"Cheese Head"

Cheese appears in a majority of the meals I eat. Whether it be macaroni and cheese, an omelet sprinkled with highly processed cheese from the dining hall, or cheesecake, I have always really enjoyed cheese for its taste and variety. Cheese is a basic, popular food item given its own little space on the food pyramid. As most of us know, cheese is made from the milk of animals, the most common animal being a cow. However, different cultures use different animals in order to retrieve their milk. Greeks use mares and goats while Early Egyptians used camels. Cheese can be made into a variety of forms: raw, pasteurized, sweet or sour, whole, skimmed, or cheeses made with extra cream (Credo Reference). A majority of cheese today is produced in factories and can be chemically created in order to produce a plethora of flavors and designs. For example, the bluish tints found in bleu cheeses is made from mold. Holes in swiss-cheese are formed by bacteria, which produce a gas that gets trapped in cheese, thus creating holes. Although it may sound like an unsanitary process, microorganisms allowed to develop in cheese during the ripening process are the main reason why cheese is so diverse in flavor and taste.

Through the use of science, like microbiology and chemistry, producers of cheese can use the milk protein casein and other complex lactic acid processes in order to create your basic block of cheese. (Credo Reference). All of the different kids of cheese are categorized by the methods used to create them, their place of origin, and the types of milks used in their making. Hard cheeses are cheeses like Parmesan, Romano, Cheddar, Gouda, and Provolone, each type of cheese improves with age. Soft cheeses like Gorganzola, Muenster, Cottage, and Ricotta are all cheese made to be consumed within a short period of time. There are also cheeses for the health conscious, cheeses with low-fat and low salt-content like Baby Swiss, Montrachet, and Bucheron. Throughout the history of production and the combination of cultures, today there is an unending amount of choices of which cheeses to eat, each cheese saying something about where it was made or the story that went into making it.

History of cheese in America originated in Wisconsin, the cheese capital of America, also known as America’s dairyland. Today, Wisconsin has over 600 styles and varieties of American cheese. But why Wisconsin? When Europeans immigrated and colonized America, they found climatic conditions in Wisconsin suitable for farming, which eventually lead to cattle farming, and the storing of the excess milk they removed from cows lead to the formation of an abundance of cheese (Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board). In the mid 1800’s, the first small scale industrial cheese factories were made, using neighbors cows for milk and producing cheese to sell to neighbors. In 1859, cheese became considered fully industrialized by Hiram Smith, a farmer on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. The cheese industry in Wisconsin further expanded, and become economically influential for the state. The industry grew and grew in prosperity until today, where there are 12,000 dairy farms with 1.26 million cows. This makes 20,630 pounds of milk per year and a large amount of this milk goes to the production of cheese. No wonder Wisconsin is known nation wide for their cheese, they produce 2.6 billion pounds of cheese a year (Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board).

What I found most interesting about my discovery of cheese production and history is something I already knew. The variety of cheeses that can be made leaves me dumbfounded. The prime ingredient in cheese is milk, and I had no idea how many methods and intricate processes go into the formation of good cheese, and good cheese only gets better with time. In terms of my personal relationship with food, learning this information has only improved my relationship with cheese. It makes me excited to try all the types I have yet to experience, widen my horizons by trying a cheese made from camel milk instead of the traditional cow. I plan on going to one of the cheese festivals Wisconsin provides, or maybe go to a cheese and wine tasting event when I make it to the age of 21. Although I am somewhat disgusted with the amount of microorganisms and bacteria used in the creation of cheese, this is something I can ignore because my love of cheese overcomes my thoughts about eating mold. Even though I am not from Wisconsin, I guess you could consider me a “cheese head.”

Work Cited

"cheese." The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.

Credo Reference. Web. 07 May 2012.

"Join Us on a Tour of Wisconsin's Storied Cheesemaking Past." History of Wisconsin

Cheese. Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, 2012. Web. 07 May 2012.

<http://www.eatwisconsincheese.com/wisconsin/history_of_wisconsin_che

ese.aspx>.