Episode 0293

Today we're talking about cheese. So there's so many different types of cheese, so many varieties. So we're going to take a look at these varieties. You may know them or not, but we're also going to take a look at the pronunciation because most of them are either Italian or French. So how do you pronounce these in, in maybe in American English?

Hello everyone. My name is Laurie, and I want to welcome you to this course. We will learn all about one of the oldest yet most delicious foods on this planet, cheese. Let's get started. Cheese is usually categorized into four types: soft, semi-soft, semi-hard, and hard. The designation refers to the amount of moisture in the cheese which directly affects its texture. Making cheese is an ancient practice dating back thousands of years and the home cheesemaker can usually find recipes for cheese that fall into any of the four categories.

Soft cheese includes cottage cheese, cream cheese, ricotta, brie, blue, Roquefort, mozzarella, muenster, and similar cheeses. These cheeses generally pair well with fruit or meat and can be used as breakfast cheeses in an omelette or as pasta fillings. They are usually mildly flavored and very high in moisture.

American, Colby, Cojack, and similar cheeses are in the semi-soft category. These are slightly stronger in flavor and cover a wide range of uses. Cojack cheese, a blend of Colby and Monterey Jack, is one of the most popular. This allows the sharper flavor of the Colby to be combined with the milder Jack cheese and also melts better than plain Colby. Grilled cheese sandwiches often use American cheese and Mexican cheeses such as Asadero and Queso Fresco are becoming more popular.

Hard cheeses include Parmesan, Romano, Asiago, Swiss, Gruyere and others. Parmesan and Romano are most familiar as the grated powder used to top spaghetti, but they are also used as accompaniments for fruit, wine, nuts and other appetizer items. Swiss is a popular sandwich cheese and melts well, unlike some other hard cheeses.

All right, we're back. So obviously this is a very interesting lesson because it also gives us an insight onto how cheeses are categorized. I personally did not know that you had all these categories of cheeses starting out with the soft cheeses.

That's right. So basically they're broken into these soft, semi-soft, semi-hard and hard categories. The soft cheeses are the ones that are actually, you know, you could touch them and they're soft, they kind of move under your finger.

Right.

And uh, the famous ones I think are cottage cheese, which is almost like yogurt.

Yeah, and cream cheese like is all.

And cream cheese as well. But also ricotta and brie and Roquefort and mozzarella.

So for example, these cheeses, they're usually, as you well, they're obviously very soft cheeses. Um, do you say cheeses or cheese, or cheesei?

Yeah, we just say cheese normally, or different kinds of cheese, so in that case you make the plural 'kinds'.

Kinds of cheese. Okay. Types of cheese.

Um, so these, uh, kinds of cheese they are recommended or they say that they pair well with fruits or meats. So when we talk about pairing a cheese with fruits or pairing a cheese with wine, uh, we're what are we saying there?

In that case we're saying that it's best to eat with certain kinds of food. So you can say I would recommend pairing this red wine with lamb. But in the case of cheese you could say I would recommend pairing this delicious brie cheese with fruit.

Okay. So you actually have brie with fruit. Usually.

That's right. It's, well, it depends on the kind of cheese. A lot of times you see mozzarella on pizzas and so it's not paired, it's actually a part of the dish.

It's an ingredient, right?

But if you're going to eat a piece of cheese alone, you can have it maybe with some fruit.

So that I guess that's the main difference between pairing and having it as an ingredient is pairing your combining it, but it's not really part of the dish.

No, and as an ingredient it's actually it has to be in the dish to make it work.

Uh-huh.

Uh, and so you have a lot of these delicious soft cheeses that you eat at breakfast or sometimes dessert, ricotta, cream cheese. These are all parts of desserts uh like cheesecake for example.

Oh yeah, what, what, what cheese, what do they use in cheesecake?

Usually cream cheese.

Oh really? Mm-hm.

Um, but then you get into these other cheeses which are semi-soft or semi-hard and semi here just means part. So it's it's partially hard, partially soft. Uh, and these cheeses are different because uh, you might use them sliced on sandwiches, things like that. Um, in this category you have American and Colby and Monterey Jack is also very, very popular.

So these actually do have a, a more, uh, an American sound to it. Obviously American cheese or or Monterey Jack. That sounds a little bit different than all the Italian or French sounding cheeses that we had in the soft ones.

That's right. And you'd even have something like cheddar in this category. There's another.

Cheddar cheese.

Yeah, there's another good cheese.

As you said, these are very typically put in sandwiches.

Yeah, I mean you can use them in different ways. Sometimes we grate cheese, that means we, uh, rub it against this machine, a grater, to make it come out in these little fine, um, pieces. For example, on top of pasta or on top of nachos. Uh, so we have grated cheese, but you can also have sliced cheese and that's the kind of, um, that's the way that we cut cheese to put it on a sandwich.

So for example, if you go to McDonald's and you get a burger, usually the cheese that's uh on your hamburger is uh cheddar cheese, right?

That's right. It's a slice of cheddar cheese.

Okay. Now moving on to our next cat, well actually towards the end of the, uh, different types of cheese under the semi-soft category, they also talk about Mexican cheeses such as Asadero and Queso Fresco.

Have you, you've had this before?

Yes, many times.

What do you usually have it, have it with, or how do you pair it?

Um, usually it's an ingredient on tacos because it's a little bit crumbly. That means that it's like balls as as opposed to being one chunk, one big piece. And so we usually have it, um, like that or I've also had it as a just a piece of cheese paired with a fried plantain or sour cream.

It's actually very good. Um, the thing with Queso Fresco is all of the cheese, they also depend on on how mature they are, how long they've, they've taken to, to make them. And Queso Fresco, Fresco means fresh in Spanish, and this is the main, I think, factor in in this type of cheese, that it's very, very immature, it's a very fresh cheese. You make, you can make it in like a day or two.

Queso Fresco: Fresh cheese

Exactly, it just takes one night to sit and to, to become cheese, basically. But other cheeses and we'll see some of these in the hard cheeses take a very long time to become their, you know, their final cheese state. And one of those cheeses is Parmesan. You know, in in in Italy when you buy Parmesan, they have these big wheels of it, they're circles. And you have to pay according to how old it is. 18 months, 36 months, and it it gets more expensive the uh, the the older it is.

Mm. So obviously the older it is, just like wine, it has a more intense flavor.

That's right. And there are special characteristics for certain ages. Sometimes people really like the young ones. It depends on your your taste and what you're going to use it for. Um, but Romano is another cheese in Italy that's used like Parmesan on top of pastas, so spaghetti you would grate it and you put it on top of pasta.

Oh, okay. What about the they also mention this other one Asiago?

Asiago cheese. Swiss cheese is the one with the holes. Asiago is, um, I don't know if maybe it's Spanish. Um, but then we have Gruyere, which is a French cheese and tends to be very, very, very strong flavored.

So I think Gruyere is the cheese that usually many people use for making fondue, so they basically have this big pot, or this, um, medium-sized pot and all the cheese just melts and you just dip pieces of bread or vegetables in there and you eat this just melted cheese.

That's right. Um, but yeah, these are, all these different types of cheese, as you said, there's so many different types and according to the age. Now, uh, you lived in Italy for a while and obviously there are a very, um, they are a nation that enjoy having wine and cheese very regularly, right?

That's right. And I have to say that, uh, people in Parma take their cheese very, very seriously.

How serious?

Uh-huh. Well, every, well, a lot of people buy these big pieces of Parmesan cheese and they keep them in the refrigerator and you don't just put the Parmesan cheese on the spaghetti, you also break pieces of it and you eat it alone with some, you know, a glass of wine. Or some people like to put a little drop of balsamic vinegar on top of the cheese to give it some flavor.

Oh, really?

Um, so there are many different ways to eat it. I'm sure it's different all over the country. But mozzarella, uh, Parmesan cheese, Romano, these are all cheeses that are very, very important in Italian culture.

It's very interesting because well, obviously we have listeners from all over the world, but some countries have a good culture for wine, cheese, and cured meats. Like, for example, in South America, if you, if you visit Argentina or Chile, they are a nation that actually have a lot of variety of cheese, wines, and cured meats. But if you take a trip to maybe Colombia, they're not really that type of, of culture that really consume cheese and wine in the same manner.

Interesting. I wonder if it has to do with the uh, the historical relationship between Europe and the place like Argentina, you know, in Argentina there's lots of Italian former, people who came over from Italy many, many years ago, right? So that might have something to do with it. Or also very, you know, Spain has a very strong tradition of cured meats and cheeses. They have Manchego cheese. Things like this. So I wonder if there's a relationship there.

Yeah, I, I think, I think it's definitely an influence in some way. But the thing with cheese, I think it's in many places it's very expensive.

It can be.

Comparatively to, you know, if you, you can have a regular mozzarella cheese, but sometimes these other types, they can be very expensive.

Yeah, it's like good wine. If you really want to pay for good cheese, it's going to cost you a lot of money.

Now, what about this, uh, the famous blue cheese? We didn't mention it, but this is a very famous French cheese that basically has mold on it.

Well, yeah, all all cheese you're growing cultures, you're you're growing these things that are alive, but blue cheese you can actually see it and it's uh, it's moldy. It's white and there's some blue or green mold.

Exactly.

And uh, some people love it, some people hate it. I think it's, it's, it depends on your tastes, but it does have a very strong flavor.

Well, do you personally like it or dislike it?

I do not like blue cheese, but I, I, I love other kinds of cheeses like Camembert, which is a French cheese with a very strong flavor, very stinky cheese. So it's not necessarily that it's it's strong, it's just that I don't like the taste very much.

Okay. Actually, it's very popular on, uh, to put on salads, right? Blue cheese, a sa, a sauce or a a dressing.

Blue cheese dressing. Yeah, that's right. It's made out of blue cheese.

It's a very interesting topic and I'm sure that locally many people also make or countries have their own types of cheeses. I know for example, in in Ecuador, we do have also something very similar to Queso Fresco and that's commonly used for breakfast. And here's an interesting thing, um, they put it in their cup of coffee.

So, uh, is it cheese cheese, it's not.

It's cheese cheese, it's not

It's cheese, so, um, it's, so basically you have coffee with milk, very popular in Latin America. And people will take a piece of cheese and put it in their coffee. So obviously with the heat it will, it won't melt completely, but it will become very bendy and very soft. And then they'll, they'll, they'll have it with the, the coffee and the bread. So, it gives it a very interesting taste. It may sound a little bit peculiar, but it actually has a very, very, uh, interesting taste, very good taste. I've had many friends try and they're like, wow, I would you wouldn't really think that you would probably dip cheese in coffee, but it works.

No, it's a very unusual combination. Now what is this special cheese called?

Uh, it's also, it's called Queso de mesa, which is a, basically a normal, common everyday table cheese. So it's not any particular, it's very similar to Queso Fresco, very immature cheese.

Queso de mesa: Table cheese

The English pod audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

A type of cheese.

Camber.

Soft, not strong.

Mild.

Solid product made from milk.

Cheese.

The way something tastes.

Flavor.

The way something feels.

Texture.

A small quantity of water.

Moisture.

To destroy microorganisms via elevated temperatures.

Pasteurize.

Nationality.

American.

A type of cheese.

Colby.

A type of cheese.

Cojack.

A type of cheese.

Queso.

A type of cheese.

Parmesan.

A type of cheese.

Romano.

A type of cheese.

Asiago.

A type of cheese.

Swiss.

A type of cheese.

Gruyere.

Let's try that faster.

A type of cheese.

Parmesan.

The way something tastes.

Flavor.

Solid product made from milk.

Cheese.

A type of cheese.

Camber.

Soft, not strong.

Mild.

The way something feels.

Texture.

A type of cheese.

Romano.

Nationality.

American.

A type of cheese.

Gruyere.

A type of cheese.

Colby.

A type of cheese.

Asiago.

A type of cheese.

Cojack.

To destroy microorganisms via elevated temperatures.

Pasteurize.

A small quantity of water.

Moisture.

A type of cheese.

Swiss.

A type of cheese.

Queso.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Cheese.

Cheese.

Where do you buy your cheese? From the local market, of course. I only want the best.

Cheese.

Mild.

Wow, that is too hot for me. Could I please have something more mild than that?

Mild.

What is your palate most receptive to? I enjoy mild food.

Mild.

The wine did not overshadow my dinner in the sense that it was mild enough to pair well with the pasta.

Flavor.

The chef brings out the strong flavor of the steak by seasoning with salt and herbs.

Flavor.

Flavor.

Texture.

My friend was surprised that the texture of the dinner his wife had made was similar to that of a hard rock.

Texture.

The texture of the wine I had just bought was dry and heavy.

Texture.

At first taste, I thought the wine was soft and sensual. By paying close attention to the texture, however, I realized it was rough and coarse.

Moisture.

I lock my cigars in an airtight case to prevent moisture.

Moisture.

An important factor in the success of growing your vegetables is the moisture that they receive.

Moisture.

My friend has to renovate his whole bathroom. There was too much moisture that it caused mold to grow on the walls.