Curd 101: Expand Your Cheese Vocabulary

Curd 101: Expand Your Cheese Vocabulary

Want to sound like a pro at the cheese counter? Learning a few key terms will help you talk curds, rinds, and aging like a seasoned cheesemonger—no nodding politely required.

Affinage & Affineur – Affinage is the fine art of aging cheese, and the affineur is the artisan tending the wheels, nurturing flavor and texture to perfection.

Ammoniated – Describes a cheese with ammonia notes, usually a sign it’s overripe or mishandled. Common culprits: soft bloomy-rind or washed-rind cheeses like brie or camembert.

Annatto – A natural vegetable extract used to color cheeses red, orange, or yellow without affecting flavor.

Beta-Carotene – Naturally occurring pigments in grass that give cow’s milk fat a golden hue and also serve as a building block for vitamin A.

Brevibacterium linens – Bacteria responsible for the orange-pink tint and bold aroma of washed-rind cheeses.

Brined Cheese – Cheeses stored in brine, such as feta.

Bruised – Cheese that has dents, discoloration, or other physical irregularities.

Casein – The primary protein in milk.

Cendré – Cheese sprinkled with dark vegetable ash, often found on young goat’s milk cheeses.

Cheese Trier – A tool resembling an apple corer used to extract a small sample from the center of a cheese wheel.

Close – Cheese with a smooth, tight texture, like cheddar.

Cream Line – The layer just beneath the rind, usually creamier and sometimes runnier than the interior paste.

Curd – Solids formed when milk coagulates during cheesemaking.

Eyes – Holes in cheese, like Swiss, created by trapped gas during fermentation.

Farmstead Cheese – Cheese made using only milk from the farm where it is produced.

Ferme/Fermier – French term for farm-produced cheeses.

Filled – Cheese with butterfat removed and replaced with vegetable oil; also called imitation cheese.

Fromager – French for cheesemaker.

Galactomyces candidum – A yeast-like mold used in the maturation of bloomy-rind and washed-rind cheeses, helping prevent bitterness and creating an ideal surface for other bacteria.

Gassy – Cheese that becomes bloated in packaging, either from temperature changes, altitude, or microbial gas production.

Green – Cheese that is not yet fully ripened.

Guillotine – Device used to cut clean wedges, especially useful for blue or soft cheeses.

Homogenization – Process that makes fat globules uniform in size and evenly distributed in milk.

Hot Performance – How a cheese responds to heat, depending on its form, hardness, and cooking time.

Hygrometer – Instrument used to measure temperature and humidity, essential in aging caves.

Interior Mold – Mold (often blue) growing inside a cheese, introduced either by piercing or natural spaces between curds.

Lactase – Enzyme that splits lactose into glucose and galactose, useful for those who are lactose intolerant.

Lactic Acid – Acid produced when lactose is broken down.

Lactic Bacteria – Bacteria that convert lactose into lactic acid.

Lactose – Sugar naturally present in milk.

Lipase – Enzyme that breaks down fat molecules.

Marbled – Cheese showing two curd colors blended together or with added flavor/color agents.

Milling – Breaking up curd after resting and ripening, before pressing.

Moisture Content – The amount of water present in a cheese.

Oil-Off – Separation of oil from solids when cheese melts.

Open – Cheese with small holes, like Colby.

Paste – Interior of the cheese beneath the rind, ranging from soft and creamy to firm and crumbly.

Pasteurization – Heating milk to a set temperature to kill pathogens.

Penicillium candidum – Mold used to create a white bloomy rind on soft cheeses.

Penicillium roqueforti – Primary mold used to make blue cheese.

pH – Measure of acidity.

Pricking – Piercing cheese with long needles to allow oxygen in for fermentation or blue mold growth.

Protease – Enzyme that breaks down dairy proteins.

Raw Milk – Milk that has not been pasteurized.

Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) – Synthetic hormone given to cows to increase milk production.

Rennet – Enzyme used to coagulate milk, can be animal, vegetable, or microbial.

Retronasal – Perception of aroma and flavor through the mouth.

Ripening – Both the period and the changes that occur as cheese ages.

Rind – Cheese’s exterior; can be natural, waxed, mold-covered, or flavored.

Soapy – Flavor caused by excessive breakdown of milk fat.

Starter – Bacterial culture that converts lactose into lactic acid at the start of cheesemaking.

Surface-Ripened – Cheese that ages from the outside in, due to microorganisms on the surface.

Terroir – Characteristics given by a region’s soil, climate, and altitude.

Thermalization – Mild heating of milk before cheese production, lower and shorter than pasteurization.

Thermophilic – Bacteria that thrive between 86°F and 122°F.

Tomme – Small round of cheese, usually from leftover skim milk after butter production; low-fat.

Triple Cream / Triple Crème – Soft French cheese with at least 72% fat.

Transhumance – Seasonal migration of animals to high Alpine pastures, impacting cheese flavor.

Turophobia – Fear of cheese.

Tyrosemiophilia – Hobby of collecting cheese labels.

Ultra-Pasteurization – Heating milk higher than pasteurization for longer shelf life.

Unsaturated Fat – Fatty acids not fully saturated with carbon, more common in plant foods.

Veining – Mold in blue cheeses.

Vertical Tasting – Sampling the same cheese at different ages to observe flavor evolution.

Washed-Curd – Cheese where some whey is replaced with hot water, yielding a sweeter flavor after aging (e.g., Gouda).

Waxed – Cheese coated with wax and/or cheesecloth for protection; wax color can indicate age or sharpness.

Weeping – Moisture release from holes in Swiss-type cheeses, signaling peak ripeness or improper storage.

Whey – Liquid remaining after milk coagulates.

Whey Cheese – Cheese made from whey proteins, like traditional ricotta.

Young – Semi-firm, firm, or hard cheeses aged 2–30 days, typically milder in flavor.

---