zingerman's newsletter november/december 2015

7/24/2019 Zingerman's Newsletter November/December 2015

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ISSUE # 253 NOV-DEC 2015

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French Seafood Rilletesfrom the Isle de GroixAssuming you havent heard of it (I hadnt either until this sum-mer), Isle de Groix lies off the coast of Brittany. Its the regionssecond largest island. The biggest has a name that will resonatewith people in Michigan: Belle-Ile. The western part of the Islede Groix has been a nature reserve since 1982, the same year weopened the Deli. Its long been a big place for both fishing andfor beaches. Since I love both eating fish and being on the beach(the two in tandem are even better still) you can see where myinterest increased when I started learning about the island andthese exceptional rillettes.

Ive never really tasted anything like these. Amazing little jarsof fresh fish from the islands docks blended with spices and abit of butter and cream. Every time I eat somewhich has been

often of lateI think about sitting on the beach on the Isle deGroix with a bit of buttered toast, a glass of wine, a good bookand any of these rillettes to spread on the bread. Its a goodimage. And a good idea. Im gonna find out more about goingto visit.

In the meantime, do what Ive been doingeat some of the ril-lettes. We have four varieties on hand, and I like them all. A lot!Mackerel with Szechuan pepper. Sardines. Lobster rillettes withcurry. And perhaps my favorite, Sea Scallop. Where else can youget the sweet-salty savoriness of good scallops in the form of anartisan convenience food? Its so seriously good I could eat thewhole jar in one sitting.

All are great gifts for seafood lovers. Easy to put out on an appe-tizer board. Spread on open faced sandwiches for lunch or din-ner. A bit of this, some toasted Bakehouse bread, a green saladand a glass of wine and youll be having a world class meal, pre-pared in about six minutes!

Domaine Carneros Brut SparklingWine at the Roadhouseand Creamery cheese shopLooking to sip something special this holiday season? Order upa bottle, or a glass, of this amazing sparkling wine from Napa.Eileen Crane is a good friend and long timewinemaker and CEO of Domaine Carneros,this countrys leading sparkling wine house.Smart, kind, determined and talented, shesintent on making both the winery, and itswines, into something truly special. I thinkshes succeeding on all counts.

Ironically I first met Eileen, not through viti-culture, but because of visioning. She engaged

ZingTrain to do work with the winery team,about eight years ago, and weve been back todo more work with them many times now. She andmany of the winerys managers have been here forZingTrain seminars. With each visit, and eachtaste of the wines, I grow more impressed.

Unlike me, who happened into the food world byaccident, Eileen was excited about wine even as achild. From the time I was 8 I was fascinated with wine, she toldme on a recent visit. As a young adult she attended the CulinaryInstitute of America to train as chef, and from there she went onto study winemaking at UC Davis. She worked as a winemaker fora number of years with Gloria Ferrers wine house. But after atime, it became clear to her that her passions and desired futurewhere not aligned with theirs. As I did so many years after work-ing in other peoples restaurants, she decided to move on ratherthan produce product she didnt feel proud of.

She decided, instead, to start a conversation with one of the bestchampagne houses in the world. I went to France to talk to thepeople at Taittinger about building a winery here in California.From the beginning they wanted to make the best. I have neverbeen asked to make a second string product. Why waste yourlife making second string stuff? I couldnt agree more. As poetGary Snyder says, the preserver of abundance is excellence.

As part of the Taittinger organization, Eileen set out to buildand open the winery that we now know as Domaine Carneros.Shes been running it ever since. Ive been there 27 years, shesaid. And, she added, Ive made sparkling wine for 37 years.

Great tasting foods, old and new, from all over the Zingerman's Community

If cassia and cinnamon were running for president, we could frame thisas a debate. It probably wouldnt be pretty. Each would argue vocifer-ously that it was the authentic cinnamon. It could get downright vicious.Each might open up with some stories of severe exploitation, slavery, andcolonialism from the others origins.

In the end of course, we would have to vote and choose one over the otherbut the reality is that theres a positive place for both cassia and cinnamon inour kitchens! Good cooks dont need to choosethey can and do use both cassiaand cinnamon. And thanks to the work of our friends at pices de Cru in Montreal,weve tracked down amazing examples of each; the best of the best of the best ofCeylon cinnamon and Sumatra cassia.

Philippe de Vienne from pices de Cru explains some of the confusion: The main difference betweenthe two closely related trees is the volatile oil in the two spices. Typically, Cassia contains only one volatileoil and flavour, whereas true cinnamon has four, including the one found in cassia. The difference makes cassia hot andsweet with a single flavour. The combination found in cinnamon gives a more citrusy, fresh and complex aroma as the singlevolatile oil that gives cassia its warmth is found in lesser concentration. That hardly makes one superior to the other. Greatcassia is as good as great cinnamon. The two spices have distinct personalities. Free choice is the order of the day here. AsPhilippe de Vienne says, You may have a favorite or love both equally.

Interestingly, while cassia became the one most commonly used in the U.S., Ceylon cinnamon has long been the mainstreamchoice in Mexico. This is one reason that Mexican chocolatetypically spiced with cinnamonis both so exotic and soappealing to interested American palates. Mexico is the biggest single consumer of Ceylon cinnamon. Its used there in moles,flans, and hundreds of other dishes. While you can find it in the US, its generally little known. Cassia is used a lot in southeastAsia and the Middle East. Turkish cuisine uses it with lamb; its used in Chinese five spice, and in traditional Sumatran cur-

ries. When we buy cinnamon in the grocery store in the U.S. its nearly always actually cassia. In Asia, North Africa and theMiddle East both are used regularly. Ras el hanout, Berbere and other classic spice blends include some of each.

Lets start with the Ceylon, or Sri Lanka, cinnamon. As Philippe explains, This cinnamon comes from our friends Sanathand Deepa. Sanaths family has been growing cinnamon for as long as they can remember. Their plantation is situated in thevillage of Cinnamon (Im not making this up), 50 or so kilometers south of the capital Colombo. The plantations are a fewhundred yards from the beach which make the soil sandy and well-drained. The micro climate is constantly hot. All essentialconditions for growing the finest cinnamon. After that the family tradition of excellence kicks in. Cinnamon attains its bestbalance of the different flavours when it is 4-6 years old. At harvest, quills are scraped clean, peeled from the wood and let todry in the shade. True cinnamon quills are always made up of several thin barks hand rolled together. This process demandsgreat skill; cinnamon quill makers are in high demand and earn a very good living. This makes distinguishing cassia from cin-namon very easy as cassia is always made of a single thicker bark. Then cinnamon is graded in five categories ranging from0 to 00000 (five zeroes or H5). The finest 00000 with delicate and very thin and pale bark is called 00000 Alba. Our friendsthen further select from this grade for our orders. No one else, it turns out, as has ever asked Sanath and Deepa for thisextra special selection.

The Sri Lanka cinnamon is softyou can crush it with your fingers if you want. Youll see it in Zingerman's Deli in thin, 12 to14-inch sticks that were so carefully rolled back in Sri Lanka. Lamb chops spiced with freshly ground cinnamon and a touchof sea salt, then grilled, are amazing. Same could be said for pork chops or chicken. Rice pudding, kebabs, rice dishes of all

sorts. Add a bit to fruit salad. Its great really in almost any sweets where you want a subtler, softer, gentler flavor.The cassia, of course, is equally amazing. The cassia that were getting comes from the Minangkabau highlands of Sumatra.The trees are beautiful, huge. Sixty feet tall and about five feet across. Philippe and Ethne de Vienne inquired into buying thebark. It was quite the negotiation. They said Yeah, we have thirty-year old trees. We said, OK, were very interested. Theysaid, Oh no! We dont sell those! We said to the mama, Were really interested. Well pay more for it. She said, No! Its mythirty-year old tree. We dont sell those. No one will pay what its worth. So we looked her in the eyes and we said no wellpay! She proceeds to quote us a price2 times the regular price for cassia. She was sure wed never pay. But we said Great!Well take it. I could see immediately that she wanted to retract the price. Then she said, Well, what if I cut it and youre nothere? A fair question. So we said, Well pay you half now. And now its happening!

The age of the tree i s important. Whereas the Ceylon cinnamon is best at four to six years, the cassia gets better the older itgets. Getting thirty-year old trees like this is incredible. Its like thirty-year old traditional balsamic vinegar compared to thecheap, caramel colored commercial alternatives that now fill supermarket shelves. As Philippe explains, The older the tree,the higher the oil content. Bark from older trees has an intense flavour and a touch of bitterness thats not found in youngercassia. This is not a flaw as you might think. Bitterness is essential to the taste balance of good food. Nothing balances a verysweet dessert like a hint of bitterness; think of cocoa, caramel or vanilla beans. The cassia is coming in to us in big pieces. Ihave a piece of bark at my house thats about a foot long and maybe three inches in diameter. The aroma is pungent, intense;the flavor amazing. About twenty-two times more intense than anything Ive tried elsewhere.

Each of the two, as you can tell, is excellent. Unlike pre-ground commercial offerings, you do have to grind these at home.Pre-grinding means that essential oils and aromas are being lost to the air. What you gain in convenience is lost many timesover in taste. A small spice grinder works well. It takes no more time to do than it takes you to gri nd coffee beans at home.And the aromas in the kitchen while you work will be totally wonderful.

To help everyone in town become familiar with the excellence of these two terrific spices, we have them both on specialduring December. If youre looking at gifts for someone who likes to cook or bake, I really recommend getting them someof each (along with a copy of this article) so that they can experience the differences and the wonderful diversity of sweet,spicy, sensuality. Because there is no debate and were not voting, you dont have to choose one over the other. You can havepeace, prosperity and a really positive, enriching and educationally oriented experience in your kitchen every day.

Spices of the monthDECEMBER: Cassia & Cinnamon


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There are not all that many other women in winemaking. In 1890,Eileen explained, 10 percent of the winemakers were women.A hundred years later, in 1990, it was still 10 percent. Today itsabout 14 percent. A large portion of those are, like Eileen, makingvery high end wines.

Were the second smallest California sparkling wine house,Eileen told me. We grow our own grapes in our own vineyards.Were 100 percent organic. The weather is dependably drythrough most of the growing season, so we dont have to sprayand we dont have deal with as much rot and mildew. They doall traditional methode champenoiseproductionsparkling winemade the old fashioned way. Every small step in the process iscarefully managed so that you and I can enjoy some of the bestsparkling wine in the world any time we want to. Its not one

thing, Crane said. Perfection, or doing the best you can, isdozens of little steps all along the way or hundreds of them.Domaine Carneros is all about doing the small things that ensuresuccess and a great bottle of sparkling wine. We spend $50,000on cork testing alone every year! she said.

The Roadhouse is serving (the Creamery is selling) the DomaineCarneros Brut Sparkling Wine. Aged for over three years in theCarneros cellars just south of the town of Napa, its a treat totaste. Its particularly lovely, to my taste, paired up with the verywonderful Manistique cheese from the Creamery. And to be clear,you dont need to wait for a holiday to drink a bit of sparklingwine. As Eileen reminds me regularly, every day is a good day forsparkling wine. And she says, We dont realize it, but its reallygood with all sorts of foods. Fried chicken and sparkling wouldgo great. If you, like me, are inclined to try to make every dayspecial, you might want to take Eileens excellent advice. Cheers!

PS: If youre out in Napa make time to stop at the Carneros tast-

ing room! Its a beautiful winery, the wines are excellent, and Ifeel pretty confident the weather will be better there this winterthan here!

Peanut Butter Crush Candy BarsWow! is probably the best way Ican start this section. Because reallythats pretty much the way almost

everyone who tries this candybar for the first time responds.

We all learn to think in ways that arein synch with who and what we are anddo. Musicians listen to sounds; poets

parse problems poetically; writers imag-ine sentences. Charlie Frank, the manag-

ing partner and our sugar artisan in residence, composes incandy. His mind is always working, putting together things that

the rest of us might never connect. Happily, we get to eat theresults of his creative confectionary work.

Architect Christopher Alexander, writing about great design, says,It is so powerful and fundamental that with its help you canmake any building in the world as beautiful as any place that youhave ever seen. He adds, They are beautiful, ordered, harmoni-ousyes, all these things. But especially, and what strikes to theheart, they live. I say that the same thing applies to the candybars Charlie comes up with. In the context of confectionary theyare as beautiful, ordered and harmonious as anything Ive everexperienced.

What is Peanut Butter Crush already?Crispy-crunchy, thin shards of Charliesalready excellent peanut brittle,crisped rice, creamy peanut butter,the perfect touch of sea salt and just abit of milk chocolate, all covered in dark

chocolate. The whole thing shatters in your mouth when you takea bite, much in the same way that a great croissant shatters. Mygirlfriend cant stop eating them. I think she might have added anextra mile to her already rigorous daily running routine just tobe able to eat them at will. I gave one as a gift to a regular cus-tomer at Zingermans Roadhouse and she told me she went backand bought twenty of them the next day. Interested? Come by andask for a taste any time!

Cosmically GoodGeisha Coffee FromPanamaLet me get the warning out of theway up front.

You do not NEED this coffee.

There are many other wonderfulbeans and brews out at Zingermans CoffeeCompany. Ive been loving the BrazilianPeaberry, the Mohka Java, the Ethiopianand others of late. All are excellent and allwill cost you a heck of a lot less than this one. Like I said, you donot NEED this coffee. You might really want it. But you definitelydont need it.

What is it? Its Geisha coffee, a rare, wonderful and very lim-ited selection of very special coffee beans from the highlands ofPanama. It comes from Finca Santa Teresa smack in the center ofthe Panamanian isthmus. Its grown at 4000 to 8000 feet.

Finca Santa Teresa was established by the Beard family in 1997.In 2012 it was purchased by Toby Smith and Andre Wierzbickiwho have expanded the operations and size of the farm. Like ourfriends at Daterra Estate in Brazil, these guys are doing it right.Theyre paying better salaries to the staff, providing free meals,free medical care, transport to and from work, training and edu-cation. Their use of natural resources is wiserecycling of water,waste material etc. No child labor is used on the farm. The farmhas a school for the kids of the crew that work there.

If you do try it, youre pretty likely to like it. Light, elegant, vel-vety. If you like to spend extra to get an incredible wine, or to buya really special olive oil, or a super aged balsamic vinegaryoudont NEED any of those eitherthen this stuff might for you. Mywarning is that if you try youll probably want to drink it again.Your only salvation i s that we only have 100 pounds and thenwere out. Available ONLY at Zingerman's Coffee Company onPlaza Drive.

Maybe the world really is turningupside down. The most deliciousnew chile Ive tasted in a long timeis coming to us, not from Mexico or theMediterranean, but from way up north, an houror so outside of Montreal!

There is, of course, no shortage of red pep-per flakes, or ground chiles to add toyour food. But let me put a plea in hereto have you give this special new offeringfrom a seemingly strange source forchiles a chance. I think its one of theloveliest things Ive tried in a long time. Not surprisingly, itcomes to us through our wonderful spice world connection,

the de Vienne family, up in Montreal. Like us, theyve spent thelast thirty years searching the world for great food. In theircase the searching is particularly fine tunedeverywherethey go theyre on the lookout for spices! To that end theyvetraveled all over Asia, Africa, Central and South America, andcome back each time with some really special stuff. If youhavent yet tried their incredible array of offerings come bythe Deli for a smell and taste any time.

Ironically, after all that traveling to exotic, hard to reach,often barely mapped places, their latest comes from a spotthats just a car ride away from their wonderful little spiceshops in Montreal.

Weve known the Pallardy family for the past 10 years,Marika de Vienne told me. Ever since we opened our storein the market. They are true agriculteurstheir productionof chiles, melons and squash are particularly amazing. Oneof their secret ingredients is the use of seaweed as a natural

fertilizer, and in combination with their expertise, this makesthem exceptional producers. They are a kind and discreetfamily, leaving their products to speak for themselves.

But when the Pallardys began to bring in this special chile theyreally got the de Viennes attention in a big way. The intro-duction of their Piment Gorria is a game changer, Marika said.When they started producing it, we were astonished in thequality of this Quebec grown Basque Chile. Rich in flavour, itis of better quality than most of the Espelette chile that getsexported to North America. As they do not have the ability tomass market their own amazing product, we buy whole andpowdered chile, and it is a true pleasure to offer such an amaz-ing new product, support our neighbours in the Market, andcontinue to show that it is all about terroir.

I agree. I love this stuff. Its color is incredible. A bright red-dish orange. The aroma is exceptional. Like a bouquet of freshcut flowers. The flavor is subtly sweet and softly spicy all at

the same time. Ive been using it in almost everything. Salads,potatoes, fish, toast. I asked Marika where she uses it and sheshot back, Everywhere! It is a great finishing chile, not toohot, with a great vegetal backbone that makes it perfect insalads, soups, mayonnaise, brownies. . .you name it. Come byand have a taste any time. The only thing Id add is that afteryou try it, you may want to buy two tinsone to have in thekitchen and one to leave next to the salt and pepper for every-one to add as they eat. Its really that good.

Spice of the monthNOVEMBER: Gorria PepperExceptional Espelette Style ChileFlakes from Quebec

Oyster and BubblesFeaturing TJ Evans, Winemaker From Domaine CarnerosTuesday, December 8th, 2015$95 a person (price includes dinner, wine pairings, tax and gratuity)Special Dinner #187

One of our favorite pairings, oysters and sparklingwine, come together in this very special special dinner.Zingermans Roadhouse is honored to welcome DomaineCarneros winemaker TJ Evanswho will share DomaineCarneros story and his lovefor great wine. Chef Alex has

created a menu full of oystersto complement the sparklingwine, and to also to show-case the very special DomaineCarneros Pinot Noir (Alexsfavorite wine). Additionalbottles of your favorite wineswill also be available topurchase.

La Tondo

One of the most complex and compelling oils Ivetried in a long time. Its over the top and in themainstream at the same time; on the edge and hits

the bulls eye simultaneously. Make time to come try it. Unlessyou own your own olive orchards, Im pretty sure that LaTondo is not your every day oil.

It comes from the hills outside the Baroque village of Ibla insoutheast Sicily. (The village of Ibla is not far from Modica,another Baroque town which we know well for its old fash-ioned chocolate.) The area is known as the balcony of Sicilybecause it looks down on the town and the valleysort of anall natural sky box of beautiful proportions. Its a gorgeousplace to beherbs, olives, wild flowers all growing in the hills.

La Tondo is produced on the estate of Marchesi Achille Paternodi Spedalotto. There are 7,500 olive trees, all organically farmed.They use only the Tonda Iblea olive, an old cultivar unique to

this part of the world. Harvest is done totally by hand. The oil isdecanted for a couple of months but left intact and unfiltered.The oil is big and round and tastes terrifically of green tomato.Green and grassy and really good. Really exceptional greencolor. Pour some into a white bowl just to admire its look. Andthen stick your nose up closeamazing aroma.

When summer returns in ten months, it will be wonderful withtomatoes. This time of year I love it on simple spaghettiwithgarlic and red pepper; or with bottarga (the delicious driedmullet roe). Great on beans. Lovely on arugula. It seems emi-nently Italian to me.

Olio Verde

Olio Verde means greenoil in Italian and thats defi-nitely what this is. Another ofthe big bold oils that Im so drawnto. Its from the farm of Gianfranco Becchina and made from100 percent Nocellara olives. Its one of the few varietals (theSpanish Arbequina is another) that is used for both oil andfor table olives. Gianfranco does his harvesting exception-ally early in the seasonSeptember! Thats anywhere from amonth to two months earlier than is typical in the area. Earlyharvest like that, of course, means more interesting flavors,higher levels of polyphenols, but much lower yields.

The quality of the oil is the result of a lot of careful work. Ourfriend Rolando Beremendi says, The estate now includes oneof the most pristine, high-tech frantoio (olive mill). An extrafeature has been recently added to the production: a sortingtable, very similar to those utilized in wine-making where the

baskets of olives are emptied and the careful eyes of his well-trained staff pick-out the unsuitable olives for making his oil.Gianfranco is there overlooking every step of the process andevery year.

Rolando says its, Unusually Sicilian. Deeply green, withstrong grassy, fruity olive notes and a rich, well-balanced fla-vor with undertones of banana and ripe fruit, accented by along peppery finish. Try it on fresh mozzarella, toast, a pieceof swordfish. The bottle looks beautiful as well. A great andvery memorable gift for any olive oil lovers in your life.

Two Terrific Oils from SicilyHere are a pair of truly terrific extra virgin olive oils from Sicily. Each is

amazing in its own right. Both would make remarkably memorable gifts.


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Zingermans Barrel-agedHot Sauce from the BrineryA special edition hot sauce from Ann Arbors professor of pick-ling, the master of fermentation, the funniest man on the AnnArbor food scene, David Klingberger. Daves sauerkrauts andpickled vegetables have been showing up all over our menus andon our shelves. This fall he took a big batch of peppers from ourown Cornman Farms and put them to work as part of a specialnew hot sauce he concocted just for us. Hes been barrel aging itfor months. Suppliers are limited!!

Usingers Hessiche Land LeberwurstA lot has changed over the nearly 34 years since we openedZingermans. One thing thats remained exactly the same over allthose years is the prominent presence of Usingers liverwurst inthe Delis meat case. Id read about Usingers in the months beforewe opened. All signs seemed to point to it being pretty terrific.The best in the country, many said. I called for samples, whichthey sent. The flavor backed up all the advance PRtheir liver-wurst was lovely. Delicious. Down to earth, definitely traditionaland very full flavored. Three and half decades later Usingers stuffis still terrific. I think one of the best things we sell!

Fred Usinger came to the U.S. (to Milwaukee) in 1880. Hed grownup in the town of Wehen in southern Germany, northwest of

Frankfurt. After doingan apprenticeship witha master sausage maker,he moved to America.It was an era of largescale emigration fromEurope. (For context,Mr. Nueske, the baconmaker, came a fewyears later. So too didRocco Disderide, theItalian immigrant whotwenty years later builtthe building that is nowour Deli.) In Milwaukee,Mr. Usinger began making sausage at the butcher shop of Mrs. JuliaGaertner on what was then the high end of Milwaukees shoppingdistrict. A few years later, he bought the shop from her, changed

the name, and it has been Usingers ever since.

Today Usingers is run by the 4th generation. In that sense I sup-pose its the spiritual counterpart of Nueskes. One in Wisconsinssoutheast, the latter way up north in the town of Wittenberg. Bothof the founders came from Germany at around the same time,both started small, both are run now by the fourth generationof the family, and while both have grown each has stayed totallydedicated to quality and care and high end ingredients.

Everything we get from Usingers is excellent. But my favoritehas always been the Hessiche Land Leberwurst. Its ingredientsare simplepork, pork liver, pork fat, salt, onions, spices. Itslong smoked, with plenty of good pork fat and a healthy dose ofcracked black pepper. The one pound pieces are small enoughthat you could put out a whole one for a party. Or just buy a quar-ter or half pound. Great on the caraway rye bread. Wonderfulsandwich.

Handmade Cream Cheesefrom Zingerman's CreameryWilliam Butler Yeats believed, The world i s full of magic things,patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. This creamcheese was, for me, one of those things. Before we started mak-ing it, I barely gave cream cheese much thought. Its 16 years nowsince we started making this old style artisan cream cheese atthe Creamery. To this day, it remains oneof my all time favorite foods. Freshmilk from Calder Dairy down inCarleton, Michigan, natural ren-net, natural cultures, salt, andcream. Thats it.

As with so many of the specialfoods we serve and sell, its made

the same way cream cheese waswhen the Deli building was builtin 1902. In fact, it could well becomparable to something that grocerRocco Disderide sold in his little grocerysice-cooled dairy case. No vegetable gums, no preservatives, nomechanical extrusion. As it would have had at the turn of the 20thcentury, our cream cheese has what modern industrial produc-ers would consider an absurdly short shelf life. While commercialalternatives last a couple of years (Ive tried it home) without anynoticeable change in texture or flavor), fresh, hand made tra-ditional cream cheese only lasts a couple of weeks. Personally

I look at that as a plusits fresh product thats supposed to beeaten within a week of two of being made.

The other day at one of our meetings, Amy Emberling, one of themanaging partners at Zingermans Bakehouse, shared one of thebest food moments of her life (which, take note includes a coupleof stints living in Europe, three years living in New York city, andover two decades of being part of Zingermans). It was early onemorning when she took a freshly baked bagel from the Bakehouse,walked over to the Creamery where a new batch of cream cheesehad just been made, put the two together and savored every bite.To this day I think that one of those sesame bagels, toasted andspread with this artisan cream cheese is one of the most magicalmeals I can eat.

Manistique CheeseCreamy Cows Milk Cheese

Carefully Matured in Cabbage Leaves

Earlier this fall I did a specialcheese tasting for an interna-tional group of wine and foodexperts who were gatheringin Ann Arbor from all overthe world. They asked me toselect threeand only threecheeses to supplement theirmeal. This one was one of the three I chose. Seriouslyand I doNOT say this lightly at allthe new Manistiques from the Creameryhave been as good as anything Ive tasted all year. From France,from England, Ireland, Italy or America.

The Manchester cheese in its unaged state (which is the base ofthe Manistique) has been fantastic all year. Its creamy in texture,full flavored and mellow at the same time. I love it. It has a nicedelicate tang and a long milky finish that lingers a long time andwill make you miss it when its gone. I like to let it get to roomtemperature and then serve with toast and sliced pears.

The cabbage wrapping for the Manistique takes this already greatcheese to even greater heights. The idea of wrapping cheese inleaves goes back centuries. Leaves were used to protect cheesesort of an additional, all-natural rind, or wrapping, which alsoadded a bit of interesting flavor in the process. Throughout theMediterranean, local leaves have been usedFrench banon inchestnut leaves, Spanish Valdeon in maple leaves, etc. This pastyear, the Creamery crew set to work to come up with a suit-able Michigan equivalent. While there any number of options totry, they settled on using fresh cabbage leaves. Why not, right?Cabbage is, while not necessarily a glamour vegetable, a part ofthe hearty Midwestern eating. The green of the leaves looks great.The leaves allow a bit of air in and add a bit of character to theflavor. The paste is very spreadable and extremely delicious. Plus,the light green of the leaves looks really lovely when you put thewhole cheese out on the table.

The name? As with most of our cheeses, we named it for a Michigantown, this one is way up in the Upper Peninsula! Be sure to givethe Manistique a chance to come to room temperature before youserve. Both the texture and the flavor come through much moreelegantly and lusciously when the cheese is at about 65. By theway, its delicious with sparkling wine, in particular the great oneson the Creamery shelves from our friends at Domaine Carneros.

Manchester and Manistique are our Cheeses of the Month for

December! See page 13!

Pistacchiosa from LazioSuper Sicilian Pistachio and Extra Virgin OliveOil Spread

I loved this stuff. Its from a farmhouse and agritu-rismo just outside of Rome on the road that goes to Rieti in theSabina area. Rolando Beremendi, the amazing importer fromwhom we get the Rustichella pasta, Crudo olive oil, etc. foundthem about ninety days after they made their first spread fouryears ago. This one is sexy smooth paste of Sicilian pistachios (anda very high percentage of them at that) blended with a bit of reallygood extra virgin olive oil. You can use this stuff on just about any-thingtoast is my top pick along with pasta but its also excellentwith fish, chicken, or rice. Or you can flip the culinary coin anduse it with gelato or yogurt of some of that really amazing ricottawe get at the Creamery from Bellwether Farms in California.

Hoosier Biscuits at the Roadhouse

A long time classic in Southern Indiana thats now on the wayto becoming a really popular regular on the Roadhouse dessertmenu. Credit for the original recipe apparently belongs to theNashville House Restaurant in Nashville, Indiana, which has beenserving them for over 150 years.

I tried them for the first time a few years ago when I was doingsome ZingTrain work with Indiana-based client Clabber Girl (thefolks who make the world famous baking powder, and hence,understandably, have a high interest in biscuit baking) whoinsisted that we try them while we were in town teaching. Atthe Roadhouse, we start with our already excellent house made

buttermilk biscuits which we then deep fry (exactly!) and tossin Muscovado brown sugar. We serve em up hot with a side ofAmerican Spoon preserves (or ask for honey is you prefer).

While I know a Roadhouse donut sundae may be hard to resist,give some serious thought to this old school southern Indianaspecialty. Theyve already won quite a few fans in the first fewweeks weve had them out on offer.

Fondants from PietroRomanengo in GenoaZingermans seemingly long-run in business is a tiny fraction ofwhat the family-owned shop of Romanengo has accomplished on

the Italian Riviera. The family got going in 1780thats right fouryears after the American colonies declared independence fromEngland and nearly a decade before the French Revolution thatfollowed. The firm was established originally as a spice shop,steadily expanding its work into candied fruits and confetti (aka,dragees in France), some of which were the new revolutionarystyle coming in from the other side of the border in southernFrance. Later they added chocolate making to their work.

I first visited their shop on Piazza Soziglia, near the city center,some twenty years ago. Its an amazing little spot. The shop wasopened in 1814. When you walk in youll be marveling at polishedmarble, fine, old, beautifully finished wood, crystal chandeliers.To me it looks more like a cross between a jeweler, a high endantique shop and a Viennese caf.

In the late 19th century Pietro Romanengo, grandson of thefounder, became a leading authority in Italy on candy work. Hisleadership at Romanengo and in the trade helped to make Genoaan internationally famous center for confectionary. They pro-duced hundreds of thousands of pounds of candied citrus peela local specialtymuch of which was exported, even then in the19th century, to the US.

Their fondants are hand wrapped in white paper thats tippedwith an array of different colors. Theyre not, Im sure, their big-gest selling item, but theyve long been one of my favorites andtheyre unlike anything else we have on our shelves. The fondantsare the quintessential artisan sugared specialty that is impossi-ble to mass produce. The complex process of making fondants liesin the boiling of sugar at different temperatures for each product.Varying quantities of liquid sugar are added to the mix during theboiling process, producing sweets with different consistencies.The real fruits used by Romanengo in making fondants includestrawberry, mint, orange, clementine, tangerine, apricot, rasp-berry, lemon, banana, pear, chocolate, and anise.

The Romanengo folks say that, The final product is an arrayof rectangular white sugar cubes that melt in your mouth likecream. I say intense yet still gentle at the same time. Like leaningback to relax after a really long week.

The intensity is not an accidentCharlie Frank from the CandyManufactory could explain the process better than I but fondantis made by creating a supersaturation of sugar and water; waterwill absorb twice as much sugar at the boiling point as it will atroom temperature. The word fondant in French means melt-ing (related to foundry which comes from the same root),appropriate since thats how theyre made and also since thatswhat theyll do when you pop one in your mouth.

Nduja! - Super Spicy,Spreadable Calabrian Style SalamiOver the years weve done a prettydarned good job of getting the greatfoods of the world to Ann Arbor.But this is one of the ones that allmy wishing and hoping couldntmake appear. Ive been wanting tomake Nduja part of my regular eat-ing routine ever since I first encounteredit in Calabria five or six years ago. I use the wordencounter intentionally. Eating Nduja is a signifi-cant experience. If you eat some casually at a party, I pretty muchguarantee youll remember it. Theres nothing else like Nduja onthe market. Spicy, slightly sweet, buttery, powerfully porky yet assmooth in texture as homemade strawberry jam. Nduja is bothsubtle and strong at the same time.

To get clear on the name, its pronounced en-doo-yah. Its partof a little known subset of the Italian salami world called salamidal spalmare, or spreadable salamis. The name comes from Latin

inducere, meaning to lead into. One regular customer told me,Thanks to you guys I have a big Nduja problem! I cant stop eat-ing it! I understand. Im sort of in the same spicy boat!

Chicagos Antonio Fiaschi is the fifth generation in his family tocraft this special recipe on a regular basis. His grandfather stilllives in Calabria, not far from Ndujas hometown Spilinga. Heuses only pork from carefully sourced, old-school Berkshire hogs,a proprietary blend of five different chiles, and ages his NDuja formonths. It really is remarkable.

What do you do with Nduja? Almost anything really. Let it cometo room temperature to soften a bit and let the full flavor come


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out. I spread it on toast. Add a spoonful or two to an omelet.You could probably c rumble a bit of it at op a pasta dish, or mixsome into a tomato sauce. But more than anything I just eatit with bread and other antipastisome cheese, some curedvegetables, some olives. In Ireland it was on the menu in thebroth for musselsdelicious! You can rub it right onto corn onthe cob. Delicious! My personal favorite experiment is a bit of aCalabrian American hybrida Roadhouse burger on a bun thatsbeen spread on one side with a generous amount of NDuja, onthe other with a bit of mayo and then a small handful of fresharugula leaves set on top. Its the Calabrian version of a burgerwith bacon. The other night I made a tomato sauce with NDuja,added some roasted peppers and sauted squash and thencooked some chunks of fresh bluefish right in the sauce. If you

like pork, you like spice and you like to eat, NDuja might, noexaggeration, very literally change your life.

Zingermans BakehouseHungarian Walnut BeigliThese were the surprise hit of the holiday season last yearsodelicious that seemingly everywhere I went in the organization,Id bump into someone singing its praises. Beigli is a long-standingholiday tradition in Hungary. Personally Im happy to have it anytime with just a good cup of coffee. Beigli (pronounced bay-glee)is a yeasted dough rolled up with afilling of walnuts.

The outside has a beautifulsheen to it and a unique,slightly mottled, kind of

crackly look to its crust.Inside are swirls of a thickwalnut-sugar filing thatsso good, I literally had a hardtime not eating more it. The rich-ness of the butter in the dough and thewalnuts on the inside are comforting and compelling at the sametime. A great host/ess gift, or just something special to bring hometo liven up a dark winter night. Get yours at the Deli or Bakehouse!

4-Year-Old Swiss EmmentalerAbout the only thing new with this cheese is that it just arrivedin Ann Arbor. Emmentaler dates all the way back to the late 13thcentury. For the first five hundred years it was made only in thesummer months when the cows were in the mountain pastures.The cheese provided protein for the winter months in a very cold,

very snowy, hard to travel in climate.Today Emmentaler is of the best known of the worlds cheeses.The tradition of export dates back about four hundred years. Theregion had long been famous for fir tree masts for ships. Theywere ferried up the rivers all the way to the Netherlands wherebeing able to sail around the world was a hugely important tacti-cal part of Dutch world power. Eventually the idea occurred tofolks to also load on the large wheels of cheese and take thosewith to sell too. It was, in part, made possible when Gruyere mak-ers taught Emmentaler makers how to cook their curdthe driertexture of the resulting cheeses made travel more manageable.

The first lowland dairy was built in 1815. Only then did the ideathat cheesemaking and farming were two separate skill sets. Bythe end of the 19th century there were about 650 Emmentalerdairies in Switzerland.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, prices began to drop,at times so severely that many cheesemakers abandoned theindustry. Farmers turned to other ventures to try to scrape by.Many also left for the US where they ended up making cheese inWisconsin. There are many families of Swiss origin still active inthe Dairy State that came over in that era. Joe Widmer, whosebrick and cheddar cheeses weve long sold and enjoyed here,has Swiss origins. His grandfather arrived in Wisconsin fromSwitzerland in 1905.

Today there are fewer than 150 Emmentaler dairies left!!

All of which led to the work of a small group of traditionalistscalling themselves Gourmino. They have done a great deal ofgood work to help preserve and promote traditional Emmentalerproduction. For the last few years weve been bringing full wheeltraditional Emmentaler, aged for over a year. And weve beenusing a younger (four months old) Emmentaleraka, SwitzerlandSwisson the Delis sandwiches since 1982. This fall, thanks tothe folks at Gourmino weve arranged to bring something really

special. A four-year-old, full fat version of Emmentaler! Its prettyamazing and very exciting.

The barrels are hand made as they would have been at the timethat the Illighausen dairy got started. The tradition is being taughtanew by 87-year old barrel maker Walter Hirschi. With the declineof the industry and modern shipping methods, the tradition ofbarrel making had pretty much died out. The folks at Gourmino,committed to preserving the old ways, did the work to track downthe last five men who had made them. Two of the five that theyfound were, unfortunately, too old to really do the work. Two oth-ers were too youngtheyd made the barrels, but not for that long

because production stopped before they had time to master theircraft. Walter Hirschi hit the sweet spotold enough to have builtthe barrels for many years, young enough (at a lively 87) to stillteach the methods to younger artisans.

This four-year-old cheese is a bit of a twist on the old methods.Traditional Emmentaler has been made with partially skimmedmilkskipping the skimming leaves more richness in the cheese,important when doing that sort of super long aging. Its made byMarkus Hengartner and Tanja Bolzli. The cheese is dense, intense,full flavored. Dry, nutty, great noseits something really specialto put out on a cheese board. Great gift for anyone who lovesaged mountain cheeses. Certainly something special to serve upat parties over the holiday season, or if you love mountain cheeselike I do, just something to savor soloa small slice with a bitof Mountain bread from the Bakehouse is a beautiful thing. Putdown a bit of the Usingers Hessiche Land Leberwurst on the side,a green salad to go with, maybe a bit of mustard and youve got areally wonderful meal.

Charles PoiriersLouisiana Cane SyrupOld style, traditionally made cane syrup from Charles Poirierdown in Lafayette, Louisiana. I probably shouldnt promote theproduct too loudlyCharles production is so small that its onlyslightly bigger than what would be called homemade. Hes doingthe entire thing on his farm: growing the cane, crushing it, cook-ing it down and bottling it. What hes producing is truly, I think,one of the tastiest, things Ive tried in a long time, and a very largeand very happy surprise!

Like so many people in the food world. Charles was driven by thedesire to rediscover family tradition. My great grandfather in St.Martinville used to make syrup. He died in 1941. My father told meabout his, and how he made cane syrup before he passed awayand so Ive had it in my mind ever since. There used to be mills allover the countryside. I thought Id enjoy doing it. So I grow all myown cane. The yield is anything but high. It takes about 15 gal-lons of juice, Charles explained, to make about a gallon of syrup.It takes me about 6 to 7 hours to cook it down. I cut all the caneby hand. I enjoy doing it. At first I was just making it and givingit to family and friends. But now weve started to sell a bit of it.Happily, for us he has just enough to be able to sell of a few dozenbottles. Supply, as you can tell then, is very limited.

Dark, delicious, sensual, superb, its like the best traditional brownsugar made into a swirling, thick, sensuous elixir. Just a touch of thedeep reddish brown cane syrup on sauted sea scallops is fantastic.Its terrific on corncakes. On pancakes, French toast, or donuts. Its

beautiful on biscuits. Drizzled on roast duck. Put a bit on grilledpork chops. Try it on any of the great aged sheep cheeses wevegot. Fantastic. Amazing on the stone ground Irish oatmeal we haveat the Deli. I mixed some with a bottle of sparkling water and it wasso good that I think I could drink that all day.

Traditional French MunsterAged with MarcA long time classic that has suddenly caught my culinary atten-tion this holiday season. These special little wheels of traditionalFrench Munster cheese are really quite delicious!

To be clear, this is pretty much completely unrelated to theAmerican made cheese that goes by the similarly sounding butdifferently spelled name of muenster. Nothing wrong withthe latterwe get a great hand made version from Joe Widmer in

Theresa, Wisconsin.These lovely little rounds of washed rind cheese are from EasternFrance. More full flavored with a thin delicate and very ediblewashed rind. One of the oldest cheeses in France, munster haslikely been made in Alsace since the 9th century. The cattle weretaken up to the mountain meadows to graze in summer and thencheese was made from their milk. The lands themselves wereowned by nobles and also by the church. Most of the cheese madeby the herdsmen belonged to them, not to the men who made it.

The unique character of this full washed rind is attributed tothe diverse grasses, herbs and wildflowers in the pastures ofAlsace, and also the quality of milk from the regi onal breed ofVosgiennes cows.

The Haxaire family has been making munster cheese since 1929.Its the oldest existing creamery in Alsace! The small wheels of thisspecial version of Munster are are washed regularly with marc(aka, eau de vie, or grappa) made from grapes used for making theregions great Gewrztraminer wine. (Marc is made by fermentingthe skins and stems left from the wine production into a clear,pungent and flavorful brandy. Clear Creek Distillery in Oregon,whose pear brandy is used to wash the wonderful Rogue RiverBlue, also makes a really good marc de gewrztraminer).

The cheese is delicious with the Roadhouse bread, FrenchMountain bread, or the caraway rye (or really any bread!).Wonderful with just-boiled potatoes. Its very common in Alsaceto eat it with cumin seeds. The cumin were getting from the folksat pices de Cru would be wonderful on it.

Terrific Red Pepper andTomato SauceI confess I might have been biased by the weather. Whentheres nary a good local tomato to be seen around theseparts, I have an affinity for anything that smacks of sum-mer. And I love this sauce from northern Greece. Goodripe height-of-summer tomatoes, lots of roasted redpeppers, extra virgin oil, some garlic, a bit of choppedgolden pepper. Great way to add a bit of brightness to agray autumn day! Great with goat cheese or ricotta. Man,I could eat it by the spoonful. Great on toast, with eggs,pasta, rice, orzo. Great with fish, pork, or chicken too. A

little sweet, a small touch of spicy, really tomatoey, verypeppery and very good!

Wonderful Wine Vinegarwith Rosemary & ThymeReally interesting new vinegar, its made from sun-driedgrapes grown in Messinia in southern Greece. The con-version into vinegar is done naturally over a period ofmonths. A bit of Greek rosemary and thyme are addedduring the aging. Slightly sweet, highly delicious!

Trustworthy Olive Oilfrom Timion

A very, very good new oil arrivalfrom Greece. Timion meanstrustworthy in Greek and the folksbehind this great oil are doing every-thing possible to back that up. Itsproduced from bio-dynamicallyfarmed olives, grown with non-invasive farming methods near Mount Taygetos. Theolives are the classic small Greek variety, Koroneiki.Olives are all picked by hand. Its from the region ofLakonia (accent at the end!) in Sparta, in southeasternGreece. The Lakonians became known for their thriftyuse of words, hence the origin of the English wordlaconic (which I had to look up, but means exactlythatpithy or brief). and in the interest of congru-ence Ill just leave it at that. Terrific oil, great label, goodpeople. Try it.

Near-Perfect Roasted Peppersfrom ArtionSome beautiful roasted peppers from northern Greece.The name means ideal or balanced. And they reallyare wonderful. Traditional Greek Florin peppersbothred and yellowroasted over wood and then packedwith a touch of vinegar. Outstanding for anything. Greatlabel too. Add to salads, pastas, rice.

These are tough times in Greece.

Supporting artisan producersmakes a difference!


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Dark Chocolate from TanzaniaI love everything about this chocolate. The flavor is fantastic. Itsa bit lighter, slightly on the softer end of the flavor spectrum thanmost dark chocolates, yet still intensely chocolatey because ofits high cocoa content. Its definitely more cocoa-y than most ofour other dark chocolate bars. Shawn himself says it has hints oftobacco. The main thing is, its complex and well balanced, with anice finish and it really doesnt taste like any other chocolate thatIve had. All of which, Id say, makes it well worth checking out.

Then theres the story. Shawn Askinosie, after two decades asa very successful trial lawyer in his hometown of Springfield,Missouri, decided he wanted to spend the second half of his worklife doing something he was passionate about, something that

also made a difference for people in need. He chose chocolate,which hed loved for his whole life. He succeeded on all counts.Askinosie chocolate is some of THE best Ive had anywhere in theworld. He works very closelywith the growers, getting toknow them, teaching themabout quality, paying backbonuses to them based onthe overall financial perfor-mance of Askinosie Chocolatecompany.

At the top of my list right nowis this Tenende chocolate barfrom Tanzania. On this project,Shawn really outdid himself by stacking up so many good deedsthat its even more inspiring than his other already inspiringactivity. The work to make this bar started with a project Shawn

initiated with the inner city high school thats located not farfrom his plant. It was literally a bunch of high school kids thatwe assigned a project to figure out what country of origin weshould use for our next bar. They picked Tanzania as the countrywe should source beans from. Then we worked together to raisemoney to send the high school students therewe raised moneyfor their travel. I told them from the beginning that we werentjust going to go there to travel but that we were going to do some-thing good the people there. We raised about $70,000 to pay forthe travel and to dig a deep water well for the village.

In 2014 Shawn used this visit to Tanzania to teach our vision-ing process to the growers of the Mababu cooperative. He gotinspiring results. This summer Shawn went back, along with hisdaughter Lawren, and decided to talk about visioning to 200 girlsfrom the local high school. Again, he got very powerful outcomes.He has, without question, made a hugely positive impact ontheir community. The quality of the cacao is significantly higher,

theyre earning more money for it, hes teaching them skills likevisioning that will help them with everything in their lives, hesbrought much needed funding to the local school by selling theiramazingly good Kyela rice (I love it! Its available at the Deli andzingermans.com). Every we bar we buy contributes a bit more tothis fantastic project. And it tastes truly terrific as well.

Rig Jancsi Romantic HungarianChocolate Torte from Zingerman'sBakehouse

This is one of my favorite of all thegreat Hungarian items weve intro-

duced in the last three years. Iveput it on this list more than oncenow, but its so delicious, and the

story behind it is so good, its hardto leave it off.

If you havent yet tried the RigJancsi, check it out soon. Its a beau-

tiful rectangular torte, coveredin a thick coating of dark choco-late ganache, with the nameRig

Jancsiwritten in script across the top. Thename, by the way, is pronounced ree-go yon-chee. The basic storyof the cake is well known (at least in Hungarian pastry circles).Its named for a Hungarian-born, Roma violinist who fell in lovewith a Michigan heiress named Clara Ward. Unfortunately, shehappened to be married to someone else at the time. Apparentlywired for passion and adventure, she chose Rig and romanceover her husband and a more proper life as a well-manneredprincess. The invention of the cake came shortly thereafter,when a baker designed it in her honor.

Steve and Jane Voss, who are of Hungarian descent and havevisited the home country many times, were raving about howgood this Rig Jansci is. Steve told me the other night that it was,Good enough to be served at Gerbeaud, referring to the worldfamous, 150-year old caf in Budapests central square. Two lay-ers of really tender, delicate chocolate sponge cake, sandwichedaround a modest layer of chocolate rum whipped cream, toppedoff with a very thin, delicate layer of apricot jam and then, finally,finished with a thick dark chocolate ganache. Serve it at roomtemperature with a cup of the Ethiopian coffee and youre almostguaranteed to have a good day.

Bottled Spanish Beans from theBasque Country

Weve long loved the Piquillo peppers from the folks at ElNavarrico in the Spanish Basque Country. But peppers arent allthat El Navarrico has to offer. These deliciously creamy bottled

beans are pretty spectacular. I love to use them as the base fora quick and nutritious mealreally theyre so good I could prob-ably eat them almost every night.

And then there are the Judin. These big delicious white beansare to most beans what super-aged mountain Gruyre is to super-market Swiss cheese. I know that its kind of weird to think aboutbeans as a food that could really be that good, but these are prettydarned exceptional. If you just cook them up as is with some bayleaves and a few whole vegetables in the pot you can serve themas a side dish dressed with olive oil and sea salt. Theyre great ina pot of Judias con Chorizo, which is a really nice bean stew sea-soned with saffron, Pimentn de la Vera smoked paprika, somejamn serrano, chorizo, red wine and olive oil. Ive simmeredthem for a few minutes in a chicken broth scented with saffronand served them with sauted onion, celery, fennel and carrotsalong with saffron. Add plenty of good olive oil, sea salt andfreshly ground Telicherry black pepper. Theyre fantastic too with

tuna. Go with some of the tuna from the Ortiz family whose worktakes place only about an hour to the northwest of El Navarrico.

Baia Pasta from the Bay AreaOver the last year this hasbecome an ever moreregular part of mycooking routineat home. Why?Because it just tastesso darned good! Itwas tasty back whenPiemontese part-ners Renato Sardoand Dario Barbonegot going four or

five years ago andit seems to just keepgetting better everyyear! Renato and Darioare doing all of the thingsIve written about above, and the resultsare equality excellent. We are producing all of our pasta usingonly organic flours from North America, Renato wrote. For themoment we offer pasta in durum wheat (the classical semolinaflour), whole durum wheat, spelt and whole spelt. The productionfollows the practices and techniques of the Italian artisans: weuse brass dies which scratch the surface of the noodle, causingit to suck up more sauce; cold water in kneading; and low dryingtemperature.

The Baia pastas are all in the same high quality league as the bestof Italys artisan producers. Its not an accidentI was born andraised in Italy, eating good dried pasta practically every day,

Renato told me. Fresh pasta is generally eaten on special occa-sions or weekends when you have big meals with the whole fam-ily and I thought it strange that in the Bay Area I could find thesame brands as at my grocer in Piemonte. At the same time, theonly dried pasta produced in the States I could find was bland,made with industrial flours that are probably produced very effi-ciently, but that are not very flavorful.

If youve not yet tried pasta of this quality before, you may beshocked it at how much better it is. Thats what happened to methirty years ago. And Ive been cooking great artisan dried pastamade by one the great producersRustichella, Martelli, Faella,and now Baiatwo or three times a week at home ever since.When you drain the pasta, your entire kitchen will smell won-derfully of the wheat from which its made. And when you eat ityoull likely fall in love. Artisan pasta like this is so much moreflavorful than standard commercial offerings. Does it cost more?Of course. But for a few extra dollars youre upgrading to worldclass cuisine. You can of course cook this great pasta any way youlike. But if you want to appreciate it fully you might try it cookedvery al dente, dressed only with one of the great extra virgin oliveoils, a some freshly ground Parmigiano-Reggiano. Add a touch offresh ground pepper and some sea salt and eat it while its hot.When Ive had a rough day, or Im not feeling all that great, thatsimple unbeatable dish has become my go to dinner. I always feelbetter after I eat it!

Primo Grano Pastafrom the AbruzzoBuying better pasta is one of the easiest ways I know to upgradethe quality of ones cooking (unless of course you dont eat pasta).The depth, character, complexity and everything else just goes upa couple of notches. What Im talking about here is taking yourmeal up from perfectly fine to pretty darned fantastic, at thecost of a couple of dollars.

The Primo Grano pasta from the family-owned PastificioRustichella, in the Abruzzo region of Italys east coast, is one ofa handful that can make that happen. Its made from a specialwheat that Gianluigi Peduzzi has spent years developing in theinterest of replicating the flavor of the grain grown back when hisfather got the pasta factory going back in the 1920s. As with all theRustichella pasta, the Primo Grano is mixed at cooler tempera-tures (protects the flavor of the wheat), extruded through the oldstyle bronze dies (rougher surface), and dried very slowly (48-60hours to get the proper texture in the bowl). As with all the greatpastas, I prefer to cook it very al dente, the better to taste thewheat. And be sure to salt the pot liberally when youre cook-ingunsalted pasta is like unsalted potatoesbecause somethingserious gets lost for the cost of a few cents worth of salt.

For more on what makes better pasta better see the chapter inZingermans Guide to Good Eating.

&

Zingermans Food Tour Guides

April 16-26, 2016For over 30 years, Zingermans has brought thebest and most flavorful foods of the world home toAmerica. Now, we can take you to the source! Join usand savor Spains amazing artisanal food and wine tothe fullest. Well go behind the scenes and learn fromproducers about their fantastic olive oils, cheeses,wines, chocolates, pimenton, and more. And well dofull honors to the king of cured pork jamn Ibricode bellota, created from the famed black-footed pigswho dine on the acorns that fall from the plentifulSpanish oak trees. Well enjoy the beauty of thecountryside and taste our way through some of the

best food Spain has to offer.

www.zingermansfoodtours.com888-316-2736

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Travel toSpain with

Zingermans


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Last summer I was talking to Joe Salonia, the ver y nice guy through

whom we get some of our best aged Swiss cheeses. We talked about

Emmental (see page 3) and about aged Gruyre.

Then he started telling about this great Raclette they were getting

from an artisan cheesemaker, one of the last to make the old-style

Raclette. Wow, I said, thinking back on my visit to the Valais

region so many years ago. I remember visiting a guy that made

Raclette when I was there twenty years ago. He was great, and so

was his cheese. I wrote a long ar ticle about him for our newsletter.

I think his name was Eddy. Joes face lit up. Thats the guy! Eddy

Baillifard. Thats who were getting the Raclette from.

When I got home, I found the essay Id written so long ago. Some

things dont age wellthey feel out of touch and out of date.

Others hold up nicely. They feel remarkably current and on target

even though we were actually done many years earlier. This piece,

about Eddys approach to work and the cheese he makes, all fit

into the latter category. As I wrote to Joe, Im working on my next

book which will be about the power of beliefs in business, and its

interesting to see how much of what I now teach was already in

my mind 20 years ago!

Most of what I wrote about Eddy still stands. In the high produc-

tion season, he produces 55 pieces of Raclette (5 kilos each a day).

Right now, he produces just 12 pieces. He also built a new caf

inside his creamery. If you go to the Valais you can stop by and

order Raclette sandwiches, charcuterie, wine, coffee and talk (if

you speak French) about cows with Eddy.

His sons are no longer smallthey now work in the dairy and

the cheese remains excellent. Read on, and then come by the Deli

and get a taste! Heres to Eddy, good work, and good cheese!

Making and Eating Raclette,or The Nature of Work(fromZingermans Newsin 1994)

Last spring, four cheese-loving friends and I decided to spendsome of our vacation time touring the cheesemaking and cheese-loving mountains of France, Italy, and Switzerland. Starting outin Geneva, we drove a wide circle counterclockwise around LacLeman. One Renault van, five cheese-lovers from America and

England. Lots of cheese, lots of laughs and lots of learning. Thismonth, the story of the Alpine Cheese Tour 94 continues with ourvisit to the Valais, land of Raclette, home of our new Raclette-making friend, Eddy Baillifard.

Eddy certainly didnt meet my image of the stereotypical chee-semaker. Looked more like an ex-rock n roller whod touredwith Guns N Roses than a man who lives and loves great cheese.Around thirty years old. Big arms. Wide, well-rounded shoulders.Thick neck. Big heart. Round back. Long scar up his elbow. Big,welcoming Swiss smile.

Whatever mysterious past I may conjure up for Eddy in my head,I know for a fact that in the here and now, Eddys work is aboutmaking great cheese at his dairy in the village of Bruson. Hes aRaclette-maker. A passionate, hard working, committed crafts-man, he seems to truly love his work. Which is a good thingbecause he works a lot; 13 hours a day, seven days a week. Makingcheese. Turning cheese. Rubbing cheese. Caressing cheese. Loving

life. Do you make cheese every day? I asked him. In Switzerland,the cows work on Sundays too. So I do too. I make cheese everyday. Even on Christmas, he smiled.

Eating RacletteIf you visit the Valais, youll quickly discover that Raclette is THEcheese. The local shop in the town of Martigny where we stayed,sells ten different Raclettes. Some cheeses are old, some very old,some older still. Each is labeled with the name of the valley fromwhich they came, then by the number of the producer. Raclette inthe Valais makes me think of snow to the Eskimo something forwhich we have but a single name, while they have a complex listof varied, individually identified versions.

The locals in the Valais eat Raclette as a table cheese, cutting offslices and enjoying them before or after dinner. They also eatit as part of a light meal, along with a salad and air-cured beef.

They use it in fondue. And, perhaps best of all, they use it to makeRaclette, the eponymously named incredibly delicious dish thathas brought Raclette the cheese much of its international recog-nition. More about that later.

Many Americans have never had the chance to taste a goodRaclette cheese, as so much of the Raclette sent over to thiscountry is factory-made, with little life, and less character. Oftenit is made in France, not Switzerland. But when you can get yourhands on the real thing, it is truly a wonderful, worthwhile cheese.Dont miss it.

When you taste a sliver of Raclette youll recognize it immediatelyas a member in good standing of the Swiss cheese family. Theresmuch of the same fruity, nose-tickling tang that gets Swiss cheeselovers so excited. How does it compare to non-Swiss cheeses?Its more upright than, say, the slight sexiness of a creamy ItalianFontina, more straight-laced than the wild rustic ride of an ItalianPecorino. Its an upstanding Swiss citizen, with a bit of the fruiti-

ness and spiciness that characterizes German wines. Hardly anyholes, but a hardy, enjoyable flavor.

Eddys grandfather started the dairy in Bruson back in 1925. Hada few cows, then decided to start making cheese. Eddy lovedcheese as a kid. He admired his grandfather, loved his grandfa-thers work, adored his grandfathers cheese. Eddys father, on theother hand, is an electrician. Electrician and politician. He hatedcheesemaking and wanted nothing to do with it.

Skip a generation. Skip the narration. Swiss cheese generationgap. There are holes in the cheese making lineage, but the tradi-tion stays strong around the holes. Grandfathers made cheese.

Fathers fled to less demanding professions. Grandchildren areback, committed to making incredible, traditional cheese.

Eddy decided to forgo his fathers electrical trade and return tothe challenges of the cheese world. Took years of study with theSwiss Cheesemakers Union. Chose to make his passion for cheeseinto his vocation. To make Raclette the right way, every day, everyweek. 52 weeks a year. The way his grandfather did. Its a passion,not a job, says Eddy with a sweet smile. I love it!

My cynical American mind balks: Hey, this is too good to be true.Somebody told you to tell that story to all the tourists, didntthey? But my heart hears a like-minded spirit spitting out sub-stantive stuff. My heart says, He means it. Eddy truly seems totake great pleasure in his cheesemaking.

31 Raclettes a day. 365 days a year.Each of the 31 is turned six times the first day, pressed with a20-kilo weight to expel excess whey. Then one day in a salt brine.Then into the aging rooms, where the smell of the cheeses aging

thickly contrasts with the freshness of the mountain air just out-side the heavy steel door. To Eddy, the smell of Raclettes ripeningis sweet as can be. Each 12-pound flat round is turned and washeddaily during its three to five months of aging. A special machinemoves through the aisles of the aging rooms. Eddy puts one wheelin at a time, flips the switch, brushes brush, water whirs. Nothingfancy about the wash. Just good clean local Valais water. TheRaclette is then returned to its wooden shelf.

As it ages, the Raclette develops a natural, fawn-colored, brushedrind, the texture of coarse linen. Cut them open and youll finda pale yellow-to-ivory-colored interior with only an occasionalsmall eye, or hole marking the surface.

365 days a year of cheesemaking. Think about it. Work every dayof the year? To the leisure-loving American ear, the thought isalmost overwhelming. How can the guy work every single day?Does that make him a workaholic?

I think not. When they created the 40-hour work week, the

emphasis was on work. But what Eddy does isnt just a job, its avocation. I can relate. Sure forty hours sounds nice. If you dontlike what youre doing, do it as little as possible. But what truevocation can you fulfill in forty hours a week?

Cheese Kids on the BlockEnter Eddys kids. Little, loving lads with blond bowl-cut hair.They come running into the dairyits a holiday, one of the manysaints days that dot the European work calendar. School is out.Eddy is working. In Switzerland the cows work on Saints days too.

The little one (maybe hes five?) has an earring. I guess rock nrolling gets passed along the generations like cheesemaking.They help Eddy with the cheese, and its the latter part of his day,where hes making Sirac out of the whey left from the Raclette.

(Sirac is the Alpine version of ricotta, made by boiling the whey tocook out the whey solids. Its fluffy, white and delicious on bread,pasta or anything else. But youll have to go the Alps to get it.)

Its great to watch. The kids stick their fingers into the cheese andpull out little scoopfuls, and eat. Eddy picks the boys up in his bigcheesemakers arms and jokes with them. Everyone laughs. Putsem down. Goes back to the cheese. I didnt ask, but I should have.My gut tells me that this is the way Eddy remembers visiting hisgrandfather the cheesemaker.

Is this how we learn to love work, to work at something we love?Is this one of the things weve lost by banishing work to factoriesand filled-up, sealed-off office buildings? I know I never went towork with my father. Why are we so intent on separating workfrom life as if it needed to be quarantined? Whats wrong withwork anyways? I like the other parts of my life a lot, but I likework too. My work fascinates me, challenges me, frustrates me,rewards me. Its so closely connected to me. My work, like Eddys,is about a love for food, a love for the people who make it, whoeat it, working to connect the former with the latter.

The littlest of the boys comes running back in crying. His shoe isuntied. Eddy laughs, lifts and reties. Problem fixed. Hes not just agood cheesemaker. Hes a really nice guy.

Upward BoundThe Ascent to the AlpageWe arrived in the Valais in May, the day before Ascension. Turnedout to be a few days too early. Next Tuesday is the day the cows goup the mountains, up to the Alpage, the incredibly lush mountain

nOvEmberOrtiz SardinesWere putting these exquisite Spanish sardines back onsale. These big and meaty pilchards are cleaned, cookedand packed by hand. Preserved with olive oil in a beautifulglass jar, they are packed upright in the traditional old-world style. Their mellow, briny-sweet flavor will actually

improve over the years, if you can wait that long!Jar $9.99 (reg. $14.99)Tin $5.27 (reg. $7.99)

DeCemberConservasRamn PeaWhen you open a tin of anything that Ramn Pea pro-duces, you will realize before your first taste why they areconsidered the best that Spain has to offer. Whether it istender sardines, colorful octopus, or velvety squid, every-thing is handled with great care in order to present youwith a superior product... and wait until you taste them!

Sardines With Padron Peppers - $13.15ea. (reg. $19.99ea.)

Squids In Ink - $13.15ea. (reg. $19.99ea.)Squids In Olive Oil - $13.15ea. (reg. $19.99ea.)

Octopus In Paprika Sauce - $16.50ea. (reg. $24.99ea.)

Octopus In Olive Oil - $16.50ea. (reg. $24.99ea.)

When we devel-oped our HolidayBlend for 2015, westarted with a smooth, chocolatey coffeefrom Papua New Guinea. For balance,we added a few of our favorite seasonalbeans from Central America. The result-ing blend has a rich, dark-chocolatecharacter with just a hint of fruit.

2015

Available at Zingermans Coffee Co., Delicatessen and Roadhouse


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pastures that serve as summer homes to many of Switzerlandssmall, well-to-do dairy herds. The first stage of the Ascent (is itonly coincidence that the cows start going up the mountain atAscension Day?) takes the cows to the lowest level of the Alpage.Later, they leave for meadows higher up the mountains. Then inSeptember and October they slowly start to make their way backdown to the villages.

In Bruson, 176 cows from the village go up together. Package tourfor bovines. 20 of the 176 belong to Eddy. His herd is made up ofSimmental and Les Rennes cows, although more of the latter.The Les Rennes are fighting cows. Eddy loves to watch the fightingcows. The day before our arrival, Ascension Day was the annualfighting cow festival. 9000 people came to Bruson to watch it.(Thats a lot of people in a tiny, out of the way village like Bruson.)Eddy is sorry we werent there to see it. What Id rather see is thecows going up the mountain. How many heifers have made theirway up the steep green slopes over the centuries?

Looking up from the village and around at the mountains, I won-der how it happened that some parts of the mountains are cov-

ered with thick forests, others with nothing but clean, clear greenpastures.

I asked Eddy, Where did the Alpage come from? How did it getthere? Round shoulders shrug. Its just been there for a longtime. As we traveled the mountains, I kept inquiring. Best answerI got was that medieval mountaineers cleared the forests to createpasturage for their herds. Their legacy is the Alpage.

Whats Progress Anyways?Visiting the Bagnes, talking to Eddy, got me thinking about thewhole issue of progress. Im not sure what it all means, but howdo we know which progress is good and which is bad? Whodecides? Is history the only judge? Makes me question long-heldbeliefs, without really arriving at a clean, clear-cut answer.

Think about it. How come it strikes me as okay to clear-cut forestsin the Alps five hundred years ago to create the Alpage, with all its

incredible natural beauty and the livelihood it provides for Swissvillagers? When at the same time Im so opposed to Boise-Cascadeclear-cutting California forests? I mean, I know where my ownfeelings lead me, but if Im honest with myself, I have to questionwhy its so hard for me to rationalize one but not the other.

Six months later, I havent come up with any simple solution. Weeach believe what we believe. But I guess, the key to the Swisspart of the question is that they seem to have worked in balancewith the world, making changes but keeping intact the connectionto the earth. Cutting some forests, but never losing respect fornature, for the mountains.

Every cheesemaker I met in Switzerland spoke with enormousrespect for his or her environment, for the majesty and magic ofthe mountains. Somehow, theyve made it work, for themselves,for their cheese, and for their environment.

Rocky Mountain Cheese HighGreat cheese, to me, is a stimulant. A soul stimulant. You cantquite quantify it. Sometimes I want to. But I know I cant. Itspleasurable, but unmeasureable. The late, great quality expert,Edward Deming rightfully recommends setting specific standardsof measurement in order to define and then attain quality stan-dards. But how can you measure what can only be monitored inthe mouth of the beholder? How to you measure the satisfactionthat Eddy derives from crafting his capricious thirty one wheels aday of Raclette? How do you measure pleasure?

Can work and pleasure coexist? Can they be linked? I think so.Thats what I work for. People act like work is about grime, orat best a daily grind. Sure theres daily drudgery, and repetitiontoo, but why cant work also be about beauty, soul satisfaction,service, enjoyment, connection? I think it can. I work hard toblend them all into a single interesting, rewarding existence. Lifeis work. Work is life. Its not all of life. Not even close. But why

do so many people insist on seeing the two as so incompatibly,irretrievably, separate?

Raclette PostscriptAs we enter the Ann Arbor winter, it makes me think of sitting inthe Valais, eating hot Raclette. Id like to go back right now formore. More Raclette. More potatoes. More work. More magnifi-cent meadows and more moments like the ones we had in theValais. I guess for the moment, Ill settle for a plate of hot potatoesand richly flavored Raclette, and my memories ofthe Alpine Cheese Tour, 94.

RACLETTE PARTYIf you want to bring fifteen friendstogether for a memorable evening ofincredibly good, heartwarming wintereating, a Raclette party is definitelya good way to go. Heres what youneed:

1. Plenty of Raclette Cheese!You cant have a Raclette party without the Raclette.Heres what to look for when youre shopping:

A. Stick to traditional Swiss Raclette.There are dozens of different Raclettes available onthe market. Most are factory made, many in France notSwitzerland. I far prefer the traditional Swiss version. Awell-made Raclette from the Valais is richer, earthier, nut-tier, more interesting. And since the cheese is the center-piece of the meal, I dont want anything less than the best.

B. Look for the name of the valley stamped into theside of the rind.This insures that youve got a wheel from the Valais,Raclettes home region. Only the real thing will have thisname impressed a good quarter inch into the rind along theside of each wheel. The rinds of factory made and/or Frenchversions of Raclette are smooth and nameless.

C. Ask its age.Although asking for someones age before you get togetherdoesnt work well on the dating scene, its pretty helpful

when it comes to cheese. If you can find a wheel thats atleast five or six months old youll be likely to have a moreflavorful Raclette experience. Older than six months, thecheeses are still excellent for eating, but are less then idealfor melting in the Raclette tradition.

2. How to Melt the CheeseFrom a hands-on cooking perspective, the easiest option isto find yourself a Raclette machine. Its basically a heatingelement, attached to swinging metal arm which holds thecheese while it melts. All you have to do is bring a half wheelof Raclette, trim the rind from the first inch or two off thecut face of the cheese, mount it on the arm, melt and scrapewhen the cheese starts bubbling. When youve scraped offall the cheese, dismount the piece, trim another few inchesof rind, reset and start over.

If you cant get a Raclette machine, you can do it the old-

fashioned way. You simply hold the cut face of the wheelup a nice big open fire. After all, this is the way it was doneup until some home appliance genius invented the Raclettemachine half a century ago. The only thing it gets a little hot,so if youre not used to having your face and hands smackin the middle of a roaring fire, you might want to get yourhands onand then ina pair of protective gloves.

The simplest and quickest (if least traditional) way to doit, is simply to stick slices of Raclette into your frying pan,saut until they start to melt then slide them off onto platesof potatoes.

3. PotatoesWhile the star of an evening of great Raclette eating iscertainly the cheese, you should also recruit yourselfsome stage-worthy supporting actors. The Valais region ofSwitzerland (where Raclette is from) is also regarded as the

source of the countrys best tasting fruit and vegetables, soit makes sense that the Valaison would pair up just-dug pota-toes with the local cheese. As a long-time cheese and potatolover, it seems a very natural act to track down a few of thegood, flavorful potatoes that are again appearing in our pro-duce markets.

For Raclette, Id recommend steaming your potatoes, andthen bringing them hot to the table right from the stove.Assuming you dont have a cloth bag to serve them in, a cleankitchen towel lining a warm bowl will work just fine.

4. Pickled Cornichons and OnionsRemember that Raclette was winter food, and that pickledvegetables like these (and root vegetables like potatoes)

would have been pretty much the only food the averageSwiss peasant farmer could have had back a few hundredyears ago. The tartness of the pickling does make for a nicecontrast with the richness of the cheese.

5. Good BreadYou wont need anything too exoticjust a really good loafof crusty country bread.

6. Tea or Kirsch to DrinkThe Swiss are adamant that you arent supposed to drink any-thing cold while eating a Raclette. Supposedly its bad for yourdigestion. The cold drink will make the cheese get hard inyour stomach, Ive been warned by a half dozen other peo-ple. Personally Ive never had any problem with that.

7. Optional SaladThe only other thing you should consider is a simple greensalad. Mind you, this would be less than typical of traditionalValaison eating. There was no lettucelocal or otherwisebeing harvested in midwinter in 19th century Switzerland.But for our more modern tastes, a little greenery on thetable is a nice contrast to the sturdiness ofthe rest of the Raclette offerings.

Recipe for a QuickRaclette for Two:

Yes, its true. For a minimal amount of work,

you can also make a quick Raclette for you

and any other Mr. or Ms. Cheese and Potatohead you like. All you have to do it cut 1/4inch thick slices of Raclette, trim the rinds

off, then run the slices under the broiler

until the cheese starts to bubble. Pull it outfrom under the heat, and slide onto your

ready and waiting hot potatoes.

Eat. Drink. Enjoy!


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Holiday Gifts from

Germanys tradition, made inAnN ArborZingermans Bakehouse Stollen Gift Boxed

Our delicious German-style cake is a long-standing Zingermans tradition for folks look-

ing for unique dessert ideas, great gifts and fine food for weekend brunch.

If you havent had Stollen before and wonder what all the fuss is about, just take

a look at the ingredient list: real butter, Bacardi white rum, glaced lemons,

oranges, cherries, fresh lemon and orange zest, fresh lemon juice, currants,almonds, golden raisins, Red Flame raisins, organic Mexican vanilla beans and

our very scent-sual Indonesian cinnamon.

Toasted and spread with a little sweet butter, its delicious and is perhaps

rivaled only by our own coffeecake as a great afternoon snack cake.

Each Stollen comes gift boxed, serves 6-8, and, barring extensive snacking,lasts for weeks.

it's alwaysbetTer with ba

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Aminrtisn bcon.

Mrio Btli

Th bst thinI vr t.

Michl Smon

Fntsticift!

Bobb Fl

Th countrs finstslbs of hoMns Journl

Zingermans Bacon ClubFeatured on The Best Thing I Ever Ate onthe Food Network!

Michael Symon, Mario Batali, Bobby Flay. Theyve all lauded our bacon

club. Even vegetarians have joined in: six to date. Thats how many Iknow personally whove fallen off the bandwagon thanks to the bacons

from this club. Im not using that as a proposal for torturing anyone. Im

just saying any food thats so good it can break a strong will has to be

worth trying.Well ship to the lucky

recipient each month,

just in time for

weekend frying.

Each shipment

contains 12 to 16 ounces

of artisan bacon, bacon

stories, histories

and recipes.

Bonus! Free Bacon

Booklet keepsake

primer and awesome

Pig Magnet with first

club shipment.

A spicy sweetGerman traditionLebkuchen

Sandy Lee fell in love with lebkuchen, the traditional German Christmas cookie, while living in Berlin.

It was like nothing Id ever tasted, she recalls. I couldnt get all those complex flavors out of my

head. She became obsessed, learning all she could about them before returning to the states andstarting her own lebkuchen bakery.

The recipe dates back to Medieval times and has many steps. The dough is made from almond and hazel-nut flours, whole almonds, egg whites, honey, marzipan and a bevy of spices. The dense dough rests

for nearly a day before heading to the oven. The finished cookies are hand glazed and studded with

almonds (classic variety) or cloaked in dark chocolate.

You will find three classic and two chocolate cookies in this fire engine red tin. Each is about four

inches across and an inch tall. Theyre thick, moist, slightly spicy, sweet and very nutty. The consistency

is a cross between cake and marzipan, making them the perfect after dinner treat with coffee or tea.Although traditionally intended to keep for months, I think these sweet, spicy, nutty treats will only

last a few days (or hours!) at your house. A cookie with history, a perfect gift for anyone on your list.

Zingermans annual Camp Bacon is coming June 1-5, 2016.

Reserve your spot at the Main Event at zingermans.com


9/15


9

zingermans.com!The deli sandwich of their dreamsZingermans Reuben Sandwich Kits

The perfect lunchby mail. If you know someone who loves real deli fare, sending this gift will cementyour status as the most clever, generous friend they have. Some assembly is required, but considering it

has been known to make grown men weep in appreciation, we think its worth it.

Included: Jewish Rye (Pumpernickel in Brooklyn Reuben), sliced deli meat, freshly sliced Emmentaler

Swiss cheese, Zingermans homemade redskin potato salad, coleslaw, Sauerkraut, Russian dressing,

garlicky pickles, Magic Brownie Bites.

Professional-grade instructions also come inside the box.

Call 888 636 8162 HOLIDAY HOURS 8am-12am Nov 1-30; 24 hours a day until Dec 23

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trdition.Nw York Min

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Your Rubn Sndwich Kit bso-lutl floord m prnts. Esilth bst prsnt I hv vr ot-tn thm. It md up for 37 rs

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"Th bst rubn inAmric."

Twnt BstSndwichs in

Amric,Food & Win

The WeEkenderOur most popular gift box

This is a great all-purpose gift, built from foods therecipient can snack on right out of the box. Whatever

the occasion, folks will dig right in.

This colorful cartooned gift box is filled with a loaf of

Zingermans Artisan Bread, a couple Brownies (Walnut-

studded Magic Brownie and a Caramel Buenos Aires

Brownie), La Quercias Borsellino Salami, a half poundof our NorEaster Cabot Cheddar, Zingermans Peanut

Brittle, and a nosher-sized version of our extremely

popular, extremely good Sourcream Coffeecake.

Pig inthe cityCity Hams

Unlike Southern country hams

that you can enjoy without

cooking, these are the kindthat most of usat least those

of us from the Northare

used to eating. Theyre the

ones you put in the oven for afew hours, sometimes pinned

with pineapple slices. Skip the

pineapple here, these hamsdont need it.

The hogs are raised in theMidwest by farmers under the direction of Heritage Foods, the folks who bring us our amaz-

ing porterhouse pork chops. The pigs are not confined, have access to the outdoors to root

and roam, and never receive antibiotics or hormones. The hams are cured with salt and

maple sugar for two weeks then smoked over hickory. They are full of flavor and easy to

enjoy. Just heat, slice and eat.Select which ham youd like based on its flavor profile

Berkshirehams have a classic porky

flavor that everyone love

zingerman's newsletter november/december 2015

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