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Other cheese makers are now experimenting with using a second culture
to achieve the same effect as Cougar Gold, says current Creamery
manager Russ Salvadalena ’77. Indeed, Beecher’s uses
an adjunct culture with its Flagship, their homage to Cougar Gold.
Close as it may be, however, it is not the same culture. The actual
identity of WSU 19 is closely guarded.
Although the Creamery also makes a traditional cheddar, a jack,
and several flavored cheeses, Cougar Gold accounts for 75 percent
of its sales. In fact, because of steadily increasing demand, the
Creamery recently dropped a couple of its less popular varieties
in order to increase Cougar Gold production. It has also started
buying milk from a herd managed by the WSU student dairy club, CUDS
(Cooperative University Dairy Students). In all, the Creamery produced
last year 375,000 pounds of cheese, in 200,000 cans. Sixty percent
of their cheese sells between October and Christmas. The campus store
accounts for 20 to 25 percent of revenue. Most sales are by mail.
The newest outlet is the Washington State Connections store in Seattle.
All that cheese requires someone to make it, of course. Including
Salvadalena, the Creamery supports seven staff positions, a full-time
faculty member and a staff member in Food Sciences and Human Nutrition,
two research graduate assistants, and part-time work for 50 students.
Many people working in the dairy and cheese industry today got their
cheese education at the Creamery.
The Creamery’s cheese-making education is not restricted
to undergraduates. For the past 20 years, WSU has offered an annual
four-day cheese-making course. The bulk of the class entails lectures
by cheese experts from around the country. But one day is devoted
to hands-on cheese making. This year, the class made gouda, havarti,
mozzarella, cheddar, feta, cottage cheese, queso fresco, and ricotta.
Beecher’s Sinko, who took the class in 1993 (Dammeier has
also taken it), calls the course “way, way, way better” than
any of the others offered around the country. Class size is limited
to 27 students. This year, says Salvadalena, they didn’t even
have to advertise. They simply called up everyone on the waiting
list and filled the class.
The makeup of the class has changed significantly over the years,
says Salvadalena. Originally, students were primarily from big cheese
making plants such as Tillamook and Darigold. “Now more than
half are farmstead.”
“Farmstead” describes small-scale cheese makers who
make cheese from their own animals rather than buying their milk.
After 20 years, the influence of the cheese making class has spread
around the country. Students this year came from Vermont, British
Columbia, and Louisiana, as well as Oregon, Washington, and Montana.
Bates knows of four cheese makers in California in business today
who date back to the third or fourth class. Here in Washington, a
number of successful cheese makers list the course on their cheese-making
resume. Sandra Aguilar, Quesaria Bendita, in Yakima. Roger and Suzanne
Wechsler, Samish Bay Cheese, in Bow. Lora Lea Misterly, Quillasacut
Cheese Company, in Rice.
And not all of the students are neophytes. Joyce Snook has been
making cheese for 20 years, she says. She took a week off from her
role as cheese maker at Pleasant Valley Farm in Ferndale.
“I didn’t know the science,” she says. Fortunately,
she says, smiling, the course was confirming her practices.
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Russ Salvadalena '77 (left) is current manager of the WSU Creamery and guardian of the secret adjunct culture that results in Cougar Gold. Marc Bates '70, '76 (right) was manager for 27 years. Photo by Robert Hubner.
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