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NATURALLY HEALTHY www.gourmetnews.com n MARCH 2017 n GOURMET NEWS N H 1 3 8 Little Mountain Takes the Summit at ACS Contest By Lorrie Baumann Little Mountain from the Roelli Cheese Company, Inc., won the first place award in Best of Show competition at the American Cheese Society's annual awards. Little Mountain, made by Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker Chris Roelli, won the top award from among this year's 1,843 entries from 260 companies. In second place were Buff Blue from Bleating Heart Cheese and St. Malachi Re- serve from The Farm at Doe Run, which fin- ished in a tie. Buff Blue is a blue cheese made with water buffalo milk by California Cheesemaker Seana Doughty, who took the win as redemption as she fights her way back from a 2014 listeria recall that nearly put her out of business. "Winning this award was huge for me," she said. "When I won this award, I just went back to my room and called my husband and just cried." "I finally cracked the 'code di bufala,'" she added. "I finally can say I think I am a good cheesemaker now." Third place was also tied two ways. Jeffs' Select Gouda was submitted by Caves of Faribault but made in a collaboration with Maple Leaf Cheese. Master Cheesemaker Jeff Wideman at Maple Leaf made the orig- inal Gouda that became Jeffs' Select Gouda after affinage by Jeff Jirik at Caves of Farib- ault. Together, Wideman and Jirik are the Jeffs after which the cheese is now named, after a working name for the project became the cheese's official name when it was sub- mitted for the contest. Greensward by Mur- ray's Cheese shares the third-place honors. Murray's aged Jasper Hill's Harbison, wash- ing it with cider, to make this cheese, which was originally created four years ago exclu- sively for Eleven Madison Park restaurant. "It's been a project we've been collaborating on for four years, and they are dialing it in," commented Jasper Hill Cheesemaker Mateo Kehler. Under the ACS competition rules, each cheese may be entered only once per calen- dar year, even if it's sold under different la- bels, so for the collaboration cheeses to be entered separately, the aging by a separate affineur must have changed the cheese's character so signficantly that it requires a separate identity. That's a judgment call that's made by the original cheesemaker and affineur on the honor system. For a first in the competition's history, there were two first-place ties for subcate- gory winners. Under the contest's rules, ties are allowed for second- and third-place awards but not for first-place awards. Each cheese is judged by a pair of judges: one looking at technical criteria who subtracts from a starting point of 50 points for any de- fects in the cheese, and the other looking at aesthetic criteria who awards points from a starting point of zero for characteristics just as flavor, aroma and visual beauty for a pos- sible total score of 100 points. In the past, a tied score for first place has been broken by asking the aesthetic judge to go back to two best cheeses to see if there's anything that el- evates one over the other for a possible ad- dition to the aesthetic score. Points are never deducted from the technical score once that judge has spoken. This year, though, six cheeses in two dif- ferent categories earned perfect 100-point scores. Two of those were Lenberg Farms Classic Reserve by Celebrity, Lindsay Band- aged Cheddar from Atalanta Corporation's Mariposa Dairy and Avonlea Clothbound Cheddar – Aged Over 12 Months from Cows Creamery. They competed in the category for cheddars wrapped in cloth or linen and aged over 12 months, made from any milk. And in the open category for soft-ripened cheeses made from cow's milk, an astound- ing four cheeses tied for first place with per- fect 100-point scores: Harbison from Cellars at Jasper Hill, Moses Sleeper from Cellars at Jasper Hill, MouCO Ashley from MouCo Cheese Company and Mtn. Ash from Sweet Rowen Farmstead. Because they competed in an open category, these cheeses represent a wide variety of styles, so there was no way to compare them directly with each other, said John Antonelli, who chaired the judging committee this year. "A judge scoring a 100 for Harbison could also score a 100 for Moses Sleeper because each of these cheeses were at their finest," he said. "It would have been insulting to the cheesemakers to ask the judges to break that tie." Harbison won a third-place award in the Best of Show cate- gory last year. Harbison was a happy acci- dent that occurred in 2008 when a batch of brie-style Moses Sleeper cheese was found to contain too much moisture, and Cheese- maker Mateo Kehler rescued it by strapping a spruce band around it. It's named after Anne Harbison, an honorary granny for all of Greensboro, Vermont, where Jasper Hill Farm is located. We wanted to honor a living legend among us, Kehler said last year. The cheese, formed in a 10-ounce round, is made from pasteurized milk. It peaks at about 70 days of aging, when it's soft enough to eat with a spoon. It is possible to eat a whole one by yourself, Kehler said. Cellars at Jasper Hill's Winnimere also took a first-place award in its category for soft farmstead cheeses made from cow's milk and aged 60 days or more. Kehler noted that a farmstead cheese represents a particu- larly difficult category because farmstead cheeses are made from the milk of a single herd raised on the same farm that houses the creamery where the cheese is made. "Farm- stead cheesemaking is a relentless grind into forever," Kehler said. Winnimere, a Vacherin-style soft cheese that's also wrapped in a spruce band from trees grown in the woodlands at Jasper Hill, was named the ACS Best of Show winner three years ago. "This is fun. We're having so much fun," Kehler said. Best of show winners were selected from among the first-place finishers in all subcat- egories. "At the end, the cheeses were judged according to their 'yum factor,'" Antonelli said, adding that at that point, the judges were looking for a cheese that might change their lives. "It takes a combination of people and attention to detail," he noted. Best of Show winner Little Mountain is an Alpage-style washed rind cheese made from thermalized cow milk, which means that the milk is heated to a temperature that reduces its microorganism load without eliminating it completely before it's chilled and then re- heated for inoculation with a starter culture. "Alpage" suggests a cheese made in the warmer months of the year from milk taken from cows on an Alpine mountain pasture. Except for the actual Alps, Wisconsin's land- scape is much like that of Switzerland, with similar pasture grasses and soil types, Roelli said. He makes the cheese in summer and au- tumn with milk from a single family dairy. "I get to work with the same milk every day," Roelli said. "If I get good milk in and don't screw it up, there's a pretty good chance I'll get a good cheese." Little Mountain is made using very tradi- tional methods and copper utensils in a stain- less steel vat from milk with a very small amount of a proprietary mix of a couple of cultures. "Copper delivers a flavor profile you can't get any other way," Roelli said. "You can't duplicate that without using cop- per." Forms are hand-filled. After the wheels come out of the forms, they're dry-salted and then stored in a cooler for a couple of days. Then each wheel gets a couple of days of washing with a weak brine before going on for more washing with a solution of bacteria and yeast that develops into a mother. "It [the mix of cultures] evolves from something readily bought into something else," Roelli said. "These are cultures that are quite ag- gressive." The cheese is washed with the cul- ture solution every day for two to three months and then every other day after that to build flavor and thicken the rind. "We brush it and gently rub it around the outside of the wheel," Roelli said. As the cheese ages, it'll eventually go back to a brine wash to inhibit molds. The aging takes place on wood shelves, and the resulting cheese is an expression of the milk, the pasture grasses and Wisconsin's lime- stone-rich soils as well as the skill of a fourth-generation cheesemaker descended from a Swiss immigrant. "Our family has been making cheese in the same facility for almost 100 years," Roelli said. "What we have in Wisconsin is something we're trying to bring to the forefront – great grass, great cows.... We're exceptionally proud of the milk produced in Wisconsin." The particular wheel that won the contest was aged for nine months, although Roelli Cheese Company sells the cheese at ages from eight to 14 months, said Roelli. "It's my favorite cheese to make." Gluten-Free Label Still Appeals, Becomes Secondary to Other Benefits By Greg Gonzales Disco didn't really go anywhere; it inspired new forms of music, and eventually gave rise to nu-disco, a genre that blends the classic style with electronic dance music and mod- ern rock, satisfying a larger and more diverse crowd. The same could be said for gluten- free foods. Sales growth peaked a year ago, but producers continue to launch and expand gluten-free lines, innovating them with nu- tritious, better-tasting ingredients that help the products compete with their gluten-con- taining counterparts. Though gluten-free food sales are growing at a slower pace, the brands and their fans are here to stay. Going gluten-free is not motivated by gluten intolerance or sensitivities for most people, but a third of American consumers still purchase gluten-free products. According to the Packaged Facts July/August 2016 Na- tional Consumer Survey, 30 percent of con- sumers who bought gluten-free foods said they bought them for reasons other than gluten-free certification. Twenty-nine percent of respondents said the products are "gener- ally healthier," while 20 percent said they use the products to manage weight. Of those sur- veyed, nine percent of consumers said they buy gluten-free products for a household member who has celiac disease, a condition that affects only one percent of the population. "The bottom line is, people are looking at the back of the package and being critical of what they put in their mouths," said Barry Novick, President of Kitchen Table Bakers. "If the consumer turns the package over and the information is not there, the consumer suffers." Consumers seek out gluten-free, but want more than a gluten-free label. A 2013 New York Times poll found 75 percent of Ameri- cans were concerned about GMOs. A 2015 Gallup poll showed that 44 percent of Ameri- cans incorporate organic foods in their diet, too, and half of them avoid sugar. In addition, about 90 percent of those polled said they try to eat more fruits and vegetables. This lines up with Nielsen's Global Health and Ingredient- Sentiment Survey, which found that 64 percent of respondents are avoiding or limiting con- sumption of specific foods or ingredients. "Informed and savvy consumers are de- manding more from the foods they eat, and some are prioritizing ingredients over brands," said Andrew Mandzy, Director of Strategic Health and Wellness Insights at Nielsen, in the ingredient-sentiment survey report. "To many consumers, simple is beau- tiful, and foods with a short list of recogniz- able ingredients resonate strongly. Savvy manufacturers are responding to this trend by modifying product portfolios by simplifying food ingredient lists and creating natural and organic alternatives to existing offerings. Meanwhile, retailers are also prioritizing healthful foods and better-for-you brands in the center of the store, and emphasizing fresh and perishable foods around the perimeter in order to drive growth." Total sales for gluten-free foods this year are set to clock in at $1.328 billion, accord- ing to the Packaged Facts Gluten-Free Foods in the U.S. report. The report also said gluten-free food sales growth fell from 81 percent in 2013 and 30 percent in 2014 to 11 percent in 2015. By 2021, the report says, growth rates should end up at a steady five to six percent, with $2 billion in sales by 2020. "Sales do continue to grow, just at a slower pace," said Mintel Senior Food and Drink Analyst Billy Roberts. "As manufac- turers, large and small, enter the largely frag- mented gluten-free marketplace, consumers gain an increased availability, quality and va- riety of options."

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