cheeseunderground cheese, cheesemonger, Wisconsin cheese

I Have Yet to Find a Problem that Can’t be Solved with Cheese

After nearly two years of working full-time at a retail cheese counter, I have come to realize a cheesemonger’s job is often less about the cheese than it is the customer.

Whether customers know it or not, the holiday season for cheesemongers is brutal. We work long days, long hours, with no days off, to cut and sell cheese as fast as humanly possible. We have special chat groups on Facebook that act as therapy sessions. We tolerate an endless stream of “Do you know anything about cheese or do you just work here?” from well-meaning customers. But at the end of the day, and especially during this time of rush, rush, rush, I remember the customers who remind me why I fell in love with this job in the first place.

There are the jokesters: the old men who ask “What’s Gouda today?” Every. Single. Day.

There are the hipsters, who pretend to know the difference between Blue and Gorgonzola: “Are you sure this is crumbled Gorgonzola? It looks more like crumbled Blue.” Yawn.

There are the little old ladies who troll the department from one sample station to another, piling up cubes of Gruyere on their toothpicks and sliding them into their purses, saving them for later.

And then there are the customers that one gets to know, the ones you might be friends with if you weren’t wearing a hairnet and black bowl hat that no matter how you try and style it, still makes you look like a dork. Customers like Steve, who first walked in the door over a year ago with an exceptionally well-organized notebook of cheeses he’d sampled during the course of the past year, and whom today rivals any cheese expert in the nation.

Or Dad Rap Fan, who comes in with his grandson, Ben, every Monday, gives us an update on his rap star son, chats cheese for a few minutes, and says “See you next week” with a smile and a wave. Or Jean, who every single Thursday comes in for her Woolwich Goat Brie, and when none has come in that week, tells me we should go sing to the goats to help them make more milk.

These are the customers cheesemongers live for.

And then there are the customers we meet only once, who without knowing it, change our lives. Like the woman on Christmas Eve who asked me for help in finding a cheese, because although she had always really liked cheese, she seemed to have a hard time finding one that agreed with her these days.

So I walked her around our Wisconsin section, pointing out this and that, walking back to the counter to give her a taste now and then, when she shared the reason for her sudden cheese dilemma: she was undergoing chemotherapy for late-stage cancer and had lost her sense of taste. I got choked up. Then she got choked up. So we stood shoulder to shoulder, staring at the array of cheeses, until I asked her what was her all time favorite cheese.

She said, “Blue, but my doctor tells me I can’t eat it anymore, because my immune system has become compromised.” And I’m thinking, this sweet lady has late-stage cancer, and her doctor won’t let her eat blue cheese? Really? Come on.

So I showed her the Roelli Dunbarton Blue. I told her it was a cheddar with just a veining of blue, so she really wouldn’t be breaking her doctor’s rules. She smiled, took the cheese, read my name tag, and told me she would pray for me.

Pray for me. Me.

A lady with late-stage cancer undergoing chemotherapy is praying for me. All because I helped her find the right cheese.

Thus, a sign a very dear friend gave me for Christmas this year, rings true: “I have yet to find a problem that can’t be solved with cheese.”

Happy New Year, Cheese Underground fans. May the cheese of your dreams find you in 2015.

cheeseunderground cheese crystals, Wisconsin cheese

Exploring Cheese Crystals

Marieke Extra Aged Gouda, featuring tyrosine crystals. Photo courtesy of
Yahoo Food, which identified it as one of the “Best Cheeses to Buy Now”
in March 2013, Read the full article here.

It’s interesting that more and more consumers these days are identifying cheese crystals as a feature, not a flaw.

In fact, most every day, at least one customer asks me for a cheese with “those crunchy things” – usually referring to an aged Italian style, such as Sartori SarVecchio or Extra Aged Asiago. Many consumers have figured out that those crunchy bits – known as tyrosene crystals – are often a sign of a bold-flavored cheese and extra aged cheese.

So that’s why a headline in the recent issue of Dairy Foods was so very depressing. Titled: “How to avoid crystals in cheese“, it was an essay by John Lucey, director of the Center for Dairy Research in Madison. Thankfully, upon closer inspection, the article was mostly about avoiding crystals in processed cheese (eew!) and reducing the level of calcium lactate crystals due to poor packaging techniques in plastic-wrapped cheddar. Thank goodness. As this is an industry-based publication, Dr. Lucey did well to help commodity and processed cheese makers take steps to avoid unwanted flaws.

However, for artisan and specialty cheesemakers, crystals – both tyrosene (protein crystals that form in aged Italian styles and some extra-aged Goudas), and calcium lactate (white bumps that appear on extra-aged cheddars), are becoming known more as a feature. And in good news, one of my favorite chief cheese geeks, Dr. Mark Johnson, senior scientist at the CDR, wrote an exceptional and detailed article on “Crystallization in Cheese” in the latest issue of the organization’s Dairy Pipeline — a must read — click here to view.

When I’m trying to explain the difference between calcium lactate and tyrosine crystals, I almost always go to the eternally-bookmarked page of Laura Werlin’s Cheese Essentials. On page 164, she has one of the best explanations I’ve ever read, and I quote it often. Keep in mind this was written in 2007, so Werlin was ahead of her time in appreciating this particular cheese trait:

“A by-product of cheese aging is the breakdown of protein. You have probably experienced this phenomenon but not known what it was. For you, it was when you bit into a cheese and discovered the delightful little crystals that seemed like sugar. To me, these are the ultimate payoff in a grana-style cheese. In almost all hard cheeses, the crystals are the result of the proteins breaking down, a process called proteolysis. The particular amino acid that breaks free is called tyrosine, but to anyone who enjoys those crystals, it’s called a bite of heaven.”

Werlin goes on: “You might also find crystals in cheddar cheese, but these are entirely different. The crystals found in cheddar are generally not the result of proteolysis (which explains why they are not tyrosine) and are instead probably the effects of certain starter cultures. Called calcium-lactate crystals, these tiny white crystals tend to colonize the surface of the cheese and, to the untrained eye, may look as if the cheese is developing some type of white mold. While this is not the case, many cheesemakers, particularly the large manufacturers, have traditionally tired to avoid this. However, because people usually like these crystals, many cheesemakers are no longer discouraging their development.”

At modern U.S. cheese judging contests, both types of cheese crystals are more often being treated as a feature, not a flaw. (This largely depends on the age and education of the judge – I’ve found it’s hard to convince a 70-year old Cheddar cheese grader that calcium lactate crystals are now in fashion).

The American Cheese Society is leading the way on this education. At its annual competition, judges are specifically trained on calcium lactate crystals. In pre-conference webinars, judges are taught that an “even distribution of aging crystals” on aged Cheddar surfaces may be considered desirable, and can even earn a cheesemaker points from the Aesthetic Judge if he or she determines “a pleasant mouthfeel or ‘crunch’ from these crystals if they are evenly felt and seen on the cheese surface.”

That’s good news for us cheese eaters seeking out “crunchy bits” in our cheese. The next time you’re at your favorite cheese shop, be sure to impress the cheesemonger with your knowledge of tyrosene and calcium lactate crystals!

cheeseunderground cheese, coffee, Wisconsin cheese

Coffee: It Does A Body Good

A cup of coffee is the great social equalizer of the world. Two people can be from completely different places in the stratosphere of life, but when you sit down and share a cup of coffee, life becomes a little simpler.

I didn’t start drinking coffee until age 32. Growing up, my parents both drank coffee, black and strong, pouring the first cup before the break of dawn from an old electric percolator with a glass top, which as far as I can tell, basically boiled the shit out of it until it was done. That was 30 years ago. Back then, there were exactly two kinds of coffee in the grocery aisle: Folgers in the red can and Maxwell House in the blue can. My parents bought whichever one was on sale.

When I was younger, old people drank coffee. Young people drank Pepsi. It wasn’t until I was hired at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture that I became a coffee drinker, and it wasn’t by choice.

Six months after being hired to oversee local food programs, the Wisconsin Department of Ag received federal funding to help Wisconsin cheese factories transition from low-profit commodity cheese to higher profit specialty cheese, and to help dairy farmers build on-farm “value-added” dairy plants. I was re-assigned from local foods to a three-person dairy team and charged with visiting cheese plants and dairy farmers to help spread the word that we had grant money and expertise to help interested cheesemakers and dairy farmers start crafting value-added products.

Here’s how it worked: Jim Cisler drove, Norm Monsen navigated, and I threw up out the window because I kept getting carsick.

It turns out that visiting cheese plants as a representative of a government agency – that, by the way – also regulates and inspects these same cheese plants – is not particularly easy. Whenever we walked in the door, we were usually greeted with a look of disdain, a sigh of frustration and a sarcastic remark of “I suppose you’re from the government, and you’re here to help me.”

However, being Midwestern, we were always offered a cup of coffee and a few minutes to sit down and talk, usually in an office or break room, or if it was on a dairy farm, at the kitchen table. It was here that we would make a little small talk, share info about grant money available, leave our business cards and leave before they thought about kicking us out.

I can remember the first road trip clearly. We walked into a cheese plant to a round of heavy sighs from the owners and were politely offered coffee. Naturally, I declined because I didn’t drink coffee. We made some small talk, made our sales pitch, shook hands, and left. We then repeated this sequence at stop number two.

By cheese factory number three, something changed. Before I opened the cheese factory door, Norm gently put his hand on my shoulder and told me, this time I was going to drink the coffee. I told him I didn’t drink coffee. He said it didn’t matter. We were entering these folks’ place of business, taking up their time, and we had the extra strike against us that we were from the government. “Just drink the coffee,” he said.

So at the third factory, when offered a cup of coffee, I smiled, said thank you, accepted the coffee and then stared at it until the cheesemaker asked whether I took cream and sugar. After an emphatic yes, I then poured in as much cream and sugar as humanly possible and pretended to like it. Norm smiled. The meeting went more smoothly than the last two. I began to understand that the simple act of accepting a cup of coffee, sitting down, and sharing a conversation, put everyone a little more at ease. Sheer genius.

Fifty cheese factories later, I was down to just cream. Ten years later, I can drink it black if I have to, but I prefer a little cream, and I drink at least two cups every day. I’ve even become somewhat of a coffee snob, buying coffee from local roasters when I can and treating myself to a latte now and then.

More importantly, I’ve learned that if you have a request of someone – whether it be knowledge, an introduction, or business – asking someone out for a cup of coffee is a pretty hard invitation to which to say no. Once you’re drinking coffee, sitting across from each other and having a conversation, the playing field tends to flatten.  I’ve done a lot of business over a cup of coffee. I’ve made a lot of friends over a cup of coffee. I’ve had a lot of good ideas over a cup of coffee. It seems to do both a body and soul good. Thanks, Norm.

cheeseunderground artisan cheese, cheesemaker, cheesetopia, larry's market, milwaukee, Wisconsin cheese

CheeseTopia: Bringing Artisan Cheese to the Heart of the City

It’s official: you can book April 12, 2015 on your calendars for the First Annual CheeseTopia, a new one-day cheese festival I’ll be planning each year for the next three years. Year one will be at the Pritzlaff Building, a renovated warehouse in the Historic Third Ward of downtown Milwaukee, Year two will be in Chicago, and Year 3 in Minneapolis.

After retiring the annual Wisconsin Cheese Originals Festival in 2013, I still wanted to do an event to highlight our amazing artisan cheesemakers, but I knew I wanted it to be something different.

CheeseTopia aims to bring the best of Midwest artisan and farmstead cheese to the heart of the city by offering up to 700 attendees the opportunity to sample and purchase cheese from more than 50 cheesemakers from the Great Lakes Region, including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan. The festival will be open from Noon to 4 p.m. on a Sunday and offer a fun open marketplace atmosphere with cheese samples and a cash bar.

I’ll also be asking several favors from long-time cheese industry friends to help me build two large edible displays of cheese to compliment the hundreds of cheese samples available from cheesemakers. While many artisans will sell their products, farmer’s market style, those who don’t will have an opportunity to have them available for purchase from Larry’s Market, which will set up a beautiful table of cheeses for sale at the event. Thank you Steve Ehlers and Patty Peterson!

In addition, several breakout seminars will take place in separate meeting spaces inside the Pritzlaff Building, which was constructed in 1875 and just recently renovated. More than 20,000 square feet of floor space will be filled with cheesemaker tables surrounded by carved wooden beams, industrial age columns, Victorian era arched windows and gritty cream city brick. This is a building you truly need to step inside and appreciate.

Tickets will likely cost $25 and will go on sale after the first of the year. As always, faithful members of Wisconsin Cheese Originals will have first chance to purchase entry and sign up for seminars, which I expect may sell out before the event is opened to the public.

Thank you in advance for supporting our artisan and farmstead cheesemakers and I look forward to seeing you all in April in Milwaukee!

cheeseunderground bon bree brick, cheese, Wisconsin cheese

Bon Bree Brick Comes Back From the Brink

Several years ago, when I was a guest on Wisconsin Public Radio talking cheese with Larry Meiller, a caller asked me (on live air) if I knew anything about Bon Bree Brick. I had to admit that I didn’t, and soon thereafter, the phone lines lit up with callers sharing fond memories of Bon Bree, an old family favorite once made in Mapleton, Wisconsin.

Well, today, Bon Bree Brick is back, baby. The current issue of the Center for Dairy Research (CDR) Dairy Pipeline (if you don’t subscribe to their free e-newsletter, sign up here), profiles several extinct cheeses brought back from the brink of long lost legend, including the infamous Bon Bree.

Up until the mid 1980s, Bon Bree Brick, a Brick cheese with a unique name, was well-known for its firm, mozzarella-like texture and creamy taste. It was crafted by a cheese factory in Mapleton, but when the plant closed in the mid ’80s, the cheese disappeared from the market.

Luckily for all of us, Lloyd Williams, a dairy farmer in Delafield, loved the cheese so much he decided to bring it back to life with the help of Mapleton cheesemaker Terry Shaw and the now-closed Dairy Business Innovation Center (DBIC). Williams met with Shaw, who manufactured Bon Bree at the original facility, and Shaw provided Williams with a few Bon Bree recipes. Additionally – and this is crucial – Shaw gave Williams some of the original mother cultures that once produced Bon Bree in Mapleton.

After more than 16 batches and a few years of trying to re-create Bon Bree with the expert help from the Center for Dairy Research, Williams Homestead Creamery began selling Bon Bree under its trademarked name last year. Clock Shadow Creamery in Milwaukee now manufactures the cheese, which is made solely from the pasture-fed cow’s milk produced on Williams’ farm near Waukesha. In just the last year, Bon Bree has grown into three new varieties: dill, chive and caraway, and is available in more than 30 grocery stores throughout Wisconsin, including Metcalfe’s Market-Hilldale in Madison.

“After three years we have an identical product – except ours is all natural, so we do not dye it yellow like the early cheese was. People don’t miss that,” Williams says.

cheeseunderground artisan cheese, Wisconsin cheese

2015 American Artisan Cheese Class Schedule Announced

Hey there cheese peeps! If you live in Wisconsin and you’re looking for a monthly night out, tasting and learning about fine artisan cheese, I’m doing another year-long class series in 2015.

We meet at the Firefly Coffeehouse, a fantastic space that serves as the living room of my town, Oregon, Wis., about 10 minutes south of Madison. Each class includes a tasting and storytelling of artisan cheeses, a glass of complimentary wine, beer or beverage and general merriment. Classes begin at 7 p.m. and are limited to 25 attendees. Each class costs $22 and seats must be reserved in advance. Classes generally sell out two to three months ahead of time. I often have special guest cheesemakers and speakers, too.

I’m offering something special through through January 1, 2015: purchase a season pass to all 12 classes and get two classes for free. Makes the perfect gift for your favorite cheese geek! All classes are of course available for a la carte purchase, too.

Here’s the 2015 line-up:

January 20
Cheese 101: Tasting the Eight Categories of Cheese
Start out the year with a refresher course on the eight different types of cheese – fresh, semi-soft, soft ripened, surface-ripened, semi-hard, aged, washed rind, and blue. Learn and taste your way through your very own cheese board of eight American artisanal cheeses, learning the story and characteristics of each.

February 19
Relishing the Rind
To eat or not to eat? ‘Tis the age-old question of cheese rinds. Explore the different types of cheese rinds: bloomy, ash, and washed, taste exquisite examples of each, and learn what cheesemakers must undertake to create a beautiful rind.

March 24
March Madness: American Originals
The United States is home to some of the most innovative cheesemakers in the world. 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.

April 21
U.S. Champion Cheeses
With the United States Championship Cheese Contest held in Wisconsin just one month prior to this class, we’ll taste and learn the stories of four American gold medal winning cheeses.

May 21
You Be the (Cheese) Judge
American Cheese Society Judge Patty Peterson from Milwaukee joins this class and walks attendees through an official cheese judging session. She’ll teach the basics, and then let YOU be the judge with a blind tasting, official score sheets, and lots of fun. Taste both Wisconsin and American award-winning cheeses.

June 16
American Sheep’s Milk Cheeses
Nutty, rich and rare: sheep’s milk cheeses date back thousands of years, with perhaps the most famous sheep’s milk cheese being Roquefort. Taste four American and International sheep’s milk cheeses and learn what makes this category of cheese extra special.

July 21
Brie & Bubbly
Summer is high season for artisan brie and bloomy rind cheeses, as animals are in full milk production mode and cheesemakers have plenty of milk to create luscious, creamy beautiful bloomies for us to enjoy. Taste four brie and camembert-style cheeses and enjoy a glass of bubbly with each!

August 18
Perfect Pairings
From chocolate to spiced pecans to honey, more artisan food makers are crafting perfect accompaniments to cheese. We’ll taste four different perfect pairings and learn why certain foods pair better with cheese than others.

September 24
Stinky Cheeses
Americans are become more sophisticated when it comes to big, bold cheeses that can smell up a room and washed rind cheese is one of the fastest growing categories of artisan cheese. We’ll taste four washed-rind beauties whose bark is often much different than their bite. Get it past your nose, and stinky cheese may just become your new favorite.

October 22
Virtual Road Trip: Cheeses of Switzerland
Having just returned from leading a 10-day tour exploring the cheeses of Switzerland, Jeanne will introduce you to four of her new favorite Swiss cheeses and tell the stories of Alpine cheesemaking.

November 10
Charcuterie & Cheese
Artisanal cured meats and hand-crafted cheeses are a natural pairing in the world of good food. Taste three original pairings of local, award-winning charcuterie and Wisconsin cheeses.

December 8
Ultimate Cheddar Cheese Flight
End the year on a high note, with a vertical cheddar cheese flight. You’ll learn about a new era of Wisconsin Cheddar emerging, with cheesemakers crafting aged and bandaged Cheddars. Taste three aged Cheddars from one to 15 years, as well as a reserve Bandaged Cheddar.

You can purchase tickets online at www.wicheesestore.com. I look forward to seeing you there!

cheeseunderground american cheese society, certified cheese professional, Metcalfe's Market, Wisconsin cheese

The Results Are In: I’m an ACS Certified Cheese Professional

And it’s official: I am an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional. Say it with me: whoooooo-hooooo!

Jane Bauer from ACS emailed me yesterday, with a note that a press release will go out today. I am interested to see how many other folks from Wisconsin are on the list. Up until now, there’s only been two other CCPs in the state, so I am honored to be in their company!

Of the more than 250 people who sat for the test this year, 153 people passed. A total of 406 individuals throughout the United States and Canada are now official ACS CCPs.

So what is an ACS CCP? 

The ACS Certified Cheese Professional Exam is the first and only exam of its kind. It was established by the American Cheese Society to encourage high standards of comprehensive cheese knowledge and service for professionals in all areas of the industry. The exam is based on the knowledge and skills required to successfully perform cheese-related tasks in jobs across the industry. Testing encompasses a broad range of topics including raw ingredients, the cheesemaking process, storing and handling cheese, selecting distributors, marketing and communicating about cheese, nutrition, and regulations and sanitation.

In other words, you have to know everything about everything. For six months prior to the test, I read nothing that was not cheese-related. Cheesemaking books and cheese industry tomes made up a permanent stack next to the couch in our living room. I promised myself that if I passed, I’d reward my self with a Mountain Dew and a People magazine – which other than the Sunday New York Times, is about the only non-cheese related publication I’ve read in 2014.

A huge, huge thank you to Metcalfe’s Market-Hilldale in Madison, who two years ago, took a chance on someone they had never heard of, who had NO retail experience, and then hired her anyway to help work the cheese counter. Today, I am blessed to manage a department with three full-time staff and 300 cheeses, 90 percent of which we cut and wrap ourselves, and cut to order for a growing number of clientele. I literally get to smell, touch and taste cheese all day. I get to work with Wisconsin cheesemakers and be the first to sample and sell their new cheeses. This is the dream, baby. And I love it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for your support, especially my husband, who refers to himself as “Cheese Junior” but works just as hard as I do. I look forward to continuing to attend industry classes and keep up on my studies to recertify in 2017. But first, I’m going to hit the library, check out a juicy novel, drink a non-diet soda, and hit the hammock for an hour.

Cheese for life!!

cheeseunderground fda, raw milk, raw milk cheese, regulations, rush creek reserve, uplands cheese, Wisconsin cheese

Rush Creek Reserve Production Stopped By FDA Rule Uncertainty

Andy Hatch with one of his first experimental batches of
Rush Creek Reserve on May 20, 2010. The cheese was
officially released that fall to great acclaim. Photo by
Jeanne Carpenter

Uncertainty over how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will rule in regards to a number of pending raw milk cheese regulations has claimed its first official victim: Rush Creek Reserve by Uplands Cheese near Dodgeville, Wisconsin.

In an email to industry professionals this morning, Uplands co-owner and lead cheesemaker Andy Hatch broke the sad news that he will not be making Rush Creek this year.

“It’s disappointing news, I know, and we hope that it’s not permanent. Food safety officials have been unpredictable, at best, in their recent treatment of soft, raw-milk cheeses, and until our industry is given clear and consistent guidance, we are forced to stop making these cheeses,” Andy said.

Andy added it’s not a decision he and his team came to easily. “Hopefully, our government officials will soon agree on how to treat traditional cheesemaking, and we can all return to the cheeses that are so important to us.”

So what would make one of America’s most awarded cheese companies stop production of a cheese that debuted four years ago to great acclaim and that the New York Times described as “fluent and satiny, with a rich, slightly grassy aroma and a mild flavor that hints of smoke and pork.”?

Let us count the ways:

1. The FDA is currently reviewing the 60-day aging rule it imposed in 1949 on American cheesemakers making raw milk cheeses, with many academics speculating the rule will be increased to 90 or 120 aging days within the next year. For an excellent recap and history of how the current 60-day raw milk cheese rule came into being, check out this article by Bill Marler. Remember, Rush Creek Reserve is a raw milk cheese aged 60 days. It is patterned on the magnificent Vacherin Mont d’Or, of which I consumed an entire wheel at one sitting while in London on April 4. No regrets.

2. The newest focus of FDA food safety officials appears to be enforcement of non-toxigenic E.Coli levels in raw milk cheese. Unbeknownst to almost anyone in the industry, in 2010, the FDA changed the standard (see top of page 7) for non-toxigenic, E.Coli in raw milk from  less than 10,000 to  less than 10 MPN per gram. This happened even after the FDA’s own policy review team (see top of page 7) in 2009 suggested lowering it to only “100 MPN per gram in two or more subsamples or greater than 1,000 MPN per gram in one or more subsamples.” The FDA has begun to enforce this new policy by purchasing raw milk cheeses from distributors, testing them for pathogens, and then showing up at cheese factories for a 3-day investigative inspection. Every cheesemaker I talked to says it is virtually impossible to consistently produce a raw milk cheese with less than 10 parts of non-toxigenic E. Coli per gram. Goodbye, raw milk cheese.

3. Aging cheese on wooden boards may or may not be a dead issue. Two months ago, after a mid-level FDA bureaucrat declared the agency would no longer permit American cheeses to be aged on wooden boards, the entire U.S. cheese eating population erupted in an uproar that made the FDA back down just three days later. In Wisconsin alone, 33 million pounds of cheese are aged on wooden boards, including Rush Creek Reserve.

So to recap, between raw-milk aging rules, new pathogen policies, and the threat of whether the FDA is really backing down on the use of wooden boards, one of America’s great cheeses is no more. The death of Rush Creek Reserve should act as the canary in the coal mine for all American raw milk artisan cheeses, because just as our great American artisan cheese movement is in serious full swing, the FDA has basically declared a war on raw milk cheese.

P.S. Mind you, of course, the FDA pubicly insists they have nothing against raw milk cheese. At the American Cheese Society conference in Sacramento in July, a total of seven – yes seven – officials from the FDA politely attended a public luncheon after meeting privately with the ACS board of directors. Their fearless leader, Mike Taylor, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine, spoke to us industry professionals for 45 minutes at the luncheon. What he said can best be summed up with his opening words: “We are from the government and we’re here to help you.”

cheeseunderground cheese, jeff mattes, Saxon Creamery, washed rind, Wisconsin cheese

Saxon Creamery Reinvents Green Fields Into True Monastery-Style Cheese

I have a soft spot for monastery-style cheeses. Their pungent aromas and savory, meaty flavors are dangerously addictive to this farm girl raised on meat and potatoes.

One of my all time favorites is Oka, originally manufactured by the Trappist monks in Oka, Quebec, Canada, and now owned by Agropur (but still aged 35 days in the original cellars of the Cistercian Abbey). At the American Cheese Society Festival of Cheese two weeks ago in Sacramento, I stood next to the Washed Rind table noshing on Oka so long that Keith Adams from Alemar Creamery in Minnesota told me I was going to get kicked out.

So you can imagine my extreme delight when Saxon Creamery in Cleveland, Wisconsin, retooled their Green Fields earlier this year into a true monastary-type cheese. First of all, don’t let the pinkish rind scare you. Those are just harmless pink yeast molds taking over, and you’re not going to eat the rind anyway. The paste is creamy, savory and surprisingly similar to Oka.

Green Fields has come a long way. For the past few years, it was merely a “meh” cheese, mild and spongy. But today, it actually fits its description  of a “Semi-Soft, Washed Rind, Aromatic Monastery Style Cheese.”

The cheese is aged twice as long as Oka, at about 70 days. The affinage process begins with surface ripening and hand washing of the cheese for the first five weeks. Its flavor development is enhanced as the cheese wheels rotate through two aging rooms.

Master Cheesemaker Jeff Mattes is doing an outstanding job of retooling all the Saxon cheeses, improving the quality of each and every one. In fact, three of their cheeses won ribbons at the 2014 ACS, and Saxony won its class just this past week at the Wisconsin State Fair. Congratulations to the Saxon team on remastering Green Fields – this one is a treasure to savor.

cheeseunderground american cheese society, artisan cheese, best in show, tarentaise, Wisconsin cheese

Vermont Wins Second Consecutive ACS Best in Show

Tarentaise Reserve. Photo by Cheese Chick Productions

California may have its cheesy flags and Wisconsin its stoic cheesemaking heritage, but Vermont proved this week at the American Cheese Society annual competition it indeed has the real deal artisan cheesemaking goods, backing up its perennial claim of being “the premium artisanal cheese state with the highest number of cheesemakers per capita.”

For the second year in a row, an artisan Vermont cheesemaker took Best in Show at the annual ACS conference, held this year in Sacramento, California. Tarentaise Reserve by Farms for City Kids  Foundation in Vermont, claimed the top prize, succeeding last year’s fabulous Best in Show, Winnimere, from the Cellars of Jasper Hill, Vermont.

Jeremy Stephenson, Cheese Program Director of Farms for City Kids Foundation, said of the Best of Show win: “The more I’m involved in this work, the more it becomes clear to me that what we’re doing is so much a part of agriculture and working to develop a new sustainable food system. We’re a small part of that.”

He continued: “When we do this work we have to remember we’re part of something much bigger than an individual or individual farm, we’re a part of a community. The people that buy our cheese are supporting something very important for the future.”

The future of American cheese is indeed very strong, based on the quality and quantity of winning cheeses. At the ceremony, Wisconsin, as expected, cleaned house with the sheer number of winning cheeses, earning 97 first, second and third place ribbons, more than twice the number of California and three times that of Vermont.

Bob Wills of Cedar Grove Cheese and
Clock Shadow Creamery in Wisconsin.

In fact, several Wisconsin cheesemakers became weighted down with multiple awards by the end of the night – including Brenda Jensen of Hidden Springs Creamery in Westby. Brenda, a farmstead sheep’s milk cheesemaker, claimed nine awards – one for virtually every cheese entered. She was topped only by Carr Valley Cheese of LaValle, which won 10 awards.

And Wisconsin icons BelGioioso and Klondike Cheese both earned seven awards apiece, while Clock Shadow Creamery and Cedar Grove Cheese, both owned by Master Cheesemaker Bob Wills, earned 6 ribbons total, including a first-place award for Quark. Holland’s Family Farm earned five awards, as did my hometown cheese plants: Montchevre-Betin and Lactalis, both in tiny Belmont, Wisconsin, population 986. Woot-woot – go Braves!

Unlike last year, however, Wisconsin was shut out of the top three. While Vermont won the whole deal, runner-up Best in Show went to Pt Reyes Farmstead Creamery for their new Bay Blue. The entire Giacomini clan was on hand, most of them in tears, and led by patriarch Bob Giacomini to accept the award. Tying for third place runner-up Best in Show were Aged Gouda from Oakdale Cheese & Specialties in California and a cheese called Eden from Sprout Creek Farm in New York.

Overall, cow’s milk cheeses dominated the contest with 194 winners. A total of 67 goat’s milk cheeses won ribbons, 40 sheep’s milk cheeses claimed awards, and 21 mixed-milk cheeses were in the winner’s circle.

The 2014 ACS Judging & Competition saw 1,685 entries of cheeses and cultured dairy products from 248 companies. Entering companies represented 39 U.S. states, 4 Canadian provinces, and even the country of Colombia – with Annabella Creamery, Inc. taking a blue ribbon. In all, 325 ribbons were awarded: 89 first place ribbons, 109 second place ribbons, and 127 third place ribbons.

For a printable list of this year’s winners, click here and then navigate to the link that downloads an Excel spreadsheet with all the info. Congratulations to all the winners!