Washed-rind cheeses are firmer, lower-moisture cheeses that were made in highlands and up in the mountains. The cheeses needed to be able to keep well, as oftentimes travel down the mountains was hard for many months of the year and anyone wishing to bring them down to the markets in the lowlands to sell there would have to wait till the spring.
The rind was washed to restrict bacteria growth, and as a result of the washing, the cheese would develop a hard rind. The washing isn’t always actual “washing”: it could be rubbing the moisture on, but it also might be dunking the cheese in a liquid, or brushing it with a liquid. The liquid can be beer, brine, brandy, Calvados, cider, oil, water, whey or wine.
The rinds from all washed-rind cheeses tend to be bitter tasting, and smelly.
This is often confused with smear-ripened cheeses; with smear-ripened cheeses, however, the goal is to encourage bacterial growth.
Language Notes
Aka “washed-crust cheeses.”
Types of Washed-Rind Cheeses
Appenzeller Cheese
Appenzeller is made from unpasteurized whole cow's milk. The cheese is pressed and formed into wheels that are then bathed in a spiced brine made from wine or cider. After 3 or 4 months of maturing, they are dipped in the brine again. The cheese is generally...
Bishop Kennedy Cheese
Bishop Kennedy Cheese is a soft, round, brie-like cheese with a yellowish runny interior.
It is made from unpasteurized cows' milk curdled with vegetarian rennet.
Bishop Kennedy Cheese is allowed to mature for 8 weeks. During this time, the rind...
Chue Fladae Cheese
Chue Fladae is a washed-rind, soft, creamy cheese made in Switzerland by the Josef Barmettler Molkerei.
Made from raw cow's milk, it is smelly but not overly strong tasting.
The cheese is round, weighing from 300 to 350g.
It is aged 4 to 5 weeks...
Epoisses Cheese
Epoisses Cheese is a very smelly cheese. Even the French, who are used to aromatic cheeses, consider it smelly.
It is a washed rind cheese made in Burgundy from unpasteurized milk, and named after the town of Epoisses.
One version of Epoisses Cheese...
Fontina Cheese
To make Fontina Cheese, cow's milk is heated to 36 C (97 F.) Calf's rennet is then added to curdle the milk. The milk is let sit for 1 hour as is, then it is heated to 47 to 48 C (116 to 118 F) and let sit for another two hours held at that temperature....
Gruyère Cheese
Named after a Swiss village, Gruyère is a yellowish, hard cheese made in a large wheel shape from cow's milk. On average, 105 US gallons (400 litres) of milk are used to make 1 wheel of the cheese.
The raw milk is heated to 93 F (34 C), at which point ...
Milleens Cheese
Milleens Cheese is a flat, round, Muenster-style, washed-rind cheese.
It is made from the unpasteurized milk of Friesian cows curdled with calves rennet.
The cheese is allowed to ripen for 4 to 10 weeks after it is made at 55 to 60 F (13 to 15 C.)...
Pied de Vent Cheese
Pied de vent is a soft, washed-rind cheese with a pronounced smell.
The cheese is made by made by a company called "Fromagerie du Pied-De-Vent" which is in Havre-aux-Maison, Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Québec. The milk used comes from a herd of cows on t...
Port du Salut Cheeses
The term "Port du Salut Cheeses" is used to describe a family of cheeses which began with the cheese called "Port Salut ." It is often called "Port du Salut style ."
All are semi-firm, so they can be sliced.
Technically, if anything, the commercially-made...
Port Salut Cheese
Port Salut Cheese
© Denzil Green
Port Salut is the cheese that started a whole range of cheeses: see Port du Salut cheese.
Port Salut is semi-soft cheese made from cow's milk.
The cheese is ripened from the outside in by a smear of surface ...
Reblochon Cheese
Reblochon Cheese is a soft, washed-rind cheese with a mild taste.
Its light beige to orangey-yellow rind, which is edible, has white mould on it. The surface texture of the rind comes from the cheesecloth used during making the cheese.
Reblochon...
Soumaintrain Cheese
Soumaintrain is a very whiffy French cheese with a taste that is both sweet and salty.
Inside, the cheese is soft but not runny. It has a salty-tasting, orangey-caramel-colour rind that is edible.
To make Soumaintrain Cheese, unpasteurized cow's...
Stinking Bishop Cheese
Stinking Bishop Cheese is made from pasteurized cow's milk curdled with a vegetarian Rennet. Before being put into moulds, the curds are washed with Perry (pear cider) made from Stinking Bishop Pears (thus its name), which grow on the Gloucestershire-Herefordshire...
Taleggio Cheese
Taleggio Cheese is made in the Lombardy region of Italy, and in Val Taleggio in the Italian Alps, north of Bergamo.
Taleggio is normally made from raw whole cow's milk, though sometimes pasteurized cow's milk is used. The milk is heated to between...
Tête de Moine Cheese
Tête de Moine is a cylinder-shaped Swiss cheese that is brine-washed while it is being aged 4 to 6 months.
The inedible rind is orangey and sticky; inside, the cheese is a straw-yellow colour and has a spicy flavour.
The cheese cylinders are 3 ...
Tilsit Cheese
Tilsit cheese is made from cow's milk -- usually partially-skimmed, but sometimes whole. The milk may or may not be pasteurized, depending on where it is made.
The milk is warmed to 85 F / 30 C (95 F / 35 C if whole milk.) Starter is added, along with...