Price stinks, but $209-a-pound cheese sells out

Wisconsin is famous for its cheese. Now it's famous for its very expensive cheese.

A cheesemaker in the Badger State put about 20 pounds of its 20-year-old cheddar on sale over the weekend at $209 a pound, according to local media — and it sold out in less than a day.

"It's like a milestone in the cheese industry," Ken Monteleone, owner of an artisan cheese shop in Madison, told the State Journal newspaper. The cheddar was made by Hook's Cheese Co. of Mineral Point, about 40 miles west of Madison, the state's capital.

Cheesemakers Tony and Julie Hook are giving $40,000 from the cheese sale to the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the paper reported. About 430 pounds has already been sold to people who ordered in advance.

"The dairy center has done so much good, we're trying to help," Tony Hook told the State Journal. "They're helping future generations and even our generation now."

The speedy sale was announced on the company's Facebook page.

"We sold the last of the 20 year this morning," the Hooks wrote.

Tory Miller — owner and chef of restaurants L'Etoile, Graze and Sujeo in Madison — told the newspaper that due to the crumbly nature of the aged cheese, it is best used in small amounts over pasta or eggs.