On Thursday I was headed across the
country on Dwight D. Eisenhower’s interstate freeway I-80 in Iowa of all places
and saw a little sign that read- Maytag Dairy Farm…. The trip itself started
off on a sour note- learning that my father has cancer; I quickly
packed up from my digs in Sonoma, California and headed back east to be by his
side… A quick exit and change in direction, heading north I hit the old farm
road, three miles ahead and I hit the large brown packing plant and office building
that is just before the old farmstead… Greeted immediate by the huge cheese
case stocked with all of Maytag Dairy’s best… A separate case housed the big
wheels, half wheels and wedges, but the main case offered Edam, Colby, Havarti,
Cheddar, Brick and Farmers cheese…. I
dove right in to a tasting led by one of the fair Iowa Blue Cheese Maidens… My
favorite other than the twangy, salty and milky blue was the creamy Havarti…..
Seeing my enthusiasm with American blue cheeses, especially the one that led
the way for other American blues the president Myrna Ver Ploeg exited her
office and took over as tour guide…
having the queen of blue cheese give me the tour was OFF THE HOOK….. she
took me to the back and let me view the very private packaging room and the
room where every wedge of Maytag Blue is hand-wrapped… walking through the office area I also
noticed a huge wood slab of a table, asking her about it she explained how it
was made from the stone and wood from the original farmstead….. Then headed toward Providence, RI to make sure my
pops had some support during his time of need…. I can’t thank the ladies of
maytag dairy farm enough- thanks for all your hospitality, thanks……
Maytag is a gastronomic American treasure, an American style blue cheese
produced on the Maytag Dairy Farms outside of Newton, Iowa,
the former home of the Maytag Corporation (think washers and dryers)... In 1938, Iowa State University developed a new process for making
blue cheese from homogenized cow's milk instead of the
traditional sheep's milk. In 1941, production of the cheese was started by Frederick L. Maytag II and
Robert Maytag, grandsons of the founder of the Maytag
appliance company, Frederick Louis Maytag I…. In the beginning, the milk for
the cheese came from a prize winning herd of Holstein cattle that was established by E. H. Maytag, a son of the Maytag founder. The company is
currently owned by the third and fourth generations of the Maytag family…. The
process for making Maytag Blue Cheese was discovered and patented by two Iowa State University microbiologists, Clarence Lane and
Bernard W. Hammer. Roquefort,
another type of blue cheese,
had been made for hundreds of years in Europe, but attempts to
manufacture a similar cheese in the United States had thus far been
unsuccessful. Difficulties encountered in making these types of cheeses
produced a less than satisfactory product, and quality control would have been
disastrous…. The problems encountered with producing Roquefort
type cheeses in the United States
for distribution were the lengthy time required to develop the artisan flavor,
the mold growth not being uniform, the quality being below average for numerous
lots produced, and the color of the curd being too dark. The process begins
with homogenizing the milk that will be used for the cheese. In
making Maytag Blue Cheese, the cream is separated from the milk, homogenized
and then added back into the now skim milk. This would typically occur between
80 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit (27 and 38 °C) and 2000 to 3500 pounds-force per square inch (14 to
24 MPa) of pressure. This would allow for proper fat hydrolysis,
which affects the flavor of the cheese. There is a ripening period prior to
adding rennet (a mixture of enzymes
that coagulates milk into curds and whey) to
the cheese. A typical usage would be to add 3 ounces of rennet per 100 pounds
of milk, allowing it to set in a temperature range of 85 to 86 degrees
Fahrenheit (30 °C). Better results were achieved using 4 ounces of rennet per
100 pounds of milk and setting in a higher than usual temperature range of 90
to 92 °F (32 to 33 °C). According to Lane and Hammer's records, their
alterations caused the cheese-making process to speed up from this point
forward, with the time in between setting, cutting and dipping nearly cut in
half. Also, after dipping the cheese and allowing it to cook in hot whey, the
draining time was cut from 20–30 minutes to 3–5 minutes. Penicillium
is then added to the finished product, which produces its characteristic green
veins. After the rounds of cheese are made by hand, the cheese is aged in
specially designed caves where they are exposed to high humidity and cool
temperatures. The company still uses the same time-consuming method of hand
making cheese, using milk only from four very local Newton dairy farms…
The 411…
Maytag Dairy Farms Po Box 806 Newton, Iowa 50208
www.maytagblue.com catalog orders- 800.247.2458
