American Cheese: Does It Deserve Its Bad Reputation?
30 August 2019
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Lauren TurnerBBC News, Washington DC
Everything you believe you understand about American cheese is incorrect.
That's what the cheese makers and cheesemongers of the US want to inform you. They're fed up with people believing their valued item is a joke.
When you do a Google search of "why is American cheese ...", among the leading ideas for finishing the sentence are "bad", "so gross" and "not cheese".
It doesn't help that "American cheese" is the name for the orange, plastic-wrapped slices - as well as representing the entire country's cheese output.
So what does the world need to learn about US cheese, instead of believing all that's on deal is dull and mass-produced?
"Obviously they believe that," says Patricia Michelson, creator of London's La Fromagerie. "Because that's what gets exported."
"Certainly in the UK there's a misconception," agrees cheese journalist and senior World Cheese Awards judge Patrick McGuigan.
"If you ask most British people to name an American cheese, they 'd choose that orange plastic cheese, which is what the nation is understood for internationally. But perceptions are changing, specifically among people in the know. American cheeses have succeeded at things like the World Cheese Awards."
It doesn't help that it's hugely costly to get US cheese throughout the pond. There are some huge tariffs on US cheese - currently set by the EU and the UK, depending on the type of cheese - to come into the UK.
"It's up to ₤ 60 ($73) a kilogramme," says Mr McGuigan. "If you're attempting to sell to a British customer, you're saying, 'we have this cheese that's fantastic - it's ₤ 60.' You can see a lot of buyers going, 'hmm I'm not sure.'"
"They are good cheeses. But there are some great cheeses [from somewhere else] which are half price."
Cheddar, for example, undergoes a 167.10 euro ($187.72) per 100kg tariff, with Colby at 151 euro ($166.92) per 100kg.
Looking for US cheeses in London, for individuals to taste test it for this article, proved impossible. It's typically only brought in for unique celebrations, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, which is when Ms Michelson purchases it in for her world-renowned cheese stores.
She had likewise meant to import some for Independence Day this year, but documents held up the consignment, which currently comes through Paris.
She says there is a "mountain of bureaucracy" to get unpasteurised cheese (which is made from raw milk, and has not been warmed to remove bacteria) offered in the US itself - and after that a lot more bureaucracy to get them out of the nation and into the UK.
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In addition to logistical problems, she states there are other barriers.
Ms Michelson states she enjoys American cheese, composing a "big chapter" on the topic for her 2nd book, Cheese.
"But trying to get other countries to publish it was difficult," she regrets. "Places like France, Italy and Germany said there was too much on American cheese. It galled them - they're snobs."
"Farmhouse cheeses are even really tough to get in the US," Ms Michelson adds. "You'll just get them in an expert shop, a farmers' market or a very high end grocery store.
"America itself is not promoting the farmers and their fantastic cheeses - so how in the world is it going to travel all over else?"
What doesn't assist either is that "it's pre-packed and processed within an inch of its life" so that "there's no odor at all" she says, lamenting that individuals are "afraid of the smell of cheese".
She includes that another reason the mass-produced product succeeds is that people "don't want to wait - they desire to make something, cut it, pack it, offer it".
Cheese author and speaker Laura Werlin has a theory about the image problem.
"It's since American cheese grew up as a made item mostly," she says. "We took to factories fairly quickly in our nation's development and as an outcome, individuals got used to produced cheese."
Now the craftsmen cheese movement "has actually really taken hold", she states, "but among the obstacles is that the cost of American craftsmen cheeses [in the US] tend to be greater than lots of good, or actually great, imports".
That, she discusses, is simply since of the high expenses related to business in the US.
"So as a result, even Americans tend to purchase the manufactured cheeses more than the craftsmen cheeses - unless they themselves are cheese fanatics."
Hundreds of those cheese fanatics are at the American Cheese Society conference, being held this year in Richmond, Virginia, where the cheese revolution is on complete display.
At the event they call "cheese camp" they participate in workshops and talks.
Local craft beers are matched with local cheeses at bars around town, the self-proclaimed curd nerds sharing their vast understanding on the topic.
They even do cheese karaoke (one sings Curds and Whey, to the tune of Purple Rain, sample lyrics "I never ever said you were just solids/ I never meant to send you down the drain/ There's just one way to get them both together/ Only as soon as you cut the vat do you see curds and whey").
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Independent cheesemonger Julia Gross (whose tattoos consist of among a cheese mite) desires to eliminate the misconception that cheese remains in any way elitist.
"Cheesemaking is essentially working class. It's a misconception that cheese is simply for wealthy people. The workers are the main part of the farm, the cows enjoy and it's entirely sustainable," she said. "We require to connect that labour of love to the consumer.
"It's not simply purchasing something tasty, it's becoming part of a life cycle."
British professional cheesemaker Mary Quicke, of Quicke's Cheese - the 14th generation of the Quicke household on the farm in the English county of Devon - has actually judged at the American Cheese Society competitors for several years and is dealt with as something of a celeb.
"Being a big-headed English person, the very first year I judged here I believed, 'Ah bless, the Americans are mastering it'," she laughs.
"Over the nine years I have actually been judging this competitors there has actually been an absolutely remarkable boost in the quality of cheese."
"It's a huge renaissance," she includes.
She states cheesemakers on both sides of the Atlantic can discover from each other and launched the Academy of Cheese professional credentials in the UK, by a comparable plan run by the American Cheese Society.
Meet the big cheeses
A total of 1,742 cheeses were participated in competitors at the American Cheese Society conference this year (for comparison, in the first year in 1985 there were 89 entries).
Here are the leading 3 cheeses this year:
Stockinghall, best in show - the cheese was made as a collaboration in between Murray's Cheese, New york city, and Old Chatham Creamery, New York, which provided the cow's milk and the cheesemaker, 33-year-old Brian Schlatter. The cheddar is described as having meaty bacon and sour cream flavours with a pineapple scent. Only 30 truckles are made a month
Professor's Brie, 2nd place - Brian Schlatter was also the cheesemaker for this square-shaped triple cream cheese made with sheep milk, cow's milk and cow's cream, again from Old Chatham Creamery, which is aged in Wegman's Good Markets' caves
Aries, 3rd place - this sheep's milk cheese from Shooting Star Creamery, California, was made by 15-year-old Avery Jones with the aid of her daddy Reggie Jones' Central Coast Creamery. It's aged for eight months and is just readily available at Sigona's Farmers' Market in California
Michael Koch of Maryland's Firefly Farms, joint organiser of this year's conference, states: "The level of quality has dramatically increased. We're returning to a more localised food system that Europe never ever left."
He says that the US has a lot to use the world - partially since of its lack of cheese-making tradition.
"In the States, we aren't restricted by custom. So there are cheeses in Europe that have actually been made in the same way for a long time.
"Here, we're complimentary to do things like trying to design this type of cheese - but then I'm going to twist it and be whimsical. We have the freedom to colour outside of the lines. We are vibrant with cheese."
Cheesemaker Britton Welsh definitely concurs. Among the bestselling items made by Utah-based company Beehive Cheese, of which he is president, is the uncommon Barely Buzzed - a cheese rubbed with coffee premises and lavender.
When it's been sold in the UK however, it was for the equivalent of $70 per pound - and in the US, it retails for $24. While an exporter looked after procedure, Mr Welsh says there were big transportation and tariff costs imposed on the cheese, and as an outcome it ended up "being exorbitantly pricey and inaccessible to a lot of UK customers".
"Hopefully at some point it will alter and consumers in the UK will have the ability to enjoy our unique cheeses," he includes.
The young farming family
Trisha Boyce, a third-generation dairy farmer, and her other half Jarred took control of Chapel's Country Creamery in Maryland two years back. Their toddler kid Trace is in his aspect on the dairy farm, running around, saying hey there to the cows (he even has his own) and tasting blue cheese, among his favourites.
"The price of milk is too low to make a living off anymore," says Trisha, explaining why they bought the farm - already a recognized creamery - and chose to specialise in cheese instead of milk. "The excellent thing is we get to remain here as a family all day and market our own products."
She states that if there were more small-scale craftsmen cheesemakers, then the perception of American cheese would change.
But she stated that producing things on a small scale is costly, and "a lot of Americans want luxurious foods at a routine rate". It doesn't assist also that European cheeses have a greater reputation than home-grown products as they're much better understood for their cheese.
"I would motivate people to take more time to look at where their food is coming from, how it's produced, and the care that's put in behind the scenes. I would enjoy more dining establishments to do the farm to table thing and support their local farmers.
"You go to local shops here and it has plenty of Irish cheese, French cheese, Spanish cheese. People say 'it's imported, so it needs to be good'. We're in fact attempting to work with some local grocery shops now and get linked with them. It just requires time and it's a great deal of tough work."
He adds: "A lot of people have really interesting conceptions of what 'American cheeses' are. But we're getting in cheese competitions in Europe and winning ribbons against individuals who have been doing it for centuries.
"Instead of being governed by custom, what we have is a determination to attempt new things and go where no cheese has actually gone before. So we're attempting brand-new things and having a good time."
Many of the top cheeses competing at the American Cheese Society conference are already competitors winners at worldwide events, where they associate the creme de la creme of the dairy world.
"US cheese can absolutely compete" states Ross Christieson of the US Dairy Export Council. "Not simply complete, but lead the world.
"The US is the largest exporter of cheese in the world that no one learns about. What we export winds up on a pizza, a hamburger or in a cheesecake. But it's the specialized cheeses that are truly going to provide us a track record. We're not going to get a reputation from remaining in something, or on something."
He is at the conference with his coworker Angelique Hollister - part of their objective is to advise people to look for the World Cheese Awards.
The Frenchwoman admits she didn't understand what a wealth of US cheese was on offer when she transferred to the US - and now desires to work to "alter the perception and picture of US cheese around the globe".
"What is made here in the US absolutely compares to what you can discover in France, in Europe," she states. "But among the problems we've identified is the supply chain. The US is a big nation and it's difficult to get items from one location to the other."
The small-scale production does not assist matters either.
"This is something that does not sell in a complete container load - it's a pallet at a time or even a container at a time," she includes. "We need to assist get that to the client, at a cost that makes sense."
Nora Weiser, executive director of the American Cheese Society, which runs the yearly occasion, sees a parallel with that other butt of the joke - British food.
"People around the globe will say, 'oh, British food is dreadful, they boil everything and they have actually got mushy peas'. But there are incredible things happening."
Author Ms Werlin argues that cheese makers in the US haven't quite exercised "how to make truly excellent tasting cheese at scale" - so "really couple of craftsmen cheeses are exported" as a result.
"I do not understand if misunderstood is the ideal word - I believe it's simply unknown. I don't understand if it is simply going to remain our little secret over here in the US.
"The word is going to get out when individuals taste it - that's how it spreads out. I think it will take a very long time for it to simply roll of the tongue with the appeal that French cheese does."
