Colby cheese

Colby is a semihard orange cheese made from cow's milk. It is named after the U.S. city of Colby, Wisconsin, where it was first developed in 1885 and quickly became popular. Today the cheese is typically used in snacks, sandwiches, and salads. Colby was developed by eliminating the cheddaring process used in making cheddar cheese, and instead partially draining the whey after the curd is cooked and adding cold water to decrease the mixture's temperature; the result is a moister and softer cheese. Traditional "washed-curd" Colby is pressed into a cylindrical form called a longhorn, and cures into an open texture with irregular holes. Derivatives include Colby-Jack, a marble cheese produced by mixing Colby and Monterey Jack curds, and Pinconning cheese, a style of Colby that was developed in Michigan. The city of Colby considers the cheese an important part of its history, and organizes an annual festival to promote Colby cheese. Several proposals have been made in the Wisconsin state legislature to designate Colby the official state cheese.