Renard’s will ship overnight, but you might want to consider the weather during shipment. Aren’t there cheese factories in Vermont or elsewhere on the East coast that make curds?
You’d certainly think so, but in all my various visits to New England I’ve never run across them. And I’ve been to VT quite a bit.
What I really want is a single cheese curd. I don’t want to spend too much on something that sounds halfway repulsive. But I definitely want to try them!
Does your state have a state fair*? You might find them there, especially if your state has any kind of dairy industry.
*I know it sounds like a stupid question, but my state doesn’t have a state fair as such. We have the Farm Show, which isn’t QUITE the same thing.
Amen. Squeaky cheese curds do nothing for me, but FRIED cheese curds are heaven on earth. The best I’ve ever had were at the “Cheese Days” festival in Monroe, WI. A festival so awesome that they only have it every OTHER year to avoid killing people with its awesomeness. Or with cholesterol.
There’s a sandwich shop near me that trucks them in from Wisconsin. They refrigerate them (health codes and all that), but if you leave them out to get room temperature, they get squeaky again.
My husband, who is from Wisconsin, thinks I’m a bit nuts for doing this, so not even all the natives got the cheese curd memo.
Oh, and Culver’s fried cheese curds? Meh. The battered ones from the Minnesota State Fair are better…for one or two, then they suddenly seem way too greasy and disgusting.
Unless you don’t like cheese at all, I don’t think you’ll find them repulsive. At the end, they’re just cheese with a pretty nifty texture. Not slimy or anything like that, just… squeaky.
Oh, and for everyone who says you can refrigerate, then let them come to room temperature and/or microwave them to get the squeak back, yes, technically you can do that. And squeak comes back. But it’s not the same squeak, and it’s not nearly as good as the fresh/never refrigerated squeak. If you think it is, you’ve never had them truly fresh. Trust me. It’s not the same.
In other words, not all squeaks are created equal. Choose your squeaks and curds wisely! 
I’d like to add my name to your Christmas gift list.
I miss the cheese factory in Idaho; not sure when it dropped it’s public shop, but you used to be able to go in there, watch them making curds, get free samples, and purchase DOZENS of flavors. I visited home recently and wanted to go there, and found out they no longer were open to the public. I am a sad panda. 
As a defender of microwaved curds I will heartily agree with this statement though
I learned to make cheddar cheese just to get the curds … I adore fresh squeeky cheese curds and I could not find a source of them in state. It was easier to find raw milk and make the damned things to get my fix. :smack:
Is this like what cottage cheese grows up to be when it’s bigger? (I always thought that cottage cheese was cheese curds?)
I don’t know the chemistry, and I’m sure there are similarities, but the curds in cottage cheese are not the same as the ones we are talking about. See the picture in the link in post #6.
Walk into pretty much any grocery store in Québec and one of the first displays near the door is usually cheese curds from a local (or semi-local, in the city!) farm. They have little stickers that say that they were made [on today’s date] and are best before [tomorrow].
It’s a terrible habit, but I’ve been known to pick up a bag and eat the whole thing for lunch.
And poutine…a good poutine needs the squeaky curds, a nice salty gravy and “dirty” fries…which I don’t know how to define, but I know them when I see them. Mmmmmmm poutine…
Kind of, but that’s not going to help you with how it tastes or the texture of it. Here’s a link to the process. Basically, almost all (if not all, depending on your definition) cheese is made from curd. Cheddar cheese curds are young cheddar cheese before they’re cheddared and pressed into blocks of cheese.
Whoa, cheddar is a verb? I need to look this up!
You need to learn to make your own curds =) It is a blast. Not a fast process, but interesting. All you need is raw milk [they sell a chemical you can add to pasturized homogenized milk but I never had much luck getting it to come out as nicely as with raw milk.] innoculant of the right bacteria, the rennet and access to some cheesecloth, a collander, a large nonmetallic pot, a thermometer, a wooden spoon, and then a long knife. You can buy cheddar kits at new england cheesemaking’s webpage.Well, kits for different sorts of cheese actually =)
I try to avoid cheeses with rennet in them (vegetarian). I’m not always successful, but I try when there is an alternative. Is there a make-at-home way that doesn’t use rennet?