Transportation
Why Cheese Brine Might Be the Answer to Our Icy Winter Roads
In Wisconsin, even the streets smell like cheese.
Life's a little different once you venture behind the "Cheddar Curtain," that peculiarly Midwestern way to refer to the Illinois-Wisconsin border. There are chocolate cheeses and cheese festivals and even cheese castles. Last year, Wisconsin dairies produced nearly 2.8 billion pounds of cheese.
Not surprisingly, all this leads to some less tasty stuff as well, mostly gallons and gallons of cheese brine (that salty liquid byproduct those gourmet mozzarella balls come in). It's commonly used to quickly add salt to soft cheeses like provolone and mozzarella.