CHARACTERISTICS:
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Background Country of Origin: USA Region: Wisconsin Photo Credit: Alice Lee, Oak Grove
website Characteristics Milk Type: Cow Target Milk Fat:~2.94% Target Milk Protein:~3.27% |
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Milk Additives:CaCl and Rennet Cheese Type: Semi-firm, washed Flavour: Sweet, mild, buttery |
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Appearance: Rindless, creamy
white to ivory yellow interior and exterior, uniform colour, many irregular
mechanical openings, made in rectangular blocks. |
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Canadian brine-Brick cheese is a semi-firm, washed variety derived from the traditional Wisconsin smear-ripened type. The cheese is rindless with an ivory white to creamy, pale yellow interior and exterior that is uniform in colour. There are many irregular mechanical openings present throughout, as well as some openings due to gas formation. The texture is elastic, pliable and smooth, which is not as firm as cheddar but firmer than Limburger. Brine Brick presents a sweet, mild, butter-nut aroma, and a taste reminiscent of a combination of both mild Cheddar and young Limburger. Brine Brick should be easy to slice without crumbling, and it melts and browns well at high temperatures. A slightly bitter rind may form during the aging process, but can be quite desirable to a true brick lover, adding an additional depth of flavour. Brine Brick cheese is consistently produced in 3x10x5 inch blocks that weigh approximately 5 pounds each.
Smear-ripened
varieties of Brick cheese are more pungent in flavour and require a longer
ripening time, but do present strikingly similar aromas, flavour notes, and
texture. The surface bacteria used, Brevibacterium linens, is
beautifully bright orange-red, but is normally removed before packaging.
HISTORY:
Brick cheese originated
in Wisconsin, USA in 1875. Brick cheese
was first made by John Jossi, a Swiss immigrant. It is comparable to Cheddar and Limburger. It has a softer body making it easier to cut
and is less sharp than cheddar, but firmer and milder than Limburger. Brick is
also similar to Havarti in its method of processing, flavour and appearance.
Oak
Grove Canadian Brick
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Oak Grove Cheese
Factory in New Hamburg, Ontario has been operational since 1879 and has been owned
by the Langenegger family since 1925.
They are famous for their five varieties of cheese that they produce,
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Brick cheese. Presently, they produce many other varieties
of Brick such as caraway, onion & garlic and hot pepper. This independently
owned factory maintains its quality cheese products by continuing manufacture
almost exactly the same as when they started more than 70 years ago. Fred
Langenegger was born in Sweden, which is where he first learned to make cheese.
He also made cheese in many other European countries before coming to
Canada. With the help of his 2 sons and
11 full time employees, Oak Grove has become known across Canada. In 1974, Oak Grove produced 1,500,000 pounds
of cheese from 15,000,000 pounds of local milk (~10% yield).
Today, few things have been changed
in the manufacture of Oak Grove Canadian Brick. Years ago, Brick used to be
aged for 2-3 weeks at 16°C in a waxed rind but now it is brined for 24 hours,
bagged and then stored for aging. The most
recent change is their vacuum packaging. This resulted in a cheese with very
few mechanical openings which are normally abundant in Brick cheese. Although
the appearance of the cheese was affected, the flavour was not sacrificed at
all.
The Canadian Brick has distinct
differences from the American Brick variety.
American Brick was traditionally a smear-ripened cheese, which got its
name because it was shaped into 5lb brick shaped blocks and pressed using the weight
of bricks. The bricks used as weights assisted the removal of whey from the
curd and produced few mechanical openings. Canadian Brick, on the other hand,
is allowed to undergo a natural whey drainage which results in a cheese
containing an abundance of mechanical openings.
TECHNICAL DETAILS:
Oak Grove cheese is sold fresh
(before 60 days) so local milk must be pasteurized. A thermophilic culture in
the form of frozen pebbles is used. The curd is cooked at 36°C, which is
slightly lower than the cooking temperatures used in American Brick (41°C).
When the curd has reached the desired level of firmness, the curd and whey
mixture is dipped into wooden forms that are rectangular (10 x 5 x 5.5). This
produces a 5lb brick of cheese. The forms are then left to drain. Once the curd
has settled, a cover is placed on each form to reduce heat loss. The forms are
turned about 5 times at 30-minute intervals. Then the curd is left again to
drain overnight on its own. This draining step is in contrast to the methods of
traditional American Brick which uses a 5lb weight (traditionally, a brick)
placed on top of the forms after the second or third turn. At Oak Grove, hot
water is poured over the new cheese in the wooden forms to help settle, pack
and harden the cheese.
The
next morning, the forms are removed and the cheese is brine salted. Traditional
American Brick was dry salted but is now sometimes brine salted as well. For dry salting, the cheese is rubbed with
salt and repeated daily for 3 days and is then scraped smooth and placed in a
curing room. For brine salting, the
cheese is floated in a salt solution at 13-15°C for 1 day and salt is sprinkled
on the exposed surface. After 24 hours, they are turned and left in the brine
for another day (48 hours total).
Both
the American and Canadian varieties are cured at a temperature of 16°C and a
relative humidity of 90%. American
Brick has a reddish-brown rind after curing, which is then dipped in paraffin
or cheese wax, wrapped in parchment and overwrapper of heavy paper and finally
packed in boxes. Nowadays, some manufacturers wrap American Brick in foil
and/or vacuum packed plastic. The cheese is stored for 2-3 months at 4-10°C. If
raw milk was used, curing lasts at least 60 days at a minimum of 2°C.
Oak
Grove Canadian Brick is a fresh cheese which is ripened for only 3-5 weeks and
vacuum packed in plastic.
Compositional
Analysis of Brick Cheese by Various Manufacturers:
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Dairy Farmers of Canada |
Tre Stelleä(Canadian) |
Oak Grove (Canadian) |
Olson (1969)(American) |
Kosikowski (1997)(American) |
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Fat |
29% |
29% |
~29% |
~28% |
30% |
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Moisture |
42% |
42% |
42% |
44% |
42% |
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Salt |
1.3% |
1.0-2.0% |
2% |
1.7% |
1.7% |
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pH |
n/a |
5.25-5.4 |
n/a |
5.4 |
6.8-7 |
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Ripening |
Brine |
Brine |
Brine |
Brine |
Smear |
OTHER INFORMATION
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Oak Grove Brick Cheeses. Left to right, caraway, onion and garlic, natural, hot peppers. |
Brick
cheese has nice slice ability and meltability, thus it can be used as a table cheese
and ingredient in many recipes. Brick cheese can easily substitute cheeses like
mild Cheddar and Harvarti in recipes, and the spiced Brick made by Oak Grove
could be used to add variety to your cheese repertoire. Brick cheese can be
used in (but not limited to) appetizers, sandwiches, salads, and desserts. Oak
Grove Brick cheese is popular in restaurants for blending with mozzarella as a
pizza topping for extra flavour. Other
manufacturers of Canadian Brick cheese are National Cheese and The Bright Cheese
House. National Cheese sells Brick cheese under the Tre Stelleä
brand for both the retail and foodservice markets. Their brick cheese is sold
in 200g, 400g, 2kg and 5kg packages and is widely available via wholesalers,
farmer’s markets and local grocery stores. They also sell shredded cheese
packages containing mozzarella and brick cheese and mozzarella, brick and
cheddar combinations.
The
Bright Cheese House is one of the largest independent cheese companies in
Canada. They also sell brick cheese in both blocks and in shredded blends. The
Bright House Brick cheese can be found in the Guelph and Kitchener farmers’
markets. They have many distributors for the foodservice sector including
Harvey Codner Brokerage Ltd., Target Food Brokers and Total Focus Foodservice
Sales and Marketing Inc.
These days, cheese can also be bought via internet. Some examples of Canadian and American companies who sell Brick cheese are the following:
www.widmerscheese.com
Click
here to visit the website for Oak Grove Cheese Factory!
Click
here to visit the "Wisconsin
Centre for Dairy Research" and find out more about American
Brick Cheese!
REFERENCES:
Eekhof-Stork, Nancy. 1976. The World Atlas of Cheese. Padington Press Ltd.
Jones, Evan. 1976. The World of Cheese. Alfred A.
Knopf. New York, New York. pp. 73.
Olson, N. 1969. Ripened Semisoft Cheeses.
Pfizer cheese monographs. pp19-31.
www.cheesenet.wgx.com
www.websitesink.com/oakgrovecheese/
www.widmerscheese.com