What Makes Pine River a Leading Maker of Cold Pack?

Mary Lindemann

Chances are, if you ever enjoyed a cheese spread from Wisconsin, it was made by Pine River.

Pine River, which has been in business for 60 years, was started by Phil C. Lindemann. Lindemann had a cheese packaging business—cutting, wrapping, waxing—and one day, he decided to make a little cheese spread from the trims of fine cheddar. “He was just going to do this on the side,” says Mary Lindemann, his daughter-in-law and marketing director at Pine River Pre-Pack, Inc. “But the business kept growing, and then, in 1981, there was a fire in the wax tanks, and he decided that it was a sign from God to get out of the waxing and to focus on the cheese spreads.” The kind of cheese spread Pine River makes, is cold pack. Cold pack is also known as pub cheese, crock cheese or club cheese and is a cheese spread that is made from blending cheese, but without the use of heat. Learn more about cheese spreads.

Using Better Cheese to Make Better Cold Pack

Selection of Pine River Cold Pack

Today, Pine River makes 21 different types of cold-pack, and its spreads are sold across the country. The main secret to their amazing cheese spreads, Lindemann says, is that they use natural cuts of cheese—not ends, not barrel cheese, and nothing but Grade A cheese. Then, they blend it with whey, Grade A butter, and then spices and flavorings. “It’s blended without heat, and that’s the key part of cold pack,” she says. “It’s like when you add heat to vegetables - they taste different, and they have a different texture from raw vegetables.”

The other big difference, Lindemann says, is that they used aged cheddar as a base. “We start with much older cheese,” she says. “We actually start with cheeses at nine months, and we use up to 24 months-old cheese. We actually blend different ages together to get the right flavor and consistency.”

The cheese itself also comes to Pine River in 40 pound blocks that are three weeks old, and they age it until it is ready.

“The blending is actually a scientific process,” Lindemann says. “We use a computer program to determine which ages of cheddar to blend together, and it’s not as easy as just throwing a cheese into a blender. When people visit us, they are usually astonished at the complexity of making cheese spread to what they thought in their minds.”

Popular Flavors of Cold Pack

Pine River Garlic & Herb Cold Pack

The most popular spread is their port wine flavor, and second is their plain cheddar, but the third and fourth place cheeses are always changing. Beer cheese, Swiss almond and mango habañero all frequently vie for third or fourth place, but “there are 21 flavors vying for popularity,” she says.

“Social media can play a big role in what’s going to be popular,” she says. “If someone uses beer cheese on their potatoes or in basting their own pretzel, then bam, people say ‘I gotta find that cheese,’ and suddenly, it’s flying off the shelves,” she says.

Among the other flavors include: aged asiago, cranberry cheddar, garlic & herb, chunky bleu, smoky bacon. Pine River also makes a line of shelf-stable spreads, too, with nine different flavors. “We started making those because they were used in fundraising at schools, because fundraising organizers couldn’t count on the kids taking the spreads right home and not leaving them in their lockers,” she says.

While they’re still used in fundraising and shelf-stable gift boxes, they are sold even more at retailers which don’t have enough refrigeration space or refrigeration at all. Places like gas stations, travel centers and even liquor stores sell them. “They’re really good to take on trips, but I always remind people that you can’t take them carry-on in airplanes—they have to be stored in your checked luggage,” she says.

Creating Private Label & Grocery Branded Cold Pack

Cabot cheese spread

Pine River also creates the cheese spreads for 36 private label brands, including top makers such as Marieke Gouda, Widmer’s, Cabot Creamery, and Henning’s to name but a few. Basically, anybody who is anybody in the Wisconsin cheese world (and a few others from across the country) who makes spreads uses Pine River. “Who else would you work with?” says Marieke Penterman. “They make our Gouda into a delicious cheese spread. It’s phenomenal.”

Penterman says she met with Phil A. Lindemann, the founder’s son and Mary Lindeman’s husband, and they got to talking. “He says to me ‘We could make something wonderful together,’ and he was so right,” Penterman says, adding that in addition to her plain Gouda spread, she also makes honey clover and hatch pepper Gouda spreads. “The hatch pepper has been so popular,” she says. “It has just a little bite to it, but I really personally love the honey clover. I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and supper with bagel chips. It’s almost like a dessert spread.”

Besides creating private label brands for individual cheese companies, Pine River’s spreads are also the spreads sold as grocery store brands. Sendik’s, an upscale grocer based in Milwaukee, does that, but most store brands ask that Pine River keep private their names. “But if you look at the cups they’re in, you can recognize that they’re using our spreads,” she says.

How to Enjoy Cold Pack

Holiday Pinwheels

The cheese spreads aren’t just for spreading on crackers. “Basically, any recipe in which you use cheese and then add milk or cream, you can use cheese spreads,” Lindemann says. “I always say, spread beyond the cracker. Toss it in pasta, add it to soups or cooked vegetables, stir it into scrambled eggs. I’ve used it even as filling in pastas like stuffed manicotti.”

With the rise in popularity in butter boards, Lindemann says you can also add in a few spreads amidst the flavored butters, or you could create a cheese spread board. Pipe some cranberry cheddar, then add some cranberries on top, or add some candied pecans, or add some bacon to the bacon cheddar. “You can dig right in,” she says. “It’s just so good.”