Beecher's Handmade Cheese

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beecher's Handmade Cheese, headquartered in Seattle
Beecher's Handmade Cheese in the Flatiron District in Manhattan
Menu at the bistro in Seattle
Cheese cloths with dripping break in the cheese factory in Seattle

Beecher's Handmade Cheese is a Seattle , Washington cheese maker and cheese retailer founded in 2003 with multiple stores and restaurants in the Puget Sound area and an own production, shop and restaurant facility in Manhattan , New York City .

history

Beecher's Handmade Cheese was founded in November 2003 by Kurt Beecher Dammeier, who had no experience in making cheese. The store is located at Pike Place Market on the Seattle Waterfront , one of the oldest continuously operating markets in the United States and a tourist hub in the city. Within a few years, Beecher's became one of the main attractions of the market.

The company was founded at a time when artisanal cheese production, often based on traditional European cheeses, was booming in the United States. The cheese-making at Beecher's Handmade Cheese takes place entirely under the eyes of the audience. To this end, the company has set up a fully glazed cheese dairy on almost 130 square meters , in which customers and tourists can watch every step of the production process. Cheese is made every day in four kettles, each with a capacity of 4.5 tons. The milk is produced exclusively by regional dairy farms and is free from antibiotics and growth hormones . In cheese production, colorants, flavors and preservatives are deliberately avoided.

The most important cheese produced by Beecher's is the Flagship , a 15 month ripened rindless Cheddar variety made from pasteurized milk. Beecher's avoids the name Cheddar and strives for an independent taste profile. A sweetness typical of US Cheddar is achieved by adding specific auxiliary cultures from the production of Gruyère and Emmentaler . The semi-hard cheese is characterized by a strong and nutty aroma. It is also available as an extra aged with a maturation period of four years. A cheese that has matured even longer is the Flagship Reserve Cheddar , for which a slightly more salted curd with less moisture is processed. It is air-ripened in cheesecloths , therefore develops a rind, and is repeatedly rubbed with butter during the ripening process. The flagship and its variants have repeatedly won awards in the American Cheese Society's annual competition . In addition to numerous modifications of the flagship , the Just Jack also produces its own Monterey Jack . The Flagsheep is a long-ripened sheep's milk cheese and the Marco Polo a spiced with various types of pepper cow's milk cheese.

In addition to the cheese it produces itself, Beecher's Handmade Cheese offers a wide variety of its own cheese dishes and products from small, regional food producers. The cheese dish Macaroni and Cheese , popular in the United States , is prepared by Beecher's Handmade Cheese with its own flagship and marketed as the World's Best Macaroni and Cheese . The dish received rave reviews from the New York Times and Washington Post food critics, and was featured as one of her favorite items by Oprah Winfrey on her television show . Twice it was the subject of Martha Stewart's TV show , the first time it was prepared in the studio by Kurt Beecher Dammeier during the broadcast.

Due to its great success, Beecher's opened several branches around the Puget Sound , for example in a shopping center in Bellevue , at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and at Everett Airport . All shops include restaurants in which customers are offered predominantly, but not exclusively, cheese dishes. In 2011, the first branch on the east coast was opened in the Flatiron District in New York's Manhattan borough . She has her own dairy that only processes milk from farms in New York State and produces it with the same strict quality standards as the Seattle facility. As early as 2006, Beecher's Handmade Cheese cheese and other products were available in delis along the west coast of the United States. Today they are available in specialist retail and mail order stores across the United States.

literature

  • Kurt Beecher Dammeier, Laura Holmes Haddad: Pure flavor. 125 fresh all-American recipes from the Pacific Northwest . Clarkson Potter, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-307-48992-0 . , with a recipe for the World's Best Macaroni and Cheese and other cheese dishes from Beecher's Handmade Cheese

Web links

Commons : Beecher's Handmade Cheese  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Allison Radecki: Beecher's Handmade Cheese . In: Catherine Donnelly (Ed.): The Oxford Companion to Cheese . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2016, ISBN 978-0-19-933088-1 , pp. 64 .
  2. ^ A b Judith Blake: Artisan cheese factory opens at Pike Place Market. (No longer available online.) In: Seattle Times . November 26, 2003, archived from the original on March 28, 2009 ; accessed on February 1, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ a b Rebekah Denn: In 4 years, Beecher's has grown from a little curd to a big-time prize winner. (No longer available online.) In: Seattle PI . September 4, 2007, archived from the original on June 18, 2018 ; accessed on February 1, 2020 (English).
  4. ^ A b Peter Robison: Seattle's Latte, Ale Give Way to a New Favorite: Native Cheeses. (No longer available online.) In: Bloomberg News . March 10, 2006, archived from the original on October 22, 2012 ; accessed on February 1, 2020 (English).
  5. ↑ Naomi Bishop: Washington's Artisan Cheese Scene. (No longer available online.) In: seattle.net. 2007, archived from the original on September 14, 2008 ; accessed on February 1, 2020 (English).
  6. ↑ Janet Fletcher: Cheddar-like Flagship has a sweet side. In: SFGate . September 8, 2006, accessed February 1, 2020 .
  7. ^ Bronwen Percival: Cheddar . In: Catherine Donnelly (Ed.): The Oxford Companion to Cheese . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2016, ISBN 978-0-19-933088-1 , pp. 131-134 .
  8. ↑ John W. Fischer: Cheese . Delmar, Clifton Park, NY 2011, ISBN 978-1-4354-0117-4 , pp. 108 .
  9. ↑ Jeremy Konick: Beecher's cuts the cheese. (No longer available online.) In: The Daily of the University of Washington. November 17, 2006, archived from the original on January 21, 2013 ; accessed on February 1, 2020 (English).
  10. ↑ Cynthia Nims: Melty mac and cheese grows up, goes gourmet. In: Today.com . October 23, 2006, accessed February 1, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Sharon Salyer: Beecher's at Paine Field defies expectations of airport food. In: The Daily Herald. July 18, 2019, accessed February 1, 2020 .