Cheese Families: Exploring The Diverse World Of Cheeses

There are several ways to classify cheese, including by origin, production method, moisture content, fat content, curing or ripening methods, and milk type. One of the simplest ways to group cheese is by family, and there are several cheese families, including fresh cheeses, natural-rind cheeses, bloomy-rind or mold-ripened cheeses, washed-rind cheeses, pressed non-cooked or semi-hard cheeses, pressed and cooked or hard cheeses, blue-veined or blue-mold cheeses, and flavored or blended cheeses.

Fresh cheeses: young, not aged, high moisture content, short shelf life, milky/lactic/sweet/citrus taste

Fresh cheeses are young cheeses that have not been aged or ripened. They are ready to eat within a few hours or days of production and have a short shelf life. This is due to their high moisture content, which is above 60%. They are often sold in tubs or plastic packaging and should be stored in the coldest part of the refrigerator. Examples include fresh cream cheese, fresh mozzarella, fresh goat cheese, and fresh feta cheese.

Fresh cheeses have a mild, milky, lactic, sweet, or citrus taste. They can also be salty or tangy, with a creamy, spreadable, soft, pliable, or crumbly texture. To make fresh cheese at home, ingredients such as lemon juice, vinegar, or buttermilk can be used instead of starter cultures or rennet to ripen the milk.

Some popular varieties of fresh cheese include:

• Ricotta: A creamy, spreadable cheese with a slightly sweet, milky flavour. It can be made of cow, sheep, or buffalo milk.
• Mascarpone: A creamy Italian cow's milk product with an inherent sweetness and a buttery aroma.
• Fromage blanc: A thick, spreadable cheese native to northwestern France, usually made with pasteurized cow's milk but can also be made with goat's milk.
• Quark: A non-fat or low-fat cheese that is popular in Europe, particularly in German-speaking and other northern European countries.
• Feta: A brined cheese made with sheep, goat, or cow's milk, giving it a salty, tangy flavour.
• Mozzarella: A mild, milky-flavoured cheese that is either stored in water or wrapped in plastic, depending on its moisture content.

Natural-rind cheeses: mainly goat milk, also cow/sheep milk, wrinkly rind, fresh/milky aroma

Natural-rind cheeses are predominantly made from goat's milk, but cow's milk and sheep's milk varieties also exist. Sainte-Marcellin is a cow's milk natural-rind cheese, while Pérail de brebis is made from sheep's milk. These cheeses are characterised by their wrinkly rinds, which develop naturally, and their fresh, milky aromas. Other examples of natural-rind cheeses include Sainte-Maure de Touraine, Chabichou du Poitou, and Valençay.

Goat's milk cheeses generally fall into two categories: those that are limestone-y and citrusy, and those that are musky and barnyardy. Younger goat's milk cheeses tend to be more citrusy, while more aged varieties can develop more complex, musky notes. Goat's milk is also used to make fresh chèvre, a popular variety in the United States. However, this cheese does not melt due to being curdled with acid rather than rennet.

Sheep's milk cheeses are known for their high fat content, resulting in creamier cheese. They can have a range of flavours, from subtle and sweet to caramelly and butterscotchy, to piquant and intensely gamey. Brebisrousse d'Argental, a French cheese, is an example of a buttery and smearable sheep's milk cheese. Another French variety, Roquefort, is described as the "Champagne of Cheese" due to its high price and intense flavour.

Cow's milk cheeses can highlight the flavour of the grass grazed on by the animals and are often described as "grassy" or as tasting "like the pasture". Common tasting notes include sweet cream, butterscotch, mushroom, and nuts. Taleggio, a cow's milk cheese from northern Italy, is known for its mild, yeasty flavour.

Bloomy-rind cheeses: mould is sprayed on cheese, soft white blanket forms, mushroom aroma

There are several different kinds of cheese families, and one of them is the Bloomy-rind cheeses. This family of cheeses is ripened from the outside, and they usually have creamy textures. During the aging process, a mould called Penicillium Camemberti is sprayed on the cheese, which then develops on the rind and forms a soft, fluffy, white blanket of mould with mild, lactic, mushroom-like aromas.

Cheeses in this family can be chalky or creamy, and some are even spoonable. They can exhibit mild and tangy or more assertive savoury flavours, depending on the style. Bloomy-rind cheeses have a velvety white rind, which can be composed of yeast, mould, or both. The mould on the cheese blooms like tiny flowers on the exterior of a ripening cheese. Over time, these patches of yellowish white fur are patted down to form a cohesive skin or rind on the cheese's surface. This rind breaks down the fats and proteins of the cheese, causing an increasingly creamy to runny texture over time. This is why there is often a glistening layer just under the rind, known as the creamline.

Examples of Bloomy-rind cheeses include Brie de Meaux, Camembert de Normandie, and Chaource. Brie and Camembert are the most well-known examples of this cheese family.

Washed-rind cheeses: massaged with salted water/alcohol, orange colour, strong smell, sweet taste

Washed-rind cheeses are a unique subset of cheeses that are known for their strong smell and sweet taste. They are formed and shaped in a similar way to soft-ripened cheeses like Camembert or Brie, but during the maturation process, they are washed with a brine solution or alcohol such as beer, wine, or brandy. This process, invented by monks in the Middle Ages, encourages the growth of bacteria that thrive in salty conditions, such as brevibacterium linens, which is responsible for the cheese's robust flavour and pungent smell. The reddish-orange hue of washed-rind cheeses is due to the presence of this bacteria.

The process of washing the rind with salted water or alcohol is labour-intensive and requires regular washings, especially in the early stages of production. The washing process makes the rind of the cheese more amenable to bacteria, which gives washed-rind cheeses their distinctive orange or red colour and pungent smell. Despite their strong odour, these cheeses are perfectly safe to eat and offer a range of delicious, savoury, and slightly yeasty flavours.

The development of washed-rind cheeses can be traced back to 16th-century France, where monks in monasteries used cheese-making as a means of sustenance. The conditions in monastery cellars were ideal for cheese bacteria, but the lack of control over these conditions made it challenging to prevent the formation of bad rinds. To address this issue, monks began washing the rinds with beer or brandy, as these liquids were more readily available than clean drinking water. This technique resulted in the creation of softer, creamier cheeses, with Epoisse de Bourgogne being one of the earliest and finest examples of a soft, washed-rind cheese.

In mountainous areas, a similar practice emerged due to the difficulty in controlling the growth of cheese bacteria in high humidity. However, instead of using alcohol, cheesemakers in these regions employed brine (a saltwater brine solution) for washing the rinds, as drinkable water was readily available. This method produced harder cheeses, with Gruyère being a prime example—originating in the Swiss Alps at an elevation of roughly 2,500 feet.

Today, some of the finest washed-rind cheeses are produced on the continent, with Britain also offering a rich history and exceptional varieties, such as the famous Stinking Bishop—a soft washed-rind cheese crafted in Gloucestershire.

Pressed non-cooked cheeses: curd not cooked, hard but not dry, smooth texture

Pressed non-cooked cheeses, also known as semi-hard cheeses, are pressed to remove the whey, but the curd is not cooked. This process gives the cheese a hard, yet not dry texture, that is simultaneously soft and smooth.

Pressed non-cooked cheeses are often considered to be good melting cheeses. They have a higher moisture content than hard cheeses, as they are generally packed into moulds under less pressure and aged for a shorter time.

Examples of pressed non-cooked cheeses include Reblochon, Tomme de Savoie, and Ossau-Iraty.

Semi-soft cheeses are also a part of this family, with a high moisture content and a smooth, creamy interior. They have little to no rind and are great for snacking, melting, and sandwiches. Examples of semi-soft cheeses include Havarti, Monterey Jack, and Point Reyes Toma.

Frequently asked questions