Soft Cheeses

A soft cheese is a cheese with a lot of moisture in it, keeping its texture so soft that it is usually spreadable.

Making soft cheeses

The process of making soft cheeses differs from making “hard cheeses” in that the curds aren’t pressed to squeeze out the whey, as they would be for instance in making a hard cheese such as Cheddar. Consequently, they have a high moisture content, making them ideal growing places for mould. This is taken advantage of in making the ripened soft cheeses, as in Camembert or Brie, though you don’t want to see green mould growing on top of the unripened ones, such as when you open a tub of cottage cheese or quark in the morning.

Ripened soft cheeses are mostly European in origin, whereas unripened ones are British and North American. Ripening, in the case of soft cheeses, means aging the cheese for a few weeks. Unripened soft cheeses are the simplest ones to make, and so could be made by any farm or country dweller with little experience or time. Unripened soft cheeses are also simply called “fresh cheeses.”

Any kind of milk can be used in making soft cheeses, whole or skim, cow or goat or sheep. Many soft cheeses are enriched with added cream as well. The milk used to be left to sour naturally, but this won’t work with pasteurized milk, so starters have to be added instead.

Fat content of soft cheeses

The fat content of soft cheeses varies wildly from one type of cheese to the other.

• • Full Fat Soft Cheese: minimum 20% fat, maximum 60% moisture
  • Medium Fat Soft Cheese: fat content from 2 to 20%, maximum 70% moisture
  • Skim Milk Soft Cheese: maximum 2% fat content, maximum 80% moisture

Soft cheese

Soft cheese is a generic term mostly used in the UK. It means the recipe writer isn’t fussy: s/he just wants some type of soft cheese. Cottage cheese is the preferred type of soft cheese in the UK and in North America. Curd cheese, cream cheese, ricotta, quark, pot cheese, and the soft variety of hoop cheese also count as generic “soft cheese.” All of these would satisfy the recipe’s requirement for a “soft cheese.”

Types of soft cheeses

Añejo Cheese

Añejo is a firm, Mexican cheese. It is actually the cheese called "queso fresco" (which is usually made from both cow and goat milk) that has been allowed to age. As it ages, it becomes solid, dry, salty and crumbly, almost like Romano or Parmesan, though ...

Añejo Enchilado Cheese

Añejo Enchilado is Añejo Cheese (Queso Añejo) that has been that has been pressed into rectangular blocks then rolled in a mildly-spicy coating, usually either paprika, chile powder or a mild chile paste. The blocks of cheese will be bright red or re...

Banon Cheese

Banon is a soft, almost runny cheese that matures without a rind forming on it. Depending on the Banon, it is made with milk from goats, goats and cows, or just cows, and sometimes any combination of the above can have sheep's milk as well. Curds...

Boilie Cheese

There are two varieties of Boilie Cheese. One variety is made from cow's milk; the other, made from goat's milk, is called "Goat's Boilie." Both are roughly-formed balls of cheese, marinated in sunflower oil, garlic, herbs and pink peppers. They...

Bonchester Cheese

Bonchester Cheese packaging design Bonchester Cheese is no longer in production as of 1998. Bonchester was a Camembert-style cheese made in Scotland. It came in small, thin rounds of two sizes, 100g and 280g. It had a soft white floury rind with some...

Boursin Cheese

Boursin Cheese is a creamy (75% butterfat), mild cheese made from pasteurized cow's milk to which is added cream and seasonings. It is sold either in 5 oz (150g) cylinders, or in packages of 6 individually-wrapped portion pieces. Either way, it's wrapped...

Brie Cheese

Brie Cheese © Denzil Green Brie is a creamy French cheese popular for its smooth yet tangy, slightly acid taste and its woodsy smell. The cheese ripens quickly, and must be eaten before the flavour and aroma become offensive. The cheese is a pale ...

Brillat-Savarin Cheese

Brillat-Savarin Cheese is a soft, white, triple-cream cheese that looks like brie but is much richer.

Bruss Cheese

Bruss Cheese is a fermented cheese spread made in Piedmont, Italy. Many people dislike it because it has a strong, putrid smell -- and its sharp taste tastes just like it smells. Some people call it just plain nasty, and wives will berate husbands...

Burrata Cheese

Burrata Cheese is a fresh, unaged cheese made in Apulia, Basilicata and Campania in the south of Italy. It is a ball of cheese, ricotta-like in texture, made of milk and cream from cows and unspun mozzarella curds. It is wrapped in a skin made from...

Caboc Cheese

Caboc Cheese is a soft, double-cream fresh cheese which is a deep butter colour with a mild, sour tang. It is formed into logs and rolled in toasted steel-cut oatmeal. It is made from an old, revived recipe by Susannah Stone of the Highland Fine Cheeses...

Camembert Cheese

Unctuous, oozing Camembert Cheese © Denzil Green Camembert is a mild, creamy cheese that is slightly salty. The outside crust will have a few splashes of red. Camembert starts off as a solid, soft cheese formed into thin wheels that have a coating ...

Casu Marzu

Casu Marzu is a cheese made in Sardinia, Italy. To make, you start with pieces of Pecorino Sardo cheese. You set the cheese out in the open, uncovered, and allow cheese flies (scientific name "Piophila casei" ) to lay eggs in the cheese. The eggs...

Chaource Cheese

Chaource Cheese © Denzil Green Chaource is a tall, round Brie-like cheese made in the Champagne and northern Burgundy regions of France, and particularly in its namesake town of Chaource, Champagne. It is made in two sizes: about 1 pound (450g), ...

Chèvre Frais

Chèvre frais is a generic term for unaged French cheese made from pasteurized goat's milk. These cheeses will be milder tasting and have higher moisture content than aged ones. Chèvre frais cheeses are available under many different brand names and i...

Cornish Yarg Cheese

Cornish Yarg Cheese is a semi-firm cheese made from pasteurized Holstein cow's milk with vegetarian Rennet. The curd is cut, then moulded, pressed, set in brine for 18 hours, then dried for 2 days, then wrapped in Stinging Nettle leaves and allowed...

Crottin de Chavignol Cheese

Crottin de Chavignol Cheese is made around Sancerre and Berry in the Loire, France by both dairies and some independent farms (around 140 producers in total as of 2004.) Chavignol itself is a town of just 200 souls (2006 numbers) near the village of Sancerre. The...

Crowdie Cheese

Crowdie cheese is Scottish cheese is a low-fat, soft cheese with a mild sour taste meant to be used as a fresh cheese. It is reminiscent of cottage cheese. It is made with skimmed milk curdled with rennet . Sometimes sour cream is added. It can also...

Cumulus Cheese

Cumulus Cheese is a soft but not runny cheese that looks like Brie or Camembert, with a white bloom on its rind and a slight mushroom smell. It made in rounds from raw cow's milk, and allowed to ripen for 60 days. The rounds end up being approximately...

Edel de Cléron Cheese

This is a small round of cheese made from pasteurized cow's milk. The cheese is aged for about 3 weeks in brine, then wrapped in cloth and then tree bark. Inside, the cheese gets quite runny, so that you eat it with a spoon. The rind is also edible,...

Feta Cheese

Feta Cheese © Denzil Green Feta is a soft, rindless white cheese with holes in it. Some refer to Feta as a goat's cheese, but it is not: it is primarily meant to be a sheep's milk cheese. Feta was originally made from sheep's milk, or sheep ...

Feuille d'automne Cheese

Feuille d'automne Cheese is sold in small rounds, about 180g each. It is a soft, washed-rind cheese with a slightly-brown crust, with small traces of white mould on it, and a slightly nutty taste. The rounds are made from unpasteurized whole cow's...

Fresh Cheeses

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...

Garrotxa Cheese

Garrotxa cheese is a Spanish cheese made in Catalonia, on the eastern edge of the Pyrenees. It is a semi-soft cheese, made in 18-inch (45 cm) wide wheels, that will weigh up to 2 1/4 pounds (1 kg.) It has a greyish-blue, velvety mound on the rind....

Kirkham Lancashire Cheese

Kirkham Lancashire Cheese is a farmhouse version of Lancashire cheese, actually made in Lancashire. It is very white, with a sharp taste. It is sold aged anywhere from 6 weeks to 12 months. When young, it is creamy and a bit crumbly, with a milder...

La Tur Cheese

La Tur is a very soft cheese made in Alta Langa, Piedmont, Italy. It is off-white to straw-coloured, with a soft, increasingly wrinkled rind as it ages. Inside, its light, airy texture is so runny that it is spreadable or spoonable. It is runniest...

Lancashire Cheese

Lancashire Cheese © Denzil Green Lancashire Cheese is a white, firm but crumbly cheese with a tang to it. It may be sold young, or aged. To make Lancashire Cheese, starter and rennet is added to milk. When the milk has curdled, the curds are ...

Le Cendrillon Cheese

Le Cendrillon is a soft, triangular log-shaped, surface-ripened pasteurized goat's milk cheese. The log is covered in dark ash. Under the ash, the cheese's skin has a white bloom on it. Inside, just under the surfaces, the cheese is almond-paste coloured....

Le Veillon Cheese

Le Veillon Cheese is a soft, reblochon-type cheese with a white bloom on its washed rind, and a butter and almond taste. It is made from raw cow's milk in 200g rounds, which are ripened for 60 days. The cheese is made by Fromages Chaput et Les dépendances ...

Lymeswold Cheese

Lymeswold is a modern but now defunct cheese that was made from pasteurized cow's milk. It was introduced in 1982. It never took off, though, so production was halted in the early 1990s. Lymeswold Cheese was a soft cheese like Brie, modelled after...

Mitzithra Cheese (Fresh)

Fresh Mitzithra is a Greek cheese made from the whey leftover from making cheeses such as Feta and Kefalotiri. The whey is enriched with whole sheep's milk or whole goat's milk. It is similar to ricotta in look and feel. Like ricotta, it is soft and...

Oaxaca Cheese

Oaxaca is a Mexican soft cheese. It's also called "quesillo", as it is the most usual cheese for making quesadillas with. It is made with the same stretching, cutting and "forming into a ball" process as is Mozzarella. It can be made from whole or...

Oxford Isis Cheese

Oxford Isis has a soft, pale yellow creamy inside and a soft, slightly-darker rind on the outside. It has a strong tangy taste and smell. It is made from pasteurized cow's milk and is curdled with traditional rennet. During aging, the rind is sprayed...

Pié d'angloys

Pié d'angloys is a French washed-rind cheese that is somewhat like a Brie. It has a white crust, ivory coloured inside, and is soft and spreadable. It has a mild, creamy taste that is almost buttery in flavour. The cheese is made from cow's milk. ...

Pithiviers Cheese

Pithiviers is a soft, round cheese with a velvety rind like Brie. The curd is uncooked and unpressed. The cheeses are wrapped in twigs. Each cheese is 5 inches (12 cm) wide, 1 1/4 inches (3 cm) thick and weighs about 10 oz (300 g.) They are aged...

Pont Couvert Cheese

Pont Couvert Cheese is a washed-rind cheese made from raw cow's milk. It is soft and white inside, with a creamy taste. The cheese is ripened for 60 days, and washed every 2 or 3 days during that time. Pont Couvert is made by Fromages Chaput et...

Prescinseua Cheese

Prescinseua is a fresh cheese, sort of halfway between ricotta and Greek yoghurt. It is both a clabbered cheese, and a cheese that uses rennet. It is spread on bread, stirred into sauces (even pesto) or served with sugar for breakfast. The cheese...

Saint André Cheese

Saint André is "triple crème" soft cheese, being 75% milk fat. It is made in wheels from cow's milk, pasteurized or raw, with extra cream added during the cheese making. The wheels come in various sizes; small rounds of the cheese are about 4 in...

Squacquerone Cheese

Squacquerone is an Italian fresh cream cheese with a tangy taste. It is very white, and soft, fluffy and spreadable. There is no rind. It is very perishable; it has a shelf life of only 4 to 5 days refrigerated. Squacquerone is made year round...

St-Nectaire Cheese

St-Nectaire Cheese is made in Auvergne, France, in 72 districts in total in the Cantal and Puy-de-Dôme départmentes. The cheese has a soft, milky taste. The average cheese weight is 3 1/2 pounds (1.6 kg), for which about 12 US quarts (12 litres) o...

Tarapatapom Cheese

Tarapatapom is a fresh, unaged cheese with a layer of carmelized apples in the middle. It is made from 75% cow's milk, 25% goat's milk. Both milks are unpasteurized. The apples come from the cheesemaker's orchards. There are two layers of cheese,...

Telemes Cheese

Telemes is a Greek cheese is very much like Feta, in that it is aged and stored in brine, and ends up crumbly. The difference is that while Feta is made from sheep's milk and some goat's milk, Telemes is made from cow's milk (as most Feta around the...

Teviotdale Cheese

Teviotdale Cheese is no longer in production as of 1998. See entry on Bonchester Cheese for information. Teviotdale is a Brie-style, cylinder-shaped cheese made from unpasteurized milk from Jersey cows. It has a tangy, salt taste. The cheese is...

Tornegus Cheese

Tornegus Cheese is a cheese that results from a particular aging process of Caerphilly cheese. It acquires an apricot coloured rind after this process. It is made by Pat Robinson at Godstone in Surrey. The Caerphilly used is an unpasteurized one, made...

Vacherin Chaput Cheese

Vacherin Chaput is a washed-rind cheese made from raw cow's milk. It is soft and has a creamy taste. It is made in a wheel weighing 1.25 pounds (575g) and aged 2 to 3 months. For sale, it is packaged in Norwegian Spruce bark. [ref]Vacherin d'Abondance...

Vacherin d'Abondance

Vacherin d'Abondance is a creamy cheese with a pinkish crust and an almost sweet taste. It is made in France, in the village of Abondance, in the Abondance valley close to the Swiss border. It's made in the winter from unpasteurised milk from the breed...

Vacherin Mont d'Or

There is great confusion over what this soft-cheese is called. The cheese has been made since the early 1800s in an area of Europe just to the north of Lausanne, Switzerland and to the west of Neufchâtel, Switzerland. The border in that area went ...

Wensleydale Cheese with Cranberries

Wensleydale with Cranberries © Denzil Green Wensleydale Cheese with Cranberries is Wensleydale Cheese, made with pasteurized cow's milk, with cranberries folded into the cheese. It is a fresh cheese with a fresh, clean taste, with the tartness ...

Whirl Cheese

Whirl Cheese © Denzil Green Whirl Cheese is a brand name for two cheeses formed together like a Swiss roll. The outside cheese is Red Leicester; the cheese used to make the whirl is a 30% fat cream cheese. Both cheeses are made from pasteurized ...