ACS 2010 – Charcuterie Seminar – August 28, 2010

 

The last seminar The Lady attended at last week’s American Cheese Society conference was an introduction to charcuterie and was moderated by Tyler Hawes, Buyer for Artisanal Premium Cheese. Because cheese and cured meats are often paired, it seemed a natural for the conference.

 The panel included Herb Eckhouse, owner of LaQuercia Meats located in Norwalk, Iowa. Since 2005, Herb and his wife Kathy have been creating premium quality salumi, which includes speck, pancetta, coppa, guanciale, lardo and prosciutto. Their prosciutto is dry cured without the use of nitrates or nitrites.

Their pigs are bought from non-confinement and sub-therapeutic antibiotic-free farms and are fed only a vegetarian, grain based diet (primarily soybean and corn which are grown in Iowa). They also offer an acorn-fed product to compete with European meats that feature acorn-fed pork.

During the Q&A time, a cheesemaker asked if Herb would be interested in buying whey to feed his pigs. Ironically, although pigs are omnivores and will eat just about anything that comes their way, for the charcuterie market, vegetarian-fed pigs are the only ones acceptable to most charcuterie makers.

By using only non-confined and sub-therapeutic antibiotic-free pigs, LaQuercia eliminates 99% of the pigs being raised for human consumption.

They also use the entire pig from head to feet in their meats.

They dry-cure their meats and are regularly inspected by State and Federal FDA regulators.

The three meats we sampled from LaQuercia were: Prosciutto, Speck (Smoked Prosciutto) and Prosciutto Picante.

Uber-Chef Mario Batali uses LaQuercia Meats and featured them in a recent cookbook.

The second panel member was Cristiano Creminelli of Creminelli Fine Meats LLC, which is located in Springville, Utah. Cristiano emigrated here from Italy and comes from a long line of salumi makers dating back into the 1600s. In 2007, he was awarded “Artisan of Excellence” by his peers and has won two “sofi” awards for excellence.

He uses only organic, natural raw materials including pork that is fed only white grains and raised on small family farms.

The three meats from Creminelli were: Wild Boar Salami, Tartufo Salami and Sopressata.

Fra ‘Mani’s founder, former-chef, writer and restaurateur Paul Bertolli, was the third speaker. His factory is in Berkeley. Before starting Fra ‘Mani (brother’s hands in Italian) Paul was a nationally-recognized chef in the San Francisco Bay area and best-selling Cookbook writer.

Like the others, Paul only uses antibiotic-free pigs that are fed a complete vegetarian diet.

We sampled his Mortadella and Salumi Toscano, which is aged eighty days.

He expressed his concern that the FDA is stepping back about oversight and wanting the makers to do their own policing. Along with the others on the panel, he fears more problems such as the tainted egg crisis of recent days.

 Last up was Armandino Batali, the oldest of the group and obviously revered by the rest of the panel. His grandfather opened Seattle’s first Italian food import store in 1903. However, Armandino went to work for Boeing as an engineer. When he retired, he switched gears, learned to cure meats and opened Salumi Artisan Cured Meats at Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle. Recently he passed day-to-day operations to his daughter and son-in-law. His son is Mario Batali.

Armandino and family like to challenge the palate and “flip the salami”. He proved this with the samples he brought for the tasting: Mole Salami made with chocolate and cayenne pepper; Agrumi Salami which was made using orange and cardamom and a pepperoni with red peppers and anise.

All four men stressed the importance of good raw materials, cleanliness and humane treatment of the pigs and the pork. One told a tale about how inhumanely some stockyard workers treat animals and meat. All appreciate the government regulations and work with them positively.

A bit of trivia: Genoa Salami contains some beef and in the US must be cooked rather than cured due to the ecoli outbreaks over the last decade.

La Quercia’s Herb Eckhouse is America’s Prince of Prosciutto (via Good Food Revolution)

The Lady attended a seminar on Charcuterie at last week’s American Cheese Society Conference and Herb Eckhouse was one of the panalists. Here is a great interview with him:

by Kristina Groeger The history of salumi is as heavy and dense as a hanging leg of acorn-fed dry-cured prosciutto. For centuries in the glorious days of the Roman Empire, cured meats kept entire armies full when there was no mean … Read More

via Good Food Revolution

Celebrating Our Two-Year Blogiversary – Blogging for The Love of Cheese

It’s hard to believe The Lady and I have been on our cheese adventure for a little more than two years. It’s been a great time; we’ve learned a lot about cheese (but so much more to learn…) and we’ve met lots of other great cheese nurds… to cap the two-year journey, we spent last week at the American Cheese Society Conference in Seattle and loved every minute of it, rubbing elbows with all the Cheese Swells.

On our one year anniversary we listed the top ten pages on our blog and you can read that page by clicking here.

We thought we’d also do a top ten at the end of year two and here it is:

1. Le Cendrillon Wins Best Cheese in the World (The Lady and I tasted this last week and we’ll write a review in the next few days…)
2. 2.       The Beemster Cheese Family
3. 3.       Beer, Cheese and Food Pairings Chart
4. 4.       Index of Cheese Reviews
5. 5.       Hard Italian Cheeses
6. 6.       Cheese and Wine Pairings Chart
7. 7.       Ilchester’s Applewood Smoky Cheddar
8. 8.       Cahill’s Original Irish Porter Cheese
9. 9.       Dessert Cheese – White Stilton with Fruit
10. 10.   French Brie

The Lady and I thank you for your visits and support as we continue our cheese journey into the future…

…And the Winners Are…

Best of Show: Uplands Extra Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve… better get your order in fast… only 1000 wheels of this Award-Winning Cheese. When it’s gone… it’s gone.

2nd Place went to our friends, Allison Hooper of Vermont Butter and Cheese for her wonderful Bonnie Bouche.

3rd Place to Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise.

Congratulations to all the winners!!

The Lady and I are exhausted and will write more in-depth coverage on Tuesday when she has her next day off. We will be adding a slide show of the pictures she took each day and reviews of many of the cheeses she was able to taste.

Added information: The Lady will write postings for the seminars she took over the three days (7 total) and will add them to our Cheese 101: Learning the Basics to Make You an Expert Page of the blog…

Spaulding Gray From the Manse: ACS 2010: Report #6

American Originals/International Style Category

As much as I wanted to report yesterday, there were some serious, four-legged guests at the “Pets Friendly” Motel in the Suburbs of Seattle that diverted my attention… more on this later…

Saturday morning at the ACS 2010 Conference was the end of the seminars. The Lady had two terrific ones to end on a high note.

The first conference of the day was “advanced Sensory Flavor Characteristics and Chemistry in Bandage wrapped Cheddar”. Sounds technical, doesn’t it? Well, yes and no, according to The Lady.

This seminar was conducted by Dr. Mary Anne Drake from North Carolina State University. Dr. Drake took the class through an international study of regional cheddar sensory evaluations and then led the class through blind tastings of nine domestic and international bandage wrapped cheddars.

According to The Lady, it was amazing. She brought a set home for my own blind tasting which will take place on Tuesday and I will report my own findings at that time.

After this, The Lady attended the last class of the day which was a tasting with four charcuterie makers: all making outstanding charcuterie here in the United States from Iowa, Washington State, California and Utah. Each maker brought samples of their cured meats for the class to taste and enjoy. The Lady and I will review these in the next few days…

Once the classes were done, The Lady took a cab to Benaroya Hall to help with the set-up for the Festival of Cheeses and the Awards Ceremony. She was assigned to work on Cheese table D: American Originals/International Styles. For three and a half hours, she and four other cheese folks from Wisconsin and Atlanta cut and arranged the cheeses in this category for the tastings that would follow the Awards Ceremony. It was hard work but well worth the time and energy… and then it was time for The Grand Finale…

Spaulding Gray From the Cheese Bunker: ACS 2010: Report #5

 

After Beecher’s, The Lady grabbed a cab and headed up the hill to the Seattle “No Pets” Sheraton to attend more seminars about… cheese…

The first of the day was Tasting: Pacific Northwest Dairies – Past, Present and Future.

(We will review the Sally Jackson and Dinah cheeses from this seminar when we return to the manse. We have previously reviewed the Cougar Gold and Boerenkaas and links are provided below.)

Tami Parr of The Pacific Northwest Project moderated the panel which included Marc Bates of Bates Consulting and previously at Washington State University. He took the group through the history of cheesemaking in the Pacific Northwest and after his presentation treated the group to a tasting of the WSU’s truly world-famous Cougar Gold.

Tami took the group through a tasting of a Sally Jackson Chestnut Leaf-Wrapped Sheep Milk Cheese. Sally Jackson was a pioneer cheesemaker after receiving a government grant during the Carter Administration.

Rod Volbeda of Willamette Valley Cheese Company told the story of his journey from dairy farmer to cheesemaker. He brought his young gouda, Boerenkaas, for the group to taste.

The last cheesemaker to speak was Kurt Timmermeister who left behind the restaurant business to make cheese on Vashon Island, just south of Seattle. He currently milks 3 Jersey cows and makes 300 wheels a week of a bloomy rind camembert named after his first cow, Dinah. Once a week he drives his pick-up into Seattle to deliver his cheese to restaurants and a few retail outlets including Sheri LeVigne’s Calf & Kid. He shared his lovely Dinah with the attendees.

After the seminar, the Annual ACS Business meeting was held in the Grand Ballroom with Foods of Quebec hosting a gourmet lunch from a menu developed by Chef Paul Little of the Montreal Westin Hotel. The Westin will be the host hotel for the 2011 ACS Conference and Cheese Competition. The third course of the meal was a cheese plate of five Quebec cheeses followed by a tasting of the 2009 World Cheese Awards Grand Champion, Le Cendrillon. (Again, all of these cheeses will be reviewed once we are back at the manse…)

The afternoon seminar was a panel discussion of Affinage, the art of aging cheese. On the panel were Doug Erb of Landaff Creamery, Raef Hodgson of Neal’s Yard Dairy in the UK and Herve Mons of Mons Fromagerie. The panel was moderated by Kim Iannotti of the Peterson Company. The Lady enjoyed this seminar and picked up more useful information… more details to follow…

The Lady feels this conference has been an important step in her cheesemongering journey and she asked that I thank the ASC for providing this venue for its members and cheese professionals.

Tomorrow the conference concludes with morning seminars and the grand finale, The Festival of Cheese where the winners of the cheese competition will be announced including the Best of Show and the Cheesemonger Merchandising Competition. Winners will be announced at Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony and the event is open to the public. Tickets are $85.00.

Spaulding Gray From the Cheese Bunker: 2010 ACS: Cheesemaking at Beecher’s: Report #4

The alarm went off at 430am and startled the starch out of this Feline Foodie… for a moment I was disoriented; usually the alarm only goes off that early when The Lady is on her way to the cheese mines. Because we are in the Cheese Bunker in the suburbs of Seattle, I was pretty sure The Lady was not going to the cheese mines in Portland… then I heard her mention one word… one word that annoyed me greatly… Beecher’s… The Lady had a date at Beecher’s Handmade Cheeses at Pike Place Market to watch a cheese-making demonstration… and she had no intention of taking me along…

Wait… it gets worse, for me; but better for The Lady…

You’ve heard the old saying that “the early bird gets the worm”… well, The Early Lady also gets to help make cheese. The Lady was the first to arrive and Cheesemaker Adam asked her if she wanted to help make cheese and surprise… after she stopped swooning… she said, “You betcha!!”

She and two other “early birds” went into the make room where the curds were wheying and after the whey was drained, The Lady got to help with the cheddaring process; cutting the curds and flipping the blocks.

They made Flagship which will be aged for 18 months…

Beecher’s entire cheese operation is at the Pike Place site until their new Manhattan store is opened next year. They make four vats of cheese each day with each vat producing between 900 and 1,000 pounds of cheese.

The Lady had a picture taken with Adam, the Cheesemaker but because she forgot the download cord (the only item on her “things to do for Spaulding” list), I’ll add the picture once we return to the manse on Sunday…

At least she didn’t come back to the Cheese Bunker smelling of No Woman… she did bring a wedge of Flagsheep and a triangle of the 4-Year Flagship Reserve… which I will review in the next few days…

She swore she gave my love to the lovely Jena…

I’ll be reporting later today about the rest of The Lady’s day at the 2010 ACS taking place at the Seattle “No Pets” Sheraton… until then, I remain your humble Feline Foodie reporting from the “Cheese Bunker” hidden somewhere in the suburbs of Seattle…

Spaulding Gray From the Cheese Bunker: ACS 2010: Report 3

WOW!! The Lady couldn’t stop talking last night about yesterday’s conference: she attended 3 seminars; had lunch with the “cheese swells” and assisted our friend, the lovely Rhonda Gothberg of the lovely Gothberg Farms Goat Milk Cheese at the Meet the Cheesemaker Event. Rhonda not only makes great cheeses but she is also a terrific person and The Lady enjoyed spending time with her and her cheeses.

It was a full day for The Lady and she was full of funny stories and tons of new information to assist her in the cheese mines.

Her first stop of the day was the bookstore where she was fortunate to meet both Max McCalman (Mastering Cheese) and Tami Parr (Northwest Cheese Project) and have them autograph their books. Gordonzola Edgar was signing also, but we already have his book autographed… still cool to see him… as I sit in the Cheese Bunker… The hangs with the “Cheese Swells”… life can be so unfair…

The first event was Terroir in America. The first thing she learned is that only the Frenchman on the panel can really pronounce that word correctly. The panel included Dr. Amy Trubek from the University of Vermont, Ivan Larcher from France (just like the Coneheads) and Larcher Consulting and Mateo Kehler from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont and maker of that more-than-wonderful Bayley Hazen Blue. More on the details later…

She caught the end of the cheesemonger merchandising competition and took lots of pix of the 5 displays. However, because she forgot the download cord that I, your humble Feline Foodie, asked her to bring… the pictures will have to wait until we are back at the manse… one item on her “To do for Spaulding Gray list”… sheesh… humankinds…

Zuercher and Company hosted a buffet lunch. The Lady sat and chatted with her friend, Judy Norton from Norseland; the folks who brings Old Amsterdam to the American Cheese Nurds.

After lunch, The Lady attended a panel of 5 esteemed Cheesemongers talking about their philosophies on selling cheese. The panel members were Gordonzola Edgar, Nathan Aldridge (Murray’s Cheese), Tom Van Voorhees (Rogue Creamery), Megan Mullaney (Sickles Market) and Carlos Souffrant (Zingermans). So far… this is The Lady’s favorite seminar… more details later…

The third seminar was “Getting Inside the Mind of the Retail Buyer”. This panel included Laurie Greenberg (Cultural Landscapes), Steven Rosenberg (Liberty Heights Fresh in SLC), David Grotenstein (Union Market) and Anne Saxelby of Saxelby Cheesemongers. The Lady informed me she picked of several important tips from the group… again… more later.

And to top off her day, the lovely Cheesemaker, Rhonda Gothberg of Gothberg Farms, invited The Lady to assist her at the “Meet the Cheesemakers” where all the “Cheese Swells” were able to taste and chat one-on-one with the cheesemakers. Rhonda is one of our favorite cheesemakers and The Lady was thrilled to sit next to her and talk about her wonderful goat milk cheeses from her 22 LaMancha does.

The Lady passed up the evening social event at the seattle Aquarium, choosing hanging with The Man and having Sushi… I was left once more in the Cheese Bunker…

On deck today… cheesemaking at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, home of No Woman, two tasting events of Northwest cheeses and wines and a seminar on Affinage. Tonight, our friends at the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board are hosting an event at the Convention Center… until then, I remain your humble Feline Foodie reporting from the “Cheese Bunker” hidden somewhere in the suburbs of Seattle…

Business & Technology | American Cheese Society nibbling through 1,462 entries in tasting competition | Seattle Times Newspaper

Great article from today’s Seattle times about the 2010 ACS and the Cheese Competition:

Business & Technology | American Cheese Society nibbling through 1,462 entries in tasting competition | Seattle Times Newspaper.

Spaulding Gray, The Feline Foodie, Reports From His ACS 2010 Cheese Bunker… Report #2

So I’m sitting here in the Cheese Bunker hidden somewhere in the suburbs of Seattle and The Lady is hanging out with the “Cheese Swells” at the Seattle “No Pets” Sheraton… something is definitely wrong with this cheese picture…

The Lady and The Man just returned from the New Members and First Time Attendees Reception hosted by our friends, Sartori Foods and The Lady is dropping cheese names like there’s no tomorrow… however, you can bet, she’ll be dropping more names tomorrow… yada, yada, yada…

She ran into our buddy Gaetano Auricchio and the BelGioioso Cheese Swells at Pike Place Market today on her way to the home of my most favorite-of-all-time cheese, No Woman. The fine cheesemakers at Beechers were… well, they were making cheese…  to make matters worse, she came back to the “Cheese Bunker” with the scent of No Woman on her clothes (but not a wedge to be found anywhere on her)… at least she took a couple of pictures but then I discovered she had left the cord I need to download the pix to the computer… she had one item on her “things to do for Spaulding Gray” list… and she forgot… sheesh… I do all the heavy lifting and she hangs with the “cheese swells”…

After Pike Place Market, she and The Man stopped in The Daily Grill and had a late lunch while waiting to pick up The Lady’s creds at Cheese-a-Topia at the Seattle “No Pets” Sheraton…

The Man likes to hang with The Lady… well, that I can understand… I like hanging with her as well… he sat in the lobby of the Seattle “No Pets” Sheraton while The Lady went to the reception. All the new members and first time attendees were invited and the ACS Board of Directors (aka The Really Big Cheese Swells) welcomed everyone. Sartori Foods hosted the event and had many of their terrific cheeses for everyone to enjoy.

They played Board of Directors Bingo: little-known facts about members of the board were on a bingo card and as you chatted with them you had to find out various bits of trivia. The most interesting for The Lady was that our friend, Tim Smith from Kroger, was a ballet dancer and danced with the Boston Ballet… from ballet to cheese… talk about a renaissance man… I did a little research and discovered his interpretation of the Prince Florstan pas de trois in Sleeping Beauty is still legend.

On deck tomorrow… Cheesemongers’ Merchandising Competition; Terroir in America; Last Stop: Cheese Shop; Getting Inside the Retail Mine and Meet the Cheesemaker… boy do I have my work cut out for me tomorrow reporting on all these seminars… until then, I remain your humble Feline Foodie reporting from the “Cheese Bunker” hidden somewhere in the suburbs of Seattle…