Cheese #5721421

Soft paste cheese in this category are often spread on bread or crackers to be served as snacks. They're usually not used for cooking. Most soft cheeses should be used within a few days of purchase--they spoil faster than firmer cheeses.

Hard Cheese is often pigeon-holed, to its detriment, as a "grating cheese". In fact, hard cheeses are packed with flavor and deserve a place on any great cheese plate. The maturation period of these cheeses is usually measured in years, not months. To ripen a cheese to such an extent, the cheesemaker must take extra care at the outset to use only the highest quality starter cultures, rennet, and milk.

The category of Fresh & Mild Cheese is meant to include any cheese that is mostly or wholly unripened, and that is gentle on the palate. Some fresh cheeses are simply unmatured versions of more traditional aged cheese - e.g. Wisconsin cheese curds and cheddar cheese. Othes cheeses of this sort are never meant to be eaten more than a few weeks after they've been made.