Willie Beamons, Neenah, WI

Willie Beamons probably has one of the nicest presentations of bar cheese curds I've ever experienced.  While clearly not hand made, serving them in a nice plate with some garnishing around the rim was a touch I was not expecting and a pleasant surprise.  

Now for the curds.  I have to say for orange, breaded curds, these are pretty darn good.  By themselves they lack a little something, but due to the extraordinarily good ranch sauce, these curds can hang with the big boys.  The curds were fried very well, with excellent stretchiness.  Golden brown with the cheese melted just right.  The serving was actually very large, while the enormous plate makes it appear small, it was hard to finish even with some help.

So these curds really have the deck stacked against them in how good they could be, but they did very well within that range.  I give them a 5.5 out of 10.  While I wouldn't go out of my way to get these curds, if I was already there, I wouldn't hesitate to have them again.

http://williebeamons.com/

The Beehive Inn take 2

So this was my second time getting curds at the Beehive.  The first time the curds were a little under done and were kind of soggy.  Today, was much improved.  The batter was cooked to a perfect golden brown.  The cheese was flavorful.  The batter was a little bland, but not bad.  The cheese did not have a very good stretchy-ness to it, which I count against it, though it gave the curd kind of a chewy texture similar to what you get in a fresh curd.
 These are some of the best curds I've found in the Neenah area I'm giving them 6.5 out of 10.

Dairy Queen Gillingham St. Neenah, WI

Well to my surprise it appears that different Dairy Queens have vastly different vendors for their cheese curds.

I was expecting to get what I considered the standard DQ cheese curd of white cheese curd and battered.  I was surprised with not only yellow and breaded, but what appeared to not even be cheese curd, but rather chunks of cheese (pressed and aged) that was breaded and fried.

However I will judge these on the merits of what was presented rather than the difference from what my expectation was.

The temperature was good, and the cheese had a distinct flavor, most likely coming from the fact that it was a fully developed cheese rather than a curd.  This was a plus on the flavor.  There was however a serious knock against it in that being a full fledged cheese when melted too fast, it separated the oil from the body of the cheese.  This gave a look and texture of microwaved cheese.  While it didn't much affect the flavor, the presentation and mouth feel was quite off.

The breading was a bit thick, but was cooked thoroughly enough to no be doughy.  I would call it too much crunch, but everyone has different preference on crunch.

To give credit to the cooks, given this material to work with they did the best they could.  It was well prepared.

I almost feel bad giving this a rating as a cheese curd, because it really should be in a separate category of perhaps fried cheese, much like mozzarella sticks are, but they sell them as cheese curds, so I will have to grade them as cheese curds.


Even with the best efforts of the fry cooks, these "curds" cannot be given a score of higher than a 3, they just lacked too many of the things I would want in a curd.

Finally I would like to give a shout out to the crew that went to lunch and experimented in the Way of Curds today.  Thanks to Lindsey, Scott, Linda, Melinda and Melissa .

That's the Way of Curds today,
-Matt

Live from sawdust days in oshkosh.

So people tend to rave about how great carnival curd are, so I had to give some a try. I hit the first stand I saw and bought a medium pack of curds. Medium is a LOT of curds.
Anyway the cheese was of really fresh. Lots of squeak. They could have a bit saltier, but that's splitting hairs.
The batter was also very good. Thin but flavorful.

The problem was in the execution they were cooked in too much of a hurry. They were all clumped together and were very greasy.

They had. Very good materials but due to the hurried nature of the business it had to be hurried and they botched the execution.

What could have easily been an overall 8 or better I can't give them a higher overall score than a solid 6.

That's the way of curds,
-Matt

Gyros and More, Neenah, WI

First of all, my apologies for not updating the blog in a very long time.  I'm sorry and I'll try to be more consistent going forward.  I have some ideas for posts coming soon.

Recently, I ventured to Gyros and More in downtown Neenah, WI for a gyro and I was pleasantly surprised to find out they also serve cheese curds.  As a fried cheese connoisseur I of course had to give them a shot.


Well these curds are quite clearly pre-made, so they already have a strike against them.  However they were cooked with great skill, browned well and melted almost to perfection.  The breading was a bit thick, but not obnoxious. However, the batter was very bland.  The cheese was pretty good, it was both stretchy and salty.

Overall I'll give these curds a 5.5 rating as in they are just a touch above average, but not something to seek out.  Note that this really shouldn't reflect too poorly on the restaurant, the gyro was pretty good in my opinion and the french fries were excellent ( however that is a post for some other blog).

For now, that's the way of curds,
-Matt