The cheese is handmade and covered in a hard, dark brown, inedible rind. It is aged for a few months and develops a nutty, buttery flavour, eaten fresh, often with quince jam. If aged longer, it becomes firm, dry and sharp and can be used for grating.

The Denomination of Origin for Idiazábal cheese was created in 1987 and defines the basic regulations for the product’s manufacture. Typically, unpasteurized milk from latxa breed of sheep is used, although in some cases the D.O. permits the use of milk from Carranzana breed, from the Encartaciones in Biscay. The D.O. also stipulates that the milk be curdled with the natural lamb curd, and permits external smoking of the cheese. The cheeses produced in the following towns in accordance with all the D.O. regulations, are therefore also protected by the Idiazábal D.O. : Urbia, Entzia, Gorbea, Orduña, Urbasa and Aralar. Recently some Basque Country farmers have begun to use hybrid Assaf sheep, which some maintain does not meet the Denomination of Origin for the cheese.

Idiazábal is an aged cheese, from semi-cured to cured, made exclusively from whole unpasteurized sheeps’ milk. It is produced by strong enzymatic coagulation. The pressed paste can be either uncooked or semi-cooked. It can eventually be externally smoked.

The milk used to produce Idiazábal must be whole unpasteurized, with a minimum of 6% fat. The milk coagulates at a temperature of 77 to 95 °F (25 to 35 °C), with the addition of natural lamb curd, resulting in a compact curdle after 30 to 45 minutes.

The curdle is cut in order to obtain rice-size grains, and then reheated to 34 to 38 °C (93 to 100 °F). In the case of coagulation at higher temperatures, the reheating temperature can reach 40 to 45 °C (104 to 113 °F). The reheated and shrunken paste dehydrates and is placed in molds where it may or may not be seasoned before pressing. Salting of the cheese is performed by rubbing the rind with dry salt, or by immersing the cheese in highly salted water for 24 hours. Finally, the cheeses are aged under cold and humid conditions avoiding mold, for at least two months.

The optional smoking takes place at the end of the aging process, using woods from the beech-tree, birch-tree, cherry tree or white pine. The intensity of the smoked qualities depends upon the type of wood and length of smoking. The cheeses are usually cylindrical in shape, although they are occasionally cone- or octagonal-shaped. The rinds of artisan cheeses may be engraved with drawings or symbols characteristic of the Basque culture. The rind is closed, smoked, waxy, without mold. The unsmoked cheeses have a yellow-beige color, while smoked cheeses are brownish.

The interior is compact, without air pockets or with only pin-head size holes, and is beige or pale yellow in color. The interior of the smoked cheeses has a brownish border. The taste is strong and pronounced, slightly acidic and piquant, buttery and consistent, with a characteristic sheep milk flavor. The smoked version is somewhat drier and stronger, with a pleasant aroma. The size of every cheese ranges from small to medium, with weights between 2 and 4 lb (0.91 and 1.8 kg).

Gorgonzola is made in the regions of Piedmont and Lombardy from whole cow’s milk, to which is added the bacteria Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, along with spores of the mold Penicillium glaucum. Recently, Penicillium roqueforti has started to be used to make Gorgonzola, besides its use in Roquefort cheese. After the whey is removed, it is aged at low temperatures. During the aging process, metal rods are inserted and removed, creating air channels that allow the mold spores to germinate and cause the characteristic veining. Gorgonzola is typically aged for three to four months. The length of the aging process determines the consistency of the cheese. A firm Gorgonzola is aged longer than creamy Gorgonzola. The cheese is usually packaged and sold in a foil wrapper.

Gorgonzola may be consumed in many ways. It may be melted into a risotto in the final stage of cooking, for instance. Another fairly traditional dish sees gorgonzola served alongside polenta. Pasta with gorgonzola is a dish appreciated almost everywhere in Italy by gorgonzola lovers; usually gorgonzola goes on short pasta, such as penne, rigatoni, mezze maniche, or sedani, not with spaghetti or linguine. Because of its distinctive flavor, gorgonzola is frequently offered as a topping on pizza, alone or with other soft cheeses (this is the so-called pizza ai quattro formaggi).

Today, by law, the zone of production includes only a defined area. What was once the village of Gorgonzola (not far from Milan) is being swallowed up by suburbs. Most gorgonzola is actually produced in the province of Novara, but the DOC zone also includes such provinces as Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Cuneo, Lecco, Lodi, Milan, Pavia, Varese, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, and Vercelli, as well as a number of comunes in the area of Casale Monferrato (province of Alessandria).

Gorgonzola made with goat’s milk is firm and salty. It is made usually in the Prealpi area of Piedmont and Lombardy, especially in the provinces Lecco and Alessandria.

Originally produced in Melzo, a small village near Milan in the Lombardy region, it is now made in both Italy and the United States. Bel Paese is a cow’s milk cheese. It matures for six to eight weeks, and has a creamy and light milky aroma. The color is a pale, creamy yellow. It is made in small discs, and is very similar to the French Saint-Paulin cheese and to German Butterkäse.

It has a mild, buttery flavor for which it has been popularly eaten with fruity wines, such as dry red or white. It is favored by many as a snack or dessert cheese and melts easily for use on pizzas or in casseroles. It is often used as a substitute for mozzarella cheese.

Genuine bel paese cheese can be determined by the wrapping. It has an image of the Italian geologist and paleontologist Antonio Stoppani, whose geological treatise Il bel paese gave its name to the Galbani cheese; but while on the wrapping of the cheese made in Italy Stoppani’s image comes with a map of Italy, cheese made in the United States has a map of the Americas.

Dunlop is a mild cheese or ’sweet-milk cheese’ from Dunlop in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It resembles a soft Cheddar cheese in texture. It fell out of popularity some time after the end of WW2, however it has now appreciated for its value in various recipes and for eating on its own or with a dram of whisky.

In the early 18th century Barbara Gilmour successfully manufactured a type of cheese till then unknown in Scotland, being made from unskimmed milk from Ayrshire cows. Her process was copied by her neighbours and ‘Dunlop cheese’ came into such demand, that whether made by Barbara or her neighbours, or by the housewives of adjoining parishes, it found a ready market. It is suggested that the spread of the cheese to other districts was largely through farmers who had settled there from Dunlop parish.Even William Cobbett himself pronounced it ‘equal in quality to any cheese from Cheshire, Gloucestershire, or Wiltshire.’

She was something of an ‘evangelist’ in the matter of making sweet milk (unskimmed milk) cheese,and being a forthright and energetic character she traveled widely to teach the making of her Dunlop cheese, and so stimulated a nation-wide demand. This demand stimulated merchants to visit Cunninghame, buy Dunlop cheese and sell it throughout the central lowlands of Scotland. Local cheese merchants from Kirktoun also bought up the cheese and took them to Glasgow for sale in the markets.

Barbara’s system for making Dunlop was widely copied and extended rapidly to many all parts of Scotland by the end of the 18th century, even where traditionally sheep’s milk cheese had been made. Nothing but skimmed milk having been used in the process of cheese making in this district, previously. All the cheese similarly made in the western counties received the appellation of “Dunlop” and in 1837 the Ayrshire Statistical Account records that 25,000 stones imperial were made in this parish annually.

The characteristics of Dunlop cheese are that it is a mild, sweet, buttery-tasting cheese with a semi-soft texture when young but maturing to a fudgey or hard texture after a few months. Dunlop cheese is soft and tasteless when turned out of the chesset or mould, and requires from six to twelve months to mature; and to acquire the light, elegant, charming flavour and fragrance peculiar to the Dunlop it must be kept in a thoroughly dry place, and be frequently turned upside-down, as it undergoes a slight fermentation which heaves it a little on the top. One drawback for Dunlop cheese is that its nearest direct competitor, New Cheddar cheese, being dry and hard, retains its weight while kept in stock, and is also in the condition at an earlier date to be exhibited in cuts.

Historically poor transport had encouraged the making of butter and cheese from fresh milk due to its highly perishable nature, however when the railways came in the 19th-century farmers were able to transport and sell their milk further afield and much less was available for making cheese. Paterson records in 1866 that Dunlop cheese has to some extent been superseded by the Cheddar system of cheese-making.

The high value which was set on the Barbara Gilmour cheese for the purpose of roasting was very much confined to Ayrshire, where a farl of oat cake or supple scone spread with roasted cheese, and a bowl of milk, or whey, or tea, or cold water, made a highly relished and substantial meal, precluding in many families the use of bacon for breakfast. With the vast population of England cheese was only eaten ‘raw’ with loaf bread, usually spread with mustard, and accompanied with the inevitable pot of beer. For this purpose the dry Cheddar and dry and salt American cheese were the favourites. The very dryness and saltness heighten thirst, and therefore the relish of the beer.

Jarlsberg is a mild cow’s-milk cheese with large irregular holes or what are commonly referred to as “eyes”, originating from Jarlsberg, Norway.

Jarlsberg has a yellow-wax rind and a semi-firm yellow interior. The flavor is mild, buttery, nutty and slightly sweet. It is an all-purpose cheese, good both for cooking and for eating as a snack. It has a characteristic smooth, shiny-yellow body, and a creamy supple texture. Jarlsberg Special Reserve is produced in Norway in limited quantities. It is aged a minimum of one year and is distinguished by medium to large holes.

The history of this cheese can be traced back to the middle 1850s. Anders Larsen Bakke (1815–1899), was a farmer and entrepreneur and a pioneer in Norway’s dairy industry. He produced cheese in the Våle village in what was then the county of Jarlsberg and Larviks Amt (now Vestfold), 80 km south of Oslo. The cheese shares similarities with Emmenthal, introduced to Vestfold by Swiss cheese makers during the 1830s. The cheese (and Bakke’s accomplishments) was first noted in the annual county report of Jarlsberg and Larviks Amt 1855.

The Jarlsberg cheese that we know today is a result of a long period of research and development which was carried out by researchers at the Dairy Institute at the Agricultural University of Norway. The cheese making process was developed by Ola Martin Ystgaard, professor of the Agricultural University of Norway. Starting in 1956, Ystgaard and some of his students eventually came up with the recipe that is used today. Commercial production of cheese began in the 1960s.

The largest producer of Jarlsberg today is the TINE BA factory in Elnesvågen in western Norway.[citation needed] TINE is one of the twelve agricultural cooperatives in Norway and the largest Norwegian dairy product cooperative. The corporation domestically offers the entire spectrum of dairy products. In addition to Jarlsberg, TINE’s internationally known products include Snøfrisk goat cheese, Ridder cheese, and Ski-Queen (geitost). Jarlsberg accounts for 60% of TINE’s total export.

Jarlsberg is also produced in the United States on license at Alpine Cheese in Ohio, and by Dairygold in Ireland. In the United States alone it is sold in over 30,000 supermarkets and a ton of the cheese is eaten per hour

Coulommiers is a cheese from Coulommiers in the Seine-et-Marne department of France, is the lesser-known cousin of Brie, although it has been produced perhaps longer. It has AOC designation limiting its origin. It is made from cow’s milk, usually in the shape of a disc with white, bloomy edible Penicillium candidum rind. It is smaller and thicker than Brie but otherwise possesses all the characteristics of a Brie, with a similar buttery colour and supple texture, with perhaps a nuttier flavour. This cheese can be either farmer-made or industrially produced, though the industrial version lacks the depth of an unpasteurized cheese; the artisanal or “farmhouse” unpasteurised Coulommiers has some reddish blush in parts of the rind. The period of ripening when made of pasteurised whole milk is about four to six weeks. The fat content is 40 per cent.