Cheese by the Numbers

February 18, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com

The numbers are in and they’re not pretty. Wisconsin lost a record number of dairy farms last year. More than 800 farms folded. More than 2,700 have called it quits in the past five years.

How does this happen when artisan cheese consumption is booming? And what does it mean for all those amazing Wisconsin cheeses we love? For insights, I turned to a couple of Wisconsin’s most respected cheesemakers: Andy Hatch of Uplands Cheese Company, a farmstead producer of Pleasant Ridge Reserve and Rush Creek Reserve; and Bob Wills of Cedar Grove Cheese, who buys milk from more than 30 Wisconsin farms. This post is longer than usual, but these gentlemen had a lot to say and we need to hear it.

Right Place, Right Time

February 4, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com

If a truffled triple-cream cheese sounds like the right thing for Valentine’s Day, keep reading. I’m going to help you make one. Whether you use fresh black truffle (best) or truffle paste (second best), the result will make you a hero. The cheese pictured here was an impromptu gift from Ken Frank, chef-owner of La Toque in Napa—talk about being in the right place at the right time—and later the chef shared a video of how he made it.

Adieu to a Bread Diva

January 28, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com

Cheese without bread? Mon dieu. I still remember when I forgot to bring the baguettes to a cheese tasting and got reprimanded by an irritated Frenchman. I’ll never do that again. Sturdy, chewy bread is maybe the only thing I love as much as cheese (well, wine is up there), and Della Fattoria loaves are a gold standard for me. Last week, we lost Della Fattoria founder Kathleen Weber—too quickly, too soon.

Black Magic

January 7, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com

I was hanging out in the Cakebread Cellars kitchen in Napa Valley not long ago, watching chef Tom Sixsmith assemble cheese plates for visitors. What caught my eye was the accompaniment he was putting on each plate, slices of a dried fruit and pistachio paste that looked delicious. And it was. I hadn’t seen the paste in stores because Tom makes it himself. He calls it dried fruit “salami,” for obvious reasons, and it takes all of five minutes to make. It’s a good keeper, so you can make a lot and use it to dress up your cheese boards all winter long.

New Look for Baked Goat Cheese

December 10, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com

Forty years ago next spring, Chez Panisse Café opened in Berkeley and introduced Americans to the baked goat cheese salad. The café’s menu changes daily, but that dish is still on it, a testament to its enduring popularity. As a cook there in the early days, I made a few million of those salads. I still love the combination of quivery cheese and crunchy breadcrumbs.

Ever So Grateful

November 26, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com

As we head into the holiday season, I want to express my gratitude for my readers, my students, my cheese community and all those who make, sell and appreciate great cheese. Despite threats from regulation and industrialization, I think we cheese lovers live in a Golden Age. We have so many choices—a burgeoning American cheese scene and a bonanza of imports—but we have to choose quality or traditional methods won’t survive. Tomorrow, before my guests and I sit down to the turkey, I’ll offer thanks for my family, my friends, my health. But just between us, here are a few other things I’m grateful for:

Cheddar’s Best Friend

November 19, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com

After the turkey: Cranberry-pear chutney with Cheddar — **After the turkey:** Cranberry-pear chutney with Cheddar

I’ve been making cranberry-pear chutney for Thanksgiving for more than 20 years. I love my recipe, but it produces a lot. It calls for the whole bag of cranberries (may as well), plus pears, raisins, fresh ginger, walnuts. We eat it all weekend with leftover turkey, but it’s also terrific with cheese. Cheddar, Gouda, aged sheep cheese. If you’re a guest for Thanksgiving, bring this chutney with you and I bet you’ll be asked back.

After the Recall

November 12, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com

his past summer, Consider Bardwell’s Goatlet catapulted to glory. For the third time in three years, it placed first in its category at the prestigious American Cheese Society judging. Four months later, the Vermont farm has ceased cheesemaking and its future is in doubt. A positive Listeria test in late September, every cheesemaker’s nightmare, led to a voluntary recall that could doom this 18-year-old enterprise. I didn’t really think co-owner Angela Miller would want to talk about this painful episode, but she surprised me. “I would very much like to help others by telling our story,” she said in an e-mail.

Cheese Under Fire

November 5, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com

America’s artisan cheesemakers have fought several David-versus-Goliath battles with the FDA in recent years. The agency has threatened to ban aging on wooden shelves, to outlaw ash in cheese (that pretty gray ripple in Humboldt Fog) and to implement unattainable standards for raw-milk cheese. The FDA is supposed to protect public health, but there’s little science to support these proposals.

100-Point Cheese

October 29, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com

Perfection. You can’t do better than that. For Rogue Creamery’s Rogue River Blue, the perfect score rocketed it to the top of the World Cheese Awards in Bergamo, Italy, earlier this month. A grape leaf-wrapped cow’s milk wheel from Oregon, this luscious blue is now the 2019 World Champion Cheese, the first time a U.S. cheese has earned that honor. Created less than 20 years ago, it vanquished international cheeses with decades of history. Ironically, the winning wheel was not the one that Rogue president David Gremmels intended to enter.