- [Stephfond] Tonight on "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories," ever wonder how cheese curd is made?

Visit Schultz Family Cheese in Lowville, and watch the process first hand.

And we have more food to share.

This month's "Johnny on Fire" segment features Shawn Massy, and his tasty recipe for Maple Bourbon Chicken.

Also, meet Short Walk to Pluto.

This alternative rock band hails from Toronto, Canada.

Your stories, your region, coming up right now on "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories."

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories" is brought to you by The Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, Carthage Savings, The J.M.

McDonald Foundation, and The Dr. D. Susan Badenhausen Legacy Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation.

Additional funding from the New York State Education Department.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories."

I'm Stephfond Brunson.

Cheese, it's a staple on most North Country tables.

Today, it comes in so many shapes, sizes and flavors.

But there's nothing like a simple tasty cheese curd.

If you're a cheese curd lover, take a look at how it's made.

(gentle music) (people chattering) - [Eric] It's a typical Tuesday morning at Ara-Kuh Farms, home of Shultz Family Cheese, where dairy Joe Shultz is hard at work creating another batch of cheese curd.

This is a ritual he carries out every Tuesday and Thursday, and those mornings start very early.

- When we make a batch of cheese, say today, we pump our milk into the cheese vat.

Monday afternoon it has a water jacket around it.

Then we have cold water that we have a refrigeration unit upstairs in the haymow that keeps the water cold.

So the water is pumped in Monday afternoon.

And then Tuesday morning, this morning about quarter after 2, I come out and I start the boiler.

Because any product that you sell fresh as dairy has to be pasteurized.

- [Eric] In order for the cheese to pasteurize, it must reach a temperature of 145 degrees for 30 minutes.

After Shultz begins the pasteurization, he leaves the cheese and returns to begin the cooling process at around 4:15 am.

- So the water jacket is actually heated up with a boiler and a heat exchanger.

And then when I come out and take the lids off and start cooling, cold water's put around the water jacket.

And it cools down to the temperature at which I add the starter at about 5:30.

And then quarter after 6, I add the rennet.

- [Eric] After Shultz adds the starter and rennet, he begins cutting the cheese with a curd knife, which separates the curds from the whey.

- So once you cut the curd and kinda let it set, that's when you start cooking it.

And we cook it from 90 degrees up to 100 degrees.

And it has to be done over about a 30-minute period at a real slow rate.

Once it's done cooking and we kinda let it rest again, and stir a little bit, that's when we drain the whey.

And we drain our whey, it goes into a container that we either give to people that wanna feed their pigs or animals, or we spread it on the fields.

But after the whey is drained, you have the mat that you see at the bottom of the vat.

And that's when you start the cheddaring process.

Other cheese processes, you don't totally drain all the whey.

I think that's when you have the curds in the bottom of the vat.

And that's when you season the curds or salt them, and put them in the molds for you know, Gouda or Havarti or farmer's cheese and that type of thing.

But with cheddar, you let that set as a mat, and then every 10 minutes we cut it.

We cut it at the beginning for blocks or slabs.

And every 10 minutes we flop them until we get about six or eight high.

And that's always extruding anymore whey that's in there.

And once we're done cheddaring, that's when we put it through that curd mill, which chops it in the curds you see in the store.

So it's kind of a two-part curd thing where you have the curds and whey at the beginning, and then you end up with the curds that you see in the bags in the store.

- [Eric] With a vat that holds up to 460 gallons, Shultz can get a curd yield of up to 460 pounds.

But typically makes between 350 and 420 pounds a batch.

And some of the batch contains some very small pieces Shultz refers to as finds.

- Today was actually kind of a soft batch, and every batch is always a little bit different.

But with our old curd mill, we get some of those finds, and what we do there's some restaurants that want those bits we call them for poutine.

And that's french fries and gravy with cheese curd.

So we have some restaurants that request those.

But we usually press those into a six to seven-pound block.

- [Eric] Shultz doesn't just sell his curds to restaurants and local stores.

He has a little store located right on the farm property, where people can come and purchase his cheeses.

- So in the summertime we like to, on a Tuesday make, we like to have 20 to 30 pounds for customers, and then Thursdays 40 to 60 pounds.

Well, and then busy times we'll have upwards of 100 pounds that we like to have in the cooler.

And I'd rater have a little bit extra, because I hate for people to make a drive here and not have any.

It's one thing that's been a little bit overwhelm, not overwhelming, but interesting, is how far people will come for cheese curd that's fresh made.

And they've kind of gotten accustomed to liking ours, and we appreciate that.

- [Eric] In Lowville for "WPBS Weekly," I'm Eric Cleary.

(gentle music) - Still hungry?

Good.

Keep the cheese on the table, but make room for the main course, maple bourbon chicken.

Johnny Spezzano of "The Border," teams up with Shawn Massey in the kitchen to bring you this next tasty delight.

(bright music) - Hey, come on!

(bold music) Well hello, Johnny Spezzano here.

Welcome to "Johnny on Fire" This is my kitchen, and this is Shawn Massey from Massey Ranch.

- How you doing?

- What's up?

- Thank you for having me come.

- He's been here before.

(Shawn laughs) We've cooked these bourbon maple wings, which we're going to be enjoying, before (indistinct), my friend.

- And their fantastic.

- Yes, they are really good.

- Yes.

- So tell us a little bit about Massey Ranch.

- I have a ranch here in Watertown.

We make maple syrup on that ranch.

We enjoy every spring, making that beautiful maple syrup that we're gonna put on these wings today.

- It's gonna make it so good.

- Oh my God, I can't wait.

- Maple Weekend's coming up.

- Absolutely, the last two weekends, we'll be talking about that I think, right?

- All right, so you want to get started?

- Absolutely.

- All right.

So wanna say something, a little editors note.

Chicken wings were super expensive last year, do you remember?

- Yep.

- So I took it at my liberty to actually get some big drumsticks.

- They're the biggest ones I've ever seen.

- They're a little meatier, right?

Bag of wings costs you 20 bucks, All those drumsticks, 5 bucks.

- Okay, that's the way to go.

- So, saves you a little money, and it's gonna be delicious.

- I though you're just buying big wings for me, 'cause I was coming.

(laughs) (Johnny laughs) - All right, so lets get started.

We've gotta get a little dry rub together.

So we'll have you add some ingredients to our little glass container, okay.

A little rosemary, nice.

- Ah, I love rosemary.

Love the smell of it.

- A little rosemary.

- Some garlic.

- Yes.

Extra garlic, can I?

- Extra garlic, do it up.

- Yeah, okay.

- And what we're gonna do, is we're gonna dust the wings with this concoction.

I have the noisiest peppermill you've ever heard.

(peppermill grinding) - Lot's of pepper, a little bit of pepper!

- Yeah, get it.

- All right.

- I told you, listen to it.

(peppermill creaking) - Yeah, it does sound... - [Johnny] Sounds like a duck at the Massey Ranch.

- Yes, it does.

- Okay, that's enough.

- It's good, all right?

- Salt.

- Salt.

(salt mill crackling) All right.

- Better yet, do a dusting right over the wings, Shawn, okay?

- Oh, yeah.

You've done this a couple of times, right?

- Just do it like that.

And then we have our last ingredient is a Cajun Foreplay, which is Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.

I'm gonna help you with that, all right?

- [Shawn] Do you have to use this or is this not so- - [Johnny] You know what, you can create a dry rub with any ingredients around the kitchen.

All right, so what we're gonna do, gonna mix them all together.

- Let me smell it.

(Shawn sniffs) - Wow, wonderful.

- Right?

So you know this gonna be good.

We're just gonna cover these drumsticks right up.

Oh my goodness.

All right.

- [Shawn] And you probably can't put too much on, right?

- [Johnny] I mean you don't want it to burn, so you wanna be careful.

There, we'll put it all on.

- Why not?

- It looks good.

(Shawn laughs) All right, so next, we're gonna take an onion.

I've got a red onion, 'cause they're sweet, right?

This is going to go into our maple bourbon glaze using that awesome maple from the Massey Ranch.

I am not a classically-trained chef.

- I think it adds more character.

You know, you don't want (Johnny laughs) consistent-sized pieces of onion.

- [Johnny] And luckily I've never lost a finger.

All right, bring that - (laughs) Yeah.

- [Johnny] cast iron skillet over.

Love cooking in cast iron, okay.

And we will add this right in here.

Well, just grab the olive olive oil there.

- Yes.

- We'll put a little drop of olive oil in there.

- [Shawn] Put this all in there.

- All right now, we're gonna put it on the fire.

This is the best part.

- Wow.

- Now as we get ready, what we're gonna do this time, we often cook in the oven, we're actually gonna bring the oven out!

- Wow!

- Yes, we're going to reach in- - Now you've never done this for me before, so.

- All right, we're gonna reach in, and we're gonna bring out some of these hot coals, right to the edge of the oven.

Okay.

Just like that, okay?

- And the smoke doesn't come out, nice.

- All right, smoke goes right up the- - Yep.

- flue here.

And we're gonna take the onion, place it right on top here so we can saute.

And if you listen, we can here it start to sizzle.

(onion sizzling) (upbeat music) (cork squeaking) - I would say, - You go first.

- you can eye this, but we're making a glaze, okay?

- Okay.

- So I'm gonna go for 3/4 of a cup of bourbon.

You can add a cup if you want.

(pan sizzling) Okay, and then about the same in maple syrup.

(pan sizzling) Whoo, you're getting - Wow, that looks great.

- that aroma already, right?

Smells so good, we'll give it a stir.

(pan sizzling) And again, we're gonna let this mix together.

It will reduce down, get thicker, and then glaze the chicken so good.

Ah, it smells so good, and it's already starting to thicken up.

(spoon clanging) (upbeat music) The maple glaze has reduced enough for us to take her out.

We're gonna set her down and you can see.

You guys make maple candy over there, so... - Yes, we do.

It's very similar.

- We'll talking a little bit more about that.

Okay, so I've gotta get (paddle scrapes) our oven ready.

We're gonna push these coals back in.

It's really good to have your oven, especially when you do a wood fire.

- Mm-hmm.

- All your charcoal and wood back in one corner to get out of the way.

(paddle scrapes) - I see.

- All right, you wanna add the chicken to the pan for me, friend?

- Absolutely.

- Okay.

So go ahead and just drop it right in there.

It looks so good.

- Oh, these - You know what, Shawn?

- are gonna be fantastic.

Oh, are you gonna- - This is how guys do it.

- All right, all right.

- We're just gonna go like this.

Throw it right in, okay.

Might wanna add a little drop of oil so it doesn't stick to your pan.

If you're doing this at home, you're gonna bake it at about 350 degrees.

Start with 30 minutes.

Don't forget to check it with a thermometer, meat thermometer.

Okay, let's go.

(pan scraping) (upbeat music) What I love about maple it's a pure, North Country product, right?

- Absolutely.

- From the trees, to the water, all of it, from here.

- Nah, from the tree we take the sap the tree gives us, and we boil it down until it turns into that wonderful, gold, sugary product that we use today.

- What's this?

- That's traditional, that's traditionally how we use to collect the sap from the trees.

I used those buckets like that up until about three years ago.

I gathered 1,000 of these.

It could be everyday, I had to gather 1,0000 buckets.

- 1,000 buckets.

- Yep, my wife and kids.

- Okay, so for instance, how many buckets would it take to make this much maple syrup?

- Well, it take 40 buckets to make a gallon.

- Okay.

- So you're mainly done, you're gonna be you know, three or four buckets to make that.

- So the idea is the sap has water in it, and it boils down to make the pure maple syrup.

- We need to remove the water.

What comes out of the tree is 2% sugar, 98% water, is what comes out of the tree.

We need to bring it up to like 66% sugar.

And the only way to get rid of the water is boil it.

- Real quick, let's go over some of the stuff you've got here.

Obviously, the syrup.

- Yep, so syrup you can do.

Maple syrup's one of the most versatile products there is out there.

A lot of people just think, "Oh, I put it on my pancakes in the morning," but there is way more to do it, so.

- I love it on ice cream- - Yep, me too.

- with walnuts.

- Yes.

- Maple walnut.

- Vanilla ice cream.

- Yeah.

- Gotta be vanilla ice cream.

- Vanilla ice cream, yeah.

- Can make maple teas.

This is maple taffy.

So this is made by a famous taffy maker up in Lewis County called Freeman's Old-Fashioned Taffy.

- [Johnny] All right!

- We give them some of our maple syrup, they make maple taffy.

There's maple barbecue sauce.

There's this maple coffee.

Maple coffee is very popular.

If you've never had it you gotta try it.

It's made down at Paul deLima in Syracuse.

They actually use New York City maple syrup and roast it.

There's maple cream, now do you know maple cream?

- I love maple cream on toast.

How do you make maple cream?

- So we will take our maple syrup and I heat it up hotter.

Maple syrup is maple syrup at 219 degrees.

(packaging crackling) Might have to be stirred up, I don't know.

Is that's brown?

- Okay.

- Ah, that's good.

Oh no, it's perfect.

- Can I just be that bold (Shawn laughing) and just, oh, mm.

- You probably are thinking he's crazy, but my wife is the same way.

- Ah, mm.

- You can just eat it right out of the- - I have soot on my fingers unfortunately, so, from the pizza oven.

- But maple cream, that's pure maple syrup.

I didn't mix it with anything.

I didn't do anything other than to heat it up hotter.

(Johnny groans) Let it cool down, and put it in a machine that spins it and folds it 'til it turns into the consistency of peanut butter.

So that's why we call it maple cream.

- Sorry bro, I had to dig in.

- You know people say, "Well, put it on a English muffin."

You can put it on a, - you can put it on a donut.

- This is maple cream too.

- No that's mustard.

- Oh no, this is mustard!

- Maple mustard.

- What?

- And then we have garlic rub.

- What's this?

Okay.

- That's maple floss!

So we even take our maple granulated sugar, and put it in a cotton candy machine to make maple floss.

- So Maple Weekend's coming up, if people wanna find out more, there's maps and all that stuff, where do they go?

- Just go to mapleweekend.com, and you can look where you live, and there's an interactive map on there.

You can see what sugar houses are there.

And also a lot of sugar houses offer different things.

We have some high-tech sugar houses that have state-of-the-art evaporators and vacuum systems to get the sap.

Then we have more traditional sugar houses that use horses and wagons to gather the sap.

- What's your earliest memory of being out in the woods collecting maple syrup sap.

- So it would have to be, my age I would say around 9, 10, somewhere in that age.

My father did it, my father tapped trees with buckets, 100 of them, 100 buckets or so.

Maybe get up to about 200.

And I was there.

I wasn't helping.

(Johnny laughs) But I was probably more of a hindrance than a help.

- Ah sure.

- But it's amazing how years went by, and I bought a piece of property, and it had maple trees on it.

And I said, "You know what, I remember when I was a kid, my father use to make maple syrup.

And I'm gonna make maple syrup."

- Yeah.

- But my problem is I never do things small.

So I started with 50 buckets and then 100 buckets, and then 500 buckets and then 1,000 buckets.

Then the buckets became too much of a work.

- [Johnny] Okay.

- So then you switch to vacuum, you know tubing.

So the new way to gather sap is you use tubing instead of buckets.

So then I went to 1,500 taps, so it's an addiction.

It's one of those things where when you start making it, you just want to expand and newer equipment and.

- You have a window of opportunity obviously, which is it varies each year because of the weather, right?

- It varies.

- On average, our season's about six weeks.

Now that six weeks shifts left and right.

I've made syrup in January.

I've had some years they don't make syrup until March.

So it's always a moving target, it's based on weather.

I watch "The Weather Channel" so much.

- There has to be a melt and then a freeze, right?

And that makes the sap run.

- A warm day, - Yep.

- cold night.

- Okay.

- Warm day, cold night.

That back and forth is the only time you'll get sap.

If it's warm-warm, nothing.

Cold-cold, they're just frozen trees.

So it's one of those things where you watch it.

Now there's a lot of work we do in the woods too, so right now we're working in the woods, getting ready for the season, because usually I'll tap my trees, which is drilling the hole to get the sap around Valentines Day.

So we're getting ready out there- - Your wife love that.

- Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.

Uh-huh, all right.

No.

(both laugh) And this year, it'll be interesting to see how much snow we have you know, when we get ready to tap them so.

- Well, it's a North Country tradition, and we love having the Massey Ranch with us.

You ready for some chicken?

- Yes.

- Let's go check and see how it's cooking.

(upbeat music) - Wow.

(pan sizzling) You've outdone yourself.

- Look at that.

Oh, my gosh.

The smokiness is gonna be amazing.

You ready to add this?

You wanna do it?

I'll do it.

- You better.

- I don't want anybody to get burned.

- You're the professional.

- All right.

- [Johnny] You know what, let's dump the chicken onto the platter.

Slide that platter over.

- Yep.

- And then we'll add the glaze.

(skillet sizzling) - [Shawn] Ah.

- [Johnny] Okay, glaze.

- [Shawn] Falling off the bone.

- Falling off the bone.

Are we getting excited?

Listen how quiet, we're concentrating!

Oh.

- When it comes to food you gotta quiet down, you gotta focus, you know.

- This maple bourbon glaze.

Now I got some green onions here just to make it fun, make it look good when we serve it to our guests.

And guess who the guests are?

You and I bro.

- That's the, two.

- I think since we are having maple bourbon wings, we should have a little bourbon to go along with it.

- Celebrate that accomplishment.

- So I'll pour a little for you.

And here's to all the maple producers in the region.

And we won't forget our Canadian counterparts as well.

Thanks for helping get that liquid gold from tree to table.

(glasses clink) - Thank you, Johnny.

- Cheers, cheers.

Okay you ready?

- Oh wow.

- Let's eat.

Okay, don't burn yourself.

- All right, let me see.

That one looks great.

- [Johnny] Okay, I'll go for this one.

Wow, super hot.

- Wow.

- It's sticky and carmely and good.

- And you smell the maple, you can smell the bourbon.

- Now if you want a little variation, throw a little bacon grease in there too.

- That would- - Then it's bacon - maple bourbon.

- maple bourbon.

All right, here we go.

That's hot.

(laughs) Let me try it again.

- Ah.

- It's so hot.

- That is so good.

So good.

- Mm.

So much flavor.

- Can you make these everyday for me please.

(both laughing) - I'll work on that.

Mm.

Well, thank you so much for tuning in.

It's been another great episode of "Johnny on Fire."

And my lips are on fire right now, 'cause that was a hot piece of chicken.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you to Shawn Massey.

- Thank you.

- Let's eat.

(upbeat music) Oh, by the way, you can check out the "Dinner at Johnny's" podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

(upbeat music) Ah.

Came out so good and so hot.

- [Shawn] Mm, it is so good.

- Maple Weekend happens twice in March at various sites throughout New York State.

Visit mapleweekend.nysmaple.com for the map and more details.

We wrap things up tonight with A Short Walk to Pluto, a Toronto-based band offering alternative rock with catchy hooks and rhythms.

Here they are with their original tune, "You Are Not The Only One."

(upbeat music) (easy music) (upbeat music) (bold music) (bold music continues) ♪ Grab a hold of what you are ♪ ♪ And I know that you will pull me to pieces ♪ ♪ Again and again ♪ ♪ Hold me back if you want it ♪ ♪ I won't leave if you're gonna give me something new ♪ ♪ But you gotta give me something new ♪ ♪ And you know you're not the only one I see ♪ (music slows) ♪ You are not the only one ♪ (bold music) ♪ Hold your breath for a moment ♪ ♪ Take your time if you need another minute or two ♪ ♪ If you need another minute or two ♪ ♪ It's not that serious ♪ ♪ It's not that fair if you're never gonna open up ♪ ♪ But you know you gotta open up ♪ ♪ You are not the only one I see ♪ (music slows) ♪ You are not the only one I love ♪ ♪ You are not the only one who's taken my heart ♪ ♪ You are not the only one ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (music intensifies) ♪ Slow it down and be honest ♪ ♪ Can't believe that you'll never tell me what you want ♪ ♪ But you gotta tell me what you want ♪ ♪ It's not that serious ♪ ♪ It's not that fair if you're never gonna open up ♪ ♪ But you know you gotta open up ♪ ♪ And you know you're not the only one I see ♪ (music slows) ♪ You are not the only one I love ♪ ♪ You are not the only one who's taken my heart ♪ ♪ You are not the only one ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Not the only one ♪ ♪ Not the only one ♪ ♪ Not the only one ♪ (bold music) (music slows) That does it for us this Tuesday evening.

Now join us next week for a fresh look "Inside the Stories."

WPBS takes you to Albany for an in-depth interview with experts on the status of the opiod crisis in New York State.

And artists in Kingston can freely express themselves in a unique space.

We'll take you inside The Mess Studio.

Also Central New York musician, Scott Bravo, visits the WPBS studios and shares his original acoustic music.

Meantime, we wanna tell your story.

If you, or someone in your community, has something meaningful, historic, or inspirational, or educational to share, please email us at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org, and let's share it with the region.

That's it for now, everyone.

We'll see you again next week.

Goodnight.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories" is brought to you by The Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, a free resource offering confidential business advice for those interested in starting or expanding their small business.

Serving Jefferson, Lewis, and Oswego Counties since 1986, online at watertown.nysbdc.org.

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Additional funding provided by the J.M.

McDonald Foundation, the Dr. D. Susan Badenhausen Legacy Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation, and the New York State Education Department.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) ♪ You are not the only one I see ♪ (easy music) ♪ You are not the only one I love ♪ (gentle music)