Fresh cheeses can be categorized as a sub-group of soft cheeses.
Fresh cheeses are ready to eat the same day as the cheese-making process is finished. They are mild, a bit tart, soft and spreadable.
They have quite a high moisture level (55 to 80%.)
History Notes
Most Roman cheeses were fresh cheeses.
Types of fresh cheeses
Ayib
Ayib is a soft Ethiopian fresh cheese similar to cottage cheese. At meals, it acts as a simple, cooling foil to many of the complex and sometimes fiery tastes in Ethiopian cuisine.
It is usually made at home or through farmhouse production.
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Cottage Cheese
Cottage Cheese
© Denzil Green
Cottage cheese is an un-aged, "fresh" white curd-type cheese made from skim milk. The curds that are separate out of the milk are drained of the whey, then packed into tubs with some milk to the tubs and shipped off ...
Cream Cheese
Cream cheese is a smooth, spreadable, unripened cheese that tastes mildly tangy. It is made from cow's milk, and contains a minimum of 33 % butterfat.
The standard cream cheese is white and unflavoured, though many different colours and flavours are...
Curd Cheese
Curd cheese is a very odd name: what cheese isn't made from curds? If anything, it would give you the impression that the cheese is "lumpy", as though can you see the curds in it, as you can in Cottage Texture, but in fact the texture is smooth.
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Fromage Blanc Cheese
Fromage Blanc can be made with whole or skim milk. Starter culture and Rennet are added to heated milk, then the milk is allowed to set and firm up like yoghurt. It is then strained through a cloth until what remains in the cloth is as firm as desired....
Fromage Frais
Fromage Frais is made with whole or skim milk. Depending on which version you buy, you can get 99.9% fat free, 1% fat, or 8% fat, which is the regular version.
It looks like and has the same spoonable texture as Greek Yoghurt. The full fat version...
Mascarpone Cheese
Mascarpone Cheese
© Denzil Green
Mascarpone is a pale cream-coloured soft, spreadable cream cheese made from cream from cow's milk.
Unlike other cheeses, Mascarpone uses no starter or Rennet, so it's not really a cheese: it's more akin to Clotted ...
Mató Cheese
Mató is an unsalted fresh Spanish cheese, meant to be eaten the same day that it is made. It looks a bit like Cottage Cheese, Ricotta or a Curd Cheese.
It originated in Catalonia. It was made in the past from goat's milk, because no one could afford ...
Neufchâtel Cheese
Neufchâtel is a soft, spreadable French cheese, that's similar to cream cheese, but firmer, and made with whole milk with no cream.
Despite the name of Neufchâtel, which leads some to think this is a Swiss cheese, this cheese is actually made in N...
Paneer
Paneer
© Denzil Green
Paneer is a soft, fresh white cheese made in India, and very commonly made at home there.
It is a fresh, unaged cheese. It's essentially just curds from curdled milk, which are then pressed.
It is used as an ingredient ...
Panela Cheese
Panela is a fresh, Mexican cheese. It is white with a mild taste. The texture is creamy and soft, somewhat spongy.
The cheese has no rind, but you can see on the outsides the marks of the basket that it is moulded in.
Cooking Tips
When heated, Panela...
Pot Cheese
Pot Cheese is very hard to find now. A soft, fresh cheese, it was basically a higher-fat, slightly salty dry-curd Cottage Cheese, with large curds, sold in small tubs or pots.
You may find dry-curd Cottage Cheese these days that is also labelled "pot...
Quark Cheese
Quark Cheese
© Denzil Green
Quark is a soft, unripened white cheese that usually comes in tubs or vacu-packs. The curds are usually homogenized so that it is smooth and looks like Sour Cream, though some styles leave the curds intact. The cheese ...
Queso Blanco Cheese
Queso Blanco is a fresh Mexican cheese made from skim cow's milk cheese. Lemon juice used to be used coagulate it, giving it a lemon tang. Commercially though, Rennet is now used, so the fresh tang is mostly missing.
The cheese is white, creamy, and...
Queso Fresco
Queso Fresco is a soft, crumbly Mexican fresh cheese.
It is often made from a mixture of cow's and sheep's milk.
Cooking Tips
Crumble over salads, or dishes to be cooked, or use as a cheese to stuff things with. Queso Fresco softens when heated...
Queso Quesadilla
Queso Quesadilla melts very well, making it very popular in quesadillas, thus its name.
It is a smooth, white and creamy cheese made from cow's milk.
Cooking Tips
Melts but holds its shape and doesn't run.
History Notes
Originated in Northern...
Requesón Cheese
Requesón is a Mexican fresh cheese that is somewhat like Ricotta cheese.
The cheese is made from whey (sometimes whey which has also been skimmed.) The whey still has some milk proteins in it, which are coagulated by heat to make the cheese.
In ...
Ricotta Cheese
Ricotta Cheese
© Denzil Green
Ricotta Cheese is a soft fresh cheese made from the whey left over after making other cheeses -- usually cow's milk cheeses.
The whey is heated to 77 C (170 F.) Citric acid is added, then the temperature raised ...
Yoghurt Cheese
Yoghurt Cheese is thick and spreadable like cream cheese, but has a tart kick to it.
Arabs make a Yoghurt Cheese called "Labna."
Cooking Tips
You can use Yoghurt Cheese as you would ricotta or cream cheese.
To make it , buy plain yoghurt with...
Zufi Cheese
Zufi Cheese is a type of ricotta.
It is made in Val Formazza, on the Italian / Swiss border, during the summer, while the cows are at pasture.
Cow's milk is heated, then taken off the heat. It is added to milk that's just been freshly milked from...