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GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2018 www.gourmetnews.com SUPPLIER NEWS 1 4 Emmi Roth Adds 1,600 Solar Panels to Plant Emmi Roth has completed a solar panel in- stallation at its Platteville, Wisconsin, plant. Initiated by a new sustainability goal, Emmi Roth put 1,602 JA 330 watt panels on the roof of its cheese production facility. The installation, managed by Eagle Point Solar out of Dubuque, Iowa, will reduce the company's carbon footprint by eliminating 14,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the environment – equal to saving 1.4 million gallons of gas, recycling 43,000 tons of waste or reducing coal usage by 13 million pounds. "There are many companies trying to live up to sustainability goals," said Jim Pullen, General Manager at Eagle Point Solar. "Emmi Roth is part of a group that actually makes these goals a reality and invests in the environment." The solar panels will supply 15 percent of the annual electric use of the cheese making plant. "We want to have the lowest possible carbon footprint we could have in the in- dustry," said Tim Omer, President and Managing Director at Emmi Roth. "This is another step in our commitment to focus on sustainable initiatives, so it's very excit- ing for all of us here at Emmi Roth." The company also recently invested in a new anaerobic digester at the same location in Platteville, Wisconsin, in an effort to lower operational costs and remain environmen- tally responsible for the waste being produced during their cheesemaking operations. The investment in the anaerobic technology will also allow the company to use biogas as an energy source in the future. GN Who Knew Wisconsin Was Horseradish Heaven? PHOTO CREDIT: JUAN PAULO MIRANDA BY LORRIE BAUMANN Imagine yourself up a thick roast beef sand- wich on a crusty French roll with a slab of an aged Alpine-style cheese from Wiscon- sin – I'll let you pick which one – maybe a slice of Beefsteak tomato and a really good dab of a nice horseradish mustard. Sit on that a while. Hungry yet? Now, still in your imagination, take away the horseradish. Missing something? It is very likely that you owe that zing to Sil- ver Spring Foods and to Eric Rygg, the company's President and a fourth- generation member of the family-owned com- pany founded by his great-grandfather, Ellis Huntsinger. He started the company after his business selling lightning rods door-to-door fell victim to the Great Depression. He needed something to fall back on, and he needed it in a hurry. He turned to his farm for something else he could sell even in the midst of widespread financial collapse. "He grew melons and sweet corn and strawberries and horserad- ish," Rygg says. "The product they were able to harvest was great but very seasonal. He was looking for something he could sell in the winter months." Horseradish comes from a root from a plant that grows well in Eau Claire, Wis- consin, which is where Silver Spring Foods is located today as the world's largest grower and processor of horseradish. The company's product range has expanded since those early days to encompass more than 100 condiment products, some with a zing that comes from sriracha, some with a bite from chile peppers, some with a wow from wasabi, and of course, a whole range of sauces that get their zip from horserad- ish. They include Horseradish Steak Sauce, Cranberry Horseradish, the best-selling Beer 'n Brat Mustard, Jalapeno Mustard and Chipotle Mustard as well as its newest product, Applewood Smoke Flavored Horseradish Sauce. "We may very well be the largest grower or the largest processor, but definitely the largest grower and processor because it's very rare to do both," he said. "We got our start in horseradish, and we continue to do horseradish, but we do a lot of other things, too." Ellis Huntsinger's worthy descendants tend to believe that any sandwich has a bet- ter bite to it if it bites back a bit. "My horse- radish roots run deep," Rygg says with a straight face – he's got a whole bunch of those lines, collected through the generations, so you don't necessarily want to get him started down that road. That sandwich idea is his, too – he's scheming just now to persuade Eau Claire's chefs to come up with a recipe for a sandwich that the city can adopt as its signature contribution to culinary history in much the same way that Philadelphia is firmly identified with the Philly Cheesesteak. He doesn't yet know what that sandwich is going to be – that's up to the community – but he's sure that it ought to have horseradish and a slice of a beauti- ful Wisconsin cheese. Probably roast beef, and there'll be some kind of bread. But def- initely horseradish. "No roast beef sand- wich left behind," Rygg says. "With horseradish, we're in a great position to do that. I just think about all those sandwiches out there that don't have that great combi- nation." As married as Rygg thinks horse- radish is to roast beef, it also has a long history of fooling around – very publicly – with shrimp. Horseradish is used most often in seafood cock- tail sauces, and Silver Spring Foods has a thriving private-label and co- packing business, so odds are that if you've enjoyed that dollop of cock- tail sauce the last time you ordered a shrimp cocktail or you tasted a little extra zip in your Bloody Mary, that came from Silver Spring Foods. "Our mission is to make food taste better. We say that we bring excitement and flavor to food," Rygg says. "We be- lieve that horseradish gives the food we love the extra zing it needs to go from traditional to traditional with a twist. Without adding sugar or fat, it's like free flavor." Under his leadership, the company now has its sights set on expanding its reach into the specialty foods market with prod- ucts like the Cranberry Horseradish, and Applewood Smoke Flavored Horseradish, which Rygg says is his current favorite among the product line. He ascended to the company presidency in October of this year after an apprenticeship that started with work in the horseradish fields while he was in high school and continued through his presidency of Kelchner's, a company sub- sidiary known in the mid-Atlantic states for seafood sauce, while he was studying busi- ness in graduate school. He likes that Ap- plewood Smoke Flavored Horseradish on a turkey sandwich with lettuce and tomato and maybe some avocado, but the sauce has the versatility to work in a variety of recipes. "It's really good with everything – roast beef sandwiches, seafood, mixed into mashed potatoes, or over vegetables," Rygg says. "It's really starting to catch on in the market now. Smoke flavors are hot." "Before launching that, I would have said the Beer 'n Brat Mustard," he adds. "It's not for amateurs. It's pretty hot." The Beer 'n Brat Mustard, like other horseradish products, gets its heat from a naturally occurring chemical called allyl isothiocyanate. It's produced by an enzyme- catalyzed chemical reaction that occurs naturally as soon as the plant's roots are crushed in the air – the plant's natural de- fense from being eaten by rooting wildlife – we're looking at you, pigs. There's a reason why most of us leave our handling of raw horseradish roots to the professionals, and allyl isothiocyanate is it. Its potency is at its maximum when the roots are first crushed, tapering off slowly as the reac- tions raw materials are ex- hausted. The addition of a little vinegar when the sauce's heat level is just right interrupts the reaction, giving the sauce a shelf life of up to six months. As Ellis Huntsinger himself discovered, the addition of a little cream to the horseradish sauce moderates the reaction to give it just a little extra shelf life, but either way, the clock on the sauce's heat starts ticking as soon as the horseradish root is crushed, so a horserad- ish sauce is best enjoyed within six months of its production. For further information, visit www .silverspringfoods.com. GN

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