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Dammeier wants Beecher’s to be Seattle’s first cheese—but not
its only cheese.
“I’ll bet you on an average day there’s a hundred people enter
our store who’ve never thought of cheese beyond the yellow
Kroger-variety cheddar,” he says. However, you don’t convert people
to premium cheese by providing them with something fuzzy and blue
that stinks of a barnyard, no matter how exquisite that cheese
might be to the gourmand.
Rather, you make it familiar. But better. People are comfortable
with cheddar and jack and even the frenchy-sounding fromage
blanc—which Beecher’s calls “blank slate.”
But give the people a familiar cheese that tastes like cheese
should, and before you know it, they’re trying that fuzzy blue
stuff. In other words, they’re buying more cheese. They’re buying
more not only of Beecher’s cheese, but of the many regional
farmstead and artisan cheeses that Beecher’s also sells. Dammeier
sees his store as a way to both market small production cheeses and
also build a market.
“The same thing happened in the early days of craft brewing,” he
says. “It took a while for consumers to understand the value of a
$7.99 six-pack versus a $4.99 six-pack and why it’s more flavorful,
more authentic, more interesting.
“When you’re making things in small batches, it costs more.”
Dammeier ticks off the three tenets that underlie his approach
to business. Full-flavored, great-tasting food. Fun and theatrical.
Finally, he says, “Not a single thing produced by us has any
additives, any preservatives. It’s pure, simple food.”
Along those lines, Dammeier announced in August that 1 percent
of Beecher’s sales will go to a foundation dedicated to educating
the public, especially children, about food production, how it is
grown, processed, and transported, as well as what’s in it and what
those ingredients mean to the health of the consumer and of the
planet.
Not Your Average Cheddar
In the 1930s, Washington State College food scientists started
research on packaging hard cheese in cans. Responding to a need for
more canned foods during World War II, the U.S. government and
American Can Company invested in the research in the 1940s. Cheese
at the time was sealed in wax, as much still is. Wax can crack,
allowing spoilage.
The main obstacle toward putting cheese in a can was the
production of carbon dioxide by bacteria in the cheese, which
caused the cans to bulge and even burst. Finally, N.S. Golding, a
professor of dairy husbandry, discovered that adding a second
starter culture to the cheese greatly reduced the carbon dioxide
production. This second culture, known to us non-initiates simply
as “WSU 19,” is what sets Cougar Gold apart.
This “adjunct culture” transforms a cheese that starts with a
standard cheddar culture into the unique flavor and finish of
Cougar Gold. Whereas cheddars generally have some bitter notes and
finish on the palate with a sour milk sharpness, Cougar Gold
finishes softer and creamier.
The texture is also different from most cheddars, more crumbly,
largely due to its being aged for a year.
This uniqueness presents a certain difficulty in cheese
competitions. Even though Cougar Gold is basically a cheddar in its
youth, the texture, as well as its extra flavors, prohibits its
entry in cheddar categories, which are quite specific in their
criteria. Despite the categorical difficulty, though, Cougar Gold
won the top of its class (hard pressed non-cheddar cheeses) in the
World Cheese Awards in England in 2000.
Cougar Gold today is much the same cheese as it was when first
produced in 1948. Of course the cows that produce the milk come and
go, and their feed will vary over the years in nutritional makeup.
A few years ago, the salt was reduced slightly. But the starters
and recipe remain the same.
“We just try not to break it,” says Marc Bates, who was Creamery
manager for 27 years and is now a consultant.
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“You can always tell when little kids have been
here, because there's lip and nose marks everywhere,” says cheese
maker Brad Sinko. Here, Sinko's assistant Amir Rosenblatt cuts the
thickening curds in a batch of cheese, as an avid audience watches.
Photo by Laurence Chen.
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