Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
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sell steadily at a few specialty cheese coun- ters. These little-known wheels provide an opportunity for mongers to engage with customers and lead them to discoveries. The former is "very much a sampling prod- uct," says Antonelli. From the rind's cara- mel color, customers expect the cheese to be smokier than it is. American smoked cheddars abound— retailers cited fine ones from Grafton Village, Rumiano, and Carr Valley— but English examples are rare stateside. Several specialty retailers praise the smoked clothbound Cheddar from Quickes. Cheesemaker Mary Quicke cuts her 12- to 15-pound truckles into 3-pound wedges before smoking for better penetration. The process takes 14 to 16 hours at 72 F and uses oak chips gathered from the property. "People need to look at the Quickes," says Christian Petty, cheese buyer for Surdyk 's in Minneapolis. "It's well-made cheese. We've paired it with Sauternes and it's been a big hit." A Seasonal Opportunity Autumn is an ideal time to beef up your smoked cheese inventory. Cross merchan- dise with Oktoberfest beers, doppelbocks, and other malt-forward styles popular in fall. Many of these cheeses complement autumn vegetables such as butternut squash, cauliflower, and eggplant. Showcase them in sandwich programs and use cheese-case signage to suggest culinary uses. On a cheese board, they can (and maybe should) stand alone, accompanied by charcuterie, spicy preserves or autumn fruit. Introduce your customers to high-quality smoked cheeses and you won't lose that sale to a chain store. You can go overboard and then the cheese tastes like a burnt campfire." At Liberty Heights Fresh in Salt Lake City, cheese buyer Wendy Robinson does well with the smoked products from local creamery Gold Creek Farms. The Gold Creek Smoked Cheddar sells because it's local; the Smoked Parmesan because it's a novelty and tasty on pasta. "To be honest, I don't know if smoked cheese would sell more if I brought more in," says the retailer, who suspects that her customers buy most of their smoked cheese at chain stores. Favorites from Europe Smoked blue cheese, Gouda, parmesan, and chevre may be American originals, but smoked cheese has a long history in Europe. In the days before refrigeration, cheesemak- ers relied on wood smoke for preservation. Especially in southern Italy, where fresh cheeses would spoil quickly, cheesemak- ers smoked ricotta, mozzarella, provola, scamorza, and caciocavallo to extend the cheeses' life. Today, in the U.S., the smoked pasta filata cheeses (mozzarella, scamorza, and the like) are primarily deli and foodservice items. Andy Lax of Fresca Italia, the San Francisco Bay Area–based distributor, says that some top Bay Area trattorias—among them, A-16 and Locanda in San Francisco and Boot & Shoe Service in Oakland—cook with smoked caciocavallo, but retailers find the pear-shaped cheese awkward to portion. For retail counters, the smoked sheep's milk ricottas from Puglia and Sardinia might be easier to handle and sell. Grated over pasta with tomato, eggplant, zucchini, caulif low- er, beans, or sausage, they add a seductive wood-fired note. Spain's preeminent smoked cheeses— Idiazabal and the cow's milk San Simon— smoked cow's milk wheel from River Whey Creamery, a new San Antonio producer. US Producers Take a Chance The Rogue Creamery cheese is a prime exam- ple of the creativity enlivening this niche. Developed in response to a chef's request and smoked over local hazelnut shells, the cheese pioneered a whole new category: smoked blue. Rogue's proprietor David Gremmels believes that Smokey Blue's success, after a slow debut, inspired Moody Blue from Wisconsin's Roth Kase and Salemville Smokehaus Blue from Saputo. Marieke Penterman, the Dutch-born cheesemaker behind Wisconsin's Marieke Gouda, has also innovated in this segment. "I had never heard of smoked cheese until I came to the U.S.," admits Penterman, who nevertheless spied an opportunity. She now contracts with a local expert to cold-smoke wheels of her cumin Gouda; the smoked cheese is a big hit in Midwest markets. Another cheesemaker with a "why not?" attitude—Pat Morford of River's Edge Chevre in Oregon—makes about 800 wheels a week of Up in Smoke, young goat disks wrapped in maple leaves that Morford collects and smokes in the fall. The 4-ounce pucks need only about 20 minutes in a cold smoker fueled with alder. Although she suspects most customers use it on a cheese plate, she often cooks with it, adding it to quiches, omelets, onion tart, and stuffing for chicken breasts. Haystack Mountain has been making its Applewood Smoked Chevre since 1992 and sells several hundred pounds a week, says John Scaggs, the creamery's sales and marketing director. The Colorado creamery uses an old pastry proofing box as a smoker, filling the chamber with smoke and then rolling a rack of fresh goat cheese inside. The process takes about an hour at less than 80 F. "The magic is in knowing when to turn off the element," says Scaggs. "It's tricky. It took us a long time to find the sweet spot. cheese focus Autumn is an ideal time to beef up your smoked cheese inventory. Janet Fletcher writes the email newsletter "Planet Cheese" and is the author of Cheese & Wine and Cheese & Beer. 40 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com