This is Part 1 of a series.

Cheese curds, legend has it, was the accidental discovery of a fourth century B.C. Central Asian nomad who left some milk in an animal's stomach a few weeks too long. At the end of a long horseback journey, the gentleman opened his milk bag to discover said bag was full of both pungent aromas and irregularly shaped chunks. These chunks became the first cheese curds in recorded history.

However, cheese did not just magically change from a fetid pile of stomach-wrapped curds into delicious bar-time treat. Like anybody, cheese needed a little help from its friends. It took the assistance of countless companions for cheese to become what food scientist Harold McGee calls "one of the greatest achievements of all time."

Last week, I sat down with one of the people involved in cheese's evolution: Dr. Rusty Bishop, director of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research (CDR).

His organization has played a large role in turning cheese into what we know it as today. The center, which is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin's food science department, has done groundbreaking scientific research resulting in dairy delights such as one food company's recently released "protein water," a nonfat cheese that another company uses to flavor its cheese crackers, and jalapeño poppers that don't ooze all over the place when you bite into them.

Not too long ago, such cheesy inventions were unheard of. "Thirty years ago," Bishop explained, "the focus in dairy research was on making cheeses that were as delicious as possible. Now, food manufacturers and consumers are more concerned about having their cheese behave in a certain way. Does the cheese melt the way we want it to? Does it shred easily? These are the questions dairy researchers tend to concern themselves with nowadays."

Market forces have driven many of the changes in dairy research over the last several decades. For example, in producing 10 pounds of cheese, a cheesemaker will also produce 90 pounds of whey, a protein-rich liquid that, although healthful, is not particularly palatable. Thanks to manufacturers looking to eliminate waste and consumers looking to increase their protein intake, the CDR is hard at work looking for food applications of whey.

Sometimes consumers who are perfectly content with a cheese's flavor just want it to “behave" differently, as Bishop puts it. To that end, the CDR recently developed the technology to create a sliceable blue jack cheese. Until now, blue cheese had to be crumbled or pummeled into a paste to be put on a hamburger, but thanks to the CDR, blue cheese lovers have reason to rejoice.
All these lofty scientific developments benefit multinational corporations to a certain extent, and may lead one to believe that the CDR only does research to benefit large companies. However, Bishop maintains that "about two-thirds of the work we do is centered around Wisconsin producers, and the remaining third is for national producers," an impressive ratio, especially considering that only about 7 percent of the CDR's funding comes from the university and about 37 percent comes from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. Furthermore, scientific research is only one of three parts of the CDR's mission, the others being service and training and education.
It is in this last area of its mission that the CDR serves small producers. For example, local farmers who have developed a business plan to produce and sell cheese can take advantage of the Center's Farmstead Cheesemakers program. Those who gain admission to the program may use the center's facilities free of charge to make test batches of cheese. Another service targeted at smaller producers is the Master Cheesemaker program, which emulates European cheesemaker certification programs by giving farmers a vehicle to hone their cheesemaking skills.

With a slew of programs to get dairy innovations from the university out into the state, the CDR is an excellent example of the Wisconsin Idea, the notion that the boundaries of the University extend to the boundaries of the state. Whether by helping a first-time cheesemaker get his or her business off the ground or developing new and exciting food products, the CDR is doing its part to spread the university's positive influence throughout Wisconsin.

Jason Engelhart is a senior majoring in economics and history. Send the tattered tales of your dairy love affairs to ([email protected]).