Cheese Varieties and Their Characteristics

Cottage Cheese:

• Place of origin – Uncertain.
• Mode of serving – Salads, appetizers, sandwiches.
• Characteristics – Simplest of all cheese varieties, uncured cheese made of cow’s milk. Made commercially from Pasteurized skin milk to which lactic acid euilline is added.

Cream Cheese :

• Place of origin – uncertain.
• Mode of serving – Salads, sandwiches, for breakfasts and appetizers.
• Characteristics – A soft uncured cheese made from cow’s milk with cream added. The special richness and smoothness comes from the whole milk with added cream. Mild in flavor.

Brie Cheese : 

• Place of origin – France.
• Mode of serving – Served after a meal and as a buffet cheese.
• Characteristics – Soft ripened cheese in small disc made from  cow’s milk. One of the world’s famous cheese and a a great favorite with Europeans.

Gorgonzola Cheese :

• Place of origin – Italy.
• Mode of serving -Served after meals, also used for salads ad on buffets.
• Characteristics – Hard blue – veined cheese made from cow’s milk.

Cheddar Cheese :

• Place of origin – Cheddar, England.
• Mode of serving – Served after meals, used in sandwiches and in preparation of food.
• Characteristics – One of the most popular and well-known cheese of the world made from cow’s milk.Hard and smooth, the English Cheddar is one of the oldest and best known of English cheeses.

Edam Cheese : 

• Place of origin – Northern Holland.
• Mode of serving -Served after meals or for buffets.
• Characteristics – Round cannonball shaped light beige colored cheese produced by dipping ripened cheese in red colored paraffin wax. It is hard and rubbery in texture, has a mild and sweet taste.

Gouda Cheese :

• Place of origin – Southern Holland.
• Mode of serving – Served after meals.
• Characteristics – Semi- hard has the same flavor as Edam and is also dipped red or yellow paraffin wax after ripening. It veries in sizes between 10-50 lbs. Lately baby Gouda can be obtained in 1 lb blocks.

Gruyere Cheese :

• Place of origin – Gruyere Switzerland.
• Mode of serving – Served after meals.
• Characteristics – Hard with gas holes and nut like salty flavor, made of cow’s milk.

Swiss Cheese Emmental :

• Place of origin – Emmy valley Switzerland.
• Mode of serving – Served  after meals, in sandwiches, with salads and in cooking.
• Characteristics – This is also one of the most famous cheeses. It is hard with gas holes and a nut like sweet flavor.

Parmesan cheese :

• Place of origin – Parma, Italy.
• Mode of serving – Served for flavoring food and as garnish, in pastas.
• Characteristics – Hard granular texture with a sharp flavor.

Port Salut Cheese :

• Place of origin – France.
• Mode of serving – Served after meals.
• Characteristics – Semi – hard with rubbery texture. It is made of whole slightly acidic cow’s milk.

Feta Cheese :

• Place of origin – Greece.
• Mode of serving – Salads, starters.
• Characteristics – Made from ewe or goat’s milk. Salted and kept in brine. Very sharp in taste and crumbly in texture.

Ricotta Cheese : 

• Place of origin – Italy
• Mode of serving – Salads, spreads, fillings, sauces.
• Characteristics – Curd cheese made from ewe or cow’s milk. Rindless with a granular, crumbly texture.

Mozzarella Cheese :

• Place of origin – Italy.
• Mode of serving – Pizzas, lasagnas etc.
• Characteristics – Made from buffalo or cow’s milk. Fresh and springy in texture. Kept in brine.

Cheese

A diary product made from coagulated milk, cream or a mixture of both. Rennet is usually used to coagulate the milk. The curd is then drained and put into moulds. The French name for cheese is fromage. Cheese making goes back to the earliest livestock farmers who used to let the milk curdle naturally, then beat it with branches, drain it and press it on stones. This cheese was dried in the sun, sprinkled with salt and used through out the winter season.

Cheese is highly nutritious food enjoyed by all levels of society, over the world.

Depending on the method to make cheese, it falls into two major categories :

1. Natural – These are considered living as it will continue to grow, develop and age to maturity ( ripening) and finally spoiling(over-ripening).
2. Processed or Pasteurized – These cheeses on the other hand, do not ripen and their character will not change at all.