Monterey Jack

What is Monterey Jack Cheese?

Monterey Jack, often shortened to Jack, is a white semi-hard cheese made from cow's milk. It comes from Monterey, on the Central Coast of California, and tastes mild with a slight sweetness. It has been called a vestige of Spanish rule in the early nineteenth century, deriving from a Franciscan monastic style of farmer's cheese.

The earliest version was made by 18th-century Franciscan friars in Monterey, Alta California. In the 1800s several people turned it into a business. Doña Juana Cota de Boronda made and sold Queso del País, or country cheese, in Monterey to support her family after her husband became incapacitated, pressing the curds with a handmade jack that may have given the cheese its name. David Jacks, a California land speculator and businessman, sold a mild white cheese that became known as Jacks' Cheese and then Monterey Jack. Other local ranchers made it too, including Andrew Molera, whose Big Sur dairy earned a strong reputation for it.

Most of the softer versions sold in American supermarkets are aged for only a month. Dry Jack is the hard one, aged for up to 24 months. It began as a mistake in 1915, when a San Francisco wholesaler forgot a batch of fresh Jack wheels in storage. World War I cut off hard cheese shipments from Europe, and when he found the wheels again his customers took the aged cheese as a good stand-in for Parmesan and similar hard cheeses.

Jack is also sold marbled with Colby as Colby-Jack and with yellow cheddar as cheddar-Jack. Pepper Jack is flavored with spicy chili peppers, bell peppers, and herbs.

Cooks use it mostly as a melting cheese inside quesadillas, California-style burritos, and bean and cheese burritos. It works on cheeseburgers, in grilled cheese sandwiches, and in some pasta dishes. Because it is low in tyramine, a compound linked to headaches, it is one of the cheeses often recommended to people who get migraines.