A Cheese Primer 🧀
Your Quick Guide to Cheese Speak
Hi readers!
Since things are so slow in the cheese world, I don’t have many exciting pictures to share with you. Alas.
I’ve got my Valentine’s Day special order coming in tomorrow though — super cute Nettle Meadow cheese hearts! You’re going to love how these look — they’re covered in flowers.
So in lieu of cheese pics, I thought I would teach you some cheese vocabulary.
Think of this as Cheese for Beginners — not Cheese 101, much less Cheese 304: Alpine Cheese.1
Let’s start with the Cheese ABC’s — the ten terms used most often behind the cheese counter — and in this newsletter.
RIND — What you find on the exterior of a cheese. Liz Thorpe calls it the cheese’s “crust.”
There are as many types of rind as there are types of cheese — and then there are fresh cheeses2 that have no rind at all.
Here are some of the types of rind:
Bloomy rind — aka “brie” or “brie style” — these pillowy white rinds are typically made of penicillum candidum or penicillum camemberti. Learn more about this style of cheese in my guide to bloomy rind cheeses here.
Washed rind — when the cheese is “washed” in a brine, wine, or beer during the aging process to achieve the distinctive (and stinky) orange rind. Think Taleggio.
Natural rind — when the cheese is aged and exposed to the natural molds and bacterium of the cellar and a natural “crust” forms — Thomasville Tomme is an example. Or Asher Blue.
Wax — we’ve all seen cheeses covered in a wax layer
Clothbound — particularly popular with cheddars, as it’s the traditional style. Cloth is what holds the curds together as the cheese ages. Breaking up a wheel of clothbound cheddar always involves scissors, lol.
CREAMLINE — the ooey gooey layer you’ll find on bloomy rind and washed rind cheeses — between the rind and the cheese’s interior paste. The creamline grows as the cheese ripens, because bloomy rind cheeses ripen from the outside in. The creamline is also where the cheese will be most intensely flavored.
The Truffle Shuffle has a stunning creamline, no?
PASTE — the interior of the cheese — a paste can be creamy, firm, hard, fudgy, etc.
In the photo above, the line of truffle duxelles goes through the paste.
HOLES OR EYES — the small holes that are found in the paste of a cheese, typically of the Alpine or “Swiss” variety.
ALPINE — the cheeses made in the style of the Alps, meaning cheese made from the milk of cows that have been grazing on mountain grasses. The milk is typically heated in a copper pot and the curd pressed into large wheels meant to last for the winter.
Lots of people call it “Swiss cheese.” Other types are Gruyere and Comte.
PASTEURIZED MILK — meaning the cheese is made from pasteurized milk — or milk that has been heated to kill bacteria before the cheesemaking process begins.
In the US, any cheese sold that is aged less than 60 days must be pasteurized, even if it is imported from Europe — where many fine young cheeses are made with raw milk. So here in the US, we get pasteurized facsimiles of some French classics like Brie de Meaux.
RAW MILK — or unpasteurized milk. Technically, raw milk has never been cooled and reheated, but unpasteurized milk may have been.
Raw milk cheese is like biodynamic wine — you can taste the terroir behind the cheese. It almost tastes more “alive.”
According to Mateo Kehler of Jasper Hill Farm, “The microbial energy of raw milk is the sum of the practices on a farm. How you bed, feed, milk, and clean all contribute selective pressures that define the potential of a cheese by steering microbiology in particular ways. That’s why a great raw milk cheese is so much more than a piece of cheese. It is the sum of a production system and the design, philosophy, and people behind it.”3
RENNET — Used for centuries as a coagulant in the cheese making process4, traditional rennet is an enzyme found in an unweaned animal’s stomach lining.
Some modern cheesemakers use “vegetarian rennet” derived from molds or yeasts.
AGED — As much as the type of rind, aging affects a a cheese’s flavor and texture. As a cheese ages, moisture evaporates — concentrating the flavor of the cheese and creating a firmer paste.
With harder cheeses, the longer the cheese is aged, the richer the flavor will likely be.
Because they are also super concentrated flavor and “cheese matter” wise — longer aged cheeses also tend to be more expensive. This is one reason why different types of hard aged cheeses like Goudas, Parmeseans, and Cheddars have wildly different prices.
Our Parmigiano Reggiano at the shop is aged 24 months!
PDO — “Protected Designation of Origin”— Introduced in 1992, PDO is the EU’s umbrella label for different countries product protections. PDO status is achieved only after the country-level protection is approved.
France — AOC — Appellation d’Origine Controlee
Italy — DOP — Denominazione di Origine Protetta
Spain — DOP — Denominacion de Origen Protegida
Switzerland — AOP — Appellation d’Origine Protegee
Since Switzerland is not in the EU, all Swiss cheeses are AOP’s only.
And it’s not totally obvious that all of these languages are related, is it?
Here’s your dose of Kitty Adorableness:
I also wanted to mention my favorite small coffee company once again — Kitty Town Coffee, where every bag feeds a homeless kitty.
Plus, the coffee is delicious, reasonably priced, and ships right to your door!
Their special January blend — Aurora’s Winter Embrace — is a delightful light roast with peanut notes.
That’s right. Each coffee is also named after a kitty.
Until next time, cheese (and cat!) lovers!
Curd Culture is a reader supported publication. Thank you for supporting my dream of using my cheese experience to make a difference on two issues I care about: sustainable family farming and animal welfare.
Feeling like I should start naming my cheese guides this way.
Like mozzarella or chevre
Credit again to the Great Liz Thorpe.
Rennet is what separates the curds and whey
As an ignoramus d’fromage, I always enjoy your newsletter. 🧀✌🏻