Reference
Eight families, 25 reference styles, and the one question a monger is actually asked: what is this, and how do I know it is right? Filter by family, milk or texture, or search the lot.
Styles, not products. We describe families and generic producing regions rather than named cheeses, because the same style is made in a dozen places and the standards committee grades the make, not the postcode.
Fresh → bloomy → washed → blue → semi-hard → alpine → filata → natural
Fresh
Set slowly with very little rennet, drained in cloth and salted lightly. Tastes of the milk it was made from and almost nothing else.
What to look for. Clean acidity with no bitterness at the back. A weeping, slumped tub means it was drained hot.
Fresh
A hand-ladled log, sometimes rolled in ash, that firms and sharpens across a fortnight. Sold at three ages by shops that know their customers.
What to look for. A fine wrinkle starting at the ends. Slick, wet skin means it sat in its own moisture.
Fresh
Recooked from the whey of a harder make, so it exists because something else was made first. Sweet, grainy and very perishable.
What to look for. Loose grain that holds its shape on a spoon. Rubbery means it was cooked too hard.
Bloomy-rind
The classic white-coated disc: mold ripens it from the outside in, so a young one has a chalky line down the middle and an old one has none.
What to look for. An even, close coat with no gray. Ammonia on the nose means it is past, not ripe.
Bloomy-rind
Cream added back to the milk before setting. Rich enough that most people eat a third of what they intended to.
What to look for. A paste that slumps but does not run. A sunken top means the rind collapsed early.
Bloomy-rind
A truncated pyramid dusted with ash before the mold takes, which slows the rind and lets the paste catch up.
What to look for. Gray-blue bloom over the ash, even on the corners. Cracked corners mean it dried unevenly.
Washed-rind
Washed two or three times a week until the rind turns orange and tacky. Smells far more assertive than it tastes.
What to look for. A supple, slightly sticky rind. A dry, cracked rind means the washing stopped early.
Washed-rind
A larger washed format that holds its shape for months. The paste goes translucent at the edge as it ages.
What to look for. Even color under the rind. A dark band more than a few millimeters deep means it was held too warm.
Washed-rind
Sheep milk under a washed rind: fattier paste, so the wash reads as savory rather than barnyard.
What to look for. A close, fine paste with no mechanical openings. Pinholes mean gas where none should be.
Blue
Pierced twice to let air to the mold, then left to grow its own rind. The blue runs in seams rather than spots.
What to look for. Veining that follows the piercing lines. Gray-brown mush at the veins means it over-ripened.
Blue
Higher fat and higher salt than a cow blue, which is why it reads sweet before it reads sharp.
What to look for. White paste, not yellow, with a clean salt finish. Bitterness usually means young milk and old salt.
Blue
A soft blue made in a small format so it ripens fast. Spreadable at the edge by six weeks.
What to look for. A soft edge and a firmer center. Uniformly runny means it has gone.
Semi-hard
The everyday wheel of a mountain make: pressed, brined and turned, eaten young by the people who made it.
What to look for. A dry, dusty gray rind and an elastic paste. A greasy rind means it was wrapped too soon.
Semi-hard
Bound in cloth and larded, so the rind breathes and the paste dries slowly. Ages into something brothy rather than sharp.
What to look for. Cloth still bonded to the rind. Lifting cloth means moisture got underneath.
Semi-hard
A pressed goat wheel, which is rarer than it should be: most goat milk goes to fresh formats because it pays sooner.
What to look for. Bright white paste with a firm break. Yellowing under the rind means oxidation.
Semi-hard
Held in brine through its aging rather than salted dry, which keeps the paste close and the flavor direct.
What to look for. Firm, close paste with no rind to speak of. Crumbling at the edge means the brine was too strong.
Hard / alpine
Cooked curd pressed into a large wheel; a second fermentation opens round eyes as it warms in the cellar.
What to look for. Round, shiny eyes and a slight sweetness. Splits and cracks mean the eyes opened too fast.
Hard / alpine
The long-aged end of the family. Dry enough to grate, with the crystals that come of protein breaking down over years.
What to look for. Crunch that dissolves, not grit that stays. A soapy finish means it was aged damp.
Hard / alpine
A hard sheep wheel made to be grated over food rather than eaten in a wedge. Salt-forward by design.
What to look for. A clean, even break. Ammonia at the rind means it was held too long in plastic.
Pasta filata
Curd ripened to the right acidity, then stretched in hot water and torn into balls. The texture is decided in half a minute.
What to look for. A thin skin that tears to layers, and milky liquid when cut. Squeaky and tight means it was stretched too cold.
Pasta filata
The same stretch, then shaped, brined and hung to dry for months. Layers stay visible in the paste.
What to look for. Visible grain when you break it along the stretch. A rubbery, uniform paste means it was over-worked.
Pasta filata
Braided while warm and cold-smoked. A format built for a market stall rather than a cellar.
What to look for. Smoke on the outside only, in a thin band. Smoke all the way through means heat, not time.
Natural-rind
The long-aged crumbling style: pressed hard, cloth-bound, and left until the paste breaks rather than bends.
What to look for. A break that flakes along a plane. Bendy paste at eighteen months means it was pressed light.
Natural-rind
Wrapped in leaves for the cellar, which is a handling decision that became a flavor one.
What to look for. Leaves still pliable and bonded. Dry, lifting leaves mean the cellar ran dry.
Natural-rind
Brushed and turned in a cave, with whatever the cave grows allowed to form the rind. No two batches match.
What to look for. A mottled gray rind with no bald patches. Orange slime means it turned into a washed rind by accident.
Nothing in the library matches that. Try clearing one filter, or ask the Standards Committee — the library grows from member questions.
A family is defined by what happens to the outside of the cheese and how much the curd was worked — not by the animal and not by the country. Two wheels from opposite ends of the world can belong to the same family and behave the same way in a case.
Unripened, eaten within days. Acid or a little rennet sets the curd; nothing lives on the outside.
A white mold coat ripens the paste from the rind inwards, so the edge softens before the center.
Brine or a brine-and-culture wash on the outside every few days. Orange, tacky, and louder than it tastes.
Blue mold introduced to the curd, then air let in by piercing. Salt carries the whole balance.
Pressed, salted and aged a few months. The broad middle of the trade and the hardest family to sell badly.
Cooked curd, heavily pressed, aged long. Made large because it was made to keep a valley through winter.
Curd heated and stretched until it ropes. Texture is decided in thirty seconds of pulling.
No wash, no mold coat: the rind is whatever the cave grows on it, brushed and turned.
The library was built for three jobs. Behind a counter, it settles an argument about what a customer is holding. In a cave, it gives you the failure modes for a family before you meet them. In a classroom, it is the vocabulary sheet the Cheese Foundations Certificate assumes you already have by week two.
Aging ranges are the window a style is normally sold in, not a rule. A style with a three-to-six-month range will have members selling at ten weeks and members selling at a year, and both will be right about their own make.
The “what to look for” line on every card is the one the Standards Committee uses when it reviews category definitions after judging. If you disagree with one, that is a committee conversation and they would rather have it than not.
The Cheese Foundations Certificate spends its second week on exactly this, with the cheeses in front of you instead of on a screen.
See the credential ladderThe competition judges six categories, which map onto these families but are not identical to them — a category is a judging decision, a family is a make decision.
See the six categoriesThe library is maintained by the Standards Committee and added to when members ask. Tell us what you could not find.
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