Raw curd cheeses is a cheese-making term. It refers to cheeses whose milk curds have not been heated during the cheese making process.
After milk has been coagulated to separate into curds and whey, the whey is drained away.
For some varieties of cheese, the curd is now ready to use. They will be salted and moulded or packed into the shape that the cheese is meant to take.
If instead of going straight to the moulding stage, the curd is first heated to a temperature above 35 C (95 F), the curd is referred to either as a “semi-cooked” or “cooked” curd, depending on how high the temperature reaches.
Heating drives more whey out of the curd, resulting in drier cheeses. Not heating the curd can result in moister cheeses.
Examples of raw curd cheeses include Crescenza, Gorgonzola, Stilton, Taleggio, etc.
Note that the term does not refer to the use of raw (unpasteurized) milk.
Related entries
- Affinage
- Casein
- Cooked-Curd Cheeses
- Creamery
- Double-Cream Cheese
- Fat Content of Cheeses
- Longhorn Cheese
- Pate (of a Cheese)
- Pressed-Curd Cheeses
- Rennet
- Semi-Cooked Curd Cheeses
- Skim-Milk Cheeses
- Smear-Ripened Cheeses
- Stretched Curd Cheeses
- Sweet Curd Cheeses
- Triple-Cream Cheese
- Truckle
- Turophile
- Washed-Curd Cheeses