September 3 2008: Scary Scouse Spider

[BigV]

Squeaky Cheese.

Yum!

eta:
From here.

Weird food: why is squeaky cheese squeaky?

If you're not from Wisconsin or thereabouts, you may never have heard of the tasty treat squeaky cheese. But you should give it a try.

If you live in the upper Midwest of the United States or the corresponding region in Canada (or anywhere near a cheesemaker) you probably know all about squeaky cheese. But it’s an oddity to much of the nation, where cheese only comes from supermarkets.

The process of making cheese combines a bit of art and science, but to break it down quickly: cheese generally starts with some kind of milk (cow, goat, soy, etc.) to which a coagulant such as rennet or a natural souring culture is added. This forms first soft curds, then harder curds when the whey (liquid) is removed. Then salt and other seasonings are added, the cheese is molded, pressed, banded and aged however long is required for that kind of cheese. Of course there’s much more to it than that, but all we need to know is that the process of cheesemaking results in these little nubby curds after the whey is released and before the cheese is pressed into a block or wheel shape like you see in the grocery store.

Squeaky cheese is simply a bit of the curd taken out before the rest of the batch is aged. It is very fresh (cheesemakers say it is best still warm out of the vat, but can be eaten a couple of days out of the vat) and most often seen made from cheddar cheese. It has a kind of strange texture, a little like silly putty, but it tastes like cheese. The cheese squeaks because it has not been aged at all, thus the texture is squeaky rather than the normal firm aged cheddar that does not squeak. Cheddar cheese is usually aged from two months to four years before being sold.