Olomoucké tvarůžky is the only original Czech cheese with a distinctive, pungent taste. This natural matured soft cheese is free of any chemical additives. The first written mention of this cheese dates back to the 15th century. The A. W. Company has been making this cheese since 1876. There is a small museum devoted to the cheese at the A. W. Company production plant in Loštice.

The oldest references to the manufacture of cheese in Olomouc date from the 16th Century, but it is likely they refered to a more traditional cheese than the present Olomoucké tvarůžky. Olomoucké tvarůžky was eaten by Emperor Rudolf II. Until the 19th century, Olomoucké tvarůžky was produced in the villages surrounding Olomouc, and was generally regarded as a peasant food. It was at this time that the cheese began to be referred to as Olomouc cheese. The organized manufacture of Olomoucké tvarůžky is affiliated with Joseph Wessels and his son Alois, who industrialized production of the cheese in 1892.

Durrus is a round, semi-soft cheese. It has a pale interior with a pinkish, yellow-gray rind. It is aged for 3 to 5 weeks to allow the flavour to mature. It has a mild and creamy taste that becomes stronger and fruitier as it ages. The odour is mild to strong, depending on age. Durrus should be served at room temperature, and is best with fruit (especially pears), toast, and in fondue.

Durrus has won many awards from competitions such as the IFEX International Cheese Awards, the World Cheese Awards, and the British Cheese Awards. In 2005, it won the IFEX Irish Farmhouse Cheese Maker of the Year award.

Piave has a dense texture without holes that is straw-yellow in hue. It has a slightly sweet tasting flavor. Once fully aged, it becomes hard (making it well suited for grating), developing an intense, full-bodied flavor. Piave’s rind is impressed repeatedly with the name of the cheese.

Piave is sold in the United States as a hard cheese (called Piave vecchio or stravecchio, meaning “old” or “extra-old”) at which point its taste resembles that of a young Parmigiano Reggiano. It pairs well with traditional Italian dishes such as risotto and polenta, and with richer white wines, such as Chardonnay, medium-weight reds, such as Merlot and some Zinfandels.

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.

Gamalost (also Gammelost, Gammalost), which translates as “old cheese”, is a pungent traditional Norwegian cheese, which was once a staple of the Norwegian diet. Like many traditional Norwegian foods, such as flat bread, dry salted meats and stockfish, Gamalost could be stored for long periods without refrigeration.

To make Gamalost, lactic starter is added to skimmed cow’s milk, causing it to sour. After several days of souring, the milk is slowly heated, before the curds are separated and pressed into forms. After removal from the forms, mold is introduced onto the surface of the cheese, rubbed on by hand in the traditional method. The cheese is then allowed to cure for four to five weeks.

Gamalost production is very labor intensive, particularly if traditional methods are used, and it is not made in sufficient quantity for mass export. As such, it is rare to find the cheese outside Norway.
[edit]Taste and texture

Gamalost is a brownish-yellow cheese with irregular blue veins. It has a sharply pronounced flavor and aroma, like Camembert, Roquefort, or Danish Blue. It is a firm often granular cheese.

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

A Vacherin cheese is a cow’s-milk (French vache, “cow”) cheese. Two main types of French or Swiss Vacherin cheeses exist.

One is a soft, rich, seasonal cheese contained in a grayish-yellow blanched rind and called Vacherin Mont d’Or. Made from cow’s-milk in Switzerland or France, usually in villages of the Jura region (an origin that has been officially controlled since 1981), it typically contains 45 to 50 percent milk fat (in dry matter). It is marketed in round boxes of various diameters made of spruce. It is often served warmed in its original packaging and eaten like a fondue.

This cheese is made between August 15 and March 15, and is sold throughout France between September 10 and May 10.

The other Vacherin, a firmer cheese, is called Vacherin Fribourgeois. It is made in the Fribourg canton of Switzerland where Gruyère originates and has a slightly acidic, resiny flavor, with a varying strength depending on the age and type. It is also a basic component lending character to fondues (depending on the recipe). Vacherin Fribourgeois has Swiss AOC status with 6 varieties being available:

• Classic (aged: 6-12 weeks)
• Extra (aged: minimum 12 weeks)
• Rustic (aged: minimum 12 weeks, but up to 25 weeks (6 months))
• Alpage (aged: 12-25 weeks)
• Mountain (aged 9-25 weeks)
• Bio (Organic) (aged: minimum 9 weeks)

This cheese is made between September and April.

Vacherin d’alpage is made from the milk of cows pasturing in alpine meadows and hence has a much richer taste. Vacherin d’alpage are usually made in a cauldron over a wooden fire in some remote chalet on an alpine meadow and they are not easy to find in the trade. The older the vacherin gets, the stronger the smell of ammonia due to microorganism activity in the cheese.

Sardo is traditionally coagulated by animal rennet which is the inner lining of the fourth stomach of calves and other young ruminants. Therefore, it is not a vegetarian cheese. Its flavor is mellow, yet rich, and lightly salty. It is white-yellowish in color and is sold in blocks of about 6.5 pounds. Sardo cheese meets the U.S. Standards of Identity for cow’s milk. It makes a good choice for snack cheeses or for cooking purposes.