What types of cheeses are there, and how are they distinct from one another?
I own a Cheese Encyclopedia which lists thousands of different cheeses. You can classify cheeses in many different ways, and the combinations lead to thousands of different cheeses: • Type of milk used: cow, milk, sheep • Type of bacteria and type of rennet • How hard the cheese is (fresh, soft, semisoft, hard, grating) which comes from how long it has been aged and how hard the whey has been forced out of it • Milkfat content (from low fat to triple cream) • Molds (surface ripened vs. veins vs. no mold at all) • Surface treatment (wax, ash, mold, plain) And every region has their own variants of how much salt to put in, specific breeds of bacteria, what the cows eat, etc. At a big cheese store you could try a different cheese every single day, forever. Pairing wine and cheese is kind of an art. Actually, pairing any wine with any food is an art, which means you can go ahead and drink any wine with any cheese as long as you like it. But here are some
