Kathleen Lavey

Lansing State Journal

Back in 1915, Pinconning had too many cows, too much milk and nothing to do with it all.

Cheese became the answer.

Wisconsinite Dan Horn came to the area and created a unique style of Colby cheese suited to a small town with a limited capacity for refrigeration.

"Dan came over from Wisconsin and created a cheese to match the supply with the demand," said Ryan Kleinhans, general manager of Wilson's Cheese Shoppe, founded in 1939 by Horn's daughter, Inez Wilson.

Semi-soft and golden, Pinconning cheese is delicious paired with wine or fruit or used in baked cheese products such as macaroni and cheese.

Like your cheese young and mild? Look for squeaky-fresh cheese curds. Cheese usually stops squeaking when it's about a week old, so you know the squeaky stuff is as fresh as it gets. The store sells cheese curds in a variety of flavors such as garlic and herb, dill, sriracha or bacon-and-onion.

Or wait until it's aged. How long? That depends on what you like.

"Right now we have a mild, a medium-mild, medium-sharp, sharp, extra-sharp, the super-sharp, 10-year-old and 16-year-old cheese," said Michelle Sammons, who works at the Pinconning Cheese Co.

The 16-year-old cheese? You'll either love or hate its concentrated cheese essence on your first try.

This is part of a series about interesting regional foods in Michigan. Read others here:

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Michigan food finds: U.P. monks are jammin'

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"It's very, very sharp," Sammons said. "It's going to be very, very strong."

And unique, too.

"You don't see too many sharp Colby cheeses because they're hard to age," Kleinhans said.

The chance to challenge taste buds on a cheese that's technically old enough to drive a car has been a magnet for cheese connoisseurs.

"We sell lots of it, actually," Sammons said.

Some Meijer stores carry Pinconning cheese. To get the oldest stuff, you'll have to road trip to Pinconning, which is north of Bay City off of Interstate 75, or check online: The Pinconning Cheese Company, Wilson's Cheese Shoppe, the Pinconning Cheesehouse or Williams Cheese.

Related: How to make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich

The shops sell a variety of other items that pair well with cheese, as well as imported cheeses and flavored cheeses to go along with the Pinconning variety.

"The star of the show is always going to be the cheese," Kleinhans said. "There are so many different options. You have spreads, fancy imported cheeses, flavored cheeses."

Kleinhans recommends that you always serve Pinconning cheese at room temperature.

"For that squeaky cheese, you're going to get that really good squeak out of it," he said. "And for sharp, you're going to get the best flavor."

Contact Kathleen Lavey at (517) 377-1251 or klavey@lsj.com. Follow her on twitter @kathleenlavey.