The Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin

Jeff Wideman and Paul Reigle

it’s hard to generalize about cheesemakers, but one rule of thumb generally seems to hold true: the smaller the plant, the more hats the cheesemaker wears. Paul Reigle, one of two master cheesemakers at Maple Leaf Cheese, sums up his early, frantic days at the plant with a mixture of pride and head-shaking wonder. “[In the 1980s] we didn’t have a maintenance man, so we did everything—piping, electrical, cheesemaking . . .” The cooperative’s other master, Je¤ Wideman, picks up where Paul trails o¤. “Boiler teardowns. . . . We’d take the boiler apart ourselves every three months,” he says. “Pipe . . . all that pipe. . . . We piped miles of pipe. We had our own trucks at that time that were hauling milk and hauling whey that we had to deal with. We used to be making cheese until late in the morning,” he adds. “At noon we’d have lunch, and then we had projects in that old building to no end. We piped and piped and piped. A lot of times it’d be Wve or six o’clock when we’d get done.” Je¤ Wideman and Paul Reigle Maple Leaf Cheese, Monroe, Wisconsin http://www.mapleleafcheese.com/ QW Masters of monterey jack and cheddar (Wideman), yogurt cheese (Reigle) There’s not an “I” in this business. It’s about everybody from the farmer to the milk hauler to the people in the plant—everybody’s a part of that award. —jeff wideman 30 Je¤ Wideman explains the history of Maple Leaf Cheese. Masters of Green County 31 “Ten-minute project, Wgure . . . maybe an hour,” says Reigle. Wideman and Reigle got their start at the plant in the early ’80s, and faced far more than a bunch of urgent building improvements; they faced a business plan that was out of date and destined to doom the plant. “We made monterey jack through the winter, forty-pound blocks, and rindless block swiss in the summertime when there was grass milk available,” recalls Wideman. “For a small plant to survive making rindless block and monterey jack block, that wasn’t going to happen. Both are considered commodity items, in this day and age especially.” A A W Wi is sc co on ns si in n C Ch he ee es se e H Hi is st to or ry y T Ti im me el li in ne e 1858 Wisconsin’s Wrst commercial cheese factory established in Sheboygan Falls 1872 Wisconsin Dairymen’s Association founded in Watertown 1873 Reduced freight rates and Wrst shipment of Wisconsin cheese to eastern markets by refrigerator car e¤ected by dairy pioneer W. D. Hoard 1879 Predecessor to the Wisconsin Cheese Exchange set up in Plymouth 1885 National magazine edition of Hoard’s Dairyman launched; colby cheese invented near Colby, Wisconsin 1890 Nation’s Wrst dairy school established at the University of Wisconsin; Babcock Test for measuring butterfat in milk developed at the UW 1918 Wisconsin Cheese Exchange (later renamed the National Cheese Exchange) established in Plymouth 1921 Nation’s Wrst grading of cheese for quality instituted in Wisconsin 1933 Cold-pack method of producing cheese spread perfected in Kaukauna 1940 U.S. declared free from tuberculosis in cattle, the successful culmination of campaign started by W. D. Hoard forty-Wve years earlier 1974 National Cheese Exchange founded in Green Bay 1976 Walter V. Price Cheese Research Institute organized by Norm Olson 1983 Mandatory state milk marketing order approved by milk producers, leading to creation of Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board 1986 Funding for Center for Dairy Research, which grows in the next twenty years from three sta¤ers to more than thirty, secured by Norm Olson 1994 First class of candidates in Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker Program 1997 National Cheese Exchange replaced by Chicago Mercantile Exchange; graduation of Wrst class of master cheesemakers 2008 Fiftieth certiWed Wisconsin master cheesemaker, Tom Torkelson, graduates from the program Sources: Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board; Hoard’s Dairyman; Wisconsin’s Past and Present Wideman had di¤erent ideas for the little plant. “We bought our Wrst specialty forms in 1982, and we still are using some of those today,” he says. “A lot of the twelve-pound deli wheel forms we got out of Holland. And I remember one of the older gentlemen I was working with looking at them and saying, ‘Boy, I didn’t think we were going to get into this this big.’ He was...