American Cheese ...

I watched a Kraft Cheese commercial on television last night touting themselves as THE American cheese. I knew a little about Kraft cheese, but thought I would look into the history a bit more.

Why?

Because that American entrepreneurial spirit and sense of discovery is resulting in American artisan cheesemakers creating incredible advances in the world of artisan cheese and claiming more competition prizes from other countries who have reigned superior for a very long time.

But back to Kraft American Cheese.

James Lewis Kraft, a Canadian born on a farm near Ontario in 1874, was the founding father of Kraft Cheese.

At age 18, he worked at Ferguson’s grocery in Fort Erie, and later invested in a cheese company in Buffalo.

While in Chicago, Illinois attending to the company branch there, he found his partners had eased him out of the partnership.

Although he found himself lacking funds and stranded in Chicago in 1903, he put his knowledge of merchandising to good use. He bought a horse and wagon, and went every day to the wholesale warehouse district where he bought cheeses wholesale and resold them to small stores.

Kraft proved his retailing determination and was so successful that several of his brothers joined his efforts and the cheese business was incorporated in 1909.

Kraft was driven to improve, or change, certain qualities in cheese to give it a longer shelf life and more uniform flavor. Until that time cheddar cheese, which was the favored cheese in the United States, either molded or dried quickly, so there was excessive waste. It also varied greatly in taste.

As a result of years of experimentation to give cheese longer lasting qualities, Kraft’s major contribution to the cheese industry in America was processed cheese. He experimented with mixtures of cheeses and found that if he heated and stirred the cheese and placed it in sterile containers, it would cool to a solid state and stay fresh longer. He was granted a patent for the “Process of Sterilizing Cheese and an Improved Product Produced by Such Process” in 1916.

Since then, Kraft has diversified into many industries and last night I saw the most recent example of that company’s claim as the American Cheese.

I bring this up because Kraft tried to eliminate the very aspects of cheese that artisan cheesemakers are offering to appreciative cheese consumers today. Where Kraft wanted conformity and consistency, there are cheese connoisseurs the world over who delight in the taste differences between a spring cheese and a winter cheese, who appreciate that the cows (or sheep or goats or buffalo) grazed on alpine slopes or limestone valleys or wherever in the world they grazed because it affects the taste of the milk and thereby the cheese. Artisan cheese aficionados tout the exquisite taste experience of a fresh cheese versus the developed flavors, complexities and textures of an aged cheese.

There’s room for all cheese in this big, wide world of ours! But in this big, wide world of ours, American artisan cheesemakers are starting to reign innovative and influential!

It’s been interesting to read how “American Cheese” has grown from a simple dairy craft to world authority.

Move over, Kraft!





www.kraft.com.au/Products/KRAFTHistory/
www.cookingdeliciousfood.com/kraft-cheese/

Blue ... my new favorite color ...

I’ll be the first to admit I’ve not extensive experience with the blue cheese category. I pre-supposed it would be too sharp, or I didn’t know what to make of the blue mold, or too elitist, or it was simply outside of my naïve and prior conservative artisan cheese experience. I mean, come on! My mom fixed mac-n-cheese with Velveeta and grilled cheese sandwiches on Wonder bread with pre-sliced American cheese. It has taken me awhile to overcome that programming and seek new cheese horizons!

But here I am! I bought four different blues a couple of days ago. One is Smokey Blue made by Rogue Creamery in Oregon, another is an English/Irish Stilton, the third is a Maytag Dairy Farm blue cheese from Newton, Iowa, and a Danablu or Danish Blue.

I’ll follow up on the other three, but I was so taken with the Rogue Smokey Blue that I couldn’t wait to tell you about it.

Rogue Creamery offered the first blue cheese—Oregon Blue—made on the West Coast. They make five blues: Crater Lake Blue, Oregon Blue Vein, Oregonzola, Rogue River Blue, and Smokey Blue, the latter was also the first blue ever smoked. Smokey Blue is handmade from 100% natural full cream sustainable milk from Bonanza View Dairy. The Creamery uses raw cow's milk (the cheese is aged 90 days or more), salt, enzymes, cultures and Penicillium roqueforti.

Then they cold smoke it for 16 hours over hazelnut shells from the Pacific Northwest. The smoking provides a delightful balance of blue sharpness with very slight caramel and hazelnut flavors, although I didn’t detect a specifically hazelnut presence. What I did detect was a very enjoyable cheese that was heavenly when I popped a crumble of it into my mouth, and it was much creamier than I expected.

Since this cheese was first presented to the public in 2004, it garnered honors, including 2005 Best New Product at the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade’s (NASFT) Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City. That was quite a coup since there were 1,200 new products introduced that year.

When I went to the Rogue Creamery website (see below), one of their recommendations was to crumble it onto grilled hamburgers.

What luck! Our CENTURY 21 Bay Properties office staff was having our annual summer BBQ and the timing was perfect for taking some of this cheese with me. No sooner was the sizzling hamburger off the grill and placed on a bun, then the crumbled Smokey Blue was spooned onto the meat and it started to soften. I also put a tomato slice and romaine lettuce on the other side of the meat patty and I took my first bite.

Yum! I mean … really … YUMIOSSO!!!!

Everyone who tried it raved! It had the sharpness of blue, but mellowed by the smoke process. It was a perfect taste match on the grilled burger.

I encourage you to go to their website to get more blue cheese recipes and to learn more about this American artisan cheese.

I learned that in 2002 David Gremmels and Cary Bryant—neither of whom had any prior cheese making experience—bought the creamery where artisan cheese had been hand crafted since 1935. Since their purchase, they have won dozens of medals and trophies, including having Rogue River Blue proclaimed as the overall best blue cheese in 2003, nudging aside blue cheeses from all over Europe.

I heartily recommend the Smokey Blue. You’ll not be disappointed!

The photograph used with this article was compliments of www.roguecreamery.com