Cheese that gave a town identity

COLBY, Wis. — In the late 1800s, as Wisconsin farmers looked to dairy farming rather than wheat production as a mainstay of their farms, cheese became the eventual foundation from which the state’s identity would be carved.

While many of the products Wisconsin’s cheesemakers are known for are versions of old European recipes and styles, Colby cheese is one that is uniquely all Wisconsin, born just outside of the central Wisconsin town of Colby in 1885, at the hands of 16-year-old cheesemaker Joseph Steinwand, who worked in the cheese factory owned by his father, Ambrose Steinwand.

Ann Luckey of Cedarburg is the great-granddaughter of Joseph Steinwand. She never met her great-grandfather but grew up hearing tales of his work, alongside his own father.

“My mother used to tell about how particular her grandfather and great-grandfather were about their cheese factory,” Luckey said. “They always wanted their factory to be the absolute cleanest; they were very meticulous.”

What made Colby cheese different from other cheeses was a deviation of whey being drained from the curd. Steinwand pressed the curds, washed them in cold water, salted them and pressed them into forms, rather than molding them into slabs, as was the process to make cheddar. Repeated turning of the slabs removes excess whey from the curds, making the resulting cheddar a drier, sharper cheese than Colby.

Steinwand’s creation, in contrast, was a sweeter, milder cheese with a higher moisture content that was aged for a period of 1-3 months. The process of making Colby cheese today remains much the same as the one Steinwand followed 140 years ago in his family’s Clark County cheese factory.

Colby cheese gained popularity quickly. Just over 10 years after the first batch was made, the Steinwand family was producing and selling more than $3,000 worth of Colby cheese each year. In 1965, Lawrence Hoernke built a new Colby Cheese Factory on the site of the original Steinwand Cheese Factory, continuing to produce Colby cheese at a rate of more than 4,000 pounds per day until the plant closed in 1983.

Today more than 45 million pounds of Colby cheese are produced by Wisconsin cheesemakers alone, according to the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin. The organization said the cheese is considered strategic for developing and expanding into foreign markets.

With its unique texture and taste, Colby has become a popular snack cheese and is frequently used to top salads and sandwiches. Colby is commonly combined with Monterey Jack cheese to create the blended Colby Jack cheese. A variation of the original and traditional Colby cheese, called Pinconning, was developed in Michigan.

Over the years, the town of Colby has embraced their namesake cheese, with the emblematic yellow-orange color and holes, otherwise known as eyes, that were the inspiration behind the iconic cheesehead hats made famous by Green Bay Packer fans. The town celebrates that connection each year, hosting the annual Colby Cheese Days festival to celebrate all things cheese.

For nearly 30 years, residents of Colby have desired to officially recognize the cheese they already knew was special. Three attempts have been made to accomplish the goal — in 1998, 2019 and again in 2022.

Wisconsin State Sen. Kathy Bernier, Colby resident Matt Oehmichen, and Steinwand’s great-granddaughter, Ann Luckey, petitioned the state legislature to name Colby Wisconsin’s official cheese variety, with a bill offered in 2022.

“Long before we became America’s Dairyland, Colby began as a farm family recipe, dreamed up by a young man on the floor of his father’s small, wooden cheese factory,” Bernier testified to the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Legal Review and Consumer Protection in 2022. “Named for the nearby town of Colby, it went from a farm family recipe to world famous in just a few generations, and today is one of America’s best-selling cheeses.”

Oehmichen urged state legislators to embrace originality in his testimony before the committee.

“No one has a state cheese, we would be the first,” Oehmichen said. “Not only that, it would be a symbol no one could ever take away from us because they can never claim Colby as their own. We are so great at what we do, we have created our own cheese.”

Luckey joined Bernier and Oehmichen, testifying in favor of naming her great-grandfather’s cheese the state cheese of Wisconsin.

“I have a personal interest in this cause as I am the great-granddaughter of Joseph Steinwand, the founder of the cheese named Colby,” Luckey said. “But that is not the only reason I am here — I am here as a resident of the state of Wisconsin and I appreciate being known as a ‘cheesehead.’ Colby cheese is not so much about Colby as it is about Wisconsin and what it means to live and work here, taking great pride in what is produced here. We create a product that is nationally known.”

While the bill cleared the initial committee hearing during the 2022 attempt, it met with opposition from lawmakers who feared commemorating Colby as the figurehead of Wisconsin’s cheesemaking endeavors could undermine sales of other cheeses produced in the state.

“Naming Colby the state cheese of Wisconsin gives credence and recognition to all the cheesemakers in our state,” Luckey said. “Joseph Steinwand was not the first cheesemaker in Wisconsin; he was not the largest and maybe not even the best. What he did, though, was created a process that produced a great cheese, and after doing that he did not name the cheese after himself or his family, to call attention to himself. The cheese became known as Colby — for the town where he lived, raised his family and worked to support his community.”