National Cheese Doodle Day
National Cheese Doodle Day is celebrated every year on March 5. It is one of those gloriously unserious food holidays that needs almost no explanation. Open a bag, accept the orange fingers, and enjoy the crunch.
The day celebrates cheese-coated corn snacks in all their forms, puffed, crunchy, baked, fried, curly, straight, classic, spicy, and unapologetically messy.
History of Your Favorite Cheese Doodle
There is no single, universally agreed inventor of the broader cheese-doodle-style snack.
One major origin story points to Flakall Corporation in Beloit, Wisconsin, in the 1930s. Flakall was making animal feed, and workers discovered that moistened corn passing through heated machinery puffed up instead of flaking normally.
"This flaking of the feed is of advantage because it avoids loss of a good percentage of material which otherwise is thrown off as dust, and gives a material which keeps better in storage by reason of the voids left between the flakes, such that there can be proper aeration, not to mention the important fact that flaked feed is more palatable and easily digested by the animal"
- Flakall Corporation
A later patent filed in 1939 by Clarence J. Schwebke and assigned to Flakall describes a process in which cornmeal is heated under pressure and discharged into the atmosphere, where it expands into “cellular streamlets or fingers.” That is basically the technical backbone of the puffed-corn snack process.
Then there is Morrie Yohai, the man most commonly linked with Cheez Doodles specifically. His work matters because even if he did not invent the entire category, he helped define the Cheez Doodles identity that many people now associate with the phrase “cheese doodle.”
Celebrate National Cheese Doodle Day
Use them as breading
Pulse them into coarse crumbs and use them to coat fried fish, chicken tenders, onion rings, or even tofu. The corn base helps them crisp well, and the cheese dust adds instant flavor.
Make a crunchy topping
Crush cheese doodles and sprinkle them over mac and cheese, casseroles, or baked potatoes for salty crunch and extra cheese flavor.
Share on social media
Share your creation on social media with the hashtag #nationalcheesedoodle day and makes others aware of this fun day.
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