Copper Kettle Parmesan

Cello’s Copper Kettle Parmesan pays homage to its Italian namesake while fully embodying the northern Wisconsin landscape it calls home. Made exclusively from local milk in copper vats imported from Switzerland and aged 16 months, this cheese swept its category at the 2023 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest.

Cheesemakers have touted copper for 2,000 years as the material of choice for its versatility and conductivity. Copper heats quickly and evenly but also imparts trace minerals to each batch as it is made, giving cheeses like Parmesan their distinctive texture and flavour notes.

Born and raised in the French Alps, Cello’s head cheesemaker, Christophe Megevand, has nearly 40 years of experience crafting hard and soft cheeses in Europe and the U.S. After earning a degree in French artisan cheesemaking, he created the first fresh quark in the U.S. By the time Megevand joined Schuman’s team of dedicated cheesemakers in 2011, he was eager to combine his Old World craft with Wisconsin terroir and further the artisan cheese movement underway.

Milk for Copper Kettle Parmesan is sourced exclusively from four hand-picked farms within a 50-mile radius of Lake Country Dairy where this cheese is made. Megevand works closely with the farmers to monitor milk quality and the natural habitat on each farm. The farms also feed nutrient and bacteria-rich whey from the cheesemaking process back to the cows to reduce waste and improve the cheese.

Savory, buttery, and caramel flavour notes of Copper Kettle Parmesan’s firm and crumbly paste are accentuated with the occasional tyrosine crystal.

Try this cheese with roasted peanuts, capicola, al dente linguine, preserved mango, or pan forte. Ideal beverages include a Grenache, Scotch Old Fashioned, or black coffee.