Say "Cheese"!

—by Anne Holzman

Hampden Park Co-op’s cheese manager, Linda Andersen, is looking forward to a special kind of holiday cheer this year.

“The thing about this year that’s going to be nice is, we have more room to display cheese,” Andersen said. By the end of October, she had put in orders for some holiday favorites and was ready to entice customers to try something new.

“The crowd here, they like some fancy stuff, but mainly cheddar,” she said. She likes to encourage adventure, but she tries to keep the regulars happy too. “I’m also listening to what people want,” she said.

One common request is goat cheese, for people who can’t digest cow’s milk. The expanded space has offered her the opportunity to “give them more variety.”

She said goat cheeses from nearby Mt. Sterling Co-op sell well. She keeps mozzarella and cheddar in stock, and tries other varieties to see if they’ll catch on.

“We’re trying to sample a little bit more” since the expansion, she said.

An imported honey-goat cheese is selling well. Customers report that they serve it as a dessert, Andersen said, or for breakfast with fruit. (I helped myself to a taste of it on a recent afternoon and was surprised by its mild flavor — although I willingly down cracker after cracker of far gamier cheeses.)

Andersen likes to support local industry, especially the smaller producers, a preference that guides the balance of shelf space.

There are some advantages to working with the larger distributors, she said. The co-op uses small quantities, and a distributor of many brands can mix them for a weekly or monthly order, and offer deals. The bulk cheeses come from one large distributor and the imports from another.

Then again, the Twin Cities area is home to lots of cheese-makers. Andersen said she particularly enjoys working with Cow Caviar, out of Chippewa Falls, because a representative of the company brings the cheese in himself.

“My goal in the next year is to get in touch with some farmers and set up” more of those relationships, she said.

Southern Minnesota has a blue-cheese tradition, and Andersen said she likes the St. Pete’s brand from Faribault.

And while the French name makes it seem like an import, the soft cheese called Les Frères is made by Crave Brothers, in Waterloo, Wisconsin. “It’s sort of like a brie,” Andersen said. “It’s good quality.”

With the holidays arriving, Andersen hopes co-op customers will expand their horizons, not only serving cheese at winter gatherings but making a gift of it or picking it up for a last-minute potluck contribution.

She suggested a “locally made” theme for a cheese plate, including a selection of Les Frères and Cow Caviar, with Mt. Sterling’s mild goat cheddar. “People could actually try goat cheese without even knowing,” she said with a chuckle.

She said gift baskets with an Italian theme are popular, featuring pasta, parmesan, and a bottle of sauce.

Andersen mentioned fondue as a cheese habit that’s a little off the beaten path. I have some fond fondue memories from childhood, one of which had to do with kissing somebody if you dropped a piece of bread off your fork while dipping. We’ve revived the fondue tradition with our young children.

It takes some careful planning for safety, but it’s an interesting way of practicing fine-motor skills, teaching kids to use real tools, and, oh yeah, enjoying a family meal. It really is a hoot watching the kids chase the bread around in the pan, and they get distracted enough to try vegetables they’d normally pass over.

We also indulge in chocolate fondue now and then, dipping fruit. The main requirement, besides compatibility of flavors, is that the dipped item hold together well on the end of a fork.

We use gruyère and emmenthaler from Hampden Park Co-op in the following recipe, sometimes substituting an ounce or two of Swiss cheese for one or the other if the quantities don’t quite work out. The recipe, adapted from the booklet that came with our Cuisinart electric fondue pot, has become a favorite even for our generally cheese-averse firstborn. It does include a fair amount of alcohol (you’ll have to get the Kirschwasser as well as the wine at a liquor store), much of which seems to evaporate.

[Anne Holzman is a cheese-loving freelance writer and editor.]