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Explore Cheeses

Explore cheese varieties from around the world, categorized by texture, milk type, and region.

Sbrinz

Sbrinz is an extra hard cow's milk cheese from Central Switzerland, made in only 42 dairies. It ripens for at least 16 months and is usually grated over pasta or broken into small pieces to eat with wine.

Country: Switzerland
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Extra hard
Flavor: Unique

Criollo Cheese

Criollo cheese is a semi-hard raw cow's milk cheese from the area around Taxco, in northern Guerrero, Mexico. Its yellow to orange paste is full of eyes, the taste is mild and slightly sweet, and it browns well under a …

Country: Mexico
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-firm
Flavor: Savory, sharp

Danbo

Danbo is a semi-soft aged cow's milk cheese from Denmark, ripened in rectangular blocks under a coat of bacterial culture. It holds EU protected geographical indication status and is sold in grades running from very mild to sharp.

Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Soft and supple, easy to cut
Flavor: Mild, slightly acidic, aromatic

Trappe de la Coudre

Trappe de la Coudre, also sold as trappiste de Laval, is a soft French cheese with a washed rind made from pasteurized cow's milk at Entrammes in Mayenne. Trappist nuns ripen it in the cellars of the abbey Notre-Dame de …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Soft, artisan
Flavor: Salty, sweet

Ackawi

Akkawi is a white brine cheese from the Levant, named after the port city of Acre. It is usually made from pasteurized cow's milk, cured two days in salted whey brine, and eaten with soft flatbread or on its own …

Country: Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East and Syria
Milk Type: Cow's, goat's or sheep's milk
Texture: Soft, brined
Flavor: Mild, milky, salty

Banon

Banon is an unpasteurized goat cheese from Provence, sold as a small 100 g disc wrapped in chestnut leaves and tied with raffia. It ages about two weeks, gets dipped in eau de vie before wrapping, and has held AOC …

Country: France
Milk Type: Goat's milk
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Mild and intense, with notes of mushrooms and forest floor

Valtellina Casera

Valtellina Casera is a cheese made from semi-skimmed cow's milk in the province of Sondrio, northern Italy. It goes back to the sixteenth century, carries PDO status, and turns up in Valtellina buckwheat cooking such as pizzoccheri and sciatt.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow’s milk
Texture: Semihard
Flavor: Milk to hay and nutty

Jarlsberg

Jarlsberg is a mild Swiss-type cheese from Norway, made from cow's milk and named after Jarlsberg Manor. It is known for its buttery, slightly sweet and nutty flavor and its medium to large holes.

Country: Norway
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semihard
Flavor: Mild, sweet, nutty

Queijo São Jorge

Queijo São Jorge is a semi-hard to hard cow's milk cheese made only on the island of São Jorge in the Azores. It is known for its firm, brittle yellowish paste, small irregular holes, and a strong, slightly spicy flavor …

Country: Portugal
Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Firm consistency, hard or semi-hard
Flavor: Peppery, grassy

Traditional Welsh Caerphilly

Traditional Welsh Caerphilly is a hard cheese made in Wales from locally sourced cow’s milk. It can be produced using raw or pasteurized milk and either organic or non-organic methods. The cheese has a mild, slightly lemony taste when young …

Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Hard
Flavor: Mild, slightly lemony when young, fuller but still mild when aged

Queijo de Nisa

Queijo de Nisa is a semi-hard sheep's milk cheese from Nisa, in Portugal's Alto Alentejo. It is curdled with an infusion of thistle and known for a robust flavor with a slightly acidic finish.

Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Semi-hard or hard
Flavor: Not Specified

Roncal

Roncal is a hard cheese made from raw sheep's milk in the Roncal Valley of the Navarrese Pyrenees. In 1981 it became the first Spanish cheese granted a denomination of origin, and it is known for its intense, slightly spicy …

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Hard or semihard
Flavor: Well developed, pronounced

Havarti-Style

Havarti-Style cheese is a semi-soft cheese known for its smooth and creamy texture. Originating from Denmark, this cheese has a mild and buttery flavor with a hint of tanginess. It often has small, irregular holes throughout its body, giving it …

Castelo Branco

Castelo Branco is a soft Portuguese cheese made from goat or sheep milk and named after the city of Castelo Branco. It has carried a Protected Designation of Origin since 1996 and runs about 45% fat.

Country: Portugal
Milk Type: Goat's and sheep's milk
Texture: Semisoft to hard
Flavor: Sour, spicy, tangy

Vorarlberger Alpkäse

Vorarlberger Alpkäse is an Austrian hard cheese made from raw milk on the alps and Vorsäße of Vorarlberg. It holds a protected designation of origin, weighs up to 40 kilograms, and tastes mild young and piquant with age.

Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Firm to smooth
Flavor: Mild, becomes sharp with increasing age

Danablu

Danablu is a Danish blue-veined cow's milk cheese, sold in North America as Danish Blue Cheese. It is known for its sharp, salty taste, creamy semi-soft paste and EU protected geographical indication status.

Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Loose but not crumbly, generally soft, cuttable and spreadable, somewhat firmer towards the edges
Flavor: Piquant, sharp, somewhat salty and tart, leaning slightly towards bitter

Fontal

Fontal is one of the names that grew out of fontina, the cow's milk cheese first produced in Italy. Cheeses under derivative names like fontal are made in other parts of Italy and in Denmark, Sweden, Quebec, France, Argentina, and …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow

Scamorza

Scamorza is a southern Italian pasta filata cheese, usually made from cow's milk. It is tied with string and hung to dry into a pear-like shape, sold unsmoked or smoked, and works as a substitute for mozzarella in most dishes.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-soft

Brie de Melun

Brie de Melun is a soft unpasteurised cow's milk cheese from the Brie region of France, one of only two bries the French government certifies. It is smaller than Brie de Meaux, with a stronger flavour and a more pungent …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Salty, sharp, sour, strong

Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio

Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio is a long-aged Parmigiano Reggiano, the hard granular cow's milk cheese of Parma and Reggio Emilia. It is dry and grainy, with the sharp, salty, savory taste that makes it a grating cheese.

Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Hard, dry and grainy
Flavor: Sharp, salty and savory

Urdă

Urdă is a whey cheese made across Southeast Europe and in Hungary by boiling the whey drained from other cheeses. The paste is finely grained and silky, and most of it ends up in desserts and filled pastries.

Country: Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine
Milk Type: Cow's, goat's or sheep's milk
Texture: Creamy, delicate
Flavor: High quality

Provolone del Monaco

Provolone del Monaco is an Italian cheese made from the milk of the Agerolese cow in the hills behind Naples. It is named for the heavy cloaks its makers wore when they landed at the port of Naples, and it …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Compact with eyes
Flavor: Sweet and buttery aroma with a pleasant spicy taste

Formaggio di Fossa di Sogliano

Formaggio di fossa is an Italian pit cheese from Sogliano al Rubicone in Emilia-Romagna, made from sheep's, cow's or mixed milk. It is buried in bags inside tufa pits for 80 to 100 days, which gives it a sharp, herbaceous …

Milk Type: Sheep, cow, a mixture of the two, or rarely buffalo
Texture: Semi-hard, crumbles easily.
Flavor: Aromatic, fragrant, intense, slightly pungent for sheep's milk; subtle, delicate, moderately salty, slightly acidic for cow's milk; balanced between salty and sweet for mixed milk.

Raclette

Raclette is a Swiss cheese and the dish made from it: the cheese is heated and the melted part is scraped off, usually onto boiled potatoes. It comes from the canton of Valais, where the cheese carries an AOP.

Country: Switzerland
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semisoft, smooth
Flavor: Mildly acidic

Coulommiers

Coulommiers is a soft ripened cow's milk cheese from the town of Coulommiers in Seine-et-Marne, France. It is a smaller, thicker cousin of Brie with a nuttier flavor, sold as a disc under a white bloomy rind.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Fresh, creamy to fine, stronger