A job that has long belonged to cartoon mice named Jerry is now being occupied by researchers at the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research.
The job title was more than self-explanatory: cheese eater.
When the University of Wisconsin — located in Madison, the cheese capital of the world — began its search for part-time cheese eaters this year, dozens of people applied to be one of the five chosen, but eventually, the team was assembled.
Now, those five part-time dairy gobblers have begun the work of analyzing cheese made and provided by graduate student researchers, pizza makers, and the state’s esteemed cheese industry.
While the roles are nothing new to the university, being that they have been filled for about a decade, some changes came this year.
In the past, the roles were filled by students until this year, when they were opened to the public, resulting in an influx of applicants.
Brandon Prochaska, the sensory coordinator at the dairy research center, shared with NPR that while the role may be joked about, the team is passionate about its research.
“You know, there’s a lot of different jokes made about it, good or bad,” Prochaska said. “But there were definitely some people very passionate, enthusiastic about, ‘look at all the pizzas I’ve eaten, here’s all my Domino’s receipts or whatever, and you should hire me.’ And so yeah, there’s just something about it that struck a chord with people.”
The researchers work with cheese companies to inform them how their cheese is tasting, stretching, and baking.
When selecting the team from the pool of more than 200 applicants, Prochaska says that they were put to the test, asking questions like “Can you detect the difference between acid and bitter? Can you tell me which of these cheeses is salty? Or can you pick the older sample between the fresh and the old?”
Now, the new hires have joined a team of about 20-25 people who make up panels of tasters, which meet every week.
“Because a lot of what we do is for published research, we want to make sure it is good solid science, repeatable data, and a good amount of data points so that we can feel confident in the results,” Prochaska said.