Cheese--hard, semi-hard, & soft

Hard Cheese

Distinguished by its retaining 30% moisture, by being made from raw milk, and by being all bacteria ripened. It's taste and texture is dramatically shaped by the amount of time it is aged.

2-3 months aging:

• Appitost
• Nokkelost (Norwegian)
• Kuminost

3-12 months aging:

• American
• Asiago (Italian table cheese--see also under 12-16 month aging)
• Cheddars (see Danish Samsoe, English Leicester, British Caerphilly, French Cantal, American Coon, American Colby)
• Edam (Dutch cheese, uncooked and pressed, with a natural rind and a yellow interior. The only cheese in the world that can hold a perfectly spherical shape)
• Gjetost (The national cheese of Norway, meaning goat + cheese, though it is now commonly made of cow's milk. Usually an acquired taste, it's caramel colored, sold in cubes.)
• Gruyere (Swiss cheese with nutty taste--smaller eyes than Emmentaler)
• Jarlsberg (Norwedian swiss-type cheese with yellow rind, large eyes)
• Provolone (Italian, a string cheese whose curd is heated in hot whey then kneaded and formed into its familiar corded and hanging salami and pear shapes)
• Samsoe (Danish cheddar named after the island of Samsoe in the Kattegat--with a slightly sweet taste of nut kernels. Tybo is a variation of it.)
• Sapsago (Swiss cheese also called Schabziger and Green cheese--spiced with clover and strong tasting--used almost exclusively for hard grating)
• Swiss (see Emmenthaler, Appenzeller, Gruyere...)

12-16 months aging...or more:

• Caciocavallo (Italian cheese with a thick brown rind and pale yellow interior-- flask- or bottle-shaped; also is sold as a table cheese when aged less)
• Asiago (Italian hard grating cheese with black waxed rind)
• Cheshire
• Parmigiano-Reggiano (Italian)
• Pecorino-Romano (Italian, made from ewe's milk)
• Sardo (Italian--same as Pecorino, but made on the island of Sardinia; today it commonly mixes ewe's milk with cow's milk)
• Sbrinz (Swiss hard cheese with practically no eyes that takes 3 years to cure. Probably the original caseus helveticus mentioned by Columella, Roman agriculturalist in 1 AD. It takes its name from the town of Brienz in the Bernese Oberland)

Semi-Hard

Generally poor for cooking purposes, these superb cheeses retain about 45% moisture and are ripened and brought to full flavor either through the action of mold (actually a penicillin mold) or by the action of bacteria.

Mold-ripened semi-hard cheeses

• Bleu
• Gorgonzola (Italian, it's blue veins from Penicillium Glaucum)
• Roquefort (French--from ewe's milk)
• Stilton (English)

Bacteria-ripened semi-hard cheese

• Bel Paese (Italian)
• Brick (an American original called The married man's limburger)
• Fontina (Italian--made from ewe's milk in the Aosta Valley in the Piedmont; it's process is similar to Gruyere and, likewise, it often has a few small round eyes)
• Gammelost (Norwegian--a really potent cheese made from sour skim-milk in the counties of Hardanger and Sogu)
• Gouda (Dutch uncooked and pressed cheese)
• Havarti (aka Tilsit, it's a Danish cheese)
• Monterey Jack (American, originally made on farms in Monterey County, California, around 1892. It's actually a cheddar without any coloring added)
• Mozzarella (Italian, originally made from buffalo's milk, now commonly made from cow's milk)
• Muenster
• Port du Salud (French washed-rind Monastery-type cheese with a bright orange surface)

Soft Cheeses

Poor to cook with--they retain between 45-85% moisture. They include cheeses that are unripened, mold ripened, and bacteria ripened.

Unripened natural cheeses

• Farmer cheese (many local varieties around the world, varying according to the milk used...and how much cream is removed from it)
• Pot cheese (varies according to locale--usually sour, similar Too but drier than Cottage cheese)
• Neufchatel (French--sometimes lightly cured with a bloomy rind and custard -colored interior)
• Primost
• Petit Gervais (French version of American cream cheese--a double creme with a salty finish)
• Ricotta (actually made from whey, not curds)

Unripened and enriched with cream

• Cottage cheese

Unripened and held (pickled) in brine

• Feta (commonly Greek, but many varieties from Bulgaria, Israel, and throughout the Middle East)

Mold ripened

• Brie (French, right outside of Paris--and truly the queen of cheeses when at a perfect ripeness. Three famous versions from 3 adjacent towns: Melun, Coulommiers, and Meaux.)
• Bucheron (French goat cheese--firm in texture and shaped into logs)
• Cambozola (German)
• Camembert (French)
• Capricette (French goat cheese sold in small white ovals)
• Chabichou (aka Cabichou, a French goat cheese sold in cones or cylinders with a bloomy white rind)
• Domiati (Egyptian national cheese named after the small seaport on the Mediterranean--it's made from whole cow's or buffalo's milk and is salty, the salt being added right at the beginning of the process, before the rennet)
• Montrachet (French goat cheese made in Burgundy--log shaped. Generally considered a milder goatiness. Sometimes its rind is dusted with vine wood ash, which makes it sharper)
• Pont L'Eveque (French--surface ripened with a washed rind, it's a monastery-type cheese with a golden crust and a buttery interior; comes in little square boxes; revered by gourmets, it is an excellent dessert cheese)
• Livarot (French)
• Reblochon (French washed-rind cheese with a rusty exterior and a creamy interior--a mild dessert cheese)

Bacteria ripened

• Limburger (originally Belgian, from Limbourg in Liege, but now associated with and produced in Germany)
• Liederkranz (American wreath of song invented by a Belgian delicatessen owner in 1890s Ohio, trying to duplicate his native Limburger)
• hand cheeses (e.g., Olomouc Hand Cheese from the Czech Republic)