Frazer Corner Cheese Factory

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FRAZER CORNER CHEESE FACTORY
Town of Maple Grove, Shawano County

The Frazer Corner Cheese Factory property was owned by Wellinton Brown (1/26/1869), Clauson Knutson (4/25/1874) and Torwald Johnson (6/2/1875). The Johnson Bros. are recorded as the first cheese makers and were listed as cheese makers starting in about 1896. Michael Lyons purchased the operation October 4, 1922 and after eight years, sold it to Louis Schoen (1930). W. B. Schroeder then purchased it November 29,1939. Jim Blom started his career (approx. 1942-43) as a cheese maker at the Landstad Farmer’s Coop as truck driver and helper. This factory was farmer owned. He worked here two years before getting his cheese maker’s license. Melvin (Fuzzy) Zuleger was a licensed cheese maker there at the time and was his teacher. A state inspector verified that he could perform all the necessary tasks and then sent Jim’s request into the state for the license.

In approximately 1944, Jim started work for Weimer Schroeder at the Frazer Corner Cheese Factory. He worked there for 18 years as truck driver and cheese maker. Jim bought the business from Schroeder December 19, 1962 and closed down the operation in 1969. The building was then sold to Lawrence and Beverly Blom on August 28, 1973.

Jim’s day started with emptying out the cheese hoops at 5:00 a.m. followed with hand washing them. The hoops were then put back into the press to dry. After a quick breakfast at home (two doors down), Jim returned to drive truck to pick up milk from the local farmers. After returning, he placed the cans on the conveyor and dumped the milk into a round vat where it was weighed and a sample taken. A sample was taken every day but tested only every 15 days. Each day more sample milk was added to the sample bottle so it became a composite sample for the farmer. To keep milk this long, a chemical was added to keep it from the weighing vat, the milk was run into the pasteurizer. The milk was cooled down and then run into a large vat. A “starter” was then added. This starter was really sour milk taken from the previous day.

This was the catalyst needed to start the souring process for the new batch of milk. When the milk attained a certain acidity, rennet was added (this was made of a calf’s stomach. It “set the milk” making it solid. The next step was to cut the cheese into curds. One cut was made across the whole vat as a vertical cut and the second one was a horizontal cut. This cut the cheese into quarter inch cubes allowing the liquid (whey) to separate from the solids.

The cubes and whey were then heated using steam located under the vat. This cooked the moisture out of the cheese. The cooking time and temperature was varied depending on how much moisture was wanted in the cheese. Whey was then drawn off, straining it to hold back the curds. The whey was drawn into a separator, separating the whey from the cream. The cream was picked up by Seymour Creamery where they made butter. The rest of the curds were worked over by cutting it into sections and turning it over until the moisture ran out. The acidity was measured and when it reached the desired acidity it was run through a curd mill (knives), chopping it up. It was then salted. The amount of salt was determined by the weight of the curds.

After unloading the milk into the weighing tank in the morning the cans were put on a conveyor and went through a can washer, coming back out on a conveyor back to the truck. The truck driver then loaded the cans back on the truck to be ready for next morning’s pick-up.

Written by D.H. Bonduel Community Archives