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 à 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.
Ballakäse 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 1¼ 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 Harzkäse, 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 Bierkäse.
Bavarian Cream
German
Very soft; smooth and creamy. Made in the Bavarian mountains. Especially good with sweet wines and sweet sauces.
Bavarois à la Vanille see Fromage Bavarois.
Bayonne see Fromage de Bayonne.
Bayrischer Bierkäse
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.
Beaupré de Roybon
Dauphiné, 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 Bierkäse, 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 Bierkäse 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, Tête 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.
Bergkäse see Allgäuer.
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 Kuhkäse
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 Kuhkäse, 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.
Bierkäse
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 Olmützer. 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 4¼-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 à la crème 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.
Boîte see Fromage de Boîte.
Bombay
India
Hard; goat; dry; sharp. Good to crunch with a Bombay Duck in place of a cracker.
Bondes see Bondon de Neufchâtel.
Bondon de Neufchâtel, or Bondes
Normandy, France
Nicknamed Bonde à tout bien, from resemblance to the bung in a barrel of Neuchâtel wine. Soft, small loaf rolls, fresh and mild. Similar to Gournay, but sweeter because of 2% added sugar.
Bondon de Rouen
France
A fresh Neufchâtel, 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 Neufchâtel family.
Bougon Lamothe see Lamothe.
Bouillé, 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 Neufchâtel made in France. Perishable and consumed locally.
Bourgognes see Petits Bourgognes.
Box
Württemberg, Germany
Similar to U.S. Brick. It comes in two styles; firm, and soft:
I. Also known as Schachtelkäse, 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 Brandkäse
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.
Bratkäse
Switzerland
Strong; specially made to roast in slices over coal. Fine, grilled on toast.
Breakfast, Frühstück, 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.
Brésegaut
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.
Briançon 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 Cendré and Coulommiers.
Brie Façon
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 véritable 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 véritable 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 Goût 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 Vézubie, les
Nice, France
Small; sheep; long narrow bar shape, served either with powdered sugar or salt, pepper and chopped chives. Made in Vézubie.
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-Gruyère.
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.