For every party we provide a “What Is Cheese?” guide to let people learn a little more if they want to.
Here Is A sample…
What Is Cheese?
Cheese is milk with most of the moisture (whey) separated out. To do this, we use fermentation (like bread and wine)
- to create curds
- breakdown fats, sugars and proteins to develop flavour
It falls into 4 categories:
- Fresh Curd: fermented milk, drained of most of its whey, with no further processing. This is usually described as fresh cheese and has a very short life.
- Cured Cheese: fresh curd that has been cured, for example through salting, acidification or heating, to give it a longer life. Examples include halloumi and mozzarella.
- Ripened Cheese: fresh curd is ripened using moulds, yeasts or bacteria leading to secondary fermentation. Ripening cheese will radically change the taste and texture of the cheese as well as increasing the life of the cheese. Examples include blue cheeses, brie styles and washed rind styles such as epoisses.
- Aged Cheese: curd is heavily drained, often pressed and generally aged for more than three months. The long slow maturation leads to curd changing texture and breaking down into increasingly interesting and complex flavours. Examples include cheddar, gouda, swiss/alpine styles and grana styles such as parmesan.
Each style and sub-style of cheese has its own characteristic tastes and flavours. Most styles can also be flavoured by adding influences such as fruit, herbs or spices.
We Go Onto Discuss:
- a little history of cheese
- similarities between cheese and wine
- how to taste cheese