The AnyCheese Holiday Gift Guide

Explore Cheeses

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

Caerphilly-Style

Caerphilly-style cheese is a semi-firm, crumbly cheese originally from Wales, now often produced in other regions. It has a pale, ivory color and a slightly moist texture. The cheese is known for its mild, fresh flavor with a hint of …

Nostrano Valtrompia

Nostrano Valtrompia is an extra-hard, half-fat cow's milk PDO cheese from the Val Trompia in Brescia, Lombardy. It is made from partly skimmed raw milk with a little saffron, ripened at least twelve months, and produced by only six certified …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk (90% Brown Swiss), up to 10% other breeds or hybrids
Texture: Very hard
Flavor: Full and intense

Provola dei Nebrodi

Provola dei Nebrodi is a DOP stretched-curd cheese from the Nebrodi mountains of Sicily, made with raw cow's milk and lamb or kid rennet. It is the only Sicilian provola that is aged, and wheels reach four or five kilograms …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's whole milk, sometimes with sheep's and/or goat's milk
Texture: Soft and compact
Flavor: Sweet and slightly sour when fresh, savory and strong when aged

Maiorchino

Maiorchino is a hard sheep's milk cheese from the province of Messina in Sicily, sold in wheels of about 10 to 12 kg (22 to 26 lb). It is a listed Italian traditional food, known for a delicate flavor that …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Raw whole sheep's milk, goat's milk (max 25%)
Texture: Hard
Flavor: Spicy with age

Brânză de burduf

Brânză de burduf is a salty Romanian cheese made with sheep's milk, sometimes buffalo. It has a strong flavor and a slightly soft texture, and it is packed into a sheep's stomach, a sheep's skin, or a tube of pine …

Country: Romania
Milk Type: Sheep's milk (Turcana and Tiggae sheep)
Texture: Soft to firm and slightly flaky
Flavor: Spicy, sharp

Gamonedo

Gamonéu is a fatty, lightly smoked Spanish cheese made in parts of Asturias from a blend of cow, goat and sheep milk. It holds a Protected Designation of Origin and comes in two forms: del Puertu from the high passes …

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Raw cow’s, sheep’s, and goat’s milk, or any combination. Breeds: Friesian, Asturiana de los Valles, etc.
Texture: Harder and drier (del Puertu), richer and creamier (del Valle)
Flavor: Buttery, slightly nutty

Ricotta Salata

Ricotta Salata is a pressed, salted, dried, and aged version of ricotta, which turns it into a firm, crumbly cheese with a mild, milky flavor and a slightly salty bite. It's frequently grated over pasta, salads, or used in cooked …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Semi-hard, whey

Cabrales

Cabrales is a blue cheese made by rural dairy farmers in the Asturias mountains of Spain, from raw cow's milk alone or blended with goat and sheep milk. It is known for its strong, sometimes sharply acidic flavor and for …

Country: Spain
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Unctuous, compact, no eyes
Flavor: Intense, piquant

Brie

Brie is a soft cow's milk cheese named after the French region it comes from, pale under a white mould rind. It runs 60 to 75 percent butterfat and tastes creamy, nutty and mushroom-like, with a faint acidity. The rind …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Buttery , Creamy , Smooth , Soft
Flavor: Nutty, Mushroom

Bra

Bra is an Italian cheese from the town of Bra in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont. It is made mostly from cow's milk and sold either soft or hard, depending on how long it has aged, and it carries PDO …

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk; optionally mixed with small quantities of sheep or goat milk
Texture: Hard or semi-hard depending on aging
Flavor: Range from mild to piquant

Monterey Jack

Monterey Jack is a white, semi-hard cow's milk cheese from Monterey, California, with a mild and slightly sweet flavor. It melts cleanly, which is why it shows up in quesadillas, burritos, grilled cheese, and cheeseburgers.

Country: United States
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Mild to firm
Flavor: Mild to full-flavored

Brie de Meaux

Brie de Meaux is a soft cheese made from raw cow's milk in the Brie region of France, an AOC product since 1980. Wheels run 36 to 37 cm (14 to 14+1/2 in) across, with a delicate white rind and …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Cream, butter, hazelnuts

Kefalograviera

Kefalograviera is a hard Greek table cheese made from sheep's milk or a mix of sheep's and goat's milk. It tastes salty, smells rich, and shows up most often fried as saganaki or grated over pasta.

Country: Greece
Milk Type: Sheep’s milk or mixtures with up to 10% goat’s milk; sometimes cow's and sheep's milk (60:40)
Texture: Firm, elastic
Flavor: Pleasant

Ossau-Iraty

Ossau-Iraty is a sheep's milk cheese from the Northern Basque Country and Béarn in south-western France. Uncooked and pressed, it is smooth, creamy and firm, and has held appellation d'origine contrôlée status since 1980.

Country: France
Milk Type: Sheep's milk
Texture: Homogeneous, uncooked, pressed
Flavor: Fruity, herbaceous, nutty

Mimolette

Mimolette is a hard, bright orange cow's milk cheese made around Lille in northern France. It is sold at several ages, from young wheels that taste like Parmesan to extra-old ones with a hazelnut flavor and a grey, mite-worked rind.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Smooth, creamy body
Flavor: Sweet, less acidic, fruity, nutty, caramel

Queso Casín

Queso Casín is a hard to semi-hard cheese from southern Asturias, made with full-fat unpasteurized milk from Casina, Asturian Valley and Friesian cows. It is known for a firm, friable body, a sharp peppery bite, and a rind stamped with …

Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Hard to semi-hard, firm, crumbly, and buttery on the palate
Flavor: Strong, tangy, slightly bitter, and persistent

Tilsit

Tilsit, also spelled Tilsiter, is a pale yellow semihard smear-ripened cow's milk cheese created in the mid-19th century by Prussian-Swiss settlers in the East Prussian town of Tilsit. It is medium firm with irregular holes, and often flavoured with caraway …

Country: Germany
Milk Type: Cow’s milk
Texture: Semi-Hard
Flavor: Pungent, balanced

Parmesan

Parmesan, or Parmigiano Reggiano, is a hard granular cow's milk cheese from northern Italy, aged at least 12 months. It is known for its sharp, salty, savory taste, which comes from an unusually high level of glutamate.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Hard, artisan
Flavor: Salty, savory

Paški Sir

Paški sir is a hard sheep milk cheese from the Croatian island of Pag, where salt-laden wind shapes the plants the sheep eat. It carries Protected Designation of Origin status and has won gold and Super Gold at the World …

Country: Croatia
Milk Type: Sheep’s milk
Texture: Slightly elastic, granular
Flavor: Salty, savory, tangy

Stracchino

Stracchino, also called crescenza, is an Italian cow's milk cheese made in Lombardy, Tuscany, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Liguria. It is eaten very young, with no rind, a soft creamy body and a mild, slightly acidic flavor.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Mild, slightly acidic

Queijo de Azeitão

Queijo de Azeitão is a Portuguese cheese from the town of Azeitão, produced in Setúbal, Palmela and Sesimbra. It holds EU PDO status and was named one of the 50 best gastronomic products in the world at the 2014 Great …

Country: Portugal
Milk Type: Sheep
Texture: Semi-Soft
Flavor: Slightly piquant, a mix of sharp and salty

Anevato

Anevato is a Greek fresh cheese made from sheep's milk, goat's milk or a blend of the two in the mountains of Grevena and Voio in Western Macedonia. It is white, spreadable and grainy like cottage cheese, lightly salty and …

Country: Greece
Milk Type: Ewe's or goat's milk or mixtures of both
Texture: Soft
Flavor: Pleasant sourish and refreshing flavor

Salers

Salers is a semi-hard pressed cheese from the Cantal department in France's Massif Central, made only between 15 April and 15 November. Wheels weigh about 40 kg (88 lb) and age in caves for three to forty-five months. It has …

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Firm
Flavor: Strong-tasting

Montasio

Montasio is a cow's milk mountain cheese from Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto in northeastern Italy, made on the Montasio plateau since 1200. It is semi-hard and creamy when young, and harder after longer aging.

Country: Italy
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Elastic to crumbly and hard
Flavor: Mild, creamy, and fruity to savory, piquant, with hints of spice

Port Salut

Port Salut is a semi-soft pasteurized cow's milk cheese from Pays de la Loire, France. Trappist monks developed it in the 19th century, and it is known for its orange rind, its smooth sliceable paste and its mild flavor.

Country: France
Milk Type: Cow's milk
Texture: Semi-soft
Flavor: Acidic, mellow

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