Cheese scholar finds magic in milk's transformation

When Scott Rankin smells stinky cheeses—the kind so potent that the French refer to them as "the feet of God"—he doesn't just use his nose.He employs decades of education and academic research. He pulls the cheese apart and balls it up like Play-Doh to check for consistency."They are kind of 'wow' moments for me," said Rankin, 43, a cheese "scholar-in-residence" at the American Cheese Society's 25th annual conference, held over the weekend at the Hilton Chicago on South Michigan Avenue.He continues: "Some of these flavors you never associate with milk, but how you get them [stinky] is magic. It reflects a lot of care and work and attention. … It's a work of art, and that's to be celebrated."Even if you gag a little, apparently.The conference is a dairy Super Bowl of a sort, with hundreds of artisans and high-quality products. It provides a platform for cheesemongers, retailers and aficionados to network, talk about their passions and compete. Cheeses are judged and evaluated (Rankin's job), and attendees hold sessions on "How to Sell Cheese to Chefs" and more esoteric subjects such as "Demystifying Rennet and Coagulants."In spite of such a rarefied interest, Rankin isn't an evangelist of the curd, a champion of cheese. No, he's a food scientist, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He studies not only the chemistry of cheese, but also the intricacies of production (10 gallons of milk equals 1 pound of cheese) and the evolution of craft. He experiences dairy's golden cousin like few others. "I look at cheese as a flavor reactor," he says. "For some cheeses, I think, 'Wow, you got milk to do this?' It's that kind of intrigue that engages me."When Rankin speaks about his work, sports metaphors abound. He likens the University of Wisconsin's premiere food science program, with apologies to the Green Bay Packers, as an academic "dynasty, like the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s."He has been interested in food—specifically cheese and other dairy—from an early age. Rankin's dad died when he was young, and his mother went back to work, so he ended up cooking a lot.
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