90 articles
Monterey Jack
Monterey Jack, also called Jack cheese or California Jack, is a mild semi-soft washed-curd American cheese from Monterey County, California, legally defined at 44 percent maximum moisture and 50 percent milkfat in solids, commercialized by David Jacks and aged 3 to 6 weeks.
Mozzarella
Mozzarella, including Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, is an Italian fresh pasta filata cheese; low-moisture mozzarella (pizza cheese) has 45-52% moisture and is the standard pizza topping.
Oaxaca cheese
Oaxaca cheese, or quesillo, is a Mexican pasta filata (stretched-curd) cow's-milk cheese from Reyes Etla, Oaxaca, with fibrous string texture, mild acid flavor, and excellent melting; protected as Quesillo de Reyes Etla since 2025.
Parmesan
Parmesan, the English name for Parmigiano Reggiano, a hard raw-milk Italian grana cheese with PDO status since 1996, made in Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna, and Mantua; aged at least 12 months, 30 kg wheels, 550 L milk each.
Pecorino
Pecorino is the Italian family of sheep's-milk cheeses (pecora = sheep), including PDO varieties Romano, Sardo, Toscano, and Siciliano; Romano, though named for Rome, is now mainly produced in Sardinia.
Pimento cheese
Pimento cheese, also pimiento cheese, is an American cheese spread of cheddar, pimentos, and mayonnaise, nicknamed the pâté of the South. It originated in New York around the 1870s, went national around 1910, and became a Southern staple after World War II.
Pizza cheese
Pizza cheese: cheese made or chosen for pizza topping, dominated by low-moisture Mozzarella and analogues. Defined by melt, stretch, oiling-off, and browning; US standards cap moisture at 48–52%.
Processed cheese
Processed cheese: cheese melted and emulsified with salts like sodium citrate or phosphate into a shelf-stable, non-ripening product. Invented in Switzerland 1911; patented by James L. Kraft in 1916; includes cheese food and spread grades.
Quark (dairy product)
Quark (German Quark, Topfen; fromage frais, tvorog) is a fresh, unripened acid-set dairy product of Central Europe, made by fermenting pasteurized milk to about pH 4.6 with lactic acid bacteria and a little rennet, then draining the curd without cutting, cooking, or aging.
Raclette
Raclette: Swiss Valais dish and semi-hard cheese melted and scraped over boiled potatoes with pickled onions and gherkins; name from French racler, official since 1874, Raclette du Valais AOP since 2007.
Raw milk
Raw milk is unpasteurized milk, or milk not heat-treated to kill germs such as Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella. Also called unpasteurized milk, it caused over 2,600 illnesses in 1998–2018 US outbreaks and offers no proven nutritional advantage.
Red Leicester
Red Leicester, formerly Leicester or Leicestershire cheese, is an English hard cow's milk cheese from Leicestershire, dyed orange with annatto, milder and flakier than Cheddar. Raw milk clothbound farmhouse production died out in 1956 and was revived in 2005 at Sparkenhoe Farm.
Reduced-mineral goat whey
Reduced-mineral goat whey (RMGW), a demineralized goat cheese whey powder, GRAS Notice 1211 by Crossway Foods; FDA no-questions letter Feb 4, 2025 for infant formula use up to 40% dry weight.
Ricotta
Ricotta is a fresh Italian acid/heat-coagulated whey cheese made by heating whey (80–90 °C) with acid to recover whey proteins; 'Ricotta Romana' is a sheep-whey PDO from Lazio with at least 40% fat in dry matter.
Roquefort
Roquefort: French blue-veined PDO cheese from raw Lacaune sheep's milk, ripened in the Combalou caves at Roquefort-sur-Soulzon with Penicillium roqueforti; France's first cheese appellation (1925), distinct mold population from all other blue cheeses.
Skimmed milk
Skimmed milk (skim milk, nonfat milk): cow's milk with milkfat reduced below 0.5% by centrifugal cream separation, retaining protein and calcium with fewer calories (84 vs 152 per serving) and reduced fat-soluble vitamins; often vitamin A fortified.
Skyr
Skyr is an Icelandic fresh dairy product made from strained skimmed milk; technically a cheese despite its yogurt-like eating, it has been made in Iceland for over a thousand years.
Smetana (dairy product)
Smetana (сметана, śmietana, smotana) is a Central and Eastern European fermented cream, a sour cream relative made with mesophilic lactococci, typically 10–42% fat, heat-stable in cooking, defined by Russian GOST standards.
Sour cream
Sour cream: cultured dairy product made by fermenting pasteurized, homogenized cream (18-20% fat in the US) with lactic acid bacteria to about 0.6% lactic acid; distinct from crème fraîche and German Saure Sahne.
Stilton cheese
Stilton: protected English blue or white cheese, PDO since 1996, made only in Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire from pasteurised milk; named for the Cambridgeshire village where it was sold; four blue Stilton dairies remain after 2024 closures.
Strained yogurt
Strained yogurt, also called Greek yogurt, labneh, or yogurt cheese, is fermented milk drained of most whey. Regional forms include labneh, chakka, torba, and Icelandic skyr; protein roughly doubles and acid whey is a byproduct.
String cheese
String cheese, also known as Cheesestring, is a snack cheese made from low-moisture mozzarella that can be peeled into strings, invented in Wisconsin in the mid-20th century.
Types of cheese
Types of cheese: hundreds of varieties grouped into roughly 12 coagulation-based families and commercial categories such as soft-ripened, blue-veined, pasta filata, and Cheddar, distinguished by milk type, moisture, ripening microbes, and protected origins.
Vacherin (dessert)
Vacherin (dessert), a French meringue dessert; also vacherin glacé. A decorated meringue or almond-paste ring filled with ice cream, Chantilly, and fruit, named for its resemblance to Vacherin Mont d'Or cheese.
Vegan cheese
Vegan cheese, also called dairy-free or plant-based cheese, mimics dairy cheese using coconut oil, starches, nuts, soy, and gums instead of casein; lower protein, EU naming bans, and a USD 2.43 bn 2021 market distinguish it.
Wensleydale cheese
Wensleydale cheese: British crumbly cow's-milk cheese from Wensleydale, Yorkshire Dales; protected version Yorkshire Wensleydale holds UK/EU PGI status; monastic origins around 1150; Hawes creamery, Saputo then Lactalis ownership.
Whey
Whey is the liquid byproduct of cheesemaking, about 93% water with lactose, soluble proteins (β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin), and minerals; processed into whey protein concentrate (34–80% protein) and isolate (90%+), once waste, now a prized, price-surging food ingredient.
Whey protein isolate
Whey protein isolate (WPI) is a dairy ingredient, at least 90% protein by dry weight, made from cheese whey by membrane filtration or ion exchange; used in supplements, sports drinks, and protein-fortified foods, GRAS in the US since 2000.
Whipped cream
Whipped cream (crème Chantilly when sweetened) is a foam made by whipping 30–38% fat dairy cream so partially coalesced fat globules stabilize air bubbles; over-whipping yields butter, and plant-based toppings use coconut or palm fats with added emulsifiers.
Yogurt
Yogurt (Turkish yoğurmak, to thicken) is fermented milk made with Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus; lactic acid at pH below 4.6 forms the gel, giving tart flavor, high protein, and improved lactose digestion.