{"id":37809,"date":"2020-01-18T16:45:55","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T21:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=37809"},"modified":"2022-07-14T16:58:31","modified_gmt":"2022-07-14T20:58:31","slug":"queso-without-borders-hispanic-style-in-americas-dairyland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/queso-without-borders-hispanic-style-in-americas-dairyland\/","title":{"rendered":"Queso Without Borders: “Hispanic Style” In America’s Dairyland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Illustration by Sonic Yonix<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

S<\/span>outhern Wisconsin’s rolling hills first attracted immigrants from impoverished regions of Switzerland in the mid-19th century. They quickly set about turning rich soil into pasture and, ultimately, cheese. The legacy of Swiss immigration, which continued into the early 1900s, thrives to this day. It fuels the economy, culture, and tourism. Swiss flags hang in town squares, cheese shops in wooden chalets beckon tourists, and yodeling is ubiquitous during Green County Cheese Days, a biennial festival drawing tens of thousands to Monroe, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

But today, a less visible immigrant influence is quietly reshaping the cheese industry here. Wisconsin leads the nation in \u201cHispanic-style\u201d cheese production, cornering 32 percent of the market. And that market is growing. While these styles account for just 2.5 percent of cheese retail sales nationwide, the segment is growing five times as fast as cheese sales in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s booming,\u201d says Jim Crubaugh, who oversees an annual production of about 40 million pounds of cheeses in the categories queso blanco and queso fresco, at Wisconsin Cheese Group’s three plants in the Monroe area. So, who\u2019s eating it all? \u201cWe don’t sell a pound of it in Green County,\u201d Crubaugh says. Like most Wisconsin-made Hispanic-style cheeses, including queso quesadilla, cotija, and panela, his products leave the state for grocery shelves and restaurant kitchens in communities with large Latin American populations, from New York to Miami to Houston. The rural Monroe area might have a Latino population of just a few percentage points\u2014but the changing demographics of America have rendered it an epicenter for Hispanic cheese production.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quality milk is here,\u201d says Carlos Osorio, a Venezuelan-American, third-generation cheesemaker, and owner of Moundview Dairy in Platteville. Osorio\u2019s grandfather founded Pasteurizadora T\u00e1chira in the Andean region of Venezuela in 1956. After arriving in Wisconsin 30 years ago to study engineering, Osorio fell in love with an American whom he later married. He opened Moundview Dairy in the summer of 2018. A year later, the factory is rolling out 100,000 pounds of queso blanco weekly, with room to grow.<\/p>\n

Fresh, springy queso blanco is an all-purpose cheese in many Latino households in the US. \u201cIt’s always on the table. It’s almost like getting the butter out,\u201d Osorio says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHispanic\u201d is an umbrella term fora diverse market of cheeses that\u2019s \u201cbadly understood\u201d in the U.S., Osorio says. Given the sheer size and diversity of Latin America, these cheeses have no standard identity. Puerto Ricans expect queso blanco to look one way, while Mexicans have other expectations. So, cheesemakers tweak levels of salt, moisture, and enzymes\u2014plus shape and branding\u2014according to the market. Part of Osorio\u2019s business model is figuring out where, for example, the Venezuelan immigrants in the US are.\u201cWe are chasing the market. We are chasing the Venezuelans,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

John Jaeggi, grandson of a Swiss immigrant to Wisconsin and an expert in Hispanic cheeses at the Center for Dairy Research in Madison, first noticed local cheesemakers switching to Hispanic styles in the 1980s and \u201990s; around the same time, he started learning about these cheeses by visiting plants in Mexico and Central America. While at least two other cheese factories in the area (Mexican Cheese Producers and V&V Supremo) were founded by immigrants, most local producers of \u201cHispanic-style\u201d cheeses, at least at the management level, are white Wisconsinites who previously made European-style cheeses. They often switch after seeing a business opportunity in the large market, plus better margins, higher yield, and quick turnaround.<\/p>\n

The transition hasn\u2019t been without challenges. White Americans\u2019 perceptions of what makes a good Hispanic-style cheese aren’t necessarily authentic or what the market wants, Jaeggi says. The milk, methods, and regulations are different in Wisconsin, too. For example, cheesemakers here have had a tough time recreating a Nicaraguan-style hard grating cheese called queso duro. In Nicaragua, queso duro is often made over open fires with raw milk from cows fed fish meal, giving it an \u201cintensely salty, smoky, even fishy\u201d taste, Jaeggi says. Early attempts at queso duro in Wisconsin tasted closer to parmesan. But after experimenting with liquid smoke, enzymes, and cultures, the Center for Dairy Research found a way to make its own interpretation.<\/p>\n

Jaeggi adds that an increasing number of white Americans are starting to discover Hispanic cheeses. \u201cOne of the biggest growth factors is the Anglo market,\u201d he says. According to Lizzie Duffey, public relations specialist at Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, a key is to show consumers that there are myriad uses for Latin American\u2013style cheeses beyond melting into a quesadilla, \u201cfrom the stringiness of queso Oaxaca, to the crumbliness of a queso fresco or aged cotija, to the firmness of a queso blanco that browns when heated but doesn\u2019t melt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osorio sees a possible opening for marketing his queso blanco more broadly as a frying cheese. A slab of it fries up just like a steak\u2014crisp on the outside but still squeaky on the inside. A nearby restaurant and bar, Gracie\u2019s Point, uses Moundview’s queso blanco to make \u201cnaked cheese curds,\u201d a twist on Wisconsin fried cheese curds, without the breading.<\/p>\n

The Swiss transplants of 150 years ago made this area the cheese hub it is today, passing down skills from generation to generation and priming it for another wave of immigrant influence. At Moundview, plant manager Jake Niffenegger explains how his Swiss grandfather emigrated to this corner of Wisconsin and started turning out wheels of Emmentaler. Niffenegger was stirring curds by age 12. Now, he\u2019s a certified Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker\u2014who makes queso blanco. In the end, \u201cmaking cheese is making cheese,\u201d he says.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wisconsin is leading the nation in \u201cHispanic-style\u201d cheese production, cornering 32 percent of the 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