Superior Sources: Yes They Can!

Not CheezWhiz

Remembering my days as a Capitol Hill receptionist,  I had a sudden hankering  for canned cheese. Ugh, right? Ugh indeed, if you’re thinking Cheese Whiz-ish, school-bus-hued squiggles oozing from a can with a spray nozzle. But not that. What I was remembering was creamy, sharp, white aged cheddar, complete with crunchy bits of tyrosine and notes of Parmesan and Gouda.  Cougar Gold cheese is a treasured creation produced for 60 years by Washington State University’s Creamery and its food science students. It’s an ordinary wheel of cheddar, but vacuum packed in a flat can, like tuna but bigger.

Every Christmas back in the 1970s, Senator Henry M “Scoop”Jackson’s office received a few cans from grateful constituents, and I once managed to snag one. Bliss. Nothing in my Kraft-saturated youth had tasted anything like Cougar Gold.

Four decades after those memorable first bites, I worried Cougar Gold might have disappeared. I was delighted to find that the Pullman, Washington campus is cranking out 250,000 cans of cheese a year, now producing it in eight flavors, including Dill Garlic, Sweet Basil, and Crimson Fire – “created on demand for our Hot Pepper lovers who wanted more kick.” Cougar Gold is the overwhelming favorite, accounting for 80 percent of sales.

I ordered an almost two-pound can of the classic flavor for a KD family tasting to enlighten the uninitiated. The first step was to explain why the can.

The Way of Curds

WSU began as an agricultural college in the late 19th century, eventually with its own dairy and creamery that earned it the nickname “Moo U.” They’ve created their own magical strain of bacterial culture that has been nurtured for decades, plus an element that helps keep cans from collecting carbon dioxide. According to WSUs online history page, “In the late 1930s, the Creamery became interested in different ways to store cheese. Cans seemed to be the best option, because plastic was not yet invented and wax cracked (enabling contamination). In the 1940s, the US government and American Can Company funded WSU’s research to find a way to successfully keep the cheese in tins. One of the cheeses resulting from the research was so wonderful that it was dubbed “Cougar Gold®,” after [the school’s cougar mascot and] Dr. N. S. Golding – one of the men involved in this research. Canned Cougar Gold® has been in production ever since.” Apparently the military was interested in the possibilities for canned cheese to feed World War II troops, but the need to refrigerate even the unopened containers scuttled that idea. The cheese is aged for a year before release and, refrigerated, can last forever.

According to Nora Singley on theKitchn blog, the creamery is entirely self-funded, with all revenue going to its operation, student salaries, and research. A portion of the profits goes to provide educational support to university students enrolled in food studies. They make the cheese, market it, and sell it in the campus store.

Winning Silver and Gold

Cougar Gold and its brethren have been hailed for their excellence. In 1993, the American Cheese Society awarded Cougar Gold with a blue ribbon, and in 1995, the cheese earned the United States Cheese Champion silver medal. Cougar Gold later earned a silver medal at the 2000 World Cheese Awards and a gold medal at the 2006 World Cheese Awards.

For the KD family tasting event, Nancy opted for cheese on baguettes and crackers, plus a version of chile con queso that puts the traditional Velveeta/Ro-Tel combo to shame. Moo U hasn’t lost its touch. Cougar is still gold.