How real Colby cheese is made in Wisconsin using a 100-year-old technique

• Colby cheese is a mildly sweet and salty cheese
• Washing the curds with cold water makes the cheese mild and less acidic than cheddar
• Colby cheese originated in Colby, WI, where it was first made in the late 1800s

The following is a transcription of the video:

Medha: We're here in Wisconsin, the birthplace of Colby cheese. It's one of the fastest-growing varieties in the United States. We're headed to Springside Cheese, one of the longest-running factories in northeast Wisconsin, and a family operation. Like most cheeses, Colby starts with a giant vat of milk, a starter culture, and rennet. But after that, things get a bit more unique.

Jesse: What happens is, when you have grass-fed cows, the milk is a little bit more yellowish or darker in color.

Medha: The cows aren't fed a grass diet, which means the milk they create is closer to white than the yellowish color Colby cheese is expected to be.

Jesse: This will turn it orange.

Medha: Oh! OK, great.

Jesse: It's from an evergreen tree in South America.

Medha: But it makes it orange? J

esse: Yep, it helps with that. Keeps it that orangish color. It's kind of an appeal.

Medha: Wisconsin is home to 1.3 million dairy cows and has about 25% of the United States' dairy farms. The state is the biggest producer of cheese in the US. In 2021, two Wisconsin lawmakers introduced a bill to make Colby the state's official cheese. Springside Cheese has been making its Colby here in Wisconsin since 1982. The mild cheese gets its name from the town of Colby, Wisconsin, where Colby cheese was created in the late 1800s. After being stirred, the coagulated mixture is given about 30 minutes to set into the perfect firmness for Colby cheese. Then it's time to cut it into curds. This is done with harp paddles. While they may just look like paddles with holes, they're actually lined with extremely sharp blades.

Jesse: What we're trying to do is we're trying to get it down to the ideal size.

Medha: OK. Jesse: So it can have a -- again, we're looking for fat retention. We're also looking for moisture. So a little bit bigger curd will give you a little bit more moisture.

Medha: After being cut, the curds are given time to form a skin.

Jesse: You're building the skin on the outside of the curd.

Medha: Of the curd? OK.

Jesse: After it's been cut, we ripped it apart, now it's taking its time to heal itself back up. We want to be able to keep as much moisture as possible in the product. So we give it a lot longer to heal up than what we would normally do in other products.

Medha: That extra moisture is key to the Colby-making process. The more moisture that goes in, the sweeter and less acidic the final cheese will be. As the curds are cut with harps, they are separated from the whey. After about 20 minutes, it's time to once again cook the freshly cut curds.

Jesse: When you first start it out, the curd is very fragile and soft, and it'll pop very easily.

Medha: And it's actually getting pretty hot now. I can feel it. Jesse: So, we're cooking up to a target temperature. As it stirs up, it's slowly cooking the curd up. So it's almost like searing a steak. You're searing that moisture into the curd. It's shrinking it up, and it's stiffening the curd up. It's giving it more body. After we get done cooking it, we'll continue to stir it, and it'll get stiffer and stiffer.

Medha: The curds are stirred and cooked for 20 minutes. Then it's time to check on their firmness. How do you measure it? Are you literally just going to scoop up the curd?

Jesse: Yeah, we'll feel it.

Medha: OK.

Jesse: That's the only way to really do it, is feel it by hand.

Medha: When the curds reach the right firmness, they're separated from the whey.

Medha: Once the whey has been removed, the curds are given about 30 to 45 minutes to settle into the right pH. Then it's time to add cold water to the vat. But there's no set amount of water to add. Instead, Jesse and his team will stop the water when the curds reach a specific temperature. Jesse: 92.5. OK. 87.6. Medha: That 87.6 is key to the making of Springside's Colby cheese.

Jesse: One, we want to slow the starter down, so it's not developing as fast. We also want to add moisture, so the curd will pick up moisture from the cold water.

Medha: Slowing the acidification is also important, as that is what makes Colby sweeter and milder than other cheeses. When the vat hits the target temperature, the entire contents are drained into a basin. It will be agitated some more to prevent clumping. Once the mix hits a certain pH, it's time to drain the water and whey.

Jesse: It'll all drain down towards the port. As it drains down to the port, we'll pull that. We'll work it back in, and then we'll start to work the cheese with the forks. We're just stirring it. We're trying to keep it from lumping together.

Medha: OK.

Jesse: So the goal is to keep it as granular as possible.

Medha: Lift it up?

Jesse: Yep, just lift it up.

[Medha groans]

Medha: I have to do it this way. I'm a righty. [groans] It clumps really easily.

Jesse: Yeah, it does. But, again, that's part of the reason for adding the salt on. We're trying to prevent that.

Medha: You all must be so strong!

[Jesse laughs]

Medha: All right, so let's feel a curd. Oh, wow. I'm holding back on eating this right now. It's very soft, and you were saying, as we press it it's going to get even softer than this?

Jesse: This'll get soft. This is kind of where it's going to be, yeah, but once we press it --

Medha: It's this texture?

Jesse: But it is a very soft cheese. So normally it'd be a lot stiffer, stouter cheese.

Medha: Yeah, you can tell it's, like, easily, it's, like, moldable.

Jesse: Yep, and you see the moisture coming off in your hand?

Medha: Yeah, it's very, there's a lot of moisture. I don't know if you can see it. It smells very good.

Jesse: Yeah.

Medha: It honestly feels nutty. How would you describe the smell?

Jesse: It smells to me -- yeah, I guess, on a nutty side or more of a dairy side of it. It'll have a milder flavor, be sweeter. It'll also have a lot of buttery notes in it, so.

Medha: Oh, butter, that's what I smell.

Jesse: Yep.

Medha: It's a lot of butter.

Jesse: Yep.

Medha: That's why I like it. I was like, what is it about this that I like? Jesse and his team will keep agitating the curds to remove any excess whey, and then begin to salt them. You're salting the curds, and what does that do to the curd mixture?

Jesse: It helps us in clumping. It also stops the bacteria from continuing to develop. It slows down your pH, so it slows down your starter development, so you're not producing as much acid. Salt also adds flavor. It keeps it on the sweeter side, 'cause we're stopping the starter at a higher pH.

Medha: Once salted, the curds are ready to be pressed into their final 13-pound longhorn form. The longhorn will give the cheese its long cylinder shape. When it's finally packaged, it may be cut in half to resemble a half moon or a rainbow.

Jesse: When it goes into the press, it's going to lose some of the moisture and whey. So we'll weigh it up a little bit heavier, and then once it's all done, it'll be 13 pounds.

Medha: And then we can see, is that excess whey and water?

Jesse: Yep. So that's pressing out of the cheese right now.

Medha: So that the only thing that remains are the curds?

Jesse: The curds, for the most part.

Medha: And a little bit of whey. Yeah. After being pressed, the curds are removed from the horn, sealed, put back into the horn, and placed in a cooler to age.

Jesse: You want to keep it in the horn to maintain that cylinder shape.

Medha: How long does Colby cheese need to age for?

Jesse: Ideally it'd be four weeks to six months, is the ideal range for it.

Medha: Compared to cheddar cheese, what's the difference?

Jesse: Higher pH, higher moisture.

Medha: And so how long do you have to age cheddar for?

Jesse: Cheddar you can go 30-plus years.

Medha: That's wild! That's like ... Colby is a baby compared to cheddar.

Medha: So, while we wait for the cheese to age, let's check in on the ones who made it all possible. The cows. Springside gets its dairy from farms like Jagiello Farms, where it actually picks up milk every day. According to these local farmers, Wisconsin cows eat the best diet, so they produce the best milk, which makes for the best cheese. The cows are fed a diet that includes high-moisture corn and a protein mix. The final feed is called TMR, or total mixed ration.

Kevin: And we have a nutritionist come in.

Medha: Yeah.

Kevin: He comes every two weeks. He tests the feed out of the silos to tell you what you need and what they need to add to supplement to get it up to what the cow needs to milk.

Medha: The cows have to be milked twice a day, producing about 50 pounds of milk each time.

Kevin: A cow is like a factory. What you put into the cow is what you get out of the cow. If you're going to get quality milk, you've got to have quality feed going into the cow.

Medha: And this delectable-looking cheese is one of the things Springside gets out of these cows.

Medha: Wow. This feels more buttery than cheddar. And it's a little, it's mild. It's not that strong. I love mild cheeses. I think mild cheeses are the best. How would you describe it? Do you want to eat with me?

Employee: Sure. I'll eat a piece with you.

Medha: Wow. And it's so soft. This is magnificent. And how does it taste fresh versus old? Like, does it get more mild, or does it get --

Employee: Softer, I think. Once it's refrigerated, it firms up a little bit more. The flavor with Colby really gets stronger with age.

Medha: Wow. It was worth the wait. You have to make all your reporters work.

[Jesse laughs] I

f they're going to bother you for a day, they should work.

Jesse: We'll make them work?

Medha: Yeah. Like, "You can film me, but you have to work with me."

[Jesse laughs]

[Medha groans]