Colby

What is Colby Cheese?

Ambrose and Susan Steinwand set up a cheese factory near Colby, Wisconsin, in 1882, on a 160-acre (65 ha) site they had bought five years earlier. Their son Joseph made the first batch of what became Colby in 1885, when he washed the curd of a batch of cheddar with cold water. Accounts differ on whether he meant to do it. The cheese took the name of the nearby city and sold well, mainly because it skipped the fussy cheddaring process. By 1896 the family was selling US$3000 worth of cheese a year.

Production follows cheddar up to a point. Cow's milk standardized to a protein-fat ratio of 0.96 is pasteurized and held at 88 °F (31 °C) while Lactococcus lactis starter goes in. An hour later annatto and diluted rennet are added, and the mixture sets for 15 to 30 minutes. The curd is cut and cooked at 102 °F (39 °C) until the whey reaches a pH of about 6.2 to 6.3.

Then the paths split. Only about two-thirds of the whey is drained, cold water brings the mixture down to roughly 81 °F (27 °C), and the curd washes for 15 minutes before it is drained, salted and pressed at 10 to 20 psi (69 to 138 kPa) for 16 to 18 hours. The cheese is packaged and ripened for two to three months at 37 to 39 °F (3 to 4 °C). Traditional Colby is pressed into a cylinder 13 in (33 cm) long and 3.9 to 5.9 in (10 to 15 cm) across, called a longhorn.

The washed curd gives a moister, softer body than cheddar, and the lower acidity gives a mild, milky flavor. Annatto supplies the orange color. US federal rules cap moisture at 40 percent and require the solids to hold at least 50 percent milkfat, which works out to a minimum of 30 percent total fat; in practice solids run 52 to 53 percent, total fat 31 to 32 percent, and salt 1.5 to 1.8 percent. That extra moisture is also a weakness. Colby often turns bitter and very soft after 100 days, so it is best eaten within three months.

Most Colby is eaten as a table cheese or in snacks, sandwiches and salads, and it can be grated onto pizza with other cheeses. Mixing colored Colby curds with uncolored Monterey Jack curds before pressing makes Colby-Jack, a marble cheese that outsells either one alone, with supermarket sales estimated at 84 million lb (38 million kg) in 2006. Pinconning, a Colby style created in Pinconning, Michigan, in 1915 by Dan Horn, is aged far longer, in some cases up to 16 years. The city of Colby has held an annual July festival, Colby Cheese Days, since 1965.