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Cheese of the Day: May 14 – The Roth Family of Blues

Sunday Blues Presented by ACS CCP® Sheri Allen:

Sunday Blue Cheese of the Day comes from Wisconsin! As you know Wisconsin Cheeses did very well this year in the US Championship Cheese Contest. Roth Buttermilk Blue is also a previous award winner. I call it a gateway blue because it is so approachable. A fabulous blue to use in dressings, dips, breads, on burgers…. just thinking about these makes me hungry for a wedge salad with bacon crumbles and some Buttermilk Blue dressing. Roth has European roots and is a very well known name in Wisconsin.

Roth Buttermilk Blue
World Championship Cheese Contest Best in Class 2014
US Champion Cheese Contest 2nd Place 2013

The Roth family cheesemaking venture began in 1863 in Uster, Switzerland, then a small town just outside Zurich. By the end of the century a decision was made to bring the family’s knowledge and appreciation of European cheeses to America. By the early 1900’s, Otto Roth, son of the founder, had established a successful business that soon became one of the largest importers of European specialty cheeses in North America and that laid the foundation for what today forms Roth Käse USA.
In 1991, convinced there was a future for making great cheeses in America, Fermo Jaeckle, a former executive with Otto Roth & Co., joined with his cousins, Felix and Ulrich Roth, to further extend their European/Swiss roots and cheesemaking expertise into Green County, Wisconsin.
Known locally as Little Switzerland for its source of high quality milk, this area in the heart of Wisconsin is particularly well-suited for cheesemaking. It is here that Roth Käse USA was established, initially with a view towards making authentic Gruyère and other Alpine-style cheeses.
Agaist this backdrop, Buttermilk Blue is the result of a collaboration between Roth Käse, and a farmers’ dairy cooperative in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
Prior to 1993, when Roth Käse entered the picture, the farmers were selling their predominantly Jersey cow’s milk to two Danish cheesemakers that ran a business from the co-op’s cheese plant where they made blue cheese. However, the cheesemaking business ran aground and, in search of a new outlet for their milk, the co-op successfully approached Roth Käse to take over the cheese business, continuing the produciton of Blue cheese with the new name of Buttermilk Blue.
Made of Un-Pasteurized Milk, the interior paste of Buttermilk Blue is ivory-colored with blue-gray veins and pockets that stops short of the edge of the cheese. Aromas are pronounced, with notes of buttermilk and blue mold.
Flavors near the natural rind are fairly salty. The cheese has rich, creamlike flavors towards the center, cut through with a robust milk tang.
The tanginess of Buttermilk Blue presents a challenge for most red wines. However, a Sauternes-type dessert wine or a high-alcohol beer such as Chimay Blue could work well.

References:
http://www.rothcheese.com/cheese/buttermilk-blue/…

https://culturecheesemag.com/cheese-library/Buttermilk-Blue

http://www.cheese.com/buttermilk-blue/

 
Congratulations to our 2017 ACS CCP Exam and Conference Winners: Kelley Jewell, Tyler Frankenberg, ACS CCP® Hazel-Rue Woodies and ACS CCP® Matt Bellingham. Thanks to the generous donations from cheese lovers everywhere, we are thrilled to send these four worthy recipients to Denver this July!!! You can read all the details here.
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