Demystifying Cheese

Residing in America’s Dairyland, where it is considered neither peculiar nor uncommon to don a head ornament that resembles a large chunk of cheese, it can be said that we appreciate our state’s prized product. And rightly so. With origins that predate recorded history, cheese is a diverse food with worldwide appreciation and relevance. Nestled in the heart of rich farm country 35 miles northwest of Madison, Cedar Grove Cheese has been doing its part to enhance Wisconsin’s reputation for creating quality cheese for more than 125 years.

As pervasive as cheese is in our culture, its creation still leaves some people guessing. At Cedar Grove, the family-owned company makes it the old-fashioned way—in a state-of-the-art facility, of course. It all begins with milk, about 130,000 pounds per day, which is picked up from 35 nearby farms each morning and placed in storage tanks.

From there it’s treated to a pasteurization process that destroys pathogenic bacteria. Next, a starter culture of bacteria (the good kind) is added to the milk to ferment the lactose, or milk sugar, to lactic acid. These acid levels are monitored by one of seven licensed cheese-makers at various stages of the process to produce the different varieties of cheese. Rennet, an enzyme extracted from a fungus, is then added to coagulate the milk. Wire knives are pulled by hand through the vat from one end to the other until the coagulated milk has been cut into tiny cubes, or curds. As steam elevates the temperature, the curds are gently stirred. This step of the process separates the solid curds from the whey, a watery liquid, which is then drained off.

After the whey is drained, it will travel through a separator that spins off the cream left in the liquid. The cream is then sold to a creamery that will make it into butter, while the rest of the whey is dried into whey powder, which is used as a protein supplement and in items like baked goods and baby food. The wash water used in the cheese production is then processed in the Living Machine, a water treatment facility that cleans the water so it can be discharged into Honey Creek, a part of the Wisconsin River Basin. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the curds are matted along the length of the vat and cut into 18-inch loaves.

The loaves then take a journey into a cheddaring machine that mills them into small chunks. Lo and behold: dense, smooth cheese curds! Once these reach the desired moisture and acid levels, salt is added to slow the starter culture. The cheese achieves its familiar shape when the curds are transferred into a “hoop” and compressed into 42-pound blocks. In a vacuum chamber, these blocks are sealed into plastic bags that prevent mold from growing for a number of years. The cheese blocks are put in woodlined boxes to maintain their shape and then taken to a 40-degree storage room to cure. During the entire cheese-making process, changing the variables—fat content, moisture content, acidity, texture, flavor and age—creates different varieties of cheese.

In 1993, Cedar Grove Cheese was the first cheese producer in the country to pledge that their products were free of rBGH, recombinant bovine growth hormone, a synthetic hormone administered to cows to increase milk production. In 2001, they also made the commitment to abstain from using ingredients that have been genetically modified. Cedar Grove makes seven varieties of cow milk cheese, including Monterey jack, havarti and butterkase. They also produce one sheep milk and two mixed milk (sheep/cow) cheese varieties. Cedar Grove makes a number of organic cheeses as well, from jalapeno pepper jack and tomato & basil white cheddar to reduced fat/salt white cheddar and butterkase.

For a complete list of products, visit www.cedargrovecheese.com or call 800-200-6020. Tours of the Cedar Grove Cheese facility, as well as the Living Machine, are available seven days a week.