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September 13, 2017October 4, 2017 Jeanne Carpenter carr valley, Uncategorized

50 Years Over the Vat: Master Cheesemaker Sid Cook

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Listen to the podcast with Sid Cook, learn about the new American Originals he’s cooking up, and hear from a few of his industry colleagues about the difference Sid has made in American artisan cheese on Cheese Underground Radio:

Subscribe to future episodes by searching for Cheese Underground in your podcast app!

A bit of the backstory:

In just a couple of months, Sid Cook, owner of Carr Valley Cheese in Wisconsin, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of earning his Wisconsin cheesemaker’s license. You might think that because he’s spent a lifetime over a cheese vat, he might be ready to retire. But you’d be wrong.

When I sat down with Sid last week to talk cheese and mentioned that he was coming up on a half century of cheesemaking, at first he didn’t believe me. He took a second to do the math. And before he concluded that I was right, he revealed he’d actually been making cheese for several years with his dad before he ever got his license. “I was making my own vats when I was 12 years old,” Sid says. “I always really enjoyed being in the factory, and back then, you opened the kitchen door, and the vats were there.”

Here’s the thing about Sid Cook: he never stops working long enough to think about how long he’s been working. He may get a little good-natured teasing from his peers for no longer being in the cheese room every day, but that’s because his time is now more valuable thinking about what new cheeses to make. And just to be clear, he’s already made enough cheese in his lifetime for two or three people.

Before he became a professional cheesemaker, Sid earned a degree in political science and considered going to law school. But when he realized that meant he’d be sitting at a desk for a good part of the day, making cheese started to sound better. So after college, he worked for his dad for a year, and then prepared to purchase the business. After that, he made cheese seven days a week at two different cheese factories.

“I made cheese at the factory in Mauston, and once the cheese was in the forms or in the pre-press, then I would do down to the LaValle factory and make cheese there, too,” Sid said. “Then I’d do accounts receivable and accounts payable. I’d take a little nap under my desk until the phone rang, and then I’d wake up, finish up, and start over the next day. I did that from 1975 to 2003.”

Sid has made 40 or 50 different kinds of cheese and has developed recipes for dozens of American originals. Many of them are made from mixed milks – cow, sheep and goat. “You can make a different spaghetti sauce every day,” he said. “It’s the same way with cheese. You can develop a recipe, make that type of cheese, and then take it in the direction you want it to go through affinage and what temperatures you’re curing it at.” He says making cheese is like a working on a blank slate: anything is possible.

He’s been working on a new cheese for two or three years that will debut later this year: Fontina de Provence – it’s Fontina coated with Herbs de Provence. “We’ve sold it experimentally for a little while out of our retail stores, and it’s been selling well, so we’re going to roll it out,” he says.

Also new: Carr Valley Cheese Stix, the debut of artisan cheese single-serving snack packages. They’re available in Cranberry Chipotle Cheddar, Goat Cheddar, Native Sheep Cheddar, Smoked Cheddar, as well as long, slender sticks of Carr Valley Bread Cheese that are unbelievably warm and squeaky once you microwave them in the package for 10 seconds. He’s also preparing to roll out specialty butters with sheep cream, goat cream, cow cream, and a mix of the three that will be packaged in colored foils in quarter-pound three-inch squares.

“I don’t like to do things that other people are doing,” he says.

Over the years, while he was busy making cheese, he was also concentrating on building a business dynasty. Today, he owns and oversees four cheese factories, eight retail stores and a large mail-order business, in addition to a robust wholesale and foodservice distribution line.

It’s a dramatically different business model than his parents and grandparents operated under. As cheesemakers, they crafted 60-pound commodity cheese blocks and sold them green, or not aged, to a large distributor. They’d deliver the cheese on Friday and have a check by Tuesday. In this day and age, Sid Cook is a cheesemaker, a cheese ager, a distributor, a packager and a retailer. He sometimes waits 10 years to get paid for his aged cheddar. I asked him what he thought the generations of cheesemakers who came before him in his family might think of where he’s taken the company.

“My dad was very proud. When people would ask him about me getting into the cheese business, he’d say, ‘He just doesn’t know any better.’ And he always said it with a big smile. My parents made cheese their whole lives. I think they were just thrilled someone was doing what they had done.”

While Sid does not have an obvious heir apparent to take over Carr Valley Cheese, he doesn’t plan on retiring anytime soon. He and his wife, Lisa, have talked through several scenarios where he stays involved in the business but perhaps brings in a full-time day-to-day CEO and board of directors. In the meantime, when newer folks to the industry come to Sid for advice, he’s honest to the point of being downright blunt. He wants to make sure people know how much work there really is in making and selling cheese. And most people respect that.

One person who has always respected Sid is George Crave, owner of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese in Waterloo, Wisconsin. “I was just dreaming about making cheese, and Debbie, my wife, and I went into the Center for Dairy Research to discuss the possibilities and research cheese,” George said. “We met Sid there – he was no doubt qualifying for another master’s certificate. We explained what we were thinking about doing: making cheese on our own farm, from our own milk, and Sid was very congenial and wished us luck, saying it would take us a few years, but if we were serious, he wished us nothing but well. Realizing all of his accomplishments, he could have said: ‘Go home, keep milking your cows and leave cheesemaking to the masters.’ But he didn’t, and I’ve always remembered that.”

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Today’s Cheese Underground Radio is sponsored by Dairy Connection Incorporated, supplier of cultures, enzymes, cheesemaking supplies and trusted expertise since 1999. A family-owned business based in Madison, Wisconsin, the dedicated Dairy Connection team takes pride in its commitment to be the premier supplier to artisan, specialty and farmstead cheesemakers nationwide. To learn more, visit dairyconnection.com.

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September 6, 2017October 4, 2017 Jeanne Carpenter hook's cheese, Uncategorized

Setting Up Cheese in the Dark: Hook’s Cheese

Listen to a podcast with Tony Hook, his sister, Julie, and what it takes to sell cheese at the largest producer-only farmer’s market in America on Cheese Underground Radio:

Subscribe to future episodes by searching for Cheese Underground in your podcast app!

A bit of the backstory:

A few weeks ago, I called cheesemaker Tony Hook in Mineral Point with the idea of doing a story on what it was like to sell cheese at the largest producer-only farmer’s market in the nation. Every Saturday morning from April to November, about 170 stands pop up on the capital square in Madison, Wisconsin. All of the items for sale are grown, raised, and produced by the person behind each table.

Tony told me he usually arrives by 4:45 a.m., so I told him I’d see him there. I’m not entirely sure he believed me, so as he navigated the orange construction barrels on Pinckney Street in his Chevy Tahoe and trailer at 4:40 am, he shook his head in disbelief as I greeted him at the curb.

“Well, you told me you’d be here early, but I didn’t think you meant this early,” he said. As I helped him unload the trailer in the pitch dark under the light of a street lamp, it occurred to me how very quiet a city can be before dawn. Hell, even the swarms of squirrels that usually dot the capital grounds looking for leftovers weren’t even up yet. And to think, in just a couple of hours, the market would be so crowded that customers three-deep would be vying to buy cheddar, blue and American original cheeses from the Hook’s Cheese team.

Tony and his wife, Julie Hook, have been selling their cheeses at the Dane County Farmer’s Market since 1994, and they have it down to a science. Tony is generally in charge of setting up the booth, and Julie is in charge of prep work – cubing cheeses, setting up everything on the tables, and making sure toothpicks are in the right spot.

But this week, Julie is missing, because she’s getting a new knee in a few weeks, and standing on the cement aggravates the pain. So, Tony is happy to see another family member arrive – someone who actually knows what she’s doing (unlike me) – and that’s his sister, also named Julie. When he’s talking about his wife and sister, he keeps his Julies straight this way: Julie Ann is his wife, and Julie Marie is his sister. Because they all work together in the same cheese plant, middle names are key when calling for a Julie.

Now that Julie Marie is here, the set-up really begins to click along. We unload the Tahoe, which is filled to the absolute brim with more than a dozen giant square blue coolers, filled with dozens of varieties of cheeses, and each cooler is meticulously labeled with the contents. I get tasked with emptying little cubes of cheese from plastic baggies into individual sample containers, so that in another hour, customers can try each cheese before they buy it.

Before long, we look at our watches and it’s already 6 a.m. The market officially opens at 6:15 a.m., so we snag Tony for a few minutes to talk cheese before the crowds descend, and Julie Marie promises to hold down the fort.

I ask Tony why he’s been selling cheese at the Dane County Farmer’s market (which celebrates its 45th year this summer), since the early 1990s. “This is the best market in the country,” he says. “About 6 percent of our overall sales comes from this market. We’re selling cheese in 37 states, and we attribute an awful lot of our artisan cheese growth to this market.”

Up until about 2001, the Hooks were making big vats of commodity cheeses – Cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack – and selling that cheese to “the big guys”, who then sold it under a third-party label. “In 2001, we cut back on making cheese, and said: ‘Alright, everything’s going to go under our label. It’s going to have Hook’s on it, no matter where it goes,’” Tony said. “That’s when we started dealing with small specialty retailers, grocery stores and distributors that were willing to pay a little bit better. We attribute a lot of getting our name out there to the chefs buying our cheese here at the market.”

Back in 1994, the Hooks sold at 10 different varieties of cheese. In 1997, they started making blue cheese. Today, they make 70 different varieties of cheese, including dozens of different ages of Cheddar and Swiss. They also specialize in making mixed milk cheeses, and are making more sheep and goat’s milk cheeses every year. They purchase their sheep and goat milk each from one farm, while all the cow’s milk cheeses come from three small farms, the largest of which milks 50 cows. These are the same three farms that have shipped milk to the Hooks since they started making cheese in Mineral Point in 1976. “We’re trying to keep the little guys in business,” Tony says.

We walk with Tony back to his cheese stand, and by now, it’s already starting to get busy. People in this town love their Saturday morning farmer’s market, and many come early to get the best selection. We walk past stands of apples, popcorn, organic vegetables and beautiful bouquets of flowers.

Once we’re back at the Hook’s booth, it doesn’t take long for customers to start sampling and buying cheese. One customer wants to know the difference between different ages of cheddars, and Tony does a remarkable job of explaining in detail how acid plays a huge part in the flavor of cheese. His cheddars aged 2, 3, 5, and 6 years will be more acidic, while the cheddars aged 10 and 12 years are much smoother, sweeter and full of calcium lactate crystals. The customer purchases the 10-year cheddar. By the way, that’s the same age cheddar Tony says he keeps in his fridge. Every day.

By this time, I am in serious need of coffee, so we say our goodbyes to Tony and Julie and head across the street for caffeine. And this being Wisconsin, there is of course a guy standing on the corner of the farmer’s market, playing an accordion for tips. We put a dollar in his bucket and walk away, humming “On Wisconsin.”

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July 26, 2017October 4, 2017 Jeanne Carpenter Roelli Cheese, Uncategorized

Candied Cheddar at Roelli Cheese

Listen to an interview with Master Cheesemaker Chris Roelli and Dr. Mark Johnson from the Center for Dairy Research on Cheese Underground Radio:

Subscribe to future episodes by searching for Cheese Underground in your podcast app!

A bit of the backstory:

Cheddar cheese – Wisconsin’s claim to fame. Nearly half of all cheese plants in America’s Dairyland produce cheddar, whether it’s in huge, 640-pound commodity blocks destined to be cut up and sold in big box grocery stores, or in smaller – but still heavy – 40-pound blocks meant to be aged and sold in specialty shops. Some cheesemakers even craft cheddar in 22-pound waxed daisy wheels, or in smaller, 18-pound wheels wrapped in linen and then covered in lard and aged in a cellar for a year or more. So much cheddar, so many choices.

Wisconsin crafts more than 600 million pounds of cheddar every year in every shape and size. And perhaps nobody has a deeper connection to cheddar than the Roelli family. Their historic cheese plant sits at the corner of Highways 11 and 23, halfway between Darlington and Shullsburg in the southwest corner of the state. In 2006, the 4th generation of the Roellis – that would be Chris – brought the family cheese plant back to life, focusing not on commodity cheddar but on small batch artisan cheese.

His latest creation is what he calls a candied cheddar – a 20-pound wheel of deep red cheddar chock full of crystals and a sweet, lovely finish. I stopped at Roelli Cheese last week to get a glimpse at this new creation and talk cheddar with Master Cheesemaker Chris Roelli.

Master Cheesemaker Chris Roelli almost always knew he wanted to make cheese. Growing up in a cheesemaking family sealed the deal. But what he always enjoyed was tweaking cheesemaking recipes to make them his own. While his father and grandfather made 40-pound and 60-pound blocks of Wisconsin State Brand cheddar, Chris decided to take a different approach.

“We’re making 20-pound wheels of artisan-style cheddar, meaning it’s cellar-aged as opposed to vacuum-sealed and cold aged,” Chris says. His “toolbox” of starter and adjunct cultures is much broader than what was available to his grandfather, and he says when you combine good milk with a wider spectrum of cultures, you tend to get a wider spectrum of flavor. “Then, when you put that cheese into a cellar-curing environment, you get a very different cheddar. It’s almost an old-style, hand-cheddared cheese with a few different cultures that it gives it a candied note: sweet, earthy and nutty.”

To learn how exactly more American cheesemakers are making what Chris Roelli calls “Candied Cheddar”, we turned to the foremost expert on Wisconsin cheese. Dr. Mark Johnson is a distinguished scientist at the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He describes himself as a “trouble-shooter” – helping cheesemakers solve problems and answer questions that seem to stump most everyone else.

Dr. Johnson is exceptionally familiar with the adjunct cultures being used to create American “sweet cheddars.” That’s because he first started researching a new strain of adjunct cultures 40 years ago. He talked a culture house in France to send some to the Center for Dairy Research. The cultures made cheese develop tyrosine crystals faster and gave cheese a sweeter, toasted pineapple note. The first cheese to showcase these cultures was Babcock Hall’s Dutch Kase. Today, it’s being used by several cheesemakers across the country.

So what exactly is a starter culture? Dr. Johnson explains it well:

“A starter culture is a specialized bacteria that is specific for the fermentation of lactose – which is the sugar in milk. It rapidly creates lactic acid. That’s what gives cheese its flavor, but it also makes cheese have a certain body – the more acid you develop, the softer the cheese will become. The acid formed dissolves the calcium in the protein, and that makes the cheese hard and firm. So when you remove calcium, it makes cheese softer, melts it easier, stretch better,” Dr. Johnson says.

So how does a starter culture differ from an adjunct culture? Dr. Johnson says “adjuncts” are strains of bacteria that are added in addition to the starter culture to create special flavors in cheese. They break down the proteins, and that’s where flavor comes. Scientists can even isolate certain bacteria that will make a certain flavor in cheese.

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Love cheese more. This episode of Cheese Underground Radio is sponsored by Fromagination, Madison’s premier cheese shop, located in the heart of America’s Dairyland, right on the capital square. Fromagination’s team of expert cheesemongers help you select the perfect cheeses and companions for every occasion. Shop online at fromagination.com, or better yet, visit and taste the cheeses that make Wisconsin famous. Fromagination. Love cheese more.