CHAPTER VI
CLASSIFICATION
The literature of cheese-making contains reference to more than 500 names for varieties of cheese. Many of these can be thrown readily into great groups or families in which there are variations in unessential detail without modifying the characteristic texture and flavor of the product. Many varietal names are attached to the product of single factories or factory groups. Such varieties frequently differ only slightly in size or shape, or in stage of drainage or of ripening, from widely known varieties or other similar local forms. The descriptions recorded for such varieties commonly emphasize minor differences in manipulation without showing differences in essential factors. Vessels of particular size are prescribed to be made of wood, earthenware, or of a special metal. These details specify the exact size and shape of hoops, the use of particular styles of cutting or breaking instruments and of certain stirring tools, the material and construction of mats and draining racks.
The descriptions themselves are very commonly inadequate. The variable factors in cheese-making are fat-content of the milk, acidity, temperature of setting, amount of rennet, time allowed for curdling and the method of draining the curd. The differences in practice lie, with few exceptions, in the amount or intensity of particular factors, not differences in kind or quality of treatment. Such contrasts are quantitative, not qualitative. A great number of combinations is possible by small variations of these factors.
Varieties selected as types of groups give marked contrasts in character, but comparison of large numbers of forms shows that almost every gradation from group to group can actually be found. Within groups frequently the same physical results in texture and flavor can be obtained by combinations or adjustments of factors for the purpose of offsetting or counteracting the effects of one change in practice by the manipulation of other factors. In ripening, an equally large range of practices makes possible the development of very different qualities in mature cheeses from the same lot.
Only a few of the large number of described varieties have obtained even national importance; fewer still are known outside the country of origin. In spite of the success of special products when properly advertised, the largest place in the market is clearly accorded to the standard forms which are widely known.
104. Basis of classification.—A series of these widely known forms has been chosen as typical of groups in a system of classification adapted from the French of Pouriau. No completely satisfactory scheme of classifying all of these varieties has been devised. The grouping proposed here is based on the principles of curd-making already discussed together with consideration of the ripening processes to be discussed with each group. The factors that actually influence the quality of the final product are separated as completely as possible from non-essential operative details.
The common use of the terms "soft" and "hard" cheese is based on the single arbitrary fact of texture. The term "semi-hard" cheese may be conveniently applied to a miscellaneous group of unrelated families which are intermediate in texture between such soft forms as Neufchâtel or Camembert and really hard cheeses like Cheddar or Parmesan. Although these terms are not made the main basis of the proposed grouping, their application to sections is indicated. Classification based on the essential facts of manufacture is, however, really helpful.