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OCG Show Daily Tuesday, June 12, 2018 1 6 Zingerman's Creamery: Making Rustic European-Style Cheeses in Fresh American Ways By Robin Mather For Ann Arbor, Michigan, resident Coco Vance, developing a passion for Ann Arbor's Zingerman's Creamery cheeses was almost a foregone conclusion. "I take classes at Zingerman's Bakeshop, which is just a few doors down from the Cream Top Shop," she said of the Creamery's retail shop. "My favorite thing there is the pimento cheese, and I buy it a few times a year." The Creamery is part of the Zingerman's family of businesses, all springing from the original Zingerman's Delicatessen which Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw opened in 1982 in Ann Arbor. The deli has been the subject of a great deal of national press, and its fans are almost cultish in their appreciation of the Ann Arbor landmark. Weinzweig and Saginaw have received many awards for their business model, and received lifetime achievement awards this year at the Specialty Food Association's Summer Fancy Foods show. The Zingerman's family includes retail stores and production companies, a farm, a restaurant and ZingTrain, which teaches the Zingerman's busi- ness philosophy through seminars, workshops and books. "Sometimes I also buy the pimento cheese at the Deli, which is within walk- ing distance of my house," Vance said. "I've been a customer (of the deli) for more than 20 years." Customers much farther afield have begun to share Vance's passion for Zingerman's Creamery cheeses, said CJ Bienert, the Founder and Owner of the Cheese Shop of Des Moines, Iowa, which opened in 2011, and its spin-off 70-seat cafe, which opened in June 2017. "Since the day we opened, Zingerman's has been a big part of our business philosophy," Bienert said. "At some point, we've had everything the Creamery makes, although we currently concentrate on Manchester, Detroit Street Brick and Lincoln Log." His customers respond to Zingerman's cheeses with enthusiasm, he said. "We add in others, but since we've opened, we've always had Detroit Street Brick and Lincoln Log. It's satisfying to me when customers come in and buy a pound or two week after week. It's been satisfying to see a market that's ready for these rustic, arti- san-style domestic cheeses." "Lincoln Log was the cheese that made me believe," Bienert said. The Creamery's Lincoln Log is a soft- ripened goat cheese log about four inch- es in diameter, with a thin bloomy white rind and a soft paste that firms into a fudgy texture as it ages. Bienert, a Certified Cheese Professional, says it compares to fine European goat cheeses. "Being a veteran of Eurocentric cheese counters, it is wonderful for me to see a great cheese like that," he said. "Zingerman's is definitely in the fore- front of the American artisan cheese revolution." In fact, echoing those traditional European cheeses is precisely Zingerman's goal, said Aubrey Thomason, the Creamery's Managing Partner. "We're making lactic cheeses, and those aren't available widely in the market. Our cheeses are very rustic, very true to style." A lactic cheese is made with little to no rennet, relying on the action of bacte- ria to convert the milk sugars into lactic acid. When acidification reaches high enough levels, the milk will coagulate even without rennet, but it can take 16 to 24 hours to reach high enough acidity. By contrast, rennet-coagulated cheeses set in just 10 to 30 minutes. Zingerman's Creamery opened in 2001, under the guidance of then-man- aging partner John Loomis. The cream- ery also makes gelato and has done so since its beginnings. While its first cheeses were simple cream cheeses, today the creamery produces nine fresh cheeses and 11 aged cheeses, many with Michigan-centric names. The Detroit Street Brick, for example, is named for the brick-paved street in front of the Deli. The fresh cheeses are cream cheese; fresh goat cheese; Liptauer, a spread fla- vored with garlic, capers, paprika, car- away and anchovies; Vance's favorite pimento cheese; the City Goat, a round, traditional chèvre; Sharon Hollow, a seasonal cheese offered in either garlic and chive or garlic and black pepper- corn; fresh mozzarella; and burrata, the traditional Italian mozzarella pouch filled with shredded mozzarella and heavy cream. Zingerman's Creamery's aged cheeses are Pere Marquette, an homage to the classic French St. Marcellin; Manchester, a cow's milk cheese made with added cream; Manistique, a Manchester round wrapped in savoy cabbage leaves to age; Washtenaw, a cow's milk round with a rind washed with a Saison ale; Chelsea, an aged chèvre log with an ashy rind; Bridgewater, a cow's milk double-cream globe dotted with whole and cracked Tellicherry peppercorns; Detroit Street Brick, a multiple award winner in American Cheese Society competitions, a goat milk cheese with a penicillium rind, flecked with green peppercorns; Lincoln Log; Little Napoleon, a chèvre with a buttery rind and a velvety paste; Chestnut Little Napoleon, which is wrapped in wine-soaked chestnut leaves; and Little Ypsi, a chèvre honor- ing the classic French crottin. All of Zingerman's Creamery cheeses are made from locally-sourced milk. The Creamery gets much of its cow milk from Calder Dairy, a nearly half-century old-Detroit metro dairy that milks Brown Swiss, Holstein and Jersey cows. Brown Swiss and Jersey cows produce milk that's especially high in butterfat and protein, both important to cheese makers, while Holsteins produce high volumes of milk. The Creamery has been buying goat milk for five to six years from HK/New Era farm in Onandaga, Michigan, about 20 miles south of Lansing. "Before we sold milk to Zingerman's, we sold to other places, but we weren't getting enough money to make the feed bills," said Mike Metzger, a Partner in HK/New Era who's also a Small Ruminant Field Educator at the Michigan State University Extension Service. Metzger's partner, Rusty Plummer, manages the farm day to day. The farm has some 143 does in milk, Metzger said, mostly Saanen and Alpine. "About two thirds of our milk goes to Zingerman's," Metzger said. "We deliver once a week, and they pay us a premium because they know the milk they're getting is high quality." Metzger said the premium, which helps makes the farm profitable, is just one way that Zingerman's helps its local producers. "A few years ago, when alfalfa hay prices were really high, they offered to underwrite a loan for us that would let us buy the year's hay," he said. "That really made a difference for us." Thomason, the Creamery's Managing Partner, said the creamery buys about 500 gallons each of cow and goat milk from its suppliers. "That makes us pretty mid-sized," she said. That may change soon, though. The Creamery is in the middle of a $1.2 mil- lion renovation, which will allow increased production and, Thomason said, "will bring it up to standard, and to make it a facility that can be audited. Some distributors, like Whole Foods, can't sell our cheeses because we don't have an audit in place." Audits would cover lot tracking, and monitor sanitary issues, such as complete control of the air coming into and leaving the creamery, and whether the entire plant is cleanable and wash- able, she said. Under some audit plans, mock recalls test the company's ability to respond to such problems. Creating a HACCP plan is also tak- ing time. "It's the same amount of paperwork for any small business," Thomason said. "The bakery had some- one working full-time for two years on creating a HACCP plan." Thomason has 17 employees, most full time and some part-time, but they're gelato or cheese makers, counter people or work in mail order and shipping. And then there is making plans for long-term improvements, she said. "It's the million cuts that kill you," she said. "We had visions and desires of achiev- ing 15 percent profit. We know that we can do it – it's just achieving it." Des Moines Cheesemonger Bienert is confident that Zingerman's Creamery will continue to excel. 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