Wisconsin Foodie

>> This week on Wisconsin Foodie... >> Bavette is, I have to say, a modern rendition of an old-school butcher shop. We practice old-world traditions. We get in whole animals, whole carcasses, and we break them down here, which a lot of people don't do that anymore. So, we're going to go to Uplands Farm and see Andy Hatch. >> Cheesemaking is done. We bring the whey over and hot and pump it into the truck, and you see it. >> I think they like the whey! We're going to take the whole animal. We're going to break it down ahead of time, and cut it into smaller pieces, portions, steaks, roasts. Then we're going to raffle it off. People are really excited. We sold out almost instantaneously. It's educational, but it's also fun. Yeah, I'm really excited for it. I can't wait. >> Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters for their support. Outpost Natural Foods Co-Op, and Superior Equipment and Supply. The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board and the dairy farm families of Wisconsin are proud to support Wisconsin Foodie, helping viewers celebrate our state's vibrant food culture. With nearly 11,000 family dairy farms, the Wisconsin dairy industry generates more than $26 billion annually for the Wisconsin economy, and brings recognition to the state for producing award-winning cheeses. >> Hi, my name is Karen Bell, and I am the owner of Bavette La Boucherie. Bavette is, I have to say, a modern rendition of an old-school butcher shop. We practice old-world traditions. We get in whole animals, whole carcasses, and we break them down here, which a lot of people don't do that anymore. When we source animals, we're mostly looking for that they're coming from smaller farms. I just find that smaller farms, the animals are getting more of the attention, respect, and the care that they deserve. And animals that are raised according to how they should naturally be living, so grass fed, pasture raised. I feel like, if we're going to be eating the meat, that it needs to be, from the journey from farm to plate, it needs to be treated with the utmost care and respect. So we look for animals that are treated that way. I wanted to be able to connect people, the customers, directly with the farmers, just us being the middleman. Basically, what I do is source, really the farmers that have, because of the way that they're raising their beef, really great quality and great tasting meat, and connect that to the people, make it kind of an easy one-stop place to find that. We do have a small grocery section where we try to focus on either local or artisanal products that we're selling here at the store. We also make fresh sausages that we sell. We're a small restaurant cafe. We use all the meat that we get in, to prepare sandwiches and small plates, and soups and sandwiches ourselves. All right, I'm going to Uplands for the day. I'll see you later. Bye. So, we're gonna go to Uplands Farm to see Andy Hatch. They are the makers of Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese. But they also, each year, get in a few dozen hogs that they raise on the whey of their cheesemaking. Hey, Andy, how are ya? >> Hey, great, welcome. >> Good to see you. Thanks for having me. >> I'm so happy you can make it, of course. >> I'm really excited. >> We haven't seen each other in years. >> I know! >> Well, I can take your coat. >> Great. >> It's a nice rainy day. >> Yeah, that's fall in Wisconsin. >> So, here we are. Welcome to Uplands Cheese. Cheese, milk, whey, pigs. >> My favorite things. >> Here we go. Here we are in the make room. >> What cheese are you making here? >> This is the 159th batch of Pleasant Ridge this season. >> Wow. >> This time of year, the milk gets really rich. Going into the winter, the fat and protein levels go up. So not only is the cheese yield a lot better, but you get these sort of fudgy textured, really rich creamy cheeses that can be really lovely. If you look here, we have cooked curd. Really, what we've done at this point is started to ferment it and dry it out. By removing the whey, we slow down the fermentation. You take away the lactose that's the source of the sugar, that's the source of the food for the fermenting bacteria. By pulling that away, you slow down the fermentation. Now we'll press this together and it'll begin to form cheese. What we're looking for here is how it knits. That's the verb, you know, for the curds clumping together. By removing the lactose, not only are we, you know, slowing down the fermentation, but we're sending all of that sugar out to the pigs. So the reason that the pork is so sweet is because of all the sugar in this lactose. It's like liquefied candy, almost. >> Does it do anything to the texture of the meat, as well, or is mostly just the flavor that it affects? >> You'll tell me, right? It's a lot softer and more marbled. >> Okay. >> The pigs will put on more fat, you know, three inches or so, and the fat tastes like maple syrup, with the sweetness in it. It's incredible. >> I can't wait, amazing. >> This is a great point at which to taste the whey. It's fresh. It's hot. And in about half an hour, we're going to go out and feed it to the pigs. This is a lot of how they'll taste it. You can see why they go so crazy for it. >> Mmm, that's good. >> Caramel-like flavor. >> Yeah, it's delicious. >> Soft. >> Why don't we drink it? >> Well, it's a magic elixir, a cheesemaker's secret. It's a magical cure for a hangover. >> Really? >> So, the press is down. The cheese is going to rest. It's a good time to go check out those pigs. >> Yeah, I can't wait. That's why I'm here. >> So, the pigs live just around the corner. Here are acorns and some hazelnuts in there. >> Oh, a nice treat. Yeah, great. >> They don't often get hazelnuts, but it's that time of year. Here, pig, pig, pig! It's like untying a starburst with your tongue or something. They eat one of those, crack the shell, swallow the nut, and spit out the shell. >> Wow. So, what does the acorns or hazelnuts, in this case, what does it do to the overall finished product or the final meat? >> My understanding is that the flavor contribution of the acorns is that nutty kind of savoriness that really shows itself in the cured meat. >> Yeah. >> I think the whey and all of the milk sugars bring a lot of sweetness into the meat itself and the fat. I think the acorns really show themselves as you age a pork product. Cheesemaking is done. We bring the whey over and hot pump it into the trough. You see it. >> Yeah, the love it. I think they like the whey better than acorns. >> This is the daily commotion. Usually this breaks up their afternoon nap. It's still steaming. It's sweet and hot, so an after school snack. Hey, looking good. Look at that band of muscle, just unbelievable. >> Mm-hmm. >> So, we bring these in in April, when the cows are --, you know, about 40-45 pounds, a little bit bigger than a rugby ball. Right now, he's probably 320 or 340. So you do the math. That's almost, that's over a pound a day, almost two pounds a day. >> Yeah. >> So we run them, you know, up and down this hill, down into the woods. So it's how we develop some muscle on them. But of course, with that whey, you can just see 'em jiggle. >> Yeah, all the fatty pigs. >> Karen, my wife, Caitlin, and our baby. Nothing like coming home to the smell of bacon. >> Yeah, it smells great! >> Okay, hot off the skillet, we've got all the major food groups on the table. What I thought we would do then, is taste the entire cycle, sort of the lifecycle of the milk. So this is whey, still warm from the make this morning. >> It was interesting to see the different flavor profiles, as well, in each product, and the complexity. I think that's kind of the main string through it all. I feel like they're all very complex. If you start with really good raw material, treat it well and respect it, you know, it's amazing what all of this can come from, this milk. >> Yeah, that is the beginning. The whole point of what we do is starting with the most complex food there is, the milk. I mean, it's the life-sustaining mother's milk. When you have something that rich and complex, all of these different flavors are available. You've just got to sort of polish the diamond in different ways and they reflect. Speaking of the rare chance to taste it all together, we're going to do it in Milwaukee. >> Oh, yeah, "All Things Uplands" night. >> Great, good. Thank you for coming out and do this. >> Thanks for having me. >> Hey. >> Hi, Andy, how are you? >> Good. >> How was your drive? >> Not bad, thanks. >> Good. So, you've got some pigs? >> I've got some pigs. Should we go get 'em? >> Let's go. All right, it looks great. >> There it is. The loin and the fat cap, you like the look of? >> Yeah, it looks great. A lot of people don't keep that much fat onto their chops or their loins, so we have to cut a lot off for them, depending on their preference. But this is perfect. I would just leave that all on, and render some of the fat down a little bit and crisp it up. It's really nice. >> It's my first day back in the city in a long time, so I'm going to make the rounds, go visit some chefs. >> Great. >> And make it back here for the big night. >> Yeah, I've got a lot of work to do, so I'll be busy. >> Great, well, good luck. >> Okay, thanks. I'll see you soon, bye. >> I'm about to stop in and see Adam Siegel at one of his restaurants, Rumpus Room. One of those guys whose opinion that I really rely on. We're coming to check in mostly on the meat he just bought from us, pigs and veal. He's a guy that handles a bunch of our products, cheese and meat. He's been out to the farm a bunch of times and really gets what we do, so his feedback to me is really valuable. Hey, chef?! Hello? >> Hey, Andy, how are you? >> Hey, chef, great to see you. I'm all right, thanks. >> I have some of your stuff out ready for you. >> Great, I hope I didn't get you at a bad time. >> Not at all. I wanted to show you your pigs. We're just excited that at this time of the year we get the hogs. >> Yeah, me too. How did they look? >> Looking beautiful. We cured some here. This is cured with some coffee and star anise and fennel. It went for a couple of days. I'll cook you up a piece of that. This is the same stuff, but we braised it in duck fat. >> You're happy with the ratio of fat to meat? >> I'm happy with everything. You can see how nice the fat came out. It looks like bacon looks when it's just cured. Those ribs-- That rib meat right here is going to be going to be just fantastic. You can see here with the bacon, how that's getting all nice and brown. A couple more minutes, throw an egg in the pan with it. A little piece of cheese on top of that. I'm set. This is going to be so good. >> That's the breakfast of champions right there. >> I'll just put it on top of the egg. Let's go out to the bar and set up with these. All right, Andy, here we are. >> Don't mind if I do. Maybe the uncured first. Let me taste and breathe in food. Okay, pig fat. Sweetness is-- >> Unbelievable. >> Unbelievable. Yeah, it's savory and salty, but. >> You can taste a little bit of the coffee in there. >> Yeah. >> A little bit of the fennel, but you taste the pork. You taste the fat. >> Yeah. >> You taste the-- >> The animal. >> The animal. You taste the farm. How are we doing there? >> Mmm. >> That's how I go for it, crispy. It melts in your mouth. >> The texture, I was just going to say, I mean, just like a puddle across your tongue. >> That's the difference when you braise it and when you just cure it. The fat gets to that point where it just melts. This gives it a little bit more texture. You've got a little bit more body there. But you taste more of the pure animal here, whereas this, you get a lot more flavor from, you know, from all the different cooking methods that were involved. >> Right, right. That's the big difference, you know, I see between, our cheese goes out ready to eat, and our animals go out and can be changed so much. That's why I love to see it in hands like yours, you know. >> Well, I'm so glad that you enjoyed it. You know, we're gonna have to dig in here a little bit further and enjoy this. >> I think so. >> Thank you so much. It's always great to have you around, and always great to have a bite with you. >> Yeah, thanks for doing it right with the pigs. >> It's going to be three, three, and then two. So there are three plates. A meat raffle is something that they used to do up in northern Wisconsin quite a bit. You don't see it very much nowadays. But basically, the way we're going to do it is we're going to take the whole animal, we're going to break it down ahead of time and cut it into smaller pieces, portions, steaks, roasts, and then we're going to raffle it off. It should be pretty fun. Raffle tickets are a couple dollars a ticket. You can buy as many raffle tickets as you want for that piece of meat. Then we'll call that number and someone will walk away with a piece of meat for potentially two dollars. Our customers and most people are familiar with Uplands Cheese, but they're not familiar with the meat that they sell, the pigs and the veal, because they don't sell it year round. Also, it's a very small quantity that they do raise for meat. So usually, I think we're one of the first actual butcher shops where people can come in and buy the meat to take home. Prior to this, they've always sold to restaurants. So you would've had to go to a certain restaurant, certainly to be able to taste their meat. So being the first butcher shop that's selling it fresh out of our case is pretty cool. People are really excited. We sold out almost instantaneously. Yeah, I think it's going to be a really fun event. I think it's educational, but it's also fun. It's going to be great to have Andy there to talk firsthand about his products and about the farm. So, yeah, I'm really excited for it. I can't wait. I don't know if you want to open them all up, or start? Yeah, I'll grab some plates, and then I'll grab some spoons. So, welcome. Thank you, everyone, for coming. First, we are going to do a cheese tasting. The cheesemaker, Andy Hatch, is here to walk us through that. I was fortunate enough to be able to go up to the farm last week, or two weeks ago. It was really a special experience. I got to taste through all the cheeses like you're going to do right now. It's pretty amazing to see the different products that can come from starting with one raw product, which is the milk. Andy will talk more about that. We have about 40 to 50 cuts that we're going to raffle off. Most of the cuts of meat are between $40-$60, and a raffle ticket is three dollars, so potentially, you could walk out with some pork chops for three dollars. We've got two beers. We've got a Belgian ale and a rye porter. We're offering one or the other to each person to try with the cheeses. I'm going to turn it over to Andy, and he'll walk us through the cheese tasting. >> So the first cheese you're going to taste here is called Pleasant Ridge Reserve. You have two cheeses in front of you. One is paler and one is darker. This is the same cheese, aged to different lengths. This is what's called an Alpine style cheese, if you've ever had a gruyere, a comt, or Beaufort. This is the cheese we sell year round. This is our bread and butter. For a short window in the fall, we also make a soft cheese called Rush Creek Reserve. It's been wrapped in a strip of spruce bark. It looks like birch bark. It's grown some white mold on it. This is the same kind of mold you'd see on camembert or brie. The bark is there for two reasons. You see how soft the cheese is. It's so runny at this point, if it didn't have the bark there to hold it's shape, it would just puddle out. It's also there to contribute flavor. It gives it kind of a resinous, woodsy, sweet quality to the cheese. This is made just for a few months in the fall, and is sold, for really only about two months in the winter. So when you think about this time of year and all the rich foods you like to eat this time of year, this is a perfect example. This is full-on indulgence. These are Berkshire hogs. This is a heritage breed that ran out of favor in modern large-scale pig farming, because they don't fatten as quickly or as uniformly as the white Durocs, which is what everybody grows. The advantages, chiefly, are flavor for one, and two, they are dark skinned. They don't sunburn when they're out in pasture, which sounds mundane, but if you've ever had to put suntan lotion on a pig.

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You don't want to do it twice. What you have here is a particular animal from a particular place with a particular diet. Sold at one point in the year. This is the only time of year you're going to get it. So, it's a special occasion. I think it's great that Karen has put all this together. So please bid often, and take it home and enjoy.

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Thanks. >> I'll give you guys a few minutes to kind of get settled on that, and then we'll start the raffle. >> Does anybody need more tickets? >> All right, so we're going to start on the rib roast or chops. 2-3-6. 1-2-7. 2-3-3. 1-9-0. 2-6-9. 0-0-9. Okay, the next one is 3-0-7. >> Yay! Sorry.

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8-2-0-2-6-9. >> Oh, that wasn't me. >> 8-2-0-1-4-0. >> Okay, the first shoulder, 8-2-0-0-8-6. >> 2-0-8. >> The winner. >> Whoo! >> Oh, good, you won! >> That's enough for me.

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>> 0-6-1. 8-2-0-2-8-6. >> Hey! >> To the cameraman! >> As we were putting everything on the tab-- >> Boneless-- >> Okay, last one of the night. 3-3-1. >> Whoo! Yeah! >> I just want to say thank you to everyone for coming, and especially thank you to Andy for making the trip down here. It was wonderful.

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>> Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters for their support. Outpost Natural Foods Co-op; Superior Equipment and Supply; the restaurants of Potawatomi Bingo Casino; Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; Something Special from Wisconsin; and Colectivo Coffee Roasters. The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board and the dairy farm families of Wisconsin are proud to support Wisconsin Foodie, helping viewers celebrate our state's vibrant food culture. With nearly 11,000 family dairy farms, the Wisconsin dairy industry generates more than $26 billion annually for the Wisconsin economy, and brings recognition to the state for producing award-winning cheeses. >> Okay...? Yeah. You need some bacon? >> You want some lunch? >> Some cheese? Some whey. Hmm? >> Oh, she's so cute! She gives mama big smiles. Yeah. >> Mmm, that's for me. It smells so good. >> Are you horrified at the idea of tasting pork fat? >> No, I love it! >> You're in the business. >> That's like her thing. >> Yeah, that's all I eat. >> That's what you had for breakfast? >> Yeah.