In March, my Culinary Class attended the Performance Food Group (PGF) Food Show in Atlanta. This show concentrated on the foodservice (restaurant) industry, but I did find a small cheese section which included some PFG exclusive cheeses offered as “European Pub Cheese Selection”. The sales rep, Angela Kislewski, subscribes to my website newsletter and our “cheese kinship” scored me a quarter wheel of the Tuscan Hand-Rubbed Fontina (Fontal) from the collection. (When we arrived, Alex, one of our chef professors joked about who could score the best take-away… I won…). This Fontina became the topping for a pizza I made with ham and pineapple. The Man swooned. The herbs were the perfect complement with the pineapple and ham creating an Italian/Hawaiian pizza.
Within a few days of the PGF Food Show, I posted a picture of the Tuscan herb-rubbed Fontina on my Facebook Page (please “Like”). Fellow ACS CCP® and friend in cheeses, Tara Harmon, saw the post and DMed me wanting to talk. As I had learned at the Show from Angela, the cheese was distributed by Schuman Cheese and Tara is a sales rep for Schuman.
Tara and I had a fun conversation about life, cheese and Schuman Cheese in particular. She educated me on the new direction of Schuman Cheese, previously Arthur Schuman Cheese, and offered to send me samples of some of their cheeses. And WOW!!! Did she ever send me samples; a gigantic box of cheeses.
Back in my Kroger/Murray’s Cheese days, David Diteman, who at the time was with Willis Marketing, sent me a wedge of Cello Parmesan which I reviewed. David also shared a bag of Cello Romano shreds which I used in a lemon garlic cream sauce. I also reviewed Schuman’s Cello Parmesan Whisps after getting them as a sample in an ACS Conference Goodie Bag. Soooo… Schuman Cello cheeses are well-known around “the manse” as Spaulding (RIP) liked to say when referring to our home.
In a later discussion with Tara, we decided I would use their cheeses for a cheese tasting I had scheduled for May 23rd. The tasting was a donation I made as part of a silent auction raising money for the local Pilot Club of Lavonia. The donation was for a cheese tasting, with accoutrements, for up to six people. Lavonia resident, and now friend, Adelia Miller was the high bid and her friend, Diane, owner of the Lavonia Health and Nutrition Center, offered her location to host the event. The Nutrition Center is located in an old farmhouse on Vickery Street across from First Baptist Church and offers vitamins, nutritional advice, cosmetic and personal care products. Each room on the first floor is filled with all kinds of vitamins and supplements for healthier life styles.
For the evening I chose four cheeses to taste with local honey and jams from Hillside Orchard Farms, one named “Traffic Jam” – I just had to try it based on the name alone, Columbus salamis and a blue cheese cheesecake which I made using Schuman’s Montforte Blue Cheese Crumbles. My crisps of choice for the evening were 34 Degrees Sesame Crisps.
Tara included a Cheese Flavor Wheel, which I copied and distributed to the eight who attended the evening. I asked them to make comments about the flavors and aromas for each cheese and choose their favorite of the four cheeses I served.
The first two cheeses produced by Yellow Door Creamery, a subsidiary of Schuman Cheese, were Alpine-style cheeses. Alpine-style cheeses 
are among my favorite style cheeses; they are great for snacking and even better for cooking. There’s a specific reason Alpine cheeses are good melters; after the curds are separated from the whey, the curds are heated which triggers the “melting” ability of the cheeses. Moisture content also contributes to melting; but that extra step of heating the curd is why so many recipes call for this style cheese.
Yellow Door Creamery sources their milk from only four family-owned farms all within 50 miles of the creamery. Once the milk arrives at the creamery, Christopher Megevand, Yellow Door’s Master Cheesemaker uses his 38 years of cheesemaking to oversee the making of these two small-batch cheeses. The execution of the unique recipes continues in the aging process where each wheel is hand–smeared and hand turned. Attention to detail rules the day behind The Yellow Door.
The first cheese we tasted was Monteau which is aged at least 120 days and inspired by Abondance. Comments from the eight attending the tasting included “Nutty”, “Sweet”, “Salty”, “Earthy” and “Smokey”. I tasted the nuttiness that I associate with Filberts with that earthy aroma near the rind that is the result of the smearing.
The second cheese from Yellow Door was Altu, another Alpine cheese. This one was inspired by Gruyere and aged 180 days. More robust and fuller flavored than Monteau, the comments for Altu included “Savory”, “Gamey”, “Nutty”, “Tart”, “Earthy” and “Barny”. This is another good snacker but one I would love to use in a fancy-smancy mac n cheese you serve to show-off your culinary skills.
Following the two Alpine Cheeses, I served two Parmesans: Zanetti’s Parmigiano Reggiano and Cello’s Organic Copper Kettle Parmesan.
In 2011, when I attended “Cheese”, known around the world as the Slow Food Cheese Festival, I also had the opportunity to visit the Zanetti aging facility in the Piedmonte region of Northwest Italy. We were treated to tastings of Parmigiano Reggianos aged 12, 24, 36 and 48 months. We wandered among the rows of grana cheeses; more than 60 rows, 30 wheels long and 15 wheels high, worth hundred of millions of Euros. For us cheese nerds it was a visit to always remember.
I always have a wedge of Zanetti Parmigiano Reggiano in the fridge (the brand Costco carries) and use it several times a week. Like all my cheese nerd friends, we eat A LOT of cheese around the manse and grate parm on top of potatoes, veggies, pizza – you name it; it’s always better topped with parmesan cheese.
The evening’s group comments included “Earthy”, “Sour”, ‘Tangy”, ‘Bitter”, “Mushroomy”, “Salty” and “Savory”.
After the Zanetti Parmigiano Reggiano, we tasted Schuman Cheese’s Cello Organic Copper Kettle Parmesan which was aged 12 months. Many European traditional PDO cheeses including Gruyere, Emmentaler, Sbrinz, Raclette, Comte and Parmigiano Reggiano use copper kettles when producing these cheeses. The use of copper kettles is mandated in the regulations of these cheeses and if not used, then the cheeses cannot use the names mentioned above.
However, there is more to this than just tradition. According to an article I read at Culture Magazine, in 2009 scientists in Italy made eight wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano; four using copper vats and four using stainless steel vats. After aging then almost a year and a half, they cracked the eight wheels open and… ta da… the wheels made in the stainless steel vats were inferior; both mechanically and taste-wise. Take a few minutes and read the article.
And the superior product delivered from using copper kettles is why Cello uses them to make their award-winning line of parms here in the US. The group responses included “Sweet”, “Earthy”, “Piquant”, “Bitter”, “Fruity”, “Pineapple” and “Sweet Cream”. And when I asked the eight “tasters” to pick their favorite cheese, 6 chose the Cello.
After the four cheeses, we ended the evening with a Cheesecake I made using Montforte’s Blue Cheese crumbles. This cheese has been a 
“Best of Class” winner in several international and domestic cheese competitions including the American Cheese Society competition. Blue cheese can be tough with groups. Some simply won’t taste it; can’t get past the aroma; don’t want to eat mold (although, technically some could argue that all cheese is a molding form of milk…) and other reasons.
I used a recipe that was simple: Blue Cheese, Cream Cheese, green onion and… Bacon; sitting on a graham cracker crust and drizzled with Raw, Wildflower Honey from Blue Haven Bee Company. The response was mostly positive with two saying that they had their doubts about liking it but were pleasantly surprised. And from the group that loves blue cheese generally, they raved; loving the combination of the savory cheese with the sweet floral honey.
In addition to the wonderful cheeses Tara sent my way, I learned a lot more about Schuman Cheese.
Did you know…
- Schuman Cheese was founded in 1948 by Arthur Schuman and now has fourth generation family members guiding the company forward.
- Schuman Cheese is the Number 1 US Importer of Parmigiano Reggiano, Pecorino Romano and Grana Padano (all EU PDO cheeses). From where I sit, that’s a big deal!!!
- Schuman Cheese opened up the South American Cheese market in Argentina and helped develop Argineto, Argentina’s original Parmesan, with the country’s Italian immigrants who craved the cheeses of their homeland.
- Schuman Cheese, in 1956, was appointed exclusive agent for Roquefort AOC in the US.
- Schuman Cheese, in 1964, introduced Abbey Port du Salut to the US market.
- Schuman Cheese began producing cheese in 2006 with the acquisition of Lake Country Dairy.
- Schuman Cheese has won more than six dozen US and International Awards including more than a dozen Best of Class, Fist Class and Gold Awards.
If you don’t know Schuman Cheese, it’s time to get to know them and if you do know them, it’s time to get to know then better…
Today, I took a full wheel of Cello Reggianito to North Georgia Technical College, where I attended Culinary Classes, for a demo by the chefs for visiting 4H Club teens from Habersham County. You can view the video of making Fettuccine Alfredo in the wheel on my YouTube Channel and I’ll be writing about the event in the near future.
If you want to increase your cheese IQ or are planning to sit for the ACS CCP exam, join the discussion at our Facebook Cheese Study Group.
FTC Full Disclosure – The manufacturer sent me their product(s), without any obligation on my part, hoping I would review the product/cheese. For more information, please see my About Me page.
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