Wisconsin occupies two pages in The Oxford Companion to Cheese, a massive compendium on the product for which our state is known. The A-Z encyclopedia, with entries from Abbaye de Tamié (a cows milk cheese produced by French monks) to Ziraly panir (a ewe’s milk cheese from Iran), is an exhaustive guide replete with history, descriptions, health tips, beer and wine pairing suggestions and even sketchy directions for making some of the varieties described. The editor, Catherine Donnelly, is co-director of the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese, and devotes much space to obscure and intriguing cheeses. Still, she includes an entry on Kraft Foods, whose industrialization is credited for increasing cheese consumption in the U.S. As for Wisconsin, the Companion notes that the Dairy State accounts for 45% of all specialty cheese produced in America and is the only state requiring licensing for cheese makers.
