Wisconsin Foodie

– Luke: This week on Wisconsin Foodie: - I am Joey Widmer.

I'm a fourth-generation cheesemaker here at Widmer's Cheese Cellars.

The main cheese that we're known for would be the brick cheese.

Brick cheese is gaining some notoriety throughout the United States due to the increase in demand for Detroit-style pizza.

- We're still using the bricks my grandfather used in 1922.

Our authentic recipes make better cheese.

We have people calling from coast to coast for this brick cheese for their Detroit-style pizza.

– Luke: We're actually gonna take a little bit of a road trip in Michigan, and we're gonna check out some Detroit-style pizza.

- I'm Nykolas Sulkiwskyj.

We're at Loui's Pizza in Hazel Park, Michigan.

There is no taste like brick cheese.

We'll just take a little bit of cheese.

– Luke: I gotta say, as a kid from Wisconsin, I love your little bit of cheese, man.

You're singing my love language right now.

- Just a little bit.

See, and that's how it looks.

- This is art.

Motown, this is to you.

Thank you.

– Announcer: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: - The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- At Organic Valley, our cows make milk [cheery whistling] with just a few simple ingredients.

Sun, soil, rain, and grass.

[bubbles popping] And grass, and grass.

– Cow: Yee-haw!

[angelic choir music] - Organic Valley Grassmilk, organic milk from 100% grass-fed cows.

[banjo music] - Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends only in Wisconsin since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit "Swissconsin," and see where your beer's made.

[upbeat music] - Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure; stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site high-quality butchering and packaging.

The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore, know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is the largest local hunger-relief organization in the state.

With your help, we ensure your neighbors in need don't have to worry where their next meal may come from.

Learn more at FeedingAmericaWI.org.

– Additional support from the following underwriters: Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[clapping along with energetic music] - Luke Zahm: We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We're a merging of cultures and ideas shaped by this land.

We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[clinking glasses] [scraping knife] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie .

[paper rustling] Americans are in love with pizza, and each region of America has its own specific style or a variety that it touts as their own.

One of the pizzas that's caught my interest is Detroit-style pizza.

Their pizza is known for a specific ingredient, and, of course, that ingredient comes from right here in Wisconsin.

So today, we're on our way to Theresa to meet with master cheesemaker Joe Widmer and his son Joey to get the skinny on what makes this Motown pizza so fantastic.

[relaxed music] - I am Joey Widmer.

I'm a fourth-generation cheesemaker here at Widmer's Cheese Cellars located in Theresa, Wisconsin.

My great-grandfather started the business in 1922, and it's 2021, so we're in our 99th year of business.

Next year we will be celebrating 100 years in operation.

The main cheese that we're known for, where we gain our notoriety from, would be the brick cheese.

Brick was invented in Dodge County, in the same county where our factory is located, and that was invented in the 1870s by a Swiss immigrant named John Jossi.

So what makes it a brick would be the bricks that are used to press the cheese.

Basically, the brick is used to press the curds together, knit the curds together and form the curds into a block.

These are special bricks.

They're called baking bricks.

So they're not the kind of bricks that you'd want to use to build a house.

They're completely different.

They weigh a little bit over five pounds, but they're actually coated with a material that basically can be used for the food industry.

My great-grandfather's been using these bricks since 1922.

Obviously, some have been replaced in the 99 years that we've been in business.

Brick cheese is gaining some notoriety throughout the United States, and I would say some of that notoriety is due to the increase in demand for Detroit-style pizza.

A requirement of Detroit-style pizza would be that it has the brick cheese on it.

I found my path here in cheesemaking.

I was basically born into it.

I literally grew up above the cheese factory.

There's an apartment attached which was very traditional, very common for older cheesefactories to have the living quarters attached right to the factory itself.

My dad means a lot to this business because he decided to carry it on from the second-generation to the third.

He really grew the business from the second-generation.

I think it's very important to preserve the history and tradition of cheesemaking in general, and then, just the history of this place.

If we steer away from that tradition, then we steer away from the history and it loses some of that sentimental value that should be carried over as long as possible.

- Another day, another hairnet, and this is nothing new for you, correct?

- Oh, no, I've been doing it all my life since I'm a kid.

- So, we are with cheesemaker Joe Widmer, and we are standing next to the namesake of the cheese that has made this town famous.

What cheese are we talking about here?

- This is brick cheese, invented in Wisconsin in the 1870s by a Swiss immigrant.

Germans were the first ones to come to Wisconsin in the late 1800s.

They brought the cows, so the Swiss, Italian, and French cheesemakers went where the milk was, Wisconsin.

So he had to make something they would eat, brick cheese.

So, when my grandpa moved in 1922 and bought this plant, he had to make something Germans would eat, too, 'cause he was surrounded by Germans.

Well, to make this cheese, this John Jossi that invented it, would put the curds to a form.

It looked like cottage cheese at that point.

And he'd put a brick on top, brick cheese.

Not only is the cheese the shape of a brick, but it got the name by being pressed like a brick.

Our product's so authentic that when my grandpa bought the plant, he bought bricks.

We're still using the bricks my grandfather used in 1922.

Authentic recipes make better cheese.

- So, these are the same bricks that your grandpa brought with him.

Here's what really is striking to me about this.

There have been so many advancements in the cheesemaking world over the last, let's say, 50 years, and yet, this is still so intentional.

It's very deliberate.

You're putting one brick on one mold, and you're letting it sit, and then you pull it off to go to the next step.

- Right, so tomorrow morning at 4:30, after this cheese sits overnight and just about ripening, we'll take it back to this salt brine back here.

- Okay, salt brine it up.

Oh, my gosh, look at this.

This is incredible.

- These are cement brines, and they've been fiberglassed.

They're grandfathered.

Most of them nowadays are just fiberglass, and you can see how old the walls are here.

This is one of the oldest parts of the building.

The street's up there because underground is where you cure your cheese, underground in curing rooms.

So, as I told you, this is the cheese that was pressed yesterday, and then, at 4:30 this morning, these guys put it in the salt brine.

What this is is a 90% salt solution.

What it does is give the cheese flavor and acts as a preservative.

The cheese stays in here about 11 hours, and then it goes to a curing room where the surface is washed.

Bacteria grows on the surface of this type of brick, and it's washed about 10 days.

Then it's packaged in foil.

It continues to age, reaches peak in about three to four months.

This is the original, but here's a mild version for people that don't like strong, stinky cheese.

This one stays in the curing room only three days rather than seven or 10.

We wash it, vacuum pack it, and it continues to age, but it won't pick up the predominant odor or earthiness of the original type.

This is the type that people are going crazy for with the Detroit-style pizza, the mild one.

– Luke: Sure, sure!

Well, as photogenic as I am in all of my cheesemaker regalia here, I'm also feeling like I really want to taste some of these nuances and the differences and taste that, can we call it "the Widmer family funk?"

What makes Widmer's brick so amazing and sought after?

Do we have a space where we can taste a little bit of this?

- Absolutely, I'd love you guys to try it.

Let's head down to the bar on the corner, the beer house, yep.

– Luke: Only in Wisconsin do you finish an interview with a master cheesemaker and have them say to taste the product, let's go down to the corner bar.

- Yep, I'm thirsty.

Pioneer Keg's a great place for cheese curds, too.

Good food in this place, really good food.

First of all, what we have is the aged brick, the original type of brick I told you about with the washed rind, where it's pressed with an actual brick.

That's this one.

This one goes to the curing room seven to ten days.

- You want a piece of it?

- This is the one that the Germans really like.

- Yeah, thank you.

- They call it German brick.

- German brick.

Hmm, that kind of has a funk, like it's got a little bit of that Swiss cheese nuttiness to it.

- Yep.

A very unique flavor.

Years ago, when people didn't like it real strong, what my grandpa and my dad and uncles would do is wax it before we get the real big rind on it.

That would retard the aging process, 'cause you cut the air off.

So, later in the late 50s, 60s, some other guys started making so-called brick cheese, no brick, no salt brine.

Sometimes, it was Monterey Jack with the same fat and moisture to meet legal definition, but it wasn't brick cheese.

So it sold pretty good and people didn't know what real brick was, a lot of them.

So we started making this one late 50s, early 60s.

This one goes to the curing room three days instead of seven to ten.

It's washed every day, but then it's vacuum-packed to cut the air off.

It'll get more and more flavor over time, but it won't pick up the predominant odor or earthiness of the original type, and that's this one right over here.

- That's the original brick?

- Nope, the white one's original.

- The white one's the original brick.

- This is also the one that for some reason, and we don't know if social media or how it works.

We have people calling from coast to coast for this brick cheese for their Detroit-style pizza.

We're sending it to pizzerias all over the United States, New York, California, you name it.

[Luke chuckles] And that's one of the pizzas that has it on right there.

- Well, let me try one, if I can.

And then he gives me the big corner piece.

What a gentleman.

– Joe: This one's for me.

- That one's for you.

Awesome, what about junior over there?

What does he get?

- I'm gonna grab a piece here.

- You're gonna corner it up.

So Detroit-style pizza known actually, and to be fair, I don't know that much about it, but I do know that it has that deep-dish crust kind of like Chicago-style pizza does.

It's usually in the form of a rectangle or a square, but the real identifying factor that resonates with us as Sconnies is the fact that it's using this delicious Wisconsin brick cheese.

Yeah, that eats like a meal.

- It's not Detroit-style pizza without brick cheese on it.

That's original recipe.

- I would say within the past five years, we have four or five different customers that use our mild brick, not just in Detroit, but throughout the entire United States, that use a mild brick on their Detroit-style pizza.

- These ones we ship directly to them, and then we have distributors that are selling all over to a lot of them.

- Well, I really appreciate the opportunity for y'all to show me a little bit about your world and share some of the stories that make this cheese so amazing and sought after.

My question though, is we can have a conversation about cheese and Wisconsin and we know this is perfect.

I'm at the bar with two of my favorite cheesemakers, new friends, old friends, all the way through, but what does the rest of the world think about this amazing delicacy that is brick cheese?

I think we have to hit the road and find out.

[exciting music] We've actually just taken the Lake Express Ferry from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Michigan.

As someone who's been in the Midwest basically my whole life, this is an experience not to be missed.

To get a sunrise in the middle of Lake Michigan as you're circumventing Chicago and Gary and all the wonderful cities that populate the south shore of Lake Michigan is truly fantastic.

One of the things that I like about this is it's kind of that sensation of almost floating across the lake.

You can get out, you can walk around on the top deck, they've got good coffee.

It's an awesome way to start the day.

But now, we're actually gonna take a little bit of a road trip in Michigan and we're gonna check out some Detroit-style pizza, following Widmer's Cheese from beautiful Theresa to the Mecca of Detroit pizza, Detroit.

I can't wait to see where this adventure takes us.

I feel like I'm emerging from a dream.

I'm leaving my native homeland of Wisconsin and I've entered into this magical, mystical world of Michigan.

[upbeat music] - I'm Nykolas Sulkiwskyj.

We're at Loui's Pizza in Hazel Park, Michigan.

I'm the grandson of Louis Tourtois.

We make Detroit-style pizza.

We've been open since 1977.

The thing with Detroit-style pizza, what we're all about is we use brick cheese.

There is no taste like brick cheese.

This just has a special taste.

In my opinion, the most important part is you gotta build the pie to have the good cheese wall around the edge.

We fill our pizza with sauce, so we have a red top.

Most other Detroit-style places do like three stripes.

Buddy's is the leading Detroit-style pizza chain in Michigan.

They were the original Detroit-style pizza restaurant, and they ended up expanding and getting big and stuff like that.

My grandfather ended up going to Buddy's when he was probably about 16 and worked in the kitchen and there learned the craft and everything like that.

My grandfather left Buddy's because it sold.

So after that he was, I'm done working for people.

I'm gonna be my own boss and all this stuff.

So he ended up buying this in 1976 and we opened in 1977.

[upbeat music] - Pizza is one of the most widely consumed of all foods in the United States, and every region kind of has their own spin on it, but some of the most iconic pies have tricks and secrets that make them specifically unique to the place in which they're created.

So today we're at Loui's Pizza in Detroit and we are getting the low down on the 313-style pie from none other than the owner, Nyk.

So, man, I gotta ask.

What makes a Detroit-style pie a Detroit-style pie?

- Well, what makes a pie Detroit-style and, in my opinion, the beautiful crispy cheese edge around the whole pie.

For our regular cheese and pep, we would take our pepperoni and we'd go five by seven.

- I love how you know that you're gonna get 35 pepperoni on every single large pie, but the pans man, these are so specific to Detroit-style pizza, correct?

– Nykolas: Yes, very much so.

These pans, originally, they were used as drip trays, odd and end trays, nuts and bolts over at 'the big three.'

– Luke: What's 'the big three'?

- The big three is Ford, GM and Chrysler.

- So you're telling me that is Detroit-style pie, these pans specifically were kind of byproducts of the auto industry.

- Yes.

- And they had, I would imagine, almost infinite numbers of these hanging around, and that's why we have rectangle pies today.

That's unbelievable.

- Yep.

- All right, so we've got a pepperoni on.

Show me the cheesing process.

– Nykolas: During the prep stage, we'll just take a little bit of cheese and we'll take it mostly to the corner.

- I gotta say, as a kid from Wisconsin, I love your little bit of cheese, man.

You're like singing my love language right now.

– Nykolas: Just a little bit.

- Now I got this cheese on here.

Can I put a little bit more cheese on there?

- Sure.

– Luke: Just a little bit?

– Nykolas: Yep.

- Okay.

Why is this brick style cheese so important to the Detroit pie?

- Well, the biggest thing about the brick cheese is its butterfat content.

The high butterfat content, when it cooks in, the butterfat travels to the top, and the next thing you know, you get these little beautiful yellow grease domes a little all over the pie.

That's where the flavor is.

- And so I have to imagine that in some ways you kind of almost fry, like shallow fry, the outside of that crust in the oil that's thrown from the cheese itself.

It's, literally, cheese bread with the rest of the pizza happening all kind of at once, which makes this thing [singing like Oprah] magical .

– Nykolas: Very much so.

- Is this like a traditional Detroit-style pie?

- Yes, it is.

- Okay.

- This is the way that it was originally made.

For the longest time, my grandfather didn't offer toppings because he was such a traditionalist and this was the way it was for the longest time.

- All right.

So, we are at the moment that I've been told, it's been explained to me, there is a secret art to saucing a Detroit-style pie, and it has to do with the fact that the sauce is not just like wantonly spread all over the place, spread thin.

There is an actual sequence of events that needs to happen.

Can you walk me through just a little bit of what that might look like?

- Very much so.

- I've got my spoon.

- Yes.

What you want to do is you're gonna take your pizza in one hand, rest it on the edge.

Give it a little angle up and then you're gonna take your spoon and add a little 45-degree angle, kind of slide it down, caressing over the cheese and then slowly turning your spoon at the end of it.

- You know, it's a labor of love when we're talking about caressing a pizza with a little bit of this sauce.

Do I want this thing full?

- I'd say about three quarters.

You could all always add more.

You can't really take it off.

- Okay, so that looks about right to you?

I'm gonna start over here.

- With the wide side.

- With the wide side, all right?

– Nykolas: And then slowly.

– Luke: Oh, man, that's harder than it looks.

I just dumped it all in one corner.

- It's all a flow.

- Let's see, take two.

- Okay, now.

Yep, and then the quicker you go, the more it'll slightly spread when you go, as well.

- Oh, man, that was not a good throw.

Oh, my gosh, here we go, round three.

I'm gonna go quick on this one, three quarters, go!

So I feel like I just used double the amount of sauce that you would use.

- Yeah, that's an extra sauce pie.

– Luke: That's an extra sauce pie, okay.

- Ain't nothing wrong with it.

Just got extra sauce.

- All right, into the oven it goes.

- Into the oven.

[upbeat music] See, and that's how it looks.

- This is art.

Oh, that smells amazing.

What?

- Beautiful.

- I'm just gonna tell everybody watching at home right now, that little move that he did where he got the spatula underneath one side of it and then just popped it off, that takes years to learn.

That is art, and if you don't think so, try it the next time you got something like a focaccia coming out of the oven.

You're just like pop, pop, pop.

You're not gonna do it like Nyk does here.

That is skill.

- Let me give her a cut.

- This is a cultural phenom.

That's right, generations of Detroit-style pizza makers coming through to make this a thing of beauty.

Brother, you're like the David Blaine of Detroit-style pizza.

Those hands just start flying.

You don't even know what's happening.

These ingredients are flying around, and suddenly you end up with a masterpiece.

Now I gotta eat.

- Oh-oh-oh.

- Ooh, yeah.

Motown, this is to you.

Thank you.

You get that crispy crunch on the bottom of the crust, and it's pillowy.

So you get a little bit of snap, but then it's soft and just supple.

It's like you're biting into a cloud.

That brick cheese is buttery, it's rich, it's full.

You get that familiar texture of cheese on a pie, but it's something different.

It's a little bit extra.

The pepperoni on the bottom, you can tell it like bakes right in, and you can see everything in there.

That's almost like a confit of dough from the fat containing that pepperoni that's perfectly accented by this Detroit-style sauce, which I will say may have been a little excessive on my behalf, but at the same time, it's still delicious.

Nyk, thank you, my brother.

- Thank you, I appreciate you.

- I'm so excited to meet you and to be brought back in here, hear the story of heritage and tradition that you are carrying on, and I have no doubt that your grandfather is smiling on you from above, man.

– Nykolas: Thank you.

[exciting music] - I feel like it's gonna come slap me back in the face.

[exciting music] So this is the mild?

I'm all confused here.

- Nope, this is the mild.

- This is the mild.

- Mild brick cheese with peppers.

- So, like a pepper jack, but it's not a jack, right?

– Joe: Nope.

- Pepper brick?

– Joe: Pepper brick.

- A bricker?

- A bricker, yep.

Oh, I don't know.

- It's the brick and the pepper mixed together.

- Good thing I didn't get my beer.

- Yeah, cheese, I love it.

– Announcer: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: - The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- At Organic Valley, our cows make milk [cheery whistling] with just a few simple ingredients.

Sun, soil, rain, and grass.

[bubble popping] And grass, and grass.

– Cow: Yee-haw!

[angelic choir music] - Organic Valley Grassmilk, organic milk from 100% grass-fed cows.

[banjo music] - Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends only in Wisconsin since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit "Swissconsin" and see where your beer's made.

[upbeat music] - Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure; stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site high-quality butchering and packaging.

The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore, know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is the largest local hunger-relief organization in the state.

With your help, we ensure your neighbors in need don't have to worry where their next meal may come from.

Learn more at FeedingAmericaWI.org.

– Additional support from the following underwriters: Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you'll find past episodes and special segments just for you.