Beecher's Handmade Cheese facts for kids
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Cheese |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Headquarters |
Seattle, Washington
,
|
| Owner | Kurt Beecher Dammeier |
Beecher's Handmade Cheese is a special company that makes artisan cheese. They have stores in the Seattle area and at some airports. Kurt Beecher Dammeier started the company in 2003. He opened the first store in Pike Place Market, a famous spot in Seattle.
Kurt Dammeier had never made cheese before. So, he asked Brad Sinko for help. Brad came from a family that made cheese in Oregon. Beecher's opened a second store in Manhattan, New York, in 2011, but it closed in 2022.
Unlike many artisan cheesemakers, Beecher's mostly uses milk that has been pasteurized. This means the milk is heated to kill germs. They also make a lot of cheese in a modern factory. Many farms supply them with milk. When they had trouble getting milk that tasted the same every time, Beecher's bought their own dairy cattle and farms. This helps them control the cheese-making process from start to finish.
Beecher's also makes and sells delicious macaroni and cheese dishes. These have been praised by national news. Kurt Dammeier and his cheeses have even been on TV shows like The Martha Stewart Show and Oprah. Oprah called their "World's Best" Macaroni and Cheese one of her "Favorite Things."
Kurt Dammeier also wrote a cookbook called Pure Flavor. It includes recipes for some of Beecher's products. Besides making cheese, Beecher's supports the Flagship foundation and the Pure Food Kids project. This program teaches children in Seattle public schools about healthy eating.
Contents
How Beecher's Started
Before starting Beecher's, Kurt Dammeier didn't know much about making cheese. He said his love for cheese began when he was a kid in Tacoma, Washington. His family always had a cheese board with local cheeses.
His family had a business that involved printing and food. After they sold the printing company, Kurt decided to open a cheese business. He named it after his great-grandfather, Beecher McKenzie.
In 2003, Beecher's opened in Seattle's Pike Place Market. A large store became available there when a plant store moved out. After taking a cheesemaking class, Kurt knew he needed a chief cheesemaker. He hired Brad Sinko, a microbiologist. Brad used to manage his family's cheese business in Oregon.
Kurt Dammeier felt that Seattle didn't have enough artisan cheese. He wanted to help more cheese businesses grow in the area. In 2000, Washington state had only nine licensed cheesemakers. By 2007, this number grew to twenty-eight!
Kurt compared the growth of artisan cheese to how specialty beers became popular. He said, "Twenty years from now, people will know what a washed rind is."
Beecher's was able to grow slowly because Kurt had other businesses to help with money. This let them try out different cheeses and age them properly. Kurt said, "The first vat, we threw away. The second vat was really good."
Brad Sinko kept changing the cheese recipes, cultures, and enzymes. They also aged their special Flagship cheese for 18 months, even though they only say 12 months publicly. In their first year, Beecher's didn't sell their own aged cheese. Instead, they built up a stock of about 80,000 pounds (36,287 kg) of cheese. During that time, they mainly sold fresh cheese curds.
Where the Milk Comes From
When Beecher's first started, they had one milk supplier. But they grew so much that they needed more suppliers. By 2006, Beecher's was buying their own farms in Eastern Washington. This gives them full control over how their cheese is made.
Their main milk supplier is Green Acres Farm in Duvall, Washington. They only use milk that is free of hormones and antibiotics. When they first had trouble getting enough milk, Beecher's bought a herd of 200 cows. Beecher's now owns all the dairy cows at Green Acres Farm. For their New York cheese, all the milk comes from Dutch Hollow Farms in upstate New York.
To make sure the cheese always tastes the same, Brad Sinko "standardized the herd." Their first milk from Holstein cows was sweet but didn't have enough fat or nutty flavor. They needed the milk from Jersey cows for that. They found a way to mix the two types of milk to get the perfect balance. Kurt Dammeier says it's a "50–50 mix."
All the milk from each farm comes from the same group of cows. This helps keep the flavor of each batch of milk consistent. Sometimes, Beecher's faces challenges. For example, when a farm had flooding, the cows' milk changed flavor. This happened because the cows produced enzymes to fight off bacteria.
Making Cheese and Food
The cheese factory is inside a small building with glass walls in Pike Place Market. You can see the cheesemaking process from the street! The location also has a store and a café that serves cheese-based meals.
Beecher's makes over 500,000 pounds (226,796 kg) of cheese every year. Their factory now runs twenty-four hours a day to meet the demand. The New York factory is much bigger and can make over three tons of cheese a day.
Brad Sinko admits that a modern factory with large vats might seem to go against the name "Handmade." But he says all the cheese is still watched, processed, and prepared by hand. It's just on a bigger scale than most small cheesemakers.
Most artisan cheeses are made with raw milk, but Beecher's uses mostly pasteurized milk. Kurt Dammeier believes that pasteurized milk gives a more consistent taste. However, Beecher's does offer a raw milk version of their Flagship cheese. Their cheeses have no artificial ingredients or preservatives. Beecher's usually makes up to nine different types of cheeses each year. These include their main brands and special seasonal ones.
At Beecher's, making cheese involves many steps. Thousands of gallons of milk are pumped from trucks into the factory. The milk is heated for pasteurization. Then, it goes into a large steel trough. The temperature is raised again, and live cheese cultures and rennet (a clotting agent) are added.
Amir Rosenblatt, a cheesemaker at Beecher's, says they control the temperature very carefully using steam power. He explained that "a variation of half a degree [in the pasteurization process] can change the flavor of the cheese." Cheesemakers use steel "rakes" to gather the milk mixture. Then, they let it settle before cutting it by hand. They cut it repeatedly until it feels like yogurt. This is done many times until it's just right.
The mixture is then moved to a new trough. Most of the water and whey (the liquid part of milk) is drained away. As the whey is removed, cheesemakers keep separating the cheese by hand into smaller and smaller stacks of cheese curds. To finish the curding, a lot of salt is added to cure the cheese and pull out even more whey.
Finally, the curds are cut into pieces and put into cheese molds. These molds are stacked, and the remaining moisture is squeezed out with 60 pounds (27 kg) of pressure for at least 24 hours. After that, the finished cheese is stored to age. For every 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of milk and whey, Beecher's usually makes 1 pound (0.45 kg) of finished cheese.
Beecher's cheeses are special because they mix cheese cultures in unique ways. For example, their famous "Flagship" cheese uses cultures usually found in non-cheddar cheeses, like Gruyère and Emmental. This changes the taste and texture of their cheddar-style cheese. Flagship cheese is made using a cheddaring process. But because it tastes different, Beecher's doesn't call it cheddar.
This cheese has a "sweet finish and creamy texture," unlike the sharper taste of regular cheddars. After being made in 40-pound (18 kg) blocks and aged for about a year, Flagship cheese doesn't have a rind. It's also moister, looks like butter, and smells milky because it's aged in plastic bags.
A special version called "Flagship Reserve" is aged in cheesecloth in 18-pound (8 kg) sizes. It sits on racks in the open air and is rubbed with butter and turned every day. This method makes the Reserve lose up to 12% of its weight. The Reserve is aged for a shorter time, which gives it a sharper, nuttier taste and texture. Of the 500,000 pounds (226,796 kg) of cheese they make each year, about 200,000 pounds (90,718 kg) are Flagship, and only 15,000 pounds (6,804 kg) are Flagship Reserve.
Beecher's is also working on new types of crackers. These crackers are designed not to overpower the taste of the cheese they are eaten with.
Cheese Shops and Sales
Beecher's has a gourmet cheese shop and café in their Pike Place Market location. It's a popular spot in the market and a tourist attraction. During the day, many people gather to watch the cheesemakers through the windows.
Some of the fresh cheese curds are sold directly to visitors at the store. Beecher's main cheeses are Flagship and Flagship Reserve. They also sell "Just Jack" (a Monterey Jack cheese), "Blank Slate" (a cream cheese), and raw-milk versions of their Flagship cheeses. They also have different cheeses flavored with spices and herbs. Some seasonal cheeses have been similar to Brie.
The Pike Place Market store also sells about thirty-five other local artisan cheese brands. This is in addition to Beecher's own products. The store also offers classes to the public. You can learn about cheesemaking, cheese history, and how to pair wine with cheese. One magazine called their collection of Pacific Northwest cheeses the best in the region. Beecher's tries to feature and sell cheeses from new and small cheesemakers in the area.
Beecher's has other locations too. These include a store at the Bellevue Square shopping center, Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, and Paine Field in Everett. You can also order from the company's own app.
Beecher's products are sold in stores across the country. They use a special shipping service to make sure their products arrive fresh to customers.
Famous Macaroni and Cheese
Beecher's store in Pike Place Market sells over 17,000 orders of Kurt Dammeier's macaroni and cheese every year. The recipe is in a 2007 cookbook called Pure Flavor. Both The New York Times and The Washington Post gave it great reviews.
Kurt Dammeier says the secret to their macaroni and cheese is to undercook the pasta. This way, it softens perfectly when it bakes with the cheese sauces and a béchamel sauce. This recipe, called "World's Best Mac & Cheese," has been made by Kurt on several TV shows. He made it with Martha Stewart on The Martha Stewart Show. It was also featured as one of Oprah's "Favorite Things."
Awards and Recognition
In 2007, Beecher's won awards from the American Cheese Society for their cheddar cheese. At the World Cheese Awards in 2007, their "Marco Polo" cheese won a gold medal. They also took first place at the American Cheesemaker Awards in 2007. Beecher's was also the runner-up for Best In Show at the 2007 World Cheese Society competition, out of 1,207 competitors!
Beecher's won another top award from the American Cheese Society for their Marco Polo cheese in 2008. Laura Werlin, an author who writes about cheese, said their Flagship cheese is "everything a cheddar should be - and more."
Pure Food Kids Program
Beecher's and Kurt Dammeier also help fund and create "Pure Food Kids: A Recipe for Healthy Eating." This is an educational program for elementary and middle-school children in the Seattle Public Schools. Its goal is to teach kids about healthy foods and eating habits.
Kurt and his wife Leslie started the program in 2005. They were not happy with the school cafeteria meals in Seattle, where their three children went to school. One percent (1%) of the total sales from Beecher's and Kurt's other businesses help fund the Pure Food Kids program. Trained volunteers, including Kurt Dammeier himself, run the program.
Children in fourth through sixth grade learn about food additives, eating healthy foods, reading food labels, and how food is marketed to kids. The program is free for children and their families. So far, over 15,000 children have joined the program. Pure Food Kids is taught in classrooms, after-school events, and at Parent-Teacher Association events. Beecher's provides all the supplies and materials. The program does not promote any of Kurt Dammeier's businesses.
See also
- Cougar Gold cheese
- List of cheesemakers
- List of restaurants in Pike Place Market
