What Type Of Cheese Are Wisconsin Cheese Curds?
Cheese curds aren’t made from an unusual, hard-to-find cheese, despite the reverence with which they are spoken about in Wisconsin. In fact, they are simply made from baby cheddar, according to Allrecipes. As cheddar ages, its texture gets crumblier and its flavor becomes sharper, per Cheese.com. Like baby cheddar cheese curds, matured cheddar ranges in color and can be anywhere from white to orange, if coloring is added. When they are eaten soon after being made, the curds have a smooth texture.
Cheese curds get their flavoring from the enzymes added to cow’s milk to make cheddar cheese (via National Dairy Council). The bits of cheese that are called curds are created during the cheesemaking process when they are divided from the whey, per Allrecipes. The curds are then bagged to be sold right away, versus being put in a mold to age into a more mature cheddar. Cheese curds can even be made at home with gallons of milk, calcium chloride, thermophilic culture, liquid rennet, and cheese salt in an eight-step process, according to New England Cheesemaking Supply Co.
If you can’t make it to Wisconsin anytime soon, and making them in your kitchen sounds like a bit too much work, don’t worry. There are plenty of cheese shops willing to mail their cheese with a squeak to hungry cheese lovers.
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