Several years ago I worked at a Blimpie restaurant, and our most popular food, other than sandwiches, was our Wisconsin Cheese Soup. It was so popular we kept two full pots of it going every day, and we sold it year-round. I was leery of trying it for the first couple of years I worked there, because even though I knew it was popular, I just couldn't understand the concept of a Cheese Soup. Then I did try it, and I was hooked.
After University, I moved on in jobs to pursue a career in my degree--my work with 29k Productions doing photos and video. And I missed the cheese soup. I tried many, many recipes for cheese soup, and failed to find anything that tasted quite like I remembered. Finally I had my own go at it, and with a little tinkering I created the recipe I believe best matches the great soup I remember.
The following recipe is as exact as i can make it, given that since I created the recipe, I go more by feel when I'm putting it together than by portioned amounts. This soup is fantastic by itself, but I do recommend having some bread to go along with it. My preference is homemade ciabatta bread, but I've found that CostCo's Cheese Bagels and Onion Bagels are great with it as well.
This recipe also includes beer. I typically use a hefeweizen, but you can alter the beer to your tastes. Most of the alcohol will cook off, but if you don't do alcohol, a non-alcoholic beer of your liking should do ok. At a medium temperature, simmering in the mixture for at least 15 minutes, only 40% of the alcohol is maintained (less if it simmers longer). One bottle of beer contains about 5% alcohol. Mixing it into the soup and presuming zero cookoff, you're talking well under 1%. With cookoff it is a completely negligible amount. The beer is there for flavor and consistency.
This is a heavy, creamy, comforting soup, perfect for a nice fireside meal during the cold months.
Cheese Soup Recipe
Elizabeth R. Schwartz - The Wild Mammals of Missouri (click image to view on Amazon).
