Posted on 05/09/2023 6:03:50 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
MINERAL POINT, Wis. -- Cutting the cheese isn't often considered a good thing, but to Tony Hook, it's the culmination of two decades of hard work.
On Monday, Hook, the co-owner of Hook's Cheese Company in Mineral Point, cut up a 40-pound block of the company's 20-year aged white cheddar as dozens of community members watched the process unfold.
Each batch of cheddar Hook's produces begins with the same recipe, Hook explained, but factors like the feed animals eat and weather conditions can lead to differences in the milk used.
"We try to test every vat we make as we age it to taste test it and make sure it's developing like we want," he explained. "By the time it gets to somewhere between two and five years, we know it can age to a lot longer, some of those that are really good, so this particular batch we knew at the time it was five years old we could age it to 10, 12, 15, even 20 years."
The cheese sits in cold storage at 38 degrees as it ages.
While the latest batch of cheese is set to go on sale next week, most of it has already been claimed through pre-orders, and Hook said it may sell out by Wednesday if current trends continue.
Due to the amount of time and labor involved, the cheese doesn't come cheap at $209 per pound, but Hook's is donating half of the proceeds of the sale to area food pantries, including Pointer Pantry.
As for when the next batch will be available, Hook won't say.
"There'll be one coming down the chute," he said.
But it would be really, really good.
So...how large was your pre-order? Would you trade chucksteak to get a larger block? :)
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