The Complete Book of Cheese

Factory Cheddar
U.S.A.

Very Old Factory Cheddar is the trade name for well-aged sharp Cheddar. New Factory is just that—mild, young and tractable—too tractable, in fact.

Farm
France

Known as Ferme; Maigre (thin); Fromage à la Pie (nothing to do with apple pie); and Mou (weak). About the same as our cottage cheese.

Farmer
U.S.A.

This is curd only and is nowadays mixed with pepper, lachs, nuts, fruits, almost anything. A very good base for your own fancy spread, or season a slab to fancy and bake it like a hoe cake, but in the oven.

Farmhouse see Herrgårdsost.

Cream cheese of Somerset wrapped in tin foil and boxed in wedges, eight to a box.

Fat cheese see Frontage Gras and Maile Pener.

Fenouil see Tome de Savoie.

Ferme see Farm.

A kind of Marolles.

Fleur de Deauville
France

A type of Brie, in season December to May.

Fleur des Alpes see Bel Paese and Millefiori.

Floedeost
Norway

Like Gjedeost, but not so rich because it's made of cow's milk.

Fløtost
Norway

Although the name translates Cream Cheese it is made of boiled whey. Similar to Mysost, but fatter.

Flower
England

Soft and fragrant with petals of roses, violets, marigolds and such, delicately mixed in. Since the English are so fond of oriental teas scented with jasmine and other flowers, perhaps they imported the idea of mixing petals with their cheese, since there is no oriental cheese for them to import except bean curd.

Fodder cheese

A term for cheese made from fodder in seasons when there is no grass. Good fresh grass is the essence of all fine cheese, so silo or barn-fed cows can't give the kind of milk it takes.

Foggiano
Apulia, Italy

A member of the big Pecorino family because it's made of sheep's milk.

Foin, Fromage de see Hay.

Fondu, Vacherin see Vacherin Fondu.

Fontainebleau
France

Named after its own royal commune. Soft; fresh cream; smooth; mellow; summer variety.

Soft; goat; creamy; with a nutty flavor and delightful aroma.

Fontine, de
Franche-Comté, France

A favorite all-year product.

Fontinelli
Italy

Semidry; flaky; nutty; sharp.

Fontini
Parma, Italy

Hard; goat; similar to Swiss, but harder and sharper. From the same region as Parmesan.

Food cheese
U.S.A.

An unattractive type of processed mixes, presumably with some cheese content to flavor it.

Forez, also called d'Ambert
France

The process of making this is said to be very crude, and the ripening unusual. The cheeses are cylindrical, ten inches in diameter and six inches high. They are ripened by placing them on the floor of the cellar, covering with dirt, and allowing water to trickle over them. Many are spoiled by the unusual growths of mold and bacteria. The flavor of the best of these is said to resemble Roquefort. (From Bulletin No. 608 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to which we are indebted for descriptions of hundreds of varieties in this alphabet.)

Formagelle
Northwest Italy

Soft, ripened specialty put up in half-pound packages.

Formaggi di Pasta Filata
Italy

A group of Italian cheeses made by curdling milk with rennet, warming and fermenting the curd, heating it until it is plastic, drawing it into ropes and then kneading and shaping while hot. Provolone, Caciocavallo and Mozzarella are in this group.

Several small cheeses answer to this name, of which Lecco is typical. A Lombardy dessert cheese measuring 1¼ by two inches, weighing two ounces. It is eaten from the time it is fresh and sweet until it ripens to piquance. Sometimes made of cow and goat milk mixed, with the addition of oil and vinegar, as well as salt, pepper, sugar and cinnamon.

Formaggio d'Oro
Northwest Italy

Hard, sharp, mountain-made.

Formaggio Duro (Dry) and Formaggio Tenero see Nostrale.

Fort see Fromage Fort.

Fourme, Cantal, and la Tome
Auvergne, France

This is a big family in the rich cheese province of Auvergne, where many mountain varieties are baptized after their districts, such as Aubrac, Aurilla, Grand Murol, Rôche and Salers. (See Fourme d'Ambert and Cantal.)

Fourme de Montebrison
Auvergne, France

This belongs to the Fourme clan and is in season from November to May.

Fourme de Salers see Cantal, which it resembles so closely it is sometimes sold under that name.

Fresa, or Pannedas
Sardinia, Italy

A soft, mild and sweet cooked cheese.

Fribourg
Italy and Switzerland

Hard; cooked-curd, Swiss type very similar to Spalen. (See)

Frissche Kaas, Fresh cheese
Holland

Dutch generic name for any soft, fresh spring cheese, although some is made in winter, beginning in November.

Friesian see West Friesian.

I. Sour milk drained and mixed with cream. Eaten with sugar. That of
Gien is a noted produce, and so is d'Isigny.
II. Franche-Comté—fresh sheep milk melted with fresh thick cream,
whipped egg whites and sugar.
III. Morvan—homemade cottage cheese. When milk has soured solid it is
hung in cheesecloth in a cool place to drain, then mixed with a
little fresh milk and served with cream.
IV. When Morvan or other type is put into a heart-shaped wicker basket
for a mold, and marketed in that, it becomes Coeur à la Crème,
heart of cream, to be eaten with sugar.

Fromage à la Pie see Fromage Blanc just below, and Farm

Fromage Bavarois à la Vanille
France

Dessert cheese sweetened and flavored with vanilla and named after Bavaria where it probably originated.

Fromage Blanc
France

Soft cream or cottage cheese, called à la Pie, too, suggesting pie à la mode; also Farm from the place it's made. Usually eaten with salt and pepper, in summer only. It is the ascetic version of Fromage à la Crème, usually eaten with salt and pepper and without cream or sugar, except in the Province of Bresse where it is served with cream and called Fromage Blanc à la Crème.

Fromage Bleu see Bleu d'Auvergne.

Fromage Cuit (cooked cheese)
Thionville, Lorraine, France

Although a specialty of Lorraine, this cooked cheese is produced in many places. First it is made with fresh whole cow milk, then pressed and potted. After maturing a while it is de-potted, mixed with milk and egg yolk, re-cooked and re-potted.

Fromage d'Aurigny see Alderney.

Fromage de Bayonne
Bayonne, France

Made with ewe's milk.

Fromage de Bôite
Doubs, France

Soft, mountain-made, in the fall only. Resembles Pont l'Evêque.

Fromage de Bourgogne

see Burgundy.

Fromage de Chèvre de Chateauroux
Berry, France

A seasonal goat cheese.

Fromage de Curé see Nantais.

Fromage de Fontenay-le Comté
Poitou, France

Half goat and half cow milk.

Fromage de Gascony see Castillon.

Fromage de Pau see La Foncée.

Fromage de St. Rémy see Chevrets.

Half and half, cow and goat, from Serac des Allues.

Fromage de Troyes
France

Two cheeses have this name. (See Barberry and Ervy.)

Fromage de Vache

Another name for Autun.

Fromage de Monsieur Fromage
Normandy, France

This Cheese of Mr. Cheese is as exceptional as its name. Its season runs from November to June. It comes wrapped in a green leaf, maybe from a grape vine, suggesting what to drink with it. It is semidry, mildly snappy with a piquant pungence all its own. The playful name suggests the celebrated dish, Poulette de Madame Poulet, Chick of Mrs. Chicken.

Fromage Fort
France

Several cooked cheeses are named Fort (strong) chiefly in the department of Aisne. Well-drained curd is melted, poured into a cloth and pressed, then buried in dry ashes to remove any whey left. After being fermented eight to ten days it is grated, mixed with butter, salt, pepper, wine, juniper berries, butter and other things, before fermenting some more.

Similar extra-strong cheeses are the one in Lorraine called Fondue and Fromagère of eastern France, classed as the strongest cheeses in all France.

Fort No. I: That of Flanders, potted with juniper berries, as the gin of this section is flavored, plus pepper, salt and white wine.

Fort No. III: From Provence, also called Cachat d'Entrechaux. In production from May to November. Semihard, sheep milk, mixed with brandy, white wine, strong herbs and seasonings and well marinated.

Fromage Gras (fat cheese)
Savoy, France

Soft, round, fat ball called tête de mort, "death's head." Winter Brie is also called Gras but there is no relation. This macabre name incited Victor Meusy to these lines:

Fromage Mou

Any soft cheese.

Fromage Piquant see Remoudon.

Fromagère see Canquillote.

Fromages de Chèvre
Orléanais, France

Small, dried goat-milkers.

Frühstück

Also known as breakfast and lunch cheese. Small rounds two-and-a-half to three inches in diameter. Limburger type. Cheeses on which many Germans and Americans break their fast.

Ftinoporino
Macedonia, Greece

Sheep's-milker similar to Brinza.

Gaiskäsli
Germany and Switzerland

A general name for goat's milk cheese. Usually a small cylinder three inches in diameter and an inch-and-a-half thick, weighing up to a half pound. In making, the curds are set on a straw mat in molds, for the whey to run away. They are salted and turned after two days to salt the other side. They ripen in three weeks with a very pleasing flavor.

Gammelost
Norway

Hard, golden-brown, sour-milker. After being pressed it is turned daily for fourteen days and then packed in a chest with wet straw. So far as we are concerned it can stay there. The color all the way through is tobacco-brown and the taste, too. It has been compared to medicine, chewing tobacco, petrified Limburger, and worse. In his Encyclopedia of Food Artemas Ward says that in Gammelost the ferments absorb so much of the curd that "in consequence, instead of eating cheese flavored by fungi, one is practically eating fungi flavored with cheese."

Garda
Italy

Soft, creamy, fermented. A truly fine product made in the resort town on Gardasee where d'Annunzio retired. It is one of those luscious little ones exported in tin foil to America, and edible, including the moldy crust that could hardly be called a rind.

Garden
U.S.A.

Cream cheese with some greens or vegetables mixed in.

Garlic
U.S.A.

A processed Cheddar type flavored with garlic.

A strong processed Cheddar put up to look like links of sausage, nobody knows why.

Gascony, Fromage de see Castillon.

Gautrias
Mayenne, France

Soft, cylinder weighing about five pounds and resembling Port-Salut.

Gavot
Hautes-Alpes, France

A good Alpine cheese whether made of sheep, goat or cow milk.

Geheimrath
Netherlands

A factory cheese turned out in small quantities. The color is deep yellow and it resembles a Baby Gouda in every way, down to the weight

Gérardmer, de see Récollet

German-American adopted types

Géromé, la
Vosges, France

Gervais
Ile-de-France, France

Cream cheese like Neufchâtel, long made by Maison Gervais, near Paris. Sold in tiny tin-foil squares not much larger than old-time yeast. Like Petit Suisse, it makes a perfect luncheon dessert with honey.

Gesundheitkäse, Holsteiner see Holstein Health.

Getmesost
Sweden

Soft; goat; whey; sweet.

Gex
Pays de Gex, France

Semihard; skim milk; blue-veined. A "little" Roquefort in season from November to May.

Gex Marbré
France

A very special type marbled with rich milks of cow, goat and sheep, mixed. A full-flavored ambassador of the big international Blues family, that are green in spite of their name.

Gien see Fromage à la Crème.

Gislev
Scandinavia

Hard; mild, made from skimmed cow's milk.

Gjetost
Norway

A traditional chocolate-colored companion piece to Gammelost, but made with goat's milk.

Glavis
Switzerland

The brand name of a cone of Sapsago. (See.)

Glattkäse, or Gelbkäse
Germany

Smooth cheese or yellow cheese. A classification of sour-milkers that includes Olmützer Quargel.

3/Dec/2004 15:38
Gloucestershire, England

There are two types:
I. Double, the better of the two Gloucesters, is eaten only after six
months of ripening. "It has a pronounced, but mellow, delicacy of
flavor...the tiniest morsel being pregnant with savour. To measure
its refinement, it can undergo the same comparison as that we apply
to vintage wines. Begin with a small piece of Red Cheshire. If you
then pass to a morsel of Double Gloucester, you will find that the
praises accorded to the latter have been no whit exaggerated."
A Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy, by André L. Simon.
II. Single. By way of comparison, the spring and summer Single Gloucester
ripens in two months and is not as big as its "large grindstone"
brother. And neither is it "glorified Cheshire." It is mild and
"as different in qualify of flavour as a young and crisp wine is
from an old vintage."

Glumse
West Prussia, Germany

A common, undistinguished cottage cheese.

Glux
Nivernais, France

Season, all year.

Goat
France

A frank and fair name for a semihard, brittle mouthful of flavor. Every country has its goat specialties. In Norway the milk is boiled dry, then fresh milk or cream added. In Czechoslovakia the peasants smoke the cheese up the kitchen chimney. No matter how you slice it, goat cheese is always notable or noble.

Golden in color and rich in taste. Bland, as American taste demands. Like Bel Paese but not so full-flavored and a bit sweet. A good and deservedly popular cheese none the less, easily recognized by its red rind.

Gomost
Norway

Usually made from cow's milk, but sometimes from goat's. Milk is curdled with rennet and condensed by heating until it has a butter-like consistency. (See Mysost.)

Gorgonzola
Italy

Soft, similar to Demi-sel, comes in round and flat forms about ¼ pound in weight. Those shaped like Bondons resemble corks about ¾ of an inch thick and four inches long.

Grana
Italy

Another name for Parmesan. From "grains", the size of big shot, that the curd is cut into.

Grana Lombardo
Lombardy

The same hard type for grating, named after its origin in Lombardy.

Grana Reggiano
Reggio, Italy

A brand of Parmesan type made near Reggio and widely imitated, not only in Lombardy and Mantua, but also in the Argentine where it goes by a pet name of its own—Regianito.

Grande Bornand, la
Switzerland

A luscious half-dried sheep's milker.

Granular curd see Stirred curd.

Gras, or Velvet Kaas
Holland

Named from its butterfat content and called "Moors Head", Tête de Maure, in France, from its shape and size. The same is true of Fromage de Gras in France, called Tête de Mort, "Death's Head". Gras is also the popular name for Brie that's made in the autumn in France and sold from November to May. (See Brie.)

Gratairon
France

Goat milk named, as so many are, from the place it is made.

Graubünden
Switzerland

A luscious half-dried sheep's milker.

Medium-sharp, splendid White Cheddar from Green Bay, Wisconsin, the Limburger county.

Grey
Germany and Austrian Tyrol

Semisoft; sour skim milk with salty flavor from curing in brine bath. Named from the gray color that pervades the entire cheese when ripe. It has a very pleasant taste.

Habas see Caille.

Hablé Crème Chantilly
Ösmo, Sweden

Port-Salut type from the Trappist monastery at Harzé.

Hasandach
Turkey

Bland; sweet.

Hauskäse.
Germany

Limburger type. Disk-shaped.

Haute Marne
France

Soft; square.

Hay, or Fromage au Foin
Seine, France

A skim-milker resembling "a poor grade of Livarot." Nothing to write home about, except that it is ripened on new-mown hay.

Hazebrook

There are two kinds:

I. Flemish; a Fromage Fort type with white wine, juniper, salt and
pepper. Excessively strong for bland American tasters.
II. Franche-Comté, France; small dry goat's milker, pounded, potted and
marinated in a mixture of thyme, tarragon, leeks, pepper and brandy.

Head

Four cheeses are called Head:

The French Death's Head.
Swiss Monk's Head.
Dutch Cat's Head.
Moor's Head.

There's headcheese besides but that's made of a pig's head and is only a cheese by discourtesy.

Health see Holstein.

Herbesthal
Germany

Named from a valley full of rich herbes for grazing.

Skim-milker colored with saffron. Its name, "thin cheese," tells all.

Hop, Hopfen
Germany

Small, one inch by 2½ inches, packed in hops to ripen. An ideal beer cheese, loaded with lupulin.

Hopi
U.S.A.

Hard; goat; brittle; sharp; supposed to have been made first by the Hopi Indians out west where it's still at home.

Horner's
England

An old cream cheese brand in Redditch where Worcestershire sauce originated.

Horse Cheese

Not made of mare's milk, but the nickname for Caciocavallo because of the horse's head used to trademark the first edition of it.

Hum
Holland

Brand name of one of those mild little red Baby Goudas that make you say "Ho-hum."

Hushållsost, Household Cheese
Sweden

Popular in three types: Popular in three types:
Herrgårdstyp—Farmhouse
Västgötatyp—Westgotland
Sveciatyp—Swedish

Hvid Gjetost
Norway

A strong variety of Gjetost, little known and less liked outside of Scandinavia.

Icelandic

In Letters from Iceland, W.H. Auden says: "The ordinary cheese is like a strong Dutch and good. There is also a brown sweet cheese, like the Norwegian." Doubtless the latter is Gjetost.

A hand cheese.

Ilha, Queijo de
Azores

Semihard "Cheese of the Isle," largely exported to mother Portugal, measuring about a foot across and four inches high. The one word, Ilha, Isle, covers the several Azorian Islands whose names, such as Pico, Peak, and Terceiro, Third, are sometimes added to their cheeses.

Impérial, Ancien see Ancien.

Imperial Club
Canada

Potted Cheddar; snappy; perhaps named after the famous French Ancien Impérial.

Incanestrato
Sicily, Italy

Very sharp; white; cooked; spiced; formed into large round "heads" from fifteen to twenty pounds. See Majocchino, a kind made with the three milks, goat, sheep and cow, and enriched with olive oil besides.

Irish Cheeses

Irish Cheddar and Irish Stilton are fairly ordinary imitations named after their native places of manufacture: Ardagh, Galtee, Whitehorn, Three Counties, etc.

Isigny
France

This soft, full-flavored cheese was doubtless brought from France by early emigrés, for it has been made since 1869 on the Orléans Island in the St. Lawrence River near Quebec. It is known by its French name, Le Fromage Raffiné de l'Ile d'Orléans, and lives up to the name "refined."

Jack see Monterey.

Jochberg
Tyrol, Germany

Cow and goat milk mixed in a fine Tyrolean product, as all mountain cheese are. Twenty inches in diameter and four inches high, it weighs in at forty-five pounds with the rind on.

Jonchée
Santonge, France

A superior Caillebotte, flavored with rum, orange-flower water or, uniquely, black coffee.

Josephine
Silesia, Germany

Soft and ladylike as its name suggests. Put up in small cylindrical packages.

Kaas, Oude
Belgium

Flemish name for the French Boule de Lille.

Same as Italian Caciocavallo.

Kaiser-käse
Germany

This was an imperial cheese in the days of the kaisers and is still made under that once awesome name. Now it's just a jolly old mellow, yellow container of tang.

Kajmar, or Serbian Butter
Serbia and Turkey

Cream cheese, soft and bland when young but ages to a tang between that of any goat's-milker and Roquefort.

Kamembert
Yugoslavia

Imitation Camembert.

Karaghi La-La
Turkey

Nutty and tangy.

Kareish
Egypt

A pickled cheese, similar to Domiati.

Karut
India

Semihard; mellow; for grating and seasoning.

Karvi
Norway

Soft; caraway-seeded; comes in smallish packages.

Kash
Rumania

Soft, white, somewhat stringy cheese named cheese.

Kashcavallo, Caskcaval
Greece

A good imitation of Italian Caciocavallo.

Kasher, or Caher, Penner
Turkey

Hard; white; sharp.

Kash Kwan
Bulgaria and the Balkans

An all-purpose goat's milk, Parmesan type, eaten sliced when young, grated when old. An attempt to imitate it in Chicago failed. It is sold in Near East quarters in New York, Washington and all big American cities.

Identical with Italian Caciocavallo, widely imitated, and well, in Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Transylvania and neighboring lands. As popular as Cheddar in England, Canada and U.S.A.

Kasseri
Greece

Hard; ewe's milk, usually.

Katschkawalj
Serbia

Just another version of the international Caciocavallo.

Katzenkopf, Cat's Head
Holland

Hard; skim; sharp; tangy.

Klatschkäse, Gossip Cheese
Germany

A rich "ladies' cheese" corresponding to Damen; both designed to promote the flow of gossip in afternoon Kaffee-klatsches in the Konditories.

Kloster, Kloster Käse
Bavaria

Soft; ripe; finger-shaped, one by one by four inches. In Munich this was, and perhaps still is, carried by brew masters on their tasting tours "to bring out the excellence of a freshly broached tun." Named from being made by monks in early cloisters, down to this day.

Kochenkäse
Luxembourg

Cooked white dessert cheese. Since it is salt-free it is recommended for diets.

Koch Käse
Germany

This translates "cooked cheese."

Kochtounkäse
Belgium

Semisoft, cooked and smoked. Bland flavor.

Kolos-monostor
Rumania

Sheep; rectangular four-pounder, 8½ by five by three inches. One of those college-educated cheeses turned out by the students and professors at the Agricultural School of Transylvania.

Kolosvarer
Rumania

A Trappist Port-Salut imitation made with water-buffalo milk, as are so many of the world's fine cheeses.

Komijnekaas, Komynekass
North Holland

Spiked with caraway seeds and named after them.

Konigskäse
Germany

A regal name for a German imitation of Bel Paese.

Blue-mold cheese with sharp, peppery flavor.

Koppen, Cup, or Bauden
Germany

Semihard; goat; made in a cup-shaped mold that gives both its shape and name. Small, three to four ounces; sharp; pungent; somewhat smoky. Imitated in U.S.A. in half-pound packages.

Korestin
Russia

Semisoft; mellow; cured in brine.

Kosher

This cheese appears in many countries under several names. Similar to Limburger, but eaten fresh. It is stamped genuine by Jewish authorities, for the use of religious persons. (See Gouda, Kosher.)

Krauterkäse
Brazil

Soft-paste herb cheese put up in a tube by German Brazilians near the Argentine border. A rich, full-flavored adaptation of Swiss Krauterkäse even though it is processed.

Kreuterkäse, Herb Cheese
Switzerland

Hard, grating cheese flavored with herbs; like Sapsago or Grunkäse.

Krutt, or Kirgischerkäse
Asian Steppes

A cheese turned out en route by nomadic tribes in the Asiatic Steppes, from sour skim milk of goat, sheep, cow or camel. The salted and pressed curd is made into small balls and dried in the sun.

Kühbacher
Bavaria

Soft, ripe, and chiefly interesting because of its name, Cow Creek, where it is made.

Kuminost
Norway

Semihard; caraway-seeded.

This is Bondost with caraway added.

Kummin Ost
Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Imitation of the Scandinavian, with small production in Wisconsin where so many Swedes and Norwegians make their home and their ost.

Kümmel, Leyden, or Leidsche Kaas
Holland

Caraway-seeded and named.

Kümmelkäse
Germany and U.S.A.

Semihard; sharp with caraway. Milwaukee Kümmelkäse has made a name for itself as a nibble most suitable with most drinks, from beer to imported kümmel liqueur.

Labneh
Syria

Sour-milk.

La Foncée, or Fromage de Pau
France

Cream cheese.

Lager Käse
U.S.A.

Semidry and mellow. While lager means merely "to store," there is more than a subtle suggestion of lager beer here.

Laguiole, Fromage de, and Guiole
Aveyron, France

An ancient Cantal type said to have flourished since the Roman occupation. Many consider Laguiole superior to Cantal. It is in full season from November to May.

Lamothe-Bougon, La Mothe St. Heray
Poitou

Goat cheese made from May to November.

White; crumbly; sharp; a good Welsh Rabbit cheese if you can get it. It is more like Cheshire than Cheddar. This most popular variety in the north of England is turned out best at Fylde, near the Irish Sea. It is a curiosity in manufacture, for often the curds used are of different ages, and this is accountable for a loose, friable texture. Deep orange in color.

Land-l-kas, or Güssing
Austria

Skim-milker, similar to U.S. Brick. Square loaves, four to eight pounds.

Langlois Blue
U.S.A.

A Colorado Blue with an excellent reputation, though it can hardly compete with Roquefort.

Langres
Haute-Marne, France

Semihard; fermented whole milk; farm-made; full-flavored, high-smelling Limburger type, similar to Maroilles. Ancient of days, said to have been made since the time of the Merovingian kings. Cylindrical, five by eight inches, they weigh one and a half to two pounds. Consumed mostly at home.

Lapland
Lapland

Reindeer milk. Resembles hard Swiss. Of unusual shape, both round and flat, so a cross-section looks like a dumbbell with angular ends.

Laredo
Mexico

Soft; creamy; mellow, made and named after the North Mexico city.

Larron
France

A kind of Maroilles.

Latticini
Italy

Trade name for a soft, water-buffalo product as creamy as Camembert.

Made from November to July.

Lauterbach
Germany

Breakfast cheese

Leaf see Tschil.

Leather, Leder, or Holstein Dairy
Germany

A skim-milker with five to ten percent buttermilk, all from the great milch cows up near Denmark in Schleswig-Holstein. A technical point in its making is that it's "broken up with a harp or a stirring stick and stirred with a Danish stirrer."

Lebanie
Syria

Dessert cottage cheese often served with yogurt.

Lecco, Formaggini di
Italy

Soft; cow or goat; round dessert variety; representative of a cheese family as big as the human family of most Italians.

Lees see Appenzeller, Festive, No. II.

LeGuéyin
Lorraine, France

Half-dried; small; salted; peppered and sharp. The salt and pepper make it unusual, though not as peppery as Italian Pepato.

Leicester
England

Hard; shallow; flat millstone of Cheddar-like cheese weighing forty pounds. Dark orange and mild to red and strong, according to age. With Wiltshire and Warwickshire it belongs to the Derbyshire type.

An ancient saying is: "Leicester cheese and water cress were just made for each other."

Leidsche Kaas see Leyden.

A kind of Pecorino.

Leroy
U.S.A.

Notable because it's a natural cheese in a mob of modern processed.

Lerroux
France

Goat; in season from February to September and not eaten in fall or winter months.

Lescin
Caucasus

Curious because the sheep's milk that makes it is milked directly into a sack of skin. It is made in the usual way, rennet added, curd broken up, whey drained off, curd put into forms and pressed lightly. But after that it is wrapped in leaves and ropes of grass. After curing two weeks in the leaves, they are discarded, the cheese salted and wrapped up in leaves again for another ripening period.

The use of a skin sack again points the association of cheese and wine in a region where wine is still drunk from skin bags with nozzles, as in many wild and mountainous parts.

Les Petits Bressans
Bresse, France

Small goat cheeses named from food-famous Bresse, of the plump pullets, and often stimulated with brandy before being wrapped in fresh vine leaves, like Les Petits Banons.

Les Petits Fromages see Petits Fromages and Thiviers.

Le Vacherin

Name given to two entirely different varieties:
I. Vacherin à la Main
II. Vacherin Fondu. (See Vacherin.)

A goat cheese in season from May to December.

Leyden, Komijne Kaas, Caraway Cheese
Holland

Semihard, tangy with caraway. Similar Delft. There are two kinds of Leyden that might be called Farm Fat and Factory Thin, for those made on the farms contain 30 to 35% fat, against 20% in the factory product.

Processed cheese with a cute name, wrapped up both plain and smoky, to "slice and serve for cheese trays, mash or whip for spreading," but no matter how you slice, mash and whip it, it's still processed.

Livarot
Calvados, France

Soft paste, colored with annatto-brown or deep red (also, uncommonly, fresh and white). It has the advantage over Camembert, made in the same region, in that it may be manufactured during the summer months when skim milk is plentiful and cheap. It is formed in cylinders, six by two inches, and ripened several months in the even temperature of caves, to be eaten at its best only in January, February and March. By June and afterward it should be avoided. Similar to Mignot II. Early in the process of making, after ripening ten to twelve days, the cheeses are wrapped in fresh laiche leaves, both to give flavor and help hold in the ammonia and other essentials for making a strong, piquant Livarot.

Livlander
Russia

A popular hand cheese. A most unusual variety because the cheese itself is red, not the rind.

Locatelli
Italy

A brand of Pecorino differing slightly from Bomano Pecorino.

Lodigiano, or Lombardo
Lodi, Italy

Sharp; fragrant; sometimes slightly bitter; yellow. Cylindrical; surface colored dark and oiled. Used for grating. Similar to Parmesan but not as fine in quality.

This fine American Cheddar was named from its resemblance to the long horn of a popular milking breed of cattle, or just from the Longhorn breed of cow that furnished the makings.

Lorraine
Lorraine, Germany

Hard; small; delicate; unique because it's seasoned with pistachio nuts besides salt and pepper. Eaten while quite young, in two-ounce portions that bring a very high price.

Lumburger
Belgium

Semisoft and tangy dessert cheese. The opposite of Limburger because it has no odor.

Lunch
Germany and U.S.A.

The same as Breakfast and Frühstück. A Limburger type of eye-opener.

Lüneberg
West Austria

Swiss type; saffron-colored; made in a copper kettle; not as strong as Limburger, or as mild as Emmentaler, yet piquant and aromatic, with a character of its own.

Luxembourg
U.S.A.

Tiny tin-foiled type of Liederkranz. A mild, bland, would-be Camembert.

Maconnais
France

Soft; goat's milk; two inches square by one and a half inches thick.

Macqueline
Oise, France

Soft Camembert type, made in the same region, but sold at a cheaper price.

Madridejos
Spain

Named for Madrid where it is made.

Magdeburger-kuhkäse
Germany

"Cow cheese" made in Magdeburg.

Maggenga, Sorte
Italy

A term for Parmesan types made between April and September.

Maguis
Belgium

Also called Fromage Mou. Soft; white; sharp; spread.

Maigre
France

A name for Brie made in summer and inferior to both the winter Gras and spring Migras.

Maile
Crimea

Sheep; cooked; drained; salted; made into forms and put into a brine bath where it stays sometimes a year.

Maile Pener (Fat Cheese)
Crimea

Sheep; crumbly; open texture and pleasing flavor when ripened.

Mainauer
German

Semihard; full cream; round; red outside, yellow within. Weight three pounds.

Mainzer Hand
German

Typical hand cheese, kneaded by hand thoroughly, which makes for quality, pressed into flat cakes by hand, dried for a week, packed in kegs or jars and ripened in the cellar six to eight weeks. As in making bread, the skill in kneading Mainzer makes a worthy craft.

Majocchino
Sicily, Italy

An exceptional variety of the three usual milks mixed together: goat, sheep and cow, flavored with spices and olive oil. A kind of Incanestrato.

Malakoff
France

A form of Neufchâtel about a half inch by two inches, eaten fresh or ripe.

Manicamp
French Flanders

In season from October to July.

A kind of Venezuelan hand cheese, as its Spanish name translates. (See Venezuelan.)

Manor House see Herrgårdsost.

Manteca, Butter
Italy

Cheese and butter combined in a small brick of butter with a covering of Mozzarella. This is for slicing—not for cooking—which is unusual for any Italian cheese.

Manur, or Manuri
Yugoslavia

Sheep or cow's milk heated to boiling, then cooled "until the fingers can be held in it". A mixture of fresh whey and buttermilk is added with the rennet. "The curd is lifted from the whey in a cloth and allowed to drain, when it is kneaded like bread, lightly salted, and dried."

Maqueé
Belgium

Another name for Fromage Mou, Soft Cheese.

Marches
Tuscany, Italy

Ewe's milk; hard.

Margarine
England

An oily cheese made with oleomargarine.

Margherita
Italy

Soft; cream; small.

Marienhofer
Austria

Limburger type. About 4½ inches square and 1½ inches thick; weight about a pound. Wrapped in tin foil.

Märkisch, or Märkisch Hand
Germany

Soft; smelly; hand type.

Semisoft and semihard, half way between Pont l'Evêque and Limburger. Full flavor, high smell, reddish brown rind, yellow within. Five inches square and 2¼ inches thick; some larger.

Martha Washington Aged Cheese
U.S.A.

Mentelto
Italy

Sharp; goat; from the Mentelto mountains

Merignac
France

Goat.

Merovingian
Northeast France

Semisoft; white; creamy; sharp; historic since the time of the Merovingian kings.

Mersem
France

Lightly cooked.

Mesitra
Crimea

Eaten when fresh and unsalted; also when ripened. Soft, ewe's milk.

Mesost
Sweden

Whey; sweetish.

Metton
Franche-Comté, France

Season October to June.

Meuse
France

Soft; piquant; aromatic.

Midget Salami Provolone
U.S.A.

This goes Baby Goudas and Edams one better by being a sort of sausage, too.

Mignot
Calvados, France

White, No. I: Soft; fresh; in small cubes or cylinders; in season only in summer, April to September.

Passe, No. II: Soft but ripened, and in the same forms, but only seasonal in winter, October to March. Similar to Pont l'Evêque and popular for more than a century. It goes specially well with Calvados cider, fresh, hard or distilled.

Name given to spring Brie—midway between fat winter Gras and thin summer Maigre.

Milano, Stracchino di Milano, Fresco, Quardo
Italy

Similar to Bel Paese. Yellow, with thin rind. 1½ to 2¾ inches thick, 3 to 6½ pounds.

Milk Mud see Schlickermilch.

Millefiori
Milan, Italy

A Thousand Flowers—as highly scented as its sentimental name. Yet no cheeses are so freshly fragrant as these flowery Alpine ones.

Milltown Bar
U.S.A.

Robust texture and flavor reminiscent of free-lunch and old-time bars.

Milk cheeses

Milks that make cheese around the world: