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Usually around the holidays I pick up our family’s copy of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. Since I’m a bit of a science-nerd reading a chapter here and there is really fun, even when it’s a re-read. Yesterday I went over the section on cheeses. Both the science and history were rather interesting, and I particularly considered deeply the cross-cultural and generational issues.
Growing up in the northeast as a kid I ate Kraft singles, but when I moved to Oregon it was all about Tillamook. I hadn’t thought about this contrast until a friend who went to graduate school in Boston brought it up as a major culinary difference. Of course the Pacific Northwest, or Wisconsin for that matter, have nothing compared to the diverse and historically ancient traditions of Europe when it comes to cheeses.
The author of On Food and Cooking attributes the rise of cookie-cutter bland American cheeses to the combination of this nation’s short history along with the rise of industrial food production in the 20th century. Since the first publication of the book though in the 1980s much has changed. I haven’t touched a Kraft singles in over 20 years, and a slab of Tillamook cheddar is my “basic cheese” now. Though there is a socioeconomic aspect to this, I think part of the change has been a genuine shift toward consuming more diverse flavors and textures. The marketplace has changed, and tastes have expanded.
In my post on Chipotle my criticism had a lot to do with the fact that I think Chipotle is to “authentic food” what Taco Bell is to “Mexican” cuisine. I’ve gone to Chipotle in the past, it’s food is fine, but the talk about locally sourced and GMO-free just struck me as so much cant (albeit, profitable for a long time). Some things are simply difficult to commoditize. Once you commoditize them then problems ensue. But when it comes to the proliferation of cheeses in America today, it’s actually the importation and spread of traditions which have a long history. They’re authentic not because they’re repackaging distinct constituent elements of authenticity (e.g., “hand-made”, “local”, “seasonal”), but are organically developed traditions which accrued through historical trial and error, and not marketing artifice. Often these cheeses cost a great deal more on a per unit basis than a slab of Tillamook cheddar, let along Kraft singles, but I think a piece of fromager d’affinois is worth it.
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I salute your taste in cheese.
My daughter decided fromager d’affinois was her favorite at 2, for months any time we walked by the cheese case she would insist on buying it and had to carry it all the way home till we could eat it.
She would choose it over ice cream.
What kind of 2 year old has tastes that expensive.
The appeal to long term traditions reminds me of the conservatism compendium you recommended recently which I have been perusing and enjoying.
I love Fromager d’Affinois, but it’s a high-tech cheese younger than you. I think it’s the opposite of “organically developed traditions which accrued through historical trial and error,” although maybe it’s just a new way of replicating an existing evolved product.
I also love Fromager D’Affinois, my favorite soft cheese by far.
But I learned that it is *not* actually the product of ancient local tradition, but rather a modern invention, from 1981. The uniqueness quality apparently comes via a new technology they call “ultrafiltration.”
http://www.sfgate.com/food/cheesecourse/article/If-you-like-it-rich-try-Fromager-d-Affinois-2540178.php
Tillamook cheddar is also my standard go-to cheese. But I still think a high quality slice of American Cheese is the best thing for a really good classic cheeseburger.
the more u know!!
The industrialization of cheese is going global with many rare cheeses facing extinction. France is being especially hard hit with large companies gaining more of the market share and sticking with a few easily mass produced cheeses at the expense of old hand crafted varieties.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/15/varieties-of-cheese-on-verge-of-extinction/?page=all
http://www.cheeserank.com/culture/endangered-cheese-list
http://frenchforfoodies.com/2012/10/22/fromage-under-fire-why-french-cheese-faces-extinction/
Will try Fromager D’Affinois based on the comments here
Interesting (to me at least) comment about Chipotle is that big ass burrito thing is from San Francisco and not Mexico. Those style of burritos came from the Mission District in the 1970’s. Cheap and filling food.
has spread to some interesting places
http://www.dolores-online.de/
“Often these cheeses cost a great deal more on a per unit basis than a slab of Tillamook cheddar, let along Kraft singles, but I think a piece of fromager d’affinois is worth it.”
I know there is some insensitively stating this as a comfortably middle class “SWPL” American with disposable income but some might consider spending more on higher quality food but eating less. Americans do not spend a lot of total income on food yet seem to too often be eating too many low quality calories.
Actually, fine, good, diverse cheeses used to exist in the US or in some European countries now known for their tendency to consume mostly plastic-like dairy food (the UK, Low Countries, etc). They’ve disappeared in great part due to the commodification of produces championed both by the State and big business.
Famously, in the UK, WWII planted the last nails on the coffin of cheese diversity as the government decided that all cow milk had to be processed in the form of industrial cheddar. Once peace and prosperity came back, the British dairy industry had been all but swept away. Fairly similar stories (albeit less dramatic) could be told about the US.
We,
the people of the Palatinate, being the rock against the surf
of Cheese from the west, know for shure:
“Kän bessre Kees wie Worschd”
(No better cheese than sausage)
:=)
“How can you govern a country which has 246 kinds of cheese.” Charles de Gaulle
If you have a true European deli by you with ridiculous diversity of meats and cheeses fresh sliced for you, you are blessed. They know their quality, they demand their quality, and they get it. The bread can’t just be fresh, you touch it through a wrapper to see that it is still warm from the oven. A sandwich was like a TV dinner to me. But now with my fresh bread and Euro quality ingredients it is a delight.
The American cheese situation reminds me of the beer one. I don’t know much about regulation in the dairy industry, except that raw milk is taboo in the US, but a cause of the dull conformity in American mass-market beer was the ban on homebrewing that lasted from Prohibition to 1978. Once the ban was lifted, homebrewers began experimenting with European styles and developing new styles, resulting in the craft beer market that really got going in the 1990s. One could make a decent case that the American craft beer scene is way more varied and interesting now than the European one.
Now that the American cheese market is also becoming varied and interesting, I’m wondering what government regulations are responsible for its previous mediocrity, or if it’s simply a matter of changing tastes.
I remember that there was a movement to boycott Kraft in the 1970s as they were said to buy up small cheese producers and close them down to prevent competition. Not sure if this was true, but the boycott (Don’t buy Kraft) was genuine.
When I was growing up in Asia, Kraft singles was an expensive treat, rather like Spam.
One thing nice about living in the Northeast is the grocery store Wegmans. It has lots of very good cheese available, all at reasonable costs. I am very partial to Spanish sheep cheese. I like the hard stuff with a slight peppery taste. Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s for peasants.