Blue Heaven

American Blue Cheese

by Carole Kotkin

Legendary French cheese monger and author of Guide du Fromage, Pierre Androuët, once commented, “ cheese is the soul of the soil, the purest and most romantic link between humans and the earth.” But, by the 1970’s, the centuries-old American tradition of farmstead and artisan cheese making did not seem destined to survive because cheese production was largely concentrated in the hands of large regional and national corporations, which distributed their products through supermarkets. Today cheese production has shifted back to the past with small dairy farms and creameries springing up all over the country. And, they are finding a national audience for the first time. Within this category, American farmstead and artisan blue cheese is emerging as an exciting new trend. Farmstead refers to a cheese that is made exclusively from the milk of animals from the farm where the cheese is produced, while artisan means a cheese that is hand crafted. There are those who consider blue cheese food of the gods, while others dislike this cheese because of its distinctly acidic, farm-like smell and taste. American blue cheese makers are about to convert those nay-sayers with a range of small-batch blues that entice us with a broad spectrum of styles and flavors. According to Jeffrey Roberts, author of the Atlas of American Artisan Cheese, “Blue cheeses offer shades of difference in flavor and texture. They can be dry and crumbly or creamy and moist and their flavors range from mild, sweet and nutty to robustly salty and earthy.  The flavor of a good cheese, like a fine wine, will vary depending on the maker, the year, the region, the season and the aging period.”  Most blues get their veining from penicillium Roqueforti, a cultured mold derived from rye bread. Cheese makers can add the mold to the milk or sprinkle it on the curds as they’re transferred to their forms, but for the mold to spread vigorously, it needs oxygen. The young cheese is pierced with needles to create the passageways that allow air to enter and encourage mold formation. Then the mold fills the crevices  created by the needling. In many blue cheeses, you can still see the needle marks on the outside. Aging in caves at 50° F and 98 percent humidity further promotes the spread of the bacteria. Blue cheese, unlike most cheeses, has a ripening cycle, which allows for enjoyment at various stages. When young, or fresh, it is mildly herbal and tangy. As it ages, blue cheese develops character and complexity.  “There are approximately 50 artisan blue cheese producers in thirty states that make blue cheese. Most of them are found in New England and the Mid-Atlantic States, but there are producers in the South, Mid-West, California and the Pacific-Rim,” notes Roberts. “Although the USDA does not track blue cheese production, indications are that this is the moment for blue cheese. The trend is toward bigger and bolder flavors and this assertive variety is one of the hottest, a leader in the thriving American specialty cheese trend,” says Marilyn Wilkinson, director of national product communications for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.  Allison Hooper, who is president of the American Cheese Society, an artisan cheese association whose mission is to educate the public about American cheese, and co-founder of Vermont Butter and Cheese Company, agrees, “There are about 350-plus small, independent American cheese producers—known as Artisanal producers—compared to handful in the 1980’s, making at least 100 different varieties of cheese. Because of travel, restaurants and well-informed retailers, the American palate has really grown up. Eating a little bit of a great cheese is part of the growing quality-rather- than-quantity trend.”

While the European classics like Stilton, Gorgonzola and Roquefort are in no immediate danger from the competition, American artisan makers have clearly benefited from the increased appetite for cheeses from all over the world. Jeff Roberts explains,  “American artisan cheeses differ from those of the big producers in both subtle and obvious ways. The most important is that they are not produced on an assembly line. Every cheese gets individual attention, depending on variables affecting the milk, like weather or the location of the pasture (which is intentionally altered from time to time on each farm to avoid depletion of the fields). There are blues made from the milk of sheep, cows and goats; blues from raw milk and from pasteurized milk. Like cabernet grapes grown in different regions bring different flavors to wine, so to do cows raised in different parts of the country lend different flavors to cheese. It's not just the mold that gives the cheese its complex flavors. Cows grazing on grass off California's coast, for example, produce milk that might taste saltier than if it came from cows munching on organic grasses in Iowa.”

Maytag Dairy Farms in Newton, Iowa, produced the first blue cheese in the United States in 1941. E.H. Maytag, son of the appliance company founder started Maytag Dairy Farms in 1919, and by the 1930s the family had a prized herd of show cows. Myrna VerPloeg, President of Maytag Dairy Farm, says, “Fred Maytag, E.H.’s son,  was on the forefront of the food renaissance. He had tasted some of the finer blue cheeses of Europe and wanted to create an American version.”  In the early 1940s Fred approached Iowa State University for help in developing a blue cheese with his family's Holstein milk. As luck would have it, scientists at Iowa State had just developed a new process for making an American version of the world-famous Roquefort from pasteurized milk (instead of traditional sheep's milk). The Maytags struck a deal to use the university's patented process. “Then they "came home and designed the cheese plant and dug the caves by hand,” says Ver Ploeg. Maytag makes about 1 million pounds of cheese each year, and they do it the same way as when the plant opened: almost entirely by hand. Much of it is still aged in the two caves that Fred’s crew dug by hand, 110 feet into a hillside on the farm in 1941.  While the appliance maker is now publicly owned, the dairy farm remains very much a Maytag family business, where many employees have worked for decades. Fritz Maytag, Fred's grandson, chairman of the board of Maytag Dairy, and owner of York Creek Vineyards in Napa Valley’s Spring Mountain district, and proprietor of San Francisco's Anchor Steam Brewery and Anchor Distilling Company, says he likes his family's cheese best with 2000 York Creek Vineyards Napa Valley Port, a blend of Petite Sirah, Touriga, Tinto Cão, Tempranillo and Zinfandel. Instead of neutral spirits, the port is fortified with brandy made at the Anchor distillery. “Port has been paired with Stilton and Roquefort in Europe for a long time. In recent years the curious combination of honey and blue cheese has become popular. The honey flavors in my Port wine proves the point,” says Maytag.

Bob Giacomini of Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. set out in  2000 to make a Roquefort-style blue cheese from the Holstein cows he raises on the small family organic certified dairy farm he started in 1959 just west of Sonoma. Managing partner and Bob’s daughter, Karen Howard, says " I'm certain we couldn't make our cheese anywhere else. If we followed the exact same recipe 30 miles away, we would be making a totally different cheese." Specifically, she believes that because their cows graze on pasture land just 10 miles from the Pacific ocean the cool, salty, ocean air that rolls in every night over the farm contributes to reliable temperatures and an ideal humidity that promotes the desirable growth of a blue-veined mold that slowly ripens Original Point Reyes blue cheese. Karen remarks, "We did a lot of research to decide what kind of cheese we wanted to do. Everyone has their own niche, and we came to the realization that there weren't any good table farmstead blues being produced in the state." The flavor of milk changes with the seasons, depending upon what type of grasses the cattle are eating, and by using milk exclusively from their own herd, the Giacomini's are afforded the strictest possible quality control over the final product. They regularly win awards for their blue cheese. “We’ve made blue cheese lovers out of those reluctant to even taste it,” remarks Howard. The farm produces 500,000 pounds of cheese a year—enough to supply an impressive list of restaurants and retail stores around the country.

Paula Lambert, president of the Mozzarella Company and author of The Cheese Lover’s Cookbook and Guide, and Cheese Glorious Cheese, developed a deep appreciation of Italian fresh cheeses when she studied Italian art history in Perugia, Italy. Upon her return she discovered that none of her adored cheeses were available in Dallas, so she went back to Italy and learned how to make mozzarella and ricotta. She came home with enough skills to open the Mozzarella Company in 1982 in the Deep Ellum section of Dallas. "The timing way right. American regional cooking took off in 1984, and that’s when our cheeses took off, too," she says. "Our cheeses are based on classics, but like a lot of cheese being made in America today, they are unique to the United States. We are not copying; we are creating," she continues. One of her most distinctive cheeses is Deep Ellum Blue, a semi-soft cows milk cheese with a blue exterior. It does not have blue veins, just a blue-tinged exterior. Bathing the cheese in mold, rather than penetrating the interior with mold makes it dense and creamy. Lambert happily boasts,  “I made it up. Blue mold started to grow on one of my cheeses naturally and I started wiping it off with olive oil. And that’s how we make it today. Once Deep Ellum Blue is aged and a blue mold has developed on its exterior, the cheese is hand-rubbed with olive oil.” The robustly flavored, but not too sharp or salty cheese is named for the location of the Mozzarella Company. 

David Gremmels, a product designer for Harry & David Fruit Company, and Cary Bryant, a microbiologist, were looking for a blue cheese to feature at the wine bar they planned to open in Ashland, Oregon. A friend steered them to master cheese maker Ignazio Vella, who was known as “The Godfather of Artisan Cheese.” Vella was seeking a buyer for his Rogue River Valley Creamery, the first west coast producer of blue cheese, and a company his late father started in 1935. “He just said to us, ‘Well, if you want the cheese, you are going to have to buy the factory because I’m about to shut it down,’” relates Gremmels. “So we became owner/operators of a cheese factory with a handshake on July 1, 2002,” he continues. The wine bar has yet to open, but Gremmels and Bryant have built what is now known as the Rogue Creamery into one of the finest artisan cheese operations in the world. Rogue Creamery has introduced a flight of six hand-crafted artisan blue cheeses. Janet Fletcher, weekly cheese columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and author of The Cheese Course and Cheese & Wine (available at William Sonoma stores only) comments that, “American blue cheese makers are charting their own territory and giving their cheese a personal touch. For example, Rogue River Blue rounds are hand-wrapped in local Carpenter Hill Vineyard Syrah leaves and Troon Vineyard Zinfandel leaves that have been macerated in Brandy.” Rogue River Blue was winner of the London World Cheese Award for best blue cheese in 2003, the first time an American cheese had won this high honor. The Rogue Creamy has been certified as “sustainable” from the Food Alliance an organization that assures the purity of all ingredients from what the cows eat to the cheese. A certification Gremmels defines as “organic with heart.” In January 2007 The USDA issued the first health certificate for American raw milk cheese to be exported to the European Union to Rogue Creamery. They plan to begin exporting it to England and France next year. The cheese is aged in limestone caves dug in 1956 to emulate the ageing of Roquefort. Gremmels relates, “We give them a quarter turn and flip them daily, sort of like riddling Champagne bottles.” He continues,  “I love the fact that they pair remarkably with reds like Syrah and Claret (Bordeaux style blend) and even with dessert wines such as Moscato d’asti, sparklers like Proseco and even surprisingly, Chardonnay. “

Cheese columnist Janet Fletcher, whose husband Doug is winemaker at Rutherford Hills Winery, remarks, “With few exceptions I don’t like a dry red wine with blue cheese. I prefer an oxidized wine like sherry or Madiera. The viscosity and sugar in these wines, or in a botrytis wine, counter-act the salt and pungency in the cheese. And, I really like serving a sparkling wine because the blue cheese can handle the high acidity in the wine.”

Chefs and restaurants have helped drive this trend and have been influential in raising awareness about artisan cheeses. "There's so much going on with American blues in terms of flavors and textures. There are some that will knock your socks off," says Govind Armstrong, executive chef at Table 8 in Miami Beach and Los Angeles, and author of Small Bites, Big Nights. “ The creamy Danish style blues from Wisconsin wake you up. They have amazing characteristics unmatched by any other cheese.”  He adds,  “It’s a marvelous cheese to work with in the kitchen, figuring in to almost every course. As a component of a salad, it is addictive, especially with tangy endive, earthy red and golden beets and toasted walnuts with a honey-spiked red wine vinaigrette with chunks of a slightly tangy Black River Blue from Wisconsin. Or, pick your preference for a blue cheese and add a dollop to sliced steak and smashed potatoes.” As for the wine, “It’s a fantastic combination with wine because it can hold up to a rich red like a Syrah or even to a dessert wine,” he maintains. 

Many chefs, like Chef Bryan Voltaggio at Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington D.C., are seeking out local cheese makers, offering cheese courses, and including more specialty cheeses as ingredients in their food. Chef Voltaggio offers a menu of artisan American cheeses made from “raw” or unpasteurized milk. It is legal to sell domestically produced raw milk cheese as long as it is 60 days old. “We actively try to promote American cheese. Combinations like Bayley Hazen Blue from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont served with a ruby port glazed fig terrine with marcona almonds; and St. Pete’s Select Blue from Faribault Dairy in Minnesota paired with caramelized onion gourgere, puree of leeks and butternut squash, allow us to bring these cheeses to our diners attention. The cheese course forms a bridge from savory to sweet.” Sommelier, Nadine Brown, recommends a medium bodied dry red wine with hints of cherry with earthy spice notes such as a 2005 Chester Gap, Cabernet Franc, Front Royal, Virginia  to pair with Pete’s Select Blue; and for anyone who loves the sweet/salty combination, a 2005 Chester Gap, Cabernet Franc, Front Royal, Virginia to pair with the

Bayley Hazen Blue. “Both cheese and wine are a labor of love due to the amount of work that goes into making them, a beautiful artisan connection between the two, and these pairings are homage to the craftsmanship that went into making them,” Brown explains.

BIN 36 is a wine-centric restaurant in Chicago with fare designed to enhance the wine experience, so it's no surprise that artisanal cheeses play a prominent role on the menu. Executive chef/owner John Caputo, who formerly was a chef at Jordan Winery, has expanded the concept of “bar” food with a cheese bar. “It’s like a sushi bar for cheese,” he says. “I wanted to do something to liven things up and cheese is such a natural pairing with wine. "Cheese is where wine was 10, 15 years ago. People want to learn about different cheeses. With the proliferation of artisan cheese-makers, it was the time to do it,” he adds. Caputo helps guests seated around the bar make choices from the nearly 50 artisanal cheeses-- about half from American dairies and half from abroad-- in three temperature and humidity-controlled cases that are on view for customers, along with 50 wines by the glass. Rogue Creamery Rogue River, Maytag Blue, Buttermilk Blue, from Roth Kase in Monroe, Wisconsin, and Bayley Hazen Blue from Jasper Hills Farms in Greensboro Vermont head the list of blues available by the piece or in "flights." The flights of four or six pieces are served on a wooden board with a fan of sliced apples and some excellent homemade bread. Each selection comes with its own wine recommendation. Caputo pairs Jessie’s Grove Earth, Zin and Fire Old Vine Zinfandel 2005 from Lodi or a German Dr. Loosen Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese 2005 with the blues. “The tropical and citrus notes in the Riesling and the slight effervescence don’t get hidden by the saltiness in the cheese. Although Port or Sherry would also pair well,” he says.  Some guests at this restaurant-wine bar do cheese as an appetizer; others as a course before dessert or perhaps instead of it. Caputo believed that his passion for cheese would rub off on their guests. He seems to be right since he estimates that 75% of his customers order cheese.

At the cheese counter consumers are buying less of the bland, character-less cheeses in favor of full-flavored, handmade artisan examples from Europe and around the U.S. The Beverly Hills Cheese shop has been considered Los Angeles' premier cheese store for the past 30 years. Tony Princiotto, manager and buyer for the The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, says, “One factor, besides flavor, that is driving consumers to look for American blue artisan, farmstead, and organic cheeses is the belief that these cheeses are better than those created in huge factories. Consumers more and more want to know where their food comes from.” With more cheeses, and more sophisticated cheese counters, there are more knowledgeable cheese sellers too, who, like fine wine merchants, have mastered the language of differing styles, flavors, ages, aromas, and even good and less-good months. “I tell customers to buy them in season—the spring and fall when the cows are happy,” Princiotto says. “Not only is our staff educated but we have a program to inform chefs and culinary students about our cheese,” he remarks. “Finding the cheese and getting them into the store is one thing, selling them is another. For one thing, American artisan cheeses are more expensive than the European imports. We have only been making cheese for 10 years; Europeans have been doing it for hundreds. The American blues are not yet as good as the European standards—but we are getting there. Handmade American blues are not available all year round. Made in limited quantities, they are generally tied to the lactation period of goats and cows and sheep. And the spectacular ones are in great demand.”  The fact that demand leads him to keep about a dozen American blues in stock (including 6 blues from Rogue Creamery) among the 400 cheeses he sells is an accomplishment for the product. In general, cheese and wine produced near the same region marry well. But what's most important, the experts say, is that neither overwhelms the other. “Robust blue cheeses should be matched with equally strong red wines—bold to bold, like a Amarone.  Or go for contrast--Salty cheeses with sweet wines, for example, Sauternes or Muscat Beumes-de-Venise, “ Princiotto recommends.

In specialty shops, good supermarkets, and restaurants one can now find American made blue cheeses that rival imported varieties for quality. Gourmands used to ridicule the idea of fine, distinctive cheese coming from America, the birthplace of processed cheese spread. But that attitude is changing, as multifaceted homegrown cheeses earn more respect at the table. Blue cheese offers endless eating possibilities. Blue cheese is great as a stuffing for pasta, poultry, or vegetables, or melted over a steak. Try some on a baked potato instead of or in addition to sour cream. Even the dessert course is enhanced with blue cheese since it marries perfectly with a sweet element. Try a really strong blue combined with fresh-roasted walnuts and a drizzle of honey or traditional balsamic vinegar. He also savors it sprinkled on heirloom tomato slices and drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar

How to indulge in Rogue Creamery blues: Well before serving, unwrap and plate the cheese. Once it has reached room temperature, allow it to rest for at least 15 minutes. This gives the blue molds time to blossom. Using your fingers, pinch off a bit of the "paste" (cheese from the inside of the wedge). Raise it to your nose and let the tendrils of rich, sharp aroma tickle your olfactory senses. Now place the crumble on your tongue and move it around a little. Let the cheese fill your mouth and nose with flavor. Feel its creamy, buttery texture as the cheese spreads over your tongue. Taste its smooth richness cut with blue tang. As it dissolves, note the tiny crystals that add a barely-there tooth and study the harmonies, melodies, peaks, valleys, strength and core of the cheese's earthy flavors. Then taste a pinch of the rind, reflecting on how its saltiness, texture and flavor complexities differ from the paste. Follow with a complementary libation. For wines and beers that have been expertly paired with Rogue Creamery blues, visit our website at www.roguecreamery.com.