Video: At Standard Market's cheese cave, fresh product becomes aged cheese
Standard Market received two awards from the American Cheese Society for a LaClare Farms Chandoka aged in its cave.
What’s a cheesemaker to do when he or she doesn’t have space for aging cheeses? One option is to find space in another cheesemaker’s cave. Or, the cheesemaker can call Standard Market, a Chicago-area distributor and retailer that built a refrigerated room specifically for aging fine cheeses.
Standard Market this year opened a 1,200-square-foot temperature- and humidity-controlled cave at its warehouse in Countryside, Ill., just off of historic Route 66. When Dairy Foods visited, the cave had just received its first shipment: 50 wheels of a cow’s milk/goat’s milk Cheddar cheese from LaClare Farms of Wisconsin. The cheese will be aged for about eight months and then sold in Standard’s cheese shops and to Chicago-area retailers.