Sunday, May 17, 2009

Confessions of a Cheesehead - Part 2

Last week I provided some interesting historical tidbits about cheese and how I became a Cheesehead. This week I want to share a few more personal anecdotes. As far back as I can remember I have always been fond of cheese. Cheese was a staple at my house when I was growing up. Nothing fancy, mind you, but respectable cheeses. I’m not talking Velvetta and Cheese-Whiz (which I am happy to ascribe to French origins), but your generic cheddars and Swiss cheeses.

Cheese was always on the table at my maternal grandparents’ Michigan farmstead regardless of the meal being served. I remember it melted over toast at breakfast, and my grandmother applied generous slices to my sandwiches which went into my lunch pail before I headed off to Acorn School. A block of cheese was back on the table when supper was ready and I always had a slice or two with whatever was being served that night. My paternal grandparents lived in a small town not far from the farmstead, and they always served cheese with their meals. I also enjoyed sneaking into their refrigerator to snitch a few pieces in between meals. The candy was always out of reach and dealt out in small portions at certain times. But cheese . . . cheese was OK! Nothing wrong with eating cheese. It was good for you . . . helped make a body strong, a mind sharp. So I always associated cheese with my grandparents. Go visit them and you get to eat cheese pretty much any time you want.

The last time I saw my paternal grandparents was during the spring of 1974. I was in graduate school at the University of Arizona, and I spent my spring break with them in San Diego where they settled in their later years. At the end of my week-long visit (yes, cheese was on the table every day), my grandmother packed some sandwiches for me for the long trip back to Tucson. Each contained a generous slab of cheese. Right before I left, my grandfather stuffed a brown paper package into my pack. “I wanted to give you something I know you will like,” he said as he patted me on the shoulder. When I got back to my apartment later than night I opened the package and found a large wheel of Wisconsin cheddar. It was a final gift passed from one generation to another. They watched me grow up just as they watched me drive away that final time. They knew me. So it is not hard to understand how I became a Cheesehead. I grew up understanding that cheese was a part of every meal. It’s like baby’s milk in my book!

I have eaten cheeses of every description from around the world (more on this in a moment), but I must confess that my favorite cheese is one that has long tugged at my heartstrings for a variety of reasons. “Bon Brie” was once produced by a small independent cheesemaker in Mapleton, Wisconsin. We would frequently drive out there on weekends to pick up a five-pound block wrapped in red and silver foil. I loved the smell of the old barn where the cheese was produced and stored. I can smell it now as I sit here writing this. It never really goes away. When I went off to college in Florida, my parents would occasionally send me a care package, and it would always contain some Bon Brie Cheese from Mapleton, still wrapped in that familiar red and silver foil. During the year I lived and studied in Germany I received additional packages from home . . . all containing some “Bon Brie.” I received an entire five-pound block for Christmas, and my German friends could not understand why I would want cheese from America when there were so many fine cheeses to be had locally. If someone is not a Cheesehead, they can never hope to understand. “Bon Brie Cheese” evokes a lot of very special memories. Unfortunately, the cheesemaker in Mapleton went out of business a few years back. A black date on my calendar!

A couple of weeks ago I attended what has become for me an annual cheese extravaganza. Each spring for the past five or six years the National Geographic Society here in Washington, DC has sponsored an evening with Steven Jenkins, who is, without a doubt, America’s best known cheesemonger (and, in my book, an honorary Cheesehead). He shares his phenomenal knowledge of cheeses, the places they come from, and the people who produce them. The highlight of these events, however, is the opportunity to taste a wide variety of cheeses seldom seen on this side of the Big Pond due to their ephemeral nature and the cost to import them. Jenkins is always joined by master sommelier Joshua Wesson, cofounder of Best Cellars (and also an honorary Cheesehead), who presents, along with very witty repartee, an interesting selection of wines to compliment the cheeses. I recall another episode of “The West Wing” in which the still fictional Leo McGarry arrives at the White House before dawn only to complain how bad the traffic is around town. Ultimately, he is forced to detour around a police cordon at the National Geographic Society, on 16th Street, just a few blocks north of the White House. McGarry’s equally fictional deputy asks what possibly could be going on at the National Geographic Society to require a police cordon? The answer is very simple . . . the annual cheese extravaganza with Steven Jenkins and Joshua Wesson!

Writing this I suddenly feel very hungry. I think I will head down to the kitchen and prepare a cheeseboard to be served with a nice Pinot Grigio. Tonight I imagine I will dream of cheese. It won’t be the first time, and it certainly won’t be the last. It’s in my blood. In the meantime I will leave you with an interesting cheese fact which you can ponder at your discretion: Did you know that what appears to be the remains of some sort of cheese was once discovered in Egyptian tombs over 4,000 years old? And archeologists tell us that cheese was being made from cow and goat milk in Mesopotamia before 6000 BC! You can look it up!

NEXT WEEK: I will be on a well-deserved hiatus until June 7 when I return with “Zwei Smarte Boys,” a tribute to a good friend and mentor. Until then I am off on another road trip through northern New England and Québec, digging up new tales and random thoughts from the Edge of America and beyond.

14 comments:

  1. Hi, Steve,

    I enjoyed reading about cheese first thing on a Monday morning. Even though I am hungry now for some cheese, some how reading about food helped me to wake up a little bit. Just the thought of having something that creates energy, created energy. Anyway, enjoy your time on the road.

    From a friend of a friend of yours, who remains anonymous, for now.

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  2. Ahhh Bon Brie. It's the only cheese, twenty years after the closing of the little shop in Mapleton, that I can still smell and taste in my mind, and recognize as if it's right in front of me. And still I search for a brie that compares. That the Bon Brie culture was allowed to perish is a tragedy future generations will never know the depths of. Thank you for the great article.

    pete@mdla.net

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  3. Hi Steve,
    When I was younger I enjoyed Bon Brie as a rare treat, we called it stinky feet cheese. My fathers secretary would bring it back from Wisconsin when she would visit her son for the holidays. I have a collegue that is from Wisconsin and has been searching for Bon Brie whenever he visits home so far he has been unsuccessful, we now understand why.
    Have you found anything that comes close
    to the flavor and texture?

    cdyer@saturnee.com

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  4. I grew up in Wauwatosa, and am another who misses the fantastic Bon Brie. I can still remember the conversation I had with my Mom years ago, when I returned to Milwaukee for a visit, and I told her one of the things I wanted to do while back home was to visit the Wisconsin Cheese Mart downtown for some Bon Brie. She told me the story of the cheese maker closing and no one else makes it. I argued with her, and said "but no, someone else must be making it now", but of course, I was wrong. There is a Widmer brick that is sort of similar (at least it has that same pale orange color)but alas, I too still remember the Bon Brie fondly. Why the family did not sell the culture and recipe to someone, has to go down as one of the biggest missed opportunities in history!

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  5. I loved your article, I too have searched high and low for a comparable cheese to bon brie to no avail. My grandfather used to bring a brick home with him whenever he would pass by the place that made it. He always made sure there was at least a little left for the next time us grandkids would come to visit. We would get there and he would take the precious gemstone of saran wrapped pale orange from the back of the cheese drawer In the fridge and place it on the small cutting board. As he unwrapped it the smell of creamy bliss would hit our noses and we would begin to quietly share the special treat.

    Bon brie is no longer with us, and sadly neither is Papa. But the memories of him sharing his precious cache of Bon brie will live with me always.

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  6. I too miss the Mapleton Bon Brie. We lived in Milwaukee at the time and my wife's family was in Watertown. Mapleton was on the way and we would get a 5 lb brick of mild. It kept well and by the time we finished it it was well aged, and we had the total spectrum of flavors.
    Pete J. In Texas

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  7. I have been a fan of Mapleton Cheese from Mapleton Wisconsin since around 1950. In the 1070's Mapleton Cheese moved to a larger factory in Central Wisconsin but went out of business several years later. Bon Brie took over the Mapleton facility in the side of a hill in Mapleton after the original Mapleton Cheese factory moved and I became a fan of their Bon Brie Cheese. Now they are gone and the closest I have been able to find is Limberger cheese from Monroe Wisconsin, but the texture is not as pleasing. There is a cheese returning to Wisconsin made by the DCI Cheese Company in Richfield Wisconsin during March of 2011 called Liederkranz Cheese. This is similar to Limberger Cheese and was last made in Ohio in 1985. The cheese is available from the West Allis Cheese & Sausage Shoppe. I will be trying this cheese soon and can only hope that it is as good as Bon Brie or Mapleton Chees.

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  8. Bob Brie. I grew up with it. Didn't know what other cheeses were until I was about 8 years old. I thought all cheese was like Bon Brie. After I married, I lived only 5 miles from the Mapleton Cheese factory and was delighted to be able to load up on the stuff at will. I especially loved the bricks of it with a sprinkling of caraway seeds throughout. It was unbeliveable when they closed. I had heard that they had been asked to make too many changes as required by new FDA rules and the tiny company just could afford to take on these changes and so they closed. I had also heard that that same year an additional 98 other small cheese producers also bit the dust with the new FDA regs. It would be interesting to know if anyone knows how to find out what the truth to that story is. I am surprised to hear anyone comparing the mild creamy Bon Brie to the evil Limberger! UGH! Two completely different things. Like comparing rope to licorice. I now live in West Bend, WI so not too far from Richfield (15 minutes?). I will be looking for the DCI Cheese Company and Liederkranz Cheese. A full report to follow for those aching for the beloved Bon Brie of yor.

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  9. I actually found this site by googling bon brie to see if I could find any information on a similar cheese. I grew up in Michigan, but ended up spending many summers in Stone Bank (outside of Oconomowoc). Mapleton cheese was what I called it and it was great for cheese sandwiches. I really miss it and wish it could be revived.

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  10. Well now! It appears that the little village of Mapleton, WI has developed quite a legacy in the cheese history of Wisconsin. I am concerned that the true credit for 3 cheeses developed from out of the Mapleton Cheese Factory goes to their rightful developer. A Swiss immigrant named Hans Tschan developed 3 uniguely different brick style cheeses at that cheese factory. In order of their creation is as follows; BEER KAESE, MAPLETON SEMI SOFT and BON BREE. Only one of the 3 is still made today, and that is BEER KAESE, distributed by the Wisconsin Cheese Group located in Monroe, WI. Try it, I believe you would be pleasantly pleased with the flavor and texture.

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    1. Dennis - Check out my July 24, 2013 blog. Bon Bree in the Mapleton tradition is now being made in Waukesha by Williams Homestead Creamery and available in stores in the southeastern Wisconsin. Steve

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  11. I've been looking for a cheese with caraway that was made near Oconomowoc in the 80's. Sound familiar?

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  12. I grew up in Oconomowoc and when I moved to Massachusetts I would visit my parents and we would take my little ones out to Mapleton to see how the cheese was made. Every Christmas my parents would mail me Bon Brie and also summer sausage. My kids loved it. I too am a cheese head. I never pass up an opportunity to eat cheese. One Christmas I wanted to surprise my grown kids and grandchildren with Bon Brie. Searched high and low for the website and even emailed a friend in Wisconsin. She said it had closed. I was so upset. No where have I been able to duplicate the Bon Brie. If anyone has any ideas please share!

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    Replies
    1. Bon Bree is back. Check out my blog on May 29, 2014. http://lookingtowardportugal.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-cheese-that-brings-back-memories.html It's quite good.

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