valentine's day is for

(chocolate) lovers
Starting this month, we're featuring a handful of our newest,
most delectable chocolate finds from around the country, across
the globe, and right next door. They range from inventive truffles
made by the coolest new chocolatier tearing up the chocolate
scene in Detroit, to gorgeous French milk chocolate "sardines"
nestled in a handsome tin, to jalepeno dusted chocolate covered
corn nuts. When the chocolates sell out, that's it, they're gone.
Check 'em out quick.

Online at zingermans.com starting January 15

THE NEXT LITTLE BLUE BOX UNPARALLELED

QUALITY
Chocolate in Chelsea

ITALY'S INTENSE ICE CREAM

BonBonBon Bon Bons

Its hard not to gush about Detroit's coolest new chocolatiers, BonBonBon. In one short year BonBonBon has
gone from a little kitchen to three retail stores and loads
of praise from across the food and design world. Inside
the quirky yet elegantly simple packaging are four orange boxes holding the bon bons. Each box is labeled for
its flavors: #19 Mac & Cheese, #14 Black Truffle, #41 Whiskey Lullabye and #94 Pa Nang. Each bon bon is a thin
chocolate cup holding the different fillings of ganache
that live up to the intrigue and creativity of their names.
Any choco-phile on your list will lose their bon bons if
you sent them these.

Weve never offered a "normal" box of Valentine's chocolates and in spite

of appearances I'm going to say the streak is still alive, this box of pralines and caramels being, in my book, anything but normal. Made by hand
here in Ann Arbor by Cathy Selin, a transplant from New York City. Cathy
does everything herself with painstaking detail. Her ganache alone takes
four days to create, compared to the usual four hours. Each box includes
almond pralines and burnt sugar caramels, fifteen pieces in total. Nestled
in a handsome box, tied with a ribbon, its a classic gift for any chocolate
lover. Aside from the Plaza and Ritz Carlton hotels, Zingermans is the only
place you can find Cathys chocolates and we don't even have turn down
service so take that, New York. Limited quantities.

februaRy is dEclARED

CHOCOLATE GELATO MONTH

DARK CHOCOLATE

ROCKY RIDE

Dark Scharffen Berger

cocoa makes this an intense
chocolate experience. Voted
Best Gelato in Michigan by
Detroits Metro Times!

Another standard made

better with better ingredients. Our version is made
with Scharffen Berger cocoa,
vanilla and chocolate marshmallows from Zingermans
Candy Manufactory, and our
own butter-roasted Virginia
peanuts.

GIANDUJA
A rich blend of dark chocolate and hazelnutthis is an
Italian classic!

TURTLE
Our version of the classic
melds Scharffen Berger
cocoa with dulce de leche
from Argentina and great
Georgia pecans butterroasted by us!

CHOCOLATE BALSAMIC
STRAWBERRY
Michigan strawberries
macerated in a balsamic
reduction and folded
throughout our
award-winning dark
chocolate gelato

Zingermans Creamery Gelato

Thick, creamy, elegant, luscious. Eating gelato

is an event, a special occasion that borders on
a religious experience for ice cream connoisseurs. At Zingermans Creamery, our gelato
makers mix fresh milk from Calder Dairyone
of the last farmstead dairies in Michigan
with organic Demerara sugar and an array
of other good ingredients to churn out this
Italian-style ice cream with direct, intense flavors. We fly it overnight anywhere in America.

hot chocolate menu

ZINGERMAN'S COCOA

CHOCOLATE HEAT
Inspired by the fantastic
chocolate of Mexico, this is
our dark chocolate gelato
with ancho chiles,
cinnamon, pepper, and just
enough cayenne pepper to
make it interesting.

CHERRY CHOCOLATE CHIP

SORBET
Joshs famous handmade
chocolate chips folded in a
sorbet made from sweet
and tart cherries from
Traverse City.

SHIP IT COAST TO COAST AT ZINGERMANS.COM

$3.25/short, $4.00/tall
Our classic hot cocoa made with our
housemade chocolate syrup featuring
Scharffen Berger cocoa powder and
topped with your choice of whipped
cream or a marshmallow handmade by
Zingerman's Candy Manufactory.

CHOCOLAT MODERNE MAYAN EYES

$3.75
Silky smooth potion of dark chocolate,
spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, chipotle
& ancho chiles.

MINDO HOT COCOA

$4.00
Rich, fruity ecuadorian cocoa made
with cocoa powder pressed in Dexter,
Michigan.

SPANISH DRINKING CHOCOLATE

$3.50
A demitasse of super thick dark chocolate from Enric Rovira in Barcelona that
demands to be enjoyed with a spoon!

MEXICAN HOT CHOCOLATE

$3.50
Cinnamon spiced Oaxacan chocolate
chopped & steamed with water. Foamy &
aromatic. Contains almonds.

CHOCOLAT MODERNE KAMA SUTRA

$3.75
A sultry blend of velvety dark chocolate,
coconut, cardamom, and clove.

CUSTOM BOX OF CHOCOLATES!

Make your valentine swoon with a loving assortment of chocolates. Our truffle case
is a treasure trove of hand-made confections. Visit us in the Next Door to peruse our
selection and craft your sweet heart's dream box of chocolates!

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

I met Glenn Roberts, the man behind Anson Mills, early on in my foray into Southern food and cooking. Like us, hes been a huge supporter of Southern Foodways. Our connection came specifically through my study of grits. In my effort to find good ones, I called
John T. Edge, who suggested I check out Glenns product. Fifteen years later hes still one of the people who inspires me almost
every day with the quality and care of his work, the benefits of which Iand youcan taste any time we want just by driving
over to the Deli or the Roadhouse. Or, if youre like me, you can appreciate his work in your kitchen at home toojust set aside
some time to cook up some of the seriously delicious things we buy from him. What we buy from Glenn has redefined the
category for me. Amazing grains, with histories so long they make the Daughters of the Ameican Revolution look like recent
invaders (which, by the way, when you start American history from a Native perspective, they actually are.), these traditional
full flavored foods, heirloom varieties of grits, rice, wheat, field peas, and now, Glenns most recent revelation16th century sesame seeds that trace their roots back to West Africa.
The man himself is much harder to categorize than his products. His two decades of work starting and developing Anson
Mills are more than enough to make a mark in the world. Based on what he does today I dont think anyone would guess
even a fraction of Glenns varied background. He grew up in San Diego. Studied music and science in Chapel Hill. Flew jets
in the Air Force, ran restaurants, rode dressage horses, drove semi-trailers and, it seems, about a dozen and a half other
things. Hes more high energy than almost anyone I met. Ive learned so much from him about grits and other Southern
grains, as well as science and culture, that when I hear him talk I feel like I know only slightly more than nothing. If you
want to know what kind of corn was being grown in the winters in Western Tennessee in the 18th century, or how much rice
could be pounded on an autumn afternoon on a farm 85 miles east of Charleston, hes pretty surely the guy to go to. On top
of all that, hes exceptionally kind and extremely generous. He actively supports Southern Foodways, shares experience with
people others would close out as competitors, works nearly non-stop to see his mission accomplished. And oh yeah, he gives
away tons of seed that he worksat great costto grow.
All that aside, what makes Glenns work so meaningful here is how incredibly good it actually tastes. Flavor makes this far
more than an academic exercise in culinary anthropology. You cant, after all, eat good intentions or powerpoint presentations.
Literally, every single one of the two dozen grains Ive tried from Glenns ever longer list is terrfic. And I dont say that lightly. If
youre interested in traditional full-flavored corn, old school rice varieties, 17th century field peas or that sort of thingand I totally
amany product from Anson Mills will probably make your day. Its special stuff in every sense of the word.

TRUE GRITS
I originally got going on grits at a conference on American
food in Washgington D.C., oh, about twenty years or so ago.
I went to a breakout session to hear John Taylor, one of the
more passionate speakers and writers I know on the subject
of South Carolina and its native cuisine. (Hes actually incorporated South Carolina coastal culture into his namehe goes by
Hoppin John.) As always, John gave an engaging talk on the
state of authentic Southern food, including a section on grits.
With a look to both personal and social history, he related the
sad decline of old-style grits in the second half of the 20th century. How pretty much everyone in the South at that point had
kind of compromised their way down to using instant or quick
cooking grits: These commercial grits don't have any integrity, he spat out in his South Carolina accent. They're terrible. But, he went on, as part of his fight against the erosion of
the kind of high quality food he'd grown up with, he'd gone out
and gotten a small mill to grind good grits to his specs.
When I got back to Ann Arbor from the conference, I picked
up the phone and ordered a few bags of Johns old school
grits. Two weeks later they arrived. Curious, I poured them
out to inspect them. They were coarsely cut bits of dried white
corn, maybe a millimeter across, with tiny dark dots at the
end of most of the grains. The color surprised me since I'd
always imagined corn as the yellow color Id grown up with
in Chicago. I cooked them up that night, following the recipe
on the bag. Mix with water, bring to a boil, stir off and on for
an hour, then serve 'em with a knob of soft butter and plenty
of salt and pepper on top. If youve never had em, imagine
a bowl of wonderful, snow white cooked corn porridge, liberally laced with tiny brown specs of bran and germ, a small
bit of golden butter melted over top, sprinkled with sea salt
and coarse ground black pepper. I think I served them on the
side of some broiled fish. They were great! Despite my limited
understanding of Southern cooking, I was clearly hooked.
I was so psyched about discovering this great new product
that I couldn't wait to bring it to the Deli to sell and serve.
So I dug up Johns phone number and dialed him up in South
Carolina. Told him how much Id enjoyed both his talk and his
grits (though I don't think I had the guts to tell him it was the
first time I'd eaten them). Went on to explain that I wanted to
order them in quantity to sell in our shop up in Michigan. Now,
having made similar phone calls a few thousand times over
the years, I can tell you that most folks are excited when they

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

hear that. Peopleespecially small producers like Johnwant

to get their products into Zingerman's. So I expected at least
a somewhat enthusiastic response. But instead of affection, I
got rejection.
Sorry, he said sympathetically, but I just cant get enough of
the grits to wholesale 'em.
Caught off guard, I managed to keep the conversation going.
Well, I wondered, where else do you think I can find grits
like these?" I figured hed be good for at least a few names. I
don't know, he answered assertively. You just have to find
some mill that grinds good corn with stone, and get them to
mill 'em like these. It shouldn't be that hard.
When I got off the phone, I was pretty confident Id be able to
find myself some comparably good grits without a whole lot of
trouble. Today you can just walk into the Roadhouse or Deli
and order a bowl of Anson Mills grits and experience something exceptionally delicious simply for the asking. But back
then, good grits were really hard to find. Northerners I talked
to hardly had a clue what grits were, let alone the knowledge
to steer me to some good ones. And most every Southerner I
spoke with was sure I ought to be able to find good grits, but
unfortunately not a single one of them could tell me exactly
where.
The more phone calls I made, the more frustrated I got. I did
gather a few leads, got some samples sent up. When each bag
of grits arrived, Id eagerly head for the kitchen and cook em
up. But time and again, I found myself let down on all counts.
Neither the flavor nor the texture was even close to what Id
gotten from John Taylor. I started to worry that I'd imagined it
all; maybe it was one of those "nothing can ever match your
first love" things; that maybe I'd elevated those grits to godlike status, never to be equaled by some mere mortally-milled
corn. In retrospect, having those first grits as my introduction
to grit-eating was a little like winning the NBA championship
in your first year of professional sports; you start at the top
and everything else kind of pales in comparison. In fact, this
exact experience is what happens to so many customers who
come in here and have the first girts of their lives. They think
that the amazing offerings we cook up from Anson Mills are
basically what theyll get anywhere else when they order grits.
That would be totally wrong.

WHAT ARE GRITS?

Technically, grits are just dried corn thats been ground, cooked
in water (or sometimes in milk) to make a smooth,creamy porridge. You can get grits that are coarsely milledthe more traditional form, often called country gritsor they may be a
more finely textured, rather gentrified grind. In a loose sense
you could say that grits are to corn what oatmeal is to oats. But
please understand theres a lot more to grits than just ground
corn. In doing my grit-search I've discovered what every
Southerner already knew; grits are an integral part of everyday Southern eating. Literally, almost every American raised
somewhere in the South grew up, in one form or another, with
grits. And everybody who grew up with them has an opinion
about how to cook and eat them.
Although they would have been called by other names, a porridge somewhat akin to what we now know as grits was probably a staple food in North America long before the arrival
of Europeans. Corn, the single most important crop of Native
American tribes, was driedgenerally still in the fieldafter
the late summer harvest for year-round use. In the eastern
part of North America, tribes used hardwood ashes to make
lye in which they basically cooked the dried corn to make
what we now call hominy. (If you really get into this youll
find that different tribes used different wood varieties for the
ash which Im sure altered the flavor some. According to Betty
Fussell in The Story of Corn, the Creek and Seminole tribes
used hickory ash, the Navajo preferred juniper, the Hopi like
to use what was called 'four-winged saltbush.) The ash was
added to boiling water the dried corn was added and then
boiled until it swelled up and the skin could be slipped off easily. The corn was then drained and washed under water until
all hulls came off.
The commonly heard name hominy, as in hominy grits, is of
Algonquin origin, either from rockahominy, meaning, "hulled
corn," or from tackhummin, which refers to "grinding." The
word "grits," though, is actually not indigenous. More likely its
linked to the old English grytt meaning "bran," or greot meaning "ground." An interesting historical aside is that because
corn had arrived in Africa via the slave trade, many Africans
brought to North America as slaves arrived with a pre-existing
taste for corn meal in their regular diet. In fact there are those
who feel strongly that the European American tradition of
cooking ground, dried corn came via enslaved Africans, not
from Native Americans. Over the centuries many Americans

came to know grits as "grist," a name that comes from grain

having been milled in an old time "grist" mill. In South Carolina
hominy grist (not grits) is standard usage.

WHERE DID ALL THE GOOD

GRITS GO
I called John Taylor back to get to the bottom of this thing.
What happened, he said, was that after the war all these
big companies like Quaker and so forth saw that there was a
big market for grits because Southerners were living all over
the country and couldnt get them anymore. So the big manufacturers started making grits. But those commercial grits are
horrible. Theyre flavorless! But what happened is that that
commercial stuff is what became grits. A lot of people just
stopped eating them because they were so bad. But, in the process, they put a lot of the little mills out of business. From
there, what weve ended up with is mostly a mirage; sweet
Southern memories of what grits used to mean to family meals.
And what were lacking is the stuff of which those memories
were madethe farmers willing to grow the old, more flavorful
varieties of corn, the small mills and the skilled millers who are
committed to turning that corn into really good grits.
In the modern context, good grits seem to have been almost
unknown to most Southerners other than a select few who
happened to live near one of the few small remaining traditional mills. Hardly anyone born in the second half of the 20th
century seems to have grown up on anything other than the
factory-made, store-bought stuff. Check out most any Southern
store and there's plenty of grits but they're almost all the
bland, pasty, instant grits that come in cardboard Quaker Oats
containers.

COOKING GRITS
A) Ratios; Thoughts on Appropriate
Levels of Liquidity
Nearly every Southerner who gives a grit seems to have at
least one strong opinion (if not two or three) on the best way
to prepare them. The first bone of contention is the ratio of
water to dry grits you should use. I figured that Id get a good
sense of the proper proportions by reading instructions on the
backs of all the bags of grits Id collected. Unfortunately, just
about every mill offers a different ratio. A lot suggest 4 cups
liquid to 1 cup of grits. But others say 3 to 1, and others still
start out at 5 to 1. Obviously the lower the proportion of water
you put in the pot, the less liquid the grits will be when theyre
done. Conversely, more water means runnier grits. Ultimately
its your call. Me, Ive settled on about 4 to 1. But remember,
good grits are a perishable agricultural products: different
mills make different grits and a given batch from a given mill
may cook up quite a bit differently than the previous pot.

B) The Question of Cooking Liquid

Once youve reached consensus on your ratio, then you have
to figure out what youre going to cook your grits in. Some
people swear by milk, or even heavy cream, as a cooking liquid. The dairy devotees are adamant that their way makes for
a smoother, richer bowl of grits. But theyre in the minority. In
most parts of the South folks seem to start with water. Some
cook mostly with water, then finish their grits with a little
milk or cream. The prominent exception is Charleston, South
Carolina, using milk or cream is the rule. Glenn Roberts relates
this to the close cultural connection between South Carolina
and the Veneto in Italy where they do much of their polenta
cooking in milk as well. The Gullah dialect, spoken by the sea
island people off the Carolina coast refers to a dish of rice and
fresh peas as reezy peezy which sounds an awful lot like the
similar, traditional Venetian rice dish, risi e bisi. This is likely
because Italian engineers were brought to South Carolina
around 1700 to try to create the Italian canal method of irrigating the rice fields, and the theory is that African American
cooks were much influenced by contact with them since the
Italians spent most of their time out in the fields, not in the
manor houses.

Personally I prefer water because I think it better shows off

the flavor of the corn. Either is fine, of courseits really
just a matter of preference. Try it for yourself and enjoy the
experiments.

many variations on the theme. One of our Deli regulars grew

up in Texas and his standard order is a bowl of Anson Mills grits
topped with grated cheddar and New Mexico green chiles. Hes
got it down. Its delicious!

C) Better with Butter

Shrimp and Grits

I dont know why it is, but to me grits are always better when
you cook them with butter in the pot. Its strange because I
dont like butter added up front to Italian polenta dishes.
Maybe its all mental. But for grits cooking, Im pretty adamant
that putting a nice sized knob of butter in right off the bat,
along with pepper and salt will get you a better tasting batch
of grits.

This is a classic combination thats cooked in different ways in

various parts of the South. If youve done all the work to get
great grits going and youre going to make shrimp and grits, its
essential that you pair them with the right shrimp. In the same
way that a lot of flavor fanatics have given up those tasteless
off-season tomatoes, Id suggest we make a similar decision
to swear off those out of season frozen shrimp. Its really a
seasonal dish. We serve it fairly regularly at the Roadhouse
made with fresh Gulf shrimp its most defintely very delicious.

D) A Heavy Pot
Because they take so long to cook, its important to do your grit
cooking in a heavy bottomed pot. Thats the only way I know
to prevent your grits from burning if you step away for a few
moments.

E) Long slow cooking

To get my grits going, I bring 4 cups of cold water to a boil. I
drop in a teaspoon or so of sea salt, and a nicely sized button
of butter, and stir for a minute or two to melt the butter. Then
I pour in a cup of grits and give it a good stir. After the waters
come to a rapid boil, I let the water keep boiling rapidly, stirring the grits all the while, until the mixture begins to thicken
(about 3-5 minutes). , really. From there I reduce the heat to low
and start slow simmering. Thats about as tough as grit cooking
gets. The rest is just time and stirring. Glenn is adamant about
using low temperatures and gentle stirring so that you release
the flavors and creaminess of the grits. At the recommendation
of my North Carolina born friend Lex, I cover the grits while
theyre cooking. It seems to yield a slightly creamier result, and
keeps the grits from drying out. As they cook you have to still
stir occasionally to keep things from sticking. If your grits get
too thick while they're simmering, just add a bit more water
and keep on stirring. Its important to stir enough to keep the
smooth texture. For the quick cooking its 30-60 minutes at low
temperature. For the cornmeal about 1-2 hours.

WHAT TO SERVE WITH

YOUR GRITS
The BasicsButter, Salt and Pepper
Although there are a million ways to serve grits most people
in the South seem to eat 'em most often with little more than
butter, salt and pepper. The simplicity is part of what's so
great about grits. Ultimately, theyre basic, simple to prepare
food that just plain tastes good. G.W. Featherstonhaugh, an
Englishman traveling in the South in 1837, left us this memory:
Our breakfast was admirable, excellent coffee with delicious
cream, and that capital, national dish of South Carolina, snowwhite hominy (grits) brought hot to table like maccaroni (sic),
which ought always to be eaten, with lumps of sweet fresh butter buried in it! This is certainly one of the best things imaginable to begin the day liberally with. The butter, by the way,
makes a big difference. You dont just add it to the cooking liquid. You put it on the grits when you serve em. I've tried using
olive oil insteadhonestly its delicious too.
Sea salt should be added during the cooking so that it incorporates effectively into the grits. But you can add a bit more if
needed at the end. I do like a lot of freshly ground black pepper on my grits, but then, I like a lot of black pepper on most
everything.

Grillades and Grits

In Louisiana it's pronounced "Gree-yad." Lean meat fried, and
then simmered for about an hour in a sauce of sauted onion,
celery, bell pepper and tomato until tender, then served over
hot, buttered grits. Grillades and grits been the Sunday Blue
Plate special the Roadhouse almost since we opened. Great
way to start, or finish, your Sunday.

Grits and Gravy

Another standard way to serve grits is with red-eye gravy.
Deborah Bayer, who does editing for us, grew up in Tennessee
and this was standard fare. While her mother gave up the daily
grits routine in an effort to get a bit of distance between herself and her past, her "grandmother and aunts made 'em all the
time. We ate 'em with red-eye gravy. There was always ham
around, so red-eye gravy was the big thing in my house."
Red-eye gravy starts with pan drippings from fried ham, as a
base for what the French would fancifully refer to as "deglazing." Depending on who you talk to the drippings are enhanced
by simmering with water, with stock or in more often than
not, by black coffee. (Yes, you read that right, black coffee.)
Deborah's family cooked strictly with coffee. If you want, you
can add cream at the end, and then you get "Red-Eye Cream."
Either way, you serve it over fried ham, with your grits on the
side.
Theres also Nassau grits which John T. Edge turned me on to
years ago. Bacon, onion and tomato made into a gravy to mix
into your grits. Very good!

Leftover Grits
As long as you're going to such lengths to cook good grits, I'll
tell you up front that it's worth cooking more than you need;
there's a whole range of recipes based on the leftovers that are
worth exploring. For starters, yesterdays grits can be fried up
in slices like polenta. My friend Melanie told me, "You put your
extra grits in a glass. And then when they're cool you can slide
'em out and slice 'em and fry 'em up for a side dish." You can
toss the slices in egg wash and then in cornmeal before you fry
them. Serve 'em with a bit more butter on top. Leftovers can
also be made into what Southerners refer to as Owendaw or
Awendaw bread, by blending the leftover grits with uncooked
grits, eggs, milk, butter, salt and pepper and then baking in
a hot skillet. Somebody else told me that they made griddle
cakes out of a batter of cooked grits, cornmeal, eggs, milk and
butter, and ate them hot topped off with a bit more butter and
molasses. At the Roadhouse we serve slices of grilled grits,
topped off with sauteed onions, corn and chiles.

Cheese Grits
Cheese grits are pretty standard stuff in the South. All you need
is a good sharp cheddar and some good grits. When the grits
are just about done, grate in a good dose of the cheese. Finish
with the usual butter, salt and pepper. I like them prepared
simply like this but there are, of course, a thousand other versions as well. Author and food historian John T. Edge mentions
that a more rarefied version of the dish adds beaten eggs and
calls for finishing the dish off in the oven. There are of course

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

Glenn Roberts and Anson Mills were the perfect solution to

my grit-search. Thanks to John T. Edges introduction, Glenn
and I connected. Samples were sent, grits were made, orders
got placed and the rest is history. We started with Anson Mills
grits as a signature side dish at the Roadhouse, added them to
the breakfast menu at the Deli and then to brunch and breakfast at the Roadhouse as well. Carolina Gold Rice soon followed suit. And from there all of the other grains, beans, and
rices below as well. Im pretty confident, knowing Glenn, that
there are many more good things still to come. In trying to
translate what it is that makes all the Anson Mills products so
special, here seven things that really stand out. Its not a recipe for getting rich quickly, but its very clearly a path to making something really special happen, something that will have
a long lasting positive impact on the people and the places of
which its a part. The world of American agriculture is a betterand better tastingplace because of Glenns great work.
Im thankful for it every day, especially when I taste one of his
products. Fortunately for me, that a pretty easy thing to do.

As with so much of what I appreciate about our own work

here at Zingermans, what Glenn does is a fantastic blend of
down and dirty work in the fields interespersed with a lot of
intensive academic and scientific study. He combines talking
to farmers with reading three hundred year old textbooks and
sharing learning with scientists who study seeds and soil for
a living. He also says he learned a lot from bootleggers. Since
they work in as much isolation as possible theyre often still
using corn varieties that were once grownand then made
into whiskeyfor which seed has been hand selected by their
family for generations. You cant, after all, make good moonshine from Monsanto corn.
Glenns original search started in 1995he explored rural back
roads looking for the old Carolina white corn. He remembered
his mother eating grits all the time when he was a kid. He knew
it had to be out there and he had a sense of its flavor: high
mineral and floral characteristics and its creamy mouthfeel.
Near Dillon, SC he found the now famous bootleggers field
where he found the corn that is now the basis of all the great
Anson Mills grits we get. Its called Carolina Gourdseed White.
It dates back to the 1600s. Today Glenn works with scientists
and farmersin fact connecting the two in this way is one of
the big pieces of his creative genius.
At this point Glenn has a couple of dozen corn varieties being
grown. Otto file for the polenta. Leaming, Henry Moore,
Jarvis, Pencil Cob, Hickory King Yellow, John Haulk blend for
Antebellum Fine and Coarse Cornmeals. Glenn related that,
All, except the Leaming are of Carolina or Georgia provenance; Leaming is one of the three yellow corns used in the
first hybrid production trials before 1900.
Like I said, the man takes his cornmeal very seriously.

Of course, getting the seed straight is only the start. The soil
has to be as well kept as the seed varieties. One big piece of
making that happen is staying away from industrial pesticidesall the Anson growers are certified organic. But good
farming is more than just an absence of artificial additives.
Theres a big piece of diversity thats gone missing during the
course of the 20th century.
What Glenn is working on is to get farmers to grow multiple
species in the same field at the same time. What theyre finding is fascinatingpolycropping of this sort is resulting in better soil health, better overall yields, a longer (hence easier to
manage, if still never easy) harvest cycle. And, interestingly,
better flavor. The root systems influence each other, Glenn
told me. What happens underground is changing the flavor
of the plants that appear above the soil. Weve completely
lost this with modern monocropping. This is a huge insight, a
return to the old ways thats delivering new levels of flavor to
21st century consumers. It means that even a whole field of a
single heirloom seed variety will pretty certainly not taste as
good as that same seed variety grown in a field intermingled
with half a dozen different crops. This behind the scenesor
more accurately, undergroundfield work is contributing
considerably to the flavor of Anson Mills products.
The result of all this work is a sustainability in the truest sense
of the word. Its not just about being environmentally neutral.
Causing no harm is nice. But this is about adding value, not just
for the financial statements, but for everyone and everything
element of the equation. People, products, soil, flavor, history,
culture, education. And eating.

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

In the old days milling was done locally, and done with freshly
harvested or naturally dried and stored intact grains. Corn
ground for gritsalthough dried in the fieldwas still alive
and could still be used as seed corn because its enzymes were
still intact. It was, as a result, also much, much more flavorful. By contrast, modern commercial milling now kills the corn
completely. Corn is steamed to get the hulls off, germ (the oil)
is totally taken out (and in the process most all of the flavor),
then its milled at ambient temperature with steel roller mills
and then packed and set into the distribution chain for a few
years before being cooked up to the rather tasteless paste
that most people nowadays associate with grits. The difference between the old, living, new crop grits and industrial
offerings is night and day. The name is the same but the two
taste totally different.
One way that Glenn has been able to make this work so well is
by working with geographical diversity in farming. By having
farmers growing from the northern parts of the continent all
the way to the southernmost, harvests are spread throughout
most of the year. If each farm has two to three crops to harvest per year that spreads the availabilty through a significant
part of the calendar. That work is enhanced through the use
of a technology that wasnt available to Native growersthe
freezer. Grains can be stored after harvest in deep frozen
state protecting their natural oils. All of which allows Anson
Mills to leave the grains natural germ intact, radically enhancing the flavor. Most commercial milled corn or rice has the
germ removed, which extends shelf life, allows the producer
to sell the oil as a byproduct, and makes the grits and rice
shelf stable, but diminishes flavor drastically. As a result, good
grits and good rice (like these) are a fresh productwe ship
and store them refrigerated. If they were to sit at room temperature the way industrial products do theyd probably be
rancid in a matter of days. Instead theyre alive and so much
more flavorful!

At one time small, local milling was the norm in the American
South. Dan Barber writes that, In 1840 there was one mill for
every 700 Americans. In 1800 there were 40 mills per county
in the Carolinas alone. Today there are maybe a dozen mills
doing anything resembling old-style grits milling in the whole
country.
A big part of what makes Anson Mills products so exceptional is the cold milling process that Glenn uses. Everything
is designed to keep temperatures down and in the process
protect the flavor of the corn (or the rice). First of all the
dried corn is taken down to -10F before the milling begins.
Second the entire mill room and the stones are kept at 55F.
That means that the corn during the milling stays very cool
never gets above 58F. By contrast mass market milling basically cooks the corn during the milling, killing all the live
enzymes and most of the flavor (it does however sit well on
the shelf for years). Anson Mills pumps carbon dioxide into
the mill in order to keep oxygen off of the corn, preventing
oxidation and protecting flavor (this is much the same as is
done with wine by using nitrogen).
Ansons grits are milled very coarse by modern standards,
then sifted into four different sized particles (aka fractions).
The different particle sizes are then blended to get the right
ratio of coarseness and fineness that creates a great eating
experience.

'
Its frightening to find out how much biodiversity has been
lost in the last century. Glenn is single handedly doing his
best to reverse that flow, at least in the world of North
American grains. So when we buy a product from Anson
Mills,a good part of what were paying for is protection for
posteritythe insurance that your children and grandchildren will be able to eat and enjoy the same great flavors
we can today, and that the ecosystem will benefit from that
diversity in the process. One way that Glenn does that is to
require that they always have on hand enough of any given
seed variety for four seasons. That may sound like a lot until
Glenn explained to me that that really means four plantings. And that in years like this last one where weather can
take out two or three crops in a single summer, replantings
follow immediatelyfarmers need to live. Which means
that three quarters of the seedstock was used up in a single
summer.

As Glenn explains:. "Because of catastrophic weather this

yearwe wiped out almost all of our 3-year reserve seed for
replanting flooded fields... so this year, we have to rebuild
the reserve and extend the reserve simultaneously... most of
the seed is between .80 and $5 per pound. For some of the
rare, newer, old stuff, the cost is up into the $10,000/lb while
were in recovery, conservancy and bulk up costs before we
increase to give all away no cost. We don't sell seed"
A couple other things that play into this. The farms that grow
a particular variety are spread around the countryin case of
weather or other disaster (pest, drought, fire, etc.) the seed
will be protected. Farms that Anson Mills buys from must all
be organic. Those growing cornwith is particularly susceptible to undesired genetic intrusion by other breeds, must
have several miles and two wind breaks between an Anson
field and any other. To encourage farmers to grow these more
challenging old varieties, Anson Mills will actually give them a
free batch of seed.

The prices for most corn products on the grocer's shelf are
low but so is flavor; the farmer, nutrition, and biodiversity are
all poorer for their work. What Glenn is working to do is the
oppositea system that generates health at every level. We
pay far more for the product itself but if you take the ecosystem and posterity into account were probably getting quite
a bargain. Heirloom varieties of the sort Anson Mills works
with generally yield about 1/4 to 1/3 of what commercial corn
will. Glenn explained that, between yield and risk of loss in
the field, the cost of producing these corns is about 4 to 12
times what it costs to produce commercial corn for grinding!
And remember thats only the cost of growing. We havent
even added costs for milling or for storing and shipping under
refrigeration the whole time.
The low-cost commercial model has contributed to the
impoverishment of small farmers, soil and spirit. The work
of Anson Mills is to reverse the flow. As Wendell Berry says,
we must learn to replace that standard with one that is
more comprehensive: the standard of nature. 'Sustainable
agriculture,"Berry writes, refers to a way of farming that can
be continued indefinitely because it conforms to the terms
imposed upon it by the nature of places and the nature of people. Whether its with mindset, money or milling, pretty much
everything Anson Mills does is the opposite of what mass market millers are doingstart with that standard of nature and
then work out from there in order to make what we want to
eat viable for the farmers and for the ages.
Doing all this right means higher cost. Theres just no way
around it. Lower yields. Cultural and agricultural restoration
work. Making sure to have sufficient seed for bio-safety. Fresh
crop milling. Germ left in. Handling and shipping in frozen or
refrigerated state. It all adds up to higher costs. We tell chefs
that this stuff is frighteningly expensive, Glenn says. Chefs
have to understand the cost of conservancy and research. But
even at ten times the normal cost, were offering them more
than just great-tasting rice and corn meal. Were sharing palate memory from antiquity.

At the end of the day if all of what Anson Mills was offering didnt taste really great, it would all just be a nice nonprofit project about seed preservation. But the reality is that
every single Anson Mills product Ive ever tasted is fantastic.
Delicious. Outstanding. Seriously, exceptionally good. Rodger
Bowser chef and co-managing partner at the Deli, has been
cooking here for twenty years. Hes tasted a lot! He said,
Anson Mills is one of those vendors that has products that
make you rethink or retry ingredients (as if) for the first time.
Most every chef you talk towhether its in the south or in San
Franciscowill say the same thing. When you buy Anson Mills
you know what youre gettingyoure paying a lot, but youre
buying some of the best, most carefully produced and most
flavorful grain products youll ever eat. This is all about changing our image of what cornmeal is aboutits not just something to provide texture or starch upon which other flavors
can be layered. It is, itself, the star of the culinary show. In
the New York Times a few years ago Glenn framed it it this way:
"Great corn is like great wine. I agree wholeheartedly.

CAROLINA GOLD RICE

Having been selling this great rice for the last ten years I
think that most everyone in the ZCoB is probably pretty familiar with the name Carolina Gold. But its got a pretty extensive background. Origins in Africa, grown using West African
methods, made into THE crop of South Carolina in the 18th
and 19th centuries; so prestigious it was sold to the royal
courts in London. The last commercial crop of this old, low
yield seed variety came in the late 1920s. For most of the 20th
century Carolina Gold was nothing more than a trademark
owned by a large rice company that didnt even grow Carolina
Gold rice but liked the name.
Seeds were found to restart it in the year 2000. Part of what
makes the Anson Mills offering so amazing is the milling
methodsAnson uses a special mill designed to do this rice
in a way that would emulate the 19th century hand pounding. The hand pounding was done right before the rice was
prepared, assuring an exceptional brightness of flavor. The
process also broke up the grains just a bit, altering the texture and eating experience of the rice in the process. Unlike
commercial rice polishing which takes out the germ and the
bran, the hand pound emulation leaves a bit of the bran
on the rice grains. Leaving the germ in enhances the flavor
enormously. As a result, this Carolina Gold is not enriched
as other American white rices are. (Because the germand
hence the rices natural oilis left in, the rice is a perishable
product and needs to be stored in the freezer or refrigerator.)
If you order any dish with rice on it at the Roadhouse this is
the rice youll get it. It doesnt look a whole lot different than
other white rice but its meatier, nuttier, satisfyingly complex.
At home you can do pretty much anything with this rice but
I lean towards just cooking it as simply as possible, which is
to make what was once known as Charleston Ice Cream.
Simply cooked rice served in a nice mounded white ice
cream scoop with a generous knob of soft butter set atop it
to melt dreamily down the sides.
To cook this rice, wash a cup of it in cold water three times.
Bring 2 cups of lightly salted water to a boil, add the rice, stir,
cover, reduce heat to low and cook for 13-15 minutes. Turn
off heat and let stand covered for another 13-15 minutes. Fluff
with a forkyoure not supposed to break the rice grains so
be gentleand serve in a scoop (so it looks like ice cream)
immediately with really good butter, preferably one of the
traditional ones we sell like the Vermont cultured butter

SOUTH CAROLINA RICE GRITS

A subset of the Carolina Gold rice abovethis is basically a

porridge made by long cooking this exceptional heirloom rice
to the texture of what Asian cooks would know as congee.
To make rice grits you just bring a quart and a half of cold
water to the boil. Add some salt and pour in a quarter cup
of washed Carolina Gold rice (a ratio of six to one, water to
rice.) Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, cover and
continue stirring off and on for an hour. Because I've only
made these a few times I can't yet vouch for the details of the
recipe but in about an hour you should have a rice porridge,
which does, indeed, kind of look like grits. Rather than longer
cooking, Glenn makes rice grits grinding the rice. I put the
Carolina Gold Rice into a blender and pulse till I get the grits
the texture and size that I want, he told me. If I pulse really
fine, I get Polenta di Riso, or rice polenta." Add more water
if you need to to thin it. And, I've just been eating them with
butter and salt and a piece of just-cooked fish next to 'em on
the plate. But I'd guess they're good with a whole lot of other
things too. Because the dish is so simple this is really where
the flavor of the rice comes through so well. Remember the
Carolina Gold has all of the natural rice germ and much of the
bran still intact so a) it needs to be stored in the cooler, and
b) it tastes WAY better than other white rices that have had all
that stuff removed during milling.

SEA ISLAND RED PEAS

Although were just now into the month of January, Hoppin'

John is still THE dish that you want to be eating to ring in the
New Year. Legend has it that the more black-eyed peas you
can eat the more good luck youll have in the year to come. If
you arent familiar with Hoppin John its a simple but classic
dish of black-eyed peas, rice, and pork of some sort.

Anson Mills Sea Island Red Peas have

a creamy richness thats pretty distinctive and flavor that far exceeds anything
that youll find in an industrial offering.
It takes roughly an hour to cook them. I
do it by adding some carrots, celery, bay
leaf, onion to boiling water along with the
Sea Island Red Peas. You can of course
add ham bones or bacon if you dont care
about it being vegetarian. Crowder peas
is the formal family name, and black-eyed
peas are the best-known member of the
family. The actual tradition of Hoppin
John seems to have started with red field
peas actually, not black eyed peas. The
latter were just more readily available.
Great with a bit of Brinery hot sauce!

ANSON MILLS
CORN MEAL
FOR MAKING MUSH
Mush is the Blue Plate Special on the
Thursday mornings at the Roadhouse. Or
you can make it yourself at home. Either
way its delicious!
I want to make clear that the emphasis
here isnt really on mush for its own sake,
but specifically about mush made from
Anson Mills cornmeal. Since the dish is
just cornmeal, water and salt, its clearly
only as good as the corn that goes into
it. Ansons is (like everything else we get
from them) amazing; my fixation on the
dish is coming really only because the
corn meal were getting from Glenn at
Anson Mills is so incredibly good.
Its incredibly simple: Anson Mills cornmeal, cooked at a ratio
of about 4 parts water to 1 part cornmeal for an hour or so.
You can go somewhat shorter or definitely longerwith all
these corn porridges longer is almost always better if you
have the time, and if you cook slowly, the starches steadily
break down and you get a creamier, richer texture. Ansons
meal is made from six old varietals Leaming, Henry Moore,
Jarvis, Pencil Cob, Hickory King Yellow, John Haulk blend for
Antebellum Fine and Coarse Cornmeals. All six are dent corns
(which are softer in texture than the alternative, known as
flint corn). When it comes to flavor, floralwhich is what
Glenn says to describe itis the key word for me. Its aromatic. Delicious.
You can serve most anything with mush. It can be cooked up
with any sauted or roasted vegetable. My 1918 copy of The
Book of Corn Cookery gives recipes for mush with figs, dates,
and prunes. Its also good topped with honey and of course
with cheese. The book also has a buttermilk mush recipe
meal cooked in buttermilk instead of water in a double boiler.
Ive seen it done with greens and Ive got a Gullah recipe for
oyster mush that Im definitely going to try this week.
What Ive been making at home is a dish that I read about in
some Civil War era food writingits just mush served up with
fried bacon pieces and a lot of bacon fat. Ive been using the
Arkansas peppered bacon which I love but any of our bacons
would work well Im sure. Just fry the bits of bacon til crisp
and then pour it and the fat in the pan over top of the mush,
add a bit of salt and pepper and eat it hot. Serve it with a
fried egg if youre so inclined. Speaking of fried, mush is often
served that way as wellcooked, cooled and then cut into
slabs and fried up the next day. Again bacon fat would be the
obvious Southern choice but you could certainly do it with
butter or olive oil I suppose too. Great too for dessert with
sorghum syrup, or with Charles Poiriers amazing cane syrup!

17TH CENTURY ANTEBELLUM

SESAME SEEDS

The latest from Anson Mills is as delicious as everything

else we get from them. Slaves brought benne (sesame) seeds
from West Africa to the Carolina Sea Islands in the early 18th

century and cultivated them in hidden gardens for nearly a

century as a staple food seed for rice cookery. By the time of
the American Revolution, benne seeds were a staple in South
Carolina coastal cooking. Sesame oil was highly promoted as
wellan attempt to bring an end to the market dominance of
France and Spain in the olive oil market. Every part of the sesame plant was popularleaves, pods, and of course the seeds.
These old variety benne seeds have a deep dark burnt sugar
savoriness. Because the hulls are still on, the oil is intact adding to flavor! (And also meaning that they need to be stored in
a refrigerated spot.)
The plant was consumed at every growth stage, from the tender young leaves to the petite seed pods similar to okra, and,
later in the growing season, the mature dried seeds we know
as sesame. When heated in cooking, Anson Mills new crop
benne seeds possess lovely field flavors, a characteristic nuttiness, and deep burnt-honey notes. Unlike modern sesame
seeds, our benne asserts its culinary presence by magnifying
umami nuances in foods, making it unparalleled for use in
both modern and historic recipes.
Ive been using them on pretty much everything. Toss onto
salads, sprinkle onto vegetable dishes, great on bread, bagels
or rolls.

RED FIFE WHEAT BERRIES

Red Fife was North Americas preferred bread wheat in the

19th centuryits an ancestor of many of the more modern
wheats that died out during the Depression. It has a nutty,
herby flavor thats made it popular with a lot of old school
bread lovers. To cook wheatberries simply boil them as you
would dried beans or barley. They take about 90 minutes
or so to cook but its about as easy as possiblefresh water,
some vegetablescarrots, celery, onion . . maybe a turnip
or parsnip . . .some fresh parsleyand some sea salt. Salting
the cooking water allows the salt to be pulled into the center of the berry as it cooks. The berries can be used any way
you would use barleysoup, salad, or sidedish. The berries
are deliciously wheaty, mellow but still very flavorful. The
cooking liquid was also delicious. . And exceptionally easy to
make!

continued on page 12

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

Maias top ten favorites

Maia Genisio has been coming to Zingermans regularly for longer than she can remember.
Age 10 now, her parents were bringing her to the Deli days after she was born. Because shes
spent so much time here and is naturally curious and observant, she volunteered to put
together a kids guide to Zingermans.
As she tells it, I feel comfortable at Zingermans because theres always at least two people
here who I know. I feel like Ill always have fun here.

CELERY SOUP

When I tried the soup at

Zingermans Roadhouse, my mom
said: It tastes like Thanksgiving. It is made
from celery, celery root, chicken broth and
more yummy stuff. It is smooth and warm. It
warms up your belly. The Roadhouse mastered the celery flavor!

CHINESE FIVE
SPICE WITH
POPCORN

Such a cool chemical reaction! If you add

just the right amount of Chinese five spice
you get the popcorn taste and the spice
taste. The spice dances in my mouth and
pops like Pop Rocks when you drink water
after you take a bite.

CARAWAY RYE

So, do you like bread and seeds?

If you do, you should try caraway
rye. It has a lot of flavor compared to regular
bread. Personally, I like it toasted with olive
oil and some cumin or with butter.

SPANISH DRINKING
CHOCOLATE

The Spanish drinking chocolate is one

of the thickest hot chocolates there is at
Zingermans. It feels and tastes like rich,
melted chocolate. Usually, when you think of
hot chocolate, you think of something more
watery. Spanish drinking chocolate is like
Willy Wonkas chocolate waterfall in a cup!

SOPRESSATA
PEPPATA SALAMI

I put this salami on sandwiches in my lunchbox for school. It has a nice, peppery flavor
but its not too spicy. It is a great salami to
eat everyday without kids saying Ewwww,
thats gross! I think youll love it, and kids
will, too.

DANDELION
CHOCOLATE FROM
MADAGASCAR

This delicious chocolate came all the way

from an island off the side of Africa called
Madagascar. It has a beautiful flavor that
stays in your mouth for a very long time.
When I ate this chocolate, it definitely
inspired me to learn about Madagascar (and
also draw lemurs).

HIBISCUS BERRY
TEA

This tea has a light, sweet flavor-but not too sweet! My friend Ari inspired me
to drink tea, and now I love it. It is a great
tea for any time of the day, because theres
no caffeine. Thats one of the reasons that
Im able to drink it! (Im ten.)

SITTING AT THE
ROADHOUSE
COUNTER SEATS
(near the kitchen)

I love this because my mom always points

out the awesome things that the chefs and
cooks are doing, and we also ask questions
about what theyre doing, too. Sitting at the
counter is inspiring me to learn more about
cooking. The work they do in the kitchen
sure looks like it isnt easythey have a lot
of skill!

10

EL RUSTICO
CHOCOLATE FROM
ASKINOSIE

My parents got me this chocolate bar for

Valentines Day last year. After I tried it and
we were in the car going somewhere, I could
still taste the flavor! The flavor changes
while youre chewing it, and after youre
done. The texture is sort-of crunchy; all the
other chocolates Ive tried are missing this
cool crunch!

TRUFFLE SALT WITH

OLIVE OIL

I love olive oil, but truffle salt with olive oil

is a special thing! Chunks of bread dipped in
this everyday treat will make your regular
life more flavorful! There is a deep, earthy
flavor that makes your mouth dance.

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

JANUARY: Trinidad Spice Mix

When you open the tin youll find an array of colors, how
you might imagine what a Caribbean market might look
greens, oranges, yellows, blacks, browns and reds. Stick
your nose in the tintheres so much going on its hard to
pinpoint any single scent. When you read the ingredients
list youll see why. Turmeric, coriander, cumin, thyme,
mace, bay, mustard, fenugreek, nigella, green onion, habanero chiles, thyme, fennel seed. By the way, its also terrific
if you grind the Trinidad curry mix and use it to toss on popcorn. And, as I said, you can try it regularly with the curried
turkey in the Delis salad case. Ive made mixed vegetable
curries with it at home and loved them. I add a bit of extra
cumin to the mix because its one of my favorite flavors of
all time. I also made a fish, potato and cauliflower curry that
really kicked! You can, of course, do as you like.
Grind the curry mix a bit in a spice grinder or mortar and
pestle. Add it to hot oil in a pan and stir regularly for about
sixty seconds being sure not to burn it. Add in potatoes or
whatever vegetable youre doing to use, toss well and cook
for a couple minutes, stirring regularly. Add water to cover,
bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for an hour or so
depending on how well cooked you want the ingredients.
I added the fish or seafood near the end so as not to overcook it. Curry making is ideal for using whatever you like
and whatever you have on hand.

FEBRUARY: Silk Road Spice

One of pices de Crus most beguiling blends its become

one of their biggest sellers up in Montreal and now its gaining a following here with us in Ann Arbor. It was discovered
by Marika de Vienne and her family while on vacation in the
desert in China. She explains, "The town had been a trading post for centuries. Anyways, were walking through the
market and we see this spice blend and its ground. And we
realize its the blend theyre using in their pulled noodles
and their lamb that wed been eating and that was so delicious. So we asked, 'What is this called?' And they all just
said, Its called 'the blend!" The blend has three different
roses, anise, star anise, cassia buds, Szechuan pepper, saffron, cardamom, ginger, white pepper and more! In the
region they use it on pulled noodles and lamb. And rice! An
iconic dish is pilaf of dried fruit, mutton and nuts. Its also
great in desserts.

HANDMADE
POT PIES
to cheer up your winter blues!
January 1-february 29

CLASSIC CHICKEN
POT PIE

FUNGI POT PIE

THE RED BRICK

BEEF POT PIE

Free range chicken hand picked

off the bone and blended with big
chunks of carrots, celery, potatoes, onions and herbs. Wrapped
in a handmade butter crust. Its the
perfect lazy cook winter meal; its
warm, filling and easier than pie.

A fun pie for the

Michigan Maitake
Shiitake mushrooms
Balinese Long Pepper
all-butter crust.

This beef pie is our heartiest one

yet. Packed with big chunks of all
natural beef from Ernst Farm here
in Washtenaw Co., carrots, potatoes, fresh herbs and wrapped in
our handmade crust.

JOHN H. TURKEY
TURKEY POT PIE
John & Nick Harnois Farm turkey
with big chunks of celery, carrots,
onions, potatoes and spiced with
Turkish Urfa pepper and fresh
herbs. Then wrapped in a handmade butter crust.

$9

(Vegetarian selection!)
fungiphiles!
Mushrooms,
and a little
tucked in an

DARINAS DINGLE
PIE
A salute to the miners on the Dingle
Peninsula of Ireland: This pie is
made with lamb from Hannewald
Farm in Stockbridge, MI, loads of
potatoes, rutabaga, onions and
a dash of cumin and rosemary.
Wrapped miner-style (no tin) in a
butter crust.

Pot pies are available frozen, ready to heat, or ready to eat!

pot pie
bag
lunches

Now $6.67/each

Now $5.25/each

was $10.00/each

was $7.95/each

These bright orange mussels

are harvested from platforms
in the Galician estuaries. After
being fried in olive oil, they
are preserved in a traditional
Spanish sauce called escabeche. They're velvety, meaty,
briny and tangy. An exciting
and essential addition to anyone's tinned fish collection!

Portuguese
sardines
are
the most sought-after in the
world. These are true pilchards with a deep flavor
softened by olive oil. Melt-inyour-mouth tender, they're
delicious as-is; in a dish of
pasta; or on a slice of crusty
bread, topped with good olive
oil, a squeeze of lemon, a twist
of black pepper and a pinch
of sea salt. Oh... We're also
pretty excited about our new
box design!

JANUARY
The Balsamic
Tuna Melt

FEBRUARY
CC's Cordon Bleu

Made from hogs raised at

Washtenaw Co. Ernst Farm, braised
with onions, apple cider and spices
then stuffed in a handmade pastry crust with Michigan apples.
Wrapped miner style (no tin).

Buy 10 or more, take 10% OFF!

Buy 20 or more, get 20% OFF!!
Buy 30 or more, get 30% OFF!!!

/ea.

FEBRUARY
Portuguese Sardines

CHESHIRE PORK PIE

STOCK UP AND SAVE!

99

JANUARY
Mussels In Escabeche

$17.99/each

$13.99/each
Balsamic
Blowout
time.
Vecchia 6 yr is our house
balsamic vinegar. It is the
real star in our tuna melt this
month. Oregon line caught
Albacore tuna, farmhouse
cheddar, house balsamic vinaigrette and fresh pea shoots
on a Paesano roll.

Its Pot Pie season at Zingermans Catering! Weve

combined the warm, buttery goodness of our
housemade Zingermans Deli Pot Pies with the
crowd-pleasing convenience of our bag lunches to
create the ultimate winter feast for your office
Zingermans Catering Pot Pie Bag Lunches.
Pick from a bevy of individual pot pies theres a
flavor for every palette! Each pie will be sent hot,
with a tossed green salad, balsamic vinaigrette, a
mini brownie, napkin and utensils. All this for only
$16.50 each!

CALL 734.663.3400 OR GO TO WWW.ZINGERMANSCATERING.COM

to make your next staff meeting a comfort-food feast!

Our crazy take on the classic Cordon Bleu! We take it

beyond the awesome flavors
of cornflake encrusted fried
chicken and pepper-coated
ham by adding in spicy dijon
mustard and (since we're
midwesterners) a little ranch
dressing. We put our best fromage forward with a softened
Swiss cheese. All of this is
served between two slices of
grilled onion rye bread from
Zingerman's Bakehouse. Want
to take it over the top? Talk
with us about adding bacon!

januA
& Feb ry
RUarY
ONLy!
Heres some great
news to kick off
2016. Place a catering
order for pickup or
delivery, and get your
next order of equal or
lesser value half off.

Order what youd like--bag lunches on

Monday, lasagna on Wednesday or whatever
else you have in mind, and youll get half off
the lesser order. This offer is good for orders
that are picked up or delivered from January
through the end of February, so call and
order as many times as youd like.

This offer cannot be combined with other discounts and is only valid from Zingermans Catering. Discount will not
be applied to equipment rentals. alcoholic beverages, or service staff. Service fees for events will be based on
non-discounted totals.

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

SHARING ZINGERMANS
UNIQUE APPROACH
TO BUSINESS

HOW ZINGTRAIN HELPED ONE BUSINESS THRIVE:

A CONVERSATION WITH CATHY BROWN-ISSEL, CO-FOUNDER OF BROWN & DELINE

Here at ZingTrain, we are all about long term relationships. We seek them. We unabashedly make the first
moves. We nurture them. And when we find ourselves
in one that deepens and becomes richer and better over
the years, were pretty much in relationship heaven. Our
relationship with the folks at Brown and DeLine Salon is
just such a relationship.
What follows is an interview with Cathy Brown-Issel, cofounder of Brown and DeLine. We may have blushed all
the way to our very roots a couple of times ...
Gauri: Tell us the story of Brown and DeLine.
Cathy: Brown and DeLine Salon is a full service salon
and spa located at 5245 Jackson Rd, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
We are open 7 days a week and pride ourselves on our
Its All About You! slogan and our award winning customer service.
My name is Cathy Brown-Issel. I wear many hats at the
salon. I am an owner, hair designer, manager, coach and
author.
I opened Brown and DeLine in 1995 with my then partner Shannon DeLine. I had a vision of owning the most
innovative salon and employing the most professional,
like minded, out-of-the-box thinking team.

I believe ordinary people can do extraordinary things given the belief they can and
the support. Everyone has a gift to share
with the world. Imagine what the world
would be like if everyone bought into this
philosophy. When you know your gift, you
know your purpose.
Writing Thrive and starting Brown & DeLine Business
Consultants seemed to be the next natural step for our
salon. Often when we tell people about the projects or
events we have going on at the salon, there is a long
pause and then a wow. Its been so noticeable that I
had the realization it was time to put our best practices
(secrets) to thriving in the beauty industry in print.
Gauri: When did your relationship with ZingTrain
begin. How has it evolved?
Cathy: My managers and I had our first ZingTrain
seminar in 2006 upstairs next door at Zingermans
Deli. (Your new facility is amazing!) We started with
the 2-day seminar Bottom-Line Training. Members of
our team have also attended the Leading with Zing! and
Open Book Management seminars. We have enjoyed
4-hour customer service workshops and a personalized
Visioning session. Lately, we have been enjoying the
Speaker Series.
We keep coming back because we are committed to
lifelong learning. Being a locally owned business, we are
also committed to think local first. Being in the service
industry, we felt training offered by a service business
would be beneficial. It has exceeded our expectations!
We have incorporated our own style of Open Book
Management into our salons daily operation. The transformation of the business in just 3 years has been unbelievable. My employees now work to positively impact
our Bottom Lines (and know the bottom lines!). We
have had a great improvement in culture and employee
buy-in. Sharing sales figures with the team and giving
everyone a voice at the weekly staff huddle has been
empowering to the team. The team works together to
support the workspace they love and exuberantly share
ideas.

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

We continue to look to ZingTrain and the

Speaker Series. We have implemented so
much of what we have learned through
ZingTrain.
We have developed stronger systems and have them in
writing and train to them. We love the training compact
and the idea of the trainee being responsible for learning as well as the trainer. We have a better job application process and use the trial shift technique. We have
weekly staff huddles with about half the staff of 60 at
each one and dedicated line owners reporting on our
dashboard (where we keep score on our key metrics).
We practice servant leadership.
Gauri: A personalized Visioning session? What was that
about? What came from it?
Cathy: Ive always been a visionary. I begin with the
end in mind. When we set out to write Thrive, I knew
my author team needed to get together so we all had the
same vision of what the book would look like and what
success would look like. I knew what the plan looked
like. I needed all 18 people on board, seeing the same
end result and working toward the same end result. Did
I mention we are a group of artists?
We needed help. ZingTrain developed a personalized
visioning session for our group. We spent a morning together developing and
sharing our ideas about
what Thrive was going
to be.
Thank you,
ZingTrain, for helping us define and then
refine our vision. With
your help, we did it!
We wrote a vision.
We wrote a book.
Im proud to say most
everything about the
vision is todays reality.
Gauri: As you stand here
proud, holding Thrive in
your hand, what do you
want all business owners to know about visioning?
Cathy: Im so proud to hold our book in my hands. Im
so proud of my team. They embraced the idea and vision
of Thrive and spent hours working on their chapters.

What I hope fellow business owners take

away from my experience about visioning
is this. Give your staff a clear picture of
where you are going and about what it
looks like when you get there. Share all
the details and involve them in the process. Define your vision of success. Share
your vision of success. A team with all the
information working together toward the
same vision is an amazing thing! Having
all the information and adopting a vision
of success will guide your team in their
daily decisions. That ultimately positively
affects and influences your bottom lines.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT

OUR APPROACH
TO VISIONING:
Go to info.zingtrain.com/vision
Read Guide to Good Leading Part 1 :
A Lapsed Anarchists Approach to Building
a Great Business
Read our Secret Pamphlets on Visioning :
SECRET #6
Revisiting the Power of
Visioning: Why Positive
Futuring Really Works

SECRET #9
An 8-Step Recipe for
Writing a Vision of
Greatness

SECRET #7
Writing a Vision of
Greatness: And Why Its
Not the Same as a
Strategic Plan!

SECRET #35
The Power of
Personal Visioning.

Come to our 2 day seminar

Creating a Vision of Greatness

SPAIN

JANUARY

TUSCANY

April 16-26, 2016

GREAT LAKES
CHESHIRE

$2 off per pound throughout January

at Zingermans Creamery and
Zingermans Deli!
While were using the name Cheshire, our
cheese is actually a cousin (twice removed)
of the British original. Zingerman's
Cheesemaker John Loomis adapted his
Cheshire from a recipe by Welsh cheesemaker Leon Downey with whom John apprenticed in
the late 1980s. Downey, one time viola player in the Halle Orchestra in London and generally
all around eccentric guy, decided to learn cheesemaking when he wanted to leave behind
the intensity of city living.
So Downey and his wife bought a farm in Wales and he set out to make his own Welsh version of Cheshire, which he called Llangloffan. It was smaller in size, a bit tangier in flavor
and somewhat wilder in its personality than the more proper English original Cheshire, and
John knew right away that there was something unique about this cheese. John brought the
recipe back to Ann Arbor, made his own tweaks to its basic recipe over 25 years, and started
producing wheels of Great Lakes Cheshire at Zingerman's Creamery.
Some things to bear in mind about our Great Lakes Cheshire:
Our Cheshire is younger, tarter and more crumbly than cheddar (a cheese it is often compared to) which is typically aged long and has a creamier texture. Also, Cheshire curd is
broken in half many times and milled through a peg mill which gives it a finer texture than
you'd find with cheddar.

October 1-10, 2016

For over 30 years, Zingermans has brought

the best and most flavorful foods of the
world home to America. Now, we can take
you to the source! Join us and savor Spains
amazing artisanal food and wine to the
fullest. Well go behind the scenes and learn
from producers about their fantastic olive
oils, cheeses, wines, chocolates, pimenton,
and more. And well do full honors to the
king of cured pork jamn Ibrico de
bellota, created from the famed blackfooted pigs who dine on the acorns that fall
from the plentiful Spanish oak trees. Well
enjoy the beauty of the countryside and
taste our way through some of the best food
Spain has to offer.

Come visit Tuscany and Emilia Romagna

the Zingermans way. Well go behind the
scenes and visit traditional small producers of some of the regions finest foods
from the massive wheels of ParmigianoReggiano, to the beautiful, small bottles of
real balsamic vinegar, from Chianti Classico
wines and artisanal olive oil to the melt-inyour-mouth prosciutto crudo. And well roll
up our sleeves and enjoy Tuscan cooking
lessons in a 15th century villa in the rolling
hills outside of Florence.

CROATIA
September 5-14,
2016

Croatia (just like the entire

Central European region)
has a colorful and complex
history, which is reflected
in its food and wine traditions. Though it is not a big country, its landscape, climate, history, cooking, and wines change dramatically from region to region. This trip will focus
on the capital, Zagreb where well spend two days focusing on the Habsburg and Ottoman
heritage, and the Istrian peninsula, which is said by locals to be the gourmet capital of
the country.

Ours is made with the remarkably rich milk of Jersey cows from the Van Buskirk family dairy
in Carleton, MI. The exceptionally high butterfat and protein content of this milk directly
translates into a richer, denser, and altogether better finished cheese. We hope you enjoy
this Ann Arbor original!

www.zingermansfoodtours.com
888-316-2736
foodtours@zingermans.com

FEBRUARY
BRIDGEWATER

$2 off per pound throughout February

at Zingermans Creamery and Zingermans Deli!
Our most robust soft-ripened cows milk cheese is taking center stage this February, and we
couldnt be more pumped about it. Weve been making the Bridgewater for a little over a
decade, and through the years weve tweaked and tuned this lovely, half-pound fluffy snowball of a cheese into something truly unique and surprisingly strong.
Made with the best cows milk we can find and black tellicherry peppercorns, the Bridgewater
has come a long way since its rather inauspicious beginning and remains to this day the only
cheese weve created purely by mistake. At our original location in Manchester, we walked
into the dairy and discovered three bags of cream cheese curd that we missed from the day
before. The curd had over drained and was too dry for Cream Cheese, so we added some
fresh cracked pepper, formed them into balls and sprayed the surface with the same mold
used on Brie cheese. Within about ten days, the cheeses were covered with the fluffy, white
penicillium mold and we had our first Bridgewaters.
The Bridgewater remains one of our most popular and versatile cheeses. When young, the
paste is velvety and milky with the earthiness of the fresh cracked tellicherry pepper and
the mushroom flavor of the penicillium rind. When it's aged out, the cheese becomes denser
and the pepperiness intensifies creating a great accent to cooked pasta or sprinkled over a
roasted root vegetables.

Zingermans Creamery Wholesale Manager

3723 Plaza Drive, Ann Arbor

734-929-0500
zingermanscreamery.com

january

Brazil - Daterra Estate Full Bloom

Full Bloom is a 100% natural or dry processed coffee,

meaning that the fruit flesh of the coffee cherry was
left attached to the bean as it dried. We loved this
lot for its wonderful balance of chocolate and
fruit notes, and for the panorama of flavors it
offers sip after sip.

february

Honduras - Pablo Paz

Pablo Paz grows coffee in the mountains surrounding

the municipality of La Unin, Honduras. We selected
this lot when we visited him last February and love it
for its citrus brightness and cocoa-like body.

3723 Plaza Drive, Ann Arbor 877-653-JAVA(5282)

www.zingermanscoffee.com

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

BOOK A SPOT AT ANY ZINGERMANS EVENT

Cheese Classes, Tastings & Tours!

3723 Plaza Drive 734.929.0500

zingermanscreamery.com

Our events are intimate affairs where our cheesemakers and cheesemongers share their passion for great
cheese and great cheesemaking. We hold these classes
right next to where we make our cheese and gelato,
and sometimes bring in our favorite food makers from
around the area to share their stories with you. To get
the inside scoop on all of our events, sign up for our
e-news at zingermanscommunity.com/e-news.

GOING GOAT'S CHEESE

PICK YOUR PERFECT PAIR

Dive in to the delicious world of goat's milk and

the diversity of textures and flavors that can be
found in the cheeses we're making with it. We'll
taste some of our favorite goat's milk cheeses,
including the Creamery's own Detroit St. Brick
and Aged Chelsea, served with sweet and savory
pairings, and take an idyllic photo tour of the
goat barn and milking parlor at Zingerman's
Cornman Farms!

Beer and wine are popular accompaniments to

cheese, and in this choose-your-own-adventurestyle tasting, we'll help you pick your perfect
pairings! We'll serve 3 classic styles of beer, 3
cheese-friendly wines, and a selection of frommage to taste. With each beverage sample, we
will suggest a couple of our favorite cheese
pairing and give you a chance to try out other
cheeses as well! You'll leave with lots of notes
about the combinations you tried and the confidence to pick out pairings on your own in the
future!

Thursday, January 21, 6-8pm, $30

BLUE CHEESE DREAMS

Thursday, January 28 6-8pm, $30

Creamy, crumbly and slightly funky, blue cheese
can seem intimidating, but our cheese-mongers
are here to serve as your guide into this flavorful world. We'll taste our way through the classic
styles of blue from around the globe as well as
from here in the States, accompanied with our
favorite serving suggestions. Come prepared to
learn all about these fascinating cheeses and the
folks who make them.

2501 Jackson Road 734.663.3663

www.zingermansroadhouse.com

Thursday, February 11, 6-8pm, $45

CHOCOLATE AND CHEESE

Thursday, February 18 6-8pm, $35

A night of specially-selected cheese and chocolate pairings with cheesemonger Tessie from
Zingerman's Creamery and special guest Allison
Schraf from Zingerman's Candy Manufactory,
we'll bring the best of both sweet and savory
worlds together for a full-flavored event of a
lifetime. With cheeses ranging from hard, nutty
goudas to buttery soft, mold-ripened favorites,
we are also featuring hand-crafted Zingerman's
chocolates made right here in Ann Arbor.

Zingermans Roadhouse hosts regular special dinners that highlight old favorites,
new finds, celebrated chefs and traditional
American foodways. Our dinners are familystyle affairs that deliver really good food
with a little history on the side.

ZINGERMANS 11TH ANNUAL

AFRICAN AMERICAN FOODWAYS DINNER:
IN SEARCH OF GIANTS
A Bit of Theater, Good Food, and An Exploration of the
History of the Abolition Movement in Michigan
Tuesday, January 26th, 2015 @ 7:00 pm
$70 per person (price includes dinner, tax and gratuity)

Tuesday, February 16th, 2015

7:00 pm $80 (price includes dinner, cocktail pairings, tax and gratuity)
In 1919, the US government passed the 18th Amendment,
clearing the way for 13 years of the folly that was Prohibition.
During this time, manufacturing and the sale of alcohol was
made illegal, driving alcohol consumption underground.
Millions of people in small towns and big cities alike imbibed
at secret bars and taverns called speakeasies. Bartenders,
working with limited resources to alcohol, began an era that
resulted in some of the most creative cocktails the industry
has ever seen.
Roadhouse bartender and cocktail historian Alibeth
Vandergrift has chosen several of the most popular Prohibition
era cocktails to pair with a 1920s style menu created by Chef
Alex, featuring some of the times most popular foods.

10

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

Zingermans Deli tastings are designed to give you an insiders view of the foods
that weve searched the world for. Youll often meet the folks who make it and
leave with a mouthful of flavor and a new understanding of everything from
olive oil to sardines, cheese to chocolate.

BALSAMIC TASTING
WITH THE FOLKS FROM
LA VECCHIA DISPENSA

ROMANTIC ITALIAN
RICE WITH CHEF WALLO
Wednesday, March 2
6:30-8:30pm $35/person
Zingerman's Events on 4th
(415 N. Fifth Ave.)

Wednesday, January 27
6:30-8:30pm $35/person
Zingerman's Events on 4th
(415 N. Fifth Ave.)

Working just off the historic square in

the center of the old town of Castelvetro,
southwest of Modena, Italy, Roberta
Pelloni and her husband Marino Tintori
make a range of great vinegars. For the
first time, their son Simone from Vecchia
Dispensa, will join us for an evening to
tell the history and taste his family's balsamic's. They are simply some of the best
we have ever tasted. So please come and
join us for this special evening.

Italians love their pasta, but it would be

mistake to stop there. They also love
their Rice. While its not as well known
or cooked as regularly as pasta dishes, a
creamy bowl of risotto is tough to beat.
Join us as we have the treat of chef Wallo
walking us through a cooking demonstration for making risotto. Along with the
risotto we will also sample a few other
treats made with rice. it promises to be a
great evening that will have you wanting
to cook more rice at home very soon.

VALENTINE HAPPY HOUR:

SMITTEN IN THE MITTEN

Friday, February 12
2 Seatings: 6-7pm or 8-9pm
$35/person Zingerman's Events on 4th
(415 N. Fifth Ave.)
Taste why we are smitten with products from the
Mitten! Join us for a Michigan-centered happy hour,
featuring a trio of select Michigan-produced wines
and a specially crafted sparkling wine cocktail, paired with
assorted chocolates, hand-made by some of our beloved
truffle-makers from the Great Lakes State. An excellent
accompaniment to a dinner with your sweetheart.

3723 Plaza Dr 734.929.6060

www.zingermanscoffee.com

#189

For this year's special dinner we welcome guests Dr. Von H. Washington (actor/director/professor)
and Ali Garrison (mezzo-soprano) for dramatic reading based on Dr. Washington's play, "In Search
of Giant" about two historical abolitionists meeting in 1844 at the Underground Railroad Station in
Schoolcraft, Michigan for a kitchen table conversation about food, freedom and human interaction.
For this event, Chef Alex is creating a traditional mid-19th century menu to set the scene for this
exclusive performance.

CLASSIC COCKTAILS OF THE PROHIBITION ERA

422 Detroit Street 734.663.3400

www.zingermansdeli.com

#19

Whether were pulling a shot for you in our caf on Plaza Drive or sending you
off with a bag of fresh roasted beans, our passion is to source, roast and brew
great coffee. Our classes are designed for the coffee novice and nerd alike and
aim to help everyone learn about everything it takes to turn a great bean into
a great cup of coffee.

COMPARATIVE
CUPPING

Sunday, January 10
& February 14, 1-3 pm $30/person
Sample coffees from the Africa, Central and
South Americas, and the Asian Pacific. We will
taste and evaluate these coffees using the
techniques and tools used by professional cuppers. A brief understanding of coffee will also
be presented highlighting different processing
and growing methods. This is an eye-opening
introduction to the world of coffee.

BREWING METHODS

Sunday, January 24
& Februrary 18, 1-3 pm $30/person
Learn the keys to successful coffee brewing using a wide variety of brewing methods
from filter drip to syphon pot. This tasting session will explore a single coffee brewed
6 to 8 different ways, each producing a unique taste. A demonstration of the proper
proportions and techniques for each method and a discussion of the merits and differences of each style will take place.

T AT EVENTS.ZINGERMANSCOMMUNITY.COM

COLD WEATHER WINNERS

Thursday, January 7 6-8pm $45

Relax and observe as we demonstrate how to make these

cold weather comfort foods never before taught at BAKE!
You'll learn our popular Urfa turkey chili, new bacon cheddar cornbread, a root vegetable winter salad and rich
chocolate challah bread pudding. In class we'll taste each
dish together. When you make these recipes at home you'll
warm your soul and your tummy, enjoyed on the couch in
your fuzziest slippers of course. You'll leave BAKE! with our
recipes, the knowledge to recreate them at home, a happy
tummy and great coupons.

DINNER SERIES:
FRENCH

Saturday, February 6
1:30-5:30pm $125

3723 Plaza dr. 734.761.7255

www.bakewithzing.com

Hands-on Baking Classes

BAKE! is our hands-on teaching bakery in Ann Arbor,
tucked between Zingermans Bakehouse and Creamery.
At BAKE! we share our knowledge and love of baking
with the home baker community, seeking to preserve
baking traditions and inspire new ones. We offer dozens
of different bread, pastry and cake classes in our very
own teaching kitchens. All of us at the Bakehouse know
the joy and excitement of baking something really good
and sharing it with friends when its hot out of the oven.
Youll leave BAKE! with the food you made in class and
the inspiration and skills to bake at home!

Let's make dinner together! Learn to

bake a few classics and go home with
a fine French inspired meal you
made yourself. Well make savory
bacon quiche Lorraine, crusty french
baguettes, and crispy tuille cookies. You'll leave BAKE! with
our recipes, the knowledge to recreate them at home, dinner for four and great coupons.

PICK ME UP! TIRAMISU

Sunday, February 14 1-5pm $125

In this class well be making and assembling a world-class
tiramisu from scratch! See how magically each flavor blends
together to make one of our favorite Italian sweets. Youll
find you can make a tiramisu thats more creamy, rich, and
light than any restaurant serves! You'll leave BAKE! with our
recipes, the knowledge to recreate them at home, a complete tiramisu to enjoy at home and great coupons.

Farm Tours, Special Dinners and Classes

8540 Island Lake Road, Dexter

734.619.8100 cornmanfarms.com

You dont have to be part of a big corporate event or lavish wedding to enjoy Cornman Farms (although we certainly host those,
too!) Throughout the year we host numerous tours, dinners, classes
and more that allow people to experience our unique event space
in Dexter, MI.

COCKTAIL CLASS:
GIN-UARY TAKE TWO

Thursday, January 7 7-9:30pm $65

Well become acquainted with genever, the original Dutch
gin, in an 1860s recipe for The Improved Holland Gin
Cock-Tail. Then well highlight the English Old Tom style of
gin in a drink named the Martinez. Lastly, well embrace a
New American type of gin (made right here in Michigan) in
a modern cocktail, the Gin-Gin Mule, made with fresh mint
and homemade ginger beer. Guests will learn to make all
three cocktails themselves while enjoying appetizers made
by Cornman Farms own chef in the farmhouse kitchen.

AN EVENING IN SICILY
(VIA DEXTER)
Saturday, January
9-7:00pm $125

Gioacchino Passalaqua, an
Italian artisanal food exporter
and native Sicilian who coleads the Sicily Food Tour with
Zingermans Food Tours is coming to town and hes bringing
one of Sicilys top chefs with
him. Claudio Ruta is a Michelin
star recipient for his restaurant La Fenice in the hotel Villa
Carlotta in Ragusa, Sicily. The area is renowned for its
bounty of amazing foods, and Claudio is bringing many of
those signature flavors along with him for a very special
dinner at Cornman Farms in Dexter. With the assistance of
Gioacchinoan accomplished cook and sommelier in his
own rightClaudio will be preparing a menu with wine pairings that showcases the amazing foods of Sicily.

COCKTAIL CLASS: TIKI TIME

Thursday, January 21 7-9:30pm $70

Born in Hollywood in the 1940s, this pseudo-Polynesian
drink fad was a mainstay on the American drinking scene for
almost 40 years. Recently Tiki cocktails have experienced a
revival, thanks to dedicated bartenders that spend the time
to craft the drinks the way they were meant to be, using
fresh fruit and painstakingly made syrups and purees. Well
embark on a virtual spring break when we explore three
classic Tiki tipples: the Rum Runner, the Painkiller, and of
course, the drink that started the craze, the Mai Tai. Guests
will treat themselves to a taste of the tropics with this introduction to the world of Tiki. Come join us at the farm, learn
to create these three distinct cocktails, and enjoy the fruits
of your labor while sampling flavorful appetizers cooked
fresh during the class by Cornman Farms accomplished chef.

COCKTAIL CLASS: AN AMERICAN

COCKTAIL IN PARIS
Monday, February 11, 7-9:30pm $70

Founded in 1911 and sold to Scottish-born celebrity bartender

Harry MacElhone in 1923, Harrys New York Bar is Paris was
THE place to imbibe in the City of Lights. Celebrities like
Marlene Dietrich, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Gershwin, Jack
Dempsey, Coco Chanel, and perhaps most notably, Ernest
Hemingway, all spent time enjoying a cocktail (or several)
at this famous watering hole. Join us this evening as we look
back on the impact Harry MacElhone had on international
cocktail culture with three of his own romance-inspired tipples: the Between the Sheets, the Monkey Gland, and the Vie
Rose. Guests will learn to make themselves, and then enjoy,
all three cocktails, as well as delectable light fare created by
Cornman Farms'talented chef.

June 1- 5, 2016
Were really excited about this years Camp Bacon! Our
annual fundraiser for the Southern Foodways Alliance and
the Washtenaw County 4H is coming up the first five days
of June!
Wednesday June 1 Bacon for the Brain
In the morning John U. Bacon kicks things off with a presentation from his new book, Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return
of Michigan Football at the ZingTrains speaker series.
Thursday June 2 Annual Bacon Ball at the Roadhouse
This years guest speaker will be Mark Essig sharing stories
from his fantastic new book Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail
History of the Humble Pig
Friday June 3 Bakin with Bacon at BAKE
Saturday June 4Main Event at Camp Bacon
What an amazing line up of interesting, engaging, insightful and funny speakers! And all the bacon you handle!
Adrian Miller, Presidential Pork,
(James Beard Award-winning author)
Adrian Miller o "The Popularity of All
Things Porcine in Presidential Foodways."
Mark Essig on "Lesser Beasts: A Snout-toTail History of the Humble Pig."
Ari Miller from 1732 Meats on Whats a
nice Jewish boy Doing Making Bacon?
Eric Clayman from the Denver Bacon
Company on "How to Make Guanciale."
Chris Wilson from the Smithsonian
Museum on Pork and African American
Culture.
Chef Sherry Yard from Los Angeles on
"Baking with Bacon."

Fred Bueltmann from New Holland

Brewing on Crafts Come Together Raising
Bacon and Brewing Beer.
Fidel Galano on "The Mysteries and
Mastery of Cuban Pork Cooking."
Steve Carre from Australia
Susan Schwallie national consumer
statistics expert on "The Latest Bacon
Related Numbers."
Special Guest Appearance by John U.
Bacon on Being Bacon
the Latest Chapter."
Mike Zoromski, Smokemaster at Nueske,
"A Look Behind the Smokehouse Door."

Sunday June 5 Camp Bacon Street Fair

at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market
Come on down to the market (just up the block
from the Deli) from 11-2 to
celebrate all things pork.
Buy bacon, eat bacon,
games, face painting
and a whole lotta
pork-focused
fun! Vegetarians
welcome!

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

11

VECCHIA DISPENSA BALSAMIC VINEGAR

by Val NefF-RAsmuSsen

continued from Page 5

FARRO PICCOLO

This appears regularly on the Roadhouse dinner menu.

The sauce and accompaniments change regularly but the
flavor and quality of the faro itselfcoming as it does from
Anson Millsstays very much the same. Nutty, wheaty,
delicious. Farro Piccolo is also the oldest cultivated grain,
dating back at least 10,000 years Farro Piccolo is the
rarest of Italian ancient grains. Anson Mills is the only
grower of this exceptional Italian cultivar in the United
States. Light in color and character, Farro Piccolo, which is
harvested in the summer, complements vegetables grown
in its own season. It cooks pretty quickly so you can boil it
up at home and use like barley or wheat berries.

STONE GROUND AMERICAN OATS

I never thought Id taste an oatmeal as good as the one

we get from Donal Creegan at Waltons Mill in Ireland. But
Glenn and crew have again done what no one believed
they could do. Its just as delicious! Like the Irish offering, all the oats are toasted before milling which brings
out a bit of a cararmel flavor. Like the Irish, theyre stone
millednot milled with metal rollers, or steel cutwhich
gives a coarser broken kermel, more like most of us
expect to see with polenta.
Like the Waltons Mill oatmeal the germ is left in adding
a lot to flavor but also cost because it has to be shipped
and stored refrigerated. Anson Mills new crop oats are
so moist they must first be toasted in order to be hulled.
Besides reducing cooking time, toasting produces a burst
of spicy caramel alongside a light, clean backdrop of
fresh oat flavor. Anson Mills hand-milled whole organic
oats are stone cut on the bias to retain something of their
original coarse kernel texture and a ton of whole germ
flavor. Hulled, toasted, and hand-milled the very day
theyre shipped.
If youre looking for more after all that . . . these three
films from Southern Foodways Alliance are all excellent
and informative.
http://www.southernfoodways.org/film/they-came-forshrimp-grits-the-life-and-work-of-bill-neal/
http://www.southernfoodways.org/film/sapelo-red-peas/
http://www.southernfoodways.org/film/carolina-grist/

MORE GREAT WAYS

TO GET YOUR GRITS
AT THE ROADHOUSE
Grits and Bits Waffles A colonial era blend of the
Dutch tradition of waffle making with the American experience of grits. The result? Wonderful wafflles enriched
with Anson Mills grits, topped with bits of Nueskes applewood smoked bacon and Vermont Cheddar. Served with
real maple syrup.

Carolina Gold Rice and Grits Waffles The same

great idea but made with Anson Mills Carolina Gold Rice
Flour. Great alternative for those who arent eating
wheat. I eat em because the flavor is so fantastic!

Potlikker Fish Stew One of my favorite dinner

options at the Roadhouse. Potlikker is the broth that
comes from the five to six hours of cooking collard greens
with plenty of bacon and ham hocks. We poach fresh fish
and seafood in the potlikker and then serve it over Anson
Mills grits. Very much out off the West African traditions
of serving a brothy stew over starch, eating a lot of greens
and fish! A delicious dish, thats filling and good for you
at the same time.

12

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

I once spent a night near Modena, Italy at an agriturismo,

basically the Italian version of a B&B thats on a farm. I got to
talking with one of the owners and he asked what brought me
to the area. I replied I was there to visit La Vecchia Dispensa,
a balsamic vinegar maker. Oh! he exclaimed, excited. You
see that door? That goes to my attic. That's where I keep my
balsamico. Would you like to see? He opened the door to
reveal a small, cluttered room with a set of five small old
wooden barrels filled with balsamic. It's nothing fancy like
Vecchia Dispensa, he told me, but it's enough for my family.
I had heard that people still make their own balsamic in their
attics, but I didnt really understand how standard it is it until
I saw it. (As an aside, an attic filled with balsamic smells a lot
better than an attic filled with mothballs.)

Balsamic has been made for family use for hundreds of years.
In fact, for most of its history, balsamic was made ONLY for
the family. Every family around Modena would keep their
own set of barrels in the attic to
age with the seasons of the year.
The balsamic wasand still isan
incredibly valuable family heirloom,
like at the agriturismo. It was used
primarily as medicine, not as salad
dressing. If you had a stomach ache,
grandma would prescribe a spoonful of balsamic. (Not bad, huh?) The
Italian word balsamico comes from
the same source as balsam in English:
a resinous liquid with medicinal benefits.
Today, aspirin has replaced balsamic
as the medicine of the day, but balsamic remains a family affair in Italy.
The balsamic we get from La Vecchia
Dispensa is made by the Tintori family. When I visited, Simone
Tintori showed me around theacetaiathe space where the
balsamic is made. His family has perhaps a dozen sets of balsamic barrels. A set is called a batteria and typically includes
five barrels. As Simone explained it to me, each batteria is
made by the grandfather when a new daughter is born into
the family. The balsamic made in the barrels will become a
part of her dowry, but they'll remain with the family's collection even after she is married. The dozen batterie in the
Tintori family's collection represent a dozen daughters over
the last few generations.
Each batteria bears the name of the daughter who owns
them. I saw Antonietta, Guendolina, Roberta. Many of the
barrels are decades old. As we walked through the acetaia,
Simone points out batterie belonging to his sister, his aunts,
his grandmother. On the walls above the barrels were old
black and white family photos. The acetaia is our family
pantheon, Simone poetically explained.

The same barrels made for Simones grandmother

when she was a toddler are still in use today.
In fact, theyre probably at their best now, having decades
of use. When you put vinegar in a wooden barrel, the barrel
doesnt just flavor the vinegar. The vinegar also flavors the
barrel. Its an ongoing virtuous cycle, a vinegar-flavored barrel gives a different, more complex flavor to the vinegar than
the brand new barrel did. A well-made barrel can be used for
as long as a century before it falls apart.

Its the barrels that give the balsamic most of its flavor.
To make traditional balsamic, you start with just one ingredient: grape must, the unattractively named fresh-pressed juice
of grapes, skins, seeds, and stems. The grape must is cooked
and reduced, then it goes straight into barrels. To start the
aging process, its mixed with a little of last years balsamic,
called the mother, which kicks off the transformation from
must to vinegar. As it ages the balsamic will spend time in at
least four different barrels or as many as a dozen. The barrels
in a batteria are typically made from a variety of different
woods including oak, acacia, cherry, juniper, and mulberry.
By the time the balsamic is ready to sell, it will have spent
time in each barrel in the batteria. Each type of wood contributes a different flavor. Older barrels add complexity and
balance.
Balsamic Tasting with our friends from Vecchia
Dispensa at Zingerman's Delicatessen, January 27.
See details on page 10!

These days, most of the balsamic on the market

doesn't come from family pantheons.
About fifty years ago, balsamic makers starting producing
a variation on their ancient, traditional product. If you see
any balsamic for less than $100 a bottle, you can bet its this
new version of the vinegar, which Ill call regular balsamic.
Regular balsamic isnt always just made of must. It can have
up to 80% wine vinegar which is cheaper than must but often
has a harsher flavor. But perhaps the biggest difference is that
unlike the traditional balsamics which age for at least a dozen
years before theyre allowed to be sold, regular balsamic can
be sold after just two months. Thats what happens with the
thin, sweet, bland vinegar you find in most grocery stores
today.
When choosing a balsamic, its always good to tasteif you
can. When thats not an option, check the ingredient list. If
wine vinegar is listed first the flavor will be weak, and youre

likely to see caramel coloring added as welltoo much

wine vinegar dilutes the balsamic from the dark liquid we
expect and caramel coloring is added to hide that. At Vecchia
Dispensa, they use 70% grape must as the base of their regular
balsamics and they never add any caramel coloring. But for
my money, Id say its how the balsamics are agedand how
long theyre agedthat makes the biggest difference. Vecchia
Dispensa ages in good wooden barrels for years, and you can
taste the complexity and balance they give. In Italy they used
to put the age of the balsamic on the label (and thats still how
we do it at Zingermans), but the Italians recently switched
over and started listing the density instead. If you find the
density listed on the label, as the density gets higher the balsamic will be thicker and sweeter. Our six-year balsamic has a
density of 1.18 and a bright, acidic flavor while our thirty-year
balsamic has a density of 1.35 and a deeper, more raisiny flavor and a consistency closer to molasses.
Val Neff-Rasmussen writes
The Feed blog at zingermans.com

Which balsamic for which use?

1. To whisk into a vinaigrette: pick a younger,
brighter balsamic, like the
8 year
2. To drizzle over strawberries: go for an older,
sweeter balsamic, like the
16 year
3. To reduce to a syrup:
start with an older, thicker
balsamic like the 30 year
its already so condensed
and sweet from aging that
theres no reducing necessary
4. To marinate meat: try a
balsamic with full-flavor
but still some acidity, like
the 10 year

5. To shake into a cocktail:

choose a bright, acidic
balsamic, like the 6 year
6. To finish a soup or
braised dish: use a wellbalanced balsamic, like
the 10 year
7. To stun your guests:
offer them a bit of Gold
or Silver label traditional
balsamic sprinkled on
good Parmigiano Reggiano

CHECK OUT THE THE FEED BLOG ABOUT THE SECRET LIFE OF AMAZING FOOD AT ZINGERMANS AT THEFEED.ZINGERMANS.COM

the regal, rare ones

Tradizionali Balsamics from Modena

Our annual Balsamic Vinegar Sale is back!

at Zingerman's Delicatessen
and online at
www.zingermans.com
Sale ends Jan 31, 2016

by the barRel

Sixteen Year Aged Balsamic in an Oak Barrel

La Vecchia Dispensas cooper has fashioned a few small,
seasoned oak barrels filled with over a quart of our exclusive sixteen year aged balsamic. Use the glass dropper to
rescue a bit of balsamic for salads or strawberries. Kept
sealed, itll last indefinitely and get better with time, just
like you. Quantities very limited.

SAVE
$200

SAVE

up to $100

These are the vinegars about which legends have been woven.
Buy one for a grand occasion. A golden anniversary. A wedding. A
newborn. An election. Tested by a panel of judges, the qualifiers in
Modena are graded gold and white. Then they return to the wood
for another five, ten, twenty, or a hundred years or more. During
the aging process, the vinegar is shifted from one type of wood to
the next. Cherry, chestnut, oak and mulberry all leave their imprint
on the flavor of the vinegar. The result is an almost unbelievable
concentration of sweet-sour flavor in a dense, intense, brown-black
vinegar that hints of berries, grapes, vanilla. There is nothing like it
in the world. Only a tiny amount is released each year, in elegant
glass flasks. Let loose a few drops on ripe strawberries fresh from
the market. An amazing treat you'll always remember. All traditional
balsamics from Modena are bottled in Ferrari designer Giorgio
Guigiaro's streamlined, sexy bottle, then gift boxed. They may
all look the same, but the vinegar is not. We buy ours from Erika
Barbieri, one of only a handful of female balsamic makers. I think
her vinegars are consistently fantasticand the juniper aged version
is unique.

New!

Two new traditional balsamics from Erika Barbieri

here just for the balsamic blowout then they're gone.

Juniper Wood
Extra Aged

Grandmother's
Fabulous

Aged primarily in Juniper

for over two and a half
decades, then gift boxed.
Haunting flavor, amazing
packaging.

Traditional balsamic from

barrels that are over a
century old. One of a kind.
Mind-blowing. Comes giftboxed in a handpainted
wooden box.

SAVE
$125

SAVE
$250

30
year aged
With much of the flavor of balsamics that cost twice as much,
this is a great deal for a great
vinegar.

8 year aged

At $25 it was a good buy. At

$20 it's unbeatable. A kitchen
standard.

SAVE

$5

10 year aged

Perennially, our best selling balsamic. Beautifully packaged,

complexly flavored, its the most
intensely flavored balsamic of its
age Ive ever tried.

SAVE
$10

SAVE
$20

16 year aged

The woody, earthy intensity of our

10 year balsamic rounded out with a
dose of lush sweetness.

SAVE
$15

four ages

SAVE
$10

Balsamic Sampler
Four precious small bottles (about an ounce
total) of Vecchia Dispensa's 8, 10, 20 and 40
year aged balsamics. They look like beautiful
vials of perfume, just way tastier.

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

13

Plan Your Wedding with Zingerman's!

1. Have The Cake of Your Dreams

Multi-talented Designers Available to
Make it Happen
Theres not one but six talented and passionate cake designers ready to advise you
and work on your custom wedding cake. Depending on the complexity of the design and
variety of decorations, everyone might do a
little something to make your cake great.
Weve found over the years that a diverse
team enables us to make the best cakes. Each
of our designers has years of pastry and cake
experience, different aesthetic passions and
a variety of skills to bring to the process.
With all this skill, talent, care and passion
were able to create an incredible variety of
cakes.
For each cake we make sure that the decorator best equipped for the design choices is
the lead designer. The designer knows long
in advance of the wedding date that theyll
be doing the cake. This gives them the time
they need to dream, practice and plan.
Theyre in charge of the process and when
appropriate enlist the contributions of the
others to make the cake perfect. On very
challenging cakes, I often hear lively conversations for weeks ahead discussing the best
way to make it just right.
Besides all of this thoughtful planning, each
week as were making cakes the designers
actively give each other suggestions and
help. There are many sets of talented eyes
overseeing the final execution of the cake.

2. Serve a Cake That Tastes

as Great as It Looks
We got into the cake business sort of backwards, at least compared to how most bakeries do it. Cakes are generally sold by how
they look, not how they taste. So they look
luscious and full and fancy, and then when
you get them home they often dont taste like
anything. Big disappointment! Since weve
always been committed to flavor first and
are known for making humble traditional
baked goods, our initial everyday cakes tasted really good but looked well, lets politely
say plain at best. The good news for you is

that even though weve greatly improved the

appearance of our cakes, flavor is still most
important to us.
Our cakes, buttercreams and fillings are
made in our pastry kitchen from scratch with
full-flavored ingredientsreal butter, real
vanilla extract, fresh eggs, Guernsey dairy
products, great chocolate, toasted fresh nuts,
and the best spices we can find. We make our
own fondant out of only real ingredients (no
preservatives or weird chemicals) and it has
a sweet vanilla taste.
With our cakes therell be no mismatch of excellence between the flavor of your cake and
its appearance.

3. Get What You Expect

Accuracy is Foremost on Our Minds
If theres one thing we learned very early
on in the world of decorated cakes, its that
accurate and detailed communication is
critical and not always so easy to achieve.
The basic vocabulary of cakes is not generally known so thats where we need to start.
Whats fondant? Whats a butter cake verses
a sponge cake? It gets more complicated
when we move into designing. While directions like make it pretty, lots of flowers,
bright pink may seem descriptive enough,
we have found that theres lots of room for
interpretation with directions like these.
To make sure we create what our guests
are imagining, we use pictures, actual color
swatches or color charts, draw detailed representations of cakes for your review, and
make samples of the design technique were
recommending for you to see. We have model cakes in our display room so that guests
can have a clear idea of the size of their
cake. We even have undecorated forms that
we use to build cakes right in front of you so
there wont be any big surprises on the day
of the wedding.

4. Enjoy Zingermans Great Service in

the ProcessIts Sweetly Interpreted
in the Cake Department

home with as many people you feel like sharing with. If you dont find perfection in this
box well make more combinations for you
until you discover the combination you love.
Cant choose between a few? Dont choose.
Have a different combination for each tier of
your cake. Need to plan your wedding from a
different city? Well mail the samples to you.
Want a custom flavor of cake that we arent
offering? Give us time to work on the recipe
to make sure its delicious and well be happy
to accommodate you. Weve made cakes out
of our Buenos Aires and Townie (gluten-free)
brownies, added chocolate to our coconut
cake, and baked some nostalgic favorite
family recipes.
Have a limited
schedule? We
want to make it
easy for you to meet
with us so we are
available every day
of the week. Generally we work until
3 in the afternoon but if an appointment at
5:30 on a Wednesday is what you need, well
change our schedule to make it happen.
Cant come to town before the week of the
wedding? Weve become good at designing
through phone calls and emails.

5. Your Guests Will Go Gaga!

For many of us a wedding is the biggest party
well ever throw and we want to make sure
that our guests have a great time. Over the
years, the wedding cake has remained one
of the symbolic must-have elements but it
has also become one of those things that we
dont expect to really want to eat because
so many weve tasted have been terrible. (I
often wonder if thats why the standard wedding cake serving size is so small.) We want
your guests to rave about the cakeits appearance and its flavor. Yes, we want them to
be looking for seconds and telling you how
much they loved the cake!

Delicious
Ways

To Have Zingermans
At Your Wedding
1. Custom Zingermans Bakehouse
cookies at each place setting.
Well work with you on shape, color and design
to match your theme when we create these
custom decorated, handmade butter cookies.
See photos at www.zingermansbakehouse.com

2. Handmade Zzang! candy bars and

Peanut Brittle as gifts for your guests
Candy-maker Charlie Frank is busy every day
making delicious confections by hand. We can
package them up as custom gifts to wow your
friends and family!

3. Gift baskets for your

out-of-town guests
The service stars at Zingermans Mail Order are
geniuses at crafting custom gift baskets for every occasion. We can help you bring the best
of the Deli to your guests door when they arrive for the big event! Call us at 800.636.8162
to get started.

4. Catering from Zingerman's Roadhouse

on the Road or Zingerman's
Catering & Events
Zingermans loves a party and we'd love to
help feed your guests. We can help you come
up with a menu of your favorite full-flavored,
traditionally-made food, and bring them to
you. Call us to find out more!
Zingermans Roadhouse: 734.929.0331 or
rhevents@zingermans.com
Zingerman's Catering & Events:
734.663.3400 or zingermanscatering.com

5. Bachelor and bachelorette parties with

BAKE!our hands-on baking school

Taste, Taste and Taste. We give our guests a

box of 7 samples (different combinations of
cake flavors and icings and fillings) to try at

Interested in fiFinding out more about having a Zingermans Bakehouse wedding cake?
Call us at 734-761-7255 or email us at weddingcakes@zingermans.com.

Get your hands in the dough with your friends

and family for a day of baking (and eating) that
youll remember for a lifetime. Customize your
class with cookies, pies, breads, cakes and
more!

Elopements and Intimate Weddings

Its not a wild fantasy to have your
planning streamlined and complete,
the ceremony written, the location
chosen, the flowers and cake waiting
and ready.
Your wedding can truly be as simple,
intimate, blissful and charming as
you dream it to be. Not only does
our wedding package contain every
necessary key component, but
your wedding unfolds in the most
charmed Midwestern farm settinga
restored, pre-Civil War barn, a

quaint Greek revival farmhouse, a

grandfather oak tree, a goat parlor
with herd and pastures, kitchen,
gardens galore.
Simple, magical, &
completeyour
elopement or
intimate wedding
at Zingermans
Cornman Farms in
Dexter, Michigan,
just west of
Ann Arbor.

We are ready and at your service. Contact Tabitha Mason to book your
elopement or intimate wedding! tmason@zingermans.com or 734-619-8100

14

ISSUE # 254

JAN-FEB 2016

Intimate Wedding Package (5-20 People)

Elopement Package (2-4 People)

While you relax, we secure all the key components

of your wedding with just two weeks notice, for
between 5 and 20 guests (including the couple).

While you relax, we secure all the key components of

your wedding with just two weeks notice, for up to 4
people (including the couple).

$5,500 includes a half-day rental,

either 9am-2pm or 4-9pm

$2,950 includes a half-day rental,

either 9am-2pm or 4-9pm

Your elopement and intimate wedding packages include

Your ceremony on
the farm property in
your choice of the
most picturesque spot
Your photographer

Your bouquet
and boutonniere
(one of each,
or two of either!)

A gourmet meal after the ceremony (either brunch, lunch or

dinner depending on time of day) prepared by Zingermans
Chef Kieron Hales complete with a bottle of champagne or
sparkling cider, and topped off with a scrumptious cake, lovingly baked by Zingermans Bakehouse

The Hands-On Teaching Bakery at Zingerman's Bakehouse

new in 2016!
Bake!-cAtions

New Baking Classes!

The ultimate experience for the home baker! We guide you through a comprehensive education in bread and pastry techniques in a fun, exciting, relaxed
and always hands-on classroom. Includes breakfast and lunch everyday, and
youll need to bring along an empty suitcase to take home all the great food
youve made. For adults 17 and older.

Baking Basics
Doughnuts 2.0
International Cookies

Bread Weekend 3.0

Muffin Method

New Savory Classes!

Pasta Making
Pizza Primo
Savory Pies 2.0

Holiday Classes!

New Baking Experiences!

BAKE!-cations
Bread 3.0,
Pastry 3.0,
or Staff Picks

Visit www.bakewithzing.com
to register!

Find out more at bakewithzing.com!

This weekend will cover a variety of techniques such as crimping pie dough, parbaking, creaming method, kneading, cooking custard, filling a cake and more. Youll
learn while creating quiche Lorraine, puff pastry, palmiers, blondies, Whoopie pies,
cream cheese and apricot strudel, cheddar bacon scallion scones, Triple Trouble
chocolate cookies, New Deli Crumb Cake, fresh fruit tart, and a European torte.

Staff Picks

Even more baking action in this new 3 day BAKE!-cation full of sweet and savory recipes that are the top
picks of Zingermans Bakehouse staff. Youll learn a
wide variety of techniques including making bread
starters and poolish, forming a flaky pie crust, frying,
dough fermentation, cooking pastry cream, kneading dough, and more. Together well make a laundry
list of all time favorites including maple sandwich
cookies, Ginger Jump Up cookies, bacon pecan Sandies, Buenos Aires brownies, crullers, rhubarb pie,
coconut cream pie, Boston Cream pie, Somodi Klacs,
Peppered Bacon Farm bread, scallion walnut bread, chocolate sourdough, brioche buns,
focaccia w/caramelized onions, walnuts, gorgonzola, and French baguettes. Phew!
Bakers know how to eat!

We have made some great specialty breads

over the years that developed their own
small followings, so we bring them back for
a weekend here and there just for fun. If
youre looking for a little adventure check
out this calendar.
January 1-3

January 22-23

February 5-9

February 12-13

Rosemary Baguettes
Cherry Scones

Scallion Walnut bread

Cheese or raspberry
danish

King Cake

Peppered Bacon Farm

February 9

February 19-20

Paczki

Scallion Walnut
S'more Tarts

Craquelin
Cinn-oh-man
January 15-16

Pumpernickel Raisin
January 15-17

Bacon Cheddar Scones

Cinn-oh-man

February 12 -13

January 29-30

Chocolate Cherry
Bread

Chernushka Rye

February 12

Chocolate Dipped
Margaret's Sweet Wheat Palmiers
February 5-6

Over four days well travel the globe to make

these tasty recipes:

Fri - Sun, Jul 22-24 8am-5pm (9am-3pm Sun) $675

BAKE! Camp for kids

Janary 29-31

Lets learn to BAKE! this summer! Parents drop

off the kids for some hands-on learning & fun,
then pick them up and enjoy tasting what they
made. Well cover a variety of basic baking
techniques including following a recipe, using
a scale, mixer and piping bag and kneading,
rolling and shaping doughs. We know these
valuable kitchen skills will come in handy for
years to come and inspire a new generation of
bakers. This day camp also includes a tour of
Zingermans Bakehouse. Space is limited to 12
students, ages 10 to 12.

Sat & Sun, Apr 9-10 8am-5pm $500

St. Patricks Day Baking

January 8-10

Tue-Fri, Jul 19-22 9am-12pm $300

Tue-Fri, Jul 26-29 9am-12pm $300

In this action packed weekend of bread

baking youll make a griddle flatbread
called msmen, banana quick bread,
yeasted sesame semolina with golden raisins and fennel, whole wheat
baguettes, crispy breadsticks, pretzel buns for sandwiches, versatile
brioche, classic onion rye, spicy
chile cheddar and savory potato
dill bread. Well cover numerous
bread making techniques including
yeasted breads, starters, fermenting
and proofing doughs, baking a great
crust and more. Well show you a jawdropping world of amazing breads that
you really can bake at home!

Pastry Weekend 3.0

Hot Cross Buns

February 26-27

Potato Dill

$4.50
each
(reg. $6.29)

Camp for Kids

Lets learn to BAKE! this summer! Parents

drop off the kids for some hands-on learning & fun, then pick them up and enjoy tasting what they made.

Basic Camp

Sat & Sun, Feb 27-28 8am-5pm $500

World Of Cookies

BAKE!

American:
Black Magic brownies, Snickerdoodles,
butter pie crust

British:
soda bread,
shortbread cookies,
& Baps (dinner rolls)

French:
quiche Lorraine,
baguettes,
Tuille cookies

Italian:
Pizza, Focaccia,
Amaretti cookies

Advanced Camp

Tue-Fri, Jul 26-29 1:30-5:30pm $400

Has your child already been to our basic camp
or has a flair for baking at home? Well cover a
variety of baking techniques while making strudel, challah bread, rugelach, puff pastry, scones,
cupcakes, rye bread and cinnamon rolls. Well
also introduce safe knife skills and have some
fun with an egg separating race. We know these
valuable kitchen skills will come in handy for
years to come and inspire a new generation of
bakers. This day camp also includes a tour of
Zingermans Bakehouse. Space is limited to 12
students, ages 11 to 13.

20% off whole cakes and slices!

January
Raspberry White
Chocolate Chiffon

Layers of fluffy yellow chiffon cake, filled with our own

vanilla bean pastry cream and
raspberry preserves, covered
in vanilla butter cream and
white chocolate shavings.

February
Rig Jancsi
with Chesnut Cream

A regal torte made with two

light layers of chocolate chestnut sponge cake, filled with
rum spiked chestnut whipped
cream, iced with a thin layer
of apricot glaze and finished
with rich dark chocolate ganache. Chestnuts are a staple
in Hungarian food and desserts
and we knew they would add
a new layer of flavor to this
classic torte.

ISSUE # 254

January
Rustic Italian Round

One of our best selling breads for its

versatility. It has a beautiful white
crumb and a golden brown crust. This is
that great, simple, white European loaf.
All it needs is some sweet butter.

February
Better than San Franciso
Sourdough Round

Good enough to ship back to California. Crisp, crackly crust, moist honeycombed interior and the trademark
sour tang that will tickle your tongue.

JAN-FEB 2016

15