On my last trip to the Midwest, I made my way to Wisconsin for the very first time. I made a list of everything I wanted to eat, see, and do to fully "experience Wisconsin." Beer, bratwurst, Brett, and cheese. Okay, so I didn't get a chance to meet up with Brett Favre, but I did get to the other three. Nothing extraordinary - we have beer in California, thanks to Johnsonville we also have brats, and we all know that happy cows in California make happy cheese..
What was extraordinary was my very first taste of a cheese curd. In the cheese-making process, when the enzyme rennin (found in calf stomachs - *ew*) is added to milk, the milk coagulates and separates into a watery liquid called whey and semi-solids. The semi-solids are curds, which eventually get drained of the whey and are pressed together to become cheese.
Basically, cheese curds are the precious little pre-cursors to cheese, so the flavor is similar to a mild Cheddar cheese, but the texture is different. It’s hard to describe, but cheese curds are bouncier. If you squeeze a piece of cheese, for the most part, it will give in to the pressure and take on a new squozen shape. If you squeeze a cheese curd, it maintains its original shape, springing back from a little pressure. Unlike beer, bratwurst, and cheese, cheese curds are not widely available outside Wisconsin because they have to be eaten very shortly after they are produced, otherwise they lose their "curdness." Thank God, otherwise, I would sit down with a bag of cheese curds and grow to a very (un)healthy nine billion pounds. As a side note, I can never go to Wisconsin in the summer because at fairs and carnivals, a popular snack is beer-battered and deep-fried cheese curds. Oh, for the love of my arteries. Deep fried cheese curds.
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