Because a bare cupboard and an empty fridge are sad sights to behold, the Urban Forager hunts through food & wine shops bringing home tasty morsels that make your kitchen table the best place to eat in town.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

A Word About the Curd

Last week, a friend called and asked me what a Cheese Curd was. The next day I was walking by Saxelby Cheesemongers and their sign announced that they had just gotten a batch of Cheese Curds in. Fate? Coincidence? I don’t know, but when the universe speaks I listen, and I walked right in to buy some.
When my friend had first asked me what a Cheese Curd was, the best I could come up with was that a Cheese Curd is a cheese by-product, basically something that falls out of the vat while the cheese is being made. Mmm, doesn’t that sound good? But the thing is, Cheese Curds are good. The ones being sold at Saxelby’s were delicious in fact, so I was determined to come up with a more appetizing description. When I asked Anne Saxelby for her description of Cheese Curds, we got into a long Cheese Curd discussion (this is how cheese people are, immediately friendly with one another and completely unembarrassed by our geekiness).
To make a very long and somewhat complicated cheesemaking lesson short…at the beginning of the cheesemaking process milk begins to coagulate into curds (semi-solid formations) and whey (liquid). The curds and whey are eventually separated and the individual curds are put into molds so they can meld into whole blocks or wheels of cheese. This is the point, I believe, when Cheese Curds jump ship. They are young chunks of cheesy rebelliousness forsaking a respectable life as a wheel of cheddar for life as an individual curd.
Cheese Curds are oddly shaped chunks of un-aged cheese. They are soft and sometimes a little rubbery, and have been known to sometimes give off a squeaky sound when chewed. Cheese Curds do not always have to come from cheddar, but they usually do, giving them a mild, cheddary taste. They are the ultimate kid-friendly food (more fun to eat than string cheese). Because they are best young and fresh, Cheese Curds are usually sold directly by cheesemakers at farmers markets (I’ve seen them at the Santa Monica Sunday Market), they’re everywhere in Wisconsin, and even Amazon.com sells them now (this is not an encouragement to buy them from Amazon. The online empire has to be stopped somewhere, and Cheese Curds is where I draw the line.) If you live in New York, I highly recommend the curds at Saxelby’s. Get ‘em before they’re gone!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

three cheers for curds! i'm glad the cosmos brought us together on this one.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jen,

Being from Wisconsin, I know about cheese curds. You can fry them and or eat them as is...but some of the best cheese curds I have found were sold at the Pike Market in Seatte and at the Bandon Cheese Factory in Oregon. Question??? What are Curds and Whey? ie little miss muffet, and for that matter what is a tuffet?

Aaron
aaronlindstrom@msn.com

Trish M. said...

Jen -
The only time I have had cheese curds is at the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Oregon. This summer we took the kids after your wedding and I was so looking forward to having them try the curds...but they thought the curds were too squeaky and so wouldn't eat them. I actually thought the squeak would be a positive for them!

Sigh, now you've got me thinking all about Cheese Curds, and I don't know of anyplace to get them in Nashville...curse you woman.