SERVES 6
Preparation time: 15 minutes
1 pound small red potatoes, boiled with their skins on
½ pound asparagus or broccoli, blanched
1 cup cornichons
½ cup pickled onions
1 pound Swiss Raclette cheese (French Raclette is good, too)
½ loaf rye or sourdough bread, sliced
Place the broiler tray as far from the heat source as possible. Preheat the broiler.
Arrange the vegetables and condiments on a platter and set aside. Cut the Raclette in half, leaving as much of the rind on as possible. Peel off any paper on the outside of the cheese
and place both halves on a baking sheet. Broil for 5 minutes. Remove the pan if most or all of the cheese is melted and serve immediately, accompanied with the vegetables and condiments. If some of the Raclette is still firm, scrape the melted portion onto the vegetable platter and return the Raclette to the broiler for 3 minutes while you sit down to eat. (It is important to eat melted Raclette immediately, as it is most delicious eaten directly from the oven.)
Fondue
This is a very basic recipe that you can vary by experimenting with different kinds of cheese. While Gruyère and Emmental are traditional, any well-aged alpine cheese, such as Appenzeller, Comté, Tête de Moine, and Hoch Ybrig, will work as they are relatively low in moisture and full of flavor. The key to making fondue is patience, so be careful not to hurry the process. Each handful of cheese needs to fully melt into the wine or the fondue will separate. Fondue pots make it possible to keep the fondue warm at the table and melting while you eat it. Thrift stores are a great place to find old fondue pots.
SERVES 4 AS A MAIN COURSE, 8 AS AN APPETIZER
Preparation time: 30 minutes
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups (½ pound) shredded Gruyère cheese
2 cups (½ pound) shredded Emmental cheese
1 clove garlic, lightly crushed
2 cups dry white wine
2 crusty baguettes
Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
In a large bowl, toss the flour and shredded cheese together until the cheese is evenly coated with the flour.
Rub the garlic over the bottom and sides of a large, heavy saucepan and discard the garlic. Add the wine and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir in the shredded cheese by the handful (about ½ cup). Wait for the cheese to thoroughly melt before adding the next handful; the mixture will begin to simmer vigorously again about the same time the handful of cheese has melted. Stir the fondue fairly frequently to keep the cheese from scorching on the bottom. When 2 handfuls of cheese are remaining, place the baguettes in the oven to heat for 5 minutes. Ready your fondue pot. After the last handful of cheese has melted into the fondue, turn the flame as low as it will go. Cube the baguettes. Pour the fondue into the pot and place it on the table. Using forks or wooden skewers, skewer the bread and dip it into the hot fondue.
Fondue Trouble-Shooting: If the fondue separates while cooking and won’t smooth out, mix 1 teaspoon cornstarch with 1 tablespoon cold water in a small bowl. Gradually stir the mixture into the cooking fondue; the fondue should return to a consistent texture within a few minutes.
Mock Boursin
This is the original Cheese Board spread, which we have been selling for thirty years. It was invented as a fresh version of a French triple-cream cheese. This spread has half the fat of cream cheese because it is made with
baker’s cheese, a curdless fresh cheese with only .5 percent fat, as well as cream cheese. It qualifies as a low-fat cheese and a garlic-lover’s favorite.
MAKES 2 CUPS SPREAD
Preparation time: 30 minutes
1¼ cups (¾ pound) cream cheese
¾ cup (⅓ pound) baker’s cheese
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 green onions, finely chopped (including green parts)
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the cheeses. Using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed for 30 seconds, or until smooth. Do not overmix, or it will turn watery. Add all the remaining ingredients and mix on medium speed for about 1 minute. Or, mix by hand in a medium bowl with a wooden spoon. For the fullest flavor, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Hot Cheddar Spread
This orange-colored spread is spicy and Cheddary, good on bread or as a dip.
Farmer’s cheese, a fresh dry-curd cheese similar to dry cottage cheese, is a key ingredient for this recipe. Use your discretion when adding the jalapeño chile; it can sneak up and bite you.
MAKES 2 CUPS SPREAD
Preparation time: 30 minutes
¾ pound sharp Cheddar cheese, cubed, at room temperature
½ cup (¼ pound) farmer’s cheese
¼ cup buttermilk
1 small jalapeño chile, seeded and minced (about 1 tablespoon)
2 green onions, finely chopped (including green parts)
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the cheeses. Using the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed until very smooth, about 5 minutes. Add the buttermilk and mix until incorporated. Add the jalapeño and green onions and mix for about 1 minute, or until incorporated. Let stand for 30 minutes for the full flavor to emerge. Use right away, or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week.
Salmon Spread
This is your basic lox spread. The quality of cream cheese is important; it should be a natural cream cheese with no stabilizers or thickeners. Look for this in good cheese stores and natural food stores. Traditional with bagels, this spread is also good on a baguette.
MAKES 2 CUPS SPREAD
Preparation time: 10 minutes
2 cups (1 pound) natural cream cheese
½ pound lox
Put the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl. Using the paddle attachment or a wooden spoon, mix on medium speed or by hand until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the lox and mix for 30 seconds, or until the lox has broken down into small pieces and is incorporated. Use right away, or cover and refrigerate for up to 5 days.
I remember it was a Sunday in the early seventies when I found out that I had been accepted into the collective. I went over to the house next door and they were playing “I Ain’t Gonna Work on Maggie’s Farm No More,” and I kept singing it. It was the symbolic song for my change. It was, belatedly for me, a step into the counterculture.
—FRIEDA
Oy, Cheese
In the pantry the young cheeses; aging daily
but maybe not fast enough, they are
Camemberts and Reblochons and are at odds
with the truly old and wise cheeses—seated there
for twelve years or more—the Reggiano that speaks
with quick, decisive words, full of
knowledge and warning, like a Jewish mother.
Oy, cheeses of frustration, cheeses of timing,
cheeses pregnant with children and cutting
back on their hours. Young cheeses full of commitment,
cheeses of cooperative effort—will you ever
change the world?
Cambozola, smooth and cunning like a good worker;
Asiago, determined and always with a joke
to tell; Teleme running too fast and drinking another espresso;
Gammelost, stinky and disgusting.
Oy, cheeses, gossiping in the walk-in,
standing on a new epoxy floor,
cheeses that mingle and share a beer or a little
reefer after work—
or maybe diligently jumping up and down in
the dumpster instead.
Oy, cooperative of cheeses, I give you this jest,
cheeses that know each other all too well, rich in troubles
and death—these cheeses know it will be a success.
—JONAS OSMOND, FORMER MEMBER
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE
PIZZERIA
AS AN EMPLOYEE-OWNED BUSINESS,
we are limited only by our imaginations. In most workplaces, you rely on the owner to come up with new ideas and innovations. Conversely, many business owners are constrained from innovating by reluctant or uncooperative workers. At the Cheese Board, if you have an idea and can convince the rest of the group of its value (not always an easy task), you can run with it. That is how the pizza business started.
In the early eighties, we would occasionally make pizzas out of our sour baguette dough for our own enjoyment. One day someone started selling slices of it during lunch. Soon people on other
shifts incorporated pizza making into the baking schedule. Eventually, several members thought it would be fun to make pizzas on Friday night. We finished our normal shift at seven and then sold take-out pizzas from seven to nine. We started out by making thirty pies on Friday night and sold them all just by word of mouth. Soon people were lining up to get hot pies, and it became something of a community event; there was a certain magic to the informal nature of the process. Eventually, the Friday-night pizza routine grew to the point where we were selling 240 pies in 2½ hours, with a line that snaked out the door and around the corner.
Pizza was a product of several people wanting to experiment, and the larger group having enough of a spirit of adventure to take a relatively undeveloped idea and let it fly. So much of what we do comes from this organic process. There were no market studies or consultants—we just did what interested us and seemed like fun.
Nowadays, the pizzeria is a quasi-separate entity from the cheese store and bakery. It is housed in a storefront just down the block from the other store. There is a connecting walkway between the two sites that is full of travel during the day: pizza dough being rolled back to the pizzeria and half-baked pizzas being carried to sell at the bakery (not to mention all the members who need a quick hello and a nosh of something on the “other side”). While pizzeria members don’t arrive as early as the bread bakers, their shifts are long and end only after the dinner crowds have been fed.
