Cheese Hole: One day in the life of a Brooklyn cheese maker

Sam Frank, who oversees the maturation of cheeses and works in the cheese cellar of Crown Finish Caves in Brooklyn, filmed a workflow that initiates us into the mystery of obtaining mature cheeses with rich flavors. Sam has been working with dairy products since he went to college in Vermont. Now he helps 25 thousand pounds of cheeses (11 thousand kg) to ripen in a deep dark basement of the XIX century under the streets of Brooklyn.

(35 photos in total)

Source: VICE

In addition to the pictures of the process itself, where he and his colleagues in the basement turn over, wash and salt cheese heads, Sam also made some extremely appetizing shots of the products themselves and reflected in the photo shoot what is happening on the roof of the enterprise, where employees collect organic honey. At the end of the day, he captured the presentation of these same cheeses at a gala evening in Prospect Park. The cheese maker also told about the history of the cheese cellar, the benefits of the cheese tick and how he got into this amazing and very odorous world of cheese production.

Here's what Sam Frank said about how his day went: "First I had coffee in the office with my colleagues and we discussed the day. Then I went down to the basements to sort out the aged cheeses. In the afternoon we all took a break together to go up to the roof and drink coffee, eat cheese and take care of the bees.

Later, I returned to the basements again to finish the whole procedure with the cheeses, after which I cleaned everything for a long time. We do a lot of cleaning. That evening there was a charity event at the pier in Prospect Park, where we served cheese plates under the sign of Whole Foods (an American chain of organic food supermarkets without artificial additives.). There were a lot of good cocktails there.

I started cheese making when I was expelled from the University of Vermont, which is the funniest thing. A former floor supervisor in my student dormitory worked on a nearby farm, made farm cheddar and took me as a cheese maker's assistant.

Why cheese? On the very first page of his seminal work "American Farm Cheese", Dr. Paul Kindstedt from the University of Vermont gives an answer to this question: "The extraordinary variety of cheese flavors, textures, flavors and external characteristics literally defies the imagination, especially since the starting point for all cheeses is simple milk, fresh, indefinite liquid".

The basement can store about 25 thousand pounds of cheese at a time. Most cheeses, except those that need to be eaten fresh, need to ripen for a certain period of time — from a couple of days to several years, depending on the variety. The ideal conditions for cheese maturation are a cool and damp, literally dank place, that is, a cheese cave. We ended up in an ancient basement for camping about 30 feet (9 m) away under a long-defunct brewery that operated from the middle of the XIX century to prohibition. More than a hundred years ago, beer matured here. Now — cheese. Caring for maturing cheeses is called refining, and the person who does it is an affiner.

My usual duties include turning the cheeses over, brushing them, washing them, and a lot of cleaning. Flipping — in order to maintain uniform moisture in the cheese as it matures. Cleaning or rinsing — to control the growth of certain bacteria on the crust and stimulate the growth of others (and it all depends on the type of cheese you are working with). There is a lot of cleaning, because food safety is important in the field of dairy production.

Yes, there are real cheese ticks in the pictures. This is a certain kind of mites that multiply on ripening cheeses. Most of the work is cleaning ticks off cheeses. In fact, they give a pleasant earthy or woody flavor to some cheeses.

Currently, Crown Finish Caves employs six people, including managers, husband and wife. Two of us are mainly engaged in refining, but everyone is constantly involved in everything.

My bosses have kept bees on the roof for many years. They added frames to the existing hive, and such a suit protects against bites and helps to drive bees out of the hive.

Every third Thursday , the Third Curdsday takes place . We bring a whole bunch of cheeses to the bar, and people just spend time drinking beer and eating cheese. We choose different bars each time, but we usually try to stay within our Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn."