Making and marketing cheese (“milk’s leap for immortality,” as the late Clifton Fadiman put it) on a small scale attracts a remarkably diverse group of people. City-dwellers and farmers, scientists and chefs, septuagenarians and at least one sub-teen, were among several hundred attendees–nearly half of them female–at the annual conference of the American Cheese Society here earlier this month.
Passionate about their products, these are the producers, distributors and retailers who make up the craft (in contrast to Kraft) segment of the domestic cheese industry.
Their diversity was underscored by the reasons new members gave for joining the 15-year-old organization.
Laura Werlin of San Francisco is writing a book on U.S. artisanal cheesemakers. “I think consumers are confused and intrigued about these cheeses,” she said. “I want to demystify them and also show how to cook with them.”
David Eaglesham of Toronto is making a career change. A chef who wants out of the kitchen, he feels cheesemaking “would not be a huge leap. It’s a niche that hasn’t been filled in Canada and I could continue to be creative. I’m here to network, to try to get an apprenticeship.”
Monica Siems and her partner, David Hagen, are hoping to build a business with the Wisconsin dairy sheep his family owns. She has taken classes on cheesemaking, and the couple plans to explore this opportunity for a couple of years before going into it full time.
Jackie Faillance of Warren, Vt., at age 11 the youngest ACS cheesemaker, is in charge of making cheese from the milk her older sister, Heather, obtains from the family’s flock of imported Belgian sheep.
A cheesemaker spent time with the family in 1996 and taught Jackie and her mother, Linda, how to make 14 different cheeses. They have added another six to the repertory.
Jackie, who started baking at age 7, finds cheesemaking “a form of cooking. There’s no really hard part to it. It’s just fun.” She likes the taste of sheeps’ milk cheese, but draws the line at “smelly blue and washed rind” cheeses. Calm and confident, she surely is the only child in her class who can discuss pecorino Romano and Brind Amour. As for the sheep, “They’re very friendly. They like lots of attention.”
Jackie did not enter the annual cheese judging this year, but she plans to do so next year.
As for the Society itself, although the annual report didn’t inspire high-fives all around, there were many more smiles than frowns. Speakers at some of the conference seminars pointed to healthy sales, a wider variety of products, and heightened consumer awareness of cheeses made on a small scale, often by antique European methods.
Customers “are not as clueless as they used to be,” said one speaker. “They are buying on taste and knowledge.”
They did so at a rate that pushed specialty cheese sales up by 9.6 percent last year, according to an A.C. Nielsen report (contrasted to an overall cheese industry growth of only 2.6 percent). Especially encouraging was the success of cheese presentations in restaurants. Daphne Zepos, cheese buyer at the Campton Place Hotel in San Francisco, reported that sales had risen from seven or eight cheese plates a night to 40.
“It’s an indulgence,” said Zepos, which pointed the way to another trend that pleases the cheesemakers.
“The anti-fat era is over,” declared retailer Ari Weinzweig of Zingerman’s Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Mich. Nutritionist Pat Baird said consumers are weighing the calories in cheese against its nutritional pluses, such as the potential value of its calcium content in warding off osteoporosis.
As for variety, Bill Schlinsog, chief judge at the Wisconsin State Fair competition and a member of the tasting panel for an ACS competition held concurrently with the conference, observed, “Judging is so much more interesting today because there is so much more variety, so many more categories. I remember when there were only a dozen.”
This year the Cheese Society competition’s 500 cheeses were divided among 26 categories including American originals, low fat and low salt, farmhouse and cheese marinated in oil.
Still, despite America’s progress with goat and sheep cheeses and distinctive cows’ milk cheeses ranging from Cheddar to aged gouda, there is room for improvement. “About half the cheeses were terrific,” said a competition judge, “but others didn’t come close to the definition of the category.”
The need, as well, for additional merchandising effort and activism in the regulatory area, was expressed during conference seminars.
Allison Hooper, president of Vermont Butter & Cheese Co., recalled that “14 years ago we couldn’t sell goat cheese to anyone,” noted progress in cooperation with retailers, and called for the Society to continue to “raise awareness among consumers and help overcome a bias toward European cheeses.”
Karen Hollis, owner of the Brie & Bordeaux retail store in Seattle, also advocated more information for consumers.
Regulatory efforts were derided as ill-conceived and costly to the small farmer. The laissez-faire approach members favor is reflected in the comment of Indiana cheesemaker Judith Schad that “pride in product is the best regulator of them all.”
But the most intense emotions were reserved for the possibility of a ban on any cheese not made from pasteurized milk.
“If you used pasteurized milk to make our blue cheese, it would not be the same cheese,” stated Steve McKeon, president of Wisconsin producer Roth-Kase. He called for a task force to address the issue.
The Society did just that, producing a document that opposed mandatory pasteurization on creative and economic grounds and promised that leadership would work with other organizations to influence those “regulating world dairy policy.”
Pasteurization, heating milk for a short period of time to kill bacteria, is credited with curbing diseases ranging from typhoid fever to polio. Many scientists favor its use as a preventive measure. Pointing to “great cheeses historically made with unpasteurized milks” that are “healthy dairy products,” the Cheese Society argues for diversity of flavor.
“I see a specter of a (retail) cheese case where all the cheeses taste alike,” announced Judith Schad, to ringing applause.
The ACS has 387 members, 120 of them cheesemakers (estimated to be about a third of craft cheesemakers in the nation) and 95 retailers.
These are the winners in this year’s ACS competition:
Best of Show and Best of Sheeps’ Milk Cheese: Trade Lake Cedar by Mary Falk of Lovetree Farms, Grantsburg, Wis.
Best reserve: Jersey Blue by Karen Galayda of Blythedale Farms, Corinth, Vt.
Best of Cow: Gouda by Randy Krahenbuhl of Prima Kase, Monticello, Wis.
Best of Goat: Humboldt Fog by Mary Keehn of Cypress Grove Chevre, McKinleyville, Calif.
Cheeses such as these may be found at Whole Foods markets, Treasure Island, Sunset Foods, and specialty stores such as Foodstuffs, Cobey Foods and Catering, Marcey Street Market and Chalet.
A NIBBLING OF CHEESE FACTS
One popular seminar at the American Cheese Society conference was called “Cheese Fact, Fantasy or Fiction.” Also, a variety of tastings were conducted during the conference. Here are some “truths” that emerged.
– Nutritionist Patricia Baird reported that Americans consume 36 pounds of cheese per capita each year. Cheddar and mozzarella are the best sellers. She cited a survey in which cheese was voted “number one food craving,” topping chocolate and ice cream.
– A growth area in cheese sales is grated or shredded toppings of a blend of several different cheeses for pastas or vegetables.
– Tasters preferred fresh cheese wrapped in paper over the same cheese wrapped in plastic. Some contended plastic wrap inhibits flavor development and compromises quality. Others said it has little effect over a two-week period. The conclusion reached was that low moisture cheeses such as cheddar and Parmesan do better in plastic over time.
– In a tasting of processed Dutch gouda and handmade U.S. gouda, the American cheese was preferred.
– Challenging the precept that winter milk makes the best cheese, some cheesemakers said they preferred early spring cheese, while others likeD the cheeses of late autumn best. All agreed that summer produces the least appealing goats’ milk cheese.
– Several cheesemakers said that milk has become less available and more expensive due to a demand for butterfat (for use in treats such as butter and ice cream).
– Goats’ milk is becoming more popular and is now being sold for its flavor and not just for its status as a health food.
– A tasting showed goats’ milk can be indistinguishable in taste from cows’ milk.
