It is a beautiful happenstance that I get to live and work in Monroe, because for my entire life my favorite food has been cheese.
As a child my favorite thing to eat was processed cheese slices. Maybe it's just that I like food that is the color orange. My whole diet, if I would have been able to choose at age 10, would have been processed cheese singles, fresh oranges and orange slice candy.
My love of cheese didn't go farther than those plastic-wrapped slices from heaven for many years.
Growing up in my working-class home meant the refrigerator included basic items crafted toward my father's meat-and-potatoes tastes.
At about age 10, I can recall being at a family party where a tray was produced with all sorts of colorful slices of fresh cheese. In the middle of the tray, there were crumbles of aged sharp cheddar.
A friend of the family, who I always called "Aunt Marie," asked me if I liked cheese and of course my head bobbed up and down like a Labrador retriever watching a treat being waved in front of its nose.
"Oh, then you'll love a piece of that cheese in the middle," she said with an odd grin and her husband, Herb, snickering by her side. "Go ahead, try a piece."
I picked up a jagged, gravel-like piece and popped it in my mouth. Extra-sharp, aged cheddar does not take long to announce its first arrival in the mouth of a pre-teen. It immediately felt like I put a 9-volt battery with extra pepper on my tongue.
The laugher exploded from Marie and Herb as I opened my mouth and produced that nugget on the tip of my tongue. There's just no pretty way to take something like that out of your mouth. And at this function I was supposed to be on my best behavior. I grabbed a napkin, removed the offending piece of cheese and went and hid for the rest of the afternoon.
As we age, our tastes change. I've deliciously discovered I enjoy the most fragrant and savory of cheeses served at room temperature.
We had some visitors at Morris Media of Monroe last week who flew in from Georgia. Their last stop of the afternoon in Monroe was to pick up locally-made beer and Wisconsin cheese. As they eyed their selections at the case, I felt like a tour guide pointing and saying, "Pair that, with this and add some of this and serve it with this ..."
"What, do you work for the chamber of commerce or something?" a colleague asked as a joke.
"Actually, I'm a chamber of commerce ambassador," I replied, "but my love and knowledge of cheese is purely personal."
Due to my job here at the Times, I had a chance to have a digital conversation about Green County's upcoming 2018 Cheese Days celebration with Cheese Days Director Noreen Rueckert. Being a novice to Cheese Days, our discussion led me to page through the special sections we produced for the event in 2016.
In that year, Emmi Roth Grand Cru Surchoix, produced by Emmi Roth of Monroe, was chosen as the best cheese at the World Championship Cheese Contest. It was the first time in 18 years that a cheese made in the United States took the world title.
We are surrounded by world-class cheeses and cheesemakers. I'm far from professional at the cheese game. I would classify myself as an "eater." Cheesemaking is an incredible art, and the possibilities of creating new cheeses are endless. I find this fascinating.
The World Championship Cheese Contest will be at Monona Terrace in Madison in 2018, just as Cheese Days will return to Monroe.
Wisconsin Cheesemakers were in fine form as they swept the United States Cheese Contest this past March. A considerable number of local labels earned recognition.
One interesting tidbit I found in looking up the results from the United States contest is a category exists for seemingly everything, including pasteurized processed cheese slices. I absolutely trust the palates of the judges at these contests, however, I wonder if that category shouldn't have a special judging done by cheese-loving children.
The winner of the best pasteurized processed cheese slices was Wisconsin's own Associated Milk Producers Inc. of Portage. As I've still kept a taste for the occasional wrapped cheese slice, I've had this brand in my refrigerator, especially when the children were younger.
This cheese "eater" never knew that even when it came to cheese slices, in Wisconsin we're getting the best - and even on a meat-and-potatoes budget.
- Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.
As a child my favorite thing to eat was processed cheese slices. Maybe it's just that I like food that is the color orange. My whole diet, if I would have been able to choose at age 10, would have been processed cheese singles, fresh oranges and orange slice candy.
My love of cheese didn't go farther than those plastic-wrapped slices from heaven for many years.
Growing up in my working-class home meant the refrigerator included basic items crafted toward my father's meat-and-potatoes tastes.
At about age 10, I can recall being at a family party where a tray was produced with all sorts of colorful slices of fresh cheese. In the middle of the tray, there were crumbles of aged sharp cheddar.
A friend of the family, who I always called "Aunt Marie," asked me if I liked cheese and of course my head bobbed up and down like a Labrador retriever watching a treat being waved in front of its nose.
"Oh, then you'll love a piece of that cheese in the middle," she said with an odd grin and her husband, Herb, snickering by her side. "Go ahead, try a piece."
I picked up a jagged, gravel-like piece and popped it in my mouth. Extra-sharp, aged cheddar does not take long to announce its first arrival in the mouth of a pre-teen. It immediately felt like I put a 9-volt battery with extra pepper on my tongue.
The laugher exploded from Marie and Herb as I opened my mouth and produced that nugget on the tip of my tongue. There's just no pretty way to take something like that out of your mouth. And at this function I was supposed to be on my best behavior. I grabbed a napkin, removed the offending piece of cheese and went and hid for the rest of the afternoon.
As we age, our tastes change. I've deliciously discovered I enjoy the most fragrant and savory of cheeses served at room temperature.
We had some visitors at Morris Media of Monroe last week who flew in from Georgia. Their last stop of the afternoon in Monroe was to pick up locally-made beer and Wisconsin cheese. As they eyed their selections at the case, I felt like a tour guide pointing and saying, "Pair that, with this and add some of this and serve it with this ..."
"What, do you work for the chamber of commerce or something?" a colleague asked as a joke.
"Actually, I'm a chamber of commerce ambassador," I replied, "but my love and knowledge of cheese is purely personal."
Due to my job here at the Times, I had a chance to have a digital conversation about Green County's upcoming 2018 Cheese Days celebration with Cheese Days Director Noreen Rueckert. Being a novice to Cheese Days, our discussion led me to page through the special sections we produced for the event in 2016.
In that year, Emmi Roth Grand Cru Surchoix, produced by Emmi Roth of Monroe, was chosen as the best cheese at the World Championship Cheese Contest. It was the first time in 18 years that a cheese made in the United States took the world title.
We are surrounded by world-class cheeses and cheesemakers. I'm far from professional at the cheese game. I would classify myself as an "eater." Cheesemaking is an incredible art, and the possibilities of creating new cheeses are endless. I find this fascinating.
The World Championship Cheese Contest will be at Monona Terrace in Madison in 2018, just as Cheese Days will return to Monroe.
Wisconsin Cheesemakers were in fine form as they swept the United States Cheese Contest this past March. A considerable number of local labels earned recognition.
One interesting tidbit I found in looking up the results from the United States contest is a category exists for seemingly everything, including pasteurized processed cheese slices. I absolutely trust the palates of the judges at these contests, however, I wonder if that category shouldn't have a special judging done by cheese-loving children.
The winner of the best pasteurized processed cheese slices was Wisconsin's own Associated Milk Producers Inc. of Portage. As I've still kept a taste for the occasional wrapped cheese slice, I've had this brand in my refrigerator, especially when the children were younger.
This cheese "eater" never knew that even when it came to cheese slices, in Wisconsin we're getting the best - and even on a meat-and-potatoes budget.
- Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.
