Sauté minced small onion and small green pepper in 2 tablespoons of butter and make a sauce by cooking with a cup of canned tomatoes. Season and reduce to about half. Fry 4 eggs and put one in the center of each of 4 pieces of hot toast spread with the red sauce. Sprinkle each generously with grated Cheddar, broil until melted and serve with crisp bacon.
F French-fried Swiss
Simply make a sandwich with a noble slice of imported Gruyère, soak it in beaten egg and milk and fry slowly till cheese melts and the sandwich is nicely browned. This is a specialty of Franche-Comté.
G Grilled Chicken-Ham-Cheddar
Cut crusts from 2 slices of white bread and butter them on both sides. Make a sandwich of these with 1 slice cooked chicken, ½ slice sharp Cheddar cheese, and a sprinkling of minced ham. Fasten tight with toothpicks, cut in half and dip thoroughly in a mixture of egg and milk. Grill golden on both sides and serve with lengthwise slices of dill pickle.
Butter a thick slice of dark rye bread, cover with a layer of mashed cold baked beans and a slice of ham, then one of Swiss cheese and a wheel of Bermuda onion topped with mustard and a sowing of capers.
I International Sandwich
Split English muffins and toast on the hard outsides, cover soft, untoasted insides with Swiss cheese, spread lightly with mustard, top that with a wheel of Bermuda onion and 1 or 2 slices of Italian-type tomato. Season with cayenne and salt, dot with butter, cover with Brazil nuts and brown under the broiler.
J Jurassiennes, or Croûtes
Comtoises
Soak slices of stale buns in milk, cover with a mixture of onion browned in chopped lean bacon and mixed with grated Gruyère. Simmer until cheese melts, and serve.
K Kümmelkäse
If you like caraway flavor this is your sandwich: On well-buttered but lightly mustarded rye, lay a thickish slab of Milwaukee Kümmelkäse, which translates caraway cheese. For good measure sprinkle caraway seeds on top, or serve them in a saucer on the side. Then dash on a splash of kümmel, the caraway liqueur that's best when imported.
L Limburger Onion or Limburger Catsup
Marinate slices of Bermuda onion in a peppery French dressing for ½ hour. Then butter slices of rye, spread well with soft Limburger, top with onion and you will have something super-duper—if you like Limburger.
When catsup is substituted for marinated onion the sandwich has quite another character and flavor, so true Limburger addicts make one of each and take alternate bites for the thrill of contrast.
M Meringue, Open-faced (from the Browns'
10,000 Snacks)
Allow 1 egg and 4 tablespoons of grated cheese to 1 slice of bread. Toast bread on one side only, spread butter on untoasted side, put 2 tablespoons grated cheese over butter, and the yolk of an egg in the center. Beat egg white stiff with a few grains of salt and pile lightly on top. Sprinkle the other 2 tablespoons of grated cheese over that and bake in moderate oven until the egg white is firm and the cheese has melted to a golden-brown.
N Neufchâtel and Honey
We know no sandwich more ethereal than one made with thin, decrusted, white bread, spread with sweet butter, then with Neufchâtel topped with some fine honey—Mount Hymettus, if possible.
Any creamy Petit Suisse will do as well as the Neufchâtel, but nothing will take the place of the honey to make this heavenly sandwich that must have been the original ambrosia.
O Oskar's Ham-Cam
Oskar Davidsen of Copenhagen, whose five-foot menu lists 186 superb sandwiches and snacks, each with a character all its own, perfected the Ham-Cam base for a flock of fancy ham sandwiches, open-faced on rye or white, soft or crisp, sweet or sour, almost any one-way slice you desire. He uses as many contrasting kinds of bread as possible, and his butter varies from salt to fresh and whipped. The Ham-Cam base involves "a juicy, tender slice of freshly boiled, mild-cured ham" with imported Camembert spread on the ham as thick as velvet.
The Ham-Cam is built up with such splendors as "goose liver paste and Madeira wine jelly," "fried calves' kidney and rémoulade," "Bombay curry salad," "bird's liver and fried egg," "a slice of red roast beef" and more of that red Madeira jelly, with anything else you say, just so long as it does credit to Camembert on ham.
P Pickled Camembert
Butter a thin slice of rye or pumpernickel and spread with ripe imported Camembert, when in season (which isn't summer). Make a mixture of sweet, sour and dill pickles, finely chopped, and spread it on. Top this with a thin slice of white bread for pleasing contrast with the black.
Q Queijo da Serra Sandwich
On generous rounds of French "flute" or other crunchy, crusty white bread place thick portions of any good Portuguese cheese made of sheep's milk "in the mountains." This last translates back into Queijo da Serra, the fattest, finest cheese in the world—on a par with fine Greek Feta. Bead the open-faced creamy cheese lightly with imported capers, and you'll say it's scrumptious.
R Roquefort Nut
Butter hot toast and cover with a thickish slice of genuine Roquefort cheese. Sprinkle thickly with genuine Hungarian paprika. Put in moderate oven for about 6 minutes. Finish it off with chopped pine nuts, almonds, or a mixture thereof.
S Smoky Sandwich and Sturgeon-smoked
Sandwich
Skin some juicy little, jolly little sprats, lay on thin rye, or a slice of miniature-loaf rye studded with caraway, spread with sweet butter and cover with a slice of smoked cheese.
Hickory is preferred for most of the smoking in America. In New York the best smoked cheese, whether from Canada or nearer home, is usually cured in the same room with sturgeon. Since this king of smoked fish imparts some of its regal savor to the Cheddar, there is a natural affinity peculiarly suited to sandwiching as above.
Smoked salmon, eel, whitefish or any other, is also good with cheese smoked with hickory or anything with a salubrious savor, while a sandwich of smoked turkey with smoked cheese is out of this world. We accompany it with a cup of smoky Lapsang Soochong China tea.
T Tangy Sandwich
On buttered rye spread cream cheese, and on this bed lay thinly sliced dried beef. In place of mustard dot the beef with horseradish and pearl onions or those reliable old chopped chives. And by the way, if you must use mustard on every cheese sandwich, try different kinds for a change: sharp English freshly mixed by your own hand out of the tin of powder, or Dijon for a French touch.
U Unusual Sandwich—of Flowers, Hay and
Clover
On a sweet-buttered slice of French white bread lay a layer of equally sweet English Flower cheese (made with petals of rose, marigold, violet, etc.) and top that with French Fromage de foin. This French hay cheese gets its name from being ripened on hay and holds its new-mown scent. Sprinkle on a few imported capers (the smaller they are, the better), with a little of the luscious juice, and dust lightly with Sapsago.
V Vegetarian Sandwich
Roll your own of alternate leaves of lettuce, slices of store cheese, avocados, cream cheese sprinkled heavily with chopped chives, and anything else in the Vegetable or Caseous Kingdoms that suits your fancy.
W Witch's Sandwich
Butter 2 slices of sandwich bread, cover one with a thin slice of imported Emmentaler, dash with cayenne and a drop or two of tabasco. Slap on a sizzling hot slice of grilled ham and press it together with the cheese between the two bread slices, put in a hot oven and serve piping hot with a handful of "moonstones"—those outsize pearl onions.
X Xochomilco Sandwich
In spite of the "milco" in Xochomilco, there isn't a drop to be had that's native to the festive, floating gardens near Mexico City. For there, instead of the cow, a sort of century plant gives milky white pulque, the fermented juice of this cactuslike desert plant. With this goes a vegetable cheese curded by its own vegetable rennet. It's called tuna cheese, made from the milky juice of the prickly pear that grows on yet another cactuslike plant of the dry lands. This tuna cheese sometimes teams up in arid lands with the juicy thick cactus leaf sliced into a tortilla sandwich. The milky pulque of Xochomilco goes as well with it as beer with a Swiss cheese sandwich.
Y Yolk Picnic Sandwich
Hard-cooked egg yolk worked into a yellow paste with cream cheese, mustard, olive oil, lemon juice, celery salt and a touch of tabasco, spread on thick slices of whole wheat bread.
Z Zebra
Take a tip from Oskar over in Copenhagen and design your own Zebra sandwich as decoratively as one of those oft-photoed skins in El Morocco. Just alternate stripes of black bread with various white cheeses in between, to follow, the black and white zebra pattern.
For good measure we will toss in a couple of toasted cheese sandwiches.
Toasted Cheese Sandwich
Butter both sides of 2 thick slices of white bread and sandwich between them a seasoned mixture of shredded sharp cheese, egg yolk, mustard and chopped chives, together with stiffly beaten egg white folded in last to make a light filling. Fry the buttered sandwich in more butter until well melted and nicely gilded.
This toasted cheeser is so good it's positively sinful. The French, who outdo us in both cooking and sin, make one of their own in the form of fried fingers of stale bread doused in an 'arf and 'arf Welsh Rabbit and Fondue melting of Gruyère, that serves as a liaison to further sandwich the two.
Garlic is often used in place of chopped chives, and in contrast to this wild one there's a mild one made of Dutch cream cheese by the equally Dutch Pennsylvanians.
England, of course, together with Wales, holds all-time honors with such celebrated regional "toasting cheeses" as Devonshire and Dunlop. Even British Newfoundland is known for its simple version, that's quite as pleasing as its rich Prince Edward Island Oyster Stew.
Newfoundland Toasted Cheese Sandwich
1 pound grated Cheddar
1 egg, well beaten
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
Heat together and pour over well-buttered toast.
Eleven
"Fit for Drink"
A country without a fit drink for cheese has no cheese fit for drink.
Greece was the first country to prove its epicurean fitness, according to the old saying above, for it had wine to tipple and sheep's milk cheese to nibble. The classical Greek cheese has always been Feta, and no doubt this was the kind that Circe combined most suitably with wine to make a farewell drink for her lovers. She put further sweetness and body into the stirrup cup by stirring honey and barley meal into it. Today we might whip this up in an electric mixer to toast her memory.
While a land flowing with milk and honey is the ideal of many, France, Italy, Spain or Portugal, flowing with wine and honey, suit a lot of gourmets better. Indeed, in such vinous-caseous places cheese is on the house at all wine sales for prospective customers to snack upon and thus bring out the full flavor of the cellared vintages. But professional wine tasters are forbidden any cheese between sips. They may clear their palates with plain bread, but nary a crumb of Roquefort or cube of Gruyère in working hours, lest it give the wine a spurious nobility.
And, speaking of Roquefort, Romanée has the closest affinity for it. Such affinities are also found in Pont l'Evêque and Beaujolais, Brie and red champagne, Coulommiers and any good vin rosé. Heavenly marriages are made in Burgundy between red and white wines of both Côtes, de Nuits and de Baune, and Burgundian cheeses such as Epoisses, Soumaintarin and Saint-Florentin. Pommard and Port-Salut seem to be made for each other, as do Château Margaux and Camembert.
A great cheese for a great wine is the rule that brings together in the neighboring provinces such notables as Sainte Maure, Valençay, Vendôme and the Loire wines—Vouvray, Saumur and Anjou. Gruyère mates with Chablis, Camembert with St. Emilion; and any dry red wine, most commonly claret, is a fit drink for the hundreds of other fine French cheeses.
Every country has such happy marriages, an Italian standard being Provolone and Chianti. Then there is a most unusual pair, French Neufchâtel cheese and Swiss Neuchâtel wine from just across the border. Switzerland also has another cheese favorite at home—Trauben (grape cheese), named from the Neuchâtel wine in which it is aged.
One kind of French Neufchâtel cheese, Bondon, is also uniquely suited to the company of any good wine because it is made in the exact shape and size of a wine barrel bung. A similar relation is found in Brinzas (or Brindzas) that are packed in miniature wine barrels, strongly suggesting what should be drunk with such excellent cheeses: Hungarian Tokay. Other foreign cheeses go to market wrapped in vine leaves. The affinity has clearly been laid down in heaven.
Only the English seem to have a fortissimo taste in the go-with wines, according to these matches registered by André Simon in The Art of Good Living:
White Cheshire with Oloroso Sherry
Blue Leicester with Old Vintage Port
Green Roquefort with New Vintage Port
To these we might add brittle chips of Greek Casere with nips of Amontillado, for an eloquent appetizer.
The English also pour port into Stilton, and sundry other wines and liquors into Cheddars and such. This doctoring leads to fraudulent imitation, however, for either port or stout is put into counterfeit Cheshire cheese to make up for the richness it lacks.
While some combinations of cheeses and wines may turn out palatable, we prefer taking ours straight. When something more fiery is needed we can twirl the flecks of pure gold in a chalice of Eau de Vie de Danzig and nibble on legitimate Danzig cheese unadulterated. Goldwasser, or Eau de Vie, was a favorite liqueur of cheese-loving Franklin Roosevelt, and we can be sure he took the two separately.
Another perfect combination, if you can take it, is imported kümmel with any caraway-seeded cheese, or cream cheese with a handy saucer of caraway seeds. In the section of France devoted to gin, the juniper berries that flavor the drink also go into a local cheese, Fromage Fort. This is further fortified with brandy, white wine and pepper. One regional tipple with such brutally strong cheese is black coffee laced with gin.
French la Jonchée is another potted thriller with not only coffee and rum mixed in during the making, but orange flower water, too. Then there is la Petafina, made with brandy and absinthe; Hazebrook with brandy alone; and la Cachat with white wine and brandy.
In Italy white Gorgonzola is also put up in crocks with brandy. In Oporto the sharp cheese of that name is enlivened by port, Cider and the greatest of applejacks, Calvados, seem made to go the regional Calvados cheese. This is also true of our native Jersey Lightning and hard cider with their accompanying New York State cheese. In the Auge Valley of France, farmers also drink homemade cider with their own Augelot, a piquant kind of Pont l'Evêque.
The English sip pear cider (perry) with almost any British cheese. Milk would seem to be redundant, but Sage cheese and buttermilk do go well together.
Wine and cheese have other things in common. Some wines and some cheeses are aged in caves, and there are vintage cheeses no less than vintage wines, as is the case with Stilton.
Twelve
Lazy Lou
Once, so goes the sad story, there was a cheesemonger unworthy of his heritage. He exported a shipload of inferior "Swiss" made somewhere in the U.S.A. Bad to begin with, it had worsened on the voyage. Rejected by the health authorities on the other side, it was shipped back, reaching home in the unhappy condition known as "cracked." To cut his losses the rascally cheesemonger had his cargo ground up and its flavor disguised with hot peppers and chili sauce. Thus there came into being the abortion known as the "cheese spread."
The cheese spread or "food" and its cousin, the processed cheese, are handy, cheap and nasty. They are available every where and some people even like them. So any cheese book is bound to take formal notice of their existence. I have done so—and now, an unfond farewell to them.
My academic cheese education began at the University of Wisconsin in 1904. I grew up with our great Midwest industry; I have read with profit hundreds of pamphlets put out by the learned Aggies of my Alma Mater. Mostly they treat of honest, natural cheeses: the making, keeping and enjoying of authentic Longhorn Cheddars, short Bricks and naturalized Limburgers.
At the School of Agriculture the students still, I am told, keep their hand in by studying the classical layout on a cheese board. One booklet recommends the following for freshman contemplation:
| CARAWAY BRICK | SELECT BRICK | EDAM |
| WISCONSIN SWISS | LONGHORN AMERICAN | SHEFFORD |
These six sturdy samples of Wisconsin's best will stimulate any amount of classroom discussion. Does the Edam go better with German-American black bread or with Swedish Ry-Krisp? To butter or not to butter? And if to butter, with which cheese? Salt or sweet? How close do we come to the excellence of the genuine Alpine Swiss? Primary school stuff, but not unworthy of thought.
Pass on down the years. You are now ready to graduate. Your cheese board can stand a more sophisticated setup. Try two boards; play the teams against each other.
| The All-American Champs | ||
| NEW YORK COON | PHILADELPHIA CREAM | OHIO LIEDERKRANZ |
| VERMONT SAGE | KENTUCKY TRAPPIST | WISCONSIN LIMBURGER |
| CALIFORNIA JACK | PINEAPPLE | |
| MINNESOTA BLUE | BRICK | |
| TILLAMOOK |
VS.
| The European Giants | |||||||||||
| PORTUGUESE TRAZ- | DUTCH GOUDA | ITALIAN PARMESAN | |||||||||
| OS-MONTES | FRENCH ROQUEFORT | SWISS EMMENTALER | |||||||||
| YUGOSLAVIAN KACKAVALJ | |||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
The postgraduate may play the game using as counters the great and distinctive cheeses of more than fifty countries. Your Scandinavian board alone, just to give an idea of the riches available, will shine with blues, yellows, whites, smoky browns, and chocolates representing Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Lapland.
For the Britisher only blue-veined Stilton is worthy to crown the banquet. The Frenchman defends Roquefort, the Dane his own regal Blue; the Swiss sticks to Emmentaler before, during and after all three meals. You may prefer to finish with a delicate Brie, a smoky slice of Provolone, a bit of Baby Gouda, or some Liptauer Garniert, about which more later.
We load them all on Lazy Lou, Lazy Susan's big twin brother, a giant roulette wheel of cheese, every number a winner. A second Lazy Lou will bear the savories and go-withs. For these tidbits the English have a divine genius; think of the deviled shrimps, smoked oysters, herring roe on toast, snips of broiled sausage ... But we will make do with some olives and radishes, a few pickles, nuts, capers. With our two trusty Lazy Lous on hand plus wine or beer, we can easily dispense with the mere dinner itself.
Perhaps it is an Italian night. Then Lazy Lou is happily burdened with imported Latticini; Incanestrato, still bearing the imprint of its wicker basket; Pepato, which is but Incanestrato peppered; Mel Fina; deep-yellow, buttery Scanno with its slightly burned flavor; tangy Asiago; Caciocavallo, so called because the the cheeses, tied in pairs and hung over a pole, look as though they were sitting in a saddle—cheese on horseback, or "cacio a cavallo." Then we ring in Lazy Lou's first assistant, an old, silver-plated, revolving Florentine magnum-holder. It's designed to spin a gigantic flask of Chianti. The flick of a finger and the bottle is before you. Gently pull it down and hold your glass to the spout.
True, imported wines and cheeses are expensive. But native American products and reasonably edible imitations of the real thing are available as substitutes. Anyway, protein for protein, a cheese party will cost less than a steak barbecue. And it can be more fun.
Encourage your guests to contribute their own latest discoveries. One may bring along as his ticket of admission a Primavera from Brazil; another some cubes of an Andean specialty just flown in from Colombia's mountain city, Mérida, and still wrapped in its aromatic leaves of Frailejón Lanudo; another a few wedges of savory sweet English Flower cheese, some flavored with rose petals, others with marigolds; another a tube of South American Kräuterkäse.
Provide your own assortment of breads and try to include some of those fat, flaky old-fashioned crackers that country stores in New England can still supply. Mustard? Sure, if .you like it. If you want to be fancy, use a tricky little gadget put out by the Maille condiment-makers in France and available here in the food specialty shops. It's a miniature painter's palate holding five mustards of different shades and flavors and two mustard paddles. The mustards, in proper chromatic order, are: jonquil yellow "Strong Dijon"; "Green Herbs"; brownish "Tarragon"; golden "Ora"; crimson "Tomato-flavored."
And, just to keep things moving, we have restored an antique whirling cruet-holder to deliver Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, A-1, Tap Sauce and Major Grey's Chutney. Salt shakers and pepper mills are handy, with a big-holed tin canister filled with crushed red-pepper pods, chili powder, Hungarian-paprika and such small matters. Butter, both sweet and salt, is on hand, together with, saucers or bowls of curry, capers, chives (sliced, not chopped), minced onion, fresh mint leaves, chopped pimientos, caraway, quartered lemons, parsley, fresh tarragon, tomato slices, red and white radishes, green and black olives, pearl onions and assorted nutmeats.
Some years ago, when I was collaborating with my mother, Cora, and my wife, Rose, in writing 10,000 Snacks (which, by the way, devotes nearly forty pages to cheeses), we staged a rather elaborate tasting party just for the three of us. It took a two-tiered Lazy Lou to twirl the load.
The eight wedges on the top round were English and French samples and the lower one carried the rest, as follows:
| ENGLISH CHEDDAR | CHESHIRE | ENGLISH STILTON | CANADIAN CHEDDAR (rum flavored) |
| FRENCH MÜNSTER | FRENCH BRIE | FRENCH CAMEMBERT | FRENCH ROQUEFORT |
| SWISS SAPSAGO | SWISS GRUYERE | SWISS EDAM | DUTCH GOUDA |
| ITALIAN PROVOLONE | CZECH OSTIEPKI | ITALIAN GORGONZOLA | NORWEGIAN GJETOST |
| HUNGARIAN LIPTAUER | |||
The tasting began with familiar English Cheddars, Cheshires and Stiltons from the top row. We had cheese knives, scoops, graters, scrapers and a regulation wire saw, but for this line of crumbly Britishers fingers were best.
The Cheddar was a light, lemony-yellow, almost white, like our best domestic "bar cheese" of old.
The Cheshire was moldy and milky, with a slightly fermented flavor that brought up the musty dining room of Fleet Street's Cheshire cheese and called for draughts of beer. The Stilton was strong but mellow, as high in flavor as in price.
Only the rum-flavored Canadian Cheddar from Montreal (by courtesy English) let us down. It was done up as fancy as a bridegroom in waxed white paper and looked as smooth and glossy as a gardenia. But there its beauty ended. Either the rum that flavored it wasn't up to much or the mixture hadn't been allowed to ripen naturally.
The French Münster, however, was hearty, cheery, and better made than most German Münster, which at that time wasn't being exported much by the Nazis. The Brie was melting prime, the Camembert was so perfectly matured we ate every scrap of the crust, which can't be done with many American "Camemberts" or, indeed, with the dead, dry French ones sold out of season. Then came the Roquefort, a regal cheese we voted the best buy of the lot, even though it was the most expensive. A plump piece, pleasantly unctuous but not greasy, sharp in scent, stimulatingly bittersweet in taste—unbeatable. There is no American pretender to the Roquefort throne. Ours is invariably chalky and tasteless. That doesn't mean we have no good Blues. We have. But they are not Roquefort.
The Sapsago or Kräuterkäse from Switzerland (it has been made in the Canton of Glarus for over five hundred years) was the least expensive of the lot. Well-cured and dry, it lent itself to grating and tasted fine on an old-fashioned buttered soda cracker. Sapsago has its own seduction, derived from the clover-leaf powder with which the curd is mixed and which gives it its haunting flavor and spring-like sage-green color.
Next came some truly great Swiss Gruyère, delicately rich, and nutty enough to make us think of the sharp white wines to be drunk with it at the source.
As for the Provolone, notable for the water-buffalo milk that makes it, there's an example of really grown-up milk. Perfumed as spring flowers drenched with a shower of Anjou, having a bouquet all its own and a trace of a winelike kick, it made us vow never to taste another American imitation. Only a smooth-cheeked, thick slab cut from a pedigreed Italian Provolone of medium girth, all in one piece and with no sign of a crack, satisfy the gourmet.
The second Italian classic was Gorgonzola, gorgeous Gorgonzola, as fruity as apples, peaches and pears sliced together. It smells so much like a ripe banana we often eat them together, plain or with the crumbly formaggio lightly forked into the fruit, split lengthwise.
After that the Edam tasted too lipsticky, like the red-paint job on its rind, and the Gouda seemed only half-hearted. Both too obviously ready-made for commerce with nothing individual or custom-made about them, rolled or bounced over from Holland by the boat load.
The Ostiepki from Czechoslovakia might have been a link of smoked ostrich sausage put up in the skin of its own red neck. In spite of its pleasing lemon-yellow interior, we couldn't think of any use for it except maybe crumbling thirty or forty cents' worth into a ten-cent bowl of bean soup. But that seemed like a waste of money, so we set it aside to try in tiny chunks on crackers as an appetizer some other day, when it might be more appetizing.
We felt much the same about the chocolate-brown Norwegian Gjetost that looked like a slab of boarding-school fudge and which had the same cloying cling to the tongue. We were told by a native that our piece was entirely too young. That's what made it so insipid, undeveloped in texture and flavor. But the next piece we got turned out to be too old and decrepit, and so strong it would have taken a Paul Bunyan to stand up under it. When we complained to our expert about the shock to our palates, he only laughed, pointing to the nail on his little finger.
"You should take just a little bit, like that. A pill no bigger than a couple of aspirins or an Alka-Seltzer. It's only in the morning you take it when it's old and strong like this, for a pick-me-up, a cure for a hangover, you know, like a prairie oyster well soused in Worcestershire."
That made us think we might use it up to flavor a Welsh Rabbit, instead of the Worcestershire sauce, but we couldn't melt it with anything less than a blowtorch.
To bring the party to a happy end, we went to town on the Hungarian Liptauer, garnishing that fine, granulating buttery base after mixing it well with some cream cheese. We mixed the mixed cheese with sardine and tuna mashed together in a little of the oil from the can. We juiced it with lemon, sluiced it with bottled sauces, worked in the leftovers, some tarragon, mint, spicy seeds, parsley, capers and chives. We peppered and paprikaed it, salted and spiced it, then spread it thicker than butter on pumpernickel and went to it. That's Liptauer Garniert.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.