Type Cheese Color Yellow Website coon.com.au | Country of origin Warrnambool Flavor Various types | |
Manufacturer Warrnambool Cheese and Butter | ||
COON is the trademark of a cheddar cheese produced by Warrnambool Cheese and Butter company in Australia. It was first launched in 1935 by Fred Walker.
Contents
LD&D Foods (who also hold a stake in the company) were the previous operator of the brand until it was sold back to WCB in 2015.
Makers
Coon cheese is named after its American creator, Edward William Coon (1871–1934) of Philadelphia, who patented a method, subsequently known as the Cooning process, for fast maturation of cheese via high temperature and humidity. Former manufacturer Kraft, and later Dairy Farmers and National Foods, have vigorously defended the trademark.
E. W. Coon was the grandson of Amherst Coon (1795–1877), a farmer born in Russia, New York, who married Sally Betsey Treat in 1822. His sons Mattison (b. 1823) and Ephraim Coon (b. 1832) were described in 1893 as having been in the butter and cheese business together at 29 South Water Street, Philadelphia, for more than thirty years. Ephraim's son Edward Willie Coon was born on 30 July 1871, and had taken out at least one cheese patent by 1912.
In August 1923, The Journal and Republican of Lowville, New York, reported the sale by "E. W. Coon of Philadelphia, maker and shipper of cheese", of five milk plants in villages around Watertown to the Dairymen's League Co-operative Association, Inc. It also stated that
While no announcement is made as to which of the numerous Coon plants in northern New York have been bought by the League, it is understood that the big Cape Vincent plant is not among those transferred... The Coon chain of plants include stations at Brownville, Chaumont, Rosiere, Cape Vincent, Clayton and La Fargeville, with several cheese factories in the surrounding territory... Mr Coon's business has been cheese making primarily...
On 27 February 1926 Coon filed an application for a Process for Ripening Cheese. Patent No 1579196 was issued on 30 March 1926. Coon's patent claimed:
- A process for ripening cheese, consisting of supplying, through suitable means, humidified air to a room or chamber set aside for the purpose, the humidified air to have a range of temperature from 45° to 75° F., and a moisture percentage of from 65% to 95%.
- A process for ripening cheese having an original moisture percentage of 36% to 40% and subjecting it to a temperature of 55° F., to 70° F., in combination with a humidity percentage of from 75% to 90%.
From 1933 a cheese was marketed by Fred Walker as Red Coon, and was coated with red wax. The wax was later replaced with cellophane and the red stripe in the logo is a residual reference to the original packaging.
After selling his processing plants, Edward W. Coon became a cheese dealer in Philadelphia. He died in 1934, aged sixty-two.
In popular culture
Black British comedian Stephen K. Amos regularly performs a skit on Coon Cheese as part of his live show, due to the word "Coon" also being an ethnic slur used for black people.