History Lesson | Making Cheese | Cheese Glossary
CheeseBytes is a collection of interesting facts, history, definitions of terms, and trivia about one of the oldest and best loved nourishments known to man. We are constantly adding to our CheeseBytes section and we invite you to contribute. Just send an email to kat@monthlyclubs.com and share your knowledge, tips, recipes, and experiences.
In The Beginning... According to cheese.com, Around 4000 years ago people started to breed animals and process their milk. That's when cheese was born.
Juliet Harbutt, Chairperson of the British Cheese Awards:
"I wonder how many people know there are 36 different blue cheeses
made in Britain, 120 goat cheeses and 70 made from sheep's milk."
The First Cheese Factory:
Right up until 150 years ago, mankind took for granted... and devoured with gusto, the myriad of handcrafted farm cheeses made with love from family recipes, and age-old know how.
Then the first cheese factory was built in Oneida County, New York in 1851*. Now many Americans eat supermarket fresh, sometimes rubbery, and always plastic wrapped, immature cheeses... and worse yet, something called cheese food! Kind of scary that they feel like they have to tell you that it's "food" right there on the label! Ever read the list of ingredients on the package of some "cheese food"? We'll save you the effort. It doesn't really sound much like cheese... or
like food. *Information courtesy of the International Dairy Foods Association
20th Century Cheese Production:
"Total natural cheese production expanded from a robust 418 million pounds in 1920 to a whopping 2.2 billion pounds in 1970. By the beginning of the '90s, production had exploded to more than 6 billion pounds a year. Six billion pounds of cheese -- that's like 40 million average-sized people made out of cheese! In addition, consumer demand pushed processed cheese production in the early '90s to exceed 2 billion pounds a year." Information courtesy of the International Dairy
Foods Association
Two important, but basic, cheese distinctions are...
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Source, which may be a combination of... cow, goat, sheep, buffalo, mare, camel, ewe, reindeer, and/or yak milk.
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Milk kind: raw, skimmed or pasteurized
Cheeses are made by...
- Coagulating the milk solids into a curd by adding an acid substance like lemon juice or vinegar, or by adding a bacterial culture that turns the lactose into lactic acid.
- Shaping into curds: Large curds with more water content become soft cheeses, and small curds make hard cheeses. The curds are always stirred and sometimes warmed to further separate the whey.
- Transferring the curds either directly to molds with runoff holes, or onto draining boards, or to strong cloths to filter whey before the cheese is pressed.
- Salting which speeds up drying, accentuates flavors, helps to create rind, and to slows the production of micro-organisms. Most cheeses are immersed in a brine bath, but some are rubbed with salt repeatedly after being removed from molds. Others are washed or brushed with salt, during maturation to prevent mold and keep the rind soft. Exotic cheeses are sometimes washed in wines or beers, or seeded with fungus to produce blue cheeses and soft white rinds.
- Maturing usually in a ripening cellar or drying-room which could be humid and warm, or relatively cool. There is a constant exchange of gases... carbon dioxide, ammonia, and oxygen which causes the growth of surface and interior flora.
Annatto
Annatto is a dye obtained from a South American plant, sometimes used to color cheeses.
Bloomy Rind
Camembert and Brie have bloomy rinds, a light white down or powdery surface. The rind develops when the surface is sprayed with a Penicillium spore.
Bruising or Blueing
Molds need air to grow. When there is a crack in the rind, mold will grow inside the cheese around the crack... this is known as bruising, or blueing if t is the blue Penicillium mold.
Brushed
During the ripening period some natural rind cheeses have their rinds brushed by hand or machine. This helps the cheese to keep moist during the ripening period, and it also affects the flavor.
Cave or Cellar
Usually an underground room or even a cave where cheeses are stored and tended to ripen. The humidity and temperature remain constant. Handcrafted Roquefort is ripened in caves.
Cheddaring
This term describes a process used in the crafting of cheese. Curd is cut into blocks, and these blocks are turned and stacked at the bottom of the vat every 15 minutes for about 90 minutes.
Close
A close textured cheese is smooth, unblemished and devoid of holes or cracks. When a cheese contains openings and holes in its body, its texture is called open.
Cooked
Hard cheeses are processed by heating the cheese curd, sometimes in the surplus whey.
Curdling
The process of coagulating milk due to the introduction of rennet, which is an enzyme.
Curing
Another word for maturing, ripening or ageing.
Crumbly
This term is used to describe a cheese that breaks away when cut.
Dry Matter
Soft cheeses contain about 50 per cent dry matter and 50 per cent water.
Eyes
Holes in the body of cheeses such as Emmentaler, Gruyere and other Swiss types, are usually spherical and equally spaced. Bacterial activity, which generates prioponic acid and causes gas to expand within the curd creates the eyes.
Fat Content
An average fat content is 45 %. Fat content can range from 4 % to 75 %.
Fresh Cheese
Cottage Cheese, Cream Cheese, and Ricotta are examples of cheeses that do not have a ripening
period before they are served.
Molds or Moulds
Internal molds [blue veined cheeses] are created by Penicillium glaucum, or Penicillium roqueforti spores which are introduced to the cheese after it has been poked with holes. Surface molds are the result of rubbing the cheese with a Penicillium spore. French goat milk cheeses have a bluish surface mould. Blue Castello, Bavarian Blue, and Duet have both a surface and an internal mould.
Mushroomy
Soft and semi-soft cheeses, particularly members of the Brie/ Camembert family are often described as having a mushroomy flavor and aroma.
Nutty
Usually refers to a hazelnut flavor.
Rind
Rinds can be natural or artificial, thick or thin, hard or soft, washed, oiled, brushed or coated with wax. They protect the cheese's interior and allow it to ripen appropriately.
Starter
A bacterial culture which produces lactic acid.
The Big Cheese
"In 1801 an enterprising cheesemaker delivered a mammoth 1,235 pound wheel of cheese to Thomas Jefferson. Intrigued citizens dubbed it the big cheese, coining the phrase which has since come to describe someone of importance."
Washed Rind Cheeses
Some of the strongest smelling and tasting cheeses have had their
rinds washed during the curing process. This process keeps the cheese
moist and supple. Cheeses can be washed with salt water or even brandy
which of course affects the final flavor.
