[Sca-cooks] Seeking Cheesy Goodness in WI

[Sharon Palmer]

>Sharon Palmer <ranvaig at columbus.rr.com> wrote:
>> A lot of the advertised places are basically tourist traps.
>
>Oh, yeah! I remember road trips with the family when i was a kid. On a car trip to Florida from Chicago, my brother and i made our parents stop for a fortune telling chicken somewhere in the American South. Tourist traps are even bigger, flashier, and more impersonal now. Nowadays, they have parking lots as big as a shopping center.
>
>But i figure since we usually avoid tourist traps, we'll go to one or two, like the Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb and maybe The House on the Rock in Spring Hill.

If you check out a cheese store's website, and the first thing mentioned is gift packages, or cheese shaped like Wisconsin, its probably not the place you are looking for.  :)

I've heard good things about House on the Rock, but never been there. 

>I have no idea what Wisconsin brands there are. We've got our own cheese out here in California. I think we're now a bigger dairy state than WI is.

A couple of the lists are for small manufacturers.  I'm not sure what kind of cheese you like.  And the whole artisan cheese thing is new since I moved from Wisconsin.

>
>Of course, squeaky cheese curds are on our list of Wisconsin experiences to have.

I not fond of cheese curds myself, but tasting them is certainly part of the Wisconsin experience. :)

>
>> While you are in Wisconsin, if you like sweet rich things, try the
>> Kringle. It used to be only in Racine but seems to have spread.
>
>Is this a shop or a food item?
>
Racine has a Danish heritage, and Kringle is advertised as being Danish, but in Denmark a Kringle is a pretzel.  In Wisconsin, its a buttery flaky dough, shaped in an oval with a sweet filling.  When I was a kid, any holiday or party had to have Kringle.  It's too rich for every day, but its nice as a treat.  Bear in mind that a whole Kringle is probably about 15 servings.

http://www.ohdanishbakery.com/kringle.htm

Sharon