We're Just Crackers about Cheese

Enlarge Image Image Gallery triple cream Brie, aged Cheddar, Mahón, Stilton, smoked Gouda iStockPhoto.com/Kelly Cline

As we researched “Making Cheese Easy” (read the original article here), we learned a whole bunch about cheese that we’d like to share with you. What follows is a list of common cheeses. It includes how Americans pronounce the cheese’s name; the place it’s named for; its appearance and type (soft, semi-firm, hard, etc.); which animal’s milk it’s made from; someone’s opinion on what it tastes like; and what’s done to the milk, curd or cheese that makes it different from other cheeses.

Name; Pronunciation; Place; Type; Made From; Taste; Treatment

Appenzeller; ah-pent-seller; Appenzell region, Switzerland; straw-colored, hard; cow milk; nutty or fruity flavor, which can range from mild to tangy, depending on how long it is aged; cooked, pressed and cured in an herbal brine with wine or cider

Brie; bree; Brie province (modern Siene-et-Marne), France; pale very soft with slightly grayish tinge under crusty white mold; cow milk; rich, mild and creamy; uncooked, unpressed, inoculated with mold (Penicillium candidum, Penicillium camemberti and/or Brevibacterium linens) and aged at least four weeks in a cellar

Edam; ee-duhm; town of Edam, Holland; pale yellow semi-hard, yellow or red waxed spheres; partly skimmed cow milk; very mild taste, slightly salty or nutty and almost no smell; cooked, pressed, aged up to 10 months, lower fat

Feta; feh-tah; Greece; white soft to semi-hard curd; sheep milk (sometimes mixed with goat’s); tangy, salty flavor ranges from mild to sharp; unpressed, salted and cured in a brine solution

Gouda; goo-dah; town of Gouda, Netherlands; rich yellow semi-hard with red or yellow wax; cow milk; pungent underlying bitterness, creamier than other common cheeses; cooked, pressed, brined and dried, then waxed

Gruyère; groo-yehr; town of Gruyères, Switzerland; hard yellow; cow milk; sweet but slightly salty, creamy and nutty when young, becoming with age more assertive, earthy and complex; heated curd, pressed, brined, aged

Limburger; lihm-buhr-guhr; Duchy of Limburg (modern Netherlands, Belgium and Germany); light semi-soft; cow milk; smooth, creamy and light with a very pungent odor; rind-washed and brushed with Brevibacterium linens-infused solution (called the smear) while it ages