dsm Dish - June 13, 2025

Cheese for the old guys (and anyone else)

By Jane Burns

C.J. Bienert noticed a certain pattern to the customer base coming in to buy aged cheddar at The Cheese Shop of Des Moines.

Old guys.

We’re not talking old-as-Methuselah guys, just, as Bienert put it, dads like him and maybe a little older. So it seemed only natural that as Father’s Day approached, he’d come up with a gift pack that had something to really catch the fancy of those old guys: old cheese.

The Cheese Shop currently stocks one of the most rare and conversation-starting cheeses in the country, 20-year cheddar from Hook’s Cheese in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. It’s the Methuselah of artisanal cheese, and it’s released infrequently. It’s also the centerpiece in shop’s Father’s Day gift box, tucked in with some salami from The Good Butcher, some crackers and a couple of beers.

“I don't know what it is, but old guys love aged cheddar,” Bienert said. “So we thought, well, what better time to get the cheese out there than Father's Day and celebrate all our favorite old guys?”

Now, this is good old cheese, not the stuff that’s been in the back of your fridge since Christmas. The Hook family has been in the cheese business since 1976, based in a facility that was built in 1875 as a hotel’s livery stable and is now on the National Register of Historic Places, so they know a few things about aging cheddars. The Cheese Shop sells their 3-year, 7-year, 10-year and 15-year cheddars, which made news worldwide when it debuted in 2009.

As the blocks of cheddar age in the factory’s cave, the Hooks monitor some of them to see if they’re continuing to develop well enough to coax into old age. The 20-year made its debut in 2015.

There’s a reflective quality to the cheese that makes it a good gift or a food to share with friends and family, Bienert said, much like a fine wine or bourbon. “What were you doing 20 years ago?” he said. “It’s cheese for thoughts.”

It’s also cheese for the taste buds, and a little goes a long way — which is good, since it costs $300 a pound at the shop. It’s got the bite of an aged cheddar, as well as the delicate crunch that comes from tiny crystals that remain after the proteins break down during the aging process.

So while it has the bite and the crunch that fans of old cheddars love so much, the 20-year does something that all of us would like to do in old age: It mellows. If you’re patient enough to let the flavor linger, it gives you the bite but with more creaminess than its younger siblings and ends up almost like a teeny tiny piece of butterscotch. You can ponder all sorts of things to pair with it, Bienert said, but the best thing is, in the immortal words of “Weird Al” Yankovic, just eat it.

“It’s better for just nibbling,” Bienert said. “You don’t want to wolf it down, you really want to savor it.”
He does, however, suggest maybe checking out other Hook’s aged cheddars and comparing them – from the smooth 3-year that will still melt on a burger, on through the 7- and 10-years to see how the flavors and textures evolve.

The Cheese Shop will sell the 20-year cheddar in as small as 1-ounce packages for around $18; the cheese in the dad pack is somewhere between 1.5 and 2 ounces.

Quick Bites

Casey’s reported record profits this fiscal year, thanks in part to strong sales of hot sandwiches, bakery treats and beverages. The convenience store chain added 270 stores and now has more than 9 million rewards members. Read more on the Business Record.

Good News, Darling is bottling summer fun in cocktail form. You can now order “Nasty Cocktails” — fresh, made-to-order, bottled cocktails from Good News recipes — in bulk for your next big event or small party. The to-go-style cocktails are batched up into single-serve jars or 750ml bottles. Orders open soon, and will continue weekly with pickup at 717 Locust Ave. Check out the first menu on the Good News Instagram.

Practical Farmers of Iowa is hosting a full crop of field days across the state this season for skilled farmers or beginners to learn more about growing on the land. Some upcoming events in Central Iowa include lessons on cover crops, pollinators, grazing and more straight from local farmers. An RSVP is appreciated, but not required. Find the schedule of upcoming classes online.

Events

Tonight: Sips in the City, Winefest’s signature celebration, uncorks some fun on Friday the 13th with cocktails, a meal, live music and dancing in the Ruan Center lobby, with dazzling views of the downtown lights.

Saturday: The Free Range Music & BBQ Festival at Jasper Winery features rootsy Americana music and a feast provided by Cornbred Barbecue, Farm Boys BBQ, Smokey D's BBQ and Whatcha Smokin?

Saturday: Cajun Fest brings the flavors of the bayou to Iowa, with live music, crawfish and bacon-wrapped gators at The Hall in West Des Moines.

June 21: Tequila in the Gardens offers tequila pairings with a five-course al fresco dinner at the 100-year-old Rollins Mansion.

June 21-22: Choose Iowa Farm Store Crawl is a weekend full of discovery and on-farm retail.

June 24: Tapas in the Garden offers a bite to eat and a scenic stroll at the Wallace Farm in Orient.

That time I cooked for the James Beard stars

By Mary Jane Miller

The James Beard Awards, often called the “Oscars of the food world,” are the most prestigious honors in the culinary world.

This year, Iowa had two contenders: Andy Schumacher of Cobble Hill in Cedar Rapids, a semifinalist for Best Chef in the Midwest, and Simon Goheen’s restaurant Simon’s in Des Moines, a semifinalist for Best Hospitality. Neither advanced to the finals, but the buzz around the annual awards ceremony always reminds me of the time I cooked lunch for a table full of Beard winners.

Back in 2016, when I lived in Minnesota, I got an email from my friend Greg Reynolds of Riverbend Organic Farm. He asked if I’d be willing to cook lunch for a visiting Swedish chef and a few other guests using his farm’s produce. I said yes before I knew who was coming.

The next day, he sent the list: Magnus Nilsson — chef of the world-renowned Fäviken Magasinet in Sweden — plus the restaurateurs Paul Berglund, Gavin Kaysen, John Krattenmaker and cookbook writer Amy Thielen. Collectively, they’d won no fewer than eight James Beard Awards. No pressure, right?

I reminded myself that in moments like this, it’s best to cook what I know: simple food made from well-raised ingredients. Greg had hull-less oats, cornmeal, fresh lettuce, some veggies in the root cellar and plenty of eggs. A friend delivered fresh crappie fillets. I found oyster mushrooms on a hike in the woods and carried them home in my husband’s hat. I had rhubarb and herbs in the garden. So the menu came together:

Rhubarb cocktail
Cornmeal-fried crappies
Hushpuppies with sorrel-horseradish tartar sauce
Oat salad with bacon dressing and wild oyster mushrooms
Mixed greens with roasted root vegetables and cider vinaigrette
Deviled eggs with pickled milkweed buds
Sourdough bread, local butter and homemade plum jam
Buttermilk custard cornmeal cake with poached rhubarb and toasted hazelnuts

The night before, I barely slept. Were the potatoes too dry? Too much mustard in the eggs? Would the cake be done in the middle?

The morning of, I discovered the lettuce had frozen in my fridge. I left Greg a panicked message — thankfully, he had more.

I got to the farm early. The table was so pretty with flowers from the garden, and we left the front door open, so the scent of lilacs drifted inside. Paul Berglund surprised me by sending two chefs from his Minneapolis restaurant to pitch in, and they could not have been sweeter or more helpful. One even asked for my hushpuppy recipe.

Paul himself arrived an hour early with Magnus. I was sautéing mushrooms when the young Swedish chef leaned against the wall in jeans and sneakers, his famous hair tousled. I offered him a taste. “Good butter, great mushrooms, and a little salt,” he said with only the faintest accent. “Nothing better.”

They toured the farm while we prepped. The deviled eggs were bright yellow, the fish fillets delicate and sweet, the hushpuppies perfectly golden. We brought the food to the table and joined the meal. The conversation flowed easily from fishing to farming to even maypole dancing.

We ended with dessert, more chatter and then, like any Midwest gathering, lingered in the driveway before heading out.

It was a joyful day celebrating great company and good food made with ingredients that were grown and gathered right where we live. Magnus closed Fäviken Magasinet in 2019 and now leads the Food Planet Prize, which annually awards $2 million to bold food-system innovators.

And me? I still believe in cooking simply and cooking with care. Especially when the hushpuppies are hot and the mushrooms are just right.

Did you see those Pizza Ranch banners flying outside several downtown hotels? There they were, right outside the Comfort Inn, Hilton Downtown, Hotel Savery and Embassy Suites. Initially, we wondered if the hotels were now serving pizza from the chain that started in 1981 in Hull, up in northwest Iowa. Turns out, the hotels were co-hosting this week's Pizza Ranch National Conference, where the four-day agenda included "Ranch Talks" with company leaders and a full buffet of breakout sessions such as "Cleanliness is an Attitude" and "The Slice is Right: Cutting Into Your Labor Waste." The company now oversees more than 200 restaurants across the Midwest.