Wisconsin Cheese

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (April 2008)

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (April 2008)

Many consider cheese to be synonymous with Wisconsin, due to its cheese making tradition that dates back to the 1800’s. Actually, European immigrants migrated to Wisconsin years earlier, drawn to its fertile fields and similarity to their homeland.

Soon, dairy farms sprang up around Wisconsin and farmers began producing cheese to preserve excess milk. In 1841, Mrs. Anne Pickett established Wisconsin’s first commercial cheese factory, using milk from neighbors’ cows. A century later, Wisconsin was home to more than 1,500 cheese factories, which produced more than 500 million pounds of cheese per year.

Today, Wisconsin continues to be the largest cheese producer in the United States, making over 600 different cheese varieties, and 2.4 billion pounds each year – 25% of all domestic cheese. Perhaps more importantly, Wisconsin boasts more licensed cheesemakers than any other state. They are also the only ones to offer a Master Cheesemaker program, which is patterned on the rigorous standards of similar programs in Europe.

Source: Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board

Wisconsin cheese is known for its orange colour, originally designed as a marketing tool to differentiate it from New England cheese.