Community makes cheeses of their own
Utah State University holds unique ties to the dairy industry. Home to one of the largest dairy research centers in the United States, dairy has been an important focus within the university for a very long time, and the university has shared its expertise with the dairy industry for decades. For the first time, the university held a homemade cheese-making class to share its knowledge with the members of the community.
Held on Nov. 7 in the C. Anthon Ernstrom Nutrition and Food Sciences Building, the class was designed to teach people with little to no experience how to create cheeses of their own, with limited special materials required.
“The goal is to show people how they can make cheese at home,” said Kim Rasmussen, program coordinator for BUILD Dairy at USU. “We just go to the store and buy milk and cream, and everything we use is available from the store or online, so these cheeses could be made by anyone.”
The class was made up of two parts. First, they began with a lecture that taught the processes of making cheese. Following the lecture, the students were able to put their knowledge into practice, making their cheeses from scratch. Throughout the class, students learned important cheese-making techniques, such as using rennet and cultures, cutting curd, stretching mozzarella and aging feta.
The class was put on by the Western Dairy Center, which is under the university’s S.J. & Jesse E. Quinney College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The WDC is one of six national dairy research centers created under the National Dairy Research and Promotion Board. According to its website, the WDC’s mission is to conduct basic and applied research in dairy products and ingredients and to transfer the resulting knowledge to the dairy industry in usable form.
Helping out with the class was the former associate director of the WDC Carl Brotherson, who during his time at Utah State, oversaw the WDC’s operations as well as much of the research carried out at the center.
Alyssa Cook Jeff Summelhays presses the cheese curds Nov. 7 during the homemade cheese making class.
“The class was excellent. We made four different kinds of cheese, so the students could get an idea of different ways to make cheese,” Brotherson said. “The students were great workers. We also had four graduate student assistants helping out, one for each cheese. They knew their stuff, and they were very helpful.”
One way the WDC continues its outreach is through classes, such as the homemade cheese-making class, but this class is just one of three classes they put on every year. They also offer two multi-day classes for both beginners and advanced cheese makers.
“We’ve been holding these classes for 42 years. We get people from all over the country coming to those classes,” Rasmussen said. “People from Wisconsin, Idaho, as well as employees from Schreiber [Foods] here in Logan, and Gossner [Foods], all come to those classes.”
The classes have even been the foundation for some artisan cheese makers around Utah, such as Beehive Cheese in Ogden, which began after two brothers-in-law attended one of the beginner classes.
“They’ve won a ton of awards since then. On their website, they mention the Western Dairy Center because they came and took these short courses and went on to build their business,” Rasmussen said. “We’ve sent people down there to help them through the issues that have come up as they’ve grown.”
WDC strives to be involved with the community and help people grow their interest in the dairy industry. The classes have become a central part of their success in that mission and will continue to be so moving forward.