The Complete Book of Cheese

Semisoft; whole milk. Mellow.

Skyr
Iceland

The one standard cheese of the country. A cross between Devonshire cream and cream cheese, eaten with sugar and cream. It is very well liked and filling, so people are apt to take too much. A writer on the subject gives this bit of useful information for travelers: "It is not advisable, however, to take coffee and Skyr together just before riding, as it gives you diarrhea."

Slipcote, or Colwick
England

Soft; unripened; small; white; rich as butter. The curd is put in forms six by two inches for the whey to drain away. When firm it is placed between cabbage leaves to ripen for a week or two, and when it is taken from the leaves the skin or coat becomes loose and easily slips off—hence the name. In the middle of the eighteenth century it was considered the best cream cheese in England and was made then, as today, in Wissenden, Rutlandshire.

Smältost
Sweden

Soft and melting.

Smearcase

Old English corruption of German Schmierkäse, long used in America for cottage cheese.

Smoked Block
Austria

A well-smoked cheese in block form.

Smoked Mozzarella see Mozzarella Affumicata.

Smoked Szekely
Hungary

Soft; sheep; packed like sausage in skins or bladders and smoked.

A small smoked cheese.

Soaked-curd cheese see Washed-curd cheese.

Sorbais
Champagne, France

Semihard; whole milk; fermented; yellow, with reddish brown rind. Full flavor, high smell. Similar to Maroilles in taste and square shape, but smaller.

Sorte Maggenga and Sorte Vermenga

Two "sorts" of Italian Parmesan.

Soumaintrain, Fromage de
France

Soft; fine; strong variety from Upper Burgundy.

Soybean
China

Because this cheese is made of vegetable milk and often developed with a vegetable rennet, it is rated by many as a regular cheese. But our occidental kind with animal milk and rennet is never eaten by Chinese and the mere mention of it has been known to make them shiver.

Spalen or Stringer
Switzerland

A small Emmentaler of fine reputation made in the Canton of Unterwalden from whole and partly skimmed milk and named from the vessel in which five or six are packed and transported together.

Sperrkäse see Dry.

Spiced
International

Spiced and Spiced Spreads
U.S.A.

Government standards for spiced cheeses and spreads specify not less than 1½ ounces of spice to 100 pounds of cheese.

Spiced Fondue see Vacherin Fondu.
France

Spitz Spitzkase
Germany

Small cylinder, four by one and a half inches. Caraway spiced, Limburger-like. see Backsteiner.

Sposi
Italy

Soft; small; cream.

Spra
Greek

Sharp and pleasantly salty, packed fresh from the brine bath in one-pound jars. As tasty as all Greek cheeses because they are made principally from sheep milk.

Stängenkase
Germany

Limburger type.

Stein Käse
U.S.A.

Aromatic, piquant "stone." A beer stein accompaniment well made after the old German original.

Steinbuscher-Käse
German

Semihard; firm; full cream; mildly sour and pungent. Brick forms, reddish and buttery. Originated in Frankfurt. Highly thought of at home but little known abroad.

German colonists made and named this in Russia. Rich and mellow, it tastes like Tilsiter and is now made in Denmark for export, as well as in Germany and Austria for home consumption.

Surati, Panir
India

Buffalo milk. Uncolored.

Suraz
Serbia

Semihard and semisoft.

Sveciaost
Sweden

A national pride, named for its country, Swedish cheese, to match Swiss cheese and Dutch cheese. It comes in three qualities: full cream, ¾ cream, and half cream. Soft; rich; ready to eat at six weeks and won't keep past six months. A whole-hearted, whole-milk, wholesome cheese named after the country rather than a part of it as most osts are.

Sweet-curd
U.S.A.

Hard Cheddar, differing in that the milk is set sweet and the curd cooked firmer and faster, salted and pressed at once. When ripe, however, it is hardly distinguishable from the usual Cheddar made by the granular process.

Swiss
U.S.A.

In 1845 emigrants from Galrus, Switzerland, founded New Galrus, Wisconsin and, after failing at farming due to cinch bugs gobbling their crops, they turned to cheesemaking and have been at it ever since. American Swiss, known long ago as picnic cheese, has been their standby, and only in recent years these Wisconsin Schweizers have had competition from Ohio and other states who turn out the typical cartwheels, which still look like the genuine imported Emmentaler.

Soft; sheep; packed in links of bladders and sometimes smoked. This is the type of foreign cheese that set the popular style for American processed links, with wine flavors and everything.

Taffel, Table, Taffelost
Denmark

A Danish brand name for an ordinary slicing cheese.

Tafi
Argentina

Made in the rich province of Tucuman.

Taiviers, les Petits Fromages de
Périgord, France

Very small and tasty goat cheese.

Taleggio
Lombardy, Italy

Soft, whole-milk, Stracchino type.

Tallance
France

Goat.

Tamie
France

Port-Salut made by Trappist monks at Savoy from their method that is more or less a trade secret. Tome de Beaumont is an imitation produced not far away.

Tanzenberger
Carinthia, Austria

Limburger type.

Tao-foo or Tofu
China, Japan, the Orient

Teleme
Rumania

Similar to Brinza and sometimes called Branza de Bralia. Made of sheep's milk and rapidly ripened, so it is ready to eat in ten days.

Terzolo
Italy

Term used to designate Parmesan-type cheese made in winter.

Tête à Tête, Tête de Maure, Moor's Head
France

Round in shape. French name for Dutch Edam.

Tête de Moine, Monk's Head
France

A soft "head" weighing ten to twenty pounds. Creamy, tasty, summer Swiss, imitated in Jura, France, and also called Bellelay.

Tête de Mort see Fromage Gras for this death's head.

"The Tempting cheese of Fyvie"
Scotland

Something on the order of Eve's apple, according to the Scottish rhyme that exposes it:

Texel

Sheep's milk cheese of three or four pounds made on the island of Texel, off the coast of the Netherlands.

Resembles Camembert and Vendôme.

Thion
Switzerland

A fine Emmentaler.

Three Counties
Ireland

An undistinguished Cheddar named for the three counties that make most of the Irish cheese.

Thuringia Caraway
Germany

A hand cheese spiked with caraway.

Thyme
Syria

Soft and mellow, with the contrasting pungence of thyme. Two other herbal cheeses are flavored with thyme—both French: Fromage Fort II, Hazebrook II.

Tibet
Tibet

The small, hard, grating cheeses named after the country Tibet, are of sheep's milk, in cubes about two inches on all sides, with holes to string them through the middle, fifty to a hundred on each string. They suggest Chinese strings of cash and doubtless served as currency, in the same way as Chinese cheese money. (See under Money.)

Tignard
Savoy, France

Hard; sheep or goat; blue-veined; sharp; tangy; from Tigne Valley in Savoy. Similar to Gex, Sassenage and Septmoncel.

Tijuana
Mexico

Hard; sharp; biting; named from the border race-track town.

The genuine Tilsit has been well described as "forthright in flavor; a good snack cheese, but not suitable for elegant post-prandial dallying."

Tilziski
Yugoslavia

A Montenegrin imitation Tilsiter.

Tome de Beaumont
France

Whole cow's milk.

Tome, la
Auvergne, France

Also called Fourme, Cantal, or Fromage de Cantal. A kind of Cheddar that comes from Ambert, Aubrac, Aurillac, Grand-Murol, Rôche, Salers, etc.

Tome de Chèvre
Savoy, France

Soft goat cheese.

Tome de Savoie
France

Soft paste; goat or cow. Others in the same category are: Tome des Beagues, Tome au Fenouil, Tome Doudane.

Tomelitan Gruyère
Norway

Imitation of French Gruyère in 2½ ounce packages.

Topf or Topfkäse
Germany

A cooked cheese to which Pennsylvania pot is similar. Sour skim milk cheese, eaten fresh and sold in packages of one ounce. When cured it is flaky.

Toscano, or Pecorino Toscano
Tuscany, Italy

Sheep's milk cheese like Romano but softer, and therefore used as a table cheese.

A smaller edition of Toscano.

Touareg
Berber, Africa

Skim milk often curdled with Korourou leaves. The soft curd is then dipped out onto mats like pancake batter and sun dried for ten days or placed by a fire for six, with frequent turning. Very hard and dry and never salted. Made from Lake Tchad to the Barbary States by Berber tribes.

Tour Eiffel
Berry, France

Besides naming this Berry cheese, Tour Eiffel serves as a picturesque label and trademark for a brand of Camembert.

Touloumisio
Greece

Similar to Feta.

Tournette
France

Small goat cheese.

Tourne de chèvre
Dauphiné, France

Goat cheese.

Trappe, la, or Oka
Canada

Truly fine Port-Salut named for the Trappist order and its Canadian monastery.

Traz os Montes
Portugal

Soft; sheep; oily; rich; sapid. For city turophiles nostalgically named "From the Mountains." All sheep cheese is oily, some of it a bit muttony, but none of it at all tallowy.

Trecce
Italy

Small, braided cheese, eaten fresh.

Triple Aurore
France

Normandy cheese in season all the year around.

Troo
France

Made and consumed in Touraine from May to January.

Trouville
France

Soft, fresh, whole milk. Pont l'Evêque type of superior quality.

Troyes, Fromage de see Barberey and Ervy.

Truckles
England

No. I: Wiltshire, England. Skimmed milk; blue-veined variety like Blue Vinny. The quaint word is the same as used in truckle or trundle bed. On Shrove Monday Wiltshire kids went from door to door singing for a handout:

Tschil
Armenia

Also known as Leaf, Telpanir and Zwirn. Skim milk of either sheep or cows. Made into cakes and packed in skins in a land where wine is drunk from skin canteens, often with Tschil.

Tuile de Flandre
France

A type of Marolles.

Tullum Penney
Turkey

Salty from being soaked in brine.

Tuna, Prickly Pear
Mexico

Not an animal milk cheese, but a vegetable one, made by boiling and straining the pulp of the cactuslike prickly pear fruit to cheeselike consistency. It is chocolate-color and sharp, piquantly pleasant when hard and dry. It is sometimes enriched with nuts, spices and/or flowers. It will keep for a very long time and has been a dessert or confection in Mexico for centuries.

Tuscano
Italy

Semihard; cream color; a sort of Tuscany Parmesan.

Twdr Sir
Serbia

Semisoft sheep skim-milk cheese with small holes and a sharp taste. Pressed in forms two by ten to twelve inches in diameter. Similar to Brick or Limburger.

Twin Cheese
U.S.A.

Outstanding American Cheddar marketed by Joannes Brothers, Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Tworog
Russia

Semihard sour milk farm (not factory) made. It is used in the cheese bread called Notruschki.

Made in Copenhagen from pasteurized skim milk.

Tyrol Sour
German

A typical Tyrolean hand cheese.

Tzgone
Dalmatia

The opposite number of Tzigen, just below.

Tzigenkäse
Austria

Semisoft; skimmed sheep, goat or cow milk. White; sharp and salty; originated in Dalmatia.

Urda
Rumania

Creamy; sweet; mild.

Uri
Switzerland

Hard; brittle; white; tangy. Made in the Canton of Uri. Eight by eight to twelve inches, weight twenty to forty pounds.

Urseren
Switzerland

Mild flavored. Cooked curd.

Urt, Fromage d'

Soft Port-Salut type of the Basque country.

Vacherin
France and Switzerland

I. Vacherin à la Main. Savoy, France. Firm, leathery rind, soft interior like Brie or Camembert; round, five to six by twelve inches in diameter. Made in summer to eat in winter. When fully ripe it is almost a cold version of the great dish called Fondue. Inside the hard-rind container is a velvety, spicy, aromatic cream, more runny than Brie, so it can be eaten with a spoon, dunked in, or spread on bread. The local name is Tome de Montague.

Vacherin No. II might be called a re-cooked and spiced Emmentaler, for the original cheese is made, and ripened about the same as the Swiss classic and is afterward melted, spiced and reformed into Vacherin.

Val-d'Andorre, Fromage du
Andorra, France

Sheep milk.

Valdeblore, le
Nice, France

Hard, dried, small Alpine goat cheese.

Valençay, or Fromage de Valençay
Touraine, France

Soft; cream; goat milk; similar to Saint-Maure. In season from May to December. This was a favorite with Francis I.

Valio
Finland

One-ounce wedges, six to a box, labeled pasteurized process Swiss cheese, made by the Cooperative Butter Export Association, Helsinki, Finland, to sell to North Americans to help them forget what real cheese is.

Valsic
Albania

Crumbly and sharp.

Varalpenland
Germany

Alpine. Piquant, strong in flavor and smell.

Varennes, Fromage de
France

Soft, fine, strong variety from Upper Burgundy.

Slow-maturing. One to one-and-a-half years in ripening to a pungent, almost bitter taste.

Västgötaost
West Gothland, Sweden

Semihard; sweet and nutty. Takes a half year to mature. Weight twenty to thirty pounds.

Vendôme, Fromage de
France

Hard; sheep; round and flat; like la Cendrée in being ripened under ashes. There is also a soft Vendôme sold mostly in Paris.

Veneto, Venezza
Italy

Parmesan type, similar to Asiago. Usually sharp.

Vic-en-Bigorre
France

Winter cheese of Béarn in season October to May.

Victoria
England

The brand name of a cream cheese made in Guilford.

Ville Saint-Jacques
France

Ile-de-France winter specialty in season from November to May.

Villiers
France

Soft, one-pound squares made in Haute-Marne.

Viry-vory, or Vary
France

Fresh cream cheese.

Viterbo
Italy

Sheep milk usually curdled with wild artichoke, Cynara Scolymus. Strong grating and seasoning type of the Parmesan-Romano-Pecorino family.

Vize
Greece

Ewe's milk; suitable for grating.

Void
Meuse, France

Soft associate of Pont l'Evêque and Limburger.

The name means "full cream" cheese and that—according to law—has 45% fat in the dry product (See Gras.)

Vorarlberg Sour-milk
Greasy

Hard; greasy; semicircular form of different sizes, with extra-strong flavor and odor. The name indicates that it is made of sour milk.

Vory, le
France

Fresh cream variety like Neufchâtel and Petit Suisse.

Warshawski Syr
Poland

Semihard; fine nutty flavor; named for the capital city of Poland.

Warwickshire
England

Derbyshire type.

Washed-curd cheese
U.S.A.

Similar to Cheddar. The curd is washed to remove acidity and any abnormal flavors.

Wedesslborg
Denmark

A mild, full cream loaf of Danish blue that can be very good if fully ripened.

Weisschmiere
Bavaria, Germany

Similar to Weisslacker, a slow-ripening variety that takes four months.

Weisslacker, White Lacquer
Bavaria

Soft; piquant; semisharp; Allgäuer-type put up in cylinders and rectangles, 4½ by 4 by 3½, weighing 2½ pounds. One of Germany's finest soft cheeses.

Welsh cheeses

"The 'Resurrection Cheese' of Llanfihangel Abercowyn is no longer available, at least under that name. This cheese was so called because it was pressed by gravestones taken from an old church that had fallen into ruins. Often enough the cheeses would be inscribed with such wording as 'Here lies Blodwen Evans, aged 72.'" (From My Wales by Rhys Davies.)

Wensleydale
England

I. England, Yorkshire. Hard; blue-veined; double cream; similar to
Stilton. This production of the medieval town of Wensleydale in the Ure Valley is also called Yorkshire-Stilton and is in season from June to September. It is put up in the same cylindrical form as Stilton, but smaller. The rind is corrugated from the way the wrapping is put on.

II. White; flat-shaped; eaten fresh; made mostly from January through the Spring, skipping the season when the greater No. I is made (throughout the summer) and beginning to be made again in the fall and winter.

Werder, Elbinger and Niederungskäse
West Prussia

Semisoft cow's-milker, mildly acid, shaped like Gouda.

West Friesian
Netherlands

Skim-milk cheese eaten when only a week old. The honored antiquity of it is preserved in the anonymous English couplet:

Sour-milk hand cheese, kneaded by hand. Butter and/or egg yolk is mixed in with salt, and either pepper or caraway seeds. Then the richly colored curd is shaped by hand into small balls or rolls of about one pound. It is dried for a couple of hours before being put down cellar to ripen. The peculiar flavor is due partly to the seasonings and partly to the curd being allowed to putrify a little, like Limburger, before pressing.

This sour-milker is as celebrated as Westphalian raw ham. It is so soft and fat it makes a sumptuous spread, similar to Tilsit and Brinza. It was named Brioler from the "Gute Brioler" inn where it was perfected by the owner, Frau Westphal, well over a century ago.

The English sometimes miscall it Bristol from a Hobson-Jobson of the name Briol.

Whale Cheese
U.S.A.

In The Cheddar Box, Dean Collins tells of an ancient legend in which the whales came into Tillamook Bay to be milked; and he poses the possible origin of some waxy fossilized deposits along the shore as petrified whale-milk cheese made by the aboriginal Indians after milking the whales.

White, Fromage Blanc
France

Skim-milk summer cheese made in many parts of the country and eaten fresh, with or without salt.

White Cheddar
U.S.A.

Any Cheddar that isn't colored with anatto is known as White Cheddar. Green Bay brand is a fine example of it.

This type without the distinguishing blue veins is little known outside of Italy where it is highly esteemed. (See Gorgonzola.)

White Stilton
England

This white form of England's royal blue cheese lacks the aristocratic veins that are really as green as Ireland's flag.

Whitethorn
Ireland

Firm; white; tangy; half-pound slabs boxed. Saltee is the same, except that it is colored.

Wilstermarsch-Käse Holsteiner Marsch
Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Semihard; full cream; rapidly cured; Tilsit type; very fine; made at Itzehoe.

Wiltshire or Wilts
England

A Derbyshire type of sharp Cheddar popular in Wiltshire. (See North Wilts.)

Wisconsin Factory Cheeses
U.S.A.

Have the date of manufacture stamped on the rind, indicating by the age whether the flavor is "mild, mellow, nippy, or sharp." American Cheddar requires from eight months to a year to ripen properly, but most of it is sold green when far too young.

Notable Wisconsiners are Loaf, Limburger, Redskin and Swiss.

Withania
India

Cow taboos affect the cheesemaking in India, and in place of rennet from calves a vegetable rennet is made from withania berries. This names a cheese of agreeable flavor when ripened, but, unfortunately, it becomes acrid with age.

Yoghurt, or Yogurt
U.S.A.

Made with Bacillus bulgaricus, that develops the acidity of the milk. It is similar to the English Saint Ivel.

York, York Curd and Cambridge York
England

A high-grade cream cheese similar to Slipcote, both of which are becoming almost extinct since World War II. Also, this type is too rich to keep any length of time and is sold on the straw mat on which it is cured, for local consumption.

Yorkshire-Stilton
Cotherstone, England

This Stilton, made chiefly at Cotherstone, develops with age a fine internal fat which makes it so extra-juicy that it's a general favorite with English epicures who like their game well hung.

York State
U.S.A.

Short for New York State, the most venerable of our Cheddars.

Young America
U.S.A.

A mild, young, yellow Cheddar.

Yo-yo
U.S.A.

Copying pear-and apple-shaped balls of Italian Provolone hanging on strings, a New York cheesemonger put out a Cheddar on a string, shaped like a yo-yo.

Ziegel
Austria

Whole milk, or whole milk with cream added. Aged only two months.

Ziegenkäse
Germany

A general name in Germanic lands for cheeses made of goat's milk. Altenburger is a leader among Ziegenkäse.

I. This whey product is not a true cheese, but a cheap form of food
made in all countries of central Europe and called albumin cheese, Recuit, Ricotta, Broccio, Brocotte, Serac, Ceracee, etc. Some are flavored with cider and others with vinegar. There is also a whey bread.

II. Similar to Corsican Broccio and made of sour sheep milk instead of whey. Sometimes mixed with sugar into small cakes.

Zips see Brinza.

Zomma
Turkey

Similar to Caciocavallo.

Zwirn see Tschil.

Index of Recipes