LINKS: Best Cheese in Wisconsin, 2010

By Erica
The Wisconsin State Fair Butter and Cheese Contest was held last Friday with over 300 entries. The winner will be celebrated on August 5th at the Wisconsin State Fair's Blue Ribbon Cheese and Butter Auction.

From what I can tell, the winner's are not yet made public, but there's a list of "top entries" for each category on the Wisconsin Ag site. The cheeseries I recognize are Chalet Cheese Co-o (maker of the new Liederkrantz!) a top entry for both swiss and smeared ripe cheese, and The Crave Brothers (who made our cupcake cheese), which is top for open class- soft and spreadable cheese. Carr Valley, which supplies goat cheese for Madison Sourdough's cafe's, is at the top of sheep and mixed milk cheese.

Click here for the full list of top entries... whatever that means!

FACTS: Cheddar basics

By Erica

I like to think that I know a lot about cheese. We've been writing this blog for many months now, so I must have learned something. The other day, though, I was eating a fist sized chunk of cheddar cheese-- as I do--and I realized that I did not know what cheddar cheese was. I knew what it tasted like, but I did not know what made it that way. How embarrassing.

The essence of cheddar cheese comes from a process called, unsurprisingly, cheddaring. But before we get to that, a little history:

The first record of the existence of cheddar dates back to 1170 in England, although legend has it that the recipe was brought over from France by the Romans. It wasn't until 700 years later, though, that cheddar became the cheese that we know today.

Joseph Harding, "the father of cheddar cheese", or as I like to call him, the Gutenberg of Cheddar, standardized and sanitized the making of cheddar in the 1800s. He invented lots of equipment, including a machine that cut curds, that provided the cheese making processes with a defined structure.

(Side note: Wikipedia writes that "the 'Joseph Harding method' was the first modern system for cheddar production based upon scientific principles." I originally read that last phrase as "scientific method" and spent a while trying to figure out why cheese making would require an a priori hypothesis.)

Now we come to what makes cheddar cheddar. Cheddaring is when after being heated, the curds are kneaded with salt before the whey is drained. After this, the cheese can be shaped and aged for any amount of time (longer = sharper). Harding said cheddar is supposed to be firm, mellow, and with a hint of hazelnut. It is also often orange, but this comes from added coloring, usually from paprika oil and/or annatto, a natural red dye that comes from a scary tree pod (see picture below).



And there you have it. That's all I learned about cheddar.

...except for this fact that I couldn't fit in anywhere: For the 1964 World's Fair in New York, Wisconsin created a 34,951 pound hunk of cheddar cheese from the milk of 16,000 cows.

Sources:
-Just wikipedia. Sorry.

LINKS: Blue cheese-- but not on purpose!

By Erica


In Turin, Italy this past Monday, 70,000 balls of fresh mozzarella were confiscated by the police when the several merchants and consumers noticed that the cheese mysteriously turned blue after it was exposed to the air*. The Italian Agriculture Minister, Giancarlo Galan, called the development "disturbing" and ordered laboratory tests.

The manufacturer of the cheese is a German company called Milchwerke Jaeger. They insist that the bacteria is harmless and that it affected only about ten of the mozzarella balls that were exported to Italy. Apparently, the bacteria is commonly found in ground water and has been filtered out of Milchwerke Jaeger's system. There have been no illnesses reported.

If the bacteria is indeed harmless, maybe this is the beginning of a new trend-- blue mozzarella! It would make for an interesting pizza.

Sources:
-Walletpop.com
-NY daily news
-Winnipeg Free Press

*Snicker-worthy descriptor of the tainted balls avoided with much difficulty.

Happy Weekend!

Best hat ever?
(via Jezebel)

RECIPES: Cheesy baked pasta with tomatoes and mushrooms

By Erica

It's time for what you've all been waiting for-- another recipe from C:A J! I adapted this recipe from one I found on Epicurious.com. It was originally in Gourmet Magazine (R.I.P.) and called for Gorgonzola cheese along with the milder Fontina. My fridge, however, only contained some of Capri's Smokey Bear, a smoked muenster style cheese, and so I used that instead. Some of the measurements in what I typed up below are only approximate, so feel free to increase amounts of cheese, garlic, spices etc. to your liking.

This dressed up mac & cheese is great for when you're having company but don't have time to prepare the day of. I made the recipe up to the baking part (Step 6) the day before and refrigerated it over night. The next day, I just popped it in the oven for 25 minutes before serving. The crowd (Kara & C.) went wild!

INGREDIENTS:
1 onion, chopped into strips
1/2 pound crimini mushrooms, chopped
1 clove garlic
Chili oil
2 tablespoons of butter
1 heaping tablespoon of flour
1 cup milk
1 large or 2 medium tomatoes
parsley
1 1/4 cup of smoked cheese (such as Capri's Smokey Bear)
1/2 pound of elbow pasta
Fresh grated parmesan cheese
Butter for garnish


INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Sautee 1 onion in chili oil until the onion begins to soften. Add the mushrooms and garlic. Cook till soft (about 10 minutes). Transfer to a large bowl.

2. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the pan. Add 1 heaping tablespoon of flour and make into a roux (low to medium heat), whisking constantly. Add one cup of milk and whisk until thick (about 3 minutes).

3. Add to mushrooms and onions. Add chopped tomato, parsley, and cheese. Mix until blended.

4. Cook pasta for 5 minutes (should still be slightly undercooked). Add to cheese mixture. Salt and pepper to taste.

5. Put in a buttered casserole dish. ** Can make to here a day ahead and refrigerated. Bring to room temp before baking **

6. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and small butter chunks. Bake uncovered at 450 for 20-25 minutes or until top begins to brown.

NOTES:
-You can substitute olive oil for chili oil, but add chili pepper flakes when seasoning if you do this so that the spice is there. You can try using other types of cheeses, too.

-The picture above includes a light salad made with fresh lettuce, tomato, French Feta cheese (also from Capri), and homemade croutons. We dressed it with some fresh lemon juice and olive oil to taste. It made a perfect side dish.

TASTES: Feddost cheese

By Erica and Kara
We recently purchased a cheese from Nordic Creamery at the East Side Farmers' Market in Madison. Nordic Creamery makes goat and cow's milk cheeses, and they don't have a stand at Madison's Saturday market-- although the family-owned farm is located in Westby, Wisconsin, they cross the border into Illinois on the weekend to hock their goods at the Lincoln Park Farmers' Market in Chicago.

Background: We tried a Feddost cheese, which is a cow and goat milk cheese made with a "curd infusion" of cumin and cloves. Nordic Creamery says that Feddost is "a Norwegian flavor tradition with a sweet and spicy flavor."

Feddost won second place in the mixed milk category at the American Cheese Society competition in 2008.


The Taste: Feddost was a stretch for C:AJ - neither of us thought that we liked flavored cheeses, preferring instead flavors that arise from your basic milk, rennet, and bacteria. Feddost proved us (somewhat) wrong. We enjoyed how seamlessly the spices were incorporated into the cheese - the sweetness (clove) and savoriness (cumin) tasted and felt like they were organic to the creation of this cheese, rather than being added in at the last minute. (Perhaps this is the advantage to "curd infusions," which take place so early in the process.) Feddost has a pleasing texture: medium-soft and smooth, excellent for a hard cracker. Kara would suggest this as an interesting addition to an appetizer plate - funky, thoroughly approchable, yummy... at least for a few bites. Several pieces in (after the cameras stopped rolling), the flavor becomes a little tedious... It's a pretty simple flavor, albeit unusual. It wasn't our favorite cheese, by any means, but it's worth a taste. We'll be on the lookout for other "curd-infused" cheeses for comparison.

LINKS: Chicken Soup Cheese

By Kara

Breaking news from one of our cheese-advisors: Beechwood Cheese Co., based in Sheboygan County, WI, is currently selling chicken soup cheese.

"Uncle Charlie's Chicken Soup Cheese" is a variation on Monterey Jack, with a dash of chicken broth and a pinch of "celery blend." The cheese is currently going for $4.75/stick.

As far as I can tell, this is the only chicken soup cheese on the market...

... possibly for good reason? I'll refrain from passing judgment until I try a bite (sip?).

LINKS: Wisconsin is still #1!

By Erica


Wisconsin is still on top when it comes to cheese in the United States. The National Agriculture Statistics Service released new figures last week indicating that Wisconsin produced 2.65 billion pounds of cheese last year. This is more cheese than any other state.

We (after all these months living here, I think I can say "we" now) also made 477 million pounds of specialty cheese in 2009, a ten percent increase from the previous year. Looks like Cheese: A Journey is still in the right state!

Source: The Cap Times

Facts: Moose Cheese

By Kara

In Bjurholm, Sweden, about 8 hours north of Stockholm, live three female moose. They were domesticated as calves after being abandoned by their mother, and their names are Juna, Halga, and Gullan. Although I've never met them, they are currently my favorite moose in the world.

Why? Because Juna, Halga, and Gullan are cheesemakers! (Kudos also to the farmers behind the operation, Christer and Ulla Johansson. Check out the website for their farm, Elgens Hus, here - bring your Swedish dictionary.)

Moose only lactate 3-5 months out of the year, and these three ladies are the only cows milked at Elgens Hus. What's more, moose are notoriously finicky when it comes to being milked, and even small disturbances can cause temporary "dry-ups." A gentle and thorough milking can take up to 2 hours - at which point, the milker has only made about 1 gallon of progress toward the ultimate goal. This results in a very rare, and thus very expensive product: as of last summer, moose cheese from Elgens Hus was selling for about $420 per pound, and was only available in Sweden. Some claim that this is the most expensive cheese in the world, although other candidates (such as Serbian donkey's milk cheese) have also been proposed.

But it's not all hype: moose milk is high in butterfat, which would lead me to believe it could make a yummy (if gamey) cheese. Relative to cow's milk, moose milk is also higher in aluminum, iron, selenium, and zinc. In liquid form, it is served to Russian sanatorium residents in order to facilitate recovery from long-term illness. Who knows what it could do in the form of a cheddar?

Sources:

- TheStreet.com

- FreeRepublic.com

- Wikipedia.com: "Moose milk"

RECIPES: Frost your cupcakes with... cheese!?

By Kara and Erica

In simple terms, ganache is a frosting made of chocolate and dairy - usually cream or butter. We at C:AJ will never settle for the usual, at least not when it fails to include some sort of cheese. Luckily, we were pointed* towards the blog of a like-minded baker at the Cupcake Project, who recently published a recipe for chocolate-cheese ganache ("Chocolate Ganache with the Magic of Cheese"). Genius - or disgusting? We had to find out.

The verdict: genius. Creamy as can be, thick without being chewable, rich without precluding the possibility of seconds. Honestly, we couldn't taste the cheese... Dare us to try bleu next time?

See the end of the post for some pictures from our ganachings.

Here's the Cupcake Project's frosting recipe:

Cheesy Chocolate Ganache (Source: Cupcake Project):

Ingredients:

• 3 oz dark chocolate, loosely chopped (C:AJ used 1.5 oz baker's chocolate, 1.5 oz semisweet morsels)
• 2 oz soft cheese, cubed (C:AJ recommends "Les Freres" for a mild flavor
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 oz heavy whipping cream

(Note: C:AJ doubled this recipe to frost 6 cupcakes and 1 9" x 2" cake... we did not regret it.)

Recipe:

1. Melt the dark chocolate in a small saucepan on very low heat or in a double boiler (a double boiler reduces the risk of the chocolate burning). C:AJ would add that a fake double boiler - one small saucepan inside another, larger saucepan - does the trick.
2. Add the cheese and mix continuously until it is melted and integrated.
3. Mix in the sugar.
4. Remove from heat and quickly mix in the heavy whipping cream.
5. C:AJ suggests letting the ganache cool/settle for at least 15 minutes before frosting the cupcakes - sneaking a taste: totally permitted.

Frosting is obviously the most important part of any baked good, but just in case you're lacking something to frost, C:AJ recommends the following devil's food cake recipe for a base:

Devil's Food Cake (Source: David Lebovitz):

Ingredients:

• 9 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1½ cups cake flour (not self-rising)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1½ cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• ½ cup strong coffee (or water)
• ½ cup whole or low-fat milk

Recipe:

1. Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter two 9" x 2" cake pans and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper. (C:AJ went with 6 cupcakes and one 9" x 2" cake, and doubled the ganache recipe above.)
3. To make the cake layers, sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.
4. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, or by hand, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. (If using a standing electric mixer, stop the mixer as necessary to scrape down the sides to be sure everything is getting mixed in.)
5. Mix together the coffee and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, the add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients.
6. Divide the batter into the two prepared cake pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

We recommend actually letting everything cool before starting to frost. Yes, the wait was excruciating (we had to leave the kitchen), but the frosting experience was so perfect... no crumbs, and not a bit of ganache went to waste.

Et voila! A brief visual documentation of our cheesy ganache experience:

Slices of Les Freres, a soft cow's milk cheese produced by Crave Brothers, purchased from the Willy St. Co-op.

Grossest step: stir cheese into melted chocolate.

Yeah, still gross. Looks a little like a turd, but bear with us. It's worth it.

Things starting to come together... Note the glossy sheen!

Delicious. And, might we add, beautiful.

*Thanks to J.M. for the tip!

LINKS: Nothing can stop the cheese rollers!

By Erica

Earlier this month, we posted about the annual Cheese-Rolling Festival in Gloucestershire, England. We noted that the festival had to be canceled this year because the large number of spectators (15,000 in 2009!) made the event unsafe. Last year 18 people were injured, 10 of whom were just watching.

That didn't stop the cheese rollers, though! This year, 300 people participated in the unofficial event on Cooper's Hill, at which the police provided no medical support in an effort to dissuade participants and spectators from attending.

Chris Anderson a 22-year-old from Brockworth, was the champion for the seventh year in a row, The Telegraph reports. Congrats!

Check out a video of this year's even posted by the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/8714229.stm