American Cheeses

Cover illustration. Cornell Reading Course for the Home. April 1920. © Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library There was a time when the term “American Cheese” pretty much just meant cheddar. “American Cheese” (singular) is often used as a generic term for cheeses based on cheddar, but processed for longer shelf life, spreadability…

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Brick Cheese

Brick is a sweet, nutty tasting cheese. Milk is first pasteurized, then mixed with lactic bacteria and rennet to make it curd. When curd has formed, the curd is removed and drained, then salted and pressed into shape. It is let stand for a few days until a surface bacteria forms. The cheese is then…

Colby Cheese

Colby Cheese is somewhat like a cheddar, but milder, more elastic and moister. To make Colby, cow’s milk is pasteurized and a bacteria starter culture is mixed in. The milk is heated, with food colouring being added when the milk reaches 86 to 88 F (30 to 31 C) . Rennet is then added to…

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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 for immediate sale. It is usually sold as a “wet-curd”…

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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 now available. Cooking Tips In North America, cream cheese equals cheesecake and bagels. Elsewhere,…

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Creole Cream Cheese

Creole cream cheese is milk curd mixed with clabber cream. It is generally only available in South Louisiana. It used to be made only by small family dairies there, and it almost died out with them. It would vary a bit between the family dairies; some versions would be smooth like cream cheese, other varieties…

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Farmer’s Cheese

Farmer’s Cheese can be thought of as a cottage cheese from which most of the moisture has been drained so that the cheese becomes quite dry, and which has then been pressed into a firm loaf shape. There is no rind on the cheese; the cheese’s colour will be pale yellow or orangey. It has…

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Guler Cheese

Guler Cheese may never really have existed to any great extent, but this whole story is too good to pass up because it involves a messy divorce. A man named Homer Spencer attempted to create, starting in 1940, an American Roquefort in caves at Trout Lake in Washington State. Reports‡ stated that locals had duplicated…

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Hoop Cheese

Hoop Cheese is a term that is used to refer to either an American Hard Cheese or an American Soft Cheese. Hard Hoop Cheese Hoop Cheese is considered a hard cheese in the American South-East. Hard Hoop Cheese comes in large wheels of about 20 pounds (9 kg), covered in red or black wax. Most…

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Humboldt Fog Cheese

Humboldt Fog is a goat’s milk cheese, that uses ash, both as a top covering and as a layer through the middle. The milk is pasteurized, then coagulated with lactic acid and vegetable enzyme and allowed to curdle overnight. Cheese moulds are half-filled with curd, then sprinkled with a thin layer of salt and white-pine…

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Lamb Chopper Cheese

Lamb Chopper Cheese is smooth, firm and yellow inside, with a mild, almost sweet taste. On its label, the cheese has a lamb on a motorcycle complete with helmet and scarf. It is similar to Gouda. Though Lamb Chopper is sold as an American cheese, it is actually made in the Netherlands The cheese is…

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Liederkranz Cheese

Liederkranz is a defunct American cheese that was meant to be reminiscent of Limburger, while having a far milder taste and aroma. Made from pasteurized whole cow’s milk, it was washed with brine as it was matured. When young the cheeses were semi-firm and pale inside, but as they aged they became soft, almost spreadable,…

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Maytag Blue Cheese

Maytag Blue Cheese hails from Newton, Iowa, in central Iowa. The cheese is made from cow’s milk, with a vegetarian Rennet and Penicillium roqueforti mould added. It’s made in 4 pound (1.8 kg) cylinders that have long holes punched in them with needles to allow air to get inside to help the mould to develop….

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Monterey Jack Cheese

Monterey Jack Cheese © Denzil Green Monterey Jack Cheese is a semi-soft cheese made from cow’s milk, whole or skimmed. It’s normally aged two weeks to a month. It’s somewhat like a cheddar, though it’s always white. Its main virtue is that it melts well and that its mild, inoffensive flavour won’t clash with whatever…

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Pinconning Cheese

Pinconning Cheese is an aged, semi-firm cheese made from whole cow’s milk. It is somewhere between Cheddar and Colby, but unlike Colby it can be aged. It comes in varying degrees of sharpness, depending on how long it has been aged — it can be aged up to 10 years. It is made in Michigan,…

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Point Reyes Blue Cheese

Point Reyes is a farmhouse blue cheese. It is very creamy and not crumbly, with no rind. The cheese body is white, with sparse bluish-grey mould, veining it. The taste has a bit of a tang because the starter cultures, give it a tang like buttermilk, but otherwise the taste is very mild. Consequently some…

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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 style.” Substitutes Dry-curd Cottage Cheese, preferably a higher-fat one. Not regular…

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Rondelé Cheese

Rondelé cheese is a North American version of Boursin, made in Wisconsin. It is a smooth, spreadable cream cheese that comes in many flavours and with varying fat content. Literature & Lore Rondelé is a name that the marketing people came up with.

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Swiss Cheese

Swiss Cheese © Denzil Green Swiss Cheese is a North American generic imitation of Emmenthal, just as Jarlsberg is a Norwegian version of Emmenthal. In the UK, and in Europe, “Swiss Cheese” has no meaning as a specific cheese. It would be like saying “1 pound of French cheese” — people would ask you which…

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Tillamook Cheese

Tillamook is the name of a brand of American cheddar. It is made from thermalized milk, not pasteurized. The milk is heated to only 152 F (67 C.) Therefore, it is aged a minimum of 60 days as per American law for unpasteurized milk cheeses. It is sold in three ages: medium (60 days), sharp…

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American Cheeses

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