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-1ISSUE # 230 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2012

A chocolate-dpped, cream-lledopportut to lear rom the ver est.

Midwest Living

422-Detroit-Street,-Ann-Arbor-MI-48104

Deli:-734.663.3354-(DELI)--

Next-Door:-734.663.5282-(JAVA)

Chec out the ull schedule & regster or classes at

.aethzg.com

Stop-by-the-Creamery-Cheese-Shop

734.929.0500--3723-Plaza-Dr.--

www.zingermanscreamery.com

2nd-Sunday-Creamery--Cheese-TastingSunday, Jan. 8 4-5:30pm $20/personCome and learn about the cheeses we pro-

duce, milk seasonality and the variables of

cheese making from our cheese maker Aubrey

Thomason.

Cheddars-and--Cheshires-TastingSunday, Jan. 29 4-6pm $30/personTo celebrate all the big and beautiful new

wheels of Great Lakes Cheshire that are emerg-

ing from our aging room, this tasting features

two cheeses that share a long intertwined his-tory. Cheddar, the first cheese made in the

new world, comes in a variety of different

styles, from a multitude of placesreaching

from Vermont to Wisconsin. Waxed in blocks,

wrapped in cloth wheels, aged in plastic, as well

as in caves, some with blue, some without. Less

familiar here in the U.S. is Cheshire, once the

most popular of British cheeses. Join our chee-

semakers Aubrey Thomason and John Loomis

as they guide you through these cheeses and

discuss where our own Great Lakes Cheshire

fits into the Cheddar and Cheshire Continuum.

Chocolate-Gelato-TastingSunday, Fe. 12 4-6pm $30/personFebruary is Chocolate Gelato Month! Join our

expert gelatiere, Josh Miner and indulge in

this years selection. Youll taste no-fewer-than

seven different chocolate gelati, including Dark

Chocolate, Strawberry Balsamic, Rocky Ride

and Chocolate Heat.

Mozzarella-Making-Class1st & 3rd Saturday each month 12-2:30pm $60Come learn with the masters of mozz how to

stretch your own from-scratch, fresh mozzarel-

la. We will guide you through the steps to set up

the curd from milk and te ach you the technique

we employ to stretch the curds into marvelous

mozzarella of your very own!

Registration-required.--Save-$5-when-you-pre

pay!--Call-(734)-9290500-to-reserve-your-spot!

Del Tastgs ad EvetsAll of our tastings are hosted at Zingermans Events on Fourth

at 415 N. Fifth Street in Kerrytown Market and Shops

3723 Plaza Drie734.929.6060

3723-Plaza-Drive--734.761.7255

Hads-O

Roadose Special Dinners are mlti-corse family-style affairs wit a little istory and a LOT of food

featrin writers, cefs, ators and more from or own commnity and all arond te contry.

For reserations to all eents stop y 2501 Jackson Ae. or call 734.663.3663 (FOOD) or online at www.zinermansroadose.com

7th-Annual--African-American-Dinner:-In-Search-of-My-Fathers-Kitchen,--with-special-guest-Audrey-PettyTuesday, Jan. 31 7pm $45/personThe Roadhouse welcomes author Audrey Petty, born and raised in

Chicago and currently a Professor at the University of Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign. Audrey will share her fathers stories about his

Northern migrations, his coming of age as a cook-busboy-migrant

worker and will read her own poetry. Audrey and Chef Alex will

help tell the stories through a traditional and full-flavored meal

prepared by Chef Alex.

Mardi-Gras-Celebration-Tuesday, Fe. 21 7pm $45/personIn a mid-winter break from the cold, the Roadhouse

explores the foods of New Orleans at this Mardi Gras festival. Chef

Alex, recently back from a trip to NOLA, explored the city, its cui-

sine, traditions and culture. This years menu will be a combination

of Roadhouse NOLA favorites and new and exciting dishes Chef

Alex learned while he was down there.

American Meat-DinnerSaturday, Mar. 10 5pm $55/personThe Roadhouse is teaming up with Real Time Farms for an exclusive

Saturday night dinner to celebrate the viewing ofAmerican Meat,

a documentary from Graham Meriwether that takes a macroscopic

look at the U.S. meat industry. The first part of the evening will be

dinner at the Roadhouse where Chef Alex has created a menu that

highlights Cornman Farms meats and he will share his passion for

really good local American meat. After the dinner, there will be a

showing of American Meatat the Michigan Theater at 7:30 pm.

Seats or the der ca e ooed through the Roadhouse.

Tcets to the move are ava lale through the Mchga Theater.Lear more aout Amerca Meat at .amercameatlm.com

#117

#118

to the Roadhouse for Valentines Day

Rockin-Rye-Breads-Thursday, Jan. 19 5:30-9:30pm $100/personMake the same bread youll find on Zingermans

Delicatessens famous Reuben sandwiches! Most

Americans associate the flavor of caraway seeds with

rye bread, but the rye berry itself packs a real flavor

punch! In this class youll make our traditional Jewish

Rye bread. Saveurmagazine called it Americas best

rye. Well also bake a bread using 100% rye flour.

Bavarian-Baguettes:--a.k.a.-German-PretzelsFriday, Jan. 27 1-4pm $75/person As seen in the New York Times! Craft traditional

German style soft pretzels made with lard and lye!

Well answer that burning question: Is this the

same lye thats used to make soap?

Coffeecake-Craft-

Wednesday, Fe. 1 5:30-9:30pm $125/personIn this class well craft a few different coffeecakes

that youll want to bake for years to come- includ-

ing our popular hot cocoa coffeecake, Shelbys

grandmothers yeast-raised coffeecake and a

crumb top coffeecake for good measure.

Second-Saturday-Tour!-January 14 & Feruary 11 11am-noon FREE! Join us monthly for an open-to-the-public, no-

reservation-required event. Sit down with Coffee

Company managing partners Allen and/or Steve to

tour their facility and learn about coffeewhere

its grown, how its sourced and how its roasted.

Learn how to discern the subtle di stinctions among

the worlds finest coffees as you sample some new

offerings and some old favorites brewed using a

variety of techniques.

Coffee-and-Food-PairingsSunday, Jan. 15 1-3pm $30/personSunday, Fe. 19 1-3pm $30/personYou may be familiar with wine and cheese pairings,

but why not a coffee and food pairing? Here at the

Coffee Co., well be taking some of our favorite cof-

fees and tasting them with select foods to find the

best combination. Great for the coffee and food

connoisseur who wants to try something different.

Class is limited to 8 people, so sign up fast!

Brewing-Methods-ClassSunday, Jan. 22 1-3pm $20/personLearn the keys to successful coee brewing using a

wide variety of brewing methods from lter drip to

syphon pot. We will take a single coee and brew it

6 to 8 dierent ways, each producing a unique taste.

Well learn the proper proportions and technique

for each and discuss the merits and dierences of

each style.

Comparative-Cupping-ClassSunday, Feruary 5 1-3pm $20/personSample coffees from Africa, Central and South

America, and the Asian Pacific. We will taste and

evaluate these coffees using the techniques and

tools used by professional tasters. This is an eye-

opening tour of the world of coffee.

Please call or reservatos: 734.929.6060

TAkE 30% O AnybOTTLE O winE!

415 N. Fift Street, Ann Aror, MI (in Kerrytown Market and Sops)

at

* Some Wednesdays there may be no pop in due to private events being held

bag Classes

A-Pop-Up-Restaurant-&-Bar-Great food and drinks, mirth and merri-ment popping up at Zingermans Eventson Fourth on Wednesday* eveningsfrom 5:00-9:30pm.

Sign up for our enews atwww.zingermansdeli.com to find outwhen the next pop in will be held

From-the-Court-Scene-to-the-Cocoa-Bean4Th ANNuAL ASKINOSIEChOCOLATE TASTINgThursday, January 26 6:30-8:30pm $40/personShawn Askinosie is our favorite crimi-

nal defense lawyer turned chocolate

maker and we welcome him back to

the Deli with open arms for what fore-casts to be the best Askinosie Tasting to

date! Shawn is a leader in the industry

for his chocolate, his packaging, and his

business model which includes directly

sourcing cocoa beans and gainsharing

with the farmers. Shawn will share his

story as we taste sweet, savory, and

drinkable treats made from his choco-

late, cocoa, and nibs,

and guide us in a tast-

ing of his bean-to-bar

chocolates.

Sign-up-earlythis-

tasting-always-sells-

out!-

Beyond-Fondue!--CELEbRATE ThE MELTTuesday, Jan. 31 6:30-8pm $35/person

Fondue, Raclette and Tartiflettecome

celebrate the melt with our cheese

enthusiasts. From techniques to food

pairing suggestions, well have it all

covered.

Green,-Black,--Ruby-&-GoldenDISCOvER A PALETTE OF TEAThursday, Fe. 16 6:30-8:30pm $35/person

We couldnt think of a better way to

round out a February evening than

with our friends from Rishi Tea. For

more than ten years, theyve been

sourcing teas directly from a variety

of origins throughout Asia, and their

steadfast commitment to quality has

resulted in a fantastic selection. Well

learn about their work in sourcing and

taste some of their exceptional teas.


2/11

ISSUE # 230

-2JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2012

A few months ago I was talking to Valerie Ne-Rasmussen, who works in at Zingermans Mail Order. She happened to men-

tion that she wanted to work on doing more writing. I recom-

mended that she check out Brenda Uelands 1938 book, If You

Really Want to Write. It is, without doubt, my favorite book on

the subject. Very literally, it changed the way I write, and prob-

ably with that, the whole way I approach my life. The book is

so insightful, funny, and fantastically helpful that Id love to

get it into more peoples hands. Val got right on itshe ordered

the book and read it soon after. After nishing it, she wrote to

tell me how much liked it; in particular she referenced one of

her favorite lines: [Van Gogh] loved somethingthe sky, say.

He loved human beings. He wanted to show human beings how

beautiful the sky was. So he painted it for them. And that was all

there was to it. And so it is with what follows. In my case, what

I love is sardines, and I also love the people I work with, buy

from and sell to. Which is why I want to write about sardines

the better I tell their story, the more likely it is that others will

start loving them too.

If I were picking popular topics to talk about, I dont think

sardines would show up at the top of many peoples lists. But

sometimes you have to leave the mainstream and go where

your heart, your head and your tongue take you. Sardines

are one of my all-time favorite foods. Although theyre hardly

a regular topic on talk shows or presidential debates, I think

sardines are pretty fabulous. If I were into making world-class

claims, I might declare them the super food for the 21st cen-

tury. Sardines are pretty much everything I want in a foodfull

of avor, easy to use and easily accessible, with a whole lot of

obscure folklore and history to go with them. On top of which,

theyre one of the healthiest foods I know of. Although every-

body obviously knows something about these delicious little

sh, Im pretty condent that (besides a few other hardcore

fanatics) Ive got at least 26 new bits of sardine info in here

for you. Ill let you count and keep track; if Im short I owe you

somejust let me know and Ill be glad to make good.

The rst fact is that I like to eat them. As Ive already said, sar-

dinestinned and freshare among my all-time favorite foods.

I know that not all that many Americans would make a similar

statement, but . . . their loss. Im not without empathyI can

understand why those who shy away from strong avors would

eschew sardines. But really, most people I know are working to

nd bigger and bolder avorspeppery new season olive oil,

3-year-old Iberico hams, 2-year-old cloth-wrapped farmhouse

cheddars, Scotch Bonnet peppers, aged bourbons and really

dark chocolate. Sardines, sorry for the pun, should denitely

be swimming with that school. Full avored, rich and meaty,

they can stand up to hot sauce, mustard, olives, tomatoes, garlic

and most anything else you want to throw at them.

High-ClasS

Convenience FoOdAside from tasting so great, canned sardines are actually an in-credible convenience food. Keep a tin on hand, andusing any

of the many recipe ideas I list hereyou can have a great meal

in a matter of minutes. Since they last for years, theres really

no reason ever to be out of themas soon as my inventory falls

below, say, four, I buy more. On pasta, on a sandwich, laid onto

a salad, made into a spreadgood sardines are there, standing

at the ready. Ive read that TV food guru Alton Brown brings a

tin with him everywhere. (He must always check a bagI dont

think theyll let the liquid in the tin through security.) In fact,

if you want to take this idea further, you might start your own

sardine-aging cellarfor a small investment you can almost

certainly have the best one on your block. While you may well

dismiss this advice as silly, Ill posit that when you get to 2015,

youll be glad you got it going. The risks are low, returns are

high, youll pay no tax as they increase in value, and youll end

up with a stack of really delicious tinned sh to feast on. Read

on for more on sardine maturing.

To demonstrate by claim of the sardine as convenience food,

the other night I made a simple dish of pasta with sardines. Its

my downscale, last-minute version of the classic Sicilian pasta

con le sarde. The traditional dish is super-delicious but calls forfresh sardines and wild fennel fronds, neither of which I had on

hand. Seeing as Id had a long day at work, I opted for this really

deliciousif not quite as divine as the originaldish for dinner.

To make some, start by sauting a bit of chopped fresh fennel in

olive oil. If you like, add a bit of garlic as well. (I really recom-

mend the sun-dried garlic we get from the Mahjoub family in

Tunisia.) Add a handful of raisins and a bit of red pepper akes

(mine is Marash red pepper from Turkey). While thats going,

cook up some spaghetti (Martelli is my choice) till it just reaches

al dente texture. When the pasta is nearly ready, open a tin of

really good sardines and add them to the fennel. Add all the liq-

uid in the tintheres a lot of avor in the oiland a tablespoon-

ful of pine nuts. Stir gently. As the sardines warm, take the pasta

out of the pot with tongs and add it to the sauce. Stir for another

minute or two to make sure its all hot and the pasta absorbs the

avor. Serve it in warm bowls. Over the top grate some bread

crumbs (which can be made in the moment by toasting some

good Bakehouse bread and running it through a hand grater).

Pour on a ribbon of good olive oil and lots of freshly ground

black pepper. Its a pretty ne fteen-minute meal.

Sardines smashStereotypesAside from the fact that they taste so good, sardines seem to

defy nearly every social stereotype. They appeal to almost ev-

eryone, from salt-of-the-earth workers to highly educated culi-

nary elites. Oddly, they seem to be both upscale and downscale

at the same time, inhabiting both ends of the culinary spectrum.

Obviously, Im generalizing, but theyre popular among Ortho-

dox Jews, New Age nutritionists, North Africans, Portuguese

people, progressive cardiologists, French farmers and English

socialites. Given their historical, ecological, nutritional and

avor credibility, theyre denitely big with the Slow Food set.

Sardines were a regular part of the diet of coastal Native Amer-icans long before Europeans arrived on the continent; tribes

along both coasts caught and ate the little sh, both fresh and

dried for later consumption. Poor Eastern European Jews ate

abundant quantities of them; there are many stories of poor

Jewish families honoring the Sabbath tradition of eating sh,

sitting down to a Friday meal of nothing but tinned sardines

and hard-boiled eggs. Here in Michigan, sardines were a staple

in the lunch buckets of ironworkers who built the Mackinaw

Bridge in the 1950s. Sardines have been shipped out to troops

around the world for two centuries; environmentalists and

lefty foodies love em too. Some folks eat them right out of the

can, while acionados age them in private cellars and crack

open vintage tins to celebrate special occasions.

MediterRanean MarvelsIn one of my favorite food books, Honey from a Weed,

Patience Gray sets the sardine scene in the 1960s: Fresh sar-dines and gleaming anchovies provided the fundament of

Mediterranean sh markets. . . . When they were abundant,

they were too cheap to be found in [upscale] restaurants; one

had to penetrate into a [down-to-earth] vini or an osteria for

working men to nd them. You enter a crowded bar, thread your

way through the vociferous male company and seek refuge in a

farther room where the cloth covered tables promise restora-

tion. Here sardines or anchovies are served, which have been

cleaned, dried, shaken in our and rapidly deep-fried and sprin-

kled in salt; served with hunks of bread in a basket, a bottle of

wine vinegar being plonked on the table, and a quarto of vino.

While little sh here in the US provoke a bit of culinary panic, in

the Mediterranean sardines and anchovies are workers food.

While tuna, anchovies and mackerel are all important in Por-

tuguese eating, my 1938 copy ofThe Golden Book of Portuguese

Tinned Fish says, Among the great variety of Portuguese

tinned sh, the sardine occupies the most important place.The rst sardine factory was founded in the town of Setubal

in 1880 built by a Frenchman to overcome the shortage of sh

on the Breton coast. By 1896 there were 76 factories and by

the end of WWII over 300. In 1930 Portugal surpassed France

to become the eras largest producer; they still account for

about a third of the sh brought to port each year. Sardines

practically have their own holiday; on St. Anthonys Day (June

13th) freshly grilled sardines are the street food of choice for

celebrants. The Portuguese sardine season runsfrom May through October, which contributes Im

sure to their popularity as beach food; grilled sardines,

accompanied by potatoes, bread and a salad, are probably

THE summer meal in Portugal.

Its much the same on the southern side of the Mediterranean.

Majid Mahjoub, from whom we get such marvelous harissa and

other Tunisian foods, told me that sardines are a giant food

in the kitchen of the Tunisian coastline. Tunisians eat them

both fresh and tinned, preferring the smaller, skinnier sar-

dines. They are, Majid explained, the sh of the poor. Just

caught sardines are frequently grilled, then served with lemon

and fresh, green olive oil. Sardines, like so many other foods in

Tunisia, are frequently eaten with harissa. For a fabulous hors

doeuvres, pour a bit of good green olive oil on a plate. Spoon

on some of the Mahjoubs amazing harissa sauce. Open a can of

nice sardines, and lay them across the top of the harissa. Grind

on a bit of black pepper, sprinkle a touch of sea salt and maybea squeeze of lemon over top, and eat with some warm Paesano

bread. Put a few pickled peppers, fresh radishes or sliced fresh

turnips on the side and youre really rolling. For a main meal

,take a bit of tomato sauce, season with harissa, capers, lemon

and some sardines, and serve over freshly cooked couscous.

(I cant say enough about the handmade, sundried couscous

we get from the Mahjoubs. Same goes for their bottled tomato

sauces, made from the organic tomatoes and extra-virgin olive

oil that come from their farm 45 minutes west of Tunis.) Add

a few slices of room temperature, barrel-aged feta, and youll

take it up another notch still.

Sardines are of course big in Greece, too. A Greek salad with

a tin of sardines is a good way to go. This time of year toma-

toes arent very good, so Id skip those. But a green salad with

roasted peppers, some cucumber, olives and other assorted

vegetables is excellent. Greek cookbook author Aglaia Kremezi

(whose work I highly recommend) has a recipe for sardelo-

salatathe sardine version of the classic taramosalata spread

(made from carp roe). See below for details on how to prepare

it. It makes an excellent hors doeuvres or sandwich.

DiFferENT Countries,difFERent Fish, OnE NameAlthough they all bear the same name on package labels, there

are dozens of dierent small sh sold as sardines. On the less

desirable end of the spectrum, sardines are imported into

the US from nearly three-dozen dierent countries. With these

one really has no idea what sort of sh have been stuck in-

side the tins. Generally cheaper sh are mushier in texture and

prone to o avors.

On the upside, all the sh we have on hand are top notch! Med-

iterranean sardine producers in Portugal, Spain and France

work with what are known as pilchards. These are fat, avor-

ful sh, usually tting only three, four or at most ve to a can.

The Codex Alimentarius, the international body that oversees

labeling laws, requires that the label for any sh other than

pilchards that are canned as sardines must state the type of

sh inside the tin. On the American East Coast what we used to

call sardines (before the Maine sardine plants closed) were

actually North Atlantic herring. Pacic sardines are sardinops

sagax, and are also in the herring family. Norwegian sardines

are Brislings (also known as silds or sprats), a small sh na-

tive to the North Sea. The good news is that all of these can be

excellent!

CanNed at the Deli,or Fresh at the RoadhouseOne of the oddities of the sardine world is that so many peo-

ple have never had a fresh sardine, only those from tins. At

this point, theyre almost like two dierent foods. Personally,I think both are excellent. Although if you eat some of each

it will be clear that they started out as pretty much the same

thing, theres as much dierence between tinned and fresh sar-

dines as there is between tinned and fresh tuna. If I see fresh


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sardines on a menu Ill almost always order some. Ilike em best when theyre at their simplestgrilled over

a wood re, sometimes stued with fresh herbs, topped o

with a drizzle of olive oil, a little sea salt and a squeeze of

lemon. We get them now and again from the West Coast and

serve them at the Roadhouse. Cooking them on the grill leaves

a wisp of wood smoke in the avor. I love em.

The whole question of canning is, of course, relatively recent

by historical standards. Up until about two hundred years ago

there were no tinned sardines. Certainly for centuries, people

caught, ate and salted sardines as others did anchovies. Al-

though theyre now almost unknown, youll still see salted

sardines on occasion in Spain, Sicily and Greece. Surprisingly

theyre also found in Cornwall, where salted sardines are a

four-century-old tradition.

The canning of sardines dates to the early 19th century. Nico-

las Appert, a Frenchman from the Champagne region, start-

ed his career as a professional cook. At age 31 he moved toParis, where he set up a confectionary shop and started to

experiment with conserving sweets in sugar. According to

Sue Shephard, in her book Pickled, Potted and Canned, Ap-

pert was determined to nd a way to keep food successfully

without spoiling either its avor or texture. Long story short,

he eventually sent some samples of bottled beef broth with

vegetables to the French Navy, which returned good marks:

The broth in bottles was good . . . , the Ministry wrote. The

beans and green peas . . . have all the freshness and avor of

freshly picked vegetables. Unusual in his era, Appert was a

big advocate of the sanitation and freshness of raw material.

He was also generous and happy to share his technique with

others. The local paper reported that Appert had found a way

to x the seasons; at his establishment, spring, summer and

autumn live in bottles.

In the North of France, along the Breton coast, sherman

had fried sardines, then put them into clay jars called oulesto preserve them. Joseph Colin, a friend of Appert who lived

in the town of Nantes, applied Apperts new approaches to

the existing Breton conservation methods, creating what we

now know as the canned sardine. In part his push was to open

markets for sardinesplaces too far from Brittany for then-

standard shipping and storage methods. At the time France

also had a big push to gure out ways to feed the ever-grow-

ingand further aeldmilitary. Thanks to Appert and Colin,

tinned sardines quickly became popular with French foot sol-

diers. By 1836 Colin was producing about 30,000 cans a year,

and his success spawned about 30 other small factories. By

1880 the region was turning out over 50,000,000 tins. For

context, remember that everything was still done by hand

each tin made by hand before it was packed. And after the

sardines were fried in oil, they were placed one by one into

the tins, which were then hand-soldered to seal the cooked

sh safely inside. The Breton run ended when sardines disap-

peared from the coastal waters in much the same way as they

did a century later in Monterey. The sh did return but not

until much later. Theyre back now, to be enjoyed regularly.

Sardines from Seato Shining SeaFor some decades a share of those millions of French sar-

dines were shipped to North America. But the 1870 Franco-

Prussian War interrupted imports and created opportunity

for American entrepreneurs. Commercial canning on the

East Coast began in 1875 in Eastport, when a New York-based

businessman set up the Eagle Preserved Fish Company. (We

now know Eastport as the home of Rayes marvelous, stone-

ground yellow mustard.) Volumes increased throughout the

end of the 19th century, continuing to climb until the middle

of the 20th. The sh being canned was actually Atlantic her-

ringmeatier and less tender and probably less avorful

than the pilchards coming from Europebut still good and

ever more popular. In those early years of Maine canning

the market remained Eurocentric; many early American

cans were festooned with French writing, some even withsmall plaques that said (misleadingly), Made in Nantes.

In his 1904 novel, A Case of Sardines; A Story of the Maine

Coast, Charles Poole Cleaves describes Maine shing com-

munities in great detail. The sh business dominated the

region in the same way that cheese took hold in Wisconsin

or shing in Boston. At its height nearly every town along

Maines long craggy coast had a small sardine factoryover

400 when the industry was at its peak. If you nd old sar-

dine labels, hold onto themlike vintage fruit crate labels,

old sardinery is now classed as commercial art. Sardines

brought a lot of commercial growth to the coast. Sales were

so strong that American Can Company built a big factory to

be closer to the action. (There were no pop top tins then

each can came with a metal key attached to peel back the

top.) As is so often the case, where theres a boom, there

are also busts. Some years the catch was great, others not

so much. Sardines dominated the economy and most every-

thing else. Were doin ne this year. Plenty of good sh,

an tins cheap, says the factory owner in Cleavess novel.

Its not sh youre mon but mens lives, says one of his

characters. Human life is packed here, rugged as the coast,

and throbbing like the sea. And what do we call it? Only a

case of sardines!

Most of the packers were womentheir hands were be-

lieved to be better suited to the small tins, quick motions

and hand-eye coordination needed. In the local vernacu-

lar they were known as herring chokers. Cleaves, though,

describes people from all backgrounds working in the fac-

tories. Is there anywhere you can see the inner side of hu-

man nature as you can in a sardine factory? . . . [Here] you

can see people for just what they are. In a description that

could have come from an expos, Cleaves explains, When

the owners cheat, the crew are sure to follow. Cant expect

em to be any better than their masters. And then he dem-

onstrates the depth of the problem. After the owners cheat-

ed, so did the sh cutters, the akers, the dryers, the fry-

ers, the spreaders, the bath-tenders (who cooked the sh),

We have four superb sardine oerings on hand now

and more on the way. All of these are excellent; Ive

eaten large quantities while coming up with the recipe

ideas in this piece. Each has its own unique character,

and Im happy having any of them on my dinner table.

MatzSpash Sardes Olve OlThese beautiful silver-skinned sardines come from the

region of Galicia in northwest Spain. More specical-

ly they come from the coastal town of Vilaboa, in the

Ro Vigo, a deep estuary near the Portuguese border

thats known for its calm waters, high level of natural

diversity and great seafood. The sh are all traditional

pilchards, the old European sardine variety that make

for the fattest and most tender sardines. The sh are

taken in using seineslarge shing nets that hang o

the boat and allow shermen to take in a school of

sardines without damaging other sea dwellers. The sh

are cleaned and preppedprimarily by handbefore

being canned. The rm has a long list of certications

to show o including HAACP, ISO and others. Theyre

also environmentally consciousthe sh are caught

sustainably, and even the packaging is from recycled

materials. Matiz sardines have the mellowest, mildest,

cleanest avor of our oeringsif youre making your

rst foray into sardines, eating Matiz might be the best

place to start.

Da MorgadaPortuguese Sardes

Extra Vrg Olve OlThese are caught further south, o the coast ofPortugal, taken in at the port of Matosinhos, near

the city of Port (which most of you will know for

its famous wine). Again, the shermen use seine nets

and (as with all our oerings) the tinned product is

made only with fresh shthe season of the Portuguese

coast runs from April through November. Most of the

shermen are second-generation with the rm, so the

quality of the sh and the shing is high. The sardines

are packed in extra virgin olive oil, their avor a touch

bigger than that of the Matiz, while equally tender and

impressively delicious.

GodecOld-Stle Sardesrom brttaThese traditionally prepared sardines are packed by

the Gonidec family in the old Breton port town of Con-

carneau. If you look at a map of the French coast and

nd its westernmost point sticking out into the Atlan-

tic, Concarneau is a bit south and a touch back to the

east. Gonidec, currently run by the third generation,

remains true to the old methods. The sh are (again)

all fresh, never frozen. As per the old Breton way, the

newly landed sardines go into a bath of ice and salt wa-

ter. Called pickling, this process rms the esh. The

sh are then laid out on racks and dried slowly in kilns.

The drying is essential for the next stepfrying in oil.

The sh are then allowed to drain and nally packed in

extra virgin olive oil before being sealed into tins. Tak-

ing into account the equipments modernization, this

Gonidec process is essentially the same as that used by

Monsieurs Appert and Colin early in the 19th century,

when the rst sardine canning was coming together.

Godec 2009Vtage Sardes rom brttaEach year the Gonidec family selects the best and most

beautiful of the seasons sardines and sets them aside for

maturing. Theyre now about two and a half years in the

tin. The maturing makes the avor more intense, the ex-

tra virgin olive oil penetrating more eectively into the

esh of the sh. Great eating for the connoisseur!

Great Sardes oOur Shelves

Roasters Pick!

JanuAryHonduran MicrolotWeve been buying Honduran coee from Unin Micro-

Finanza (UMF) for over a year now. UMF provides micro-

loans and in-country assistance to farmers. With the help

of UMF, the farmers have been producing better and bet-

ter coees to the point where this year the best lots were

separated out. These were oered as microlots instead of

being blended together at the co-op. A premium was paid

to the farmer for these coees. We purchased all of the lot

from a single farmer, Filadelpho Juarezo based solely on

its avor. It has tropical fruit up front with notes of hon-

eysuckle and the pleasant bittersweetness of grapefruit.

FEbruaRyRwanda A+ Gatare

Station Bourbon

This lovely East African coee was immediately a standout on the cupping table. Our rst cupping notes were

white grapefruit! juicy, creamy, orange zest. On cool-

ing, the coee had a complex fruit nish with notes of

peach. The big, bright fruit avors are perfectly balanced

by the equally rich and creamy body. Its a great example

of the unique character of East African coees. This cof-

fee is grown at 1,845 meters in the Nyamasheke District of

western Rwanda.

Aailale y te cp or y te pond atZinermans Coffee Co., Delicatessen, and Roadose

continued on page 4


4/11

ISSUE # 230


the tin-menders. To drive his point home, he concludes, In

some things the help cheated the owners; in some things the

owners an the help together cheated the public. I reckon

they both cheated themselves.

While the Cold War probably wasnt good for much, it

did bring good years for sardine sales. Chuck Prine, who

worked for about forty years for Stinson Seafood, the last

sardine canner in Maine, once told me, Back in the bomb

scare days the government bought tremendous quantities.

Je Kaelin, who worked for the Maine Sardine Council, told

me that in the 1950s, everyone would put a can of sardinesin their lunch box. That was the main convenience food

there was. This put sardines in a whole new light for me,

and it helped explain one reason why people dont eat as

many as they used to. While the sardine has stayed essen-

tially the same, its now surrounded by hundreds of other

ready-to-eat foodsshelf stable or otherwise.

Over the years sardines became THE budget food of North

America; they were the ramen of the middle of the 20th

century, cheap fare for students and people living on the

poverty line. One of our customers remembers eating so

many sardines in her dorm in the 1960s that she cant stand

to see any more: We were always hungry, and sardines

were cheap. What we would do was buy a can of sardines

in tomato sauce. Wed cook some rice, with some onions,

and then wed mix in the sardines. That was our dinner if we

didnt want to eat in the cafeteria.

Much as we think of Wisconsin as Americas Dairyland,

Maine was once known as Sardineland. Production peaked

halfway through the 20th-centuryMaines packers put

out over 340,000,000 tins per year shipping sardines

all over the US. Maine canneries shipped sardines to the

South under labels like Gamecock and Possum Brand.

In the 1960s and 1970s, though, sales started to slip; I have

a comic book the Maine Sardine Council put out in 1967

called Ricky and Debbie in Sardineland. Sadly for both

sardine lovers and the Maine economy, the last factory in

the stateStinson Seafood in Prospect Harborclosed in

the spring of 2010. If youre up that way, the best you can

do today is visit the Maine Coast Sardine History Museum in

Jonesport, put together by Ronnie and Mary Peabody.

West Coast WondersOn the Atlantic Coast we had Sardineland; out west it

was Cannery Row. The California sardine industry started

to take o at about the same time as things got going on

the East Coast. Pacic sardines, known scientically as

sardinops sagax, were hugely plentiful. Monterey became

the center of the sardine world, immortalized when John

Steinbeck published Cannery Row in 1945. Unlike Europes

spring-summer sardining, Californias big season ran Octo-

ber to March. At their peak, Montereys factories producedover 250,000 tons (well over 10,000,000 tins) a year. In the

1930s and 1940s over 4,000 sardine shermen worked in

California with over 30,000 people in the industry. Demand

for sardines was so strong that during the Depression, Mon-

tereythe Sardine Capital of the World didnt suer as

much as most areas. But in the 1940s things started downhill.

West Coast sardine shermen had traditionally been Japa-

nese, or Japanese American, and during WWII the US gov-

ernment sent most away to internment camps. Most never

returned to the industry.

The only positive side of that painful piece of American his-

tory is that the sherman were saved from the failure that

came a decade or so later. By the late 1950s West Coast sar-

dine shing had almost ceased. By 1967 it had shrunk so far

that the government ocially declared the shery closed.

No one at the time was sure why the sh had disappeared.

But the Monterey Aquarium Seafood Watch, which monitors

production to support sustainable seafood, cites natural

oceanographic cycles: fossil evidence suggests that Pacic

sardines have experienced such boom-and-bust cycles

about every 60 years over the last 1,700 years, independent

of shing. Happily, sardines have again appeared on the

West Coast, allowing us to bring in fresh ones for grilling at

the Roadhouse. Check the daily specials online, or call the

restaurant (734-663-FOOD) to nd out whats on hand.

Vintage SardinesAlthough most mid-century North Americans experienced

sardines as low-end eating, theyve occupied the other

end of the culinary spectrum in Europe. According to John

Thorne, author ofSimple Cooking, Oscar Wildes son, Vyvyan

Holland, started Londons rst sardine tasting club in 1935.

Writing in the Spanish journal Gourmetour, Jose Carlos Ca-

pel said, In the larders of some European gourmets, tins of

sardines in olive oil occupy a place of honour alongside pots

of foie gras with trues or jars of caviar. A cult has built up

around these canned sh, which, with its preaching of the

special qualities of the best brands, the correct year and ma-

turity period within the tin, constitute a kind of gastronomi-

cal religion.

The most sumptuous sardines are those that have been al-lowed to mature and mellow for yearsif not decades.

To quote food writer Patricia Wellss Food Lovers Guide to

Paris, Sardines destined for millesime stardom bear no re-

semblance to the cheap garden-variety canned sh. Vintage

sardines are always preserved fresh. Whereas most ordinary

sardines are frozen, then fried and processed. There are a

handful of French tinned-sh producers that still actively

age their product. We have some in now from the fall of 2009

from the family-owned rm of Gonideca bit denser in tex-

ture than the also terric oerings were getting now from

Portugal, very meaty, more intensely avored and pretty

darned delicious. I like to eat aged sardines simplynext to

a green salad or with some toast topped with butter or extra

virgin olive oil. A sprinkling of sea salt seals the deal. Breton

eur de sel would be geographically correct and its delicate

texture a good compliment for the sardines.

To get a little reality check, I asked Chuck Prine, who soldsardines for four decades, about the subject. He didnt hesi-

tate: Stinson Seafood, Maines last sardine factory, used to

guarantee their sardines for 10 years. The Norwegians guar-

antee theirs for 15. And Ive eaten 30-year-old sardines that

were excellent. When I rst went to Norway in the early 60s,

I asked several of the Norwegian plant managers what their

favorite sardine was. I thought theyd tell me that maybe they

liked a double-layer sardine packed in mustard sauce. But

theyd say, Oh, I like the Brisling 1953 from such and such a

cannery. Basically they treat them very much like wine.

Lest you think sardine aging is for elite Europeans, I can tell

you that one of the most adamant sardine agers I know is

Norm Brodsky, co-author of the business book The Knack

and a regular columnist for Inc magazine. Hes been aging

and savoring sardines ever since he discovered them on a

trip to France in the late 1990s. I have dierent years, he

related with relish. I turn em every 30 days. Its like goodcigars. Or good wine. Theyre excellent. I serve those maybe

on a cracker or just plain. His enthusiasm was obvious. You

really can taste the dierence, he added.

If this idea appeals to you, go down to your cellar and clear

out a corner so you can ll it with your new sardine stocks.

For a few hundred dollars at most you can have the most im-

pressive sardine cellar in town. Ive already started mine to

assure myself of a steady supply of savory little sh for years

to come. Having a well-stocked sardine cellar doesnt take

a lot of work. Just turn the tins over every now and again

so they age evenly. In Gourmetour, Jose Carlos Capel recom-

mends keeping sardines four to ve years, but youve already

heard tales about sh kept for three decades. Maybe we

should start on a Zingermans 50th-anniversary tin for 2032?

Health World Superstars Aside from the strong culinary case, sardines happen tohave hugely positive health potential. Now normally, I dont

like to get too enmeshed in nutritional issues, but theres so

much buzz about sardines that its hard to ignore their posi-

tive press. Sardines are very high in Omega-3s, the sh oil

that not only tastes good but is good for you. Pretty much ev-

ery heart-smart diet recommends it strongly to reduce risks

of cardiovascular disease, so much that we should probably

adapt the old school maximA sardine a day keeps the

cardiologist away! Sardines have nearly ten times as many

Omega-3s as their nearest competitor, Atlantic mackerel

(we also have some great tinned mackerel in from Portu-

gal). Omega-3s are also believed to help reduce the risk of

everything from stroke to depression. Sardines also have

large quantities of selenium, an antioxidant considered im-

portant to ghting cancer and heart disease. And eating sar-

dines whose bones havent been removed is an easy way to

catch up on your calciumthe canning process softens the

shs small bones to the point where you can eat them as is.

Another good reason to get behind sardines is that, from an

American angle, theyre one of the few functional sh that

arent in short supply in our natural sheries. The Monterey

Bay Seafood Watch lists them as an underutilized resource.

What to do with SardinesSardines-are-denitely-one-of- the-best-convenience-foods- weve- got.- I- like- that- theyre- always- ready-and-waiting-for-those-days-when-I-forgot-to-shop-or-

havent-got-the-energy-to-get-creative.-However-you-

use-em,-the-main-thing-is-that-really-good-sardines-

just-plain-taste-good.-

SardelosalataThis is the sardine version of the classic taramosalata

spread (made from carp roe). Its easy to do: mash a tin

of sardines, along with a clove of peeled garlic (again,

the Mahjoubs sundried garlic is perfect) or three or four

chopped scallions. Add a couple of well-cooked, medium-

sized potatoes, a squeeze of lemon juice and a touch of

sea salt, and mash again. Slowly add a lot of extra virgin

olive oilAglaia calls for cup of oil for two potatoes.

Add the oil just a drop or two at a time while stirring witha wooden spoon so that the oil is beaten into the sardine-

potato mixture and emulsies. It should be creamy and

thick. Let the spread rest in the refrigerator for two or

three hours before serving. Garnish with chopped fresh

dill and freshly ground black pepper. An excellent hors

doeuvres or sandwich.

bgol A classic simple dish of the Veneto region of Italy that

makes a sauce out of an ample amount of onion, along

with sardines and/or anchovies. For the onion, I use

sweet onions, about half a large onion per person. Add a

pinch of sea salt, then cook slowly in olive oil and a little

water for about 20 to 30 minutes until theyre soft and

golden. The onion should be almost broken down into

a creamy texture. Ive seen bigoli recipes call for either

freshly cooked sardines or salted sardinesin eithercase you take the sh o the bone and cook it slowly into

the onions. Author Cliord Wright says you can make do

with a tin of sardines and some added anchovies, and Ive

certainly done it. It should be a good bit of shabout a

tin of sardines or anchovies per person. (You can also use

anchovies and no sardines at all.) Slowly cook the sh

until it breaks down into the onion. When the pasta is

ready, drain it and toss with the sauce. Serve with lots of

freshly ground black pepper.

Lesle kshs Sarde SpreadLeslie Kish, one of my all-time favorite customers, passed

away in 2000, at age 90. At rst I knew him only as a cus-

tomerhe liked good cheese, good bread and sardines.

Over the 15 years or so I waited on him, I discovered that

hed been born in Hungary and came here when he was

15. He fought in the Spanish Civil War and was active in

the International Peace Movement for decades. He was

one of the original founders of the now internationally

famous Institute for Social Research in Ann Arbor. In 1947,

while pretty much every pundit was predicting a Dewey

landslide in the presidential election, he predicted that

Harry Truman would triumph. Suce it to say, he was not

your average human being.

I knew Leslie mostly because he liked to eat good food

wherever he went. Seemingly every time I saw him hed

have just returned from a trip to China or Italy or some

other glamorous location where hed received some new

honor. Turned out his mother had one of the best pas-

try shops in New York, patronized by people like Eleanor

Roosevelt, Gypsy Rose Lee, Eugene Ormandy and Fritz

Kreisler, so food fascination had been part of his upbring-

ing. When we both had time, wed sit over coee and dis-

cuss everything from social movements to sheeps milk

cheese. I learned this recipe from Leslie, who learned it

from his mother. You can use it on sandwiches or for hors

doeuvres.

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon ne sea salt

1 4-ounce tin sardines

8 ounces of Zingermans Creamery cream cheese

1 teaspoon nely chopped at leaf parsley

1/2 teaspoon minced onion

freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper, to taste

To make the spread, dissolve the salt in the lemon juice in

a medium bowl and mix well. Add the sardines and mash

together with the juice. Add the cream cheese and gently

mix well. Add parsley and onion and mix well. Add freshly

ground Tellicherry black pepper to taste.

Serve with slices of toasted rye bread or crackers.

continued from page 3


5/11


5

I rst met Audrey Petty at the Southern Foodways

Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi. We got on well

from the get go. I LOVED the essay s he wrote on

chitlinsI actually read it to the audience at our

rst African American Foodways Dinner back in

2005. Im really excited to have her here to speak

to us this year at our 7th annual dinner!

Ari: You and I both grew up in Chicago, were both

fascinated with food, culture and history, and we

both like to write. But maybe you could give folks

a sense of your background?

Audrey: Well, Im a writer. Im a Southsider by

birth. Born in Chicago and, after living all over for

most of my adult life, Im back living there again.

My mom was a career music te acher. We all made

music as kids. My dad was a chemist. He grew up

in a coal mining town in Alabama. My mom grew

up in southern Arkansas. They met in college in

Alabama; they got married in Texarkana, and then

they moved here.

I went to Knox College and thats where I gave

myself permission to really write more seriously.They had (and still have) a great creative writing

program and I tried out writing stories and kept

going. I decided I wanted to go to France. So I

spent a year in Besancon in the Franche-Comt.

Living in France made me a lot more conscious of

language and what it took to come to a dierent

uency by living in that culture. I came back to

Knox and waited tables and worked as a teaching

assistant. I already knew that I wanted to teach.

My mom came from a long line of teachers. Teach-

ing was always in the air as a great way to live

and to connect. So I did go on to grad school at

U Mass where I worked with John Wideman. Hes

an African American writer from Pittsburgh who

writes a lot about place, a lot about memory of

place. He grew up in a neighborhood in Pittsburgh

called Homewood. His writing and his mentorship

really inspired me. From grad school I went back

to Knox and taught creative writing classes, lit-

erature classes, and an interdisciplinary seminar

on slavery in America that took me to the slave

coast and got me very interested in studying how

the West African folkways traditions were carried

into African American traditions. At Knox I taught

with (poet) Beth Ann Fennelly and thats how I

learned about the Southern Foodways Alliance.

It was like no other community Id been part

of before. All these connections became really

electric. It got me thinking about things Id never

really thought about, and it got me to taste food

really dierently. SFA director John T. Edge asked

me if I wanted to do something at the Symposium

the year that the topic was Race and Food.

Ari: I remember that year really vividly. There

were great speakersBernard Lafayette (whodworked with Dr. King) spoke about the Civil Rights

movement and food. Jazz musician Olu Dara and

the Reverend Will Campbell both came back to

Mississippi for that conference and it was the rst

either had been back for decades since leaving

under duress during the Civil Rights Movement.

There was also a panel called Mammy and Ole

Miss: Domestic Relationsand that was long

before the book, The Help came out.

Audrey: Thats where I read my piece on chitlins.

When John T. was telling me about the sympo-

sium, I thought to myself, I gotta write about

chitlins. I felt drawn to it because it was such

an important food in my household but also be-

cause it was something you werent supposed to

talk about. Writing that piece became an oppor-

tunity to have a dierent relationship with my

parents, and I gured there was more memory to

revisit and that I needed to follow the plate and

follow what my parents had brought with them

when they came up from the South. My mom

passed last February and . . . its kind of like a

whole new life without her here, but the things

that I want to capture and record are a way of

rediscovering her.

Ari: What are the questions that youve followed?

Audrey: Ive been thinking about my dad. I

wanted to know and sit with him and learn more

about his boyhood and his coming of age. Hes a

very modest man. Very soft spoken and a good lis-

tener. My mom was the singer and the performer

and larger than of life. My dad was mostly in the

background, observing. But the piece I wrote that

ended up in Southern ReviewIn Search of My

Fathers Kitchen was a lot about that. I wanted to

know what it felt like for him when he rst expe-

rienced the North after he moved up to Chicago

from Alabama. And what it felt like to be serving

people (in diners, restaurants and country clubs)

during Jim Crow in the South. Having traveled to

my parents hometowns and also to Oxford (so

many times for Southern Foodways), Ive realized

that I eventually want to live in the South. I tried

to gure out what it was that was drawing me

there and it nally became clear that this was a

way for me to be with them eve n when the time

comes that I cant be with them physically. And

also to give that tradition to my daughter.

Ari: What things would you want people to un-

derstand about the African American experience

of your parents era?

Audrey: From my own experience, looking at my

parents, one thing I know more than ever is that it

really matters to show interest and to ask peopleto talk about things that are difcult and impor-

tant. Its worth going back there to the South to

experience the place (as it is now) it in person.

I think that another thing that Im constantly

interested in are the ngerprints of the migra-

tions. The way the South is in Chicago. Hybridized,

for sure, but the South was present i n Chicago

as I was coming up, whether it was what was on

the table in my parents house, or in being able

to sneak into blues clubs to hear music that my

parents probably had ambivalent relationships

to because it came from a place (and experience)

that they wanted to make some distance with. I

remember going to the Checkerboard Lounge (on

Chicagos Southside) and my parents being kind

of bemused and bewildered about why I would

seek out that sort of music in that sort of place.

But I knew in some deep way that I was ndingsomething there.

A iterve thAuthor ad Poet Audre Pett

Special gest at or 7t Annal African American Foodways dinner

Travel thZgermas towere reservg spots o or our to trps 2012:Tusca, Octoer 3-11 & Scl, Octoer 14-24

Come with us and learn

about (and taste!)

traditional food directly

from the source

Go behind the scenes and

spend time with artisanal

food producers in their

shops and kitchens

Our tours are small, only

15-18 guests, and always

led by Zingermans sta.

Roll up your sleeves with

a chef and learn tra-

ditional cooking

of the region

Come shop

the markets,

relax in the

cafes, stroll

the country-

side, and savor

some of the best

food in the world

with us!

888.316.2736 [email protected] www.zinermansfoodtors.combe the frst to hear aout all our tours. Sg up or our enes o our e ste!

Baking is a happy and fun profession. As bakers we have the

good fortune to be engaged with all of you at joyful times

like holidays and celebratory events. Even our daily, rou-

tine interactions with you are generally happy chats about

croissants, brownies, farm bread... Coming to the bakery

denitely beats going to the dentist (although we cer-

tainly appreciate our dentists). Making wedding cakes

though is one of the most enjoyable parts of baking

because weddings are so momentous and hopeful

and the conversations before them are full of ex-

cited anticipation. The two most critical factors

in a wedding cake are its avor and its appear-

ance. Successful wedding cakes are usually

beautiful so nding a baker who can match

your taste and make a beautiful cake is im-

portant. For me a beautiful cake that has

little avor isnt worth much however so

I always suggest to taste cake as the rst

step and design it after youre satised.

We got into the cake business sort of backwards, at least

compared to how most bakeries do it. Cakes are generally

sold by how they look, not how they taste. So they look

luscious and full and fancy, and then when you get them

home they often dont taste like anything. Big disappoint-

ment! Since weve always been committed to avor rst

and are known for making humble traditional baked

goods, our initial everyday cakes tasted really good

but looked well, lets politely say plain at best.

The good news for you is that even though weve

really improved the appearance of our cakes,

avor is still most important to us and you can

have a beautiful wedding cake that looks great

and tastes great.

Our cakes, buttercreams and llings are made in our pastry

department from scratch with full-avored ingredientsreal butter, real vanil-

la extract, fresh eggs, Guernsey dairy products, great chocolate, toasted fresh

nuts, and the best spices we can nd. We make our own fondant out of only

real ingredients (no preservatives or weird chemicals) and it has a sweet vanillataste. With our cakes therell be no mismatch of excellence between the avor

of your cake and its appearance. If youre ready to start your planning give us a

call or send an email and well make a time to meet!

is Now Officially Open!

Planning A Wedding?And want to have a Zingermans Bakehouse cake?

Call us at 734-761-7255 or email us at

[email protected].

See cake potos and watc oreind te scenes cake ideo atwww.zinermansakeose.com

7th Annual African American Dinner:In Search of My Fathers Kitchenth Specal Guest Audre PettTuesday, January 31 7pm $45/perso

The Roadhouse welcomes author Audrey Petty, born and raised in Chicago and currently a

Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Audrey will share her fathers stories

about his Northern migrations, his coming of age as a cook-busboy-migrant worker and will read

her own poetry. Audrey and Chef Alex will help tell the stories through a traditional and full-

flavored meal prepared by Chef Alex.

#117

See www.zingermansoodtours.com or more ino,

and call, email, or fnd us on Facebookwed love

to hear rom you!


6/11

ISSUE # 220

-6MAY-JUNE 2010

www.zingermans-

ISSUE # 230


The restaurant thats helped pave the way for cooking traditional, full-

avored American food, led by James Beard winning Chef Alex Young

is now ready to bring that same exceptional eating experience to your

home, oce or event. Everything you love about the Roadhousethe

food, the good service from sta you know and trust, the casual and

fun atmospherewe pack it up and bring it to you. When you choose

Roadhouse on the Road, you do more then eat really good foodyou

get the full Zingermans Roadhouse Experience brought to you.

How to plan an event with Roadhouse on the Road

John Loomis, cheesemaker and managing partner at

the Creamery, had been waiting patiently for years

to start making this cheese again. He rst brought it

to Ann Arbor in the 1980s while working with his sib-

lings to establish a creamery here. One thing led toanother and John found himself rst at the Deli and

then back in business for himself launching Zinger-

mans Creamery in 2001. In 2007 he began the work

to bring Cheshire back. The rst wheels were great

and, given our organization-wide commitment to con-

tinuous improvement, I had high hopes for the future.

Those hopes have come true as Im tasting the wheels

coming out of the aging room right now and am reall y,

really impressed anew.

The original recipe for Cheshire dates back thousands

of years to the time of the Romans, and its been made

straight through ever since. 16th century historian

John Speed called it the best cheese in all Europe.

Up until the middle of the 20th century, Cheshirenot

cheddarwas the most popular of British cheeses,

which is hard to believe looking at todays cheddar-

centric cheese counters. (While the two names are

similar, the cheeses really are pretty dierent. Ched-

dar is much more closely textured, aged much longer,

and creamier on the tongue; Cheshires are younger,

tarter, more crumbly. Technically, while the curd for

both is cut into blocks, Cheshire curd is not stacked

as cheddar is, but rather broken in half many times.

Cheshire curd is also milled through a peg mill, which

shreds it down to a ner texture than one would

with cheddar.)

But while were using the name Cheshire, our cheese is

actually a cousin (twice removed) of the British origi-

nal. Leon Downey, one time viola player in the Halle

Orchestra in London, decided to learn cheesemaking

when he wanted to leave behind the intensity of city

living. (The alternate version of why he moved on,

John says, is, I asked Leon why he left the symphony

and his reply was Mahler, I dont like Mahler.) Leon

and his wife bought a farm in Wales and he set outto make his own Welsh version of Cheshire, which he

called Llangloan. It was smaller in size, a bit tangier

in avor and somewhatlike Leon himselfwilder in

its personality than the more proper English original.

He never made much and it was always hard for us

to get at the Deli, but it was often one of my favorite

British cheeses.

I cant really remember what the economic climate

was actually like in the late 80s when John Loomis,

his brother Bill and sister Janet set out to make their

cheese, but I dont think it was all that great. The truth is

that its very hard to make a business go under any cir-

cumstances. In a bit of mostly lost-in-the-shadows Ann

Arbor history, they built a small creamery half a mile

or so from the Deli over on Felch Street west of North

Main. Having grown up with family members working

in what John calls the Farmer Jack Dairies in Detroit,

the three of them had long hoped to make cheese here.

John went to work with Leon Downey in Wales for a

period of months back in 1989. What he brought back

to Ann Arbor was his American adaptation of Cheshire.

It retains the slightly crumbly, tenderly tangy, lively

on the tongue, easy to eat accessibility of its English

and Welsh countrymen, but with maybe a bit rootsier,

more workmanlike attitude and avor that reects the

American Midwest. We used to sell a lot of it here at

the Deli. To some degree they were ahead of their time

I think, and, sadly the Loomises werent able to make

a nancial success out of the business. They shut their

little dairy down back in 1993.

Having stuck with the dream through those hard per-

sonal times in the early 90s, John was engaged and

inspired by the Zingermans 2009 vision. In many ways

John and his commitment to making great cheese were

just what we envisioned when we wrote it. Find some-one like John who had a passion for crafting cheese

and create the opportunity to own part of a business

where he could make a living making the product he

was so passionate about. Thats pretty much how we

came to open Zingermans Creamery a decade ago.

We started with fresh cheeseshand made artisan

cream cheese, fresh goat cheese, etc.and John

has waited patiently to make Cheshire again.

I should say that John is particularly jazzed about the

Cheshire because its a raw milk cheese; Id guess that

when the Loomises began making it back in 89 it was

the rst raw milk cheese in Washtenaw County for

probably a good fty or sixty years. Weve long beenfocused on the fuller avors that tend to go with raw

milk cheeses. Unlike all our other cheeses which are

fresh (that is, aged only from one or two days to, at

most, a month and a half), the Great Lakes Cheshire is

aged for over 60 days which is the magic mark set by

the government for making cheese from milk the way it

comes from the cow without having to heat treat it rst.

On huge recent improvement comes from making the

Great Lakes Cheshire with Dutch-Belted cows milk,

which really upgrades this already-delicious cheese.

Our milk comes to us from Andy Schneiders dairy

farm in Westphalia (northwest of Lansing). Dutch-

Belted cows are extremely rare in the U.S. (there are

slightly more than 200 herds). What makes the Dutch

Belted cows milk unique is its high butterfat and

protein content and the way in which the butterfat

globules bond to one another. The bonds are small,

creating a supremely dense, rich curd. Originating in

the Alps, Dutch-Belted cows gained great popularity in

Scandinavia until nally being introduced to the U.S.

Andy Schneider takes pains to produce a milk that is

signicantly better than the norm. The calves are pro-

vided their mothers milk for ten months or until the

mother kicks them o the teat, and the Creamery only

gets the excess that the calves cant drink. In the inter-

est of economy, dairy farmers usually put the calves

on formula and sell all the milk the mothers produce.

Giving calves the milk that was intended for them cre-

ates an extremely healthy herd and allows for cows

that the Schneiders milk for many years longer than

the norm. Healthy cows equal healthy milk. Perfect

for rich, complex cheeses that allow the natural avor

of this milk to come through.

On the table, the Great Lakes Cheshire is really a pret-

ty classic eating cheese. Cheshire farmers have longtaken it out into the elds with them, wrapped in little

more than a bit of white cloth; Welsh miners would

have done the same to have something to eat under-

ground. Ploughmans Lunch would be the proper Brit-

ish name I think.

The Great Lakes Cheshire is also excell ent on a toasted

cheese sandwich, which in Britain would be a whats

called Welsh Rabbit or Rarebit. Basically its a thickish,

creamy cheese sauce made with mustard, beer, and a

bit of cayenne or Worcestershire blended with some

grated Cheshire, thats then served bubbly, hot and a

bit lightly browned under the broiler over toast. (If

youre curious about the name, the theory is that the

Welsh were so poor that they referred to cheese as

their rabbit since they couldnt aord to have actual

meat very often.)

Or of course, you can just grab a hunk of the GreatLakes Cheshire and eat it like it is. Its a pretty darned

good cheese and its a pretty cool piece of history to

bring back roundraw milk and really good to eat.

FROM OuR FRIDgELet the Roadhouse do the work for you! Our fridge- to-fridge

menu is designed to go from our fridge to yours, with full

re-heating instructions for your take out items included. For

large orders, give us 24-hour notice and we can have your

order waiting for you when you drive up to the Roadshow.

Pick up a copy next time youre in the Roadhouse or check

online at www.zingermansroadhouse.com

Call 734.929.0332 to get great food readyfor a fridge near you!

Step 1: Pick a dateand ook te eent.Give us all the details! The more

we know about your event and

your guests, the better service

we can provide.

What are you celebrating?

How many people are coming?

What time are they arriving?

Where will it be?

Who is coming? Relatives, out

of towners, townies, Zinger-mans regulars, rst time

guests, world travelers, your

best friends?

Call 734.929.0331 or email

[email protected] to

schedule the event.

Step 2: Pick a teme.We want the food to be part of

your event, to help tell a story.

Tell us your favorite foods,

avors and memories. If you

are planning your wedding and

you met your anc on vacation

in New Orleans, bring back the

moment you met with a NOLA

themed dinner and share theexperience with your guests.

Maybe your favorite vacation

spot is Maryland, so lets do a

traditional crab feast for all to

enjoy. Or if you simply love

BBQ, we can put together a BBQ

spread sure to make southerners

jealous.

Step 3: We make te men.Based on the theme, your favor-

ite foods and all the details for

the event, Chef Alex will create a

menu sure to wow your guests.

The menu doesnt end with good

food, we oer dierent wines,

beers and cocktails traditional

to the theme or region, compli-

menting the food and rounding

out the menu.

Step 4: Inite yor friends and

family to an experience teywill neer foret!Your guests will go home having

had a truly exceptional meal,

with memories of great food,

meaningful service and intrigu-

ing stories about what they ate

and drank, that theyll be talking

about for a long time.

A A Aror Orgal

Creamery ChEeseof The Month!Available at the Creamery cheese shop at

3723 Plaza Drive and at the Deli on Detroit Street

Meet Ad Schederad our cheesemaerAure Thomaso

January

brdgeater

$9.99/l (re. $11.99)A rich mold-ripened

cheese, studdedwith freshly-ground,

Tellicherry black

pepper. The Bridgewater

combines a slight citrus

flavor with the bold

spice of fresh pepper,

finishing with gentle

hints of mushroom.

February--Great Laes Cheshre$22.99/l(re. $28.99)Youve read all about

it! Now grab a hunk (or

two) of this delicious

hometown original.

need to eed a Crod?


7/11

-7ISSUE # 220 MAY-JUNE 2010

-

7ISSUE # 230 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2012

Make eeryone in te ofce appy wit Zgermas Pot Pe bag Luches!Weve combined the warm, buttery goodness of our housemade Zingermans Deli Pot Pies with the crowd-pleasing convenience of our

bag lunches to create the ultimate winter feast for your officeZingermans Catering Pot Pie Bag Lunches.

Pick from a bevy of individual pot piestheres a flavor for every palette! Each pie will be sent hot, with a tossed green salad, balsamic

vinaigrette, a mini brownie, napkin and utensils. All this for only $16.50 each!

Call 734.663.3400 or o to www.zinermanscaterin.com to make yor next staff meetin a comfort-food feast!

Stoc up ad save!Pot pies are only aailale in Janary & Ferary. by 10, take10% O! by 20, get 20% O!! by 30, get 30% O!!!Also available frozen, ready to heat and serve.

ZgermasClassc Chce Pot PeFree range chicken handpicked off the

bone and blended with big chunks of car-

rots, celery, potatoes, onions and herbs.

Wrapped in a handmade butter crust. Its

the perfect lazy cook winter meal; its

warm, filling and easier than pie.

Joh H. Ture Ture Pot PeHarnois & Son Farm turkey with big

chunks of celery, carrots, onions, pota-

toes and spiced with Turkish Urfa pep-

per and fresh herbs. Wrapped in a hand-

made butter crust.

ug Pot Pe(Vegetarian selection!) A fun pie for the fungiphiles! Michigan

Maitake Mushrooms, Tantr Farm Organic

Blue Oyster Mushrooms and a little

Balinese Long Pepper, tucked in an all-

butter crust.

Daras Dgle Pe A salute to the miners on the Dingle

Peninsula of Ireland; this pie is made

with lamb from Hannewald Lamb

Company, loads of potatoes, onions and

a dash of cumin and rosemary. Wrapped

miner-style (no tin) in a butter crust.

Cheshre Por PeDelicious free range Berkshire pork

shoulder braised with onions, potatoes,

apple cider and spices then stuffed in

a handmade pastry crust with organic

Gold Rush apples from Almar Orchards

in Flushing, MI. Wrapped miner style (no

tin) in a butter crust.

The Red brc bee Pot PeThis beef pie is our heartiest one yet.

Packed with big chunks of all natural

beef from Ernst Farm here in Washtenaw

County, carrots, potatoes, fresh herbs

and wrapped in our handmade crust.

2012 Pot Pe Seaso

Handmade Pot Pies To Cheer Up Your Winter Blues

Place a catering order for pick up or delivery & get the

second order of equal or lesser value half off. Good

for any two orders during the months of January &

February 2012.

Tis offer cannot e comined wit any oter disconts. Tis offer is only

alid for orders from Zinermans Caterin. Discont will not e applied to

eqipment rentals, or serice staff. Serice fees for eents will e ased on

non-disconted totals.

JanuaryJoie de BeefPhilly transplant, and resident sandwich

making superstar Jeremiah JereBear Ja-

roch brings the Deli its rst take on the

classic French Dip in our 29+ year history.

He noticed that with delicious brisket (ask

Oprah!) already part of our ingredient port-

folio, and a vinegar-laced sauce that results

after cooking said brisket, all it would take

is a little swagger to bring a commonplace

sandwich up to a new standard. Its a simple

composition of ingrdients dlicieux. Warm

roast beef & our house-marinated beef bris-

ket snuggle up under a blanket of melted

Swiss cheese on a soft bakehouse roll. Au jus

comes along on the side.

$10.99/one-size

FebruaryBills Mootastic MasterpieceThis sandwich is our tribute to friend of Zing-

ermans, William Calder. If that name sounds

familiar, it may be because the company he

founded, Calder Dairy, produces our house

milk, the heart of all coee drinks of the

Next Door. Family owned (their cows have

names rather than numbers!) Calder Dairy

is celebrating their 65th birthday this month.

Their premium products boost every recipe

we use them in, right down to a small side

of their sour cream with our potato latkes.

We join velvety scallion cream cheese with

corned beef, Bills deli meat of choice. We

add some crunchy lettuce, a shake of Telli-

cherry black pepper and layer it all on

toasted caraway rye. So sit down with this

sandwich, grab a large glass of their amaz-

ing chocolate milk, and join us in a toast to

Calder for all of the TLC theyve shown their

cows, their products, and their community.

$11.99/one-size

Sandwich of the Month

BUY ONE,GET one HALF OFFin Janary & Ferary 2012!

New Year,nEW Birthday Specials!Were-mixing-this-up-a-bit-this-year-and-saying-so-long-to-birthday-

bagels.-Each-business-is-working-up-their-own-deals-to-help-you--

celebrate-your-special-day!

Come to the Deli in February and sample some of the finest foods wevefound from the Golden State including...

Olive oil from Owens CrEek

Zingermans DeliCelerates Calora oods eruar

Del: 15% o everthg!Celebrate your birthday at the Deli or

Next Door and take 15% off your entire

purchase.

baehouse: ree bread!Enjoy a free loaf of

bread (up to $6.25)

with any purchase

of Bakehouse-made

food at our shop on

Plaza Drive.

Roadhouse:ree Dout Sudae!Enjoy Aris Donut Sundae free

with your meal at the Roadhouse.

Coee Co.:Hal-o coee!Take 50% off any coffee drink at our

Plaza Drive coffee shop.

Creamer:ree cheese or gelato2 oz. of your favorite, with any

purchase at our Plaza Drive shop.

Get a REE Oes CreeT-shrt he ou tae

home to ottles o therdelcous ol

(hle supples last)

Unlike so many of the well-known California oil producers who are up in

Napa and Sonoma, Walter Hewletts ranch is located in Mariposa County, in

the Sierra foothills. Theirs is a rather modest production by modern Califor-

nia standards, about 5,000 trees. All are from straight Italian rootstock, not

hybrids, grown with old-style wide spacing.

Although Walters trees are only at the very beginning of their producing

years, the oil is already remarkably good. The olives are hand picked and

pressed within twenty-four hours, and the oil is full without being overpower-

ing, smooth but still notably peppery at the nish. Its got pleasantly pungent

herb notes straight up front and then moves gently but rmly around the

entire avor spectrum.


8/11

ISSUE # 230


The following is adapted from the Introduction to Zingermans

Guide to Good Leading, Part 2: A Lapsed Anarchists Guide to

Being a Better Leader due out in Spring 2012.

A Short bt o Zgermas Hstor After almost thirty years working here, I still teach our new-

staff orientation class a couple times a month. When I dont, my

partner, Paul Saginaw, does. The classcalled, simply, Welcome

to Zingermansis an interactive and, I hope, instructive two

hours of me getting to know the people whove chosen to come

to work with us and catching them up to speed on our history,

our vision of the future, our values, and our approaches to each

of our three bottom lines (food, service, and finance). As much

as weve grown over the years, both Paul and I agree that teach-

ing that class is one of the most important things we do. We are,

honestly, honored that anyone opts to come to work with us,

and properly and personally welcoming them is the least we

can do. Paul and I have always operated with the outlook that

we need the people who work here far more than they need

us. If no one had ever chosen to work here, and then decided

to do great work once they came on board, wed probably

still be struggling to keep a small, 29-seat sandwich business

going in a hard-to-find-building in a not very good neighbor-

hood. But clearly a lot of good things have happened over the

last thirty years, and really all of it only because a lot of smart,

hard-working people have given us the chance to lead. Despite

the illusions (or is it delusions?) of some people who sit at the

top of corporate org charts, the reality is that no leader will

accomplish anything productive without colleagues who will-

ingly choose to follow. And if our new staff members are kind,

caring, and intrigued enough to entrust their futures to us,

we believe wed better take the time to meet them, hear their

hopes and history, and then, in turn, share our story, our dreams,

expectations, and passions. For those of you who know nothing

about us, but somehow stumbled onto this newsletter anyway,

heres the very long story in a few short sentences. Paul and I

opened Zingermans Delicatessen in March of 1982. We started

in a small 1300-square foot space near the Ann Arbor Farmers

Market with two employees, a 25-sandwich menu, 29 seats, and

a modest selection of specialty foods. Three decades later, theZingermans Community of Businesses includes eight businesses

and counting, each with its own unique specialty, each led by

managing partners who actually own part of their business (18 at

last count), but operate as one, collaborative, synergistic, qual-

ity-, service-, and community-conscious organization. We make

sandwiches, bake bread and pastry, make cheese and gelato,

sell specialty foods from all over the world, smoke traditional

Southern barbecue, fry chicken, roast coffee, and craft hand-

made candy bars. After weve done all that, we turn around and

ship a lot of it to food lovers all over the country. And we also

have our own little training business, too. Phew . . . thats thirty

years in under three hundred words.

The Ed o the Old Model?

What we (and other like-minded folks around the coun-

try) are trying to do is create a new, more constructive,

sustainable, way to work.

The more I work, learn, listen to others, write, and

reflect, the more passionate Ive become about this sub-

ject. In my dreams at l east, many people in the world are

now ready to find that sort of better way to work. My

hope is that the recent economic crisis got people pay-

ing attention and opened their minds to a more positive

approach to business, leadership, and organizational life

in general. Im probably overly optimistic on that front

most people fall quickly back into what they were used

to as soon as the short-term crisis subsides. Change isnt

easy for most folksbut the change that I believe is hap-

pening is going to go forward nevertheless.

The books in the Guide to Good Leading series are, basi-

cally, how-to handbooks to help you make this new way

to work a reality. Part 2 is all about learning ways to lead

that bring out the best in everyone in an organization.

Its about creating a workplace that is both rewarding to

be part of and also more productive. Its about working

in sync with the Natural L aws of Business (see www.zing-

train.com), and crafting an organization thats focused

on quality, care, and collaboration; a community that

benets the greater good; a place thats more fun while

still functioning eectively in the eld of the free market.

I dont have any illusion that what Im saying or what

were doing here at Zingermans will stop the average

American executive in his or her tracks and get them to

see the wisdom in Emile DeFelices (www.cawcawcreek.

com) eorts at doing the opposite of what the mass market is

currently about. The old model of work, the one I, and almost

everyone else reading this, grew up with, was that work was

something . . . you did. Some people were into it. Most didnt

mind it. A whole lot more didnt like it at all, but tolerated it

in the very understandable interest of supporting their families

and making their mortgage payment. People who felt that way

worked only as long as they had to. Five oclock meant you

could head home for the evening. TGIF was a free pass to see

your family, go for a run, party, or sleep in for two days straight.

People put up with it until they retired, at which point they could

go o and do what they had really wanted to do all those years

when they were punching the clock. Putting passion into work

in that old model was reserved only for a few isolated extrem-

istshigh-powered CEOs, sports phenoms, musical prodigies,

or the like. Most people, though, werent wired like that; they

worked to get through, toeing the line for fear of being red,

taking home a check at the end of the week, then paying the

bills that had arrived in the interim. Most people who worked

long hours were belittled for not having work-life balance. At

best, they were seen as unhappy workaholics who usually forced

their addiction onto their subordinates, who, in turn, were stuck

working way too much as well. Looking back over those last few

sentences, I see that I wrote that whole bit in the past tense as

if it was history. But I realize in rereading it that, of course, what

Ive described is actually the way most people still relate to what

they do every day for a living. Im just not one of them. I happen

to like my work. A lot! And I happen to bel ieve that workwhen

its done wellcan be really rewarding, uplifting, exciting, and,

downright self-actualizing.

Good wor versus bad wor

Wendell Berry wrote, in a letter to the editor of the Progressive

magazine in the fall of 2010: It is true that the industrialization of

virtually all forms of production and service has lled the world

with jobs that are meaningless, demeaning and boringas well

as inherently destructive. I dont think there is an argument for

the existence of such work, and I wish for its elimination, but

even its reduction calls for economic changes not yet dened, let

alone advocated, by the left or the right. I agree. Berry added,

The old and honorable idea of vocation is simply that we each

are called, by God, or by our gifts, or by our preference, to a kind

of work for which we are particularly tted. Berry goes on, witha bit of well-grounded cynicism and Im sure a sparkle in his

seventy-six-year-old, rooted-in-the-Kentucky-countryside eyes.

Implicit in this idea, is the evidently startling possibility that we

might work willingly, and that there is no necessary contradic-

tion between work and happiness or satisfaction. Only in the

absence of any viable idea of vocation, or good work, can one

make the distinction implied in such phrases as less work, more

life, or work-life balance, as if one commutes daily from life

here to work there. But arent we living even when we are most

miserably and harmfully at work? And isnt that exactly why we

object (when we do object) to bad work?

The predominance of bad work has been building for a long time.

The anarchists wanted to end it in a bad way. Back in 1911, Emma

Goldman wrote: If I were to give a summary of the tendenc

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