National Cheese Doodle Day is on Friday, March 5, 2027, and it falls on March 5 every year. It celebrates the puffy, cheese-dusted corn snack that leaves orange powder on your fingers. Whether you call them doodles, curls or puffs, it’s a day to grab a bag.
When Is National Cheese Doodle Day?
It’s always March 5. It’s an unofficial snack day, not a federal holiday.
Who Started National Cheese Doodle Day?
No founder or start year has been documented.
Background: an accidental invention
In the 1930s, the Flakall Company in Beloit, Wisconsin, made flaked feed for livestock. Workers fed moistened corn through a grinder to keep it from clogging, Atlas Obscura reports.
The heat and pressure made the corn come out in puffy ribbons. Employee Edward Wilson took the puffs home, seasoned them and sold them as a snack called Korn Kurls. Flakall filed a patent in 1939 for the process.
Who created Cheez Doodles?
Morrie Yohai developed Cheez Doodles in the 1950s at the Old London Foods factory in the Bronx, New York. He died in 2010 at age 90, and obituaries credited him as the snack’s creator.
How Are Cheese Doodles Made?
Cornmeal is pushed through an extruder, a machine that squeezes it out under heat and pressure. When the dough leaves the machine, trapped moisture turns to steam and puffs it up. The puffs are then baked or fried and tumbled in cheese seasoning.
Crunchy curls came first and are still the most common style. Softer, airier puffs came later. The day celebrates a snack born from a happy factory accident.
How to Celebrate National Cheese Doodle Day
- Hold a blind taste test: compare a crunchy curl, a puffed ball and a baked doodle and vote on the best.
- Coat some chicken: crush cheese curls and use them as breading for oven-baked chicken tenders.
- Top your mac and cheese: sprinkle crushed doodles over the top before baking.
- Make a snack mix: toss cheese curls with pretzels, roasted peanuts and popcorn for movie night.
- Try a regional brand: pick up a cheese curl brand you’ve never seen before when you travel.
- Use chopsticks: eat them with chopsticks to keep the orange dust off your fingers.
- Top a casserole: mix crushed cheese curls with melted butter and scatter over broccoli casserole.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are cheese doodles and Cheetos the same thing?
They’re the same type of snack, extruded corn coated in cheese seasoning. Cheez Doodles and Cheetos are different brands from different companies.
When did Cheetos come out?
In 1948, when Elmer Doolan struck a deal with H.W. Lay and Company to sell them nationally. A puffed version followed around 1971.
What were the first cheese curls called?
Korn Kurls, made from the Flakall Company’s accidental corn puffs in Wisconsin.