Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor

When should the cheese be served? In England it is served before or after the fruit, with or without the port.

Following The Book of Keruynge in modern spelling we note when it was published in 1431 the proper thing "after meat" was "pears, nuts, strawberries, whortleberries (American huckleberries) and hard cheese." In modern practice we serve some suitable cheese like Camembert directly on slices of apple and pears, Gorgonzola on sliced banana, Hable spread on pineapple and a cheese dessert tray to match the Lazy Lou, with everything crunchy down to Crackerjacks. Good, too, are figs, both fresh and preserved, stuffed with cream cheese, kumquats, avocados, fruity dunking mixtures of Pineapple cheese, served in the scooped-out casque of the cheese itself, and apple or pear and Provolone creamed and put back in the rind it came in. Pots of liquored and wined cheeses, no end, those of your own making being the best.

Champagned Roquefort or Gorgonzola

1/2 pound mellow Roquefort 1/4 pound sweet butter, softened A dash cayenne 3/4 cup champagne

With a silver fork mix cheese and butter to a smooth paste, moistening with champagne as you go along, using a little more or less champagne according to consistency desired. Serve with the demitasse and cognac, offering, besides crackers, gilt gingerbread in the style of Holland Dutch cheese tasters, or just plain bread.

After dinner cheeses suggested by Phil Alpert are:

FROM FRANCE: Port-Salut, Roblochon, Coulommiers, Camembert, Brie, Roquefort, Calvados (try it with a spot of Calvados, apple brandy)

FROM THE U.S.: Liederkranz, Blue, Cheddar

FROM SWEDEN: Hable Creme Chantilly

FROM ITALY: Taleggio, Gorgonzola, Provolone, Bel Paese

FROM HUNGARY: Kascaval

FROM SWITZERLAND: Swiss Gruyere

FROM GERMANY: Kuemmelkaese

FROM NORWAY: Gjetost, Bondost

FROM HOLLAND: Edam, Gouda

FROM ENGLAND: Stilton

FROM POLAND: Warshawski Syr



Chapter Nine

Au Gratin, Soups, Salads and Sauces

He who says au gratin says Parmesan. Thomas Gray, the English poet, saluted it two centuries ago with:

Parma, the happy country where huge cheeses grow.

On September 4, 1666, Pepys recorded the burying of his pet Parmesan, "as well as my wine and some other things," in a pit in Sir W. Batten's garden. And on the selfsame fourth of September, more than a century later, in 1784, Woodforde in his Diary of a Country Parson wrote:

I sent Mr. Custance about 3 doz. more of apricots, and he sent me back another large piece of fine Parmesan cheese. It was very kind of him.

The second most popular cheese for au gratin is Italian Romano, and, for an entirely different flavor, Swiss Sapsago. The French, who gave us this cookery term, use it in its original meaning for any dish with a browned topping, usually of bread crumbs, or crumbs and cheese. In America we think of au gratin as grated cheese only, although Webster says, "with a browned covering, often mixed with butter or cheese; as, potatoes au gratin." So let us begin with that.

Potatoes au Gratin

2 cups diced cooked potatoes 2 tablespoons grated onion 1/2 cup grated American Cheddar cheese 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup milk 1 egg Salt Pepper More grated cheese for covering

In a buttered baking dish put a layer of diced potatoes, sprinkle with onion and bits of butter. Next, scatter on a thin layer of cheese and alternate with potatoes, onions and butter. Stir milk, egg, salt and pepper together and pour it on the mixture. Top everything with plenty of grated cheese to make it authentically American au gratin. Bake until firm in moderate oven, about 1/2 hour.

Eggs au Gratin

Make a white sauce flavored with minced onion to pour over any desired number of eggs broken into a buttered baking dish. Begin by using half of the sauce and sprinkling on a lot of grated cheese. After the eggs are in, pour on the rest of the sauce, cover it with grated cheese and bread crumbs, drop in bits of butter, and cook until brown in oven (or about 12 minutes).

Tomatoes au Gratin

Cover bottom of shallow baking pan with slices of tomato and sprinkle liberally with bread crumbs and grated cheese, season with salt, pepper and dots of butter, add another layer of tomato slices, season as before and continue this, alternating with cheese, until pan is full. Add a generous topping of crumbs, cheese and butter. Bake 50 minutes in moderate oven.

Onion Soup au Gratin

4 or 5 onions, sliced 4 or 5 tablespoons butter 1 quart stock or canned consomme 1 quart bouillon made from dissolving 4 or 5 cubes Rounds of toasted French bread 1-1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

Saute onions in butter in a roomy saucepan until light golden, and pour the stock over. When heated put in a larger casserole, add the bouillon, season to taste and heat to boiling point. Let simmer 15 minutes and serve in deep well-heated soup plates, the bottoms covered with rounds of toasted French bread which have been heaped with freshly grated Parmesan and browned under the broiler. More cheese is served for guests to sprinkle on as desired.

At gala parties, where wine flows, a couple of glasses of champagne are often added to the bouillon.

In the famed onion soup au gratin at Les Halles in Paris, grated Gruyere is used in place of Parmesan. They are interchangeable in this recipe.

AMERICAN CHEESE SOUPS

In this era of fine canned soups a quick cheese soup is made by heating cream of tomato soup, ready made, and adding finely grated Swiss or Parmesan to taste. French bread toasted and topped with more cheese and broiled golden makes the best base to pour this over, as is done with the French onion soup above.

The same cheese toasts are the basis of a simple milk-cheese soup, with heated milk poured over and a seasoning of salt, pepper, chopped chives, or a dash of nutmeg.

Chicken Cheese Soup

Heat together 1 cup milk, 1 cup water in which 2 chicken bouillon cubes have been dissolved, and 1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup. Stir in 1/4 cup grated American Cheddar cheese and season with salt, pepper, and plenty of paprika until cheese melts.

Other popular American recipes simply add grated cheese to lima bean or split bean soup, peanut butter soup, or plain cheese soup with rice.

Imported French marmites are de rigueur for a real onion soup au gratin, and an imported Parmesan grinder might be used for freshly ground cheese. In preparing, it is well to remember that they are basically only melted cheese, melted from the top down.

CHEESE SALADS

When a Frenchman reaches the salad he is resting and in no hurry. He eats the salad to prepare himself for the cheese.

Henri Charpentier, Life & la Henri,

Green Cheese Salad Julienne

Take endive, water cress and as many different kinds of crisp lettuce as you can find and mix well with Provolone cheese cut in thin julienne strips and marinated 3 to 4 hours in French dressing. Crumble over the salad some Blue cheese and toss everything thoroughly, with plenty of French dressing.

American Cheese Salad

Slice a sweet ripe pineapple thin and sprinkle with shredded American Cheddar. Serve on lettuce dipped in French dressing.

Cheese and Nut Salad

Mix American Cheddar with an equal amount of nut meats and enough mayonnaise to make a paste. Roll these in little balls and serve with fruit salads, dusting lightly with finely grated Sapsago.

Brie or Camembert Salad

Fill ripe pear-or peach-halves with creamy imported Brie or Camembert, sprinkle with honey, serve on lettuce drenched with French dressing and scatter shredded almonds over. (Cream cheese will do in a pinch. If the Camembert isn't creamy enough, mash it with some sweet cream.)

Three-in-One Mold

3/4 cup cream cheese 1/2 cup grated American Cheddar cheese 1/2 cup Roquefort cheese, crumbled 2 tablespoons gelatin, dissolved and stirred into 1/2 cup boiling water Juice of 1 lemon Salt Pepper 2 cups cream, beaten stiff 1/2 cup minced chives

Mash the cheeses together, season gelatin liquid with lemon, salt and pepper and stir into cheese with the whipped cream. Add chives last Put in ring mold or any mold you fancy, chill well and slice at table to serve on lettuce with a little mayonnaise, or plain.

Swiss Cheese Salad

Dice 1/2 pound of cheese into 1/2-inch cubes. Slice one onion very thin. Mix well in a soup plate. Dash with German mustard, olive oil, wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce. Salt lightly and grind in plenty of black pepper. Then stir, preferably with a wooden spoon so you won't mash the cheese, until every hole is drenched with the dressing.

Rosie's Swiss Breakfast Cheese Salad

Often Emmentaler is cubed in a salad for breakfast, relished specially by males on the morning after. We quote the original recipe brought over by Rosie from the Swiss Tyrol to thrill the writers' and artists' colony of Ridgefield, New Jersey, in her brother Emil's White House Inn:

First Rosie cut a thick slice of prime imported Emmentaler into half-inch cubes. Then she mixed imported French olive oil, German mustard and Swiss white wine vinegar with salt and freshly ground pepper in a deep soup plate, sprinkled on a few drops of pepper sauce scattered in the chunks of Schweizer and stirred the cubes with a light hand, using a wooden fork and spoon to prevent bruising.

The salad was ready to eat only when each and every tiny, shiny cell of the Swiss from the homeland had been washed, oiled and polished with the soothing mixture.

"Drink down the juice, too, when you have finished mine Breakfast Cheese Salad," Rosie advised the customers. "It is the best cure in the world for the worst hangover."

Gorgonzola and Banana Salad

Slice bananas lengthwise, as for a banana split. Sprinkle with lemon juice and spread with creamy Gorgonzola. Sluice with French dressing made with lemon juice in place of vinegar, to help bring out the natural banana flavor of ripe Gorgonzola.

Cheese and Pea Salad

Cube 1/2 pound of American Cheddar and mix with a can of peas, 1 cup of diced celery, 1 cup of mayonnaise, 1/2 cup of sour cream, and 2 tablespoons each of minced pimientos and sweet pickles. Serve in lettuce cups with a sprinkling of parsley and chopped radishes.

Apple and Cheese Salad

1/2 cup cream cheese 1 cup chopped pecans Salt and pepper Apples, sliced 1/2-inch thick Lettuce leaves Creamy salad dressing

Make tiny seasoned cheese balls, center on the apple slices standing on lettuce leaves, and sluice with creamy salad dressing.

Roquefort Cheese Salad Dressing

No cheese sauce is easier to make than the American favorite of Roquefort cheese mashed with a fork and mixed with French dressing. It is often made in a pint Mason jar and kept in the refrigerator to shake up on occasion and toss over lettuce or other salads.

Unfortunately, even when the Roquefort is the French import, complete with the picture of the sheep in red, and garanti veritable, the dressing is often ruined by bad vinegar and cottonseed oil (of all things). When bottled to sell in stores, all sorts of extraneous spice, oils and mustard flour are used where nothing more is necessary than the manipulation of a fork, fine olive oil and good vinegar—white wine, tarragon or malt. Some ardent amateurs must have their splash of Worcestershire sauce or lemon juice with salt and pepper. This Roquefort dressing is good on all green salads, but on endive it's something special.

SAUCE MORNAY

Sauce Mornay has been hailed internationally as "the greatest culinary achievement in cheese."

Nothing is simpler to make. All you do is prepare a white sauce (the French Sauce Bechamel) and add grated Parmesan to your liking, stirring it in until melted and the sauce is creamy. This can be snapped up with cayenne or minced parsley, and when used with fish a little of the cooking broth is added.

PLAIN CHEESE SAUCE

1 part of any grated cheese to 4 parts of white sauce

This is a mild sauce that is nice with creamed or hard-cooked eggs. When the cheese content is doubled, 2 parts of cheese to 4 of white sauce, it is delicious on boiled cauliflower, baked potatoes, macaroni and crackers soaked in milk.

The sauce may be made richer by mixing melted butter with the flour in making the white sauce, or by beating egg yolk in with the cheese.

From thin to medium to thick it serves divers purposes:

Thin: it may be used instead of milk to make a tasty milk toast, sometimes spiced with curry.

Medium: for baking by pouring over crackers soaked in milk.

Thick: serves as a sort of Welsh Rabbit when poured generously over bread toasted on one side only, with the untoasted side up, to let the sauce sink in.

PARSLEYED CHEESE SAUCE

This makes a mild, pleasantly pungent sauce, to enliven the cabbage family—hot cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. Croutons help when sprinkled over.

CORNUCOPIA OF CHEESE RECIPES

Since this is the Complete Book of Cheese we will fill a bounteous cornucopia here with more or less essential, if not indispensable, recipes and dishes not so easy to classify, or overlooked or crowded out of the main sections devoted to the classic Fondues, Rabbits, Souffles, etc.

Stuffed Celery, Endive, Anise and Other Suitable Stalks

Use any soft cheese you like, or firm cheese softened by pressing through a sieve; at room temperature, of course, with any seasoning or relish.

SUGGESTIONS:

Cream cheese and chopped chives, pimientos, olives, or all three, with or without a touch of Worcestershire.

Cottage cheese and piccalilli or chili sauce.

Sharp Cheddar mixed with mayonnaise, mustard, cream, minced capers, pickles, or minced ham.

Roquefort and other Blues are excellent fillings for your favorite vegetable stalk, or scooped-out dill pickle. This last is specially nice when filled with snappy cheese creamed with sweet butter.

All canape butters are ideally suited to stuffing stalks. Pineapple cheese, especially that part close to the pineapple-flavored rind, is perfect when creamed.

A masterpiece in the line of filled stalks: Cut the leafy tops off an entire head of celery, endive, anise or anything similarly suitable. Wash and separate stalks, but keep them in order, to reassemble in the head after each is stuffed with a different mixture, using any of the above, or a tangy mix of your own concoction.

After all stalks are filled, beginning with the baby center ones, press them together in the form of the original head, tie tight, and chill. When ready, slice in rolls about 8-inch thick and arrange as a salad on a bed of water cress or lettuce, moistened with French dressing.

Cold Dunking

Besides hot dunking in Swiss Fondue, cold dunking may be had by moistening plenty of cream cheese with cream or lemon in a dunking bowl. When the cheese is sufficiently liquefied, it is liberally seasoned with chopped parsley, chives, onions, pimiento and/or other relish. Then a couple of tins of anchovies are macerated and stirred in, oil and all.

Cheese Charlotte

Line a baking dish from bottom to top with decrusted slices of bread dipped in milk. Cream 1 tablespoon of sweet butter with 2 eggs and season before stirring in 2 cups of grated cheese. Bake until golden brown in slow oven.

Straws

Roll pastry dough thin and cover with grated Cheddar, fold and roll at least twice more, sprinkling with cheese each time. Chill dough in refrigerator and cut in straw-size strips. Stiffly salt a beaten egg yolk and glaze with that to give a salty taste. Bake for several minutes until crisp.

Supa Shetgia[B]

[Footnote B: (from Cheese Cookery, by Helmut Ripperger)]

This is the famous cheese soup of the Engadine and little known in this country. One of its seasonings is nutmeg and until one has used it in cheese dishes, it is hard to describe how perfectly it gives that extra something. The recipe, as given, is for each plate, but there is no reason why the old-fashioned tureen could not be used and the quantities simply increased.

Put a slice of stale French bread, toasted or not, into a soup plate and cover it with 4 tablespoons of grated or shredded Swiss cheese. Place another slice of bread on top of this and pour over it some boiling milk. Cover the plate and let it stand for several minutes. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Serve topped with browned, hot butter. Use whole nutmeg and grate it freshly.

WITH A CHEESE SHAKER ON THE TABLE

Italians are so dependent on cheese to enrich all their dishes, from soups to spaghetti—and indeed any vegetable—that a shaker of grated Parmesan, Romano or reasonable substitute stands ready at every table, or is served freshly grated on a side dish. Thus any Italian soup might be called a cheese soup, but we know of only one, the great minestrone, in which cheese is listed as an indispensable ingredient along with the pasta, peas, onion, tomatoes, kidney beans, celery, olive oil, garlic, oregano, potatoes, carrots, and so forth.

Likewise, a chunk of melting or toasting cheese is essential in the Fritto Misto, the finest mixed grill we know, and it's served up as a separate tidbit with the meats.

Italians grate on more cheese for seasoning than any other people, as the French are wont to use more wine in cooking.

Pfeffernuesse and Caraway

The gingery little "pepper nuts," pfeffernuesse, imported from Germany in barrels at Christmastime, make one of the best accompaniments to almost any kind of cheese. For contrast try a dish of caraway.

Diablotins

Small rounds of buttered bread or toast heaped with a mound of grated cheese and browned in the oven is a French contribution.

CHEESE OMELETS

Cheddar Omelet

Make a plain omelet your own way. When the mixture has just begun to cook, dust over it evenly 1/2 cup grated Cheddar. (a) Use young Cheddar if you want a mild, bland omelet (b) Use sharp, aged Cheddar for a full-flavored one. (c) Sprinkle (b) with Worcestershire sauce to make what might be called a Wild Omelet. Cook as usual. Fold and serve.

Parmesan Omelet (mild)

Cook as above, but use 1/4 cup only of Parmesan, grated fine, in place of the 1/2 cup Cheddar.

Parmesan Omelet (full flavored)

As above, but use 1/2 cup Parmesan, finely grated, as follows: Sift 1/4 cup of the Parmesan into your egg mixture at the beginning and dust on the second 1/4 cup evenly, just as the omelet begins to set.

A Meal-in-One Omelet

Fry 1/2 dozen bacon slices crisp and keep hot while frying a cup of diced, boiled potatoes in the bacon fat, to equal crispness. Meanwhile make your omelet mixture of 3 eggs, beaten, and 1-1/2 tablespoons of shredded Emmentaler (or domestic Swiss) with 1 tablespoon of chopped chives and salt and pepper to taste.

Tomato and

Make plain omelet, cover with thin rounds of fresh tomato and dust well with any grated cheese you like. Put under broiler until cheese melts to a golden brown.

Omelet with Cheese Sauce

Make a plain French, fluffy or puffy omelet and when finished, cover with a hot, seasoned, reinforced white sauce in which 1/4 pound of shredded cheese has been melted, and mixed well with 1/2 cup cooked, diced celery and 1 tablespoon of pimiento, minced.

The French use grated Gruyere for this with all sorts of sauces, such as the Savoyar de Savoie, with potatoes, chervil, tarragon and cream. A delicious appearance and added flavor can be had by browning with a salamander.

Spanish Flan—Quesillo

FOR THE CARAMEL: 1/2 cup sugar 4 tablespoons water

FOR THE FLAN: 4 eggs, beaten separately 2 cups hot milk 1/2 cup sugar Salt

Brown sugar and mix with water to make the caramel. Pour it into a baking mold.

Make Flan by mixing together all the ingredients. Add to carameled mold and bake in pan of water in moderate oven about 3/4 hour.

Italian Fritto Misto

The distinctive Italian Mixed Fry, Fritto Misto, is made with whatever fish, sweetbreads, brains, kidneys, or tidbits of meat are at hand, say a half dozen different cubes of meat and giblets, with as many hearts of artichokes, finocchi, tomato, and different vegetables as you can find, but always with a hunk of melting cheese, to fork out in golden threads with each mouthful of the mixture.

Polish Piroghs (a pocketful of cheese)

Make noodle dough with 2 eggs and 2 cups of flour, roll out very thin and cut in 2-inch squares.

Cream a cupful of cottage cheese with a tablespoon of melted butter, flavor with cinnamon and toss in a handful of seedless currents.

Fill pastry squares with this and pinch edges tight together to make little pockets.

Drop into a lot of fast-boiling water, lightly salted, and boil steadily 30 minutes, lowering the heat so the pockets won't burst open.

Drain and serve on a piping hot platter with melted butter and a sprinkling of bread crumbs.

This is a cross between ravioli and blintzes.

Cheesed Mashed Potatoes

Whip into a steaming hot dish of creamily mashed potatoes some old Cheddar with melted butter and a crumbling of crisp, cooked bacon.

If there's a chafing dish handy, a first-rate nightcap can be made via a

Sauteed Swiss Sandwich

Tuck a slice of Swiss cheese between two pieces of thickly buttered bread, trim crusts, cut sandwich in two, surround it with one well-beaten egg, slide it into sizzling butter and fry on both sides. A chef at the New York Athletic Club once improved on this by first sandwiching the Swiss between a slice of ham and a slice of chicken breast, then beating up a brace of eggs with a jigger of heavy sweet cream and soaking his sandwich in this until it sopped up every drop. A final frying in sweet butter made strong men cry for it.



Chapter Ten

Appetizers, Crackers, Sandwiches, Savories, Snacks, Spreads and Toasts

In America cheese got its start in country stores in our cracker-barrel days when every man felt free to saunter in, pick up the cheese knife and cut himself a wedge from the big-bellied rattrap cheese standing under its glass bell or wire mesh hood that kept the flies off but not the free-lunchers. Cheese by itself being none too palatable, the taster would saunter over to the cracker barrel, shoo the cat off and help himself to the old-time crackers that can't be beat today.

At that time Wisconsin still belonged to the Indians and Vermont was our leading cheese state, with its Sage and Cheddar and Vermont Country Store Crackers, as Vrest Orton of Weston Vermont, calls them. When Orton heard we were writing this book, he sent samples from the store his father started in 1897 which is still going strong. Together with the Vermont Good Old-fashioned Natural Cheese and the Sage came a handy handmade Cracker Basket, all wicker, ten crackers long and just one double cracker wide. A snug little casket for those puffy, old-time, two-in-one soda biscuits that have no salt to spoil the taste of the accompanying cheese. Each does double duty because it's made to split in the middle, so you can try one kind of cheese on one half and another on t'other, or sandwich them between.

Some Pied Piper took the country cheese and crackers to the corner saloon and led a free-lunch procession that never faltered till Prohibition came. The same old store cheese was soon pepped up as saloon cheese with a saucer of caraway seeds, bowls of pickles, peppers, pickled peppers and rye bread with plenty of mustard, pretzels or cheese straws, smearcase and schwarzbrot. Beer and cheese forever together, as in the free-lunch ditty of that great day:

I am an Irish hunter; I am, I ain't. I do not hunt for deer But beer. Oh, Otto, wring the bar rag.

I do not hunt for fleas But cheese. Oh, Adolph, bring the free lunch.

It was there and then that cheese came of age from coast to coast. In every bar there was a choice of Swiss, Cottage, Limburger—manly cheeses, walkie-talkie oldsters that could sit up and beg, golden yellow, tangy mellow, always cut in cubes. Cheese takes the cube form as naturally as eggs take the oval and honeycombs the hexagon.

On the more elegant handout buffets, besides the shapely cubes, free Welsh Rabbit started at four every afternoon, to lead the tired businessman in by the nose; or a smear of Canadian Snappy out of a pure white porcelain pot in the classy places, on a Bent's water biscuit.

SANDWICHES AND SAVORY SNACKS

Next to nibbling cheese with crackers and appetizers, of which there is no end in sight, cheese sandwiches help us consume most of our country's enormous output of Brick, Cheddar and Swiss. To attempt to classify and describe all of these would be impossible, so we will content ourselves by picking a few of the cold and hot, the plain and the fancy, the familiar and the exotic. Let's use the alphabet to sum up the situation.

A Alpine Club Sandwich

Spread toasts with mayonnaise and fill with a thick slice of imported Emmentaler, well-mustarded and seasoned, and the usual club-sandwich toppings of thin slices of chicken or turkey, tomato, bacon and a lettuce leaf.

B Boston Beany, Open-face

Lightly butter a slice of Boston brown bread, cover it generously with hot baked beans and a thick layer of shredded Cheddar. Top with bacon and put under a slow broiler until cheese melts and the bacon crisps.

C Cheeseburgers

Pat out some small seasoned hamburgers exceedingly thin and, using them instead of slices of bread, sandwich in a nice slice of American Cheddar well covered with mustard. Crimp edges of the hamburgers all around to hold in the cheese when it melts and begins to run. Toast under a brisk boiler and serve on soft, toasted sandwich buns.

D Deviled Rye

Butter flat Swedish rye bread and heat quickly in hot oven. Cool until crisp again. Then spread thickly with cream cheese, bedeviled with catsup, paprika or pimiento.

E Egg, Open-faced

Saute minced small onion and small green pepper in 2 tablespoons of butter and make a sauce by cooking with a cup of canned tomatoes. Season and reduce to about half. Fry 4 eggs and put one in the center of each of 4 pieces of hot toast spread with the red sauce. Sprinkle each generously with grated Cheddar, broil until melted and serve with crisp bacon.

F French-fried Swiss

Simply make a sandwich with a noble slice of imported Gruyere, soak it in beaten egg and milk and fry slowly till cheese melts and the sandwich is nicely browned. This is a specialty of Franche-Comte.

G Grilled Chicken-Ham-Cheddar

Cut crusts from 2 slices of white bread and butter them on both sides. Make a sandwich of these with 1 slice cooked chicken, 1/2 slice sharp Cheddar cheese, and a sprinkling of minced ham. Fasten tight with toothpicks, cut in half and dip thoroughly in a mixture of egg and milk. Grill golden on both sides and serve with lengthwise slices of dill pickle.

H He-man Sandwich, Open-faced

Butter a thick slice of dark rye bread, cover with a layer of mashed cold baked beans and a slice of ham, then one of Swiss cheese and a wheel of Bermuda onion topped with mustard and a sowing of capers.

I International Sandwich

Split English muffins and toast on the hard outsides, cover soft, untoasted insides with Swiss cheese, spread lightly with mustard, top that with a wheel of Bermuda onion and 1 or 2 slices of Italian-type tomato. Season with cayenne and salt, dot with butter, cover with Brazil nuts and brown under the broiler.

J Jurassiennes, or Croutes Comtoises

Soak slices of stale buns in milk, cover with a mixture of onion browned in chopped lean bacon and mixed with grated Gruyere. Simmer until cheese melts, and serve.

K Kuemmelkaese

If you like caraway flavor this is your sandwich: On well-buttered but lightly mustarded rye, lay a thickish slab of Milwaukee Kuemmelkaese, which translates caraway cheese. For good measure sprinkle caraway seeds on top, or serve them in a saucer on the side. Then dash on a splash of kuemmel, the caraway liqueur that's best when imported.

L Limburger Onion or Limburger Catsup

Marinate slices of Bermuda onion in a peppery French dressing for 1/2 hour. Then butter slices of rye, spread well with soft Limburger, top with onion and you will have something super-duper—if you like Limburger.

When catsup is substituted for marinated onion the sandwich has quite another character and flavor, so true Limburger addicts make one of each and take alternate bites for the thrill of contrast.

M Meringue, Open-faced (from the Browns' 10,000 Snacks)

Allow 1 egg and 4 tablespoons of grated cheese to 1 slice of bread. Toast bread on one side only, spread butter on untoasted side, put 2 tablespoons grated cheese over butter, and the yolk of an egg in the center. Beat egg white stiff with a few grains of salt and pile lightly on top. Sprinkle the other 2 tablespoons of grated cheese over that and bake in moderate oven until the egg white is firm and the cheese has melted to a golden-brown.

N Neufchatel and Honey

We know no sandwich more ethereal than one made with thin, decrusted, white bread, spread with sweet butter, then with Neufchatel topped with some fine honey—Mount Hymettus, if possible.

Any creamy Petit Suisse will do as well as the Neufchatel, but nothing will take the place of the honey to make this heavenly sandwich that must have been the original ambrosia.

O Oskar's Ham-Cam

Oskar Davidsen of Copenhagen, whose five-foot menu lists 186 superb sandwiches and snacks, each with a character all its own, perfected the Ham-Cam base for a flock of fancy ham sandwiches, open-faced on rye or white, soft or crisp, sweet or sour, almost any one-way slice you desire. He uses as many contrasting kinds of bread as possible, and his butter varies from salt to fresh and whipped. The Ham-Cam base involves "a juicy, tender slice of freshly boiled, mild-cured ham" with imported Camembert spread on the ham as thick as velvet.

The Ham-Cam is built up with such splendors as "goose liver paste and Madeira wine jelly," "fried calves' kidney and remoulade," "Bombay curry salad," "bird's liver and fried egg," "a slice of red roast beef" and more of that red Madeira jelly, with anything else you say, just so long as it does credit to Camembert on ham.

P Pickled Camembert

Butter a thin slice of rye or pumpernickel and spread with ripe imported Camembert, when in season (which isn't summer). Make a mixture of sweet, sour and dill pickles, finely chopped, and spread it on. Top this with a thin slice of white bread for pleasing contrast with the black.

Q Queijo da Serra Sandwich

On generous rounds of French "flute" or other crunchy, crusty white bread place thick portions of any good Portuguese cheese made of sheep's milk "in the mountains." This last translates back into Queijo da Serra, the fattest, finest cheese in the world—on a par with fine Greek Feta. Bead the open-faced creamy cheese lightly with imported capers, and you'll say it's scrumptious.

R Roquefort Nut

Butter hot toast and cover with a thickish slice of genuine Roquefort cheese. Sprinkle thickly with genuine Hungarian paprika. Put in moderate oven for about 6 minutes. Finish it off with chopped pine nuts, almonds, or a mixture thereof.

S Smoky Sandwich and Sturgeon-smoked Sandwich

Skin some juicy little, jolly little sprats, lay on thin rye, or a slice of miniature-loaf rye studded with caraway, spread with sweet butter and cover with a slice of smoked cheese.

Hickory is preferred for most of the smoking in America. In New York the best smoked cheese, whether from Canada or nearer home, is usually cured in the same room with sturgeon. Since this king of smoked fish imparts some of its regal savor to the Cheddar, there is a natural affinity peculiarly suited to sandwiching as above.

Smoked salmon, eel, whitefish or any other, is also good with cheese smoked with hickory or anything with a salubrious savor, while a sandwich of smoked turkey with smoked cheese is out of this world. We accompany it with a cup of smoky Lapsang Soochong China tea.

T Tangy Sandwich

On buttered rye spread cream cheese, and on this bed lay thinly sliced dried beef. In place of mustard dot the beef with horseradish and pearl onions or those reliable old chopped chives. And by the way, if you must use mustard on every cheese sandwich, try different kinds for a change: sharp English freshly mixed by your own hand out of the tin of powder, or Dijon for a French touch.

U Unusual Sandwich—of Flowers, Hay and Clover

On a sweet-buttered slice of French white bread lay a layer of equally sweet English Flower cheese (made with petals of rose, marigold, violet, etc.) and top that with French Fromage de foin. This French hay cheese gets its name from being ripened on hay and holds its new-mown scent. Sprinkle on a few imported capers (the smaller they are, the better), with a little of the luscious juice, and dust lightly with Sapsago.

V Vegetarian Sandwich

Roll your own of alternate leaves of lettuce, slices of store cheese, avocados, cream cheese sprinkled heavily with chopped chives, and anything else in the Vegetable or Caseous Kingdoms that suits your fancy.

W Witch's Sandwich

Butter 2 slices of sandwich bread, cover one with a thin slice of imported Emmentaler, dash with cayenne and a drop or two of tabasco. Slap on a sizzling hot slice of grilled ham and press it together with the cheese between the two bread slices, put in a hot oven and serve piping hot with a handful of "moonstones"—those outsize pearl onions.

X Xochomilco Sandwich

In spite of the "milco" in Xochomilco, there isn't a drop to be had that's native to the festive, floating gardens near Mexico City. For there, instead of the cow, a sort of century plant gives milky white pulque, the fermented juice of this cactuslike desert plant. With this goes a vegetable cheese curded by its own vegetable rennet. It's called tuna cheese, made from the milky juice of the prickly pear that grows on yet another cactuslike plant of the dry lands. This tuna cheese sometimes teams up in arid lands with the juicy thick cactus leaf sliced into a tortilla sandwich. The milky pulque of Xochomilco goes as well with it as beer with a Swiss cheese sandwich.

Y Yolk Picnic Sandwich

Hard-cooked egg yolk worked into a yellow paste with cream cheese, mustard, olive oil, lemon juice, celery salt and a touch of tabasco, spread on thick slices of whole wheat bread.

Z Zebra

Take a tip from Oskar over in Copenhagen and design your own Zebra sandwich as decoratively as one of those oft-photoed skins in El Morocco. Just alternate stripes of black bread with various white cheeses in between, to follow, the black and white zebra pattern.

For good measure we will toss in a couple of toasted cheese sandwiches.

Toasted Cheese Sandwich

Butter both sides of 2 thick slices of white bread and sandwich between them a seasoned mixture of shredded sharp cheese, egg yolk, mustard and chopped chives, together with stiffly beaten egg white folded in last to make a light filling. Fry the buttered sandwich in more butter until well melted and nicely gilded.

This toasted cheeser is so good it's positively sinful. The French, who outdo us in both cooking and sin, make one of their own in the form of fried fingers of stale bread doused in an 'arf and 'arf Welsh Rabbit and Fondue melting of Gruyere, that serves as a liaison to further sandwich the two.

Garlic is often used in place of chopped chives, and in contrast to this wild one there's a mild one made of Dutch cream cheese by the equally Dutch Pennsylvanians.

England, of course, together with Wales, holds all-time honors with such celebrated regional "toasting cheeses" as Devonshire and Dunlop. Even British Newfoundland is known for its simple version, that's quite as pleasing as its rich Prince Edward Island Oyster Stew.

Newfoundland Toasted Cheese Sandwich

1 pound grated Cheddar 1 egg, well beaten 1/2 cup milk 1 tablespoon butter

Heat together and pour over well-buttered toast.



Chapter Eleven

"Fit for Drink"

A country without a fit drink for cheese has no cheese fit for drink.

Greece was the first country to prove its epicurean fitness, according to the old saying above, for it had wine to tipple and sheep's milk cheese to nibble. The classical Greek cheese has always been Feta, and no doubt this was the kind that Circe combined most suitably with wine to make a farewell drink for her lovers. She put further sweetness and body into the stirrup cup by stirring honey and barley meal into it. Today we might whip this up in an electric mixer to toast her memory.

While a land flowing with milk and honey is the ideal of many, France, Italy, Spain or Portugal, flowing with wine and honey, suit a lot of gourmets better. Indeed, in such vinous-caseous places cheese is on the house at all wine sales for prospective customers to snack upon and thus bring out the full flavor of the cellared vintages. But professional wine tasters are forbidden any cheese between sips. They may clear their palates with plain bread, but nary a crumb of Roquefort or cube of Gruyere in working hours, lest it give the wine a spurious nobility.

And, speaking of Roquefort, Romanee has the closest affinity for it. Such affinities are also found in Pont l'Eveque and Beaujolais, Brie and red champagne, Coulommiers and any good vin rose. Heavenly marriages are made in Burgundy between red and white wines of both Cotes, de Nuits and de Baune, and Burgundian cheeses such as Epoisses, Soumaintarin and Saint-Florentin. Pommard and Port-Salut seem to be made for each other, as do Chateau Margaux and Camembert.

A great cheese for a great wine is the rule that brings together in the neighboring provinces such notables as Sainte Maure, Valencay, Vendome and the Loire wines—Vouvray, Saumur and Anjou. Gruyere mates with Chablis, Camembert with St. Emilion; and any dry red wine, most commonly claret, is a fit drink for the hundreds of other fine French cheeses.

Every country has such happy marriages, an Italian standard being Provolone and Chianti. Then there is a most unusual pair, French Neufchatel cheese and Swiss Neuchatel wine from just across the border. Switzerland also has another cheese favorite at home—Trauben (grape cheese), named from the Neuchatel wine in which it is aged.

One kind of French Neufchatel cheese, Bondon, is also uniquely suited to the company of any good wine because it is made in the exact shape and size of a wine barrel bung. A similar relation is found in Brinzas (or Brindzas) that are packed in miniature wine barrels, strongly suggesting what should be drunk with such excellent cheeses: Hungarian Tokay. Other foreign cheeses go to market wrapped in vine leaves. The affinity has clearly been laid down in heaven.

Only the English seem to have a fortissimo taste in the go-with wines, according to these matches registered by Andre Simon in The Art of Good Living:

Red Cheshire with Light Tawny Port White Cheshire with Oloroso Sherry Blue Leicester with Old Vintage Port Green Roquefort with New Vintage Port

To these we might add brittle chips of Greek Casere with nips of Amontillado, for an eloquent appetizer.

The English also pour port into Stilton, and sundry other wines and liquors into Cheddars and such. This doctoring leads to fraudulent imitation, however, for either port or stout is put into counterfeit Cheshire cheese to make up for the richness it lacks.

While some combinations of cheeses and wines may turn out palatable, we prefer taking ours straight. When something more fiery is needed we can twirl the flecks of pure gold in a chalice of Eau de Vie de Danzig and nibble on legitimate Danzig cheese unadulterated. Goldwasser, or Eau de Vie, was a favorite liqueur of cheese-loving Franklin Roosevelt, and we can be sure he took the two separately.

Another perfect combination, if you can take it, is imported kuemmel with any caraway-seeded cheese, or cream cheese with a handy saucer of caraway seeds. In the section of France devoted to gin, the juniper berries that flavor the drink also go into a local cheese, Fromage Fort. This is further fortified with brandy, white wine and pepper. One regional tipple with such brutally strong cheese is black coffee laced with gin.

French la Jonchee is another potted thriller with not only coffee and rum mixed in during the making, but orange flower water, too. Then there is la Petafina, made with brandy and absinthe; Hazebrook with brandy alone; and la Cachat with white wine and brandy.

In Italy white Gorgonzola is also put up in crocks with brandy. In Oporto the sharp cheese of that name is enlivened by port, Cider and the greatest of applejacks, Calvados, seem made to go the regional Calvados cheese. This is also true of our native Jersey Lightning and hard cider with their accompanying New York State cheese. In the Auge Valley of France, farmers also drink homemade cider with their own Augelot, a piquant kind of Pont l'Eveque.

The English sip pear cider (perry) with almost any British cheese. Milk would seem to be redundant, but Sage cheese and buttermilk do go well together.

Wine and cheese have other things in common. Some wines and some cheeses are aged in caves, and there are vintage cheeses no less than vintage wines, as is the case with Stilton.



Chapter Twelve

Lazy Lou

Once, so goes the sad story, there was a cheesemonger unworthy of his heritage. He exported a shipload of inferior "Swiss" made somewhere in the U.S.A. Bad to begin with, it had worsened on the voyage. Rejected by the health authorities on the other side, it was shipped back, reaching home in the unhappy condition known as "cracked." To cut his losses the rascally cheesemonger had his cargo ground up and its flavor disguised with hot peppers and chili sauce. Thus there came into being the abortion known as the "cheese spread."

The cheese spread or "food" and its cousin, the processed cheese, are handy, cheap and nasty. They are available everywhere and some people even like them. So any cheese book is bound to take formal notice of their existence. I have done so—and now, an unfond farewell to them.

My academic cheese education began at the University of Wisconsin in 1904. I grew up with our great Midwest industry; I have read with profit hundreds of pamphlets put out by the learned Aggies of my Alma Mater. Mostly they treat of honest, natural cheeses: the making, keeping and enjoying of authentic Longhorn Cheddars, short Bricks and naturalized Limburgers.

At the School of Agriculture the students still, I am told, keep their hand in by studying the classical layout on a cheese board. One booklet recommends the following for freshman contemplation:

CARAWAY BRICK SELECT BRICK EDAM WISCONSIN SWISS LONGHORN AMERICAN SHEFFORD

These six sturdy samples of Wisconsin's best will stimulate any amount of classroom discussion. Does the Edam go better with German-American black bread or with Swedish Ry-Krisp? To butter or not to butter? And if to butter, with which cheese? Salt or sweet? How close do we come to the excellence of the genuine Alpine Swiss? Primary school stuff, but not unworthy of thought.

Pass on down the years. You are now ready to graduate. Your cheese board can stand a more sophisticated setup. Try two boards; play the teams against each other.

The All-American Champs

NEW YORK COON PHILADELPHIA CREAM OHIO LIEDERKRANZ VERMONT SAGE KENTUCKY TRAPPIST WISCONSIN LIMBURGER CALIFORNIA JACK PINEAPPLE MINNESOTA BLUE BRICK TILLAMOOK

VS.

The European Giants

PORTUGUESE TRAZ- DUTCH GOUDA ITALIAN PARMESAN OS-MONTES FRENCH ROQUEFORT SWISS EMMENTALER YUGOSLAVIAN KACKAVALJ ENGLISH STILTON DANISH BLUE GERMAN MUeNSTER GREEK FETA HABLE

The postgraduate may play the game using as counters the great and distinctive cheeses of more than fifty countries. Your Scandinavian board alone, just to give an idea of the riches available, will shine with blues, yellows, whites, smoky browns, and chocolates representing Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Lapland.

For the Britisher only blue-veined Stilton is worthy to crown the banquet. The Frenchman defends Roquefort, the Dane his own regal Blue; the Swiss sticks to Emmentaler before, during and after all three meals. You may prefer to finish with a delicate Brie, a smoky slice of Provolone, a bit of Baby Gouda, or some Liptauer Garniert, about which more later.

We load them all on Lazy Lou, Lazy Susan's big twin brother, a giant roulette wheel of cheese, every number a winner. A second Lazy Lou will bear the savories and go-withs. For these tidbits the English have a divine genius; think of the deviled shrimps, smoked oysters, herring roe on toast, snips of broiled sausage ... But we will make do with some olives and radishes, a few pickles, nuts, capers. With our two trusty Lazy Lous on hand plus wine or beer, we can easily dispense with the mere dinner itself.

Perhaps it is an Italian night. Then Lazy Lou is happily burdened with imported Latticini; Incanestrato, still bearing the imprint of its wicker basket; Pepato, which is but Incanestrato peppered; Mel Fina; deep-yellow, buttery Scanno with its slightly burned flavor; tangy Asiago; Caciocavallo, so called because the the cheeses, tied in pairs and hung over a pole, look as though they were sitting in a saddle—cheese on horseback, or "cacio a cavallo." Then we ring in Lazy Lou's first assistant, an old, silver-plated, revolving Florentine magnum-holder. It's designed to spin a gigantic flask of Chianti. The flick of a finger and the bottle is before you. Gently pull it down and hold your glass to the spout.

True, imported wines and cheeses are expensive. But native American products and reasonably edible imitations of the real thing are available as substitutes. Anyway, protein for protein, a cheese party will cost less than a steak barbecue. And it can be more fun.

Encourage your guests to contribute their own latest discoveries. One may bring along as his ticket of admission a Primavera from Brazil; another some cubes of an Andean specialty just flown in from Colombia's mountain city, Merida, and still wrapped in its aromatic leaves of Frailejon Lanudo; another a few wedges of savory sweet English Flower cheese, some flavored with rose petals, others with marigolds; another a tube of South American Kraeuterkaese.

Provide your own assortment of breads and try to include some of those fat, flaky old-fashioned crackers that country stores in New England can still supply. Mustard? Sure, if .you like it. If you want to be fancy, use a tricky little gadget put out by the Maille condiment-makers in France and available here in the food specialty shops. It's a miniature painter's palate holding five mustards of different shades and flavors and two mustard paddles. The mustards, in proper chromatic order, are: jonquil yellow "Strong Dijon"; "Green Herbs"; brownish "Tarragon"; golden "Ora"; crimson "Tomato-flavored."

And, just to keep things moving, we have restored an antique whirling cruet-holder to deliver Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, A-1, Tap Sauce and Major Grey's Chutney. Salt shakers and pepper mills are handy, with a big-holed tin canister filled with crushed red-pepper pods, chili powder, Hungarian-paprika and such small matters. Butter, both sweet and salt, is on hand, together with, saucers or bowls of curry, capers, chives (sliced, not chopped), minced onion, fresh mint leaves, chopped pimientos, caraway, quartered lemons, parsley, fresh tarragon, tomato slices, red and white radishes, green and black olives, pearl onions and assorted nutmeats.

Some years ago, when I was collaborating with my mother, Cora, and my wife, Rose, in writing 10,000 Snacks (which, by the way, devotes nearly forty pages to cheeses), we staged a rather elaborate tasting party just for the three of us. It took a two-tiered Lazy Lou to twirl the load.

The eight wedges on the top round were English and French samples and the lower one carried the rest, as follows:

ENGLISH CHEDDAR CHESHIRE ENGLISH STILTON CANADIAN CHEDDAR (rum flavored)

FRENCH MUeNSTER FRENCH BRIE FRENCH FRENCH CAMEMBERT ROQUEFORT

SWISS SAPSAGO SWISS GRUYERE SWISS EDAM DUTCH GOUDA

ITALIAN CZECH ITALIAN NORWEGIAN PROVOLONE OSTIEPKI GORGONZOLA GJETOST

HUNGARIAN LIPTAUER

The tasting began with familiar English Cheddars, Cheshires and Stiltons from the top row. We had cheese knives, scoops, graters, scrapers and a regulation wire saw, but for this line of crumbly Britishers fingers were best.

The Cheddar was a light, lemony-yellow, almost white, like our best domestic "bar cheese" of old.

The Cheshire was moldy and milky, with a slightly fermented flavor that brought up the musty dining room of Fleet Street's Cheshire cheese and called for draughts of beer. The Stilton was strong but mellow, as high in flavor as in price.

Only the rum-flavored Canadian Cheddar from Montreal (by courtesy English) let us down. It was done up as fancy as a bridegroom in waxed white paper and looked as smooth and glossy as a gardenia. But there its beauty ended. Either the rum that flavored it wasn't up to much or the mixture hadn't been allowed to ripen naturally.

The French Muenster, however, was hearty, cheery, and better made than most German Muenster, which at that time wasn't being exported much by the Nazis. The Brie was melting prime, the Camembert was so perfectly matured we ate every scrap of the crust, which can't be done with many American "Camemberts" or, indeed, with the dead, dry French ones sold out of season. Then came the Roquefort, a regal cheese we voted the best buy of the lot, even though it was the most expensive. A plump piece, pleasantly unctuous but not greasy, sharp in scent, stimulatingly bittersweet in taste—unbeatable. There is no American pretender to the Roquefort throne. Ours is invariably chalky and tasteless. That doesn't mean we have no good Blues. We have. But they are not Roquefort.

The Sapsago or Kraeuterkaese from Switzerland (it has been made in the Canton of Glarus for over five hundred years) was the least expensive of the lot. Well-cured and dry, it lent itself to grating and tasted fine on an old-fashioned buttered soda cracker. Sapsago has its own seduction, derived from the clover-leaf powder with which the curd is mixed and which gives it its haunting flavor and spring-like sage-green color.

Next came some truly great Swiss Gruyere, delicately rich, and nutty enough to make us think of the sharp white wines to be drunk with it at the source.

As for the Provolone, notable for the water-buffalo milk that makes it, there's an example of really grown-up milk. Perfumed as spring flowers drenched with a shower of Anjou, having a bouquet all its own and a trace of a winelike kick, it made us vow never to taste another American imitation. Only a smooth-cheeked, thick slab cut from a pedigreed Italian Provolone of medium girth, all in one piece and with no sign of a crack, satisfy the gourmet.

The second Italian classic was Gorgonzola, gorgeous Gorgonzola, as fruity as apples, peaches and pears sliced together. It smells so much like a ripe banana we often eat them together, plain or with the crumbly formaggio lightly forked into the fruit, split lengthwise.

After that the Edam tasted too lipsticky, like the red-paint job on its rind, and the Gouda seemed only half-hearted. Both too obviously ready-made for commerce with nothing individual or custom-made about them, rolled or bounced over from Holland by the boat load.

The Ostiepki from Czechoslovakia might have been a link of smoked ostrich sausage put up in the skin of its own red neck. In spite of its pleasing lemon-yellow interior, we couldn't think of any use for it except maybe crumbling thirty or forty cents' worth into a ten-cent bowl of bean soup. But that seemed like a waste of money, so we set it aside to try in tiny chunks on crackers as an appetizer some other day, when it might be more appetizing.

We felt much the same about the chocolate-brown Norwegian Gjetost that looked like a slab of boarding-school fudge and which had the same cloying cling to the tongue. We were told by a native that our piece was entirely too young. That's what made it so insipid, undeveloped in texture and flavor. But the next piece we got turned out to be too old and decrepit, and so strong it would have taken a Paul Bunyan to stand up under it. When we complained to our expert about the shock to our palates, he only laughed, pointing to the nail on his little finger.

"You should take just a little bit, like that. A pill no bigger than a couple of aspirins or an Alka-Seltzer. It's only in the morning you take it when it's old and strong like this, for a pick-me-up, a cure for a hangover, you know, like a prairie oyster well soused in Worcestershire."

That made us think we might use it up to flavor a Welsh Rabbit, instead of the Worcestershire sauce, but we couldn't melt it with anything less than a blowtorch.

To bring the party to a happy end, we went to town on the Hungarian Liptauer, garnishing that fine, granulating buttery base after mixing it well with some cream cheese. We mixed the mixed cheese with sardine and tuna mashed together in a little of the oil from the can. We juiced it with lemon, sluiced it with bottled sauces, worked in the leftovers, some tarragon, mint, spicy seeds, parsley, capers and chives. We peppered and paprikaed it, salted and spiced it, then spread it thicker than butter on pumpernickel and went to it. That's Liptauer Garniert.



Appendix

The A-B-Z of Cheese

Each cheese is listed by its name and country of origin, with any further information available. Unless otherwise indicated, the cheese is made of cow's milk.

A

Aberdeen Scotland

Soft; creamy mellow.

Abertam Bohemia (Made near Carlsbad)

Hard; sheep; distinctive, with a savory smack all its own.

Absinthe see Petafina.

Acidophilus see Saint-Ivel.

Aettekees Belgium

November to May—winter-made and eaten.

Affine, Carre see Ancien Imperial.

Affumicata, Mozzarella see Mozzarella.

After-dinner cheeses see Chapter 8.

Agricultural school cheeses see College-educated.

Aiguilles, Fromage d' Alpine France

Named "Cheese of the Needles" from the sharp Alpine peaks of the district where it is made.

Aizy, Cendree d' see Cendree.

Ajacilo, Ajaccio Corsica

Semihard; piquant; nut-flavor. Named after the chief city of French Corsica where a cheese-lover, Napoleon, was born.

a la Creme see Fromage, Fromage Blanc, Chevretons.

a la Main see Vacherin.

a la Pie see Fromage.

a la Rachette see Bagnes.

Albini Northern Italy

Semihard; made of both goat and cow milk; white, mellow, pleasant-tasting table cheese.

Albula Switzerland

Rich with the flavor of cuds of green herbs chewed into creamy milk that makes tasty curds. Made in the fertile Swiss Valley of Albula whose proud name it bears.

Alderney Channel Islands

The French, who are fond of this special product of the very special breed of cattle named after the Channel Island of Alderney, translate it phonetically—Fromage d'Aurigny.

Alemtejo Portugal

Called in full Queijo de Alemtejo, cheese of Alemtejo, in the same way that so many French cheeses carry along the fromage title. Soft; sheep and sometimes goat or cow; in cylinders of three sizes, weighing respectively about two ounces, one pound, and four pounds. The smaller sizes are the ones most often made with mixed goat and sheep milk. The method of curdling without the usual animal rennet is interesting and unusual. The milk is warmed and curdled with vegetable rennet made from the flowers of a local thistle, or cardoon, which is used in two other Portuguese cheeses—Queijo da Cardiga and Queijo da Serra da Estrella—and probably in many others not known beyond their locale. In France la Caillebotte is distinguished for being clabbered with chardonnette, wild artichoke seed. In Portugal, where there isn't so much separating of the sheep from the goats, it takes several weeks for Alemtejos to ripen, depending on the lactic content and difference in sizes.

Alfalfa see Sage.

Alise Saint-Reine France

Soft; summer-made.

Allgaeuer Bergkaese, Allgaeuer Rundkaese, or Allgaeuer Emmentaler Bavaria

Hard; Emmentaler type. The small district of Allgaeu names a mountain of cheeses almost as fabulous as our "Rock-candy Mountain." There are two principal kinds, vintage Allgaeuer Bergkaese and soft Allgaeuer Rahmkaese, described below. This celebrated cheese section runs through rich pasture lands right down and into the Swiss Valley of the Emme that gives the name Emmentaler to one of the world's greatest. So it is no wonder that Allgaeuer Bergkaese can compete with the best Swiss. Before the Russian revolution, in fact, all vintage cheeses of Allgaeu were bought up by wealthy Russian noblemen and kept in their home caves in separate compartments for each year, as far back as the early 1900's. As with fine vintage wines, the price of the great years went up steadily. Such cheeses were shipped to their Russian owners only when the chief cheese-pluggers of Allgaeu found they had reached their prime.

Allgaeuer Rahmkaese Bavaria

Full cream, similar to Romadur and Limburger, but milder than both. This sets a high grade for similar cheeses made in the Bavarian mountains, in monasteries such as Andechs. It goes exquisitely with the rich dark Bavarian beer. Some of it is as slippery as the stronger, smellier Bierkaese, or the old-time Slipcote of England. Like so many North Europeans, it is often flavored with caraway. Although entirely different from its big brother, vintage Bergkaese, Rahmkaese can stand proudly at its side as one of the finest cheeses in Germany.

Alpe see Fiore di Alpe.

Al Pepe Italy

Hard and peppery, like its name. Similar to Pepato (see).

Alpes France

Similar to Bel Paese.

Alpestra Austria

A smoked cheese that tastes, smells and inhales like whatever fish it was smoked with. The French Alps has a different Alpestre; Italy spells hers Alpestro.

Alpestre, Alpin, or Fromage de Briancon France

Hard; goat; dry; small; lightly salted. Made at Briancon and Gap.

Alpestro Italy

Semisoft; goat; dry; lightly salted.

Alpin or Clerimbert Alpine France

The milk is coagulated with rennet at 80 deg. F. in two hours. The curd is dipped into molds three to four inches in diameter and two and a half inches in height, allowed to drain, turned several times for one day only, then salted and ripened one to two weeks.

Altenburg, or Altenburger Ziegenkaese Germany

Soft; goat; small and flat—one to two inches thick, eight inches in diameter, weight two pounds.

Alt Kuhkaese Old Cow Cheese Germany

Hard; well-aged, as its simple name suggests.

Altsohl see Brinza.

Ambert, or Fourme d'Ambert Limagne, Auvergne, France

A kind of Cheddar made from November to May and belonging to the Cantal—Fourme-La Tome tribe.

American, American Cheddar U.S.A.

Described under their home states and distinctive names are a dozen fine American Cheddars, such as Coon, Wisconsin, Herkimer County and Tillamook, to name only a few. They come in as many different shapes, with traditional names such as Daisies, Flats, Longhorns, Midgets, Picnics, Prints and Twins. The ones simply called Cheddars weigh about sixty pounds. All are made and pressed and ripened in about the same way, although they differ greatly in flavor and quality. They are ripened anywhere from two months to two years and become sharper, richer and more flavorsome, as well as more expensive, with the passing of time. See Cheddar states and Cheddar types in Chapter 4.

Americano Romano U.S.A.

Hard; brittle; sharp.

Amou Bearn, France

Winter cheese, October to May.

Anatolian Turkey

Hard; sharp.

Anchovy Links U.S.A.

American processed cheese that can be mixed up with anchovies or any fish from whitebait to whale, made like a sausage and sold in handy links.

Ancien Imperial Normandy, France

Soft; fresh cream; white, mellow and creamy like Neufchatel and made in the same way. Tiny bricks packaged in tin foil, two inches square, one-half inch thick, weighing three ounces. Eaten both fresh and when ripe. It is also called Carre and has separate names for the new and the old: (a) Petit Carre when newly made; (b) Carre Affine, when it has reached a ripe old age, which doesn't take long—about the same time as Neufchatel.

Ancona see Pecorino.

Andean Venezuela

A cow's-milker made in the Andes near Merida. It is formed into rough cubes and wrapped in the pungent, aromatic leaves of Frailejon Lanudo (Espeletia Schultzii) which imparts to it a characteristic flavor. (Description given in Buen Provecho! by Dorothy Kamen-Kaye.)

Andechs Bavaria

A lusty Allgaeuer type. Monk-made on the monastery hill at Andechs on Ammersee. A superb snack with equally monkish dark beer, black bread and blacker radishes, served by the brothers in dark brown robes.

Antwerp Belgium

Semihard; nut-flavored; named after its place of origin.

Appenzeller Switzerland, Bavaria and Baden

Semisoft Emmentaler type made in a small twenty-pound wheel—a pony-cart wheel in comparison to the big Swiss. There are two qualities: (a) Common, made of skim milk and cured in brine for a year; (b) Festive, full milk, steeped in brine with wine, plus white wine lees and pepper. The only cheese we know of that is ripened with lees of wine.

Appetitost Denmark

Semisoft; sour milk; nutlike flavor. It's an appetizer that lives up to its name, eaten fresh on the spot, from the loose bottom pans in which it is made.

Appetost Denmark

Sour buttermilk, similar to Primula, with caraway seeds added for snap. Imitated in U.S.A.

Apple U.S.A.

A small New York State Cheddar put up in the form of a red-cheeked apple for New York City trade. Inspired by the pear-shaped Provolone and Baby Gouda, no doubt.

Arber Bohemia

Semihard; sour milk; yellow; mellow and creamy. Made in mountains between Bohemia and Silesia.

Argentine Argentina

Argentina is specially noted for fine reproductions of classical Italian hard-grating cheeses such as Parmesan and Romano, rich and fruity because of the lush pampas-grass feeding.

Armavir Western Caucasus

Soft; whole sour sheep milk; a hand cheese made by stirring cold, sour buttermilk or whey into heated milk, pressing in forms and ripening in a warm place. Similar to Hand cheese.

Arnauten see Travnik.

Arovature Italy

Water-buffalo milk.

Arras, Coeurs d' see Coeurs.

Arrigny Champagne, France

Made only in winter, November to May. Since gourmet products of the same province often have a special affinity, Arrigny and champagne are specially well suited to one another.

Artichoke, Cardoon or Thistle for Rennet see Caillebotte.

Artificial Dessert Cheese

In the lavish days of olde England Artificial Dessert Cheese was made by mixing one quart of cream with two of milk and spiking it with powdered cinnamon, nutmeg and mace. Four beaten eggs were then stirred in with one-half cup of white vinegar and the mixture boiled to a curd. It was then poured into a cheesecloth and hung up to drain six to eight hours. When taken out of the cloth it was further flavored with rose water, sweetened with castor sugar, left to ripen for an hour or two and finally served up with more cream.

Asadero, or Oaxaca Jalisco and Oaxaca, Mexico

White; whole-milk. Curd is heated, and hot curd is cut and braided or kneaded into loaves from eight ounces to eleven pounds in weight Asadero means "suitable for roasting."

Asco Corsica, France

Made only in the winter season, October to May.

Asiago I, II and III Vicenza, Italy

Sometimes classed as medium and mild, depending mostly on age. Loaves weigh about eighteen pounds each and look like American Cheddar but have a taste all their own.

I. Mild, nutty and sharp, used for table slicing and eating.

II. Medium, semihard and tangy, also used for slicing until nine months old.

III. Hard, old, dry, sharp, brittle. When over nine months old, it's fine for grating.

Asin, or Water cheese Northern Italy

Sour-milk; washed-curd; whitish; soft; buttery. Made mostly in spring and eaten in summer and autumn. Dessert cheese, frequently eaten with honey and fruit.

Au Cumin see Muenster.

Au Fenouil see Tome de Savoie.

Au Foin and de Foin

A style of ripening "on the hay." See Pithiviers au Foin and Fromage de Foin.

Augelot Valee d'Auge, Normandy, France

Soft; tangy; piquant Pont l'Eveque type.

d'Auray see Sainte-Anne.

Aurigny, Fromage d' see Alderney.

Aurillac see Bleu d'Auvergne.

Aurore and Triple Aurore Normandy, France

Made and eaten all year.

Australian and New Zealand Australia and New Zealand

Enough cheese is produced for local consumption, chiefly Cheddar; some Gruyere, but unfortunately mostly processed.

Autun Nivernais, France

Produced and eaten all year. Fromage de Vache is another name for it and this is of special interest in a province where the chief competitors are made of goat's milk.

Auvergne, Bleu d' see Bleu.

Au Vin Blanc, Confits see Epoisses.

Avesnes, Boulette d' see Boulette.

Aydes, les Orleanais, France

Not eaten during July, August or September. Season, October to June.

Azeitao, Queijo do Portugal

Soft, sheep, sapid and extremely oily as the superlative ao implies. There are no finer, fatter cheeses in the world than those made of rich sheep milk in the mountains of Portugal and named for them.

Azeitoso Portugal

Soft; mellow, zestful and as oily as it is named.

Azuldoch Mountain Turkey

Mild and mellow mountain product.

B

Backsteiner Bavaria

Resembles Limburger, but smaller, and translates Brick, from the shape. It is aromatic and piquant and not very much like the U.S. Brick.

Bagnes, or Fromage a la Raclette Switzerland

Not only hard but very hard, named from racler, French for "scrape." A thick, one-half-inch slice is cut across the whole cheese and toasted until runny. It is then scraped off the pan it's toasted in with a flexible knife, spread on bread and eaten like an open-faced Welsh Rabbit sandwich.

Bagozzo, Grana Bagozzo, Bresciano Italy

Hard; yellow; sharp. Surface often colored red. Parmesan type.

Bakers' cheese

Skim milk, similar to cottage cheese, but softer and finer grained. Used in making bakery products such as cheese cake, pie, and pastries, but may also be eaten like creamed cottage cheese.

Ball U.S.A.

Made from thick sour milk in Pennsylvania in the style of the original Pennsylvania Dutch settlers.

Ballakaese or Womelsdorf

Similar to Ball.

Balls, Dutch Red

English name for Edam.

Banbury England

Soft, rich cylinder about one inch thick made in the town of Banbury, famous for its spicy, citrus-peel buns and its equestrienne. Banbury cheese with Banbury buns made a sensational snack in the early nineteenth century, but both are getting scarce today.

Banick Armenia

White and sweet.

Banjaluka Bosnia

Port-Salut type from its Trappist monastery.

Banon, or les Petits Banons Provence, France,

Small, dried, sheep-milker, made in the foothills of the Alps and exported through Marseilles in season, May to November. This sprightly summer cheese is generously sprinkled with the local brandy and festively wrapped in fresh green leaves.

Bar cheese U.S.A.

Any saloon Cheddar, formerly served on every free-lunch counter in the U.S. Before Prohibition, free-lunch cheese was the backbone of America's cheese industry.

Barbacena Minas Geraes, Brazil

Hard, white, sometimes chalky. Named from its home city in the leading cheese state of Brazil.

Barberey, or Fromage de Troyes Champagne, France

Soft, creamy and smooth, resembling Camembert, five to six inches in diameter and 1-1/4 inches thick. Named from its home town, Barberey, near Troyes, whose name it also bears. Fresh, warm milk is coagulated by rennet in four hours. Uncut curd then goes into a wooden mold with a perforated bottom, to drain three hours, before being finished off in an earthenware mold. The cheeses are salted, dried and ripened three weeks in a cave. The season is from November to May and when made in summer they are often sold fresh.

Barboux France

Soft.

Baronet U.S.A.

A natural product, mild and mellow.

Barron France

Soft.

Bassillac see Bleu.

Bath England

Gently made, lightly salted, drained on a straw mat in the historic resort town of Bath. Ripened in two weeks and eaten only when covered with a refined fuzzy mold that's also eminently edible. It is the most delicate of English-speaking cheeses.

Battelmatt Switzerland, St. Gothard Alps, northern Italy, and western Austria

An Emmentaler made small where milk is not plentiful. The "wheel" is only sixteen inches in diameter and four inches high, weighing forty to eighty pounds. The cooking of the curd is done at a little lower temperature than Emmentaler, it ripens more rapidly—in four months —and is somewhat softer, but has the same holes and creamy though sharp, full nutty flavor.

Bauden (see also Koppen) Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Silesia

Semisoft, sour milk, hand type, made in herders' mountain huts in about the same way as Harzkaese, though it is bigger. In two forms, one cup shape (called Koppen), the other a cylinder. Strong and aromatic, whether made with or without caraway.

Bavarian Beer cheese see Bayrischer Bierkaese.

Bavarian Cream German

Very soft; smooth and creamy. Made in the Bavarian mountains. Especially good with sweet wines and sweet sauces.

Bavarois a la Vanille see Fromage Bavarois.

Bayonne see Fromage de Bayonne.

Bayrischer Bierkaese Bavaria

Bavarian beer cheese from the Tyrol is made not only to eat with beer, but to dunk in it.

Beads of cheese Tibet

Beads of hard cheese, two inches in diameter, are strung like a necklace of cowrie shells or a rosary, fifty to a hundred on a string. Also see Money Made of Cheese.

Beagues see Tome de Savoie.

Bean Cake, Tao-foo, or Tofu China, Japan, the Orient

Soy bean cheese imported from Shanghai and other oriental ports, and also imitated in every Chinatown around the world. Made from the milk of beans and curdled with its own vegetable rennet.

Beaujolais see Chevretons.

Beaumont, or Tome de Beaumont Savoy, France

A more or less successful imitation of Trappist Tamie, a trade-secret triumph of Savoy. At its best from October to June.

Beaupre de Roybon Dauphine, France

A winter specialty made from November to April.

Beckenried Switzerland

A good mountain cheese from goat milk.

Beer cheese U.S.A.

While our beer cheese came from Germany and the word is merely a translation of Bierkaese, we use it chiefly for a type of strong Limburger made mostly in Milwaukee. This fine, aromatic cheese is considered by many as the very best to eat while drinking beer. But in Germany Bierkaese is more apt to be dissolved in a glass or stein of beer, much as we mix malted powder in milk, and drunk with it, rather than eaten.

Beer-Regis Dorsetshire, England

This sounds like another beer cheese, but it's only a mild Cheddar named after its hometown in Dorsetshire.

Beist-Cheese Scotland

A curiosity of the old days. "The first milk after a calving, boiled or baked to a thick consistency, the result somewhat resembling new-made cheese, though this is clearly not a true cheese." (MacNeill)

Belarno Italy

Hard; goat; creamy dessert cheese.

Belgian Cooked Belgium

The milk, which has been allowed to curdle spontaneously, is skimmed and allowed to drain. When dry it is thoroughly kneaded by hand and is allowed to undergo fermentation, which takes ordinarily from ten to fourteen days in winter and six to eight days in summer. When the fermentation is complete, cream and salt are added and the mixture is heated slowly and stirred until homogeneous, when it is put into molds and allowed to ripen for eight days longer. A cheese ordinarily weighs about three-and-a-half pounds. It is not essentially different from other forms of cooked cheese.

Beli Sir see Domaci.

Bellelay, Tete de Moine, or Monk's Head Switzerland

Soft, buttery, semisharp spread. Sweet milk is coagulated with rennet in twenty to thirty minutes, the curd cut fairly fine and cooked not so firm as Emmentaler, but firmer than Limburger. After being pressed, the cheeses are wrapped in bark for a couple of weeks until they can stand alone. Since no eyes are desired in the cheeses, they are ripened in a moist cellar at a lowish temperature. They take a year to ripen and will keep three or four years. The diameter is seven inches, the weight nine to fifteen pounds. The monk's head after cutting is kept wrapped in a napkin soaked in white wine and the soft, creamy spread is scraped out to "butter" bread and snacks that go with more white wine. Such combinations of old wine and old cheese suggest monkish influence, which began here in the fifteenth century with the jolly friars of the Canton of Bern. There it is still made exclusively and not exported, for there's never quite enough to go around.

Bel Paese Italy

See under Foreign Greats, Chapter 3. Also see Mel Fino, a blend, and Bel Paese types—French Boudanne and German Saint Stefano. The American imitation is not nearly so good as the Italian original.

Bel Paesino U.S.A.

A play on the Bel Paese name and fame. Weight one pound and diminutive in every other way.

Bergkaese see Allgaeuer.

Bergquara Sweden

Semihard, fat, resembles Dutch Gouda. Tangy, pleasant taste. Gets sharper with age, as they all do. Molded in cylinders of fifteen to forty pounds. Popular in Sweden since the eighteenth century.

Berkeley England

Named after its home town in Gloucester, England.

Berliner Kuhkaese Berlin, Germany

Cow cheese, pet-named turkey cock cheese by Berlin students. Typical German hand cheese, soft; aromatic with caraway seeds, and that's about the only difference between it and Alt Kuhkaese, without caraway.

Bernarde, Formagelle Bernarde Italy

Cow's whole milk, to which about 10% of goat's milk is added for flavor. Cured for two months.

Berques France

Made of skim milk.

Berry Rennet see Withania.

Bessay, le Bourbonnais, France

Soft, mild, and creamy.

Bexhill England

Cream cheeses, small, flat, round. Excellent munching.

Bierkaese Germany

There are several of these unique beer cheeses that are actually dissolved in a stein of beer and drunk down with it in the Bierstubes, notably Bayrischer, Dresdener, and Olmuetzer. Semisoft; aromatic; sharp. Well imitated in echt Deutsche American spots such as Milwaukee and Hoboken.

Bifrost Norway

Goat; white; mildly salt. Imitated in a process spread in 4-1/4-ounce package.

Binn Wallis, Switzerland

Exceptionally fine Swiss from the great cheese canton of Wallis.

Bitto Northern Italy

Hard Emmentaler type made in the Valtellina. It is really two cheeses in one. When eaten fresh, it is smooth, sapid, big-eyed Swiss. When eaten after two years of ripening, it is very hard and sharp and has small eyes.

Blanc a la creme see Fromage Blanc.

Blanc see Fromage Blanc I and II.

Bleu France

Brittle; blue-veined; smooth; biting.

Bleu d'Auvergne or Fromage Bleu Auvergne, France

Hard; sheep or mixed sheep, goat or cow; from Pontgibaud and Laqueuille ripening caves. Similar to better-known Cantal of the same province. Akin to Roquefort and Stilton, and to Bleu de Laqueuille.

Bleu de Bassillac Limousin, France

Blue mold of Roquefort type that's prime from November to May.

Bleu de Laqueuille France

Similar to Bleu d'Auvergne, but with a different savor. Named for its originator, Antoine Roussel-Laqueuille, who first made it a century ago, in 1854.

Bleu de Limousin, Fromage Lower Limousin

Practically the same as Bleu de Bassillac, from Lower Limousin.

Bleu de Salers France

A variety of Bleu d'Auvergne from the same province distinguished for its blues that are green. With the majority, this is at its best only in the winter months, from November to May.

Bleu, Fromage see Bleu d'Auvergne.

Bleu-Olivet see Olivet.

Blind

The name for cheeses lacking the usual holes of the type they belong to, such as blind Swiss.

Block Edam U.S.A.

U.S. imitation of the classical Dutch cheese named after the town of Edam.

Block, Smoked Austria

The name is self-explanatory and suggests a well-colored meerschaum.

Bloder, or Schlicker Milch Switzerland

Sour-milker.

Blue Cheddar see Cheshire-Stilton.

Blue, Danish see Danish Blue.

Blue Dorset see Dorset.

Blue, Jura see Jura Bleu and Septmoncel.

Blue, and Blue with Port Links U.S.A.

One of the modern American process sausages.

Blue, Minnesota see Minnesota.

Blue Moon U.S.A.

A process product.

Blue Vinny, Blue Vinid, Blue-veined Dorset, or Double Dorset Dorsetshire, England

A unique Blue that actually isn't green-veined. Farmers make it for private consumption, because it dries up too easily to market. An epicurean esoteric match for Truckles No. 1 of Wiltshire. It comes in a flat form, chalk-white, crumbly and sharply flavored, with a "royal Blue" vein running right through horizontally. The Vinny mold, from which it was named, is different from all other cheese molds and has a different action.

Bocconi Geganti Italy

Sharp and smoky specialty.

Bocconi Provoloni see Provolone.

Boite see Fromage de Boite.

Bombay India

Hard; goat; dry; sharp. Good to crunch with a Bombay Duck in place of a cracker.

Bondes see Bondon de Neufchatel.

Bondon de Neufchatel, or Bondes Normandy, France

Nicknamed Bonde a tout bien, from resemblance to the bung in a barrel of Neuchatel wine. Soft, small loaf rolls, fresh and mild. Similar to Gournay, but sweeter because of 2% added sugar.

Bondon de Rouen France

A fresh Neufchatel, similar to Petit Suisse, but slightly salted, to last up to ten days.

Bondost Sweden

When caraway seed is added this is called Kommenost, spelled Kuminost in Norway.

Bond Ost U.S.A.

Imitation of Scandinavian cheese, with small production in Wisconsin.

Bon Larron France

Romantically named "the penitent thief."

Borden's U.S.A.

A full line of processed and naturals, of which Liederkranz is the leader.

Borelli Italy

A small water-buffalo cheese.

Bossons Maceres Provence, France

A winter product, December, January, February and March only.

Boudanne France

Whole or skimmed cow's milk, ripens in two to three months.

Boudes, Boudon Normandy, France

Soft, fresh, smooth, creamy, mild child of the Neufchatel family.

Bougon Lamothe see Lamothe.

Bouille, la Normandy France

One of this most prolific province's thirty different notables. In season October to May.

Boule de Lille France

Name given to Belgian Oude Kaas by the French who enjoy it.

Boulette d'Avesnes, or Boulette de Cambrai Flanders, France

Made from November to May, eaten all year.

Bourgain France

Type of fresh Neufchatel made in France. Perishable and consumed locally.

Bourgognes see Petits Bourgognes.

Box Wuerttemberg, Germany

Similar to U.S. Brick. It comes in two styles; firm, and soft:

I. Also known as Schachtelkaese, Boxed Cheese; and Hohenheim, where it is made. A rather unimportant variety. Made in a copper kettle, with partially skim milk, colored with saffron and spiked with caraway, a handful to every two hundred pounds. Salted and ripened for three months and shipped in wooden boxes.

II. Also known by names of localities where made: Hohenburg, Mondess and Weihenstephan. Made of whole milk. Mild but piquant.

Bra No. I Piedmont, Italy

Hard, round form, twelve inches in diameter, three inches high, weight twelve pounds. A somewhat romantic cheese, made by nomads who wander with their herds from pasture to pasture in the region of Bra.

Bra No. II Turin and Cuneo, Italy

Soft, creamy, small, round and mild although cured in brine.

Brand or Brandkaese Germany

Soft, sour-milk hand cheese, weighing one-third of a pound. The curd is cooked at a high temperature, then salted and set to ferment for a day. Butter is then mixed into it before pressing into small bricks. After drying it is put in used beer kegs to ripen and is frequently moistened with beer while curing.

Brandy see Caledonian, Cream.

Branja de Brailia Rumania

Hard; sheep; extra salty because always kept in brine.

Branja de Cosulet Rumania

Described by Richard Wyndham in Wine and Food (Winter, 1937): A creamy sheep's cheese which is encased in pine bark. My only criticism of this most excellent cheese is that the center must always remain a gastronomical second best. It is no more interesting than a good English Cheddar, while the outer crust has a scented, resinous flavor which must be unique among cheeses.

Bratkaese Switzerland

Strong; specially made to roast in slices over coal. Fine, grilled on toast.

Breakfast, Fruehstueck, Lunch, Delikat, and other names Germany

Soft and delicate, but with a strong tang. Small round, for spreading. Lauterbach is a well-known breakfast cheese in Germany, while in Switzerland Emmentaler is eaten at all three meals.

Breakstone U.S.A.

Like Borden and other leading American cheesemongers and manufacturers, Breakstone offer a full line, of which their cream cheese is an American product to be proud of.

Bresegaut Savoy, France

Soft, white.

Breslau Germany

A proud Prussian dessert cheese.

Bressans see les Petits.

Bresse France

Lightly cooked.

Bretagne see Montauban.

Brevine Switzerland

Emmentaler type.

Briancon see Alpin.

Brick see Chapter 4.

Brickbat Wiltshire, England

A traditional Wiltshire product since early in the eighteenth century. Made with fresh milk and some cream, to ripen for one year before "it's fit to eat." The French call it Briqueton.

Bricotta Corsica

Semisoft, sour sheep, sometimes mixed with sugar and rum and made into small luscious cakes.

Brie see Chapter 3; also see Cendre and Coulommiers.

Brie Facon France

The name of imitation Brie or Brie type made in all parts of France. Often it is dry, chalky, and far inferior to the finest Brie veritable that is still made best in its original home, formerly called La Brie, now Seine et Marne, or Ile-de-France.

see Nivernais Decize, Le Mont d'Or, and Ile-de-France.

Brie de Meaux France

This genuine Brie from the Meaux region has an excellent reputation for high quality. It is made only from November to May.

Brie de Melun France

This Brie veritable is made not only in the seasonal months, from November to May, but practically all the year around. It is not always prime. Summer Brie, called Maigre, is notably poor and thin. Spring Brie is merely Migras, half-fat, as against the fat autumn Gras that ripens until May.

Brillat-Savarin Normandy, France

Soft, and available all year. Although the author of Physiologie du Gout was not noted as a caseophile and wrote little on the subject beyond Le Fondue (see Chapter 6), this savory Normandy produce is named in his everlasting praise.

Brina Dubreala Rumania

Semisoft, sheep, done in brine.

Brindza U.S.A.

Our imitation of this creamy sort of fresh, white Roquefort is as popular in foreign colonies in America as back in its Hungarian and Greek homelands. On New York's East Side several stores advertise "Brindza fresh daily," with an extra "d" crowded into the original Brinza.

Brine see Italian Bra, Caucasian Ekiwani, Brina Dubreala, Briney.

Briney, or Brined Syria

Semisoft, salty, sharp. So-called from being processed in brine. Turkish Tullum Penney is of the same salt-soaked type.

Brinza, or Brinsen Hungary, Rumania, Carpathian Mountains

Goes by many local names: Altsohl, Klencz, Landoch, Liptauer, Neusohl, Siebenburgen and Zips. Soft, sheep milk or sheep and goat; crumbly, sharp and biting, but creamy. Made in small lots and cured in a tub with beech shavings. Ftinoporino is its opposite number in Macedonia.

Brioler see Westphalia.

Briquebec see Providence

Briqueton England

The French name for English Wiltshire Brickbat, one of the very few cheeses imported into France. Known in France in the eighteenth century, it may have influenced the making of Trappist Port-Salut at the Bricquebec Monastery in Manche.

Brittle see Greek Cashera, Italian Ricotta, Turkish Rarush Durmar, and U.S. Hopi.

Brizecon Savoy, France

Imitation Reblochon made in the same Savoy province.

Broccio, or le Brocconis Corsica, France

Soft, sour sheep milk or goat, like Bricotta and a first cousin to Italian Chiavari. Cream white, slightly salty; eaten fresh in Paris, where it is as popular as on its home island. Sometimes salted and half-dried, or made into little cakes with rum and sugar. Made and eaten all year.

Broodkaas Holland

Hard, flat, nutty.

Brousses de la Vezubie, les Nice, France

Small; sheep; long narrow bar shape, served either with powdered sugar or salt, pepper and chopped chives. Made in Vezubie.

Brussels or Bruxelles Belgium

Soft, washed skim milk, fermented, semisharp, from Louvain and Hal districts.

Budapest Hungary

Soft, fresh, creamy and mellow, a favorite at home in Budapest and abroad in Vienna.

Buderich Germany

A specialty in Dusseldorf.

Bulle Switzerland

A Swiss-Gruyere.

Bundost Sweden

Semihard; mellow; tangy.

Burgundy France

Named after the province, not the wine, but they go wonderfully together.

Bushman Australia

Semihard; yellow; tangy.

Butter and Cheese see Chapter 8.

"Butter," Serbian see Kajmar.

Buttermilk U.S. & Europe

Resembles cottage cheese, but of finer grain.

C

Cabecou, le Auvergne, France

Small; goat; from Maurs.

Cabrillon Auvergne, France

So much like the Cabrecon they might be called sister nannies under the rind.

Cachet d'Entrechaux, le, or Fromage Fort du Ventoux

Provence Mountains, France

Semihard; sheep; mixed with brandy, dry white wine and sundry seasonings. Well marinated and extremely strong. Season May to November.

Caciocavallo Italy

"Horse Cheese." The ubiquitous cheese of classical greats, imitated all around the world and back to Italy again. See Chapter 3.

Caciocavallo Siciliano Sicily, also in U.S.A.

Essentially a pressed Provolone. Usually from cow's whole milk, but sometimes from goat's milk or a mixture of the two. Weight between 17-1/2 and 26 pounds. Used for both table cheese and grating.

Cacio Fiore, or Caciotta Italy

Soft as butter; sheep; in four-pound square frames; sweetish; eaten fresh.

Cacio Pecorino Romano see Pecorino.

Cacio Romano see Chiavari.

Caerphilly Wales and England—Devon, Dorset, Somerset & Wilshire

Semihard; whole fresh milk; takes three weeks to ripen. Also sold "green," young and innocent, at the age of ten to eleven days when weighing about that many pounds. Since it has little keeping qualities it should be eaten quickly. Welsh miners eat a lot of it, think it specially suited to their needs, because it is easily digested and does not produce so much heat in the body as long-keeping cheeses.

Caillebottes (Curds) France—Anjou, Poitou, Saintonge & Vendee

Soft, creamy, sweetened fresh or sour milk clabbered with chardonnette, wild artichoke seed, over slow fire. Cut in lozenges and served cold not two hours after cooking. Smooth, mellow and aromatic. A high type of this unusual cheese is Jonchee (see). Other cheeses are made with vegetable rennet, some from similar thistle or cardoon juice, especially in Portugal.

Caille de Poitiers see Petits pots.

Caille de Habas Gascony, France

Clabbered or clotted sheep milk.

Cajassou Perigord, France

A notable goat cheese made in Cubjac.

Calabrian Italy

The Calabrians make good sheep cheese, such as this and Caciocavallo.

Calcagno Sicily

Hard; ewe's milk. Suitable for grating.

Caledonian Cream Scotland

More of a dessert than a true cheese. We read in Scotland's Inner Man: "A sort of fresh cream cheese, flavored with chopped orange marmalade, sugar brandy and lemon juice. It is whisked for about half an hour. Otherwise, if put into a freezer, it would be good ice-pudding."

Calvados France

Medium-hard; tangy. Perfect with Calvados applejack from the same province.

Calvenzano Italy

Similar to Gorgonzola, made in Bergamo.

Cambrai see Boulette.

Cambridge, or York England

Soft; fresh; creamy; tangy. The curd is quickly made in one hour and dipped into molds without cutting to ripen for eating in thirty hours.

Camembert see Chapter 3.

"Camembert" Germany, U.S. & elsewhere

A West German imitation that comes in a cute little heart-shaped box which nevertheless doesn't make it any more like the Camembert veritable of Normandy.

Camosun U.S.A.

Semisoft; open-textured, resembling Monterey. Drained curd is pressed in hoops, cheese is salted in brine for thirty hours, then coated with paraffin and cured for one to three months in humid room at 50 deg. to 60 deg. F.

Canadian Club see Cheddar Club.

Cancoillotte, Cancaillotte, Canquoillotte, Quincoillotte, Cancoiade, Fromagere, Tempete and "Puree" de fromage tres fort Franche-Comte, France

Soft; sour milk; sharp and aromatic; with added eggs and butter and sometimes brandy or dry white wine. Sold in attractive small molds and pots. Other sharp seasonings besides the brandy or wine make this one of the strongest of French strong cheeses, similar to Fromage Fort.

Canestrato Sicily, Italy

Hard; mixed goat and sheep; yellow and strong. Takes one year to mature and is very popular both in Sicily where it is made to perfection and in Southern Colorado where it is imitated by and for Italian settlers.

Cantal, Fromage de Cantal, Auvergne or Auvergne Bleu; also Fourme and La Tome. Auvergne, France

Semihard; smooth; mellow; a kind of Cheddar, lightly colored lemon; yellow; strong, sharp taste but hardly any smell. Forty to a hundred-twenty pound cylinders. The rich milk from highland pastures is more or less skimmed and, being a very old variety, it is still made most primitively. Cured six weeks or six months, and when very old it's very hard and very sharp. A Cantal type is Laguiole or Guiole.

Capitanata Italy

Sheep.

Caprian Capri, Italy

Made from milk of goats that still overrun the original Goat Island, and tangy as a buck.

Caprino (Little Goat) Argentina

Semihard; goat; sharp; table cheese.

Caraway Loaf U.S.A.

This is just one imitation of dozens of German caraway-seeded cheeses that roam the world. In Germany there is not only Kuemmel loaf cheese but a loaf of caraway-seeded bread to go with it. Milwaukee has long made a good Kuemmelkaese or hand cheese and it would take more than the fingers on both hands to enumerate all of the European originals, from Dutch Komynkaas through Danish King Christian IX and Norwegian Kuminost, Italian Freisa, Pomeranian Rinnen and Belgian Leyden, to Pennsylvania Pot.

Cardiga, Queijo da Portugal

Hard; sheep; oily; mild flavor. Named from cardo, cardoon in English, a kind of thistle used as a vegetable rennet in making several other cheeses, such as French Caillebottes curdled with chardonnette, wild artichoke seed. Only classical Greek sheep cheeses like Casera can compare with the superb ones from the Portuguese mountain districts. They are lusciously oily, but never rancidly so.

Carlsbad Bohemia

Semihard; sheep; white; slightly salted; expensive.

Carre Affine France

Soft, delicate, in small square forms; similar to Petit Carre and Ancien Imperial (see).

Carre de l'Est France

Similar to Camembert, and imitated in the U.S.A.

Cascaval Penir Turkey

Cacciocavallo imitation consumed at home.

Caseralla Greece

Semisoft; sheep; mellow; creamy.

Casere Greece

Hard; sheep; brittle; gray and greasy. But wonderful! Sour-sweet tongue tickle. This classical though greasy Grecian is imitated with goat milk instead of sheep in Southern California.

Cashera Armenia and Greece

Hard; goat or cow's milk; brittle; sharp; nutty. Similar to Casere and high in quality.

Cashera Turkey

Semihard; sheep.

Casher Penner see Kasher.

Cashkavallo Syria

Mellow but sharp imitation of the ubiquitous Italian Cacciocavallo.

Casigiolu, Panedda, Pera di vacca Sardinia

Plastic-curd cheese, made by the Caciocavallo method.

Caskcaval or Kaschcavallo see Feta.

Caspian Caucasus

Semihard. Sheep or cow, milked directly into cone-shaped cloth bag to speed the making. Tastes tangy, sharp and biting.

Cassaro Italy

Locally consumed, seldom exported.

Castelmagno Italy

Blue-mold, Gorgonzola type.

Castelo Branco, White Castle Portugal

Semisoft; goat or goat and sheep; fermented. Similar to Serra da Estrella (see).

Castillon, or Fromage de Gascony France

Fresh cream cheese.

Castle, Schlosskaese North Austria

Limburger type.

Catanzaro Italy

Consumed locally, seldom exported.

Cat's Head see Katzenkopf.

Celery Norway

Flavored mildly with celery seeds, instead of the usual caraway.

Cendree, la France—Orleanais, Blois & Aube

Hard; sheep; round and flat. Other Cendrees are Champenois or Ricey, Brie, d'Aizy and Olivet

Cendre d'Aizy Burgundy, France

Available all year. See la Cendree.

Cendre de la Brie Ile-de-France, France

Fall and winter Brie cured under the ashes, season September to May.

Cendre Champenois or Cendre des Riceys Aube & Marne, France

Made and eaten from September to June, and ripened under the ashes.

Cendre Olivet see Olivet.

Cenis see Mont Cenis.

Certoso Stracchino Italy, near Milan

A variety of Stracchino named after the Carthusian friars who have made it for donkey's years. It is milder and softer and creamier than the Taleggio because it's made of cow instead of goat milk, but it has less distinction for the same reason.

Ceva Italy

Soft veteran of Roman times named from its town near Turin.

Chabichou Poitou, France

Soft; goat; fresh; sweet and tasty. A vintage cheese of the months from April to December, since such cheeses don't last long enough to be vintaged like wine by the year.

Chaingy Orleans, France

Season September to June.

Cham Switzerland

One of those eminent Emmentalers from Cham, the home town of Mister Pfister (see Pfister).

Chamois milk

Aristotle said that the most savorous cheese came from the chamois. This small goatlike antelope feeds on wild mountain herbs not available to lumbering cows, less agile sheep or domesticated mountain goats, so it gives, in small quantity but high quality, the richest, most flavorsome of milk.

Champenois or Fromage des Riceys Aube & Marne, France

Season from September to June. The same as Cendre Champenois and des Riceys.

Champoleon de Queyras Hautes-Alpes, France.

Hard; skim-milker.

Chantelle U.S.A.

Natural Port du Salut type described as "zesty" by some of the best purveyors of domestic cheeses. It has a sharp taste and little odor, perhaps to fill the demand for a "married man's Limburger."

Chantilly see Hable.

Chaource Champagne, France

Soft, nice to nibble with the bottled product of this same high-living Champagne Province. A kind of Camembert.

Chapelle France

Soft.

Charmey Fine Switzerland

Gruyere type.

Chaschol, or Chaschosis Canton of Grisons, Switzerland

Hard; skim; small wheels, eighteen to twenty-two inches in diameter by three to four inches high, weight twenty-two to forty pounds.

Chasteaux see Petits Fromages.

Chateauroux see Fromage de Chevre.

Chaumont Champagne, France

Season November to May.

Chavignol see Crottin.

Chechaluk Armenia

Soft; pot; flaky; creamy.

Cheddar see Chapter 3.

Cheese bread Russia and U.S.A.

For centuries Russia has excelled in making a salubrious cheese bread called Notruschki and the cheese that flavors it is Tworog. (See both.) Only recently Schrafft's in New York put out a yellow, soft and toothsome cheese bread that has become very popular for toasting. It takes heat to bring out its full cheesy savor. Good when overlaid with cheese butter of contrasting piquance, say one mixed with Sapsago.

Cheese butter

Equal parts of creamed butter and finely grated or soft cheese and mixtures thereof. The imported but still cheap green Sapsago is not to be forgotten when mixing your own cheese butter.

Cheese food U.S.A.

"Any mixtures of various lots of cheese and other solids derived from milk with emulsifying agents, coloring matter, seasonings, condiments, relishes and water, heated or not, into a homogeneous mass." (A long and kind word for a homely, tasteless, heterogeneous mess.) From an advertisement

Cheese hoppers see Hoppers.

Cheese mites see Mites.

Cheshire and Cheshire imitations see with Cheddar in Chapter 3.

Cheshire-Stilton England

In making this combination of Cheshire and Stilton, the blue mold peculiar to Stilton is introduced in the usual Cheshire process by keeping out each day a little of the curd and mixing it with that in which the mold is growing well. The result is the Cheshire in size and shape and general characteristics but with the blue veins of Stilton, making it really a Blue Cheddar. Another combination is Yorkshire-Stilton, and quite as distinguished.

Chester England

Another name for Cheshire, used in France where formerly some was imported to make the visiting Britishers feel at home.

Chevalier France

Curds sweetened with sugar.

Chevelle U.S.A.

A processed Wisconsin.

Chevre see Fromages.

Chevre de Chateauroux see Fromages.

Chevre petit see Petits Fromages.

Chevre, Tome de see Tome.