Types of cheese

There are many different types of cheese, which can be grouped or classified according to criteria such as: length of fermentation, texture, production method, fat content, animal source of the milk, and country or region of origin. These criteria may be used either singly or in combination, with no method used universally. The most common traditional categorization is based on moisture content, which is then further narrowed down by fat content and curing or ripening methods.

In many consumer-facing guides, cheeses are further organized into intuitive categories such as fresh, soft, semi-soft, firm, hard, and blue—often based on texture, aging, and moisture characteristics. These practical groupings help non-specialists understand and compare the wide range of available cheeses.

The combination of types produces around 51 different varieties recognized by the International Dairy Federation, over 400 identified by Walter and Hargrove, over 500 by Burkhalter, and over 1,000 by Sandine and Elliker. Some attempts have been made to rationalize the classification of cheese; a scheme was proposed by Pieter Walstra that uses the primary and secondary starter combined with moisture content, and Walter and Hargrove suggested classifying by production methods. This last scheme results in 18 types, which are then further grouped by moisture content.

Cheeses may be categorized by the source of the milk used to produce them. While most of the world's commercially available cheese is made from cow's milk, many parts of the world also produce cheese from goats and sheep. Examples include Roquefort (produced in France) and pecorino (produced in Italy) from ewe's milk. One farm in Sweden also produces cheese from moose's milk (known as "elk" in the UK).

Sometimes cheeses marketed under the same name are made from milk of different species—feta cheeses, for example, are made in Greece from either sheep's milk, or a combination of sheep and goat's milk. Queso añejo cheese is traditionally made with goat milk, but in the modern era is generally made with cow's milk.

Cheeses are also labeled based on the added fat content of the milk from which they are produced. Double cream cheeses are soft cheeses of cows' milk enriched with cream so that their fat in dry matter (FDM or FiDM) content is 60–75%, while triple cream cheeses are enriched to at least 75%.

Categorizing cheeses by moisture content or firmness is a common but inexact practice. Harder cheeses have a lower moisture content than softer cheese, as they are generally packed into molds under more pressure and aged for a longer time than the soft cheeses. The lines between soft, semi-soft, semi-hard, and hard are often classified by a metric based on the weight of the moisture content of the cheese as a division of its dry weight minus the weight of the fat content in the cheese. Other factors than moisture have a role in the firmness of the cheese; a higher fat content tends to result in a softer cheese, as fat interferes with the protein network that provides structure, other significant factors include pH level and salt content.

Soft cheeses include soft-ripened cheeses, some blue cheeses, some pasta filata cheeses, and fresh cheeses. They are often spreadable, but do not generally melt or brown well. Soft cheeses are generally produced in a cool and humid environment and tend to have very short maturation periods: cream cheeses, which are not matured; Brie and Neufchâtel that mature for no more than a month, and Neufchâtel which can be sold after 10 days of maturation.