A Wisconsin cheese plant has come up with a solution to the chemical-filled road salt usually utilized to make snowy roads safe, while simultaneously repurposing their own waste product. Yup, you got it -- whey is the new road salt.

“The cheese whey itself froze at a lower point than regular salt brine,” said highway manager Moe Norby.
The high sodium makes the brine a perfect replacement for the conventional magnesium chloride, the chemical most often used by highway departments.
Highway officials also said they are saving a lot of money by using the cheese instead.

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If you're easy going, chances are you prefer red wine, at least according to a recent study by French Wines with Style. The social habits of red wine drinkers have been found to be drastically different from those who prefer white or rose, and there are also marked differences in average household income.

Red wine drinkers described themselves as confident, relaxed, strong and intelligent, whereas white wine drinkers chose terms like practical, bright, shy, quiet and reserved to describe themselves. Rose drinkers called themselves loud, warm and charming.

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Photo by Shutterstock

Who doesn't love a good gratin in the winter? The fennel flavor is amplified by both the bulb and seeds, and anchovies are a surprising flavor addition to the layered vegetables and Parmesan cheese.

This is going to be one of my favorite new trusty side dishes. It is simple, scrumptious and moreish. Don't let the thought of anchovies put you off making this ...they add so much dimension to the sauce and don't leave a hint of fishiness. Absolutely exquisite dish!

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Photo by James Ransom

Beer geeks, have we got a quiz for you! Physics.org brings you Cheers Physics, a set of multiple-choice questions concerning your beloved brews. Think you got what it takes? Brush up on your skills, or challenge someone else!

You may enjoy a beer in the evening or an ale over a good tale…but have you ever thought about what goes into making your pint?
From generating the right amount of bubbles to extracting the best flavours, brewing involves a lot of physics. So although it may be wet and cold outside, there’s still reason to raise a glass and say “cheers physics!”.

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Seemingly hundreds of books have been written about why French people don't get fat, despite their wine, cheese, and white bread habits. Oh, and they have quite a smoking habit, too. So what's the deal? We've heard lots of interesting things about Roquefort recently, and it's now been discovered the blue-veined cheese may have unique anti-inflammatory properties.

According to study authors Dr. Ivan Petyaev and Dr. Yuriy Bashmakov, “the anti-inflammatory factors found in these cheeses could be extracted and used independently as a part of today’s pharmaceutical or beauty products.” There’s also the increasingly popular idea that inflammation within the body is the cause of “many aging processes,” like muscle loss, cellulite, and “metabolic, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular diseases,” which anti-inflammatory ingredients work to fight against.

After Washington's recent legalization of same-sex marriage, The Stranger, a weekly Seattle mag, parodied the "slippery slope" fear many traditional marriage proponents hold: the idea that legalizing same-sex marriage will lead to humans marrying animals. Check out the cute couple, Garrett and Snowflake the goat, and it's worth noting Jennie Grant (Snowflake's owner) has written a book about on backyard goat keeping. It's called City Goats, and is reviewed in the Winter issue of culture!

This week's Stranger cover features a sweet, handsome man marrying a really fine-looking goat. I'd like to say for the record, as the photographer—a goat is not an easy model to shoot. I'd also like to say that Garrett, the man, is a lovely human.

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Photo by Kelly O

Bruschetta is a party favorite, usually in the summer with mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil. This fall counterpart utilizes hearty butternut squash and tangy goat cheese, one version with sage and pine nuts, and the other with cranberry and rosemary.

You can really mix and match your favorite ingredients—the base is sautéed butternut squash (in butter of course) along with goat cheese, a nut and an herb. I just threw these together based on basic fall ingredients making sure there was sweet, sour, bitter and salt flavors.

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Photo by Rick Bakas

We've heard an awful lot about the ins and outs of starting a creamery here at culture, but what does it take to start a brewery? The folks over at Modern Times Beer explain it might take more than you think.

It may sound ridiculous, but it never occurred to me that anyone would think $1.25 million was a huge sum given the task at hand. If you found it in a suitcase, yes, it would seem like a lot, probably because you’d start thinking about how much coke you could buy with it. If it were your annual salary, then yup, that’d be a lot too, even though you’d probably have an absurdly distorted sense of your own relative wealth and deny it like a jerk. But if that’s all the money you have to start a 30 bbl brewery, then no, that is not a lot of money.

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During the holidays, bubbly is the go-to beverage. It's festive, classic, and supremely drinkable. But if you don't buy champagne on a regular basis, you may be struggling to find a bottle that suits your needs. Luckily, The Kitchn is here with ten of their favorite sparkling wine picks under sixty dollars. And if you're looking to round out the drink with some snacks, check out our cheese pairing suggestions.

This week, I am focusing specifically on the brut non-vintage cuvée. Brut non-vintage is the manifestation of a Champagne producer's philosophy—his house style, so to speak. The brut non-vintage cuvée is about consistency year-in-year-out and is the bread and butter of the business.

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Photo by Johan Swanepoel/Shutterstock

Reigning U.S. champion cheesemaker Katie Hedrich has announced LaClare Farms will unveil their new farmstead dairy early this summer. The new facility will have special curing rooms for cheese, as well as the capability to produce cultured products and bottled milk.

The new farmstead dairy plant allows the Hedrich family to expand their current offering of goat's milk and mixed milk cheeses, including Evalon, Fresh Chevre, Cheddar, Fondy Jack and American Originals crafted by Katie Hedrich, who without her own facility, has been making five-hour round trips to Willow Creek cheese factory several times a week to make Evalon and LaClare cheeses.

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Photo by cheese underground lady