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Choosing Cheese
Appears in
By Anne Willan
Published 1989
Every cheese has individual characteristics, but some generalizations can be made. An unpasteurized milk cheese will always be superior to the pasteurized version. However, unpasteurized milk soft cheeses are scarce as many countries restrict their availability for health reasons. Cheeses from small-scale artisan producers will be superior to those manufactured on a large scale; processed cheeses, with their glutinous texture and undistinguished taste, are the least desirable of all.
To the connoisseur, odor is almost as helpful as appearance in selecting a cheese. Fresh cheeses should smell sweet, possibly slightly briny. High-fat cheeses such as Brillat-Savarin and most soft cheeses should be pleasantly aromatic, though some, like Pont l’Evêque, may be quite pungent. Hard, aged cheeses should smell, as they taste, with an earthy savor. It is the washed-rind cheeses, such as Limburger, which announce their presence from afar—the French name for one of them is vieux puant or “old stinker”. Nonetheless, no cheese should be acrid or so overripe that it smells of ammonia. Lack of aroma is also a bad sign: odorless cheese may have been overchilled or frozen and will taste insipid.