Web Extra: More Cheesy Info

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Gorgonzola iStockPhoto.com/Michelangelo Gratton

When it came time to send “We’re just crackers about cheese” (read the original table here) to press, we had way more cheeses than we had space. We didn’t want you to miss out, though, so the rest of them are included here. Just like the printed table, 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

Asiago; ah-syah-goh; town of Asiago, Italy; (fresh) straw-colored semi-firm with small holes, (aged) amber-colored firm with larger holes; cow milk; (fresh) sweet with a little acidity, (aged) sweet but with more savory flavor; heated curd, pressed, salted and aged in humidity- and temperature-controlled area

blue (or bleu) cheese; general classification, sharp and a bit salty with pungent smell; cow, sheep or goat milk with Penicillium cultures added to make the final product spotted or veined with blue or blue-green mold; some are injected with spores before curds form and other have spores mixed with the curds after they form; includes Roquefort, Gorgonzola and Stilton

Camembert; kam-uhm-behr; commune of Camember, Normandy region, France; pale soft-ripened under rind of white mold; cow milk; buttery rich; inoculated with mold (Penicillium candida and Penicillium camemberti) and aged for at least three weeks

Cheddar; cheh-duhr; named for Cheddar, Somerset, England; pale yellow to orange hard; cow milk; sharp; dyed, cheddared (a process where, after heating, curd is cut into cubes and then stacked and turned) and aged for at least three weeks

chèvre; shev-ruh; general classification, goat milk cheese

Colby; kohl-bee; town of Colby, Wisconsin; semi-hard yellow; cow milk; softer, moister and milder than cheddar; curds are washed before pressing, not aged

Emmental/Swiss Cheese (Emmentaler, Emmenthal, Emmenthaler); em-en-tahl; Emme Valley, Switzerland; yellow, medium-hard with large holes; cow milk; nutty and piquant, but not really sharp; three types of bacteria are used: Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus (L. helveticus or L. bulgaricus), and Propionibacter (P. freudenreichii or P. shermani). In a late stage of production, the Proprionibacter consumes the lactic acidexcreted by the other bacteria and releases carbon dioxide gas, which slowly forms the bubbles that develop the eyes.