Say cheese! The Andersons’ huge Holiday Cheddar begins taking shape at Wisconsin factory

Adam Russell, an associate buyer for The Andersons, left, gets some guidance from Jacob Bulitz, center, as Mr. Russell and Lesley Kruzel, deli and seafood buyer for The Andersons, right, flip slabs of cheese during the cheddaring process at the Henning's Wisconsin Cheese.

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Josh Henning pours cheddar cheese curds into a mold that will become The Andersons’ 4,600-pound Holiday Cheddar at the Henning's Wisconsin Cheese factory in Kiel, Wis.

KIEL, Wis. — Shortly after 6 a.m. one recent hazy July morning, employees at Henning’s Wisconsin Cheese were hard at work.

It was less than an hour and a half past sunrise, but employees were more than halfway done with the day’s job: preparing the 2½ ton cheddar that will soon delight customers in northwest Ohio just in time for the holiday season.

The Andersons’ Holiday Cheddar is back and it’s bigger than ever, but cheese connoisseurs will have to wait a bit longer for their share, as the mammoth wheel ages to perfection.

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This year’s cheese, weighing in at 4,600 pounds, is larger than last year’s because of the “overwhelming demand” the first time around, said John Hoover, marketing and business development director for The Andersons.

Toledoans bought up last year’s 3,200-pound mammoth in two days.

That rate is “totally unheard of,” said Kert Henning, vice president of the cheese company, estimating that cheeses that size typically take between four and six weeks to sell.

On July 9, the 2015 cheese began its journey from roughly 50,000 pounds of locally sourced milk to the behemoth wheel, which will roll into Toledo in time for the holidays and will be sliced on Nov. 14, following The Blade Holiday Parade.

The Big Cheese, which last year revived the long-gone tradition of the Tiedtke’s Department Store Christmas cheese, drew long lines and quick sales. John Robinson Block, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Blade, suggested last year that The Andersons bring back the tradition.

In Kiel, the low thrum of machinery serenades as Henning’s employees, clad in knee-high rubber boots and hair nets, do things the old-fashioned way.

That includes the cheddaring process, where curds are cut into loaves, repeatedly flipped and stacked to use the cheese’s own weight to push out any excess whey.

The curds are then poured, bucket-by-bucket, into the cylindrical frame. The casing is made of poplar and basswood, woods with very little sap or odor, which could taint the flavor.

Over the course of the first night, pressure was put on the cheese to further expel residual whey, compressing the cheese from the 78-inch height of the box to the 67 inches customers will see in November. The factory forklift was no match for the Big Cheese, and six of Henning’s employees had to jump on the back of the vehicle for enough counterweight to hoist the cheese onto the compression device.

The cheese will then be cooled, dried, and cased in wax.

It’s on its way to becoming a four-month cheddar, right in the sweet spot of three and six month cheddars, which the Hennings say they’ve found appeals to a broad audience. It will be a little sharper than last year’s, which was aged about three months.

When not making mammoth wheels, employees at Henning’s are producing between 25 and 30 specialty flavors, including blueberry cobbler, creamy caramel, and garlic dill.

‘Personal touch’

Members of The Andersons team were present for the Toledo cheese’s creation.

Lesley Kruzel, who is a deli and seafood buyer for the The Andersons, traveled to Kiel with associate buyer Adam Russell and helped in the cheddaring process, flipping several blocks of curds.

“It’s neat to have a hand in it and put that personal touch on it,” she said. “Those blocks are pretty heavy. They certainly get their workout here.”

The labor intensive process has been mechanized by many other manufacturers.

“There are automatic systems, but we haven’t found anything to duplicate what we’re doing,” Kert Henning said. “This is traditional cheddar making.”

A traditional focus extends to the way of doing business. Four generations of Hennings have worked in the family business, including siblings Kerry, Kert, and Kay and several of their children.

“When you’ve got something you take a lot of pride in, you want to pass it on to the next generation,” said master cheesemaker Kert Henning. “There is so much technique and craftsmanship; there’s a lot of artistry involved. It doesn't just happen.”

Adam Russell, an associate buyer for The Andersons, left, gets some guidance from Jacob Bulitz, center, as Mr. Russell and Lesley Kruzel, deli and seafood buyer for The Andersons, right, flip slabs of cheese during the cheddaring process at the Henning's Wisconsin Cheese.

That dedication to family and craft made it a natural fit for a partnership for The Andersons, Ms. Kruzel said.

“We do have a great working relationship with Henning’s,” she said. “They’re a nice, family-owned business, and that goes back to The Andersons’ roots of being a family-owned business.”

The dairy company is attracting the attention of others as well. On the day the Toledo cheese was made, a Toronto-based film crew was shooting an episode for Food Factory USA, which airs on the FYI network. The episode featuring Henning’s mammoth cheese wheels is expected to air in November, just in time for Ohio customers to buy some of their own.

Big wheels

The Andersons’ foray into behemoth wheels is expanding beyond Toledo. The Andersons has ordered a second wheel, this one 3,200 pounds, to be sold in Columbus to celebrate the Ohio State-Michigan football game in late November. The Buckeye Cheddar was made two weeks before the Toledo cheese and is aging to be ready for a ceremonial slicing Nov. 27, the day before the big game, which is in Ann Arbor this year.

Joseph Prange separates curds and whey in the cheddaring process at the Henning's Wisconsin Cheese.

Despite the increased interest by The Andersons, Kert Henning said overall demand for mammoth cheeses is declining, in part because of the labor-intensive process of slicing it for sale, which requires a large wire and some sweat equity. That will certainly be the case for the holiday cheese, which weighs about as much as a Jeep Wrangler with a few passengers inside.

It is likely to be the largest cheese in Toledo history. Articles from The Blade describe the Tiedtke’s cheeses from various years as between 3,200 pounds and 2 tons, now dwarfed by this year’s order.

But, it’s not the largest wheel Henning’s has made by a long shot. The company has made 12,000-pound wheels for clients in Texas and Puerto Rico. Typically, the biggest they suggest to clients is about 4,600 pounds to ensure customers can manage cutting it.

The Henning's Wisconsin Cheese factory, which includes a store and museum, is situated amid farm fields in Kiel, Wis.

Before last year’s order from The Andersons, Kert Henning said they typically made one wheel of similar size a year for the Michigan-based Horrocks Farm Market. Henning’s is the last manufacturer in the country to make wheels larger than 75 pounds. Each one they do makes for an unusual day in the factory.

“It’s a neat thing to do once a year for that wow factor,” Kerry Henning said.

Representatives from both The Andersons and Henning’s say they look forward to making this cheesy relationship a long-standing tradition.

“We’re doing this every year. This is going to be a new tradition for us,” Ms. Kruzel said. “Come out and see the cheese. It’s going to be bigger and better than last year.”

Contact Lauren Lindstrom at llindstrom@theblade.com, 419-724-6154, or on Twitter @lelindstrom.