Blending Tradition With Technology
      We do not yet offer tours at our Chateaugay, NY plant, but this virtual plant tour shows you how we make our cheeses. Step right up, the tour is about to begin...
 
   
Step 1
Fresh wholesome milk is collected daily from cows that thrive on the abundant green pastures of Nothern New York. The milk is inspected, weighed and sampled for the quality and butterfat essential for fine cheese. It is then transfered to stainless steel silos, the starting point before it travels though the maze of pipes and vats. The first step is to heat the milk to aid in the growth of the cheese cultures, and to deactivate spores which would otherwise cause serious flavor defects in the cheese -- all necessary steps to assure flavor and quality.
 
   
Step 2
The milk is pumped into enclosed cooking vats, each holding 35,000 pounds of milk. Before the arrival of electronic controls, open vats were used. Closed vats provide for tighter control of the product and help insure that every batch is consistently manufactured to McCadam's high standards. While in the vats, starter cultures of lactic acid bacteria are added that will grow to develop the distinctive flavor that is unique to each cheese variety. The finest cultures come from Finland every week for the European specialty cheeses. Throughout the cheese's production, it is tested at various stages for moisture content, acidity and flavor
 
   
Step 3
The milk forms a soft coagulum while resting in the cooking vats. The coagulum is cut with knives and sliced into curd-like particles. The temperature in the vats is then slowly raised, separating the liquid whey from the curds. At this point, the curds and whey are pumped to the pre-press unit where the whey is drained and the curds are formed into loaves.
 
   
Step 4
After semi-automatic demolding from the plastic forms, the cheese is conveyed to the brine room. Brine is a salt solution that provides flavor and preserves the cheese. Manual handling of the cheese is minimized by semi-automatic machine operations and a streamlined flow-through design from each step of the cheese process to the next.
 
   
Step 5
Dozens of stainless steel racks laden with hundreds of pounds of cheese are immersed in the brine for two days. The brine is maintained at a constant temperature and salinity to ensure that the highest quality cheese is consistently produced.
 
   
Step 6
Finally, the product is packaged in the high-speed computer-controlled packager and sent to the cheese ripening rooms to await labeling. The atmosphere in the packaging room is pressurized and dehumidified to extend the shelf life of the product.

We hope that you will take an opportunity to taste some of McCadam's cheeses. You are now familiar with the care and attention given to each batch of cheese produced here at Chateaugay.