Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Pleasant Ridge Tasting


The unassuming and humble cheesemaker from Uplands Cheese, Andy Hatch, was in town for ZingTrain this week and brought along his batches for all interested parties to try and explore.  

Mike Gingrich & Andy Hatch

On hand were employees from Zingerman's, Neal's Yard Dairy, and world renown cheesemaker, Joe Schneider.  

If you don't know already, Uplands produces the great Pleasant Ridge Reserve during the summer months and Rush Creek Reserve during the winter months.  Located on 300 acres, the farm resides in Southwest Wisconsin near Dodgeville and features cows that have been cross bred from both smaller and larger breeds.  

Featuring primarily milk from the winter months, Rush Creek Reserve is a soft, washed rind cheese encased in bark, ala, vacherin mont d'or.  It has been a favorite of cheese lovers ever since it's beginnings a few years ago.  Pleasant Ridge Reserve is named after the plateau that the farm resides on. It is a hard cheese that is made according to the tradition of the European “alpage-style” mountain cheeses.  Both cheeses have been staples at Zingerman's Deli since their beginnings and have won many awards, including Best in Show at the American Cheese Society for 2001, 2005, and 2010.

P.R. Reserve is a Gruyere style cheese that has a complex full-flavored taste with that dense texture you can expect from similar cheeses of the Alps.  When asked to address for whom and what it works best for, Mr. Hatch replied, “I’d like to think that it is a cheese that anyone can enjoy.  I don’t really see it confined to anyone or anything.”  He further added, “Even though it has a higher price point, I think it works really well as a melting cheese….maybe over potatoes.”  Of course, what keeps this cheese so authentic and pleasing is that they only use the wonderful summer grazing of the Wisconsin landscape.  Hence, the term “Alpage”.

Trippin’ Time: (Conduct your own ‘geeky’ dance here):

So, what about this “Alpage-style”?  And where the heck does the word Alpage come from?

Well, in order to talk about the word Alpage, we need to talk about Gruyere (don’t worry, I’ll save the really technical stuff for another post).  Gruyere has been made for centuries according to the natural laws of survival.  As a result of coming from regions where the treacherous terrain is at a high altitude, families needed a large format cheese that could last through the long, cold winters.  This form of protein, often times, kept them alive as there was no way of hunting, going to the nearest Wal-Mart, or even growing there own food.  

Don’t forget the reason as to why cheese came into being: Man needed a way of preserving milk.  And in the beginning, milk WAS dairy.  

Now, not all Gruyere’s are “Alpage”; instead, a Gruyere cheese that is made exclusively with milk harvested from summer pastures.  These summer pastures provide the milk, and hence, the cheese, with specific flavors garnered from the hundreds of different grasses, flowers, and weeds, only provided during the summer months.  

But, why has the term “Alpage” remained mostly exclusive to Gruyere style cheeses.  Well, thanks to Wikipedia, I’ve hoisted the word origins for this term and found it helpful.

German Alm "seasonal mountain pasture" is a reduced form of Alben, the original dative singular of Albe. In Alemannic GermanAlp remains current. The word is originally identical to the name of the Alps itself, probably a pre-Roman (and possibly pre-Indo-European) term for "mountain". In French, the word "Alpage" shares the same meaning and etymology. Other words such as "Alpe", "Arpe", "Arpette", "Aulp", etc. are disused, but are still found in toponymy.

Trippin’ Time is Over:
In Chadspeak, this means that since Gruyere is born of the alps, so too, does the word “Alpage” stick mainly to Gruyeres & like styled cheeses.

So, to have an original American cheese that sticks to the Alpage method while being wildly successful, is a true statement of the great state that American cheese and the American cheese buyer are in.




   
                                       6 Different Batches of Pleasant Ridge Reserve.



 
 
Members of Zingerman's & Neal's Yard Dairy & Mike in the Middle.



In the end, anyone who has been keeping up with the cheese world, knows just how good Pleasant Ridge is, has, and always will be in the hands of Master Cheesemaker, Andy Hatch.  We at Zingerman’s were very fortunate to have the opportunity to taste through the different batches arranged according to different production dates.  As the pictures below prove, it was a great chance to chat, compare notes, and feel lucky to be around great cheese and great people.

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