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"What's in a name?"... |
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One of my lesser-known fellow countrymen once said something or other like that...although, if I recall correctly,
he wasn't talking about cheese. It's a pity really-roses may smell sweet-but cheese not only smells glorious, it's
tasty too.
Anyway, I got started thinking about names recently when I was asked to make a presentation about artisan cheese to
my colleagues at the Florida chapter of the Research Chefs Association. They wanted an explanation of what 'artisan
cheese' really is. Here's my encapsulated version.
Myth busting
'Artisan' is the latest fashion in foods at the moment. Commonly, artisan cheese is thought to be handmade,
unpasteurized, available only in small quantities, organic and produced with milk from the same farm where the cheese
is made. What a lot of people don't realize, though, is there's no government standard of identity for artisan
cheeses.
The so-called artisan cheese you buy at a farmer's market in Vermont or Washington could be the result of the labors
of a retired banker who decided to buy a herd of goats and make cheese in his garage, or it could be made using a fully
automated process at a local or regional dairy. You just don't know.
Many different levels of automation are used and the end product can still be called 'artisan.' And some artisan cheeses
are produced organically, while others are not. For the record, artisan cheese is generally heat treated to 145°C to kill
bacteria. Mass-produced cheese is pasteurized to 162°C. Personally, I think the term 'artisan' is overused. From my
perspective, what is commonly referred to as artisan cheese is just traditionally made.
Up until the 1960s, nearly all cheese was what is now being called artisan, because it was traditionally made rather than
mass-produced. Co-ops and other small producers made cheese in smaller batches, and products were often hand filtered and
hand pressed. (Check out the accompanying photos.) After that, more cheese began to be mass-produced and the process became
automated and standardized.
Today with modern hygiene, the milk used for cheesemaking is a lot cleaner and safer. While cheese flavor is more
consistent now, people say it lacks flavor and character. I don't believe that cheese really lacks flavor; it's more that
consumer tastes changed as the processing changed. Now people like more mild-flavored cheese. There's only a very select
group of people that likes strong tasting, pungent cheeses.
I see that changing for two main reasons. One is the aging of the U.S. population-as we age our taste buds begin to dull and
we crave more flavorful foods. The second reason is we've become more mobile, and people are
having more food adventures, trying more varieties of cheese. It used to be that if you were Italian, you ate Italian cheese,
Greek, Greek cheese, etc. Whatever your ethnicity, you stuck to your cheese, and beyond that there were a few mass-market
cheeses like Cheddar, Colby and brick. That's not true anymore.
You say artisan, I say traditional
Whether you call it artisan or traditionally made, there is a growing interest in specialty cheeses. I guess the point I want
to make is that artisan cheese can be a lot of things, and you should know that. People are going back to more traditional
ways of making cheese where there is more control by the cheesemaker, resulting in more flavorful varieties of cheese. Your
favorite artisan cheese may be made in 100 pound batches or 100,000 pound batches. Either way, it doesn't matter as long as
you enjoy it. The great thing is that a lot more varieties of cheese are becoming more readily available.
Cheers!
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