ISO help/info on cheese curd

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lyndalou

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Have any of you ever made cheese curds? I have a recipe that I want to try. It calls for fresh cheese curds, and I haven't a clue where to get them
 
Fresh cheese curds are the key ingredient for poutine. If you can't get fresh cheese curds, you can take a block of mozz., cube it, and freeze it for about an hour. This will mimic the texture of cheese curds.


I love cheese curds from this place:


Fromagerie St-Albert | Dès la fin du XIXe siècle, les maîtres fromagers d'un charmant village de l'est ontarien fabriquaient un Cheddar de grande renommée : le St-Albert. Fidèles aux principes établis par les fondateurs en 1894, cinq généra








Locally, we can get these at gas stations, corner stores, grocery stores or the best thing is to make the 40 or so minute drive on a Saturday afternoon and get squeaky fresh curds.
 
They're more common in areas where there's active dairy farming, because they're no longer "fresh" after about 12 hours. They're fine to eat, but the texture is different.

It's really easy to make your own. I've made Turkish farmer cheese and fresh mozzarella cheese. There are lots of recipes online. Here's one: http://m.instructables.com/id/Cheese-Curds/
 
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I grew up in Wisconsin, which is cheese curd country. You can find them everywhere there, and they are squeaky fresh with a wonderful salty flavor. When I was a kid, we had a creamery in our small town and you could buy them so fresh they were still warm.

But even just across the border in Minnesota, good cheese curds are hard to come by. Most people don't understand the concept, and think that cheese curds must be breaded and deep fried. In Wisconsin, that was what we did with OLD cheese curds. The ones found in the local grocery stores here in Minnesota are positively atrocious. They're not fresh and have a mealy texture. The only place I've found fresh ones here is in one place: Rybicki Cheese at Mall of America. They ship them in fresh daily.

Going even further from Wisconsin, cheese curds are virtually impossible to find. I don't get that at all, because they freeze extremely well. Once thawed, they will have the same qualities as fresh cheese curds. I'm really surprised there isn't a market for frozen ones.

So to answer your question, I would make friends with someone in Wisconsin and have them ship frozen cheese curds to you.

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