This ultra-rich, extremely smooth, slightly sweet fresh cheese is called “Italian cream cheese.” However, the distinction is only half correct: While mascarpone is made from the cream of cow’s milk, no cheese starter or rennet is used in its production. Mascarpone is made by draining the moisture from heavy cream using a small amount of citric acid and finely woven cloth. The result is similar to Devon Cream or Clotted Cream. Mascarpone is native to the Lombardy region of Italy, which is also home to the town of Gorgonzola. Incorporated into recipes as an ingredient (tiramisu is one of the most famous), it also makes simple yet luscious desserts, served with fruit and biscuits like gingersnaps and strawberries, or as a topping for fresh berries, poached fruit, or compote. Use it to stuff figs, dates, or dried apricots (sprinkle with chopped pistachios), or as the filling for cookie sandwiches.

Although some cheeses, once drained, are consumed fresh, others require some time to mature. To do this, they are placed on racks in the hâloir, a cold room that is well-ventilated, with a humidity of 80%. The cheeses are then regularly turned by hand. The curd slowly develops a rind, which, depending on what bacteria have been used, develops a fine layer of surface mold, which may be white, yellow, or brown. The temperature of the air inside the hâloir influences the taste of the cheeses. The cheesemaker monitors their maturation by touch, sight, smell, and taste.

Manchego is the great cheese of central Spain, made from the milk of the Manchega breed of ewe. Aged Manchego has an intense, zesty, piquant, nutty taste and a crumbly texture that’s rich and full, with a slight saltiness on the finish. The cheese can also be enjoyed in its younger states, aged from 3 to 9 months. Manchego is a true “workhorse” cheese, in that it does almost everything well, including melting. You can enjoy it on a sandwich, in a casserole, on a pizza, pretty much everywhere. Versions from Mexico and the southwestern U.S. may be called Manchego, but are a much milder cheese made from cow’s milk. Here’s more about Manchego and the history of the cheese (plus a recipe for sweet potato and apple pizza with Manchego).

Handmade in central Iowa, Maytag Blue was one of the first great American farmstead cheeses. It is ripened in caves dug into the rolling hills of the Iowa countryside, just as Roquefort is ripened in caves (though naturally occurring) in southwest France. However, Maytag is a cow’s milk cheese, while Roquefort is made from sheep’s milk. Maytag Blue Cheese is made by the same family that produces washing machines. Fritz Maytag, son of Frederick Louis Maytag, founded the Maytag Dairy and previously owned the Anchor Brewing Company. Perhaps not coincidentally, the cheese pairs well with a medium-bodied ale or lager, or a glass of sweet wine.
 

Mimolette (photo © Murray’s Cheese).

These are also known as Alpine cheeses, since they initially referred to large wheels of cheese made in the Alps. According to Caseus Montanus, an international association of mountain cheese producers, a mountain cheese is one produced and aged above 800 meters (approximately 2500 feet). Most are made in France, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. A Vermont-made mountain cheese, Tarentaise, was named “Best Farmstead Cow's Milk Cheese” at the 25th American Cheese Society Conference, for American-made cheeses.

According to ArtisanalCheese.com, scientific studies on the flavor profile of mountain cheeses have found as many as 100,000 micro-organisms in the flora of the high altitude mountains, as compared to less than 10,000 microorganisms in lower prairie altitudes. This intensity of micro-organisms is responsible for the deep and complex flavors of mountain cheeses.

Popular mountain cheeses (cow’s milk, except as noted) include Appenzeller (Swiss), Beaufort (French), Bleu des Basques Brebis (French, sheep’s milk blue cheese), Cantalet (French), Comté (French), Fontina Val d’Aosta (Italian), Fourme d’Ambert (French, blue cheese), Gruyère (French and Swiss), Hoch Ybrig (Swiss), Sbrinz (Swiss), Tête de Moine (Swiss) and Valdeón (Spain, blue goat’s milk cheese). Cheeses made in the French or Swiss Alps are also called Alpine cheeses.

Hoch Ybrig is a mountain cheese made from cow’s milk in Canton Schwyz, Switzerland. It is washed in a white wine brine, which provides additional complexity (both photos © Artisanal Cheese).

Appenzeller is produced in the Appenzellerland region of northeast Switzerland.

Legally, in Italy, mozzarella is made from the milk of the water buffalo, and is mozzarella di bufala; cow’s milk mozzarella is known as fior di latte, “the flower of the milk.” Water buffalo, native to Asia, were brought to Italy in the 1400s. Water buffalo’s milk is higher in both fat and protein than cow’s, yielding 1.6 times more cheese. It also lacks the yellow pigment, carotene, found in cow’s milk, so mozzarella di bufala is pure white.

Almost all American-made mozzarella is from cow’s milk. Mozzarella is a pasta filata, a spun paste. Like other cheeses, it begins with rennet-curdled milk. But unlike other cheeses, whose curds are then gathered and molded, mozzarella curds are plunged into hot whey or lightly salted water, kneaded, and pulled to develop the familiar stretchy strings (pasta filata), then shaped into the desired form (mozzarella, provolone, scamorza).

Muenster cheese (with an “e”) is a mild American cheese, not to be confused with the pungent munster cheese from the Alsace region of France (see next description. It is the evolution of the cheese made by European immigrants to the U.S. in the 1880s. While some artisan cheesemakers make round, aged muensters in the Alsatian style, most are factory-made loaves meant to be eaten young as a sandwich, cooking, or snack cheese (it is made in flavored varieties including caraway, cranberry, and hot pepper). It is a great melter for grilled sandwiches, burgers, and other dishes. While European-style Munster is a washed-rind cheese, in the U.S. the rind is generally not washed (washing provides more pungency). But annatto is used to provide an orange coating. The paste is semi-soft, smooth, and elastic.

Munster cheese (no “e”) is an assertive cheese believed to that originated in the eastern Vosges Mountains of the Alsace region of France. It is a monastery cheese that dates to the early Middle Ages; the name munster derives from the local dialect for monastery (in Latin, monasterium). Made of unpasteurized cow’s milk in small and large flat wheels, munster is the only cheese native to Alsace. A washed-rind cheese, Munster has a very pronounced, powerful aroma. In the five-week to three-month aging period, the rind is periodically washed with brine. It is rubbed by hand with a cloth moistened by a brine solution of rock salt and water (the salt inhibits the growth of mold). This added moisture encourages the development of the bacteria that gives munster its characteristically strong flavors and aromas, as well as its “red” rind (actually orange).

These cheeses have rinds that self-form during the aging process. Generally, no molds or microflora are added, nor is washing used to create the exterior rinds. Those that do exhibit molds and microflora in their rinds get them naturally from the environment. Most natural rind cheeses are aged for many weeks to develop their flavor as well as the rinds, and many are made from raw milk. Examples include many “tomme” style cheeses such as tomme de Savoie and mimolette, Stilton, and Lancashire.

There are two types of Neufchâtel, French and American. They are very different. French Neufchâtel is one of the oldest cheeses in France and the oldest cheese in Normandy, dating back as far as the sixth century. Soft and crumbly, its dry, white rind is velvety and edible. Its buttery, pale paste has a salty, somewhat sharp flavor has soft mushroom notes, like Brie. Like Brie, the cheese develops an earthy character as it ages. The cheese was given a registered designation of origin (AOC) in 1969 and a protected designation of origin (AOP) in 1996.

French Neufchâtel is made in various shapes: briquette (small brick), bonde (log), double-Bond (large log), carré (square), coeur (heart), gros coeur (large heart). The heart shape, which is imported to the U.S. for Valentine’s Day, is a tradition begun by young Norman women, as the story goes, to discreetly express their feelings of affection for young British soldiers during the 100 Years’ War.

American Neufchatel has been sold as a lower-fat alternative to cream cheese, with 1/3 the fat. However, it has been disappearing over the last decade, as cream cheese manufacturers have marketed their own lowfat and nonfat versions.