Snack or cooking ingredient, there is a whole world of cheeses. Cheese makes a wonderful addition to many dishes and can also be the main ingredient.

Cheese

Cheese is made from cow, sheep or goat's milk. The milk is ripened by the addition of a starter culture of bacteria which turns lactose -the sugar in milk- into lactic acid. The milk sours as it ripens, separating into curds -solid- and whey -liquid. Those curds, once rennet is added and other processes carried on, are the base of cheese.

The differences between those processes are the origin of the myriad of cheeses we get today.

The spectrum of cheeses

There are various ways to categorize cheese - by age, texture or firmness, milk used and so forth. But what the connoisseur cares about most is the experience. Does it taste good? Does it have a fine flavor, a wonderful consistency, a delightful aroma? These characteristics are the result of a mixture of ingredients and processing and storage methods.

Mild cheeses have a delicate flavor, easy on the tongue. They may be a fresh cheese such as Le Roulé or Le Brin but more often they have been aged over 60 days. That firms them up more than a fresh cheese, but gives them enough spring and tang to delight the tongue. Fresh is more often used for a spread, while mild will be used as part of a sandwich or for a tasty snack.

An excellent mild is the Fleur Du Maquis, made in Corsica from the milk of Lacaune ewes, a type of sheep. Rubbery, but in the right sense, it is a first-rate addition to any fine table. Bouc Emissair is a great alternative. Hailing from Québec, this goat's milk cheese is an impressive slab of mild, light chévre.

On the other end of the spectrum are the sharp cheeses that really wake up the palette. Tangy, full-flavored and often with a beautiful color, a sharp will keep your wits sharp and your tongue delighted.

Any natural sharp cheese will be aged over six months, though the process can be sped up artificially through the marvels of modern chemistry. It's a rare connoisseur who could tell the difference. But whether from nature or the mind of a cheesemaker, these are the bold cheeses. Extra sharp will have been aged over nine months - some as long as ten years - and have the strongest flavor of all.

English cheeses are often of this type. West Country cheddar, for example, is a delightful choice. The Wensleydale is another. Pale, dry and crumbly, it makes for a great addition on a fine cracker. Or you may prefer a Bulgarian feta made from sheep's milk. Tangy and with that afterbite that true cheese lovers look for in a sharp.

In between is a wide variety, sometimes called medium, other times more of a semi-soft or semi-firm. Within these classes are a never ending array of options.

There's the Abbaye de Belloc still made by Benedictine monks in the fashion that originated with the abbey of Notre Dame de Belloc. Made with the milk of sheep raised in the French Pyrenees, it can stand proudly at the center of any table. Or, you may prefer the Amarelo from Portugal's Beira Baixa. This yellow medium has all the tang and vigor of the people of that fine land.

Storage will have an effect on the final result, so take that into account when you select something from the spectrum of cheeses available. Storage at 33ºF (0.5ºC) will help preserve the original flavor and appearance, but cheese is best served at room temperature.

Cooking with cheese

Cheese makes for a wonderful addition to many recipes. In some cases, such as Welsh rarebit, it is an essential ingredient. But whether it's the centerpiece or just a tasty topping, cooking with cheese can be tricky.

Some, such as Brie or Camembert, become liquid easily since they are already quite soft. Others, like Parmesan, will simply become harder the longer they are heated. Much of the difference has to do with the amount and type of fat molecules suspended throughout the cheese. But we'll skip the chemistry lesson for now.

In general, the more aged the cheese, the grainier it becomes on being melted. Younger cheeses tend to be creamier. Cheddar is an interesting middle ground, since even a fine extra sharp will melt quite nicely and make for an excellent topping on many dish.

On the opposite end of the temperature scale, if your goal is to grate the cheese you'll want to firm it up in the refrigerator. Ditto for easy slicing. For hard cheeses 30 minutes is about right, for softer 20 minutes will often be enough.

However, in the latter case, if you intend to serve a nice cheese course you may want to strike a middle ground. Cheese eaten as an appetizer or after the main meal treat should be served at room temperature. Though a little more difficult to slice that way, it will dry less if sliced later.

If you're using cheese as a topping, to be melted and applied as a garnish, you'll want to grate rather than slice. This opens up all the cheese flavor and allows for a smoother melt. Also, cooking sliced cheese tends to make it rubbery or stringy. Raclette will melt smoothly, but Mozzarella becomes stringy, for example. Unless that's the effect you're going for, grate instead.

Some care is required when cooking cheese, since most cheeses will brown, then burn, in high heat. Some of that effect may be desired to bring out a certain flavor profile. But overdoing it just leads to hard, tasteless, carbonized cheese. So, think about adding the cheese later during the cooking time.

If you're counting calories, you may be concerned about the fat content in cheese. Apart from using low-fat cheeses, which can be bland tasting, you can be a little more generous when using it for cooking.

Soft cheeses, like Brie, have a high moisture content. Since fat content is measured dry, Brie and similar cheeses will actually have less fat content per unit weight when cooked than harder cheeses. More aged cheeses, like an extra sharp cheddar, have a more assertive flavor, allowing you to use less and still have a very tasty dish.

As a general rule of thumb, a half-pound of cheese will make about 2 cups of grated cheese. About 2 ounces per person is usually all you need to balance flavor and calories.

Cheese is a tasty and nutritious food, raw or cooked. But used in cooking it can have an entirely new flavor essence from the raw version. Experiment!