Curd is the word

Served warm, cold or hot from the fryer these cheese bites are a crowd pleaser

Cheese curds. How should they be served? Cold or room temperature? What exactly are they? And how are they made? Given that I am not a Wisonsin native, I originally wasn’t sure how to answer any of these questions and the only form of cheese curd I have ever eaten is fried. But, after talking to a couple different cheese distributors, I think I may have all the answers about cheese I’ll ever need and maybe now I can become an honorary Wisconsinite.

95% of Wisconsin’s milk production is used to make cheese. One might think that cheese curds are made differently from other cheeses or cut into special shapes, but curds are actually the original form that cheese is made in. Every single cheese block and wheel begins as a cheese curd. So, to make cheese curds, the cheese is left in its orginal curd form instead of being pressed together into a block.

Now that we know what cheese curds are, we can answer the most important question. What is the best way to serve a cheese curd? I talked to Jeff Soppeland, the manager at Yellowstone Cheese in Cadott, and he believes that cheese curds are best served at room temperature.

“All cheese should be eaten at room temperature,” Soppeland said when discussing this hot topic. He did admit that he will eat cheese cold but strongly believes that cheese has a better flavor when served at room temperature. He also enjoys fried cheese curds.

Yellowstone Cheese produces around 160,000 pounds of cheese curds a year. This past Friday morning, they made around 1,000 pounds of cheese curds and sent them out to stores a few hours later. Cheese curds can be left out for about 24 hours after they are made and after that they should be refrigerated. After refrigeration, they can be left out to warm up and to be enjoyed at room temperature.

“Most cheese is by far better when eaten warm,” says Ken Heiman, a Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker at Marshfield’s Nasonville Dairy. Heiman believes that cheese curds are best served when they are eaten within 24 hours after they are made. If they can’t be eaten within that time, he says that microwaving them is a solid alternative after refrigeration. He believes that if you want a true cheese curd experience, the taste and texture is at its best when the cheese is warm. Heiman enjoys the squeakiness and stretch of a warm cheese curd.

Nasonville Dairy makes their cheese traditionally by pasteurizing Wisconsin produced milk. Culture is then added to the milk to put back some of the bacteria that was taken out after pasteurizing. After this, the milk is able to curdle and eventually turn into cheese. All cheese is naturally white and gets its yellow coloring after being dyed.

Nasonville Dairy produces about 3,500 pounds of cheese curds a day. That makes a total of almost one million pounds of cheese curds a year. According to their website, Wisconsin produces about 26% of the cheese that is made in the United States and that equals out to around 2 billion pounds a year.

According to the experts, the consensus seems to be that everyone should be eating their cheese curds at room temperature. So, if you’ve never had a warm or room temperature cheese curd maybe next time you decide to have the bitesize delicacy, you’ll try it the way that many people believe it is supposed to be. And, if you already know you prefer your cheese curds cold, just know that you’re not prov-alone and you should keep doing you.

FRIED CHEESE CURDS

Whether or not you prefer your cheese curds room temperature or cold, we all know that the best way to serve them is fried. I talked to Cheese Curd Expert and former owner of Gad Cheese Inc. and Retail store Diane Albrecht to find out the best way to make fried cheese curds.

“That is a well kept secret,” Albrecht replied when I asked her how she made her cheese curds. While I didn’t get “Diane’s secret”, she did give me some advice about frying cheese curds. She believes the best cheese curds are made with dry batter rather than wet and should always be frozen before being fried. When working with dry batter, you do need to use milk and some sort of binder, such as eggs, to get the breading to stick to the cheese curd.

I also asked Albrecht the question we all need the answer to. Why do cheese curds always taste better at the fair? She believes that the greasiness of the food and the atmosphere that allows you to forget how greasy the food really is, might be the reason. She also stated the importance of having the right amount of cheese curds.

While you may feel obligated to eat a whole pound of cheese curds, you will have a much better experience and a happier stomach if you eat just the right amount.