{"id":3320,"date":"2023-08-03T03:00:29","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T03:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/what-makes-pine-river-a-leading-maker-of-cold-pack\/"},"modified":"2023-08-03T03:00:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T03:00:29","slug":"what-makes-pine-river-a-leading-maker-of-cold-pack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/what-makes-pine-river-a-leading-maker-of-cold-pack\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes Pine River a Leading Maker of Cold Pack?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/p>\n

\"\"

\n

Mary Lindemann<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chances are, if you ever enjoyed a cheese spread from Wisconsin, it was made by Pine River.<\/a><\/p>\n

Pine River, which has been in business for 60 years, was started by Phil C. Lindemann. Lindemann had a cheese packaging business\u2014cutting, wrapping, waxing\u2014and one day, he decided to make a little cheese spread from the trims of fine cheddar. \u201cHe was just going to do this on the side,\u201d says Mary Lindemann, his daughter-in-law and marketing director at Pine River Pre-Pack, Inc. \u201cBut the business kept growing, and then, in 1981, there was a fire in the wax tanks, and he decided that it was a sign from God to get out of the waxing and to focus on the cheese spreads.\u201d The kind of cheese spread Pine River makes, is cold pack. Cold pack<\/a> is also known as pub cheese, crock cheese or club cheese and is a cheese spread that is made from blending cheese, but without the use of heat. Learn more about <\/em>cheese spreads.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Using Better Cheese to Make Better Cold Pack<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n

\"\"

\n

Selection of Pine River Cold Pack<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, Pine River makes 21 different types of cold-pack, and its spreads are sold across the country. The main secret to their amazing cheese spreads, Lindemann says, is that they use natural cuts of cheese\u2014not ends, not barrel cheese, and nothing but Grade A cheese. Then, they blend it with whey, Grade A butter, and then spices and flavorings. \u201cIt\u2019s blended without heat, and that\u2019s the key part of cold pack,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s like when you add heat to vegetables – they taste different, and they have a different texture from raw vegetables.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other big difference, Lindemann says, is that they used aged cheddar as a base. \u201cWe start with much older cheese,\u201d she says. \u201cWe actually start with cheeses at nine months, and we use up to 24 months-old cheese. We actually blend different ages together to get the right flavor and consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cheese itself also comes to Pine River in 40 pound blocks that are three weeks old, and they age it until it is ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe blending is actually a scientific process,\u201d Lindemann says. \u201cWe use a computer program to determine which ages of cheddar to blend together, and it\u2019s not as easy as just throwing a cheese into a blender. When people visit us, they are usually astonished at the complexity of making cheese spread to what they thought in their minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Popular Flavors of Cold Pack<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n

\"\"

\n

Pine River Garlic & Herb Cold Pack<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most popular spread is their port wine flavor, and second is their plain cheddar, but the third and fourth place cheeses are always changing. Beer cheese, Swiss almond and mango haba\u00f1ero all frequently vie for third or fourth place, but \u201cthere are 21 flavors vying for popularity,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media can play a big role in what\u2019s going to be popular,\u201d she says. \u201cIf someone uses beer cheese on their potatoes or in basting their own pretzel, then bam, people say \u2018I gotta find that cheese,\u2019 and suddenly, it\u2019s flying off the shelves,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Among the other flavors include: aged asiago, cranberry cheddar, garlic & herb, chunky bleu, smoky bacon. Pine River also makes a line of shelf-stable spreads, too, with nine different flavors. \u201cWe started making those because they were used in fundraising at schools, because fundraising organizers couldn\u2019t count on the kids taking the spreads right home and not leaving them in their lockers,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

While they\u2019re still used in fundraising and shelf-stable gift boxes, they are sold even more at retailers which don\u2019t have enough refrigeration space or refrigeration at all. Places like gas stations, travel centers and even liquor stores sell them. \u201cThey\u2019re really good to take on trips, but I always remind people that you can\u2019t take them carry-on in airplanes\u2014they have to be stored in your checked luggage,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Creating Private Label & Grocery Branded Cold Pack<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n

\"\"

\n

Cabot cheese spread<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pine River also creates the cheese spreads for 36 private label brands, including top makers such as Marieke Gouda<\/a>, Widmer\u2019s<\/a>, Cabot Creamery<\/a>, and Henning\u2019s<\/a> to name but a few. Basically, anybody who is anybody in the Wisconsin cheese world (and a few others from across the country) who makes spreads uses Pine River. \u201cWho else would you work with?\u201d says Marieke Penterman. \u201cThey make our Gouda into a delicious cheese spread. It\u2019s phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penterman says she met with Phil A. Lindemann, the founder\u2019s son and Mary Lindeman\u2019s husband, and they got to talking. \u201cHe says to me \u2018We could make something wonderful together,\u2019 and he was so right,\u201d Penterman says, adding that in addition to her plain Gouda spread, she also makes honey clover and hatch pepper Gouda spreads. \u201cThe hatch pepper has been so popular,\u201d she says. \u201cIt has just a little bite to it, but I really personally love the honey clover. I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and supper with bagel chips. It\u2019s almost like a dessert spread.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides creating private label brands for individual cheese companies, Pine River\u2019s spreads are also the spreads sold as grocery store brands. Sendik\u2019s, an upscale grocer based in Milwaukee, does that, but most store brands ask that Pine River keep private their names. \u201cBut if you look at the cups they\u2019re in, you can recognize that they\u2019re using our spreads,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

How to Enjoy Cold Pack<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n

\"\"

\n

Holiday Pinwheels<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The cheese spreads aren\u2019t just for spreading on crackers. \u201cBasically, any recipe in which you use cheese and then add milk or cream, you can use cheese spreads,\u201d Lindemann says. \u201cI always say, spread beyond the cracker. Toss it in pasta, add it to soups or cooked vegetables, stir it into scrambled eggs. I\u2019ve used it even as filling in pastas like stuffed manicotti.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the rise in popularity in butter boards, Lindemann says you can also add in a few spreads amidst the flavored butters, or you could create a cheese spread board. Pipe some cranberry cheddar, then add some cranberries on top, or add some candied pecans, or add some bacon to the bacon cheddar. \u201cYou can dig right in,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s just so good.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary Lindemann Chances are, if you ever enjoyed a cheese spread from Wisconsin, it was made by Pine River. Pine River, which has been in business for 60 years, was started by Phil C. Lindemann. Lindemann had a cheese packaging business\u2014cutting, wrapping, waxing\u2014and one day, he decided to make a little cheese spread from the … Okumaya devam et “What Makes Pine River a Leading Maker of Cold Pack?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}