Which cheese to choose for. Good advice: How to choose cheese in the store

Cheese is a dairy product or a dairy composite product made from milk, dairy products and by-products of milk processing using special starter cultures. A cheese product differs from cheese in that it contains milk, i. part of the milk fat in it is replaced by non-dairy components.

Cheese is a highly nutritious food. It contains 15 to 25% protein, 20 to 30% fat. Cheese proteins are associated with calcium, which is why they are absorbed much better than from plant foods. It is rich not only in calcium, but also in phosphorus, salts of magnesium, potassium, sodium, trace elements that the body needs for metabolic processes, for hematopoiesis, the activity of hormones, enzymes. There are more vitamins in cheese than in milk.

What to look for when buying cheese?

Quality cheese and fresh cheese are not the same thing. A high-quality product meets the requirements of regulatory documents, but if the cheese has “departed” a four-month ripening period and only then hit the counter, is it fresh? If a young cheese went on sale the day after it was made, would it be of good quality? Practically philosophical questions that even experts won't answer. Of course, if a black-and-green fluff flaunts on a head of cheese, then don’t go to a fortuneteller - it’s spoiled by mold.

However, cheeses also have other traitorous external signs:

Cheese dough should have a uniform color from pale yellow to yellow, but if we see white spots on the cut, this is a bad sign.
Narrow cracks-cracks instead of even eyes signal high acidity.
The uneven texture of the cheese on the cut, "blind spots" free of eyes, where they should be (for example, in Russian cheese), also give out an unscrupulous manufacturer.

How to store cheese after purchase?

Many of us habitually store cheese in the refrigerator, wrapped in "native" cellophane packaging. However, this is not the best idea.

Of course, nothing fatal will happen to a piece of cheese, but the moisture evaporating from it will condense on the film and can cause mold.

A great alternative would be to wrap the cheese in parchment. The crust may dry out a little in it, but this is just the result of evaporation of moisture. But the risk of infecting the product with a fungus becomes much lower.

4 popular myths about cheese

Choosing cheese, we are often hampered by misconceptions about this product. Let's try to understand the most famous cheese myths.

Myth #1. Cheese is the least healthy of all dairy products.

This is absolutely not true, because cheese is a concentrate of protein, calcium, microelements, and milk itself is primarily valuable as a protein food product. To satisfy a person's daily need for milk protein, just a small piece of cheese is enough.

In the process of maturation of the cheese mass, the protein decomposes into amino acids, including essential ones, which are not synthesized in the body on their own and get there only with food. Cheese does an excellent job of synthesizing them, while ingesting other dairy products, we simply allow the milk protein to fall into the esophagus, and it still needs to be digested.

Myth #2. Homemade cheese is tastier and healthier than what is sold in stores.

Whatever “homemade” cheese is meant, the product of the efforts of a housewife who cooked her own cheese in the kitchen in a saucepan of milk bought at the market, or the work of a farmer from a European village, the key point is the quality of the milk.

The taste qualities of homemade cheeses are quite diverse, and it is impossible to judge them, but it is very possible to pick up harmful microflora if the milk is not pasteurized.

Myth #3. Unscrupulous manufacturers use vegetable and palm oil instead of milk fat in the production of cheese, and also tint the cheese with various dyes.

As for dyes, they are even allowed by our national standard. Naturally, only natural, for example, beta-carotene. They are used to give the cheese a more intense color, since winter milk gives the cheese a pale color, and customers want to see the product in a standard and familiar yellow color.

Myth number 4. It is safer to buy cheese packaged and cut on the trading floor.

The manufacturer is legally not liable for commercially packaged cheese. The quality and shelf life of cheese packaged in a retail outlet is affected by many things, including the chopping knife and cutting board in the store, and the wrapping film.

When packing, it is inconvenient to wrap the cheese into the inside of the packaging film from the reel if the packer is not left-handed, so cheese is often wrapped by placing it on the outside of this film. And where the reel of film lay before packaging is a mystery shrouded in darkness. Therefore, cheeses packaged at the factory are safer. Although they are significantly more expensive.

More Cheese Facts

Cheese was well known long before our era. Homer tells in the Odyssey how travelers, having got into a cave, found a lot of cheeses in baskets. And about the Cyclops, Polyphemus writes:

Milked goats and sheep, as is customary for everyone,

White took half of the milk, instantly fermented,

He immediately squeezed it out and put it in tightly woven baskets ...

The process of curdling milk and making cheese was described by Aristotle in the 4th century BC. Greek cheese from the island of Demos was especially famous in antiquity - it was even exported to Rome. Later, the Romans had their own varieties of cheese - for example, "moon cheese". It was so tasty that the Roman, describing the lady of the heart, compared her with the taste of "moon cheese". In England, the first recorded cheese recipe is found in a 1390 cookbook owned by King Richard P.

In the book of the French cheese maker Andre Simon, which he wrote for 17 years, 839 varieties of cheese are mentioned.

Interestingly, almost all cheeses have geographical names: Swiss, Dutch, Kostroma, Uglich, Russian, Latvian, Yaroslavl and others. These names are associated with the areas where these cheeses were invented and mastered.

Other names of cheeses are associated with the method of production or with the composition of additional raw materials, in other cases they are the names of national cheeses (for example, suluguni, chanakh, porridge, kachkaval and others common in the Caucasus and Moldova).

Parmesan is named after the Italian city of Parma. It is stored for 1-2 years in a cool, well-ventilated warehouse. The surface of the cheese is rubbed with vegetable oil from time to time. It has a pleasant pungent aroma and a salty taste. Parmesan is not used as an independent dish, but as a dressing or as a side dish for the famous Italian spaghetti.

The birthplace of Camembert cheese is Normandy. More than 200 years ago, this variety was invented by the Frenchwoman Marie Arel. There is an assumption that Maria Arel named her cheese in honor of the cheerful corporal Camembert, the hero of a popular children's fairy tale.

The organizer of industrial cheesemaking in Russia was Nikolai Vasilyevich Vereshchagin, the elder brother of the Russian artist V.V. Vereshchagin. On his initiative, in 1866, the first artel cheese factory was opened in the village of Otrokovichi, Tver province. Following it, artel cheese-making factories appeared in other northern provinces. In 1871, N.V. Vereshchagin created the first school of dairy farming in Russia in the village of Edimonovo, Tver province.

Cheese is a highly nutritious food with a rich taste. It can be safely called the most popular dairy product. In order for it to be also useful, it must be benign and natural.

To produce 1 kg of cheese, an average of 11 liters of milk is needed. Therefore, when buying and choosing cheese in a store, it is better not to focus on saving money, because milk is an expensive product. As they say, free cheese is only in a mousetrap.

What is the ideal cheese?

Ideal - "clean" cheese should be made only from milk, sourdough and salt. Such a composition is a rarity. A product without nutritional supplements is already difficult to find, but you need to strive for the ideal. Try to avoid additives such as carrageenan (E-407), arboxymethylcellulose (E-466), carotenes (E-160a,b), sunset dye (E-110).

Labeling is an important element that must be taken into account when buying. The inscriptions "cheese product" and others consonant with the word "cheese" mislead many buyers. The advice is not to choose this kind of product, as it is no longer a natural product and contains vegetable fats and other substitutes. Always look at the ingredients so you know what you are actually buying. Give preference to food products made according to GOST, and not according to TU.

Cheese is most often associated with hard cheese, the most popular type. But besides it, there are soft, brine, sour-milk and processed varieties. How to choose them correctly - first things first.

How to choose hard cheeses

To choose the right hard cheese, it is necessary to develop an algorithm for checking the quality of cheese. It is desirable not only to look and smell, but also to feel it. Eliminate the following negative signs indicating poor quality:

– The presence of wrinkles, irregularities, cracks and other defects;

– Loose, crumbly and cracked texture (poor quality or freezing). Look carefully at the edges - they should not be torn;

– Rancidity, moldiness and rottenness (a sign of spoilage) and greasiness (a sign of palm oil content). The presence of mold is permissible only in special varieties, in ordinary cheese it will be a sign of spoilage;

– Puffing of the crust (formation of bacteria);

- The presence of a whitish coating or other microflora is a clear sign of spoilage;

– Thick subcortical layer;

– The cheese section is unevenly dull or too light in color. The correct cheese should be yellow, but we must not forget that with the help of dyes, manufacturers solve this problem. Tip: beware of a pronounced yellow color, study the composition;

- unevenly distributed eyes (holes): in one place they are small, in another - large;

- humidity or the presence of drops on the surface of the cheese indicates its unnaturalness - it contains vegetable fat (especially manifested at room temperature or when pressed). In some varieties, a small amount of moisture is allowed when cutting the cheese.

When tasting hard cheese, make sure there are no creaks on the teeth (unbroken milk proteins). Also, the cheese should not be salty or sweetish. Of course, a lot depends on the particular variety.

At home, you can conduct a useful quality test. Cut off a flat piece and bend it - it shouldn't break. High-quality cheese should have plasticity, but it should not be rubber either.

Soft cheeses

The choice of soft cheeses should be carried out approximately in the same way as when choosing hard ones. The difference lies in the consistency - they are much wetter. The moisture content depends on the variety. With its softness, the cheese must retain its elasticity and springiness.

Now a few tips for choosing soft blue cheese. It should be soft and slightly loose. The aroma may be specific (the smell of penicillin), but not ammonia (a sign of spoilage). These varieties are often imported, so check the expiration date. It is not recommended to buy blue cheese in large quantities, as it spoils rather quickly.

Pickled cheeses

Brine cheeses are made using special brines. They do not have a crust, they themselves are brittle. The most famous of the pickled cheeses is feta cheese. Suluguni is also very popular. Other varieties can be found on sale: Adyghe, Georgian, Yerevan, Tushinsky, Ossetian, Chechil, Liman, Chanakh, Lori.

Unlike hard cheese, bacteria develop faster in brine. Therefore, it is sometimes salted to extend the shelf life. When buying, it is desirable to taste it.

The right choice of processed cheeses is the most difficult

You need to choose processed cheeses very carefully, because anything can be put into this product. Ideally, it should consist of rennet cheeses (hard varieties), butter, cream and milk. But very often the raw materials are second-rate or even spoiled defective cheese, butter is not butter, but vegetable, and milk is dry, of unknown quality. Make sure that the product does not contain preservatives, or at least not in large quantities (if the quantitative composition allows you to determine the labeling).

Smoked cheese is a type of processed cheese. The first thing to pay attention to is that it should not be dry and crumbly. The shell is shiny, without mechanical defects. When cutting, it should not stick to the knife. Inside, everything should be uniform and without voids. Remember that instead of natural smoking (hot and cold), liquid smoke or smoke liquid can be used. However, unnatural smoking for cheese is not as dangerous to health as it is for meat and fish.

Sour-milk cheeses

And the last type of cheese is fermented milk, which is made using lactic acid (sourdough). Cottage cheese is the most classic representative of sour-milk cheeses. Therefore, by the way, it is often called simply cheese.

In addition to cottage cheese, varieties are also well known: green (from skimmed milk), wedge and amateur. Such products as sour-milk (cottage cheese) curds are very popular.

Storage rules

Hard cheeses should be stored in the refrigerator. Storage temperature can be from -4 to +8 degrees Celsius. Humidity is important to keep at 85-90%, otherwise the cheese will dry out or start to mold. Shelf life - up to 4 months - depends on many factors: moisture content, preservatives, salt, crust thickness, packaging and the presence of spoilage microorganisms.

Soft cheeses should be stored at a temperature of 0 - +8 degrees Celsius. They have a much shorter shelf life than solid ones. At home, they are stored for only a few days, so you need to eat them quickly. Of course, manufacturers can increase the shelf life by adding preservatives and under-ripening.

Processed cheeses (including smoked ones) have a longer shelf life than other types of cheeses due to the fact that they are heat treated (melted). Storage temperature can be negative - from -4 to +4 degrees Celsius. Shelf life - up to 2 months. Specific conditions and expiration date are indicated on the packaging.

Brine cheese is best stored at around 5 degrees Celsius and in a salty solution. The shelf life depends on the salt concentration. On average, for cheese it is 2 months, for suluguni it is 1 month. And without brine - no more than one week.

Sour-milk cheeses must be stored with special care. It is important to maintain a correct and stable temperature regime. If you store the cheese in the refrigerator, then the temperature should be between 0 - +6 degrees Celsius. (shelf life - a maximum of 2 weeks), and in the freezer - minus 18 degrees Celsius (term - up to 45 days).

In supermarkets, cheeses are often wrapped in foil, but this is not the best way to preserve, but simply economical. In the case of using a film, the shelf life is no more than 10 days. It is best to store in foil - in this way you will well protect the product from environmental influences. Wax paper and wooden boxes are also used. First of all, try to close the cut.

Many manufacturers cover with a paraffin shell (especially for smoked cheese), which is an advantage - this allows you to slightly increase the shelf life.

There are other tips for storing cheese that can be useful in everyday life. For example: put it in a closed container with a couple of pieces of sugar or wrap it in a salted napkin.

It is undesirable to store cheeses next to products such as meat, lard, fish. It is better to store next to other dairy products.

P.S. Note to the buyer - the numbers on the cheese

If you find plastic numbers in cheese, don't be alarmed. They are made of food-grade plastic and indicate the date, production number and cheese bath. These figures are needed primarily by the manufacturer. They can also be found on supermarket shelves - it all depends on how the cheese is cut.

So, in this article, we learned what types of cheese are and how to choose them when buying. Now we can safely go to the store to buy real cheese. Do not forget to comply with the storage conditions. Good luck in your search for natural and fresh products.

Dec 7, 2015 tigress…s

Cheeses are popular in varying degrees in all countries of the world. The variety of varieties of this fermented milk product is truly amazing. In France alone, and in this country there is a real cult of cheese, there are more than 500 varieties of cheese! Hard and soft, sharp and sweet, blue cheeses and cheeses with holes, they are all prepared in different ways, but there are the most popular and beloved varieties bought all over the world. It is about them that we will talk today.

The best cheeses in the world

Of course, tastes differ. Someone loves cheese, and someone is completely indifferent to it, but among such a variety of varieties, everyone will surely find something that they really like. In addition, it is important to know with which wine or sauce it is better to combine this or that cheese. This product is the best appetizer for wine, the French know a lot about wines and cheeses, and their most popular appetizer for wine is just cheese slices.

1. Parmesan. Everyone has heard about this Italian cheese, but not everyone has tried it or even seen it on the counter. It is the hardest cheese in the world and matures from 12 to 36 months. It takes as much as 16 liters of milk to get one kilogram of Parmesan, but thanks to the unique Italian technology, the result is a unique cheese with a deep aroma and hints of hazelnuts. A ready-made head of cheese sometimes weighs up to 40 kilograms, so the cheese is always sold in stores already packaged. When cutting, cheese very often crumbles - it is so hard.

2. Mozzarella. This Italian young cheese is also widely known. Traditionally, this cheese is made from the milk of young buffaloes, but in recent years, examples from cow's milk have begun to appear. Mozzarella cheese is difficult to confuse with any other, as it is sold in the form of white cheese balls soaked in brine. This cheese is very delicate in taste, it is actively used in the preparation of salads, pizza, lasagna, etc.

3. Mascrapone. And again, the cheese comes from Italy. Mascarpone is an Italian cream cheese that resembles cream or soft butter in appearance and texture. It is this cheese that is often used in the preparation of desserts such as tiramisu. It is very fatty and is often smeared on sandwiches instead of butter.

4. Cambozola. But this is German cheese. It is a cow's blue cheese that combines the features of two cheeses: Gorgonzola and Camembert. Cambozola is a soft cheese with a distinctive smell and bright taste.

5. Bree. One of the most famous and ancient French cheeses. This soft cow's milk cheese with a moldy rind once graced the dining table of the French kings, so Brie cheese was appreciated already in the Middle Ages. This cheese has always had many admirers, and it is really worth trying at least once in a lifetime. Could it be love? Brie is a soft and very pleasant-tasting cheese with a slight smell of ammonia. The older the Brie cheese, the sharper it is. Its aroma is quite specific, you need to get used to it.

6. Dorblu. German cheese with mold, in other words - blue cheese. Contrary to a common misconception, not every blue cheese is Dorblu cheese, but this mistake is very common in the expanses of the post-Soviet space. Dorblu is a dense and crumbly cheese of light cream color with bluish veins. It goes well with nuts, fruits, as well as dry red wine.

7. Camembert. French soft fatty white cheese with a delicate mushroom flavor and unsurpassed aroma. Made from cow's milk. It is difficult to confuse it with any other cheese, since on the outside it is covered with a white moldy fluffy crust, and inside it is soft. Today this cheese is very popular both in France and abroad.

8. Gorgonzola. A spicy-sweet blue Italian cheese originally from Italy, ripening in 2-4 months. When cutting this cheese, green stripes are clearly visible on the cut. This cheese is often positioned as a dessert. It goes well with red wines.

9. Roquefort. The world-famous blue French cheese, previously made exclusively from sheep's milk. Today it is also made from cow's milk and is highly valued all over the world, including in Russia. On top of this cheese is covered with a white shiny and slightly moist crust. Roquefort has a bright hazelnut flavor with a complex spicy aroma.

10. Tete de Moine. A semi-hard Swiss cheese made from cow's milk. Its name can literally be translated as "Head of a monk." And in the name lies the history of the origin of this cheese, because this cheese is monastic. It was created 800 years ago in the Belle monastery and even served as a monetary equivalent. The traditional recipe for making this amazing cheese has not changed for several centuries. It is also not customary to cut it, but only scrape it off. Tete de Moine pairs perfectly with dry white wine.

11. Cabrales. A semi-hard Spanish blue cheese made in unique conditions, namely in the caves around Cabrales. Pairs well with young red wine.

12. Cheddar. Cheddar is a cheese loved by chefs all over the world. This is a bright English hard cheese made from whole milk with a nutty, slightly spicy and sour taste.

13. Gruyere. A firm yellow Swiss cheese with a pungent, spicy aroma and nutty flavor. Depending on the ripening time, Gruyère has a different taste. Young Gruyère is called "soft" and matures within 5 months, "semi-salted" Gruyère ripens 8 months, "salty" - 10 months, "top grade" - more than a year, "old" - from 15 months.

14. Conte. The famous semi-hard French cheese, produced exclusively from the milk of cows of the following breeds - Simmental and Montbéliarde. This cheese ripens within 8-12 months. Comte cheese has a distinct sweet, nutty flavor, but each head of cheese has its own unique flavor. This is due to different manufacturing conditions, as well as the time of year. In total, there are 90 shades of taste of Comte cheese, and 6 main tastes: fruit, milk, burnt, spicy, herbal and animal. This cheese is one of the most beloved in France, it is served both as a separate dish at the end of a meal, and as an ingredient to other dishes. Comte cheese goes well with any wine.

15. Emmental. A semi-hard cheese from Switzerland. It is distinguished by a piquant spicy-sweet taste, large cavities inside the cheese head (holes). This cheese is freely produced in many countries of the world, so if you see cheese under this name in the store, this does not mean that it was brought from Switzerland.

Have you tried any of the cheeses from the list above, and did you like it?

What to look for when buying cheese?

Narrow cracks-cracks instead of even eyes signal high acidity.

The uneven texture of the cheese on the cut, "blind spots" free of eyes, where they should be (for example, in Russian cheese), also give out an unscrupulous manufacturer.

How to store cheese after purchase?

Many of us habitually store cheese in the refrigerator, wrapped in "native" cellophane packaging. However, this is not the best idea.

Of course, nothing fatal will happen to a piece of cheese, but the moisture evaporating from it will condense on the film and can cause mold.

Choosing cheese, we are often hampered by misconceptions about this product. Let's try to understand the most famous cheese myths.

Myth #1. Cheese is the least healthy of all dairy products.

Myth #2. Homemade cheese is tastier and healthier than what is sold in stores.

The taste qualities of homemade cheeses are quite diverse, and it is impossible to judge them, but it is very possible to pick up harmful microflora if the milk is not pasteurized.
Myth #3. Unscrupulous manufacturers use vegetable and palm oil instead of milk fat in the production of cheese, and also tint the cheese with various dyes.

Current legislation allows you to replace part of the milk fat with a substitute. The compositions of vegetable fats that are used in this case are selected so that their characteristics are close to milk fat. For example, there is a story that if moisture appeared on a slice of cheese, it means that the manufacturer used vegetable oil. This is another misconception. Milk fat and its substitutes have the same melting point, and at a temperature of 30 degrees, both vegetable fat and milk fat will melt.
As for dyes, they are even allowed by our national standard. Naturally, only natural, for example, beta-carotene. They are used to give the cheese a more intense color, since winter milk gives the cheese a pale color, and customers want to see the product in a standard and familiar yellow color.

Myth number 4. It is safer to buy cheese packaged and cut on the trading floor.

How to choose high-quality cheese among everything that is on the shelves of shops and supermarkets? Cheese is a source of complete protein and a valuable food product, which means that you should choose it carefully for a particular dish. Which cheese to choose for an appetizer, which one for a casserole, and which one for dessert? Let's figure it out together.

What is cheese

Depending on the ingredients used and the method of preparation, the following types of cheeses are distinguished:

Natural cheese: Made from cow's, sheep's and goat's milk or cream, usually aged for firmness and development of taste and smell. Natural cheeses include:

Soft cheeses

Semi-soft cheeses

Semi-hard cheeses

Hard cheeses

Pasteurized processed cheese: A mixture of one or more types of cheese prepared using heat, water and emulsifiers.

Cheese products: A mixture of one or more cheeses processed using powdered milk, salt, emulsifier.

Cheese spread: It has a higher moisture content and lower milk fat content than cheese products.

How to choose a good cheese in the store

Usually the store sells several types of cheese, but it is difficult to determine what quality they are by eye. Modern production technologies make it possible to speed up the process of cheese production, but does its quality suffer from this? It is ripe cheese, aged for the right time, that acquires a special pleasant taste. But keeping cheese from 45 to 180 days is not economically profitable. It is much easier to use technological tricks and additives to shorten the cheese production time. Cheese made in a "cunning" way can be recognized by the following signs:

cheese contains many components, additives and preservatives
the presence of dyes and flavors
use in the composition of milk-clotting preparations of microbial origin

The ideal cheese should contain only milk, lactic acid bacteria starter, milk curdling enzymes of animal origin, salt, and also calcium chloride is acceptable.

If you don't get a chance to look at the packaging when the cheese is sold by weight, it's best to get a familiar cheese from a trusted manufacturer. You can also understand something about the quality of a good aged cheese by its appearance:

smooth dull surface
the color of the cheese is neither bright yellow nor white (with the exception of goat)
in mature hard cheese, color, density and taste change from crust to middle
there should be no white spots or cracks on the crust

Choosing young cheese, you need to focus primarily on its smell and appearance. The smell of rot and yeast should alert. The taste of a good young cheese should not be bitter, not greasy, not sour, without a chemical aftertaste.

The above are only general rules for choosing a good cheese. How to choose the right cheese of one sort or another can best be understood by someone who has already tried high-quality cheese of this variety. Therefore, the simplest and most important advice is to try!

You can buy high-quality cheese only in a store where they know how to work with a range of products. After all, cheese should not only be of high quality initially, but also be stored properly, and also not lie on a shelf in a store for months. How to open a grocery store knows the My Business website, and will gladly share his ideas with you at the link http://moybiznes.org/magazin-produktov

Useful publications:

Which cheese to choose for. Good advice: How to choose cheese in the store

What to look for when buying cheese?

How to store cheese after purchase?

4 popular myths about cheese

Myth #1. Cheese is the least healthy of all dairy products.

Myth #2. Homemade cheese is tastier and healthier than what is sold in stores.

Myth #3. Unscrupulous manufacturers use vegetable and palm oil instead of milk fat in the production of cheese, and also tint the cheese with various dyes.

Myth number 4. It is safer to buy cheese packaged and cut on the trading floor.

More Cheese Facts