Hoop cheese
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Hoop cheese is a firm, dry cottage cheese, similar to farmer’s cheese in that most of the liquid has been pressed out. It is different from farmer’s cheese in that farmer’s cheese is made with milk, cream and salt, while hoop cheese is made from milk alone.
Hoop cheese is difficult to find commercially in the United States, due to the difficulty of automating the manufacturing process. It was once so popular, however, that a device called a hoop cheese cutter was manufactured and used in general stores during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This object resembled a turntable with a knife blade suspended above it. It was built by scale companies of the period to cut the exact amount of cheese the customer wanted.
A number of independently-owned restaurants in eastern North Carolina serve hoop cheese melted in biscuits, often accompanying a slice of pork tenderloin or other breakfast meat. Hoop cheese can also be purchased throughout much of Eastern NC at local grocers and convenience stores.
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North Carolina's red rind hoop cheese, is a part of the areas heritage and tradition while demonstrating a true culinary art form currently unique and found nowhere else in North America. The high fat content gives the golden color, pressed curd cheese a property that will release copious amounts of liquid fats that separate from the cheese solids when melted during cooking and will weep when stored at room temperature, a practice historically common-place. The dairy masterpiece is often baked into the middle of buttermilk biscuits or melted directly on a skillet or flat grill. A breakfast sandwich is often made with the local favorites: country ham, pork tenderloin, dry or fresh smoked link sausage and or fried egg hoop cheese biscuits start the days tradition rich menu. the cheese is also cut into a rectangular prism that is a popular, portable, protein and calcium packed snack. In recent years real North Carolina hoop cheese is becoming harder to find with some restaurants and stores substituting mild cheeder. The reason either cost, availability or loss of southern passed heritage, the educated palate that distinguishes the vastly different texture, easily noticed distant taste ( or lack there of with commercially available cheeder), and asks for the genuine prize locals refer too as hoop, old fashioned red rind, or country cheese.
