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Cheese is essentially fermented, curdled milk. However, anybody who has ever glanced at the cheese section of a grocery store has seen how a basic technique can produce radically varied outcomes.

Have you ever wondered what differences there are between Alpine-style and cheddar cheese? Or how about goat cheese or aged Gouda?  Well, we are here to convert complicated cheese jargon into plain English. 

Let’s start with the milk type.

Goat cheese

Goat milk has a lower fat content and a lighter texture than other cheeses. It takes on a tangy flavor when made into fresh varieties, such as chèvre, with sharp lemon and citrus flavors that move more toward citrus pith with age. Goat cheese has more “barnyard-y” tastes similar to the animal – in a nice way.

In contrast to cows, which absorb no beta carotene, and sheep, which absorb a little, goats absorb a lot of beta carotene, which is turned into vitamin A in their milk, giving it a crisp, white color. The hue of goat cheese will almost always be dazzling white.

Cow cheese

Cows are large animals that generate a lot of milk. The average mature dairy cow weighs more than 1,000 pounds. That milk is said to be the most flexible for cheese, accounting for the most variation of styles of any animal. Cow’s milk also contains the biggest variation of colors, which indicates how the animal was grown.

Unlike goats and sheep, cows do not absorb beta-carotene from the grass they consume. It passes through their systems and ends up in the milk. As a result, cows fed on fresh grass produce cheese with a beautiful butter-yellow tint. That deep hue is frequently a sign of high quality: Cows bred on grain do not produce as much beta-carotene.

Anyone may walk into a grocery shop and select anything from white cow’s milk cheese to golden cow’s milk cheese.  Suppose you looked into the production size or devotion to artisanal processes. In that case, you’d find that the very white cow’s milk cheeses are more industrial, while the extremely yellow ones are more handmade — and presumably more expensive.

Sheep cheese

Sheep are smaller than cows and less hardy than goats, and they frequently require hand-milking and time-consuming grooming, which raises the price of their cheeses.

However, there is a reason why buyers are prepared to pay the price. Even after maturing, sheep’s milk cheese has a richer, rounder, and heavier texture. Much of this is due to its lanoline properties, which are formed on their skin to protect the wool from becoming too brittle or damp. Lanolin has a distinct fragrance. It’s nutty in the sense of raw almonds, waxy in the sense of high-quality beeswax, and gamey with a sheepish flavor.

This diversity of flavor may be found in all types of sheep’s cheese, from rare soft variants like ricotta salata to hard and blue kinds. All sheep’s cheeses have a lovely ivory color and rank between goat and cow in terms of beta-carotene absorption.

Water buffalo

Water buffalo milk, well known for its usage in buffalo mozzarella, has the greatest fat content of any milk. Other than buffalo mozzarella, there are cheeses created from their milk that are difficult to get in the United States, including several fresh cheeses and some aged types.

The texture and style

Several elements, including the pH and acidity levels from the cheese-making process, individual cheese-maker selections, natural proteolysis, and the breakdown of proteins into smaller polypeptides or amino acids as it ages, influence the texture of cheese. 

There is a continuum of incredibly soft spreadable cheese to hard crumbly cheese, and there will be a lot of complexity within that spectrum. 

Soft cheese

Soft cheeses include more moisture since they are made and meant to be devoured quickly. It’s the kind you can simply cut with a spoon and spread over a cracker or piece of toast. Textural variations in this category vary from buttery mascarpone and velvety fresh goat cheese to creamy surface-ripened Brie and custardy washed-rind Époisses de Bourgogne. 

When we say soft, we mean difficult to slice. They are often in a smaller format. Some are bigger, and you may slice a wedge, but you want to carve into it and spread it on stuff.

Semi-firm to firm cheese

This broad category includes cheeses that can keep their form even when heated. They’d normally be cut, but no sharp knife is required. You could shred it on top of enchiladas, but you’re not going to grate it and watch it melt into a pasta dish.

These cheeses contain less moisture than soft cheeses and need additional fermentation and maturing stages. This includes springy cheeses like tomme and young havarti, as well as sliceable provolone, Gruyère, and younger cheddars, which cut and melt readily for items like grilled cheese sandwiches.

Hard cheese

Most of the moisture has been removed from this texture, generally by chopping the curd and heating or pressing out all of the whey. These cheeses have typically been matured for at least a year (occasionally less for smaller wheels). They’re the kinds of things you’d want to grate over spaghetti to impart intense tastes into every bite.

Some of the most prevalent hard cheeses are grana-style cheeses. These hard, grainy cheeses contain the least amount of moisture, have a strong taste, and are frequently aged. These craggy, crumbly wheels range in color from ivory to straw yellow and have sweet, salty, and nutty scents as well as a profound umami-rich flavor. The most well-known grana-style cheese is Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Celebrate This Festive Season with A Dutch Masterpiece

A Dutch Masterpiece is as unique as the cheese itself, with legendary Dutch artists and their celebrated masterpieces adorning it. It also plays an educational function by providing thorough tasting notes to help consumers better grasp the unique tastes and textures of the cheeses. 

A Dutch Masterpiece elevates cheese entertaining to an art form, making your at-home party both memorable and delightful.