Alan Davidson

Brick Cheese

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

brick cheese is one of the main kinds made in the USA and one of the few which can claim an American origin (although possibly modelled on a German cheese called Box). First made in Wisconsin, around the 1870s, it is now manufactured in other states and Canada also.

The name may refer to the brick-like shape and size bestowed on it by the forms in which it is made, or to the actual bricks traditionally used in pressing it.

Brick is a whole-milk cheese with an elastic texture, less firm than cheddar, with irregular holes or ‘eyes’, and easy to slice.