Erin McGrath is My Hero

I love that story. Love love love that story. I didn't love when she called me at 3:30am and I had to wake up at 6:30...but now knowing that a phone call to her parents soon followed I forgive her.

Today I made cheese. Cheddar and mozzarella. Ok, technically I didn't make the cheese...but the R&D scientists let volunteers help at various points of the process. My contribution was cutting the thickening fluids into curd cubes. Awesome. I know so much about cheese now. We spent THE ENTIRE DAY learning about natural cheese. I can tell you what sort of cultures you use to make different sorts of cheese. I can tell you how to be a good "cheese tester." Or I can tell you how many gallons of milk it takes to make 1lb of cheese. 10 gallons. Yes. 10% yield.

And get this. After cheese is made and has been sitting around for 45 days "aging" it needs to be checked to see what grade it is. (Because as we all know, not all cheese is created equal). Depending on the grade of the cheese (sharpness, firmness, texture, etc.) we decide if we'll make it Kraft branded or Cracker Barrel branded, along with what sharpness level it should eventually be. WELL. The person who does this has to be an expert cheese grader...like it takes more than 10 years to be even remotely good at this. We have ONE GUY who does all the grading for Kraft. ONE. His name is Marv. HOW INSANE IS THAT?? Do you know that we sold 250 million lbs of cheese last year? And that's just on the brands I work on...Shreds, Chunks and Crumbles. Marv's an important (and busy) guy.

So. If you have any questions about cheese...shoot 'em my way.