Cheese string

Cheese string is a snack cheese made by stretching and pulling cheese curd into thin strands, so it can be peeled apart into strings.

Cheese string is a snack cheese made by stretching and pulling cheese curd into thin strands, so it can be peeled apart into strings. In most modern North American and European packaging, it is typically a form of low-moisture mozzarella made using the pasta filata process. The name refers to its stringy texture rather than a separate cheese variety. In Canada, cheese string is a common grocery-store snack, especially in lunchboxes, and is typically sold as individually wrapped mozzarella sticks.

Definition

Cheese string is a type of cheese that can be separated into thin strands when pulled apart. The term refers to its texture and form, not to a single legally defined cheese category.

Production

Modern cheese strings are commonly made from mozzarella curd that is heated, stretched, and sometimes passed through mechanical equipment such as an extruder or auger system. This process aligns milk proteins and produces the characteristic stringy structure.

Common ingredients and style

Commercial cheese strings are usually made from pasteurized milk, cultures, rennet, and salt, with mozzarella as the most common base. They are typically packaged as small snack-size sticks for convenience.

History and origins

Sources differ on the broader origins of string cheese, with references to Syria, Armenia, Italy, and later U.S. commercialization. One account states that a U.S. string-cheese version was invented in Wisconsin in 1976.