If you visit any supermarket in Europe or the USA, you will find one corner dedicated to cheese sales. There are innumerable types of cheese sold here.
And if you are from a place where you only know one type of cheese, this corner would confuse you for sure. To help you decide what to choose, here is a guide.
Types of cheese in the world
Cheese is an important ingredient of food. It comes in different varieties for different uses.
They are classified based on the type of animal milk used in their making, the method of production, the duration of fermentation, its texture, its fat content, and also the country of origin.
The cheese can be fresh, prepared from milk or whey. It can be the stretched curd type such as the Italian pasta filata and mozzarella.
The cheese can be of the hard-pressed type such as the Swiss cheese. Based on the moisture in them, cheese can be soft to hard. Let’s look into the details of some common and popular types of cheese.
1. Mozarella: one of the types of cheese
This cheese is from Italy. Earlier made from water buffalo milk, nowadays cow’s milk is used instead. It is semi soft and one should consume it fresh. One can use it in salads, on pizzas, and in meat and vegetable foods.
2. Cheddar
Cheddar cheese (Source: Pinterest)This cheese is firm to hard in consistency and made from pasteurized cow’s milk. Initially, England was the only region making it. It is white to pale yellow in color. It comes in the drum form.
3. Emmental
This is from Switzerland and unpasteurized cow’s milk is the main component in it. It is hard with a sweet aroma and fruity flavor. There are holes in it due to the gas of fermentation process.
4. Gouda
This is pronounced as Howda. It is from Holland (current Netherlands) and gets the name from the city in Netherlands. It is semi-hard and full of flavor. This goes well with wines. Moreover, it also adds taste to desserts.
5. Feta cheese
Feta cheese (Source: Wikipedia)This hails from Greece. It comes from pasteurized or unpasteurized goat’s and sheep’s milk. The host and sheep are grazed on pastures of Greece. It has a salty and tangy taste. It can be used on a variety of dishes and goes well with beer and wine.
6. Brie
This is a French cheese. It is soft and pale in color with some grey areas on the surface. The origin is in Brie in France and manufacturers there make it from unpasteurized cow milk. It is a cheese that goes in the making of desserts.
7. Parmesan cheese
This cheese is hard and crumbly. It is the most common cheese that is eaten in the world. Additionally, it has a nutty and fruity flavor. It comes from unpasteurized cow milk and is basically an Italian cheese.
Its color is pale yellow. It can be used in a grated form over pizzas, soups, salads, risottos etc. One can also consume it raw.
8. Mascarpone
Mascarpone cheese (Source: The daring gourmet)Read here KFC fast food chain’s secret food recipes unveiled!
Pasteurized cow milk yields this cheese. It is from Italy and one can add it to sweet as well as savory dishes. Citric acid curdles the cream form of cow milk to yield this delicious cheese.
It is rich and buttery and goes in the making of Italian delicacy Tiramisu. It goes well with fruits and can thicken puddings and creamy desserts.