People & Place
Cheeses of the Americas
Cheeses of the Americas brings together broad styles and individual named cheeses in one reading route. Choose an article to explore what a name means, how the cheese is made and what distinguishes it.
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American Cheese: The Processed Slice Explained
Watch a slice of American cheese soften over your burger.
Colby
Slide a knife through Colby and notice how readily it yields.
Monterey Jack
Your knife slips through young Monterey Jack with barely a complaint.
Pepper Jack
Bend a pale ivory slice and watch the pepper pieces catch your eye.
Brick Cheese
Real bricks press the curds at Widmer’s Cheese Cellars in Wisconsin.
Teleme
Your knife meets a floury surface, then a centre beginning to surrender.
Oka
A monk arrives at Oka in Quebec on 18 February 1893, carrying cheesemaking knowledge connected to the French monastery cheese Port-du-Salut.
Everything in this section
- Queso FrescoSoft white curds land on a taco, tumble into black beans and settle over the sauce on enchiladas.
- OaxacaPull a ball of Oaxaca apart and the ribbons give way to elastic strands.
- CotijaRain greens the mountain pastures between Michoacán and Jalisco.
- PanelaRun your eye over a piece of panela and the basket is still there, pressed into its white surface.
- Queso ChihuahuaFresh milk, cooked milk, melted butter: imagine those aromas rising from a slice on your plate.
- Queijo MinasSet a soft, moist, white slice of Minas Frescal beside a firmer matured Minas cheese.
- RequeijãoAt a Brazilian breakfast table, your spoon slips into requeijão, ready for a sweep across bread.
- Queijo CanastraWhey drains from today’s cheese.
- ReggianitoBreak a morsel from a wedge of Reggianito and watch the pale cheese fracture into brittle granules.
- Muenster (American Style)An orange border, a pale centre, a slice bending into your sandwich.
- Dry JackPicture Monterey Jack waiting in storage in San Francisco in 1915.
- Humboldt FogCut into Humboldt Fog and a dark ribbon of edible vegetable ash appears across the pale centre.
- Rogue River BluePeel back the Syrah grape leaves and a whole year begins to unfold.
- Pleasant Ridge ReserveTwice a day, fresh Wisconsin pasture awaits the spring-calving cows at Uplands Cheese.
- HarbisonSlip a spoon inside Harbison’s spruce bark band and the pale centre tells you why the knife can stay in the drawer.
- Queso BlancoA slice of queso blanco meets a hot pan.
- Queso AsaderoSlip asadero into a tortilla and let the heat get to work.
- Queso AñejoPicture a grater passing over queso refregado from Zacazonapan in the State of Mexico, its surface commonly coated with
- RequesónPush your spoon into requesón and the white curds give way: soft, fragile and, in SENA’s description, tender.
- Queijo CoalhoAt Recife’s Boa Viagem beach, queijo coalho browns over embers, its centre still firm and yielding.
- Queijo PratoBread toasts, a slice of Prato softens, and you have queijo quente, Brazil’s toasted cheese sandwich.
- Queijo do MarajóAt the pan, fermented curd meets cream or butter for one last cooking: fritura.
- Queso de ManoFold a sweetcorn cachapa around a slice of white Queso de Mano, and watch the soft layers pull apart.
- Cougar GoldLift the lid and there it is: pale, firm cheddar, ready to break into craggy pieces as it ages.
- Red HawkThe white mould would not come back.
- WinnimereSlip your spoon into Winnimere and the spruce band suddenly makes sense.
- Mt TamYour knife slips through Mt Tam's pillowy white rind.
- ChancoPicture sieves, vats and cheese moulds in a rural dairy, with adobe buildings keeping the cheeses in storage.
- Queso PaipaOn ventilated wooden shelves called a zaranda, pale yellow cheeses settle into their slow transformation.
- Queso TurrialbaPicture baskets and wooden boxes of cheese travelling by train, each carrying the name of the place it came from.