Alexandra Jones - Stuff Every Cheese Lover Should Know

Affinage: In cheesemaking, this French word, meaning refinement, refers to the process of aging cheese to its ideal ripeness.

Artisan: Describes cheeses produced using traditional methods, typically on a small scale, by a skilled cheesemaker.

Bloomy rind: A category of cheese named for the way Penicillium candidum mold blooms in snowy white tufts on the wheels surface. Examples include Camembert and Brie.

Casein: The primary milk protein that is manipulated in cheesemaking.

Cheese cave: A cool, high-humidity aging space for cheese.

Coagulation: The process of changing milk from liquid to solid.

Commodity cheeses: Generic cheeses produced on an industrial scale, typically for long-term storage or processing.

Cream line: A soft, liquid-like layer that forms between the rind and the paste of bloomy-rind cheeses as the cheese ripens and proteins break down during aging.

Cultures: Microbes that lower pH and develop flavors and textures in a cheese by converting lactose to lactic acid and breaking down proteins. Today, cheesemakers almost always purchase freeze-dried powdered cultures from big biotech companies, but for much of human history, these cultures occurred naturally in the milk and in the air and soil on the farm.

Curd: Coagulated milk.

Double/triple crme: Cheeses in which additional cream is added to the milk before coagulation begins.

Eyes: Tiny air holes in the paste (such as in Swiss cheese). A cheese without eyes is called a blind cheese.

Farmstead: Describes cheese made on the same farm where the milk was produced.

Geotrichum: A yeast responsible for the wrinkly, brainlike rinds on certain bloomy cheeses, such as Selles-sur-Cher, Valenay, and Bonne Bouche.

Hooping: The process of draining whey from the curds and forming them into wheels, which gives cheeses their shape.

Lactic: Term used to describe milk-like flavors in a cheese. Its also used to describe soft-ripened or bloomy-rind cheeses that are coagulated primarily with lactic acid produced by starter cultures and just a little rennet, such as Crottin de Chavignol and Sainte-Maure.

Lactic acid: A by-product of starter cultures consuming lactose. Lactic acid is what gives fresh cheeses and yogurts their tangy flavor.

Lactose: A sugar in milk that is converted into lactic acid during cheesemaking. Individuals who are lactose intolerant are unable to fully digest this sugar.

Molds: Microscopic fungi that grow on the rinds and cut surfaces of cheeses.

Native cultures: Naturally occurring microbes in the air, soil, or milk that the cheesemaker has captured from their unique environment (for more, see ). The cheesemaker cultures samples of milk from their favorite animals. The most vigorous sample becomes the grandmother culture, which is used to culture each batch made that season.