Image by Social Butterfly from Pixabay
July 14 is national Mac and Cheese Day! What food is more popular in a house full of kids than mac and cheese?
But did you know that everything in this delicious dish is grown and raised right here in North Dakota? From the durum wheat used to make the pasta to the milk used to make the sauce, it's a North Dakota-produced bunch of yumminess!
In fact, North Dakota farmers are #1 in the production of durum wheat and have been for many years. In 2019, they produced 47.4% of the U.S. durum total. Our farmers also produced 51.8% of the hard red spring wheat grown in the United States.
And while the number of dairy farms has fallen over the last several years, our dairy farmers produce more than 360 million pounds of milk each year. Some of that milk is made into cheese. It takes about 5 quarts of whole milke to make a pound of cheese.
And how is cheese made, you may ask?
According to the Winter 2019-20 edition of the North Dakota Ag Mag, "To make cheese, milk is heated and mixed with a culture. Cultures contain different types of good bacteria that give various cheeses their distinct flavors, textures and colors. The culture makes the milk curdle, clumping the milk’s proteins together to form lumpy curds and liquid whey. (Remember Little Miss Muffet’s snack?)The whey is drained from the curds. You can eat the curds as fresh cheese, or you can wait until the curds are aged.The kind of milk used, the amount of fat in the milk, how the curds and whey are formed, and how the cheese is stored also account mfor different colors and tastes. Even the sizes and shapes of cheeses are different."
Find other interesting milk facts in the North Dakota Ag Mag. And happy Mac and Cheese Day!!!