shearing board, the helpers pick up the fleece.

Then it's off to the super huge sacks, where the helpers stuff the fleece. Like this:

And here it is in action - fleece is heavier than it looks:

Occasionally, sheep shearers change blades or adjust the setting on the shearing device, which looks like this:

And when shearers are done with one sheep, they do another. And another. Until they're done.

So to recap, here's a "before" picture:

And here's an "after" shot:

You almost get the feeling this sheep is posing for the camera, don't you?

Throughout the entire process, I kept thinking I had seen something like this before. And then I remembered: I have a cat who thinks it's a sheep.

Look familiar?

Many thanks to the expert sheep shearing crew and Brenda & Dean Jensen for letting me be part of 2013 sheep shearing at Hidden Springs Creamery!

All photos copyright Uriah Carpenter, 2013

Wisconsin Women Cheesemakers Rule US Champion Cheese Contest

2013-03-14T08:28:00.000-05:00

In an industry dominated by multi-generational male cheesemakers, a Wisconsin woman has been named the best cheesemaker in the nation for the second time in a row.

All I can say is: whoo hoo!

Last night at the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Marieke Mature Gouda, aged 6-9 months, was named the 2013 U.S. Championship Cheese. The farmstead beauty is crafted by Marieke Penterman, of Holland’s Family Cheese in Thorp, Wis.

The cheese took top honors out of 1,702 entries from 30 states. Out of a possible 100 points, Marieke Gouda scored 98.31in the final round of judging, during which a panel of 38 expert judges from across the nation re-evaluated the top 16 cheeses at an evening gala to determine the overall champion.

Marieke was on hand to accept the award, and for the first time in her life, said on stage she was "speechless." She did recover afterward, doing her signature "happy dance," walking through the crowd and accepting hundreds of well wishes from a crowd that had gathered to taste some of the best cheese in the country and watch the final round of judging.

"Can you believe it?" Marieke told me after the festivities had died down, the media had left, and just a handful of industry oldies were nursing their drinks. "The best in the nation. Wow. I can't wait to tell my dad."

Marieke, the mother of five and wife of Rolf - "the sexiest man" she knows, has only been making cheese on their central Wisconsin dairy farm for six years. Her story, while vastly different (she emingrated from the Netherlands 10 years ago to start a new dairy farm with her family) - somewhat echoes the story of the last contest's winner, then 26-year-old Katie Hedrich, who won U.S. Champion for her goat's milk LaClare Farms Evalon, another farmstead cheese made by a Wisconsin woman. Katie had only been making cheese for a year when she won the award, yet both women were recognized by some of the top experts in the nation for being the best in their craft.

Wisconsin women make up only a tiny percentage of cheesemakers in the state - of about 1,200 licensed makers, less than 60 are women. Yet, they seem to be excelling at their craft, with more entering the industry every year. For example, of the so-far three annual beginning cheesemaker scholarships awarded by Wisconsin Cheese Originals, all have gone to women. The 2013 recipient will be named in April, and based on the applications so far, I'm placing bets it will go to another woman.

It should be noted that two additional top-notch cheeses were also honored at the U.S. Championship Cheese contest, and both are made by men. First runner-up, with a score of 97.89, was Tarentaise, a semi-hard alpine cheese made by Spring Brook Farm/Farms For City Kids Foundation in Reading, Vermont. Second runner-up was Medium Cheddar, made by Team Cracker Barrel Natural Cheese, Agropur Weyauwega for Kraft Foods in Glenview, Illinois, which scored 97.88.

Wisconsin cheesemakers, as usual, dominated the competition, capturing gold medals in 47 of the total 81 categories judged. Vermont and New York came in second among the states, with six golds apiece. A common complaint I hear about this contest is it favors Wisconsin cheeses because it's sponsored by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the 38 expert judges come from around the nation, with the likes of Cathy Strange, Global Cheese Buyer for Whole Foods in Austin, Texas; Max McCalman, Dean of Curriculum at the Artisinal Premium Cheese Center in New York; and Craig Gile, Master Cheese Grader, Cabot Creamery Cooperative in Montpelier, Vermont serving on the judging panel.

After all, the United States Championship Cheese Contest is the largest technical evaluation of cheese and butter in the country and is rooted in more than 120 years of history, beginning when the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association held its first cheese contest in 1891. In recent years, the event has flourished, more than doubling in size since 2001. More Wisconsin cheeses are likely entered into the contest, as it's held in our state. This year, it was nice to see one of our own take home the top prize. Congratulations, Marieke, and to all the medalists!

The Science Behind Alpine Cheeses

2013-03-07T12:48:00.002-06:00

Photo courtesy of Gastronomichael.blogspot.com

Following up on a Wisconsin report expected to be published later this month that concludes there are "quantified differences in color, texture, melting points and other attributes" between pasture-fed and conventional dairy products, an Italian study has taken it one step further, determining there are scientific differences in cheeses made between different high-altitude Alpine grass pastures, resulting in different flavor profiles of well-known Alpine cheeses.

The study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, confirms that not only does pasture-grazed cheese taste different than cheese made from the milk of non-grazing cows, the cheeses made from cows grazing on two different sides of a mountain can contain enough different chemical compounds to affect the cheese's flavor.

The revelation comes courtesy of Giovanna Contarini, a food chemist at the Centro di Ricerca per le Produzioni Foraggere e Lattiero-Casearie (a dairy and crops research center in Lodi, Italy). Recently, she conducted an experiment in which she took milk from cows living on two sides of a mountain in northern Italy. Both pastures consisted primarily of fescue and bent grass, but each received different amounts of sunshine, and from different directions. One pasture also had bit more yarrow growing in it than the other.

Milk from cows grazing in each pasture was then used to make dozens of wheels of the local cheese specialty: Asiago. When Contarini and her team analyzed the cheeses, they found they differed in the amounts of hydrocarbons and transfatty acids. In addition, both grass-based cheese batches contained more terpenes than cheeses made from the milk of non-grazing cows.

Terpenes are chemical compounds typically found in the milk of mountain-pastured cows and come from flowers growing among the grass. "In the plains cows, you don't find any terpenes," Contarini said in an interview with National Public Radio last month. Scientists aren't sure whether terpenes affect cheese flavor, but they do consider them a marker of mountain cheese.

Contarini confirmed that where cows live changes what they eat - and that difference is detectable in the cheese made from their milk.

"In the mountain areas, the cows are free to pasture," Contarini told NPR. They eat mostly a mix of fresh grasses and other vegetation. Cattle raised at lower elevations in Italy are kept in farms and eat a prepared feed that contains some dried grasses and some fat and vitamins. "Consequently, the rumen digestion is different," she said.

Contarini's research may one day be used to prove whether some traditional cheeses, such as bra d'alpeggio or Formai de Mut dell'Ata Valle Brembana, are indeed made with only the milk of mountain-grass grazing cows. The practice of making summer mountain cheeses is a dying art in northern Italy, Contarini said.

"Young people don't want to stay in the mountain because there are poor opportunities for work," so they often move to the city, she says. If there's no one left in the mountains to raise the cows and make the cheese, she says: "We risk losing an important product."

To taste two authentic European Alpine cheeses and two Wisconsin Alpine-style cheeses, sign up now to attend the May 14 Alpine Style Cheeses: The Taste of Terroir class, led by Jeanne Carpenter at the Firefly Coffeehouse in Oregon. Attendees will learn why cheeses made in the mountain regions of France and Switzerland taste different than cheeses made elsewhere, and compare them to Wisconsin Alpine-style cheeses. Visit www.wicheeseclass.com to sign up now, as all classes sell out in advance.

Photo by Uriah Carpenter

The Evolution of Wisconsin Cheddar

2013-02-22T22:48:00.001-06:00

If the state of Wisconsin were to have one signature identifying symbol, it would likely be a chunk of cheddar. Crafted in blocks, barrels and wheels, and then cut, wrapped and stamped, millions of pounds of construction-orange Wisconsin cheddar are sold every year to American consumers.

Most Wisconsin cheddar gets shipped to the coasts for city folk to enjoy, but thousands of pounds are still bought by Midwest locals at roadside cheese shops and cheese factories, with many a Wisconsin farm family still putting the requisite piece of sliced cheddar on apple pie at Sunday dinner.

In a quest to learn more about how the cheddar industry evolved in Wisconsin, I've been doing a little research. Did you know that cheddar was just about the only cheese produced in the entire United States prior to 1850? By 1880, in a foreshadowing of our future dairy dominance, Wisconsin had taken the lead in producing more cheddar than any other state in the nation. And by 1929, back when there were 2,499 cheese factories and creameries, each supplied by a dozen or so farmers, with each farmer milking about a dozen cows, nearly all of those cheese factories made cheddar.*

That's right, baby. Cheddar was king.

While it continued its dominance in driving the state dairy economic engine, by the late 1950s, however, the state of cheddar had changed. Almost every cheese factory now sold their cheddar to big distribution companies such as Kraft, Borden or Armour, marking the beginning of an era when distributors, not cheesemakers, set the price for their product. To quote Wisconsin cheesemaker Sam Cook in 1957, (you may recognize Sam Cook’s name, as he’s the father of Sid Cook who today owns Carr Valley Cheese): “You took what they gave you. We was lucky to sell what we had.”**

The relationship between big distributors and cheesemakers changed the face of cheddar. Back in the 1930s and 40s, cheesemakers had taken pride in their cheddar being different or “better” than the cheese factory 4 miles down the road. Those were the days when each factory had its own self-propagating cheese culture and resident molds in its walls and aging planks. Those were the days when cheddar had what you might call “character”.

Now, with the coming of the big distribution companies, cheddar instead became a commodity. The new buzzwords became: “consistency" and "long shelf life" and "mild flavor.” These were the traits that put Wisconsin cheddar on the map and made it such a huge success in national markets. As author Ed Janus puts it: "This was the great achievement of the Age of Cheddar."***

Success is all well and good, but it comes at a price. With Kraft, Borden and Armour demanding consistency, many small factories went out of business, being either unable or unwilling to modernize. Many of the old cheesemakers, born of the craftsmen era, didn’t know scientific cheesemaking. The way they determined when the curd was ready to mill wasn’t to check the ph of the whey; it was to put a hot iron to the curd mass, and when it strung out a certain distance, the cheesemaker knew it was ready for the next step.

By the 1980s, Wisconsin had lost many of its smaller cheese factories in the name of progress. Equipment was sold and doors were shut. Some were turned into machine sheds or homes. Most were left to just fall down. And with the loss of the smaller plants, Wisconsin began to lose the character of its cheddar. The cheddar from one factory now tasted much like the cheddar from the factory down the road. In essence, Wisconsin's cheddar industry traded “character” in exchange for “consistency.”

Remaining cheddar plants got bigger and more efficient. The mass market clamored for lower prices. Now cheesemakers had to make more and more cheese just to continue to make a living. Everything became based on volume. Many a cheesemaker who got out of the business in the 1990s will tell you that by the end, they were making only a profit of one penny per pound of cheese sold. That's not enough to live on, much less to send your kids to college or re-invest in your business.

By 2000, however, a handful of cheesemakers were getting off the commodity cheddar wagon and changing to specialty and artisan production. Cheesemakers such as Sid Cook in LaValle and Tony and Julie Hook in Mineral Point started making small batch cheddar and setting it aside to age. This was cheddar that didn’t get sold to Kraft for a penny on the pound. This was cheddar that the cheesemaker could put his own label on, and set his or her own price.

Now the old time cheesemakers will tell you that aging cheddar isn’t anything new. They all did it, even back in the day. It was just called Cheesemaker’s Cheddar. It was the cheese hidden in the cellar that each cheesemaker’s family ate at night with dinner. They’d sell a block or two on occasion to people who today I suppose we'd call "foodies" who would stop by a cheddar factory and say, “What’s the oldest cheddar you’ve got? Will you sell me some?”**** So even back then, aging cheddar was not a new concept. What was a new concept was selling it to the public at a price the cheesemaker set.

The real key, however, to the renaissance of Wisconsin cheddar, was chefs. Cheesemaker Sid Cook says that by the mid 1990s, chefs started seeking him out. They would buy cheese and take it back to their restaurants, cook with it, and diners loved it. So the chefs would order more. Diners would ask where the cheese came from, and then visit the factory to watch cheese being made, usually - if Sid had anything to do with it - buying some on the way out.

"There's a certain element with cheese that almost is addictive," Sid says. "You can tell when people are sampling. They'll take one. And it will be a little while. Then their hand just goes out. It's just automatic. They can't help it. They don't think about it ... That's how you know it's really good. What we really like to do is get their hand past their hip so they get their wallet out."*****

Today, Wisconsin cheesemakers still make plenty of commodity cheddar, and cheddar is still sold on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the current price is $1.62/pound). But most often, those blocks and barrels are serving as cash flow and are the backbone of a cheesemaking operation. Those same cheesemakers today are selling more specialty cheddar under their own brand, and using the proceeds to develop new artisan cheeses such as American Originals. This turnaround in the process – the cheesemaker setting the price – is what is largely responsible for the current artisan cheese renaissance we're currently experiencing in Wisconsin.

Interested in trying a good aged Wisconsin cheddar? Here are some of my favorites:

Four-Year Cheddar by Carr Valley Cheese, LaValle, Wis.

Six-Year Cheddar by Widmer's Cheese Cellars, Theresa, Wis.

Ten-Year Cheddar by Hook's Cheese, Mineral Point, Wis.

Interested in a good specialty cheddar? Then try:

Peppercorn Cheddar, Henning's Cheese, Kiel

English Hollow Cheddar, Maple Leaf Cheese, Monroe

Heritage Weis Old-World Style White Cheddar, Red Barn Family Farms, Appleton

And if you're looking for some amazing bandaged cheddar made by Wisconsin artisan cheesemakers, I'd recommend:

Bandaged Cheddar, Bleu Mont Dairy, Blue Mounds

Kinsley, Roelli Cheese, Shullsburg

Eagle Cave Reserve, Meister Cheese, Muscoda

*Facts and figures courtesy of Harva Hachten and Terese Allen's book: The Flavor of Wisconsin: An Informal History of Food and Eating in the Badger State, 2009.
**Sam Cook quote courtesy of interview in the book Creating Dairyland: How caring for cows saved our soil, created our landscape, brought prosperity to our state, and still shapes our way of life in Wisconsin by Ed Janus, 2011.
***Creating Dairyland: How caring for cows saved our soil, created our landscape, brought prosperity to our state, and still shapes our way of life in Wisconsin by Ed Janus, 2011. Page 100.
****Creating Dairyland: How caring for cows saved our soil, created our landscape, brought prosperity to our state, and still shapes our way of life in Wisconsin by Ed Janus, 2011. Page 103.
*****Creating Dairyland: How caring for cows saved our soil, created our landscape, brought prosperity to our state, and still shapes our way of life in Wisconsin by Ed Janus, 2011. Page 104.

New Research Concludes Pasture Cheeses are "Quantifiably Different"

2013-02-09T13:00:00.002-06:00

A final report soon to be published by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture concludes something every cheesemaker and cheese enthusiast has suspected for years: that there are "quantified differences in color, texture, melting points and other attributes" between pasture-fed and conventional dairy products, especially cheese and butter.

An upcoming report titled: "Growing the Pasture-Grazed Dairy Sector in Wisconsin," is the conclusion of a four-year research project led by Laura Paine, grazing and organic specialist at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture. Paine pursued grant funding for the project after research by Dr. Scott Rankin at the University of Wisconsin in 2005 showed pasture-fed cheddar cheese was creamier in texture and more golden in color than the same cheese produced from the milk of confinement-fed cows.

Research started in 2009, as milk was collected from five grass-based dairies in southwest Wisconsin three times during the grazing season for three years. Milk was collected from a confinement farm for comparison, and batches of two to four dairy products, including yogurt, butter and cheese, were made at the University of Wisconsin Food Science Department by Dr. Rankin and his staff.

The products were then compared side-by-side in three ways: analysis of chemical composition, evaluation of consumer preferences, and investigation of cooking qualities. Dr. Rankin also conducted testing to measure differences in chemical composition, including fat, protein, somatic cells, lactose and other compounds. Samples were provided to program partner chefs Jack Kaestner and Leah Caplan for evaluation in cooking.

While the research failed to identify a single compound or "smoking gun" to explain the differences the team found between pasture-fed and conventional milk, both the scientists and chefs noted "quantifiable differences" in color, texture and melting points. Dr. Rankin noted that pasture milk has a "grassy note."

"This research proves something cheesemakers have known for years," said Master Cheesemaker Bob Wills, a project partner and owner of Cedar Grove Cheese and Clock Shadow Creamery. "We've always entered contests with cheeses made from grass-fed animals, and those cheeses have always won awards. We just didn't tell anyone our secret."

To view more comments from Wills, as well as insight from dairy farmer Bert Paris, cheesemakers Bob Wills and Mike Gingrich, and chefs Jack Kaestner and Leah Caplan, view the short video (produced as part of the research project), below.

According to the report, Wills' cheesemaking "secret" can be pinpointed to three attributes special to pasture-fed dairy products. First, they are more golden in color; second, they are creamier in texture; and third, the flavor and aroma are different. Some describe flavors and aromas from pasture-fed products as "more complex" while others note "earthy, grassy" flavors.

However, the different flavors found in pastured milk can sometimes be perceived negatively by consumers, Dr. Rankin notes. In professional sit-down taste tests with consumers, most preferred the taste of conventional fluid milk in a glass, noting the grass-based milk tasted too grassy. On the other hand, almost all preferred the taste, appearance, mouth feel and aroma of unsalted butter and cheese made with pasture milk.

Anecdotal evidence shows similar results. At an October 2010 Grass-Fed Tasting Event, 60 participants tasted side-by-side croissants, cupcakes with butter cream frosting, bread with butter, and fish with sage-garlic browned butter sauce, each made with both conventional and pasture milk. The majority rated the pasture products higher than the conventional ones.

Rather than proclaim pasture-fed milk products to be better, the report focuses on how they are different. Nowhere is that more clear than in the results of a September 10, 2012 cheesemaking day at Clock Shadow Creamery, where research participants were invited to spend a day making two vats of identical cheese: one with pasture-fed milk, and the other with conventional milk.

Crafted on site by Wisconsin cheesemaker Willi Lehner, the cheeses were an experimental variety that Lehner had learned how to make just a few months earlier during a trip to Lichtensteig, Switzerland from famous Swiss cheesemaker Willi Schmid. During the visit (in which the Swiss Willi asked the Wisconsin Willi if he was a spy), Lehner learned to make a Tuggerbach Canton, a non-pressed cheese in the Gruyere family of Alpine cheeses.

"We visited Willi's brother's place, his Brown Swiss cows and the pastures," Lehner said. "I got to smell the hay, which smelled like vanilla and meadow. Then I smelled the milk, which smelled like vanilla and meadow. Then, when we made the cheese, the same aromas were present. That was really the first time I made a connection between what cows eat and the cheese made from their milk."

While the forages of Brown Swiss Alpine cows are no doubt different from the grasses eaten by southwest Wisconsin dairy cows, five months after making the Wisconsin cheeses at Clock Shadow Creamery, the same "grassy" aroma and flavors are present in the pasture-fed cheese made by Lehner.

In a side-by-side comparison of the Wisconsin cheeses (see photo below), the grass-fed cheese, on the left, is slightly more golden. The aroma is more earthy and fruity, while the conventional cheese on the right, simply smells clean and milky. The flavors are also distinctly different. The pasture-fed cheese is more complex with a lingering finish. The conventional cheese is more of a one-note cheese with a clean finish.

"When you taste the two side by side, there is no doubt a remarkable difference," says dairy farmer Bert Paris, who farms using rotational grazing, and whose milk was used to make the pasture-fed cheese in September. "It validates everything we've been saying for years."

So what are the next steps after the report is published? Paine says she'd like to organize grass-based dairy farmers to facilitate pooling milk, marketing efforts and branding, perhaps even developing a checkoff to generate funds for marketing. She'd also like to work with the industry to create a standard to ensure the integrity of a product marketed as "grass fed" or "pasture fed."

"This project has been four years in the making," Paine says. "The research shows the differences that processors and farmers have been noting for years in pasture milk and dairy products. Now it's just a matter of how we move forward with that knowledge."

Italy vs Wisconsin Cheeses: Can the New World Compete?

2013-02-02T22:19:00.004-06:00

With the growth in quality and quantity of Wisconsin artisan and specialty cheeses in the past decade, I am often asked: "Can Wisconsin cheeses today rival the great European imports?"

Well, yes and no. While there are scores of amazing European cheeses that simply don't have an equal in America, there are perhaps an equal amount of American Original cheeses that don't have a rival in Europe. That's because the traditions that often make classic European cheeses so amazing also limits innovation in crafting new ones.

Here in America, we've got no lack of innovation. With less than 300 years of tradition to our name, we've got no PDO, DOC or AOC cheeses. Virtually anything goes. Some might even argue American cheesemakers have cheesemaking freedom that many European cheesemakers might envy.

But that doesn't mean American, and especially Wisconsin cheesemakers, don't still look to their European counterparts for inspiration. Perhaps no country knows this better than Italy. Wisconsin cheesemakers have been studying Italian cheeses for more than 100 years, trying to duplicate the Italian greats.

Here's a look at three different categories of Italian cheeses and three Wisconsin cheesemakers who are striving to equal, or might I dare say rival, their Italian counterparts.

Round 1: Asiago Fresco
Agriform of Italy vs Saxon Creamery of Wisconsin

A younger version (aged only 20-40 days) of its more famous big brother, Asiago Fresco is a mild, semi-soft cow's milk cheese, and until about 15 years ago, not readily available for export to the United States.

In Italy, Asiago Fresco is made in the Veneto region, located in the far northwest quadrant of the country. It's named after the village of Asiago, one of seven villages situated on a high plateau in the Italian Alps. The region has a colorful history. The locals, most of whom have German roots, as the region was populated in the 1200's by Bavarians, still speak their own language, a German/Italian mix. Because the area was originally so isolated, the residents of the seven villages banded together in the 1300's to receive protection from three powerful families – the Ezzelini, Scaligeri and Visconti families. The region had its own political and administrative autonomy until Napoleon invaded in 1807. Then the territory came under Austrian rule until it was annexed to Italy through an international accord in 1866.

Today, two traditional Asiago cheeses are made: Asiago Pressato, made with whole milk and pressed, is aged only a matter of days. It is mild and buttery. The second, Asiago d'Allevo, is made from partially skimmed milk and and is sold in three stages of ripeness: mezzano, aged 3 to 8 months; vecchio, aged 9 to 18 months; and stravecchio, aged up to 2 years. All types are found in the U.S. market.

Asiago Fresco, meanwhile, seems to be a newer hybrid. It is made from whole milk, pasteurized, and aged 20-40 days. It much more citrusy in flavor. The most common Italian version found in the U.S. is made by Agri-form, one of the larger producers in the Veneto region, and distributed by Atalanta Foods. It is an excellent table cheese and melts well on a panini.

The Wisconsin version of Asiago Fresco is made by Saxon Creamery of Cleveland. In the spring, summer and fall, many of the Saxon cheeses are made from the milk of pastured cows. Originally owned by the Karl Klessig and Jerry Heimerl families, last year, Wisconsin dairy farmer and veterinarian Dr. Kenn Buelow invested in the company. Cheeses are now made by Master Cheesemaker Jeff Mattes, who is rapidly branching out into some different styles, including the little known Asiago Fresco.

Mattes delivers. The Saxon version is equally citrusy and fresh tasting, with no off flavors and a clean finish. The texture is almost the same as the Italian version, and the cheeses are nearly identical. Find Saxon Creamery Asiago Fresco at Glorioso's in Milwaukee.

Round 2: Fontina
Fontina D’Aosta DOP of Italy vs BelGioioso Cheese of Wisconsin

Dating back to the Middle Ages, Fontina originated in Italy’s mountainous Val d’Aosta region near the Swiss border. History isn't clear on whether it took its name from the village of Fontinaz or nearby Mont Fontin, but two things are clear: Fontina is a) considered one of the most versatile cheeses in the world, and 2) it has often been copied.

Today, versions of Fontina are made in Italy, Denmark, Sweden, and of course, the United States. The Danish and Swedish versions are typically covered in red paraffin wax, made from pasteurized milk, and are mild in taste. The Italian version, however, is made twice a day from the unpasteurized milk of Valdostana cows that graze on Alpine grasses, and is a washed-rind cheese. Aged three months, it is bathed with a mixture of brine and brevibacterium linens, which leaves it with an orangish-brown rind and smelly aroma.

Fontina D'Aosta is an Italian DOP cheese, meaning it is name-protected and may only be made in the Val d'Aosta region. It is elastic and supple, with a rich, sweet, buttery flavor and mushroomy aroma.

The Wisconsin version of Italian Fontina is made by BelGioioso Cheese. Aged more than 60 days, this is a very appealing, semi-soft mild cheese with a silky texture and a sweet, buttery flavor. It does not, however have the Fontina D'Aosta's washed-rind, so is instead much milder in flavor and smell. Whereas the Italian version has small irregular holes, BelGioioso Fontina is smooth and creamy. That's probably because it is intended for an American market, which, as a rule, does not overly care for stinky cheeses.

BelGioioso is no stranger to Italian cheese. In 1979, a man by the name of Errico Auricchio moved his family from Italy to America to start his own cheese company. A hundred years before, his great-grandfather had started an Italian cheese company named Auricchio. Today, it is the largest producer of Provolone in Italy.

But because Errico wanted to do his own thing, he moved to Wisconsin and brought along a couple Master Euoprean cheesemakers with him. He began making authentic Italian cheeses, and today, has built a cheese empire, building seven factories, all in the Fox Valley, each specializing in a different style of Italian cheese, from Burrata to Provolone to Gorgonzola and beyond. Each is made using Wisconsin milk from surrounding farms. BelGioioso does Wisconsin Italian cheeses proud, and their Fontina is no exception. You can find it in most specialty cheese departments.

Round 3: Parmesan
Academia Barilla Parmigiano-Reggiano DOP vs Sartori of Wisconsin

Known as the King of Cheeses, authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano is a Italian DOP cheese managed by The Consortium of Parmigiano-Reggiano, a non-profit organization, founded in 1934, and comprised of Parmigiano cheese producers from the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Mantova and Bologna.

The mammoth cheese, considered by some to be worth its weight in gold, is made in large copper cauldrons and formed into 85-pound drums. Quality is based on five factors that have been maintained throughout centuries to make this cheese one of the most famous in the world.

First and foremost is quality of pastures and quality of milk. Parmigiano-Reggiano is produced with milk from two milkings – evening and morning – with milk from the morning partially skimmed. The milk itself comes from cows raised on selected pastures only in the five approved regions.

Second: artisanal production methods have been unchanged for seven centuries. The Consortium is made up of a group of 650 small, artisanal cheese producers located in a specific zone of production and are subject by law to preserve the centuries old production methods and quality of the product.

Third is the natural aging process, which can last up to three years. By the end, wheels have developed a compact, grainy texture and strong, but not spicy, flavor. Parmigiano falls into the category of hard Italian cheeses generally referred to as grana, based on their granular texture.

Fourth: Complete absence of preservatives, additives or colorings in the milk and cheese. Period.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, is the strict control of the Consortium. It defends and protects the production of Parmigiano-Reggiano, overseeing how it is used and where it is produced. The Consortium is also responsible for building the brand and monitoring the standards of production.

The Parmigiano-Reggiano I enjoy is produced only in the Reggio Emilia region by Academia Barilla. This particular company uses milk exclusively from small hillside dairies and ages wheels to 18 months. It is brittle and hard, with a pale yellow rind. Inside, the cheese is golden with a crystalline texture and sweet, fruity, tangy flavor, like fresh pineapple. It boasts a salty finish, having been brined for about 30 days before being transferred to an aging room.

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin version is Sartori SarVecchio, one of the best Parmesans made in the United States. Aged at least 20 months, it is made from pasteurized milk in 30 pound wheels with a natural rind.

Sartori Cheese’s headquarters are in Plymouth, but the cheese is made in Antigo. Started in 1939 by Paolo Sartori and Louis Rossini, when they founded S&R Cheese Corp in Plymouth, the company changed its name to Sartori Foods in 1996. Today, they employ three master cheesemakers who not only create Old World classics but new American Originals.

Aged, crystalline, nutty, and grate-able, SarVecchio is a worthy rival to Old World Parmigiano-Reggiano, and routinely places first or second in national and international contests. You can find it in most any store where fine cheese is sold.

And there you have it: three Old World favorites vs. New World upstarts. I'd argue with a contest like this, there really are no losers. Only we - the consumers - win.

Chicago's Standard Market Ups the Ante in Affinage

2013-01-23T14:29:00.000-06:00

Photo by Uriah Carpenter

A small specialty Chicago grocer with a chef-driven product selection modeled after European markets is finding itself in the curious position of leading a growing renaissance in the affinage of American artisanal cheese.

Although the focus at Standard Market in Westmont, Illinois is on perishables, the cheese case, with its 200-300 cheeses from around the world, is where the action is at. That's because Cheesemonger David Rogers and staff are dedicated to showcasing the quality of artisan cheeses. And while some shops focus on imports, Rogers says: "American artisan cheeses is where the most interesting things in cheese are happening right now."

Rogers patterns his Standard Market's affinage program after Murray's Cheese in New York. Yet, while Murray's has built a stellar selection of five different aging caves, each built below street level and dedicated to a different category of cheese, Standard Market is focusing on just one 10 x 11 foot aging room, glass fronted right in the retail area so customers can watch the aging process.

In this micro aging room, Rogers adopts small batches of local Midwest cheeses and puts his own spin on them. And as Standard Market grows as a company, he hopes each store will have its own cave dedicated to aging one particular style of cheese.

Most recently, Rogers has been aging a batch of Little Darling from Fayette Creamery/Brunkow Cheese in southwestern Wisconsin that he's pretty proud of. He's also just released a version of LaClare Farms' Evalon, and is working with cheesemaker Katie Hedrich on a bandage wrapped cheddar.

"Our goal is always to partner with the cheese maker," Rogers says. "And while we do hope that what we age shows a unique perspective on their cheese, we also look at it as an opportunity to connect our customers with the cheesemaking process and to have them get as excited about local cheesemakers and creameries as we are."

In a taste test of three of Rogers' specially aged cheeses, pictured above - clockwise from right - LaClare Evalon, Fayette Creamery Little Darling, and a semi-hard cheese from Ludwig Farmstead Creamery in Fithian, Illinois, the most stellar of the trio was the Standard Market Aged Evalon.

Original Evalon, a perennial favorite of mine, is a goat's milk cheese, typically aged about six months and is creamy and tangy with a clean finish. Standard Market's version, however, is 10 months old and is a bit dryer, yet creamy on the tongue. But a magical transformation happens in the finish - where once all one could taste was the tang of goat's milk, a new pineapple candy flavor has emerged. It's as if Evalon has become the Pleasant Ridge Reserve of goat's milk cheeses.

"I'm eager to both age out cheeses that we sell all the time, like the Evalon, to show a side by side comparison to our customers, as well as working with cheesemakers to develop unique cheeses for us," Rogers says. "It's nice in that we can continue the conversation about what makes these cheeses special and what sets artisan production apart. And, since the aging room is glass fronted and clearly visible to customers, it helps encourage that conversation."

Rogers says the aging program has been an interesting journey for him and his mongers, and all feel fortunate to be working directly with cheesemakers to create cheeses unique to Standard Market. And he only sees the program growing.

"Right now we have just one store, but will be expanding to a second location in late 2013 in Naperville," Rogers says. That location will also have a small cheese aging room, enough to handle around 4,500 pounds of cheese at a time. He plans to set up each store's cave for a particular style of cheese. Because the current cave in the Chicago shop is mostly set up for natural rind cheeses - nothing that would require more than 90% humidity - the cave at the next store will likely be set up for soft ripened cheeses.

"We will age and then distribute cheeses to all our stores, grills and restaurants," says Rogers. (Each store has a grill built in and a freestanding restaurant nearby). "It's one of those things where I can't believe how fortunate I am to be able to work with the cheeses I am most passionate about."

If Rogers' success with Evalon and Little Darling is any indication of what Standard Market is capable of, I can't wait to see what he comes up with next!

Wisconsin Beginning Cheesemaker Scholarship Now Available

2013-01-18T11:04:00.001-06:00

Want to be a Wisconsin licensed cheesemaker?

Wisconsin Cheese Originals announced this week applications for its 2013 Beginning Cheesemaker Scholarship are available. The $2,500 award will help one aspiring cheesemaker earn his or her Wisconsin cheesemaking license and make new artisan, farmstead or specialty cheeses.

As you know, Wisconsin is the only state in the nation to require cheesemakers to be licensed, a lengthy process that can take as long as 18 months, requires the attendance at five cheesemaking courses, and 240 hours of apprenticeship with an existing licensed Wisconsin cheesemaker.

Applications for the 2013 Wisconsin Cheese Originals Beginning Cheesemaker Scholarship are available for download at www.WisconsinCheeseOriginals.com. Applications are due March 15. The recipient will be chosen by a review committee and notified by April 1.

This is the fourth year Wisconsin Cheese Originals has offered the $2,500 scholarship. Past recipients include:

2012: Anna Landmark owns and runs a small-scale sustainable farm with her husband and children in Albany, Wis. After using the scholarship money to earn her cheesemaker's license, Landmark plans to craft both fresh and aged sheep's milk cheeses, including thistle-rennet cheeses, which will require her to develop her own rennet from thistle flowers. This type of cheese is currently only available via import from Portugal and Spain.

2011: Rose Boero, a dairy goat breeder in Custer, Wis., successfully obtained her cheesemaker's license after receiving the scholarship in 2011. Today, she makes a variety of goat's milk cheeses at Willow Creek Cheese and teaches classes in her home for amateur cheesemakers. She is developing plans to build her own cheese plant at her dairy goat farm, where she and her husband have raised Toggenburg dairy goats for 25 years.

2010: Katie Hedrich, a goat's milk cheesemaker, obtained her license in 2010 after receiving the very first Wisconsin Cheese Originals Scholarship. At the 2011 U.S. Champion Cheese Contest, she took Best in Show for her goat's milk cheese, LaClare Farms Evalon, and was named the 2011 U.S. Champion Cheesemaker, the youngest licensed cheesemaker to ever earn the title. She and her family are currently building a farmstead cheese plant on their farm near Pipe, Wis.

For more information about the scholarship, email me at Jeanne@wordartisanllc.com .

Winter Cheese Class Series at Glorioso's in Milwaukee

2013-01-03T13:18:00.001-06:00

Exciting news, Milwaukee cheese geeks! In January, February and March, I'll be partnering with Glorioso's, Milwaukee’s premier family-owned Italian specialty food store, and offering an exclusive Winter Cheese Class Series. Here's the scoop:

Dates: Thursdays, January 31, February 21 and March 14

Time: 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Class Location: Glorioso’s, 1011 East Brady St., Milwaukee, Wis.

Cost: $25 per person, purchase online at www.wicheeseclass.com - seats must be purchased and reserved in advance.

Thursday, January 31: Italian vs. Wisconsin Cheeses
Old World Italian favorites vs. New World upstarts: attendees will judge whether Wisconsin artisan cheesemakers are holding their own, or may we daresay winning, the race in crafting world-class Italian-style cheeses. Attendees will taste six cheeses, three Italian and three American, hear the stories of each, with the opportunity to purchase each at evening's end.

Thursday, February 21: I Love Cheddar - The Grand Tour of Wisconsin Aged Cheddars
A new era of Wisconsin Cheddar has emerged in the past decade, with more cheesemakers moving to artisan aged and bandaged Cheddars. We’ll taste four Wisconsin Cheddars, aged from one to 12 years, as well as a reserve Bandaged Cheddar, made in the Old World English style.

Thursday, March 14: Four American Originals Invented by Wisconsin Cheesemakers
Wisconsin is home to many of the most innovative cheesemakers in America. We’ll taste four original cheeses dreamt up by cheesemakers either through sheer genius or, more often, by mistake. Hear the stories of what it takes to create an award-winning American Original.

See you there!

New Year Cheese Boards

2012-12-31T12:16:00.000-06:00

Whether you're throwing, attending or crashing a party, one of the best things to serve or bring with you this time of year is a cheese board.

When it comes to putting a board together, it's actually pretty easy to make yourself look good. You don't have to be the guy that brings the port-wine cheese ball on a paper plate. Instead, put together a nice selection of cheeses, place them on an attractive wooden, marble or slate cheese board, and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be greeted with the enthusiasm of one of the magi.

Consider one of these three cheese board presentations:

1. The Traditional Cheese Board
This board features five different cheeses, each from a different category. Find an attractive wooden board and place ¼ pound of each of the below cheeses, each wrapped in parchment paper or special cheese paper available at specialty cheese shops.

•    La-Von Farmhouse Brie, Caprine Supreme (bloomy rind)
•    Marieke Golden, Holland’s Family Cheese (semi-soft)
•    Widmer’s 6-Year Cheddar, Widmer’s Cheese Cellars (semi-hard)
•    Ocooch Mountain, Hidden Springs Creamery (hard)
•    Buttermilk Blue, Emmi Roth USA (blue)

Add a nice cheese knife, a package of Potter’s Crackers, and voila: instant cheese gift.

2. Celebrating Different Milks
Your friends and family may not be overly familiar with cheeses not made from cow’s milk, so this isn’t the time to introduce them to a bold, stinky goat cheese. Try some milder versions instead, such as:

•    Chandoka, LaClare Farms (goat/cow mix)
•    Pastoral Blend, Sartori (sheep/cow mix)
•    Dante, Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Co-op (sheep)
•    Billy Blue, Carr Valley Cheese (goat)

Add a fresh baguette and jar of Quince & Apple’s Pear with Ginger and Honey to compliment the Billy Blue and Chandoka. Your friends will thank you.

3. Cheddar, Four Different Ways
This is one of my favorite ways to do a cheese board. Pick one of your favorite cheeses, and then purchase four different versions, made by four different companies or with different milks. Cheddar is one of the easiest ways to do accomplish this method. For example, include on your board:

•    Bandaged Cheddar, Bleu Mont Dairy (bandaged)
•    10-Year Cheddar, Hook’s Cheese (extra aged)
•    Goat Cheddar, LaClare Farms (goat’s milk)
•    Timothy’s Farmhouse Cheddar, Kelley Country Creamery (traditional Wisconsin cow’s milk Cheddar)

Add a bag of spiced pecans from the Treat Bake Shop in Milwaukee and a package of Toasted Wheat crackers, and you’re all set.

Happy new year!

Check it: 10 Wisconsin Cheeses to Try in 2013

2012-12-28T17:49:00.001-06:00

With just 3-1/2 days between us and the descent of the New Year's Eve Blingy Ball, we bloggers have started writing end-of-the-year top 10 lists and "best of" posts. Between now and Dec. 31, you're likely to be subjected to such stories as the 10 best cupcake shops in Chicago, the 10 best photos of my cat, and why artichokes were named THE food of 2012.

Not me. I'd rather look forward and see what our innovative Wisconsin cheesemakers are cooking up. That means I've set my sights on THE 10 "must-try" Wisconsin cheeses of 2013. Buckle up. Here we go.

Blurry photo courtesy of Jeanne's iphone,
prior to consuming entire tub at one sitting.

1. Martha's Pimento Cheese
My, how good humble pie tastes. After mocking Bon Appétit on this very blog almost exactly one year ago for naming pimento cheese as one of the top food trends of 2011, here I am, naming Martha's Pimento Cheese as my No. 1 cheese to try for 2013. Dammit. I hate it when I'm wrong. But this cheese is so good, and this cheesemaker is so sweet, that I am nearly giddy to point out the error of my ways.

In fact (the following sentence is more effective if you read it using your best southern accent), we can thank the great city of Tyler, Texas for sending us Ms. Martha Davis Kipcak and her recipe for good ol' Martha's Pimento Cheese (stop Southern accent here). Showcasing the evolution of decades, even generations of pimento cheese-eating and pimento cheese-making, Martha combines aged Wisconsin Cheddar, diced peppers, mayonnaise (and in her Jalapeno version, jalapeno peppers sourced locally from Hmong farmers at Fondy Farm and youth gardeners of Alice's Garden in Milwaukee) to make the best cheese-based concoction I've ever tried.

Currently sold only in Milwaukee at Larry's Market, Glorioso's, Beans & Barley and Clock Shadow Creamery (where Martha, a Regional Governor for Slow Food USA, makes it in small batches), this is my new favorite cheese for 2013. I am on a mission to get every Madison specialty food store to carry it so I can personally spread it on every cracker at every party I host in the New Year. Yes, Fromagination, Metcalfe's, Barriques and others - that means I'm coming for you. Save yourself from my lobbying by filling out the Retail Request Form at www.mightyfinefood.us and let me know when you're carrying Martha's Pimento Cheese. I'll be there with my checkbook.

2. The Fawn
A new cheese distributed by Chris Gentine & Company at the Artisan Cheese Exchange in Sheboygan is turning heads. The Fawn, made in 22-pound bandaged and waxed daisy wheels by Kerry Henning at Henning's Cheese in Kiel, first got my attention when it took a second in its category at this year's American Cheese Society competition. Then, last month, it captured a silver medal at the World Cheese Awards in London. While this naturally mellow Cheddar cheese will likely hit the West Coast first, (Chris says they received an order recently from a distributor in California for multiple daisies), it should only be a matter of time before it's available locally. An excellent example of what I call "sweet Wisconsin Cheddar", this one is a winner.

3. Petit Frère with Truffles

In another "please kick me now" move, I declined an offer this summer from the fine folks at Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese to try their new specialty cheese, Petit Frère with Truffles. Being the corn-fed, meat-and-potatoes-farm-girl that I am, truffles, in general, are not high on my flavor list. (Yes, I know I am aware this is not normal.)

So when the cheese won First Place in the Flavored Cheese Category at the 2012 American Cheese Society in August, I of course changed my mind and wanted to try it right away. The problem then - like many award-winning cheeses - is that the supply was limited. While it's still hard to find this cheese, it is slowly coming on the market here in Wisconsin, and is worth seeking out. A luxurious, rind-washed semi-soft beauty, it is made in small batches and cave-aged on the Crave farm in Waterloo.

4. La Pinta
Here's a quick history test for you: what three ships did Christopher Columbus sail with when "discovering" the New World? That's right, it was the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. Meaning "painted" or "spot" or "marked" in Spanish, La Pinta is the new name of a new cheese from Cesar's Cheese, made at Sassy Cow Creamery in - you guessed it - Columbus, Wis. Cesar and his wife Heydi, chose the name to reflect the spots on the Holstein cows that produce the milk for this Mexican Manchego-style cheese. (In Spain, Manchego is made from sheep's milk, but in Mexico - Cesar & Heydi's home country - it is made using cow's milk). Look for Cesar's beautiful wheels of La Pinta - marked in style with the traditional zig-zaggy rind - to hit the market in 2013. A preview I tasted this fall knocked me out. And I'm thinking it's only going to get better.

5. Little Mountain
Those of who you were lucky enough to score tickets to this year's Meet the Cheesemaker Gala at the Monona Terrace may have stopped by fourth generation cheesemaker Chris Roelli's table and tasted his newest creation, Little Mountain. An Alpine-style cheese, Little Mountain from Roelli Cheese in Shullsburg is, hands down, one of the best new Wisconsin cheeses that will hit the market in 2013. Firm and nutty, it boasts the pineapple notes of Pleasant Ridge Reserve and the lasting sweet finish of cave-aged Swiss Gruyere. Look for this new American Original in the coming year.

6. Edun

This fall, Red Barn Family Farms introduced Edun, a New Zealand-style raw milk cheddar. The cheese joins an award-winning family of cheddars from owners Ted & Paula Homan. You may recall another Red Barn cheddar - Heritage Weiss - swept its category with Gold, Silver and Bronze medals at the 2011 U.S. Cheese Championship.

Edun, while still in the cheddar category, has a richer, more buttery taste and is made with raw milk, raw cream and vegetable rennet. It's crafted in small batches at Willow Creek Creamery in Wisconsin, and is made in blocks using milk from seven family farms, each audited at least annually for treating cows humanely. Known as the “Red Barn Rules,” the system was developed by owner and veterinarian Dr. Terry Homan to make sure farmers know each cow by name, not just by number. Read about each of the Red Barn Family dairy farmers here.

7. PastureLand Greek Style Yogurt
Okay, so it's not a cheese, but this new pasture-grazed, non-homogenized Greek Style Yogurt is worthy of making any "best of"list for 2013. Look for it come spring, when the dairy farmers of the new Wisconsin-based PastureLand cooperative will start making it again from the milk of pastured cows. Made with whole milk, the yogurt naturally separates into an inch of golden cream on the top of each 24-ounce tub, with luscious and thick yogurt underneath. The top inch is thick enough to hold a spoon - as illustrated to the right.

When you hear the name PastureLand, you may think of the former Minnesota-based dairy farm cooperative, that sadly, went out of business. In good news, earlier this year, the five families of the former Edelweiss Graziers Cooperative in southwest Wisconsin bought the PastureLand brand and are continuing the cooperative's commitment to producing small-batch products with milk from pastured cows. In fact, the yogurt’s naturally golden color stems from carotene found in grass that cows eat. Look for the Greek Style Yogurt and one or two new cheeses - rumor is one may be named "Peace of Pasture" - to come from PastureLand in 2013.

8. Mystery Sheep Cheese
Willi Lehner, Wisconsin's well-known Swiss-American cheesemaker and owner of Bleu Mont Dairy, is famous for bringing his experience of authentic Alpine cheesemaking to a collection of Wisconsin original cheeses. Always made in small batches, each cheese reflects the mountain tradition of using raw milk from pastured animals. Following a trip to Switzerland earlier this year, Willi is now experimenting and producing various sheep’s milk cheeses, natural and washed-rind. I tried one at the Meet the Cheesemaker Gala in November and it blew me away. When I asked what the name of it was, Willi didn't know. He hadn't yet come up with a name, and if history proves correct, he'll just keep making new cheeses anyway, so naming them is really not that important. Willi's cheeses are available in specialty cheese shops in the Midwest and at the Dane County Farmer's Market in Madison.

9. Timothy Farmhouse Cheddar
When Karen Kelley, co-owner of the hugely successful Kelley Country Creamery, a farmstead ice cream factory near Fond du Lac, emailed me a few weeks ago to tell me the family was making their own Cheddar, I breathed a heavy sigh. Why does every farmstead dairy in this state feel the need to make a boring old Cheddar, I asked myself. And then I tasted it. And now I admit I was wrong. Currently available in both mild and medium - both aged just a matter of weeks or months - Timothy Farmhouse Cheddar is a classic Wisconsin cheddar with a sweet, clean finish and is most worthy to be on this list. Crafted by the current U.S. Champion Cheesemaker, Katie Hedrich, of LaClare Farms, Timothy Farmhouse Cheddar will be available in sharp versions in 2013, as the Kelley family is holding back some wheels for aging. Can't wait!

10. Duda Gouda
Ten years ago, there were people who had written off super-cheesemaking-couple Tony and Julie Hook as aging cheesemakers who were more interested in retiring than in making new cheeses. Well, I guess the Hooks showed them. Launching more than a dozen new cheeses in the past decade, Hooks Cheese in Mineral Point has done it again with its Duda Gouda, an aged sheep's milk Gouda named after Julie's family nickname. Sweeter and more crumbly than a cow's milk Gouda, Duda Gouda is different than any other Gouda on the market. It's worth seeking out.

And there you have it - my top 10 list of Wisconsin cheeses to search for in 2013. Know of other new cheeses coming in the New Year? Leave a comment or drop me a line at jeanne@wordartisanllc.com. Happy new year!

LaClare Farms to Build New Farmstead Creamery

2012-12-11T06:11:00.000-06:00

An artist's rendering of the new LaClare Farms storefront.

Katie Hedrich, the reigning U.S. Champion Cheesemaker (and 2010 Wisconsin Cheese Originals Beginning Cheesemaker Scholarship winner), announced her family dairy, LaClare Farms, will break ground this week on a new 35,000 sq. ft. farmstead dairy plant in eastern Wisconsin.

The new dairy will be on State Hwy 151, north of the village of Pipe on the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago. The facility includes plans for a state-of-the-art dairy plant, retail store and café, as well as milking parlor with housing for 600 milking goats. The facility will be capable of processing cow, goat and sheep milk. In addition to crafting LaClare Farms products, the facility will serve as a specialty custom dairy processing and aging facility.

"This week is the start of the biggest week of my life," said Katie. Her parents, Larry and Clara Hedrich - dairy goat farmers and industry leaders for more than 30 years - agree.

"Building this farmstead dairy plant allows us to bring the next generation of Hedrich family members back to the farm," Katie's father, Larry said. "Our goal is to be one of the top sustainable agricultural enterprises in the nation, and with the talent our team brings to this operation, we will be."

The new farmstead dairy plant allows the Hedrich family to expand their current offering of goat's milk and mixed milk cheeses, including Evalon, Fresh Chevre, Cheddar, Fondy Jack and American Originals crafted by Katie Hedrich, who without her own facility, has been making five-hour round trips to Willow Creek cheese factory several times a week to make Evalon and LaClare cheeses. The Hedrichs' new farmstead facility will also be capable of aging cheese in special curing rooms, as well as producing cultured products and bottled milk.

Katie's brother, Greg Hedrich, is the business manager of the new integrated agricultural enterprise. Three additional sisters: Heather, Jessica and Anna, will work part-time for LaClare Farms in human resources, marketing and herd management roles while continuing their off-enterprise jobs. All five siblings hold university degrees in subjects ranging from marketing to human resources to dairy science to education.

"The key is each one of the children is not forced into one role," Larry says. "They each chose to go to college, worked in the public/private sector for a number of years and now have chosen to bring their skills back to the family enterprise. We are beyond thrilled to have the next generation back on the farm." The enterprise also brings the talents of Larry's cousin, John Jenkins, on board.

An official groundbreaking ceremony is set for Saturday, Dec. 15 at 2 p.m. at the new facility. The public is invited. The location is: W2994 County Road HH, on the corner of State Hwy 151 and County Road HH in Pipe.

The groundbreaking is just the latest example of Wisconsin's thriving artisan and farmstead cheesemaking industry. The amount of specialty cheese produced in the state has doubled in the past 10 years, and today accounts for 22 percent of the state's total cheese production. Ninety of the state's 126 cheese plants craft at least one type of specialty cheese, up from 77 plants five years ago.

The new LaClare farmstead dairy plant is expected to be up and running by early summer, 2013. In addition to crafting LaClare Farm products, the Hedrichs plan to rent out space to dairy processors to help launch new products and to work with beginning dairy entrepreneurs to develop their new products. The facility will also offer viewing windows into the milking parlor, dairy plant and cheese aging room which will be available to the public.

Congratulations to the Hedrich family - I look forward to following your progress and touring your new facility in 2013!

The New Age of American Aging Cellars

2012-11-27T19:31:00.000-06:00

Photo by Uriah Carpenter

Eight years ago at a Wisconsin cheese industry meeting, a presenter who had studied cheesemaking in Europe used the word "affinage." No one around the table, including me, knew what the word meant. Today, not only do Wisconsin cheesemakers recognize the term, they're putting an innovative twist on an Old World tradition by building modern aging cellars and creating American Originals to rival the best cheeses coming out of traditional European aging caves.

The term affinage - the art of ripening cheese - officially entered the modern American lexicon with a crack of the whip via a 2011 story in The New York Times about Murray’s Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village, where five man-made temperature-and-humidity-controlled cheese caves drew the ire of American cheese cop Steven Jenkins, who called "this affinage thing" a "total crock."

Never one to shy away from the opportunity to be fantastically quoted in a major media outlet, Jenkins argued that American affinage was merely a way to "drastically inflate the cost of cheeses" using "faux-alchemical nonsense.” I disagreed then, and I disagree now. All one has to do is talk to a Wisconsin cheesemaker and taste a cheese that's been aged in a humidity and temperature-controlled room to realize the art of affinage is exactly that - an art. These days, American cheesemaking doesn't begin and end in the make room. It continues into the aging room and is responsible for producing some of the most beautiful and delicious cheeses in the world.

Photo by Uriah Carpenter

The latest Wisconsin cheesemaker to enter the modern age of affinage is Chris Roelli at Roelli Cheese in Shullsburg. With the company's original aging room at capacity, and with orders stacking up for his cellar-aged Dunbarton Blue, Red Rock, Marigold and new Alpine cheese Little Mountain, Chris decided to build his own affinage center. Construction crews arrived the second week in August, and by November 1, the first cheeses were moved in. After three years of planning, the cellars will allow Roelli to make two vats of cheese five days a week and easily double production. In essence, all the cheese he makes in a year will fit into his new curing rooms.

Built into bedrock with 10-foot concrete walls, the modern Roelli Aging Cellars are 60-by-45-ft and 90 percent below grade. The cellar is made up of three distinct curing rooms, each designed for Chris' different masterpieces. The temperature naturally hovers around the ideal temperature of 50 degrees, with help from modern radiator pipes. Chris controls the humidity in each room via adding water on the floor. A magical maintenance room with all kinds of gadgets contains state-of-the art equipment for controlling the temperature in each room. It sends him an email three times a day with each aging room's temperature and will even send an alarm if the temperature is too high or too low.

Photo by Uriah Carpenter

While all that sounds much more hi-tech than a standard 200-year-old French cheese aging cave beneath your average urban cheese shop, Chris, in his humble way, manages to describe his curing rooms in a remarkably American style: "More than 500 loads of dirt and rock later, we've got ourselves a nice little aging facility."

Congratulations to Roelli Cheese on your new American aging cellars. We can't wait to see what cheeses they produce next.

La-Von Farmhouse Brie

2012-11-16T07:30:00.003-06:00

Photo by Uriah Carpenter

A former Wisconsin dairy goat producer, yogurt maker and specialty cheesemaker is in the process of reinventing himself as one of the state's best farmhouse brie makers.

Todd Jaskolski, of Caprine Supreme in Black Creek, Wisconsin, debuted his La-Von Farmhouse Brie last week at the Fourth Annual Wisconsin Cheese Originals Festival. Named for his mother and available in both goat and cow's milk, the brie is one of the first authentic farmhouse bries made in the state.

Made in 8-ounce rounds, the artisan cheese - made in mini batches, by hand - is not a commercial brie and, therefore, does not sport the perfect velvety half-inch thick white rind most Americans are used to seeing on tasteless mass-made, throw-it-at-the-wall-and-it-will-bounce-off brie. Instead, Jaskolski is using quality milk and real Geotrichum candidum to create a thin, tasty rind that is white with natural orange and sometimes even red mold dotting the outside. It's the kind of brie you're more likely to find in the French countryside than in an America cheese shop. Jaskolski makes it to order, so a three-week lead time is necessary. The cheese is made to be eaten between 3-6 weeks of age.

Once a dairy goat farmer and maker of the popular Caprine Supreme flavored goat milk yogurts, Jaskolski and his wife, Sheryl, had to sell their goat herd and retool the farmstead dairy plant after Todd suffered from a debilitating genetic disease that is essentially eating away his shoulders. After surgery on both, he can only lift his arms high enough to steer a car (think John McCain), and has remodeled the factory to lower all valves and tools so he can reach them. He carries a stool with him most of the time.

"We were bottling milk, making yogurt, making cheddar, milking goats twice a day and killing ourselves," Jaskolski told me back in August when he brought one of his first test wheels to me to try. "I could sit at home and collect disability and get fat, or I could keep making cheese. I'd rather make cheese."

Wisconsin is lucky Jaskolski decided to reinvent his farmstead dairy plant into an artisan brie creamery. While the cheese is just hitting markets, you can find it right now at Fromagination in Madison and in the coming weeks at Metcalfe's Market. Be sure and ask your favorite cheese store to carry it.

Bucky Badger Cheese Curds

2012-10-28T17:18:00.001-05:00

This weekend was homecoming at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and while our beloved Badgers lost the big football game in overtime, we fans enjoyed home team color red and white cheese curds, thanks to Wisconsin cheesemaker Cesar Luis of Cesar's Cheese.

Here's Cesar mixing and adding his super secret red recipe to turn the milk blood red -- rumor has it a few visitors to the cheese making viewing window at Sassy Cow Creamery were a bit horrified to see red in the cheese vat, until they found out they were to be turned into red and white cheese curds for Bucky's big game.

Mmmmm .... red milk. Probably a good thing this didn't happen on Halloween. I can imagine the rumors now.

Cheddaring the red curd.

Milling the red curd.

And voila, red cheese curds, mixed with regular, white cheese curds!

The ingenuity of Wisconsin cheesemakers never ceases to amaze me. Go Badgers!

Marieke Gouda Goes to Hollywood

2012-10-25T07:04:00.001-05:00

Photo courtesy
http://hollandsfamilycheese.foodoro.com/

Word is that a Wisconsin cheese will make its Hollywood debut in an episode of CSI:NY this Friday.

Back in August, I was at Larry's Market in Brown Deer picking up about 60 pounds of cheese for a wine and cheese tasting event, when co-owners Steve Ehlers and Patty Peterson told me about a call they'd gotten earlier in the day.

Someone from the Artisan Cheese Gallery in Studio City, California called them looking for nettle gouda, as supposedly there was a plot line in an upcoming episode of CSI:NY about nettles. Larry's Market was out of Marieke Burning Nettle Gouda, but called around to area shops in an attempt to locate a few wheels for the producer.

The search came up empty-handed, so Steve called owner and cheesemaker Marieke Penterman at Holland's Family Cheese directly. After explaining the situation, Marieke gave him the scoop: she had exactly 4 wheels left of Burning Nettle Gouda, but they were earmarked for a customer.

So Marieke did what any good Wisconsin cheesemaker would do in this situation: she called the customer, explained the situation, and the customer said: by all means, send the cheese to Hollywood.

The episode is set to air tomorrow on CBS. Check for your local air time here.

The Downtown Madison Deep-Fried Cheese Curd Challenge

2012-10-22T11:31:00.001-05:00

Just like Friday fish fries, Jell-O salads, and beer brats, deep-fried cheese curds are uniquely Wisconsin. Once relegated to county fairs, bars, and bowling alleys, the deep-fried delicacy today claims top billing on many an upscale menu. In downtown Madison, dozens of restaurants offer deep-fried cheese curds as an appetizer or side, and some are even transforming the once lowly fair-food into a top-shelf item.

So which downtown Madison restaurants do deep-fried cheese curds the best? To find out, I visited four different restaurants in a two-hour timespan for the ultimate taste test. But first, I had to pick up my photographer to capture the cheesy journey on film, which proved to be the first hurdle in what was to be a tougher writing assignment than first anticipated.

On a Thursday at 1:00 p.m., upon getting into my car, my photographer promptly informed me he had only two hours for the assignment. Unlike me, he has a real job, and two hours was the longest fake dentist appointment he could make without raising the suspicion of his boss. Incredulous, I asked him, “You mean we have to a) drive downtown, b) find a place to park, c) visit four restaurants and order cheese curds at each, d) eat aforementioned cheese curds, and then e) photograph each, all in two hours?” He stared back at me, unresponsive. I sighed. “Well then,” I said, “Challenge accepted.” And we roared off in my cheek geek mobile to hit four restaurants in 120 minutes.

First stop: Tipsy Cow on King Street. Neither of us had been there, and because we had to wait for our order of cheese curds to cook, we asked the bartender to throw in a couple of burgers, too. Fifteen minutes later, the burgers and cheese curds arrived at our table.

Five minutes later, my burger was gone, and my photographer was still trying to get the perfect shot of the $7.99 curds, which had arrived in a plastic basket lined with black and white checkered paper. I assured him that by now, he must have a good shot, and proceeded to taste my first deep-fried cheese curd of the day.

Hand-battered with New Glarus Spotted Cow beer, the white cheddar cheese curds at Tipsy Cow are very good. Light and fluffy, not greasy and not filling—at least at first—they dare you to eat them all, one luscious curd at a time. Stupidly, we did eat almost the entire basket before asking for the check. Strike one.

Second stop: Graze on Pinckney Street (pictured far top, right). We bellied up to the bar, ordered a basket of $8 cheese curds, and chatted with the bartender while he made me an iced latte. Ten minutes later, a very nice silver metal basket filled to the brim with enormous deep-fried cheese curds appeared, along with a bread and butter plate, and fork and knife for each of us. I wrinkled my brow. Typically, cheese curds are finger food. At Graze, however, cheese curds are considered the first course, and are big enough to require utensils. Sourced fresh daily from Sassy Cow Creamery in Columbus and dipped into an in-house vodka batter, these cheese curds are the masters of their domain. Did we eat the entire basket? Of course. Strike two.

Third stop: The Old Fashioned, also on Pinckney Street. By this time, it was after 2:00 p.m., and the bar was fairly empty, so we found two stools under a lamp (the photographer was becoming a pro at shooting curds by this time). We ordered two tap root beers and a $6.95 basket of cheese curds. Five minutes later, the curds arrived, along with General Manager Jennifer De Bolt, who had caught wind that a cheese curd writer and photographer were in town.

Offered with a choice of five sauces, including roasted garlic, smoked Spanish paprika, a tiger sauce with horseradish and mayo, a tiger sauce with blue cheese, and the reliable standby of buttermilk ranch, the curds at The Old Fashioned are second to none. Smaller and greasier than the curds at Graze, they are tasty and addictive. Similar to the Tipsy Cow, The Old Fashioned sources their curd from Vern’s Cheese, a distributor in Chilton, Wisconsin. De Bolt said curds are delivered fresh three days a week, and are dipped in buttermilk before being rolled into a secret seasoned flour concoction. The result: pure bliss.

“The key to a good deep fried cheese curd is starting with a fresh curd,” De Bolt told us. “I can tell the difference between a one-day-old curd and three-day-old curd.” By this time, so could we. The curds at Graze had been super fresh—still milky and squeaky, while the curds at the Tipsy Cow had been less stringy and denser. We happily ate nearly the entire bowl of Old Fashioned cheese curds before realizing our mistake. You guessed it, strike three.

Last stop: the Great Dane Pub on East Doty Street. Hoisting ourselves up to the bar, we reluctantly ordered yet another basket of cheese curds. A few minutes later, the $8 curds arrived, along with Executive Chef Matt Moyer, who seemed disappointed to tell us they had stopped making deep-fried curds in-house years ago. Instead, they purchase frozen curd from a manufacturer in Stevens Point, which uses Point Beer in the beer batter. The result is a super-smooth deep-fried cheese curd, perfectly acceptable, but which pales in comparison to fresh, hand-battered curds.

“We do use fresh curds from Hook’s Cheese in Mineral Point for our poutine,” Moyer said, “and despite the fact our curds are not made in-house, they are still our number one selling item on the menu at all five restaurants.” We could see why. If ever there was a food made to eat with a pint of beer, it is a deep-fried cheese curd.

With our bellies full of hot oil and cheese, we stumbled back to the car. It was a little past 3:00 p.m., and I asked my photographer if he would get in trouble for being late to work. He shook his head. “There is no possible way I’m going back to work,” he said, rubbing his stomach. “I’m fairly sure the dentist found a problem. In fact, I’m pretty sure I needed a root canal. I’m going home to lie down.” Turns out Madison’s deep-fried cheese curds had beat us both. But we didn’t mind. Challenge accomplished.

Note: this article is published in the current issue of Madison Originals Magazine. Check out this awesome publication and the cover photo by clicking here.

Fromagination Celebrates 5 Years with 80 Pounds of Pleasant Ridge Reserve

2012-10-16T12:03:00.002-05:00

What started out as the little-store-that-could and morphed into one of the nation's premiere cut-to-order cheese shops will celebrate its fifth anniversary in style this week with an 80-pound wheel of Pleasant Ridge Reserve.

Owner Ken Monteleone, who first opened Fromagination in October 2007, will mark his 5-year anniversary this Friday at 3 p.m. by cutting one of only two 80-pound wheels of award-winning Pleasant Ridge Reserve ever made by Uplands Cheesemaker Andy Hatch in Dodgeville. The 12-month-aged cheese will be offered to the public for tasting and sale.

"It seemed like a pretty good occasion to break out the big wheel," Andy told me this week. "Ken has done a lot for artisan cheesemakers. We're just happy to be part of his big day."

I first met Ken six years ago, when Fromagination was nothing more than a concept he carried around in a black portfolio. I remember meeting him at Barrique's on West Washington Ave., talking about store concepts and what cheeses he would carry. When he opened in October 2007, Fromagination carried nothing but Wisconsin artisan cheeses for the first 30 days. It was the first time a cheese shop of that calibre had done such a thing, and it put Wisconsin artisan cheesemakers on the map.

Since then, Ken and his staff have focused on forging close relationships with Wisconsin cheesemakers, and as a result, the little shop on the Capital Square is often one of the first retailers many artisans contact when a new cheese is developed and ready for tasting. Monteleone sources as many local products as possible, with nearly 60 percent of the shop’s 400 products coming from an area stretching from Minneapolis to Madison to Chicago.

That dedication has been recognized by the industry. Lauded for its dedication to serving cheesemakers and small artisans, its attention to customer service, and its commitment to the environment, Fromagination was named an Outstanding Retailer in 2011 by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, and is a perennial winner in local Best of Madison contests for favorite specialty food store.

Be sure and stop by 12 S. Carroll Street in Madison on Friday at 3 p.m., say congrats to Ken, and take home a piece of big-wheel Pleasant Ridge Reserve. See you then!

Purple Door Ice Cream

2012-09-30T12:09:00.001-05:00

An artisan ice cream previously only available in select restaurants and specialty stores has opened its own storefront in the Walker's Point neighborhood of Milwaukee.

Purple Door Ice Cream, owned by Steve and Lauren Schultz, crafts and sells super-premium, super-yummy, small-batch ice cream inside Clock Shadow Creamery in the new Fix Building, at 538 S. 2nd St. The creamery - clad in familiar Cream City brick so that is looks like it's been there forever -- is owned by Wisconsin cheesemaker Bob Wills, and is one of only three urban cheese factories in America. It is named for the nearby Rockwell Corp.'s four-sided clock tower.

“We are very excited to have a storefront inside one of the few urban dairies in the nation, and in one of the most sustainable buildings ever built in Milwaukee,” Lauren says. “It fits right in line with our business model, which is to buy local, be environmentally responsible, and support our community.”

All of the milk used for Purple Door Ice Cream comes from Wisconsin dairy farms, and the couple sources as many local and natural ingredients for its flavorings as possible.

"We believe that staying local and supporting our community is essential for small businesses. For every dollar you spend at a locally owned business, 68 cents stays in the Milwaukee community versus only 43 cents when you purchase at your typical national chain," Lauren says. "Part of our responsibility as a local business is to invest back into the community that supports us. One way we are able to do that is by purchasing local ingredients."

Using local ingredients also makes better ice cream, she argues, and I agree. Purple Door Ice Cream is creamier than most, as it contains 14 percent butterfat, resulting in an extraordinary texture and silky mouth-feel. As a comparison, big-name ice creams you find in your grocery store average only about 10 percent butterfat.

In addition to purchasing and enjoying a scoop of ice cream on site, customers may watch ice cream being made, as Purple Door shares production and retail space with Clock Shadow Creamery. A viewing window allows guests to watch both cheese and ice cream production.

Purple Door serves up to eight rotating flavors daily and sell pints and ice cream novelties from the Clock Shadow Creamery retail space. Classic favorites such as vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and butter pecan are next to more signature flavors, such as blueberry buttermilk, green tea and mascarpone. Coming soon: introduction of ice cream sandwiches in the next few weeks, adding catering (weddings, parties, ice cream socials, corporate events) this fall, and introducing a new fall line of flavors in October.

While the company officially celebrated its first business anniversary last April, Lauren says the move to a storefront has allowed Purple Door to expand its pint production and introduce at least two or three new flavors. Expanded sales are also helping the community. At the launch of their business last year, the Schultzes started their Milk for Milwaukee program, in which 10 cents from the sale of each pint, and a portion of profits from all other size containers sold, goes to buy milk for local men's, women's and teen’s shelters.

“As a small family business our initial impact may be modest, but it is sincere,” Lauren says. “Our hope is as we grow so will our impact on this community and the people within. We like to let customers know when they purchase Purple Door Ice Cream they, too, are supporting the Milwaukee community. That’s what it’s all about.”