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Old 11-25-2014, 11:08 AM
 
Location: East TX
2,116 posts, read 3,047,730 times
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Friends from Amarillo visited in WI last year and fell in love with cheese curds and fish fry Friday after spending a couple days at State Fair. Now we moved to TX and are suffering from cheese withdrawal. Cheese curds are relatively unheard of here, and the overall cheese selection is very poor.

Anyone who gets a chance, share with those who don't know what they are missing. Enlighten the masses to the joys of good cheese curds.
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Old 11-25-2014, 11:19 AM
 
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2,869 posts, read 4,449,697 times
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Remember that Ontario and Quebec both have excellent cheddar cheese curds, that we export to the deep south. I have seen curds from Quebec all over the south land of the US. Under NAFTA there is no import duty on Canadian food products entering the US.

link . Canadian Cheese Producers List of Cheese Manufacturers by Province

Jim B. In Toronto.
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Old 11-25-2014, 12:36 PM
 
Location: Wisconsin
1,261 posts, read 950,007 times
Reputation: 1468
Quote:
Originally Posted by bluescreen73 View Post
The A&Ws out here have "cheese curds" on the menu so I tried them on a whim once. They were nothing more than mozzarella cheese sticks in nugget form...on top of that they weren't fully cooked. They were gross.
Yes, that is not even close to a real cheese curd. I made the mistake of trying them once, too. Thankfully, I'm in WI and have much better options. I actually prefer them fresh from the market (not fried and - as someone else mentioned - made that day and never refrigerated ), but if I'm having fried curds my favorite are from Graze in Madison. Yumm!
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Old 11-25-2014, 01:03 PM
 
Location: Wisconsin
1,261 posts, read 950,007 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by canadian citizen View Post
Remember that Ontario and Quebec both have excellent cheddar cheese curds, that we export to the deep south. I have seen curds from Quebec all over the south land of the US. Under NAFTA there is no import duty on Canadian food products entering the US.

link . Canadian Cheese Producers List of Cheese Manufacturers by Province

Jim B. In Toronto.
Yes, I've heard you all know how to do curds properly, as well. That said, I'm still skeptical that a shipped curd could be anywhere near as good as a fresh one!
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Old 11-25-2014, 01:23 PM
 
Location: Milwaukee
3,453 posts, read 4,526,631 times
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I've had curds in Montreal, and they simply don't compare to Wisconsin curds. Probably best outside the area (plus near-WI spots in IA/IL/MN), and they do make a mean poutine with 'em in Montreal

I know the rest of the country thinks we mean fried cheese curds, but we don't. We mean fresh. Best right from a cheese factory, same day. Which barely exist in quantity in this country outside Wisconsin, so you can see the dilemma!
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Old 11-25-2014, 04:44 PM
 
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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Aminwi :

Ever hear of air freight......

I used to buy LIVE lobsters from Nova Scotia, over the phone at 8 am, and have them in Toronto, at 3pm, and delivered to my restaurant customers by 5 pm. The wonders of air freight..........As I used to say to the customers, if it was any fresher, it would still be in the ocean in that cold salt water.

Jim B. In Toronto.
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Old 11-25-2014, 06:11 PM
 
2,311 posts, read 1,845,711 times
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Wow! I was not expecting so many replies, thank you everyone.

Quote:
Were they still squeaky with shipping?
The ones my mother sent me squeaked a little, but not like a day 1 squeak. I have not mentioned to my co-workers they're also called squeaky cheese. I think they'd die laughing if I said that.

Quote:
i'd think if packed to keep cool, curds would retain their "squeakiness" when shipped,
This is why I only receive curds in Winter. This is the only thing I like about Winter is that I can get cheese curds. I usually leave my curds sit out until I open them unless I have multiple packs. I find that refrigerating them causes them to lose a lot of the softness / consistency / taste. I honestly don't know what to do when I get these 20 bags, should I refridgerate, or should I let them sit out till the next morning when I can hand them out? /shrug, may I get some suggestions?

Quote:
they need to stop at the farmer's market and grab some curds that were made fresh that morning.
Sadly, in my 20+ years in Wisconsin, I've never been to the farmers market. I'll put it on my list. Who has the best one?

Quote:
Now you can make a batter and deep fry those curds and let them melt in your co-workers mouths.
My co-worker mentioned he found online a recipe for deep fried cheese curds. I personally find it REALLY odd to deep fry cheese. So I won't be doing it, but I'll ask him how his were if he deep fries some.

Quote:
we are somewhat spoiled by quality of cheese here in Wisconsin.
Every cheese I taste down here, I find myself sad that it's not Wisconsin cheese.

Quote:
We mean fresh. Best right from a cheese factory, same day. W
When I visit Wisconsin in Summer of 2015, I'll be visiting a cheese factory. This is on my list and set in stone for me. I spent my whole life not roaming Wisconsin and next year that's going to change. I'll look up when the Wisconsin State Fair is.. I was planning my trip for early June, possibly.
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Old 11-25-2014, 09:04 PM
 
Location: WI
3,961 posts, read 11,017,533 times
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OP for a farmers market i would suggest Madison. It wraps around the capital building every saturday from spring thru fall. Bonus for the capital being open to walk around and add in a stroll down state st when done. I could be wrong but i believe Madison has one of the largest markets of its kind in the states.
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Old 11-25-2014, 09:18 PM
 
108 posts, read 150,514 times
Reputation: 110
I remember sharing the love of cheese curds with my roommates in Minnesota and their amazement of how awesome they were. Trying to figure out how I can bring brats and curds down on the regular for my relocation to the south.
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Old 11-25-2014, 09:47 PM
 
Location: Wisconsin
1,261 posts, read 950,007 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by canadian citizen View Post
Aminwi :

Ever hear of air freight.......
No, what's that?!?

Just kidding! Of course I have, but here we tend to measure the freshness of curds in hours. You'll see signs on the table next to the curds that say "Made at 5AM this morning." 5AM seems to be the time of day to make curds. And then if you're at the morning farmers market, a good share of the people you see buying curds will open them right there and eat them for breakfast so as not to give them the opportunity to lose freshness. In the winter, I'll buy them from one grocery store near me that gets them fresh every day and does not refrigerate them. If I'm there later in the day - well first off, they're often sold out by late in the day - but if I'm there later in the day and they still have them on the table, I'll usually get them but will think twice about it because they're no longer fresh. So even if those curds are getting out to customers by 5PM the day they were made, it is still a little late.

You were kind enough to share a list of Canadian cheese producers. Here's one of the cheese makers in Wisconsin, 88 of them: 88 Wisconsin Cheese Factories with Interactive Map
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