The A-B-Z of Cheese

Each cheese is listed by its name and country of origin, with any further information available. Unless otherwise indicated, the cheese is made of cow's milk.

A

Aberdeen Scotland

Soft; creamy mellow.

Abertam Bohemia (Made near Carlsbad)

Hard; sheep; distinctive, with a savory smack all its own.

Absinthe see Petafina.

Acidophilus see Saint-Ivel.

Aettekees Belgium

November to May—winter-made and eaten.

Affiné, Carré see Ancien Impérial.

Affumicata, Mozzarella see Mozzarella.

After-dinner cheeses see Chapter 8.

Agricultural school cheeses see College-educated.

Aiguilles, Fromage d' Alpine France

Named "Cheese of the Needles" from the sharp Alpine peaks of the district where it is made.

Aizy, Cendrée d' see Cendrée.

Ajacilo, Ajaccio Corsica

Semihard; piquant; nut-flavor. Named after the chief city of French Corsica where a cheese-lover, Napoleon, was born.

à la Crème see Fromage, Fromage Blanc, Chevretons.

à la Main see Vacherin.

à la Pie see Fromage.

à la Rachette see Bagnes.

Albini Northern Italy

Semihard; made of both goat and cow milk; white, mellow, pleasant-tasting table cheese.

Albula Switzerland

Rich with the flavor of cuds of green herbs chewed into creamy milk that makes tasty curds. Made in the fertile Swiss Valley of Albula whose proud name it bears.

Alderney Channel Islands

The French, who are fond of this special product of the very special breed of cattle named after the Channel Island of Alderney, translate it phonetically—Fromage d'Aurigny.

Alemtejo Portugal

Called in full Queijo de Alemtejo, cheese of Alemtejo, in the same way that so many French cheeses carry along the fromage title. Soft; sheep and sometimes goat or cow; in cylinders of three sizes, weighing respectively about two ounces, one pound, and four pounds. The smaller sizes are the ones most often made with mixed goat and sheep milk. The method of curdling without the usual animal rennet is interesting and unusual. The milk is warmed and curdled with vegetable rennet made from the flowers of a local thistle, or cardoon, which is used in two other Portuguese cheeses—Queijo da Cardiga and Queijo da Serra da Estrella—and probably in many others not known beyond their locale. In France la Caillebotte is distinguished for being clabbered with chardonnette, wild artichoke seed. In Portugal, where there isn't so much separating of the sheep from the goats, it takes several weeks for Alemtejos to ripen, depending on the lactic content and difference in sizes.

Alfalfa see Sage.

Alise Saint-Reine France

Soft; summer-made.

Allgäuer Bergkäse, Allgäuer Rundkäse, or Allgäuer Emmentaler Bavaria

Hard; Emmentaler type. The small district of Allgäu names a mountain of cheeses almost as fabulous as our "Rock-candy Mountain." There are two principal kinds, vintage Allgäuer Bergkäse and soft Allgäuer Rahmkäse, described below. This celebrated cheese section runs through rich pasture lands right down and into the Swiss Valley of the Emme that gives the name Emmentaler to one of the world's greatest. So it is no wonder that Allgäuer Bergkäse can compete with the best Swiss. Before the Russian revolution, in fact, all vintage cheeses of Allgäu were bought up by wealthy Russian noblemen and kept in their home caves in separate compartments for each year, as far back as the early 1900's. As with fine vintage wines, the price of the great years went up steadily. Such cheeses were shipped to their Russian owners only when the chief cheese-pluggers of Allgäu found they had reached their prime.

Allgäuer Rahmkäse Bavaria

Full cream, similar to Romadur and Limburger, but milder than both. This sets a high grade for similar cheeses made in the Bavarian mountains, in monasteries such as Andechs. It goes exquisitely with the rich dark Bavarian beer. Some of it is as slippery as the stronger, smellier Bierkäse, or the old-time Slipcote of England. Like so many North Europeans, it is often flavored with caraway. Although entirely different from its big brother, vintage Bergkäse, Rahmkäse can stand proudly at its side as one of the finest cheeses in Germany.

Alpe see Fiore di Alpe.

Al Pepe Italy

Hard and peppery, like its name. Similar to Pepato (see).

Alpes France

Similar to Bel Paese.

Alpestra Austria

A smoked cheese that tastes, smells and inhales like whatever fish it was smoked with. The French Alps has a different Alpestre; Italy spells hers Alpestro.

Alpestre, Alpin, or Fromage de Briançon France

Hard; goat; dry; small; lightly salted. Made at Briançon and Gap.

Alpestro Italy

Semisoft; goat; dry; lightly salted.

Alpin or Clérimbert Alpine France

The milk is coagulated with rennet at 80° F. in two hours. The curd is dipped into molds three to four inches in diameter and two and a half inches in height, allowed to drain, turned several times for one day only, then salted and ripened one to two weeks.

Altenburg, or Altenburger Ziegenkäse Germany

Soft; goat; small and flat—one to two inches thick, eight inches in diameter, weight two pounds.

Alt Kuhkäse Old Cow Cheese Germany

Hard; well-aged, as its simple name suggests.

Altsohl see Brinza.

Ambert, or Fourme d'Ambert Limagne, Auvergne, France

A kind of Cheddar made from November to May and belonging to the Cantal—Fourme-La Tome tribe.

American, American Cheddar U.S.A.

Described under their home states and distinctive names are a dozen fine American Cheddars, such as Coon, Wiscon sin, Herkimer County and Tillamook, to name only a few. They come in as many different shapes, with traditional names such as Daisies, Flats, Longhorns, Midgets, Picnics, Prints and Twins. The ones simply called Cheddars weigh about sixty pounds. All are made and pressed and ripened in about the same way, although they differ greatly in flavor and quality. They are ripened anywhere from two months to two years and become sharper, richer and more flavorsome, as well as more expensive, with the passing of time. See Cheddar states and Cheddar types in Chapter 4.

Americano Romano U.S.A.

Hard; brittle; sharp.

Amou Béarn, France

Winter cheese, October to May.

Anatolian Turkey

Hard; sharp.

Anchovy Links U.S.A.

American processed cheese that can be mixed up with anchovies or any fish from whitebait to whale, made like a sausage and sold in handy links.

Ancien Impérial Normandy, France

Soft; fresh cream; white, mellow and creamy like Neufchâtel and made in the same way. Tiny bricks packaged in tin foil, two inches square, one-half inch thick, weighing three ounces. Eaten both fresh and when ripe. It is also called Carré and has separate names for the new and the old: (a) Petit Carré when newly made; (b) Carré Affiné, when it has reached a ripe old age, which doesn't take long—about the same time as Neufchâtel.

Ancona see Pecorino.

Andean Venezuela

A cow's-milker made in the Andes near Mérida. It is formed into rough cubes and wrapped in the pungent, aromatic leaves of Frailejón Lanudo (Espeletia Schultzii) which imparts to it a characteristic flavor. (Description given in Buen Provecho! by Dorothy Kamen-Kaye.)

Andechs Bavaria

A lusty Allgäuer type. Monk-made on the monastery hill at Andechs on Ammersee. A superb snack with equally monkish dark beer, black bread and blacker radishes, served by the brothers in dark brown robes.

Antwerp Belgium

Semihard; nut-flavored; named after its place of origin.

Appenzeller Switzerland, Bavaria and Baden

Semisoft Emmentaler type made in a small twenty-pound wheel—a pony-cart wheel in comparison to the big Swiss. There are two qualities: (a) Common, made of skim milk and cured in brine for a year; (b) Festive, full milk, steeped in brine with wine, plus white wine lees and pepper. The only cheese we know of that is ripened with lees of wine.

Appetitost Denmark

Semisoft; sour milk; nutlike flavor. It's an appetizer that lives up to its name, eaten fresh on the spot, from the loose bottom pans in which it is made.

Appetost Denmark

Sour buttermilk, similar to Primula, with caraway seeds added for snap. Imitated in U.S.A.

Apple U.S.A.

A small New York State Cheddar put up in the form of a red-cheeked apple for New York City trade. Inspired by the pear-shaped Provolone and Baby Gouda, no doubt.

Arber Bohemia

Semihard; sour milk; yellow; mellow and creamy. Made in mountains between Bohemia and Silesia.

Argentine Argentina

Argentina is specially noted for fine reproductions of classical Italian hard-grating cheeses such as Parmesan and Romano, rich and fruity because of the lush pampas-grass feeding.

Armavir Western Caucasus

Soft; whole sour sheep milk; a hand cheese made by stirring cold, sour buttermilk or whey into heated milk, pressing in forms and ripening in a warm place. Similar to Hand cheese.

Arnauten see Travnik.

Arovature Italy

Water-buffalo milk.

Arras, Coeurs d' see Coeurs.

Arrigny Champagne, France

Made only in winter, November to May. Since gourmet products of the same province often have a special affinity, Arrigny and champagne are specially well suited to one another.

Artichoke, Cardoon or Thistle for Rennet see Caillebotte.

Artificial Dessert Cheese

In the lavish days of olde England Artificial Dessert Cheese was made by mixing one quart of cream with two of milk and spiking it with powdered cinnamon, nutmeg and mace. Four beaten eggs were then stirred in with one-half cup of white vinegar and the mixture boiled to a curd. It was then poured into a cheesecloth and hung up to drain six to eight hours. When taken out of the cloth it was further flavored with rose water, sweetened with castor sugar, left to ripen for an hour or two and finally served up with more cream.

Asadero, or Oaxaca Jalisco and Oaxaca, Mexico

White; whole-milk. Curd is heated, and hot curd is cut and braided or kneaded into loaves from eight ounces to eleven pounds in weight Asadero means "suitable for roasting."

Asco Corsica, France

Made only in the winter season, October to May.

Asiago I, II and III Vicenza, Italy

Sometimes classed as medium and mild, depending mostly on age. Loaves weigh about eighteen pounds each and look like American Cheddar but have a taste all their own.

I. Mild, nutty and sharp, used for table slicing and eating.

II. Medium, semihard and tangy, also used for slicing until nine months old.

III. Hard, old, dry, sharp, brittle. When over nine months old, it's fine for grating.

Asin, or Water cheese Northern Italy

Sour-milk; washed-curd; whitish; soft; buttery. Made mostly in spring and eaten in summer and autumn. Dessert cheese, frequently eaten with honey and fruit.

Au Cumin see Münster.

Au Fenouil see Tome de Savoie.

Au Foin and de Foin

A style of ripening "on the hay." See Pithiviers au Foin and Fromage de Foin.

Augelot Valée d'Auge, Normandy, France

Soft; tangy; piquant Pont l'Evêque type.

d'Auray see Sainte-Anne.

Aurigny, Fromage d' see Alderney.

Aurillac see Bleu d'Auvergne.

Aurore and Triple Aurore Normandy, France

Made and eaten all year.

Australian and New Zealand Australia and New Zealand

Enough cheese is produced for local consumption, chiefly Cheddar; some Gruyère, but unfortunately mostly processed.

Autun Nivernais, France

Produced and eaten all year. Fromage de Vache is another name for it and this is of special interest in a province where the chief competitors are made of goat's milk.

Auvergne, Bleu d' see Bleu.

Au Vin Blanc, Confits see Epoisses.

Avesnes, Boulette d' see Boulette.

Aydes, les Orléanais, France

Not eaten during July, August or September. Season, October to June.

Azeitão, Queijo do Portugal

Soft, sheep, sapid and extremely oily as the superlative ão implies. There are no finer, fatter cheeses in the world than those made of rich sheep milk in the mountains of Portugal and named for them.

Azeitoso Portugal

Soft; mellow, zestful and as oily as it is named.

Azuldoch Mountain Turkey

Mild and mellow mountain product.

B

Backsteiner Bavaria

Resembles Limburger, but smaller, and translates Brick, from the shape. It is aromatic and piquant and not very much like the U.S. Brick.

Bagnes, or Fromage à la Raclette Switzerland

Not only hard but very hard, named from racler, French for "scrape." A thick, one-half-inch slice is cut across the whole cheese and toasted until runny. It is then scraped off the pan it's toasted in with a flexible knife, spread on bread and eaten like an open-faced Welsh Rabbit sandwich.

Bagozzo, Grana Bagozzo, Bresciano Italy

Hard; yellow; sharp. Surface often colored red. Parmesan type.

Bakers' cheese

Skim milk, similar to cottage cheese, but softer and finer grained. Used in making bakery products such as cheese cake, pie, and pastries, but may also be eaten like creamed cottage cheese.

Ball U.S.A.

Made from thick sour milk in Pennsylvania in the style of the original Pennsylvania Dutch settlers.

Ballakäse or Womelsdorf

Similar to Ball.

Balls, Dutch Red

English name for Edam.

Banbury England

Soft, rich cylinder about one inch thick made in the town of Banbury, famous for its spicy, citrus-peel buns and its equestrienne. Banbury cheese with Banbury buns made a sensational snack in the early nineteenth century, but both are getting scarce today.

Banick Armenia

White and sweet.

Banjaluka Bosnia

Port-Salut type from its Trappist monastery.

Banon, or les Petits Banons Provence, France,

Small, dried, sheep-milker, made in the foothills of the Alps and exported through Marseilles in season, May to November. This sprightly summer cheese is generously sprinkled with the local brandy and festively wrapped in fresh green leaves.

Bar cheese U.S.A.

Any saloon Cheddar, formerly served on every free-lunch counter in the U.S. Before Prohibition, free-lunch cheese was the backbone of America's cheese industry.

Barbacena Minas Geraes, Brazil

Hard, white, sometimes chalky. Named from its home city in the leading cheese state of Brazil.

Barberey, or Fromage de Troyes Champagne, France

Soft, creamy and smooth, resembling Camembert, five to six inches in diameter and 1¼ inches thick. Named from its home town, Barberey, near Troyes, whose name it also bears. Fresh, warm milk is coagulated by rennet in four hours. Uncut curd then goes into a wooden mold with a perforated bottom, to drain three hours, before being finished off in an earthenware mold. The cheeses are salted, dried and ripened three weeks in a cave. The season is from November to May and when made in summer they are often sold fresh.

Barboux France

Soft.

Baronet U.S.A.

A natural product, mild and mellow.

Barron France

Soft.

Bassillac see Bleu.

Bath England

Gently made, lightly salted, drained on a straw mat in the historic resort town of Bath. Ripened in two weeks and eaten only when covered with a refined fuzzy mold that's also eminently edible. It is the most delicate of English-speaking cheeses.

Battelmatt Switzerland, St. Gothard Alps, northern Italy, and western Austria

An Emmentaler made small where milk is not plentiful. The "wheel" is only sixteen inches in diameter and four inches high, weighing forty to eighty pounds. The cooking of the curd is done at a little lower temperature than Emmentaler, it ripens more rapidly—in four months — and is somewhat softer, but has the same holes and creamy though sharp, full nutty flavor.

Bauden (see also Koppen) Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Silesia

Semisoft, sour milk, hand type, made in herders' mountain huts in about the same way as Harzkäse, though it is bigger. In two forms, one cup shape (called Koppen), the other a cylinder. Strong and aromatic, whether made with or without caraway.

Bavarian Beer cheese see Bayrischer Bierkäse.

Bavarian Cream German

Very soft; smooth and creamy. Made in the Bavarian mountains. Especially good with sweet wines and sweet sauces.

Bavarois à la Vanille see Fromage Bavarois.

Bayonne see Fromage de Bayonne.

Bayrischer Bierkäse Bavaria

Bavarian beer cheese from the Tyrol is made not only to eat with beer, but to dunk in it.

Beads of cheese Tibet

Beads of hard cheese, two inches in diameter, are strung like a necklace of cowrie shells or a rosary, fifty to a hundred on a string. Also see Money Made of Cheese.

Beagues see Tome de Savoie.

Bean Cake, Tao-foo, or Tofu China, Japan, the Orient

Soy bean cheese imported from Shanghai and other oriental ports, and also imitated in every Chinatown around the world. Made from the milk of beans and curdled with its own vegetable rennet.

Beaujolais see Chevretons.

Beaumont, or Tome de Beaumont Savoy, France

A more or less successful imitation of Trappist Tamie, a trade-secret triumph of Savoy. At its best from October to June.

Beaupré de Roybon Dauphiné, France

A winter specialty made from November to April.

Beckenried Switzerland

A good mountain cheese from goat milk.

Beer cheese U.S.A.

While our beer cheese came from Germany and the word is merely a translation of Bierkäse, we use it chiefly for a type of strong Limburger made mostly in Milwaukee. This fine, aromatic cheese is considered by many as the very best to eat while drinking beer. But in Germany Bierkäse is more apt to be dissolved in a glass or stein of beer, much as we mix malted powder in milk, and drunk with it, rather than eaten.

Beer-Regis Dorsetshire, England

This sounds like another beer cheese, but it's only a mild Cheddar named after its hometown in Dorsetshire.

Beist-Cheese Scotland

A curiosity of the old days. "The first milk after a calving, boiled or baked to a thick consistency, the result somewhat resembling new-made cheese, though this is clearly not a true cheese." (MacNeill)

Belarno Italy

Hard; goat; creamy dessert cheese.

Belgian Cooked Belgium

The milk, which has been allowed to curdle spontaneously, is skimmed and allowed to drain. When dry it is thoroughly kneaded by hand and is allowed to undergo fermentation, which takes ordinarily from ten to fourteen days in winter and six to eight days in summer. When the fermentation is complete, cream and salt are added and the mixture is heated slowly and stirred until homogeneous, when it is put into molds and allowed to ripen for eight days longer. A cheese ordinarily weighs about three-and-a-half pounds. It is not essentially different from other forms of cooked cheese.

Beli Sir see Domaci.

Bellelay, Tête de Moine, or Monk's Head Switzerland

Soft, buttery, semisharp spread. Sweet milk is coagulated with rennet in twenty to thirty minutes, the curd cut fairly fine and cooked not so firm as Emmentaler, but firmer than Limburger. After being pressed, the cheeses are wrapped in bark for a couple of weeks until they can stand alone. Since no eyes are desired in the cheeses, they are ripened in a moist cellar at a lowish temperature. They take a year to ripen and will keep three or four years. The diameter is seven inches, the weight nine to fifteen pounds. The monk's head after cutting is kept wrapped in a napkin soaked in white wine and the soft, creamy spread is scraped out to "butter" bread and snacks that go with more white wine. Such combinations of old wine and old cheese suggest monkish influence, which began here in the fifteenth century with the jolly friars of the Canton of Bern. There it is still made exclusively and not exported, for there's never quite enough to go around.

Bel Paese Italy

See under Foreign Greats, Chapter 3. Also see Mel Fino, a blend, and Bel Paese types—French Boudanne and German Saint Stefano. The American imitation is not nearly so good as the Italian original.

Bel Paesino U.S.A.

A play on the Bel Paese name and fame. Weight one pound and diminutive in every other way.

Bergkäse see Allgäuer.

Bergquara Sweden

Semihard, fat, resembles Dutch Gouda. Tangy, pleasant taste. Gets sharper with age, as they all do. Molded in cylinders of fifteen to forty pounds. Popular in Sweden since the eighteenth century.

Berkeley England

Named after its home town in Gloucester, England.

Berliner Kuhkäse Berlin, Germany

Cow cheese, pet-named turkey cock cheese by Berlin students. Typical German hand cheese, soft; aromatic with caraway seeds, and that's about the only difference between it and Alt Kuhkäse, without caraway.

Bernarde, Formagelle Bernarde Italy

Cow's whole milk, to which about 10% of goat's milk is added for flavor. Cured for two months.

Berques France

Made of skim milk.

Berry Rennet see Withania.

Bessay, le Bourbonnais, France

Soft, mild, and creamy.

Bexhill England

Cream cheeses, small, flat, round. Excellent munching.

Bierkäse Germany

There are several of these unique beer cheeses that are actually dissolved in a stein of beer and drunk down with it in the Bierstubes, notably Bayrischer, Dresdener, and Olmützer. Semisoft; aromatic; sharp. Well imitated in echt Deutsche American spots such as Milwaukee and Hoboken.

Bifrost Norway

Goat; white; mildly salt. Imitated in a process spread in 4¼-ounce package.

Binn Wallis, Switzerland

Exceptionally fine Swiss from the great cheese canton of Wallis.

Bitto Northern Italy

Hard Emmentaler type made in the Valtellina. It is really two cheeses in one. When eaten fresh, it is smooth, sapid, big-eyed Swiss. When eaten after two years of ripening, it is very hard and sharp and has small eyes.

Blanc à la crème see Fromage Blanc.

Blanc see Fromage Blanc I and II.

Bleu France

Brittle; blue-veined; smooth; biting.

Bleu d'Auvergne or Fromage Bleu Auvergne, France

Hard; sheep or mixed sheep, goat or cow; from Pontgibaud and Laqueuille ripening caves. Similar to better-known Cantal of the same province. Akin to Roquefort and Stilton, and to Bleu de Laqueuille.

Bleu de Bassillac Limousin, France

Blue mold of Roquefort type that's prime from November to May.

Bleu de Laqueuille France

Similar to Bleu d'Auvergne, but with a different savor. Named for its originator, Antoine Roussel-Laqueuille, who first made it a century ago, in 1854.

Bleu de Limousin, Fromage Lower Limousin

Practically the same as Bleu de Bassillac, from Lower Limousin.

Bleu de Salers France

A variety of Bleu d'Auvergne from the same province distinguished for its blues that are green. With the majority, this is at its best only in the winter months, from November to May.

Bleu, Fromage see Bleu d'Auvergne.

Bleu-Olivet see Olivet.

Blind

The name for cheeses lacking the usual holes of the type they belong to, such as blind Swiss.

Block Edam U.S.A.

U.S. imitation of the classical Dutch cheese named after the town of Edam.

Block, Smoked Austria

The name is self-explanatory and suggests a well-colored meerschaum.

Bloder, or Schlicker Milch Switzerland

Sour-milker.

Blue Cheddar see Cheshire-Stilton.

Blue, Danish see Danish Blue.

Blue Dorset see Dorset.

Blue, Jura see Jura Bleu and Septmoncel.

Blue, and Blue with Port Links U.S.A.

One of the modern American process sausages.

Blue, Minnesota see Minnesota.

Blue Moon U.S.A.

A process product.

Blue Vinny, Blue Vinid, Blue-veined Dorset, or Double Dorset Dorsetshire, England

A unique Blue that actually isn't green-veined. Farmers make it for private consumption, because it dries up too easily to market. An epicurean esoteric match for Truckles No. 1 of Wiltshire. It comes in a flat form, chalk-white, crumbly and sharply flavored, with a "royal Blue" vein running right through horizontally. The Vinny mold, from which it was named, is different from all other cheese molds and has a different action.

Bocconi Geganti Italy

Sharp and smoky specialty.

Bocconi Provoloni see Provolone.

Boîte see Fromage de Boîte.

Bombay India

Hard; goat; dry; sharp. Good to crunch with a Bombay Duck in place of a cracker.

Bondes see Bondon de Neufchâtel.

Bondon de Neufchâtel, or Bondes Normandy, France

Nicknamed Bonde à tout bien, from resemblance to the bung in a barrel of Neuchâtel wine. Soft, small loaf rolls, fresh and mild. Similar to Gournay, but sweeter because of 2% added sugar.

Bondon de Rouen France

A fresh Neufchâtel, similar to Petit Suisse, but slightly salted, to last up to ten days.

Bondost Sweden

When caraway seed is added this is called Kommenost, spelled Kuminost in Norway.

Bond Ost U.S.A.

Imitation of Scandinavian cheese, with small production in Wisconsin.

Bon Larron France

Romantically named "the penitent thief."

Borden's U.S.A.

A full line of processed and naturals, of which Liederkranz is the leader.

Borelli Italy

A small water-buffalo cheese.

Bossons Maceres Provence, France

A winter product, December, January, February and March only.

Boudanne France

Whole or skimmed cow's milk, ripens in two to three months.

Boudes, Boudon Normandy, France

Soft, fresh, smooth, creamy, mild child of the Neufchâtel family.

Bougon Lamothe see Lamothe.

Bouillé, la Normandy France

One of this most prolific province's thirty different notables. In season October to May.

Boule de Lille France

Name given to Belgian Oude Kaas by the French who enjoy it.

Boulette d'Avesnes, or Boulette de Cambrai Flanders, France

Made from November to May, eaten all year.

Bourgain France

Type of fresh Neufchâtel made in France. Perishable and consumed locally.

Bourgognes see Petits Bourgognes.

Box Württemberg, Germany

Similar to U.S. Brick. It comes in two styles; firm, and soft:

I. Also known as Schachtelkäse, Boxed Cheese; and Hohenheim, where it is made. A rather unimportant variety. Made in a copper kettle, with partially skim milk, colored with saffron and spiked with caraway, a handful to every two hundred pounds. Salted and ripened for three months and shipped in wooden boxes.

II. Also known by names of localities where made: Hohenburg, Mondess and Weihenstephan. Made of whole milk. Mild but piquant.

Bra No. I Piedmont, Italy

Hard, round form, twelve inches in diameter, three inches high, weight twelve pounds. A somewhat romantic cheese, made by nomads who wander with their herds from pasture to pasture in the region of Bra.

Bra No. II Turin and Cuneo, Italy

Soft, creamy, small, round and mild although cured in brine.

Brand or Brandkäse Germany

Soft, sour-milk hand cheese, weighing one-third of a pound. The curd is cooked at a high temperature, then salted and set to ferment for a day. Butter is then mixed into it before pressing into small bricks. After drying it is put in used beer kegs to ripen and is frequently moistened with beer while curing.

Brandy see Caledonian, Cream.

Branja de Brailia Rumania

Hard; sheep; extra salty because always kept in brine.

Branja de Cosulet Rumania

Described by Richard Wyndham in Wine and Food (Winter, 1937): A creamy sheep's cheese which is encased in pine bark. My only criticism of this most excellent cheese is that the center must always remain a gastronomical second best. It is no more interesting than a good English Cheddar, while the outer crust has a scented, resinous flavor which must be unique among cheeses.

Bratkäse Switzerland

Strong; specially made to roast in slices over coal. Fine, grilled on toast.

Breakfast, Frühstück, Lunch, Delikat, and other names Germany

Soft and delicate, but with a strong tang. Small round, for spreading. Lauterbach is a well-known breakfast cheese in Germany, while in Switzerland Emmentaler is eaten at all three meals.

Breakstone U.S.A.

Like Borden and other leading American cheesemongers and manufacturers, Breakstone offer a full line, of which their cream cheese is an American product to be proud of.

Brésegaut Savoy, France

Soft, white.

Breslau Germany

A proud Prussian dessert cheese.

Bressans see les Petits.

Bresse France

Lightly cooked.

Bretagne see Montauban.

Brevine Switzerland

Emmentaler type.

Briançon see Alpin.

Brick see Chapter 4.

Brickbat Wiltshire, England

A traditional Wiltshire product since early in the eighteenth century. Made with fresh milk and some cream, to ripen for one year before "it's fit to eat." The French call it Briqueton.

Bricotta Corsica

Semisoft, sour sheep, sometimes mixed with sugar and rum and made into small luscious cakes.

Brie see Chapter 3; also see Cendré and Coulommiers.

Brie Façon France

The name of imitation Brie or Brie type made in all parts of France. Often it is dry, chalky, and far inferior to the finest Brie véritable that is still made best in its original home, formerly called La Brie, now Seine et Marne, or Ile-de-France.

see Nivernais Decize, Le Mont d'Or, and Ile-de-France.

Brie de Meaux France

This genuine Brie from the Meaux region has an excellent reputation for high quality. It is made only from November to May.

Brie de Melun France

This Brie véritable is made not only in the seasonal months, from November to May, but practically all the year around. It is not always prime. Summer Brie, called Maigre, is notably poor and thin. Spring Brie is merely Migras, half-fat, as against the fat autumn Gras that ripens until May.

Brillat-Savarin Normandy, France

Soft, and available all year. Although the author of Physiologie du Goût was not noted as a caseophile and wrote little on the subject beyond Le Fondue (see Chapter 6), this savory Normandy produce is named in his everlasting praise.

Brina Dubreala Rumania

Semisoft, sheep, done in brine.

Brindza U.S.A.

Our imitation of this creamy sort of fresh, white Roquefort is as popular in foreign colonies in America as back in its Hungarian and Greek homelands. On New York's East Side several stores advertise "Brindza fresh daily," with an extra "d" crowded into the original Brinza.

Brine see Italian Bra, Caucasian Ekiwani, Brina Dubreala, Briney.

Briney, or Brined Syria

Semisoft, salty, sharp. So-called from being processed in brine. Turkish Tullum Penney is of the same salt-soaked type.

Brinza, or Brinsen Hungary, Rumania, Carpathian Mountains

Goes by many local names: Altsohl, Klencz, Landoch, Liptauer, Neusohl, Siebenburgen and Zips. Soft, sheep milk or sheep and goat; crumbly, sharp and biting, but creamy. Made in small lots and cured in a tub with beech shavings. Ftinoporino is its opposite number in Macedonia.

Brioler see Westphalia.

Briquebec see Providence

Briqueton England

The French name for English Wiltshire Brickbat, one of the very few cheeses imported into France. Known in France in the eighteenth century, it may have influenced the making of Trappist Port-Salut at the Bricquebec Monastery in Manche.

Brittle see Greek Cashera, Italian Ricotta, Turkish Rarush Durmar, and U.S. Hopi.

Brizecon Savoy, France

Imitation Reblochon made in the same Savoy province.

Broccio, or le Brocconis Corsica, France

Soft, sour sheep milk or goat, like Bricotta and a first cousin to Italian Chiavari. Cream white, slightly salty; eaten fresh in Paris, where it is as popular as on its home island. Sometimes salted and half-dried, or made into little cakes with rum and sugar. Made and eaten all year.

Broodkaas Holland

Hard, flat, nutty.

Brousses de la Vézubie, les Nice, France

Small; sheep; long narrow bar shape, served either with powdered sugar or salt, pepper and chopped chives. Made in Vézubie.

Brussels or Bruxelles Belgium

Soft, washed skim milk, fermented, semisharp, from Louvain and Hal districts.

Budapest Hungary

Soft, fresh, creamy and mellow, a favorite at home in Budapest and abroad in Vienna.

Buderich Germany

A specialty in Dusseldorf.

Bulle Switzerland

A Swiss-Gruyère.

Bundost Sweden

Semihard; mellow; tangy.

Burgundy France

Named after the province, not the wine, but they go wonderfully together.

Bushman Australia

Semihard; yellow; tangy.

Butter and Cheese see Chapter 8.

"Butter," Serbian see Kajmar.

Buttermilk U.S. & Europe

Resembles cottage cheese, but of finer grain.

C

Cabeçou, le Auvergne, France

Small; goat; from Maurs.

Cabrillon Auvergne, France

So much like the Cabreçon they might be called sister nannies under the rind.

Cachet d'Entrechaux, le, or Fromage Fort du Ventoux

Provence Mountains, France

Semihard; sheep; mixed with brandy, dry white wine and sundry seasonings. Well marinated and extremely strong. Season May to November.

Caciocavallo Italy

"Horse Cheese." The ubiquitous cheese of classical greats, imitated all around the world and back to Italy again. See Chapter 3.

Caciocavallo Siciliano Sicily, also in U.S.A.

Essentially a pressed Provolone. Usually from cow's whole milk, but sometimes from goat's milk or a mixture of the two. Weight between 17½ and 26 pounds. Used for both table cheese and grating.

Cacio Fiore, or Caciotta Italy

Soft as butter; sheep; in four-pound square frames; sweetish; eaten fresh.

Cacio Pecorino Romano see Pecorino.

Cacio Romano see Chiavari.

Caerphilly Wales and England—Devon, Dorset, Somerset & Wilshire

Semihard; whole fresh milk; takes three weeks to ripen. Also sold "green," young and innocent, at the age of ten to eleven days when weighing about that many pounds. Since it has little keeping qualities it should be eaten quickly. Welsh miners eat a lot of it, think it specially suited to their needs, because it is easily digested and does not produce so much heat in the body as long-keeping cheeses.

Caillebottes (Curds) France—Anjou, Poitou, Saintonge & Vendée

Soft, creamy, sweetened fresh or sour milk clabbered with chardonnette, wild artichoke seed, over slow fire. Cut in lozenges and served cold not two hours after cooking. Smooth, mellow and aromatic. A high type of this unusual cheese is Jonchée (see). Other cheeses are made with vegetable rennet, some from similar thistle or cardoon juice, especially in Portugal.

Caille de Poitiers see Petits pots.

Caille de Habas Gascony, France

Clabbered or clotted sheep milk.

Cajassou Périgord, France

A notable goat cheese made in Cubjac.

Calabrian Italy

The Calabrians make good sheep cheese, such as this and Caciocavallo.

Calcagno Sicily

Hard; ewe's milk. Suitable for grating.

Caledonian Cream Scotland

More of a dessert than a true cheese. We read in Scotland's Inner Man: "A sort of fresh cream cheese, flavored with chopped orange marmalade, sugar brandy and lemon juice. It is whisked for about half an hour. Otherwise, if put into a freezer, it would be good ice-pudding."

Calvados France

Medium-hard; tangy. Perfect with Calvados applejack from the same province.

Calvenzano Italy

Similar to Gorgonzola, made in Bergamo.

Cambrai see Boulette.

Cambridge, or York England

Soft; fresh; creamy; tangy. The curd is quickly made in one hour and dipped into molds without cutting to ripen for eating in thirty hours.

Camembert see Chapter 3.

"Camembert" Germany, U.S. & elsewhere

A West German imitation that comes in a cute little heart-shaped box which nevertheless doesn't make it any more like the Camembert véritable of Normandy.

Camosun U.S.A.

Semisoft; open-textured, resembling Monterey. Drained curd is pressed in hoops, cheese is salted in brine for thirty hours, then coated with paraffin and cured for one to three months in humid room at 50° to 60° F.

Canadian Club see Cheddar Club.

Cancoillotte, Cancaillotte, Canquoillotte, Quincoillotte, Cancoiade, Fromagère, Tempête and "Purée" de fromage tres fort Franche-Comté, France

Soft; sour milk; sharp and aromatic; with added eggs and butter and sometimes brandy or dry white wine. Sold in attractive small molds and pots. Other sharp seasonings besides the brandy or wine make this one of the strongest of French strong cheeses, similar to Fromage Fort.

Canestrato Sicily, Italy

Hard; mixed goat and sheep; yellow and strong. Takes one year to mature and is very popular both in Sicily where it is made to perfection and in Southern Colorado where it is imitated by and for Italian settlers.

Cantal, Fromage de Cantal, Auvergne or Auvergne Bleu; also Fourme and La Tome. Auvergne, France

Semihard; smooth; mellow; a kind of Cheddar, lightly colored lemon; yellow; strong, sharp taste but hardly any smell. Forty to a hundred-twenty pound cylinders. The rich milk from highland pastures is more or less skimmed and, being a very old variety, it is still made most primitively. Cured six weeks or six months, and when very old it's very hard and very sharp. A Cantal type is Laguiole or Guiole.

Capitanata Italy

Sheep.

Caprian Capri, Italy

Made from milk of goats that still overrun the original Goat Island, and tangy as a buck.

Caprino (Little Goat) Argentina

Semihard; goat; sharp; table cheese.

Caraway Loaf U.S.A.

This is just one imitation of dozens of German caraway-seeded cheeses that roam the world. In Germany there is not only Kümmel loaf cheese but a loaf of caraway-seeded bread to go with it. Milwaukee has long made a good Kümmelkäse or hand cheese and it would take more than the fingers on both hands to enumerate all of the European originals, from Dutch Komynkaas through Danish King Christian IX and Norwegian Kuminost, Italian Freisa, Pomeranian Rinnen and Belgian Leyden, to Pennsylvania Pot.

Cardiga, Queijo da Portugal

Hard; sheep; oily; mild flavor. Named from cardo, cardoon in English, a kind of thistle used as a vegetable rennet in making several other cheeses, such as French Caillebottes curdled with chardonnette, wild artichoke seed. Only classical Greek sheep cheeses like Casera can compare with the superb ones from the Portuguese mountain districts. They are lusciously oily, but never rancidly so.

Carlsbad Bohemia

Semihard; sheep; white; slightly salted; expensive.

Carré Affiné France

Soft, delicate, in small square forms; similar to Petit Carré and Ancien Impérial (see).

Carré de l'Est France

Similar to Camembert, and imitated in the U.S.A.

Cascaval Penir Turkey

Cacciocavallo imitation consumed at home.

Caseralla Greece

Semisoft; sheep; mellow; creamy.

Casere Greece

Hard; sheep; brittle; gray and greasy. But wonderful! Sour-sweet tongue tickle. This classical though greasy Grecian is imitated with goat milk instead of sheep in Southern California.

Cashera Armenia and Greece

Hard; goat or cow's milk; brittle; sharp; nutty. Similar to Casere and high in quality.

Cashera Turkey

Semihard; sheep.

Casher Penner see Kasher.

Cashkavallo Syria

Mellow but sharp imitation of the ubiquitous Italian Cacciocavallo.

Casigiolu, Panedda, Pera di vacca Sardinia

Plastic-curd cheese, made by the Caciocavallo method.

Caskcaval or Kaschcavallo see Feta.

Caspian Caucasus

Semihard. Sheep or cow, milked directly into cone-shaped cloth bag to speed the making. Tastes tangy, sharp and biting.

Cassaro Italy

Locally consumed, seldom exported.

Castelmagno Italy

Blue-mold, Gorgonzola type.

Castelo Branco, White Castle Portugal

Semisoft; goat or goat and sheep; fermented. Similar to Serra da Estrella (see).

Castillon, or Fromage de Gascony France

Fresh cream cheese.

Castle, Schlosskäse North Austria

Limburger type.

Catanzaro Italy

Consumed locally, seldom exported.

Cat's Head see Katzenkopf.

Celery Norway

Flavored mildly with celery seeds, instead of the usual caraway.

Cendrée, la France—Orléanais, Blois & Aube

Hard; sheep; round and flat. Other Cendrées are Champenois or Ricey, Brie, d'Aizy and Olivet

Cendré d'Aizy Burgundy, France

Available all year. See la Cendrée.

Cendré de la Brie Ile-de-France, France

Fall and winter Brie cured under the ashes, season September to May.

Cendré Champenois or Cendré des Riceys Aube & Marne, France

Made and eaten from September to June, and ripened under the ashes.

Cendré Olivet see Olivet.

Cenis see Mont Cenis.

Certoso Stracchino Italy, near Milan

A variety of Stracchino named after the Carthusian friars who have made it for donkey's years. It is milder and softer and creamier than the Taleggio because it's made of cow instead of goat milk, but it has less distinction for the same reason.

Ceva Italy

Soft veteran of Roman times named from its town near Turin.

Chabichou Poitou, France

Soft; goat; fresh; sweet and tasty. A vintage cheese of the months from April to December, since such cheeses don't last long enough to be vintaged like wine by the year.

Chaingy Orléans, France

Season September to June.

Cham Switzerland

One of those eminent Emmentalers from Cham, the home town of Mister Pfister (see Pfister).

Chamois milk

Aristotle said that the most savorous cheese came from the chamois. This small goatlike antelope feeds on wild mountain herbs not available to lumbering cows, less agile sheep or domesticated mountain goats, so it gives, in small quantity but high quality, the richest, most flavorsome of milk.

Champenois or Fromage des Riceys Aube & Marne, France

Season from September to June. The same as Cendré Champenois and des Riceys.

Champoléon de Queyras Hautes-Alpes, France.

Hard; skim-milker.

Chantelle U.S.A.

Natural Port du Salut type described as "zesty" by some of the best purveyors of domestic cheeses. It has a sharp taste and little odor, perhaps to fill the demand for a "married man's Limburger."

Chantilly see Hablé.

Chaource Champagne, France

Soft, nice to nibble with the bottled product of this same high-living Champagne Province. A kind of Camembert.

Chapelle France

Soft.

Charmey Fine Switzerland

Gruyère type.

Chaschol, or Chaschosis Canton of Grisons, Switzerland

Hard; skim; small wheels, eighteen to twenty-two inches in diameter by three to four inches high, weight twenty-two to forty pounds.

Chasteaux see Petits Fromages.

Chateauroux see Fromage de Chèvre.

Chaumont Champagne, France

Season November to May.

Chavignol see Crottin.

Chechaluk Armenia

Soft; pot; flaky; creamy.

Cheddar see Chapter 3.

Cheese bread Russia and U.S.A.

For centuries Russia has excelled in making a salubrious cheese bread called Notruschki and the cheese that flavors it is Tworog. (See both.) Only recently Schrafft's in New York put out a yellow, soft and toothsome cheese bread that has become very popular for toasting. It takes heat to bring out its full cheesy savor. Good when overlaid with cheese butter of contrasting piquance, say one mixed with Sapsago.

Cheese butter

Equal parts of creamed butter and finely grated or soft cheese and mixtures thereof. The imported but still cheap green Sapsago is not to be forgotten when mixing your own cheese butter.

Cheese food U.S.A.

"Any mixtures of various lots of cheese and other solids derived from milk with emulsifying agents, coloring matter, seasonings, condiments, relishes and water, heated or not, into a homogeneous mass." (A long and kind word for a homely, tasteless, heterogeneous mess.) From an advertisement.

Cheese hoppers see Hoppers.

Cheese mites see Mites.

Cheshire and Cheshire imitations see with Cheddar in Chapter 3.

Cheshire-Stilton England

In making this combination of Cheshire and Stilton, the blue mold peculiar to Stilton is introduced in the usual Cheshire process by keeping out each day a little of the curd and mixing it with that in which the mold is growing well. The result is the Cheshire in size and shape and general characteristics but with the blue veins of Stilton, making it really a Blue Cheddar. Another combination is Yorkshire-Stilton, and quite as distinguished.

Chester England

Another name for Cheshire, used in France where formerly some was imported to make the visiting Britishers feel at home.

Chevalier France

Curds sweetened with sugar.

Chevèlle U.S.A.

A processed Wisconsin.

Chèvre see Fromages.

Chèvre de Chateauroux see Fromages.

Chèvre petit see Petìts Fromages.

Chèvre, Tome de see Tome.

Chevretin Savoy, France

Goat; small and square. Named after the mammy nanny, as so many are.

Chevrets, Ponta & St. Rémy Bresse & Franche-Comté, France

Dry and semi-dry; crumbly; goat; small squares; lightly salted. Season December to April. Such small goat cheeses are named in the plural in France.

Chevretons du Beaujolais à la crème, les Lyonnais, France

Small goat-milkers served with cream. This is a fair sample of the railroad names some French cheeses stagger under.

Chevrotins Savoy, France

Soft, dried goat milk; white; small; tangy and semi-tangy. Made and eaten from March to December.

Chhana Asia

All we know is that this is made of the whole milk of cows, soured, and it is not as unusual as the double "h" in its name.

Chiavari Italy

There are two different kinds named for the Chiavari region, and both are hard: I. Sour cow's milk, also known as Cacio Romano. II. Sweet whole milker, similar to Corsican Broccio. Chiavari, the historic little port between Genoa and Pisa, is more noted as the birthplace of the barbaric "chivaree" razzing of newlyweds with its raucous serenade of dishpans, sour-note bugling and such.

Chives cream cheese

Of the world's many fine fresh cheeses further freshened with chives, there's Belgian Hervé and French Claqueret (with onion added). (See both.) For our taste it's best when the chives are added at home, as it's done in Germany, in person at the table or just before.

Christalinna Canton Graubünden, Switzerland

Hard; smooth; sharp; tangy.

Christian IX Denmark

A distinguished spiced cheese.

Ciclo Italy

Soft, small cream cheese.

Cierp de Luchon France

Made from November to May in the Comté de Foix, where it has the distinction of being the only local product worth listing with France's three hundred notables.

Citeaux Burgundy, France

Trappist Port-Salut.

Clabber cheese England

Simply cottage cheese left in a cool place until it grows soft and automatically changes its name from cottage to clabber.

Clairvaux France

Formerly made in a Benedictine monastery of that name.

Claqueret, le Lyonnais, France

Fresh cream whipped with chives, chopped fine with onions. See Chives.

Clérimbert see Alpin.

Cleves France

French imitation of the German imitation of a Holland-Dutch original.

Cloves see Nagelkäse.

Club, Potted Club, Snappy, Cold-pack and Comminuted cheese U.S.A. and Canada

Probably McLaren's Imperial Club in pots was first to be called club, but others credit club to the U.S. In any case McLaren's was bought by an American company and is now all-American.

Today there are many clubs that may sound swanky but taste very ordinary, if at all. They are made of finely ground aged, sharp Cheddar mixed with condiments, liquors, olives, pimientos, etc., and mostly carry come-on names to make the customers think they are getting something from Olde England or some aristocratic private club. All are described as "tangy."

Originally butter went into the better clubs which were sold in small porcelain jars, but in these process days they are wrapped in smaller tin foil and wax-paper packets and called "snappy."

Cocktail Cheeses

Recommended from stock by Phil Alpert's "Cheeses of all Nations" stores:

Argentine aged Gruyère Canadian d'Oka French Bleu Brie Camembert Fontainebleu Pont l'Evêque Port du Salut Roblochon Roquefort Grecian Feta Hungarian Brinza Polish Warshawski Syr Rumanian Kaskaval Swiss Schweizerkäse American Cheddar in brandy Hopi Indian

Coeur à la Crème Burgundy, France

This becomes Fromage à la Crème II (see) when served with sugar, and it is also called a heart of cream after being molded into that romantic shape in a wicker or willow-twig basket.

Coeurs d'Arras Artois, France

These hearts of Arras are soft, smooth, mellow, caressingly rich with the cream of Arras.

Coffee-flavored cheese

Just as the Dutch captivated coffee lovers all over the world with their coffee-flavored candies, Haagische Hopjes, so the French with Jonchée cheese and Italians with Ricotta satisfy the universal craving by putting coffee in for flavor.

Coimbra Portugal

Goat or cow; semihard; firm; round; salty; sharp. Not only one of those college-educated cheeses but a postgraduate one, bearing the honored name of Portugal's ancient academic center.

Colby U.S.A.

Similar to Cheddar, but of softer body and more open texture. Contains more moisture, and doesn't keep as well as Cheddar.

College-educated

Besides Coimbra several countries have cheeses brought out by their colleges. Even Brazil has one in Minas Geraes and Transylvania another called Kolos-Monostor, while our agricultural colleges in every big cheese state from California through Ames in Iowa, Madison in Wisconsin, all across the continent to Cornell in New York, vie with one another in turning out diploma-ed American Cheddars and such of high degree. It is largely to the agricultural colleges that we owe the steady improvement in both quality and number of foreign imitations since the University of Wisconsin broke the curds early in this century by importing Swiss professors to teach the high art of Emmentaler.

Colwick see Slipcote.

Combe-air France

Small; similar to Italian Stracchino in everything but size.

Commission Holland

Hard; ball-shaped like Edam and resembling it except being darker in color and packed in a ball weighing about twice as much, around eight pounds. It is made in the province of North Holland and in Friesland. It is often preferred to Edam for size and nutty flavor.

Compiègne France

Soft

Comté see Gruyère.

Conches France

Emmentaler type.

Condrieu, Rigotte de la Rhone Valley below Lyons, France

Semihard; goat; small; smooth; creamy; mellow; tasty. A cheese of cheeses for epicures, only made from May to November when pasturage is rich.

Confits au Marc de Bourgogne see Epoisses.

Confits au Vin Blanc see Epoisses.

Cooked, or Pennsylvania pot U.S.A.

Named from cooking sour clabbered curd to the melting point. When cool it is allowed to stand three or four days until it is colored through. Then it is cooked again with salt, milk, and usually caraway. It is stirred until it's as thick as molasses and strings from a spoon. It is then put into pots or molds, whose shape it retains when turned out.

All cooked cheese is apt to be tasteless unless some of the milk flavor cooked out is put back in, as wheat germ is now returned to white bread. Almost every country has a cooked cheese all its own, with or without caraway, such as the following:

Belgium—Kochtounkäse Germany—Kochkäse, Topfen Luxembourg—Kochenkäse France—Fromage Ouit & Le P'Teux Sardinia—Pannedas, Freisa

Coon see Chapter 4.

Cornhusker U.S.A.

A Nebraska product similar to Cheddar and Colby, but with softer body and more moisture.

Cornimont Vosges, France

A splendid French version of Alsatian Münster spiked with caraway, in flattish cylinders with mahogany-red coating. It is similar to Géromé and the harvest cheese of Gérardmer in the same lush Vosges Valley.

Corse, Roquefort de Corsica, France

Corsican imitation of the real Roquefort, and not nearly so good, of course.

Cossack Caucasus

Cow or sheep. There are two varieties: I. Soft, cured in brine and still soft and mild after two months in the salt bath. II. Semihard and very sharp after aging in brine for a year or more.

Cotherstone Yorkshire, England

Also known as Yorkshire-Stilton, and Wensleydale No. I. (See both.)

Cotrone, Cotronese see Pecorino.

Cotta see Pasta.

Cottage cheese

Made in all countries where any sort of milk is obtainable. In America it's also called pot, Dutch, and smearcase. The English, who like playful names for homely dishes, call cottage cheese smearcase from the German Schmierkäse. It is also called Glumse in Deutschland, and, together with cream, formed the basis of all of our fine Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine.

Cottenham or Double Cottenham English Midlands

Semihard; double cream; blue mold. Similar to Stilton but creamier and richer, and made in flatter and broader forms.

Cottslowe Cotswold, England

A brand of cream cheese named for its home in Cotswold, Gloucester. Although soft, it tastes like hard Cheddar.

Coulommiers Frais, or Petit-Moule Ile-de-France, France

Fresh cream similar to Petit Suisse. (See.)

Coulommiers, le, or Brie de Coulommiers France

Also called Petit-moule, from its small form. This genuine Brie is a pocket edition, no larger than a Camembert, standing only one inch high and measuring five or six inches across. It is made near Paris and is a great favorite from the autumn and winter months, when it is made, on until May. The making starts in October, a month earlier than most Brie, and it is off the market by July, so it's seldom tasted by the avalanche of American summer tourists.

Cow cheese

Sounds redundant, and is used mostly in Germany, where an identifying word is added, such as Berliner Kuhkäse and Alt Kuhkäse: old cow cheese.

Cream cheese International

England, France and America go for it heavily. English cream begins with Devonshire, the world-famous, thick fresh cream that is sold cool in earthenware pots and makes fresh berries—especially the small wild strawberries of rural England—taste out of this world. It is also drained on straw mats and formed into fresh hardened cheeses in small molds. (See Devonshire cream.) Among regional specialties are the following, named from their place of origin or commercial brands:

Cambridge Cottslowe Cornwall Farm Vale Guilford Homer's "Italian" Lincoln New Forest Rush (from being made on rush or straw mats—see Rush) St. Ivel (distinguished for being made with acidophilus bacteria) Scotch Caledonian Slipcote (famous in the eighteenth century) Victoria York

Crème Chantilly see Hablé.

Crème de Gien see Fromage.

Crème de Gruyère Franche-Comté France

Soft Gruyère cream cheese, arrives in America in perfect condition in tin foil packets. Expensive but worth it.

Crème des Vosges Alsace, France

Soft cream. Season October to April.

Crème Double see Double-Crème.

Crème, Fromage à la see Fromage.

Crème, Fromage Blanc à la see Fromage Blanc.

Crème St Gervais see Pots de Crème St Gervais.

Crèmet Nantais Lower Loire, France

Soft fresh cream of Nantes.

Crèmets, les Anjou, France

A fresh cream equal to English Devonshire, served more as a dessert than a dessert cheese. The cream is whipped stiff with egg whites, drained and eaten with more fresh cream, sprinkled with vanilla and sugar.

Cremini Italy

Soft, small cream cheese from Cremona, the violin town. And by the way, art-loving Italians make ornamental cheeses in the form of musical instruments, statues, still life groups and everything.

Creole Louisiana, U.S.A.

Soft, rich, unripened cottage cheese type, made by mixing cottage-type curd and rich cream.

Crescenza, Carsenza, Stracchino Crescenza, Crescenza Lombardi Lombardy, Italy

Uncooked; soft; creamy; mildly sweet; fast-ripening; yellowish; whole milk. Made from September to April.

Creuse Creuse, France

A two-in-one farm cheese of skimmed milk, resulting from two different ways of ripening, after the cheese has been removed from perforated earthen molds seven inches in diameter and five or six inches high, where it has drained for several days: I. It is salted and turned frequently until very dry and hard. II. It is ripened by placing in tightly closed mold, lined with straw. This softens, flavors, and turns it golden-yellow. (See Hay or Fromage de Foin.)

Creusois, or Guéret Limousin, France

Season, October to June.

Croissant Demi-sel France

Soft, double cream, semisalty. All year.

Crottin de Chavignol Berry, France

Semihard; goat's milk; small; lightly salted; mellow. In season April to December. The name is not exactly complimentary.

Crowdie, or Cruddy butter Scotland

Named from the combination of fresh sweet milk curds pressed together with fresh butter. A popular breakfast food in Inverness and the Ross Shires. When kept for months it develops a high flavor. A similar curd and butter is made by Arabs and stored in vats, the same as in India, the land of ghee, where there's no refrigeration.

Crying Kebbuck

F. Marion MacNeill, in The Scots Kitchen says that this was the name of a cheese that used to be part of the Kimmers feast at a lying-in.

Cuajada see Venezuela.

Cubjac see Cajassou.

Cuit see Fromage Cuit.

Cumin, Münster au see Münster.

Cup see Koppen.

Curd see Granular curd, Sweet curd and York curd.

Curds and butter Arabia

Fresh sweet milk curd and fresh butter are pressed together as in making Crowdie or Cruddy butter in Scotland. The Arabs put this strong mixture away in vats to get it even stronger than East Indian ghee.

Curé, Fromage de see Nantais.

D

Daisies, fresh

A popular type and packaging of mild Cheddar, originally English. Known as an "all-around cheese," to eat raw, cook, let ripen, and use for seasoning.

Dalmatian Austria

Hard ewe's-milker.

Dambo Denmark

Semihard and nutty.

Damen, or Glory of the Mountains (Gloires des Montagnes) Hungary

Soft, uncured, mild ladies' cheese, as its name asserts. Popular Alpine snack in Viennese cafés with coffee gossip in the afternoon.

Danish Blue Denmark

Semihard, rich, blue-veined, piquant, delicate, excellent imitation of Roquefort. Sometimes called "Danish Roquefort," and because it is exported around the world it is Denmark's best-known cheese. Although it sells for 20% to 30% less than the international triumvirate of Blues, Roquefort, Stilton and Gorgonzola, it rivals them and definitely leads lesser Blues.

Danish Export Denmark

Skim milk and buttermilk. Round and flat, mild and mellow. A fine cheese, as many Danish exports are.

Dansk Schweizerost Denmark

Danish Swiss cheese, imitation Emmentaler, but with small holes. Nutty, sweet dessert or "picnic cheese," as Swiss is often called.

Danzig Poland

A pleasant cheese to accompany a glass of the great liqueur, Goldwasser, Eau de Vie de Danzig, from the same celebrated city.

Darling U.S.A.

One of the finest Vermont Cheddars, handled for years by one of America's finest fancy food suppliers, S.S. Pierce of Boston.

Dauphin Flanders, France

Season, November to May.

d'Aurigny, Fromage see Alderney.

Daventry England

A Stilton type, white, small, round, flat and very rich, with "blue" veins of a darker green.

Decize Nivernaise, France

In season all year. Soft, creamy, mellow, resembles Brie.

de Foin, Fromage see Hay.

de Fontine Spain

Crumbly, sharp, nutty.

de Gascony, Fromage see Castillon.

de Gérardmer see Récollet.

Delft Holland

About the same as Leyden. (See.)

Délicieux

The brand name of a truly delicious Brie.

Delikat U.S.A.

A mellow breakfast spread, on the style of the German Frühstück original. (See.)

de Lile, Boule

French name for Belgian Oude Kaas.

Demi-Étuve

Half-size Étuve. (See.)

Demi Petit Suisse

The name for an extra small Petit Suisse to distinguish it from the Gros.

Demi-Sel Normandy, France

Soft, whole, creamy, lightly salted, resembles Gournay but slightly saltier; also like U.S. cream cheese, but softer and creamier.

Demi-Sel, Croissant see Croissant Demi-Sel.

Derby, or Derbyshire England

Hard; shape like Austrian Nagelkassa and the size of Cheshire though sometimes smaller. Dry, large, flat, round, flaky, sharp and tangy. A factory cheese said to be identical with Double Gloucester and similar to Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Leicester. The experts pronounce it "a somewhat inferior Cheshire, but deficient in its quality and the flavor of Cheddar." So it's unlikely to win in any cheese derby in spite of its name.

Devonshire cream and cheese England

Devonshire cream is world famous for its thickness and richness. Superb with wild strawberries; almost a cream cheese by itself. Devonshire cream is made into a luscious cheese ripened on straw, which gives it a special flavor, such as that of French Foin or Hay cheese.

Dolce Verde Italy

This creamy blue-vein variety is named Sweet Green, because cheesemongers are color-blind when it comes to the blue-greens and the green-blues.

Domaci Beli Sir Yugoslavia

"Sir" is not a title but the word for cheese. This is a typical ewe's-milker cured in a fresh sheep skin.

Domestic Gruyère U.S.A.

An imitation of a cheese impossible to imitate.

Domestic Swiss U.S.A

Same as domestic Gruyère, maybe more so, since it is made in ponderous 150-to 200-pound wheels, chiefly in Wisconsin and Ohio. The trouble is there is no Alpine pasturage and Emmentaler Valley in our country.

Domiati Egypt

Whole or partly skimmed cow's or buffalo's milk. Soft; white; no openings; mild and salty when fresh and cleanly acid when cured. It's called "a pickled cheese" and is very popular in the Near East.

Dorset, Double Dorset, Blue Dorset, or Blue Vinny England

Blue mold type from Dorsetshire; crumbly, sharp; made in flat forms. "Its manufacture has been traced back 150 years in the family of F.E. Dare, who says that in all probability it was made longer ago than that." (See Blue Vinny.)

Dotter Nürnberg, Germany

An entirely original cheese perfected by G. Leuchs in Nürnberg. He enriched skim milk with yolk of eggs and made the cheese in the usual way. When well ripened it is splendid.

Doubles

The English name cheese made of whole milk "double," such as Double Cottenham, Double Dorset, Double Gloucester. "Singles" are cheeses from which some of the cream has been removed.

Double-cream England

Similar to Wensleydale.

Double-crème France

There are several of this name, made in the summer when milk is richest in cream. The full name is Fromage à la Double-crème, and Pommel is one well known. They are made throughout France in season and are much in demand.

Dresdener Bierkäse Germany

A celebrated hand cheese made in Dresden. The typical soft, skim milker, strong with caraway and drunk dissolved in beer, as well as merely eaten.

Drinking cheeses

Not only Dresdener, but dozens of regional hand cheeses in Germanic countries are melted in steins of beer or glasses of wine to make distinctive cheesed drinks for strong stomachs and noses. This peps up the drinks in somewhat the same way as ale and beer are laced with pepper sauce in some parts.

Dry Germany

From the drinking cheese just above to dry cheese is quite a leap. "This cheese, known as Sperrkäse and Trockenkäse, is made in the small dairies of the eastern part of the Bavarian Alps and in the Tyrol. It is an extremely simple product, made for home consumption and only in the winter season, when the milk cannot be profitably used for other purposes. As soon as the milk is skimmed it is put into a large kettle which can be swung over a fire, where it is kept warm until it is thoroughly thickened from souring. It is then broken up and cooked quite firm. A small quantity of salt and sometimes some caraway seed are added, and the curd is put into forms of various sizes. It is then placed in a drying room, where it becomes very hard, when it is ready for eating." (From U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 608.)

Dubreala see Brina.

Duel Austria

Soft; skim milk; hand type; two by two by one-inch cube.

Dunlop Scotland

One of the national cheeses of Scotland, but now far behind Cheddar, which it resembles, although it is closer in texture and moister. Semihard; white; sharp; buttery; tangy and rich in flavor. It is one of the "toasting cheeses" resembling Lancashire, too, in form and weight. Made in Ayr, Lanark and Renfrew and sold in the markets of Kilmarnock, Kirkcudbright and Wigtown.

Durak Turkey

Mixed with butter; mellow and smoky. Costs three dollars a pound.

Duralag, or Bgug-Panir Armenia

Sheep; semisoft to brittle hard; square; sharp but mellow and tangy with herbs. Sometimes salty from lying in a brine bath from two days to two months.

Durmar, Rarush see Rarush.

Dutch Holland

Cream cheese of skim milk, very perishable spread.

Dutch cheese

American vernacular for cottage or pot cheese.

Dutch Cream Cheese England

Made in England although called Dutch. Contains eggs, and is therefore richer than Dutch cream cheese in Holland itself. In America we call the original Holland-kind Dutch, cottage, pot, and farmer.

Dutch Mill U.S.A.

A specialty of Oakland, California.

Dutch Red Balls

English name for Edam.

E

Echourgnac, Trappe d' Périgord, France

Trappist monastery Port-Salut made in Limousin.

Edam see Chapter 3.

Egg Finland

Semihard. One of the few cheeses made by adding eggs to the curds. Others are Dutch Cream Cheese of England; German Dotter; French Fromage Cuit (cooked cheese), and Westphalian. Authorities agree that these should be labeled "egg cheese" so the buyers won't be fooled by their richness. The Finns age their eggs even as the Chinese ripen their hundred-year-old eggs, by burying them in grain, as all Scandinavians do, and the Scotch as well, in the oat bin. But none of them is left a century to ripen, as eggs are said to be in China.

Elbinger, or Elbing West Prussia

Hard; crumbly; sharp. Made of whole milk except in winter when it is skimmed. Also known as Werderkäse and Niederungskäse.

Ekiwani Caucasus

Hard; sheep; white; sharp; salty with some of the brine it's bathed in.

Elisavetpolen, or Eriwani Caucasus

Hard; sheep; sweetish-sharp and slightly salty when fresh from the brine bath. Also called Kasach (Cossack), Tali, Kurini and Karab in different locales.

Elmo Table Italy

Soft, mellow, tasty.

Emiliano Italy

Hard; flavor varies from mild to sharp. Parmesan type.

Emmentaler Switzerland

There are so many, many types of this celebrated Swiss all around the world that we're not surprised to find Lapland reindeer milk cheese listed as similar to Emmentaler of the hardest variety. (See Chapter 3, also Vacherin Fondu.)

"En enveloppe"

French phrase of packaged cheese, "in the envelope." Similar to English packet and our process. Raw natural cheese the French refer to frankly as nu, "in the nude."

Engadine Graubünden, Switzerland

Semihard; mild; tangy-sweet.

English Dairy England and U.S.A.

Extra-hard, crumbly and sharp. Resembles Cheddar and has long been imitated in the States, chiefly as a cooking cheese.

Entrechaux, le Cachat d' see Cachat.

Epoisses, Fromage d' Côte d'Or, Upper Burgundy, France

Soft, small cylinder with flattened end, about five inches across. The season is from November to July. Equally proud of their wine and cheese, the Burgundians marry white wine or marc to d'Epoisses in making confits with that name.

Erbo Italy

Similar to Gorgonzola. The Galvani cheesemakers of Italy who put out both Bel Paese and Taleggio also export Erbo to our shores.

Erce Languedoc, France

Soft, smooth and sharp. A winter cheese in season only from November to May.

Eriwani see Elisavetpolen.

Ervy Champagne, France

Soft; yellow rind; smooth; tangy; piquant; seven by two-and-a-half inches, weight four pounds. Resembles Camembert. A washed cheese, also known as Fromage de Troyes. In season November to May.

Essex U.S.A.

Imitation of an extinct or at least dormant English type.

Estrella see Serra da Estrella.

Étuve and Demi-Étuve Holland

Semihard; smooth; mellow. In full size and demi (half) size. In season all year.

Evarglice Yugoslavia

Sharp, nutty flavor.

Excelsior Normandy, France

Season all year.

F

Factory Cheddar U.S.A.

Very Old Factory Cheddar is the trade name for well-aged sharp Cheddar. New Factory is just that—mild, young and tractable—too tractable, in fact.

Farm France

Known as Ferme; Maigre (thin); Fromage à la Pie (nothing to do with apple pie); and Mou (weak). About the same as our cottage cheese.

Farmer U.S.A.

This is curd only and is nowadays mixed with pepper, lachs, nuts, fruits, almost anything. A very good base for your own fancy spread, or season a slab to fancy and bake it like a hoe cake, but in the oven.

Farmhouse see Herrgårdsost.

Farm Vale England

Cream cheese of Somerset wrapped in tin foil and boxed in wedges, eight to a box.

Fat cheese see Frontage Gras and Maile Pener.

Fenouil see Tome de Savoie.

Ferme see Farm.

Feta see Chapter 3.

Feuille de Dreux Béarn, France

November to May.

"Filled cheese" England

Before our processed and food cheese era some scoundrels in the cheese business over there added animal fats and margarine to skimmed milk to make it pass as whole milk in making cheese. Such adulteration killed the flavor and quality, and no doubt some of the customers. Luckily in America we put down this vicious counterfeiting with pure food laws. But such foreign fats are still stuffed into the skimmed milk of many foreign cheeses. To take the place of the natural butterfat the phony fats are whipped in violently and extra rennet is added to speed up coagulation.

Fin de Siècle Normandy, France

Although this is an "all year" cheese its name dates it back to the years at the close of the nineteenth century.

Fiore di Alpe Italy

Hard; sharp; tangy. Romantically named "Flowers of the Alps."

Fiore Sardo Italy

Ewe's milk. Hard. Table cheese when immature; a condiment when fully cured.

Flandre, Tuile de France

A kind of Marolles.

Fleur de Deauville France

A type of Brie, in season December to May.

Fleur des Alpes see Bel Paese and Millefiori.

Floedeost Norway

Like Gjedeost, but not so rich because it's made of cow's milk.

Fløtost Norway

Although the name translates Cream Cheese it is made of boiled whey. Similar to Mysost, but fatter.

Flower England

Soft and fragrant with petals of roses, violets, marigolds and such, delicately mixed in. Since the English are so fond of oriental teas scented with jasmine and other flowers, perhaps they imported the idea of mixing petals with their cheese, since there is no oriental cheese for them to import except bean curd.

Fodder cheese

A term for cheese made from fodder in seasons when there is no grass. Good fresh grass is the essence of all fine cheese, so silo or barn-fed cows can't give the kind of milk it takes.

Foggiano Apulia, Italy

A member of the big Pecorino family because it's made of sheep's milk.

Foin, Fromage de see Hay.

Fondu, Vacherin see Vacherin Fondu.

Fontainebleau France

Named after its own royal commune. Soft; fresh cream; smooth; mellow; summer variety.

Fontina Val d'Acosta, Italy

Soft; goat; creamy; with a nutty flavor and delightful aroma.

Fontine, de Franche-Comté, France

A favorite all-year product.

Fontinelli Italy

Semidry; flaky; nutty; sharp.

Fontini Parma, Italy

Hard; goat; similar to Swiss, but harder and sharper. From the same region as Parmesan.

Food cheese U.S.A.

An unattractive type of processed mixes, presumably with some cheese content to flavor it.

Forez, also called d'Ambert France

The process of making this is said to be very crude, and the ripening unusual. The cheeses are cylindrical, ten inches in diameter and six inches high. They are ripened by placing them on the floor of the cellar, covering with dirt, and allowing water to trickle over them. Many are spoiled by the unusual growths of mold and bacteria. The flavor of the best of these is said to resemble Roquefort. (From Bulletin No. 608 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to which we are indebted for descriptions of hundreds of varieties in this alphabet.)

Formagelle Northwest Italy

Soft, ripened specialty put up in half-pound packages.

Formaggi di Pasta Filata Italy

A group of Italian cheeses made by curdling milk with rennet, warming and fermenting the curd, heating it until it is plastic, drawing it into ropes and then kneading and shaping while hot. Provolone, Caciocavallo and Mozzarella are in this group.

Formaggini, and Formaggini di Lecco Italy

Several small cheeses answer to this name, of which Lecco is typical. A Lombardy dessert cheese measuring 1¼ by two inches, weighing two ounces. It is eaten from the time it is fresh and sweet until it ripens to piquance. Sometimes made of cow and goat milk mixed, with the addition of oil and vinegar, as well as salt, pepper, sugar and cinnamon.

Formaggio d'Oro Northwest Italy

Hard, sharp, mountain-made.

Formaggio Duro (Dry) and Formaggio Tenero see Nostrale.

Fort see Fromage Fort.

Fourme, Cantal, and la Tome Auvergne, France

This is a big family in the rich cheese province of Auvergne, where many mountain varieties are baptized after their districts, such as Aubrac, Aurilla, Grand Murol, Rôche and Salers. (See Fourme d'Ambert and Cantal.)

Fourme de Montebrison Auvergne, France

This belongs to the Fourme clan and is in season from November to May.

Fourme de Salers see Cantal, which it resembles so closely it is sometimes sold under that name.

Fresa, or Pannedas Sardinia, Italy

A soft, mild and sweet cooked cheese.

Fribourg Italy and Switzerland

Hard; cooked-curd, Swiss type very similar to Spalen. (See)

Frissche Kaas, Fresh cheese Holland

Dutch generic name for any soft, fresh spring cheese, although some is made in winter, beginning in November.

Friesian see West Friesian.

Fromage à la Creme France

I. Sour milk drained and mixed with cream. Eaten with sugar. That of Gien is a noted produce, and so is d'Isigny. II. Franche-Comté—fresh sheep milk melted with fresh thick cream, whipped egg whites and sugar. III. Morvan—homemade cottage cheese. When milk has soured solid it is hung in cheesecloth in a cool place to drain, then mixed with a little fresh milk and served with cream. IV. When Morvan or other type is put into a heart-shaped wicker basket for a mold, and marketed in that, it becomes Coeur à la Crème, heart of cream, to be eaten with sugar.

Fromage à la Pie see Fromage Blanc just below, and Farm

Fromage Bavarois à la Vanille France

Dessert cheese sweetened and flavored with vanilla and named after Bavaria where it probably originated.

Fromage Blanc France

Soft cream or cottage cheese, called à la Pie, too, suggesting pie à la mode; also Farm from the place it's made. Usually eaten with salt and pepper, in summer only. It is the ascetic version of Fromage à la Crème, usually eaten with salt and pepper and without cream or sugar, except in the Province of Bresse where it is served with cream and called Fromage Blanc à la Crème.

Every milky province has its own Blanc. In Champagne it's made of fresh ewe milk. In Upper Brittany it is named after Nantes and also called Fromage de Curé. Other districts devoted to it are Alsace-Lorraine, Auvergne, Languedoc, and Ile-de-France.

Fromage Bleu see Bleu d'Auvergne.

Fromage Cuit (cooked cheese) Thionville, Lorraine, France

Although a specialty of Lorraine, this cooked cheese is produced in many places. First it is made with fresh whole cow milk, then pressed and potted. After maturing a while it is de-potted, mixed with milk and egg yolk, re-cooked and re-potted.

Fromage d'Aurigny see Alderney.

Fromage de Bayonne Bayonne, France

Made with ewe's milk.

Fromage de Bôite Doubs, France

Soft, mountain-made, in the fall only. Resembles Pont l'Evêque.

Fromage de Bourgogne

see Burgundy.

Fromage de Chèvre de Chateauroux Berry, France

A seasonal goat cheese.

Fromage de Curé see Nantais.

Fromage de Fontenay-le Comté Poitou, France

Half goat and half cow milk.

Fromage de Gascony see Castillon.

Fromage de Pau see La Foncée.

Fromage de St. Rémy see Chevrets.

Fromage de Serac Savoy, France

Half and half, cow and goat, from Serac des Allues.

Fromage de Troyes France

Two cheeses have this name. (See Barberry and Ervy.)

Fromage de Vache

Another name for Autun.

Fromage de Monsieur Fromage Normandy, France

This Cheese of Mr. Cheese is as exceptional as its name. Its season runs from November to June. It comes wrapped in a green leaf, maybe from a grape vine, suggesting what to drink with it. It is semidry, mildly snappy with a piquant pungence all its own. The playful name suggests the celebrated dish, Poulette de Madame Poulet, Chick of Mrs. Chicken.

Fromage Fort France

Several cooked cheeses are named Fort (strong) chiefly in the department of Aisne. Well-drained curd is melted, poured into a cloth and pressed, then buried in dry ashes to remove any whey left. After being fermented eight to ten days it is grated, mixed with butter, salt, pepper, wine, juniper berries, butter and other things, before fermenting some more.

Similar extra-strong cheeses are the one in Lorraine called Fondue and Fromagère of eastern France, classed as the strongest cheeses in all France.

Fort No. I: That of Flanders, potted with juniper berries, as the gin of this section is flavored, plus pepper, salt and white wine.

Fort No. II: That from Franche-Comté Small dry goat cheeses pounded and potted with thyme, tarragon, leeks, pepper and brandy. (See Hazebrook.)

Fort No. III: From Provence, also called Cachat d'Entrechaux. In production from May to November. Semihard, sheep milk, mixed with brandy, white wine, strong herbs and seasonings and well marinated.

Fromage Gras (fat cheese) Savoy, France

Soft, round, fat ball called tête de mort, "death's head." Winter Brie is also called Gras but there is no relation. This macabre name incited Victor Meusy to these lines:

Fromage Mou

Any soft cheese.

Fromage Piquant see Remoudon.

Fromagère see Canquillote.

Fromages de Chèvre Orléanais, France

Small, dried goat-milkers.

Frühstück

Also known as breakfast and lunch cheese. Small rounds two-and-a-half to three inches in diameter. Limburger type. Cheeses on which many Germans and Americans break their fast.

Ftinoporino Macedonia, Greece

Sheep's-milker similar to Brinza.

G

Gaiskäsli Germany and Switzerland

A general name for goat's milk cheese. Usually a small cylinder three inches in diameter and an inch-and-a-half thick, weighing up to a half pound. In making, the curds are set on a straw mat in molds, for the whey to run away. They are salted and turned after two days to salt the other side. They ripen in three weeks with a very pleasing flavor.

Gammelost Norway

Hard, golden-brown, sour-milker. After being pressed it is turned daily for fourteen days and then packed in a chest with wet straw. So far as we are concerned it can stay there. The color all the way through is tobacco-brown and the taste, too. It has been compared to medicine, chewing tobacco, petrified Limburger, and worse. In his Encyclopedia of Food Artemas Ward says that in Gammelost the ferments absorb so much of the curd that "in consequence, instead of eating cheese flavored by fungi, one is practically eating fungi flavored with cheese."

Garda Italy

Soft, creamy, fermented. A truly fine product made in the resort town on Gardasee where d'Annunzio retired. It is one of those luscious little ones exported in tin foil to America, and edible, including the moldy crust that could hardly be called a rind.

Garden U.S.A.

Cream cheese with some greens or vegetables mixed in.

Garlic U.S.A.

A processed Cheddar type flavored with garlic.

Garlic-onion Link U.S.A.

A strong processed Cheddar put up to look like links of sausage, nobody knows why.

Gascony, Fromage de see Castillon.

Gautrias Mayenne, France

Soft, cylinder weighing about five pounds and resembling Port-Salut.

Gavot Hautes-Alpes, France

A good Alpine cheese whether made of sheep, goat or cow milk.

Geheimrath Netherlands

A factory cheese turned out in small quantities. The color is deep yellow and it resembles a Baby Gouda in every way, down to the weight

Gérardmer, de see Récollet

German-American adopted types

Bierkäse Delikat Grinnen Hand Harzkäse Kümmelkäse Koppen Lager Liederkranz Mein Kaese Münster Old Heidelberg Schafkäse (sheep) Silesian Stein Tilsit Weisslack (piquant like Bavarian Allgäuer)

Géromé, la Vosges, France

Semihard: cylinders up to eleven pounds; brick-red rind; like Münster, but larger. Strong, fragrant and flavorsome, sometimes with aniseed. It stands high at home, where it is in season from October to April.

Gervais Ile-de-France, France

Cream cheese like Neufchâtel, long made by Maison Gervais, near Paris. Sold in tiny tin-foil squares not much larger than old-time yeast. Like Petit Suisse, it makes a perfect luncheon dessert with honey.

Gesundheitkäse, Holsteiner see Holstein Health.

Getmesost Sweden

Soft; goat; whey; sweet.

Gex Pays de Gex, France

Semihard; skim milk; blue-veined. A "little" Roquefort in season from November to May.

Gex Marbré France

A very special type marbled with rich milks of cow, goat and sheep, mixed. A full-flavored ambassador of the big international Blues family, that are green in spite of their name.

Gien see Fromage à la Crème.

Gislev Scandinavia

Hard; mild, made from skimmed cow's milk.

Gjetost Norway

A traditional chocolate-colored companion piece to Gammelost, but made with goat's milk.

Glavis Switzerland

The brand name of a cone of Sapsago. (See.)

Glattkäse, or Gelbkäse Germany

Smooth cheese or yellow cheese. A classification of sour-milkers that includes Olmützer Quargel.

Cloire des Montagnes see Damen.

Gloucester Gloucestershire, England

There are two types: I. Double, the better of the two Gloucesters, is eaten only after six months of ripening. "It has a pronounced, but mellow, delicacy of flavor...the tiniest morsel being pregnant with savour. To measure its refinement, it can undergo the same comparison as that we apply to vintage wines. Begin with a small piece of Red Cheshire. If you then pass to a morsel of Double Gloucester, you will find that the praises accorded to the latter have been no whit exaggerated." A Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy, by André L. Simon. II. Single. By way of comparison, the spring and summer Single Gloucester ripens in two months and is not as big as its "large grindstone" brother. And neither is it "glorified Cheshire." It is mild and "as different in qualify of flavour as a young and crisp wine is from an old vintage."

Glumse West Prussia, Germany

A common, undistinguished cottage cheese.

Glux Nivernais, France

Season, all year.

Goat France

A frank and fair name for a semihard, brittle mouthful of flavor. Every country has its goat specialties. In Norway the milk is boiled dry, then fresh milk or cream added. In Czechoslovakia the peasants smoke the cheese up the kitchen chimney. No matter how you slice it, goat cheese is always notable or noble.

Gold-N-Rich U.S.A.

Golden in color and rich in taste. Bland, as American taste demands. Like Bel Paese but not so full-flavored and a bit sweet. A good and deservedly popular cheese none the less, easily recognized by its red rind.

Gomost Norway

Usually made from cow's milk, but sometimes from goat's. Milk is curdled with rennet and condensed by heating until it has a butter-like consistency. (See Mysost.)

Gorgonzola Italy

Besides the standard type exported to us (See Chapter 3.) there is White Gorgonzola, little known outside Italy where it is enjoyed by local caseophiles, who like it put up in crocks with brandy, too.

Gouda see Chapter 3.

Gouda, Kosher Holland

The same semihard good Gouda, but made with kosher rennet. It is a bit more mellow than most and, like all kosher products, is stamped by the Jewish authorities who prepare it.

Goya Corrientes, Argentine

Hard, dry, Italian type for grating. Like all fine Argentine cheeses the milk of pedigreed herds fed on prime pampas grass distinguishes Goya from lesser Parmesan types, even back in Italy.

It is interesting that the nitrate in Chilean soil makes their wines the best in America, and the richness of Argentine milk does the same for their cheeses, most of which are Italian imitations and some of which excel the originals.

Gournay Seine, France

Soft, similar to Demi-sel, comes in round and flat forms about ¼ pound in weight. Those shaped like Bondons resemble corks about ¾ of an inch thick and four inches long.

Grana Italy

Another name for Parmesan. From "grains", the size of big shot, that the curd is cut into.

Grana Lombardo Lombardy

The same hard type for grating, named after its origin in Lombardy.

Grana Reggiano Reggio, Italy

A brand of Parmesan type made near Reggio and widely imitated, not only in Lombardy and Mantua, but also in the Argentine where it goes by a pet name of its own—Regianito.

Grande Bornand, la Switzerland

A luscious half-dried sheep's milker.

Granular curd see Stirred curd.

Gras, or Velvet Kaas Holland

Named from its butterfat content and called "Moors Head", Tête de Maure, in France, from its shape and size. The same is true of Fromage de Gras in France, called Tête de Mort, "Death's Head". Gras is also the popular name for Brie that's made in the autumn in France and sold from November to May. (See Brie.)

Gratairon France

Goat milk named, as so many are, from the place it is made.

Graubünden Switzerland

A luscious half-dried sheep's milker.

Green Bay U.S.A.

Medium-sharp, splendid White Cheddar from Green Bay, Wisconsin, the Limburger county.

Grey Germany and Austrian Tyrol

Semisoft; sour skim milk with salty flavor from curing in brine bath. Named from the gray color that pervades the entire cheese when ripe. It has a very pleasant taste.

Gruyère see Chapter 3.

Güssing, or Land-l-kas Austria

Similar to Brick. Skim milk. Weight between four and eight pounds.

H

Habas see Caille.

Hablé Crème Chantilly Ösmo, Sweden

Soft ripened dessert cheese made from pasteurized cream by the old Walla Creamery. Put up in five-ounce wedge-shaped boxes for export and sold for a high price, well over two dollars a pound, in fancy big city groceries. Truly an aristocrat of cheeses to compare with the finest French Brie or Camembert. See Chapter 3.

Hand see Chapter 3.

Hard Puerto Rico

Dry; tangy.

Harzkäse, Harz Harz Mountains, Germany

Tiny hand cheese. Probably the world's smallest soft cheese, varying from 2½ inches by 1½ down to ¼ by 1½. Packed in little boxes, a dozen together, rubbing rinds, as close as sardines. And like Harz canaries, they thrive on seeds, chiefly caraway.

Harzé Belgium

Port-Salut type from the Trappist monastery at Harzé.

Hasandach Turkey

Bland; sweet.

Hauskäse. Germany

Limburger type. Disk-shaped.

Haute Marne France

Soft; square.

Hay, or Fromage au Foin Seine, France

A skim-milker resembling "a poor grade of Livarot." Nothing to write home about, except that it is ripened on new-mown hay.

Hazebrook

There are two kinds:

I. Flemish; a Fromage Fort type with white wine, juniper, salt and pepper. Excessively strong for bland American tasters. II. Franche-Comté, France; small dry goat's milker, pounded, potted and marinated in a mixture of thyme, tarragon, leeks, pepper and brandy.

Head

Four cheeses are called Head:

The French Death's Head. Swiss Monk's Head. Dutch Cat's Head. Moor's Head.

There's headcheese besides but that's made of a pig's head and is only a cheese by discourtesy.

Health see Holstein.

Herbesthal Germany

Named from a valley full of rich herbes for grazing.

Herkimer U.S.A.

Cheddar type; nearly white. See Chapter 4.

Herrgårdsost, Farm House or Manor House West Gothland and Jamtland, Sweden

Hard Emmentaler type in two qualities: full cream and half cream. Weighs 25 to 40 pounds. It is the most popular cheese in all Sweden and the best is from West Gothland and Jutland.

Herrgårdstyp see Hushållsost.

Hervé Belgium

Soft; made in cubes and peppered with herbes such as tarragon, parsley and chives. It flourishes from November to May and comes in three qualities: extra cream, cream, and part skim milk.

Hickory Smoked U.S.A.

Good smoke is often wasted on bad cheese.

Hohenburg see Box No. II.

Hohenheim Germany

Soft; part skimmed milk; half-pound cylinders. (See Box No. I.)

Hoi Poi China

Soybean cheese, developed by vegetable rennet. Exported in jars.

Hoja see Queso de.

Hollander North Germany

Imitation Dutch Goudas and Edams, chiefly from Neukirchen in Holstein.

Holstein Dairy see Leather.

Holsteiner, or Old Holsteiner Germany

Eaten best when old, with butter, or in the North, with dripping.

Holstein Health, or Holsteiner Gesundheitkäse Germany

Sour-milk curd pressed hard and then cooked in a tin kettle with a little cream and salt. When mixed and melted it is poured into half-pound molds and cooled.

Holstein Skim Milk or Holstein Magerkäse Germany

Skim-milker colored with saffron. Its name, "thin cheese," tells all.

Hop, Hopfen Germany

Small, one inch by 2½ inches, packed in hops to ripen. An ideal beer cheese, loaded with lupulin.

Hopi U.S.A.

Hard; goat; brittle; sharp; supposed to have been made first by the Hopi Indians out west where it's still at home.

Horner's England

An old cream cheese brand in Redditch where Worcestershire sauce originated.

Horse Cheese

Not made of mare's milk, but the nickname for Caciocavallo because of the horse's head used to trademark the first edition of it.

Hum Holland

Brand name of one of those mild little red Baby Goudas that make you say "Ho-hum."

Hushållsost, Household Cheese Sweden

Popular in three types: Popular in three types: Herrgårdstyp—Farmhouse Västgötatyp—Westgotland Sveciatyp—Swedish

Hvid Gjetost Norway

A strong variety of Gjetost, little known and less liked outside of Scandinavia.

I

Icelandic

In Letters from Iceland, W.H. Auden says: "The ordinary cheese is like a strong Dutch and good. There is also a brown sweet cheese, like the Norwegian." Doubtless the latter is Gjetost.

Ihlefield Mecklenburg, Germany

A hand cheese.

Ilha, Queijo de Azores

Semihard "Cheese of the Isle," largely exported to mother Portugal, measuring about a foot across and four inches high. The one word, Ilha, Isle, covers the several Azorian Islands whose names, such as Pico, Peak, and Terceiro, Third, are sometimes added to their cheeses.

Impérial, Ancien see Ancien.

Imperial Club Canada

Potted Cheddar; snappy; perhaps named after the famous French Ancien Impérial.

Incanestrato Sicily, Italy

Very sharp; white; cooked; spiced; formed into large round "heads" from fifteen to twenty pounds. See Majocchino, a kind made with the three milks, goat, sheep and cow, and enriched with olive oil besides.

Irish Cheeses

Irish Cheddar and Irish Stilton are fairly ordinary imitations named after their native places of manufacture: Ardagh, Galtee, Whitehorn, Three Counties, etc.

Isigny France

Full name Fromage à la Crème d'Isigny. (See.) Cream cheese. The American cheese of this name never amounted to much. It was an attempt to imitate Camembert in the Gay Nineties, but it turned out to be closer to Limburger. (See Chapter 2.)

In France there is also Crème d'Isigny, thick fresh cream that's as famous as England's Devonshire and comes as close to being cheese as any cream can.

Island of Orléans Canada

This soft, full-flavored cheese was doubtless brought from France by early emigrés, for it has been made since 1869 on the Orléans Island in the St. Lawrence River near Quebec. It is known by its French name, Le Fromage Raffiné de l'Ile d'Orléans, and lives up to the name "refined."

J

Jack see Monterey.

Jochberg Tyrol, Germany

Cow and goat milk mixed in a fine Tyrolean product, as all mountain cheese are. Twenty inches in diameter and four inches high, it weighs in at forty-five pounds with the rind on.

Jonchée Santonge, France

A superior Caillebotte, flavored with rum, orange-flower water or, uniquely, black coffee.

Josephine Silesia, Germany

Soft and ladylike as its name suggests. Put up in small cylindrical packages.

Journiac see Chapter 3.

Julost Sweden.

Semihard; tangy.

Jura Bleu, or Septmoncel France

Hard: blue-veined; sharp; tangy.

K

Kaas, Oude Belgium

Flemish name for the French Boule de Lille.

Kackavalj Yugoslavia

Same as Italian Caciocavallo.

Kaiser-käse Germany

This was an imperial cheese in the days of the kaisers and is still made under that once awesome name. Now it's just a jolly old mellow, yellow container of tang.

Kajmar, or Serbian Butter Serbia and Turkey

Cream cheese, soft and bland when young but ages to a tang between that of any goat's-milker and Roquefort.

Kamembert Yugoslavia

Imitation Camembert.

Karaghi La-La Turkey

Nutty and tangy.

Kareish Egypt

A pickled cheese, similar to Domiati.

Karut India

Semihard; mellow; for grating and seasoning.

Karvi Norway

Soft; caraway-seeded; comes in smallish packages.

Kash Rumania

Soft, white, somewhat stringy cheese named cheese.

Kashcavallo, Caskcaval Greece

A good imitation of Italian Caciocavallo.

Kasher, or Caher, Penner Turkey

Hard; white; sharp.

Kash Kwan Bulgaria and the Balkans

An all-purpose goat's milk, Parmesan type, eaten sliced when young, grated when old. An attempt to imitate it in Chicago failed. It is sold in Near East quarters in New York, Washington and all big American cities.

Kaskaval Rumania

Identical with Italian Caciocavallo, widely imitated, and well, in Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Transylvania and neighboring lands. As popular as Cheddar in England, Canada and U.S.A.

Kasseri Greece

Hard; ewe's milk, usually.

Katschkawalj Serbia

Just another version of the international Caciocavallo.

Katzenkopf, Cat's Head Holland

Another name for Edam. (See Chapter 3.)

Kaukauna Club U.S.A.

Widely advertised processed cheese food.

Kauna Lithuania

A hearty cheese that's in season all the year around.

Kefalotir, Kefalotyi Yugoslavia, Greece and Syria

Both of these hard, grating cheeses are made from either goat's or ewe's milk and named after their shape, resembling a Greek hat, or Kefalo.

Keg-ripened see Brand.

King Christian IX Denmark

Sharp with caraway. Popular with everybody.

Kingdom Farm U.S.A, near Ithaca, N.Y. The Rutherfordites or Jehovah's Witnesses make Brick, Limburger and Münster that are said to be most delectable by those mortals lucky enough to get into the Kingdom Farm. Unfortunately their cheese is not available elsewhere.

Kirgischerkäse see Krutt.

Kjarsgaard Denmark

Hard; skim; sharp; tangy.

Klatschkäse, Gossip Cheese Germany

A rich "ladies' cheese" corresponding to Damen; both designed to promote the flow of gossip in afternoon Kaffee-klatsches in the Konditories.

Kloster, Kloster Käse Bavaria

Soft; ripe; finger-shaped, one by one by four inches. In Munich this was, and perhaps still is, carried by brew masters on their tasting tours "to bring out the excellence of a freshly broached tun." Named from being made by monks in early cloisters, down to this day.

Kochenkäse Luxembourg

Cooked white dessert cheese. Since it is salt-free it is recommended for diets.

Koch Käse Germany

This translates "cooked cheese."

Kochtounkäse Belgium

Semisoft, cooked and smoked. Bland flavor.

Kolos-monostor Rumania

Sheep; rectangular four-pounder, 8½ by five by three inches. One of those college-educated cheeses turned out by the students and professors at the Agricultural School of Transylvania.

Kolosvarer Rumania

A Trappist Port-Salut imitation made with water-buffalo milk, as are so many of the world's fine cheeses.

Komijnekaas, Komynekass North Holland

Spiked with caraway seeds and named after them.

Konigskäse Germany

A regal name for a German imitation of Bel Paese.

Kopanisti Greece

Blue-mold cheese with sharp, peppery flavor.

Koppen, Cup, or Bauden Germany

Semihard; goat; made in a cup-shaped mold that gives both its shape and name. Small, three to four ounces; sharp; pungent; somewhat smoky. Imitated in U.S.A. in half-pound packages.

Korestin Russia

Semisoft; mellow; cured in brine.

Kosher

This cheese appears in many countries under several names. Similar to Limburger, but eaten fresh. It is stamped genuine by Jewish authorities, for the use of religious persons. (See Gouda, Kosher.)

Krauterkäse Brazil

Soft-paste herb cheese put up in a tube by German Brazilians near the Argentine border. A rich, full-flavored adaptation of Swiss Krauterkäse even though it is processed.

Kreuterkäse, Herb Cheese Switzerland

Hard, grating cheese flavored with herbs; like Sapsago or Grunkäse.

Krutt, or Kirgischerkäse Asian Steppes

A cheese turned out en route by nomadic tribes in the Asiatic Steppes, from sour skim milk of goat, sheep, cow or camel. The salted and pressed curd is made into small balls and dried in the sun.

Kühbacher Bavaria

Soft, ripe, and chiefly interesting because of its name, Cow Creek, where it is made.

Kuminost Norway

Semihard; caraway-seeded.

Kumminost Sweden

This is Bondost with caraway added.

Kummin Ost Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Imitation of the Scandinavian, with small production in Wisconsin where so many Swedes and Norwegians make their home and their ost.

Kümmel, Leyden, or Leidsche Kaas Holland

Caraway-seeded and named.

Kümmelkäse Germany and U.S.A.

Semihard; sharp with caraway. Milwaukee Kümmelkäse has made a name for itself as a nibble most suitable with most drinks, from beer to imported kümmel liqueur.

L

Labneh Syria

Sour-milk.

La Foncée, or Fromage de Pau France

Cream cheese.

Lager Käse U.S.A.

Semidry and mellow. While lager means merely "to store," there is more than a subtle suggestion of lager beer here.

Laguiole, Fromage de, and Guiole Aveyron, France

An ancient Cantal type said to have flourished since the Roman occupation. Many consider Laguiole superior to Cantal. It is in full season from November to May.

Lamothe-Bougon, La Mothe St. Heray Poitou

Goat cheese made from May to November.

Lancashire, or Lancaster North England

White; crumbly; sharp; a good Welsh Rabbit cheese if you can get it. It is more like Cheshire than Cheddar. This most popular variety in the north of England is turned out best at Fylde, near the Irish Sea. It is a curiosity in manufacture, for often the curds used are of different ages, and this is accountable for a loose, friable texture. Deep orange in color.

Land-l-kas, or Güssing Austria

Skim-milker, similar to U.S. Brick. Square loaves, four to eight pounds.

Langlois Blue U.S.A.

A Colorado Blue with an excellent reputation, though it can hardly compete with Roquefort.

Langres Haute-Marne, France

Semihard; fermented whole milk; farm-made; full-flavored, high-smelling Limburger type, similar to Maroilles. Ancient of days, said to have been made since the time of the Merovingian kings. Cylindrical, five by eight inches, they weigh one and a half to two pounds. Consumed mostly at home.

Lapland Lapland

Reindeer milk. Resembles hard Swiss. Of unusual shape, both round and flat, so a cross-section looks like a dumbbell with angular ends.

Laredo Mexico

Soft; creamy; mellow, made and named after the North Mexico city.

Larron France

A kind of Maroilles.

Latticini Italy

Trade name for a soft, water-buffalo product as creamy as Camembert.

Laumes, les Burgundy, France

Made from November to July.

Lauterbach Germany

Breakfast cheese

Leaf see Tschil.

Leather, Leder, or Holstein Dairy Germany

A skim-milker with five to ten percent buttermilk, all from the great milch cows up near Denmark in Schleswig-Holstein. A technical point in its making is that it's "broken up with a harp or a stirring stick and stirred with a Danish stirrer."

Lebanie Syria

Dessert cottage cheese often served with yogurt.

Lecco, Formaggini di Italy

Soft; cow or goat; round dessert variety; representative of a cheese family as big as the human family of most Italians.

Lees see Appenzeller, Festive, No. II.

LeGuéyin Lorraine, France

Half-dried; small; salted; peppered and sharp. The salt and pepper make it unusual, though not as peppery as Italian Pepato.

Leicester England

Hard; shallow; flat millstone of Cheddar-like cheese weighing forty pounds. Dark orange and mild to red and strong, according to age. With Wiltshire and Warwickshire it belongs to the Derbyshire type.

An ancient saying is: "Leicester cheese and water cress were just made for each other."

Leidsche Kaas see Leyden.

Leonessa

A kind of Pecorino.

Leroy U.S.A.

Notable because it's a natural cheese in a mob of modern processed.

Lerroux France

Goat; in season from February to September and not eaten in fall or winter months.

Lescin Caucasus

Curious because the sheep's milk that makes it is milked directly into a sack of skin. It is made in the usual way, rennet added, curd broken up, whey drained off, curd put into forms and pressed lightly. But after that it is wrapped in leaves and ropes of grass. After curing two weeks in the leaves, they are discarded, the cheese salted and wrapped up in leaves again for another ripening period.

The use of a skin sack again points the association of cheese and wine in a region where wine is still drunk from skin bags with nozzles, as in many wild and mountainous parts.

Les Petits Bressans Bresse, France

Small goat cheeses named from food-famous Bresse, of the plump pullets, and often stimulated with brandy before being wrapped in fresh vine leaves, like Les Petits Banons.