Making Cheese in God's Country
April/May 2001
By Anne Vassal
A "back to basics " skill reborn.
RELATED CONTENT
Raw milk and your health. ...
Recipes for low-fat, part-skim ricotta cheese and tangy yogurt cheese; including herbed ricotta spr...
Read on and learn why the goat is considered to be man's second best friend....
MOTHER reader Paul Niemi has also butchered a few goats in his day . . . and, while his methods clo...
Swiss cookbook settles debate over the authentic cheese fondue, offers many other recipes...
With a name that is German for "good cheese," Roth Kase is the largest cheesemaking facility in the United States to produce handmade cheeses. Of the 22 handcrafted varieties they make, Roth Kase is probably best known for their awardwinning, aged Grand Cru gruyere cheese, the only gruyere made in this country. A mountain cheese dating back to the 12th century, gruyere is cured slowly in cool, humid cellars where small, distinct eyes form in the cheese. As he led me to an imposing-looking copper vat, Steve McKeon, president and CEO, explained that copper is essential to the production their authentic gruyere, which, in 1995, won the Grand Master Award at the Wisconsin State Fair.
The starter culture -which is imported is from Switzerland, is added to the milk-filled copper vat. After curds have formed, they are cut with harps into tiny pieces and then heated gradually for one hour. Next, the curds and whey are pressed to remove air that would produce mechanical holes, like those that form in muenster cheese. The curd is then pressed into a single 1,200-pound mass, cut into 18-pound squares and transferred into stainless-steel wheel forms. From that point, the cheese goes through a series of additional steps, such as soaking in a brine tank for 24 hours, before heading to the curing rooms where the wheels sit on Swiss-imported red pine shelves to cure for at least 110 days, up to 19 months for the Grand Cru Surchoix gruyere.
My next stop in Green County was Monticello's Prima Kase (Swiss for "excellent cheese"), which is owned and operated by the Krahenbuhl family. They are the only U.S. producer of the 180-pound wheel Swiss. The folks at Prima Kase make their Swiss the traditional way - in large copper kettles. Despite the superiority of cheeses produced in this manner, the large copper kettles have fallen out of favor in the U.S. because they're labor-intensive and very heavy. As licensed cheesemaker Shelley Krahenbuhl told us, "We have a hard time keeping employees because they have to repeatedly turn over a 180-pound kettle [containing curds] by hand." But the Krahenbuhls remain committed to European quality and tradition. They may experience higher staff turnover than they'd like, but Prima Kase's methods have fetched them several awards for their outstanding cheese.
In search of goat cheese, which has been popular in Europe for centuries and is recommended as an alternative to cow's cheese for those with lactose intolerance, I headed over to Mt. Sterling, near the mighty Mississippi.
Page: 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Next >>
