A great autumn arrival makes for a fantastic grilled cheese
Here’s a super tasty sandwich that has made more than one magical evening meal for me over the last few weeks. I have a feeling it will become an annual fall favorite. I’ve been eating it for dinner, but you could easily do it up for lunch. Or for that matter, brunch: Just add an egg and serve it open-faced. You could maybe call it an artisan American Midwestern adaptation of Eggs Benedict.
The story of Rush Creek Reserve begins with cheesemaker Andy Hatch at Uplands Cheese in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. Andy is a kind, gentle, generous, and a great low-key storyteller, not to mention a fine mandolin player. As the crew at Uplands share about their history, “The farm is owned and operated by two families: Andy and Caitlin Hatch, and Scott and Liana Mericka. Andy and Scott began as apprentices under the previous generation of owners—Uplands Cheese founders Mike Gingrich and Dan Patenaude.” In 2014, Andy, Scott, Caitlin, and Liana purchased the farm from its founders. While Scott has taken over the work in the barn, Andy has carried on their work in making the remarkable Pleasant Ridge Reserve (the wheels at the Deli, Cream Top Shop, and Roadhouse right now are an award-winning bit of work from July 18, 2023) and the Rush Creek. The latter just arrived a few weeks ago for its annual short season. Now is a great time to take full culinary advantage of it coming in. You’ll find at both the Cream Top Shop on Plaza Drive and at the Deli as well.
Rush Creek, crafted in the style of a Vacherin Mont D’Or, is a washed rind cheese—thin, slightly sticky rind, wrapped in a spruce wood band and aged for about eight weeks so that it’s nice and creamy and sort of prototypically custard-soft inside. As Andy told me a few years back,
The Rush Creek relies on the sweetness, the texture of the milk, the heaviness of it in the fall, and the delicacy of the cheese maker’s touch. As the milk comes into the autumn months, fat goes up, protein goes up, and … it’s perfect for a soft cheese. This type of seasonal calendar has existed for hundreds of years in parts of Europe.
As Andy tells it, the Pleasant Ridge is essentially “made in the fields”—the quality of the milk is the biggest single contributor to its exceptional quality. Rush Creek, by contrast, “is made in the maturing caves.” All the intensive work of affinage, the regular hand-rubbing and turning of each small wheel is an enormous factor in its finished flavor. Trevor Murray, Specialty Foods Manager at the Deli, did an internship at Uplands a few years back. It takes about 27 or so “touches” per wheel, he told me, from the time it enters the aging rooms until the moment Rush Creek is ready to ship. To put things in perspective, Trevor says, “Imagine that amount of work spread across 60-ish 500- to 600-wheel batches.”
When you eat some Rush Creek Reserve, you’ll realize right away that it’s well worth the effort. Rush Creek is complex and delicious in its flavor, and smooth and creamy in its texture. The flavor and character of Wisconsin’s Driftless region all worked into one amazing little wheel of cheese. To eat the Rush Creek, you could just spoon it out of the rind and eat it as is or cut a wedge and put it on a cheese plate. Eat it with a slice or two of the Bakehouse’s Country Miche—I buy the big, 2-kilo loaves—hopefully from one with an especially dark crust.
This year I decided to turn the Rush Creek into a sandwich: To make one, cut a couple slices of the Bakehouse’s terrific True North bread or Caraway Rye. Spread a little butter on the inside of each slice. Sprinkle on some freshly ground black pepper. Take the rind off the top of the Rush Creek and spoon a good bit of it into the bread. Lay a few slices of good ham on top—I used the Nueske family’s applewood smoked ham since it comes from the same state and because it’s really good! So too is the Fra’ Mani Smoked Ham we get from California that’s at the Deli. Put the other slice of bread on top with the butter side down. Butter the outside of each slice and sprinkle on a pinch of sea salt and pepper. Grill in a hot pan (with a weight or heavy bowl atop the sandwich) until the first side is golden brown, then flip and repeat. Cut into quarters and eat.
If you want to gild the luscious sandwich lily you can serve a spoonful of the sweet-spicy Quince and Apple-brand pear mostarda—also from Wisconsin—that we carry at the Cream Top Shop, on the side!
