Aug 20, 2008
Only because I have spent many years working in restaurants and spent quite a bit of time actually talking with a vendor at the MN State fair who explained his process, I feel the need to weigh in on these reviews. The cheese curds should be fresh, at room temperature and when they at room temp, shake them around in little bit of flour to lightly coat them. When the curds are at room temperature, they "sweat" out some of the natural fat so that the flour will adhere to the curd. This step also ensures that that the batter will stick to the curds in the fryer. The batter should be made with beer, not milk and be fairly thin. Excess batter after dipping the curds should be drained from them in a wire mesh strainer (they actually had a very large flat one for this part) but a larger mesh strainer at home works too. The temperature of the oil is critical, the gentleman I spoke with said they keep their fryer at about 375 degrees. Also, the amount of oil used is very important; keep in mind that at the fairs they are using fryers that hold several gallons of oil, a home fryer uses 1.5 to 2 quarts on average so you can't fry very many at a time if you want them to turn out to be the delicious, golden, melty cheese curds we all love at the fair. I have been making these this way for 15 years or so and always get raves for these. Hope this helps anyone who has had problems with the batter sticking or everything turning into a gooey mess.
—Stepheni
