When I was 12 or 13, my dad brought some cheese straws home from work. The minute I tasted those cheesy, buttery, crunchy treats I decided I had to learn to make them. I immediately insisted that my mother buy me a cookie press and off I went to master the art of cheese straws. The ingredients are simple but the technique to make them look good is a skill. I practiced and practiced until I could make them beautiful, uniform, and consistent. I was all about presentation even at that young age!
A few months later my mother asked me to make them for a party she was attending. One of her friends inquired where she had gotten them and when she found out, she asked me to make them for her. Eventually, all the ladies in Aberdeen were ordering Billy Harris’ cheese straws. What started out as a hobby, turned into quite a cottage industry. I charged $3 per order and at that age, I thought I was rich. My parents still joke to this day that my cheese straw business was the only one they knew of that was 100% profit… they bought all the ingredients and I kept all the proceeds! I continued filling orders for cheese straws until I left home for college.
The secret to making uniform cheese straws is the consistency of the dough. The cheese and butter must be at room temperature. If the dough is too stiff, it will not go through the cookie press evenly.
I still use the cookie press that my mother bought for me in the early 70s. My press has a crank mechanism that pushes the dough through the disk. There are several disk shapes that will produce different shapes of cheese straws. I have always used the disk where the opening is flat on one size and zigzagged on the other side.
Ingredients
10 oz of sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 stick of unsalted butter
2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Blend grated cheese and butter together thoroughly with a fork.
3. Blend flour, salt, and cayenne pepper.
4. Still using a fork, blend flour into the cheese mixture in small amounts until all the flour is incorporated into the dough.
5. Separate the dough into two balls.
6. Roll one of the balls into a cylinder shape and feed into cookie press.
7. Press the dough into rows on a baking sheet.
8. Repeat with second ball of dough.
9. When all the dough is pressed, use a knife to straighten the rows of dough.
10. Cut each row of dough into 5 cheese straws.
11. Bake for 15 minutes.
https://southernboydishes.com/2012/09/09/cheese-straws/
Bill Harris
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Hi, Love your blog. I am a fellow southerner, originally from southeast Alabama, now living in Arlington, VA. I found you through the recipe for cheese straws. I loved these, too, when I was growing up and still do. I couldn’t do anything as sophisticated as cheese straws at that age. Our cook would give me scraps of dough and let me make little biscuits and put them in a jar lid to cook alongside hers. Her biscuits were legendary. Mine were like little rocks. When I was in graduate school at Auburn U, my housemate was from Gulfport, MS. His fraternity mother at Mississippi State, where he had been an undergraduate, was “Mother Claiborn,” mother of Craig. She taught him how to cook (my roommate, that is, though she taught Craig, too, the story goes). My housemate loved to cook and that was my first awareness of serious southern cuisine. And, we would go to New Orleans on holidays. I do a few southern things…am most “famous” for my pecan pie. I know it’s not the healthiest thing to eat, so I only do it on seasonal holidays or by special request, and I use organic ingredients (except for Karo syrup) and use wholewheat crust. Let me know if you would like my recipe. Back to cheese straws, these aren’t very southern, but here is a recipe published in the Washington post for blue cheese straws, by John Martin Taylor, partner of Tom Sietsema, food critic for the Post.
https://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2013/07/14/john-martin-taylors-blue-cheese-straws/
Your blog is very nice with good quality photos. Do you do the photos yourself? (I am a graphic designer and photographer.)
Best, Bob
Hi Bob, thanks so much for dropping by SBD. I always love hearing from my readers, especially the “southern” ones! 🙂 I do take all the photos and you compliment means a lot coming from a designer and photographer. I hope you’ll come back to SBD soon!