Cheese Lovers Day

What the day is

Cheese Lovers Day is observed on January 20. The variety is enormous and the starting materials are not: milk, a culture, a coagulant and salt.

Origin and background

Everything downstream is a consequence of how the curd is treated. Milk is separated into solid curd and liquid whey, and the decisions made in the next hour set the entire character of the cheese. Cutting the curd finely releases more whey and gives a drier, harder result, which is why hard cheeses are cut small and soft ones barely cut at all. Heating it expels more. Pressing expels more still. Cheddar, parmesan and brie are the same process stopped in different places.

What then happens is mostly enzymes. Aging is a slow controlled breakdown in which proteins are cut into smaller fragments and fats into aromatic compounds, which is where flavor comes from. The crunchy crystals in an aged hard cheese are not salt or sugar but amino acids that have accumulated and crystallized, and they are a reliable sign of genuine age.

Blue cheese is deliberately colonized: the mold needs oxygen, so wheels are pierced with needles to admit air along the channels, which is why the veining follows straight lines rather than spreading evenly.

One practical point outweighs the rest. Cheese is served far too cold almost everywhere. Most aromatic compounds are barely volatile at refrigerator temperature, so a cheese straight from the fridge is largely mute. An hour at room temperature is the difference between tasting it and not.

How to take part

• Take it out of the fridge an hour before eating. This does more than any other change.
• Wrap it in paper rather than plastic, which suffocates the surface.
• Look for crystals in an aged hard cheese and know what you are eating.
• Buy one cheese you cannot identify and ask what it is made from.
• Cut wedges so everyone gets both rind and center, which taste different.