String Cheese Stirs Debate

There is little debate that string cheese was invented in Wisconsin – America’s Dairyland. Historians attribute the origin to Wisconsin cheesemaker Fred Baker at Baker Cheese, with the first cheese treats produced in 1976. Not so clear, however, is how the cheese should be eaten.

String cheese, at least the kind that’s produced in Wisconsin, usually is low-fat mozzarella cheese formed into the shape of a cheese stick about 5 inches long. When taken apart from one of the ends, that stick turns into strings of cheese. Similar sticks are made with other types of cheese, but only the mozzarella sticks take a form to create the string-like effect.

It would seem to casual bystanders that string cheese should be eaten as a treat by tearing the cheese into strings and eating them individually. However, it’s not such a simple matter, in some households: in some cases, the eater devours the cheese by taking complete bites from one of the stick’s ends.

The matter has been known to even create mostly playful arguments between spouses. Those who haven’t made the way string cheese is eaten part of a prenuptial agreement, or at least make it part of their wedding vows, sometimes are surprised to realize later in marriage that they eat string cheese in different ways. Sometimes that’s because the person eating the cheese from the end of the stick moved to Wisconsin without having been told otherwise; sometimes it’s simply because that person just enjoys the string cheese more that way.

A social media look at the way people eat the cheese has shown the division is real, bringing about a vat full of comments concerning how it should be eaten. As an experiment, this reporter took to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to note how he loves his wife Dee, but that she eats her string cheese from the end of the sticks. He commented, “I truly love her, but maintain that this habit is downright barbaric.” The replies came quickly and pointedly.

Donna Geiger, who during recent years has moved from central Wisconsin to the Phoenix area, used a visual image to demonstrate how she eats the cheese: she wrote, “That would be equivalent to this” and shared a photograph of a Kit-Kat brand wafer candy bar with a large bite taken from its side instead of the eater breaking off each wafer and eating them individually from their ends.

Other commenters managed a few words about the matter. Eileen Rahm of Stratford offered a short, “Absolutely in strings.” Lisa Marsh of Eau Claire wrote, “Absolutely in strings.”

Karla Demaske of Whitehall wrote that it’s partly a matter of time: “String cheese does NOT need to be eaten in strings. I take BITES all the time. I do not have time to string it; I’m a busy girl! By all means, y’all do it your way. Dee and I will just eat and move on with our days.”

Jamie Goss of Osseo also identified as an end-eater, writing, “I eat it in bites, too. I’d never get any of it otherwise, with a toddler and cats!”

University of Wisconsin-student Daniel Dow took the string side, writing, “Anything less than eating a piece of string cheese, one delectable pull-string at a time, is Anarchy.”

One commenter took a stand for people’s choice in the matter. She wrote, “Darn it Dee, don’t let anyone tell you how to eat your string cheese! It all goes to the same place.”

Anyone who’s become hungry for a stick of string cheese as a result of this story can find Wisconsin’s string cheese manufacturers at https://view.genial.ly/64c6f7732cc21e0011cb222c/interactive-content-string-cheese-infographic.