Brie

SoftCow MilkFrance

French soft cheese with a white, bloomy rind.

Aging Time

21 days – 2 months

Style: Soft
Milk: Cow
Origin: France
Ripening: ≥ 21 days

Tasting Board

Texture

Soft, creamy

Flavor

Buttery, earthy, mushroomy

Nutrition (per 100g)

Calories	kcal
Protein	g
Total Fat	g
Saturated Fat	g
Sodium	mg
Calcium	mg

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The original Brie with PDO protection, known as the King of Cheeses.

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Soft · Italy

A rindless northern Italian table cheese, known as stracchino in some areas and crescenza in others. The name is usually traced to vacca stracca, the tired cow: herds coming down from summer mountain pasture, late in their lactation cycle, gave richer milk, and that milk was worked into this soft, unaged cheese. The richness really comes from where the animals were in that cycle rather than from the descent itself, but the name stuck. Its high moisture makes it melt almost instantly, which is what recommends it — layered over polenta or bread and put under heat, it turns to a smooth blanket without separating.

🧀Same style and milk

Mascarpone

Soft · Italy

Mascarpone departs from the usual fresh cheese pattern in one important way: it begins with full-fat cream rather than milk. The cream is lightly acidified and then heated to a high temperature, which produces both the marked sweetness and the airy, expanded texture that distinguish it. Comparisons to cream cheese undersell it badly — the block cream cheese sold in supermarkets is denser, blander and often gummy by contrast. The cooking step pushes the flavour towards something almost confectionery, which is why it lives mostly in desserts despite having perfectly good savoury applications.

Same style

Chèvre

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In strict translation chèvre means any goat-milk cheese, but in practice it has come to mean the fresh, rindless kind usually sold in a log. This style established goat dairy in the American market from the late 1970s, driven by a small group of Northern Californian producers and the chefs who bought from them, and it remains the default mental image of what goat cheese is. It is also the natural first product for a new goat dairy: it can be made quickly, requires no ageing space, and can be sold immediately, which matters enormously for cash flow in a young creamery. The common faults are textural — grittiness, graininess, or a watery weep — and the flavour should stay in the range of bright citrus rather than tipping into harshness.

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Fromage Blanc

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The name translates as white cheese, and traditionally that is what it was: skimmed cow milk left over once the cream had been taken for butter. Modern production usually adds cream back in to restore body and flavour. It is often compared to yogurt, and the confusion is understandable, but the distinction is real — the cultures in fromage blanc do their acidifying work during the make, whereas yogurt reaches the shelf still full of live culture. Good versions are given the whole night to acidify rather than a few minutes, and that slow set is what produces the bracing tang balancing the sweetness of the milk. Goat-milk versions push the tartness further. Grittiness is the fault to watch for: the body wants to be light and even, smooth enough to take with a spoon.

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Salt	2 of 5
Tang	2 of 5
Richness	4 of 5
Creaminess	5 of 5
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