A Wisconsin Tradition

Cheese curds: a Wisconsin tradition. I decided on doing an ethnographic photo essay on cheese curds in the Madison region of Wisconsin. This state is known as the “Dairy State” because of the extensive amounts of cheese and other dairy products we produce. In Wisconsin, soil degradation before and after the Civil War caused the yields of wheat to decrease, meaning the increase in a need for an alternative product. Dairy products emerged as the most viable alternative, and by 1915, Wisconsin produced more butter and cheese annually than any other state. Many people consider cheese and milk important staples in the Wisconsin diet. Cheese curds are a popular variation of cheese in Wisconsin. There are two common modes of consumption of cheese curds, either fresh or fried. In Madison, Wisconsin, there are many different restaurants and places that sell both fresh and fried cheese curds. There is even a cheese curd festival in Madison. For this project, I interviewed ten people about their favorite places to get cheese curds. The exact question that I asked was “name two places with the best cheese curds in Madison.” I got varied answers from my interviewees. The top responses were The Old Fashioned with five votes, fresh cheese curds with three votes, Blue Moon Bar and Grill with three votes, Culver's with three votes, and OSS with two votes. For the photos, I went to these places and some of the other favorite cheese curd places mentioned by the interviewees.

Information about dairy products and Wisconsin from Madison Food: A History of Capital Cuisine by Nichole Fromm and JonMichael Rasmus.