20 finalists in the US Championship Cheese Contest

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/09/20-finalists-in-the-us-champio.html

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Wisconsin representin

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Cheeeeese!

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Jason, just because it says American on it doesn’t make it cheese.

"American cheese—the kind you get in the individual plastic wrappers—is processed cheese or “cheese food,” meaning it’s not actually real cheese. The next time you’re at the grocery store, take a look at the packed singles and notice how many don’t actually have “cheese” in their name. Kraft Singles, for example, are made with milk, whey, milk protein concentrate, milkfat, less than 2% of calcium phosphate, salt, sodium citrate, whey protein concentrate, sodium phosphate, sorbic acid as a preservative, cheese culture, enzymes, annatto, and paprika extract (for color). In short, Kraft Singles are made with less than 51% actual cheese, so it can’t legally be called “cheese.”

But damn good on grilled bread!

http://mentalfloss.com/article/65003/what-exactly-american-cheese

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So which hill do they roll them down?

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I may have my data a bit off, but WI was the volume cheese producer in America for many years, but CA has usurped that role. I wonder if WI cheese makers try more unusual types of cheese because folks are interested in buying weird cheeses (WI aged brick? stinky as hell but oh so delicious). Cheese culture. pun intended but accidental really…

Do you know why 'merkkin cheese is so Trumpy a color? Well maybe I don’t have my data right here either, but iirc it is because in ages past when cows went out to the pastures in the spring time they ate fresh grasses rather than hay. The fresh sweet grass had some compounds that gave the butter and cheese a slightly warmer, yellowy-orange hue. Consumers deemed the spring cheeses more tasty and sweet due to this effect. So American cheesemakers started putting beet or carrot or carrageenan into the cheese to make it more warm in color and then things got out of hand to the point that we now think of ‘American cheese’ as a trump-colored slab of plastic-like cheese-like product unfit for human consumption. Or at least I do.

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Wow. Greed is cheesy.

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Not only does Wisconsin produce cheese, but they also vote for cheesy presidental candidates. :laughing:

(Is this thing on?)

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If they can’t find a suitable hill, they can always do it virtually

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haha! thx! a repeat meme
I musta seen it here and/or heard it on NPR

greed ruined the cheese

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I’ll see your Life of Brian and raise you the sketch

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Merkin cheese?

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Donald Trump’s origin story.

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Surprising that a representative from a state so heavily invested in cheese wants to jack up healthcare costs for people who eat a lot of cheese, no?

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Class: Commander-in-Douche-Cheeto, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

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Glad to see (though not surprised) Cypress Grove made the list.

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