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A lexicon of cheese jargon to impress. Referenced from our favorite authorities.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
Abondances - breed of dairy cattle (Savoie).
Affinage - Curing and maturing of cheeses.
Affine - Cheese that has been matured.
Affineur - Specialist in the maturing of cheeses.
Agrafe - Clip used to secure Eclisse round Brie.
Aizy - Home-cultured starter, sometimes combining starter and rennet.
Alpages - High mountain pastures used for summer grazing.
Alpines - Breed of goat.
Ame - The heart of the cheese, used of the visible whiter centre of Brie or Camembert before it has ripened right through.
A point - 'Just right' - cheese neither under, nor over, ripe.
Appellation Nationale d'Origine Controlee - Legal definition of how cheeses are made and the limits of their area of origin. There are twenty-seven ANOC cheeses. There are also some regionally controlled appellations, e.g. Emmental Grand Cru.
Ardi-gasna - Basque word for sheep cheese.
Aromatic esters - Flavour and aroma carrying fatty acids and glycerides in plants, transmitted from pastures to milk and thus to cheese.
Artisanal - Cheese made by hand rather than by machine.
Artisons - Patois term for cheese mites (cirons).
Attrassadou - Wooden rudder for stirring curb (Auvergne).
Babeurre - Buttermilk.
Bannette - Draining-frame laid across vat to drain large cheeses.
Bara - Auvergne word for well-drained curd used in making Gaperon.
Basco-bearnaises - Breed of horned sheep (Pyrenees).
Baste - Two-handled tub used to carry milk to the buron.
Battoir - Straw-covered grid.
Berger - 1. Shepard; cattle herdsman. 2. Sheepdog; dog used to hard cattle.
Bargerie - Building used to shelter sheep.
Beurre - Buttery.
Bidon - Milk churn.
Biologique - Organic farming - i.e. using natural fertilizers and avoiding chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Blancs - Unsalted whole fresh cheeses before any affinage. Not the same as fromage blanc.
Bleute - Cheese with blue or blue-grey surface mould acquired naturally in the cave.
Blondes d'Aquitaine - Breed of dairy cattle.
Blondes d'Aubrac - Breed of dairy cattle of the Rouergue and southern Auvergne.
Blondes des Pyrenees - Breed of dairy cattle.
Bottes - Mats on which cheeses are drained and sometimes sold.
Boutilier - Cheesemaker in mountain buron.
Brebis - 1. La brebis: ewe. 2. Le brebis: cheese made of ewes' milk.
Brine - Very salt water.
Brique - Cheese shape, usually rectangular and on the thin side.
Brousse - Cheese made from whey or skimmed milk (Provence).
Brunes des Alpes - Breed of dairy cattle.
Buche - Log-shaped cheese.
Buron - Simple mountain dairy and cheese-store with sleeping space (Auvergne).
Buttermilk - Liquid ramaining after butter making.
Cabane - Mountain chalet where cheese is made in summer (Pyrenees, Corsica).
Cabanieres - Workers in the Roquefort caves.
Caghiatu - Freshly curdled milk (Corsica).
Caillage - Coagulation of milk to form curd/
Caillé - Curd.
Caillette - Vell, lining of the fourth stomach of a calf used in making rennet.
Caillotte de beurre - Buttermilk
Cajadhia - Basket-like mould (now usually plastic) used in Corsican cheese production.
Cantalou - Cheesemaker in mountain buron in Auvergne, France.
Canton - French district containing several communes.
Carré - Cheese shape, square.
Casein - Milk’s chief protein, precipitated into curd by use of rennet. It is used to make some cheese labels embedded in the crust. Caséine in French.
Caseus - 1. New Haven's premier cheese shop. 2. Latin for cheese derived from the word Casein \Ca"se*in\, n. [Cf. F. cas['e]ine, fr. L. caseur cheese.
Causses - Limestone plateau of the Massif Central.
Cave - Natural cave or cellar in which cheeses are ripening and stored.
Cave humide - Cheese storage cellar with high humidity.
Cazelles - Drystone shepards’ shelter on the Plateau of Larzac, Rouergue.
Cendré - Cheese coated, ideally, with ashes of sarments, but today usually with industrially powered charcoal ready mixed with salt.
Cendré de bois - Wood-ashes, see cendré.
Chalet - Simple mountain dairy and cheese-store with sleeping space.
Charollais (or Charolais) - The beef branch of the old Burgundian cattle breed. The Charollais cheese is named for the Charollais region and should be made of goats' milk.
Châtaignier - Chestnut tree, the leaves of which are used to wrap some cheeses.
Chaudron - Cauldron used for cheese-making.
Chaumes - High pastures.
Cheese-iron - Small metal corer for removing a plug from the interior of a cheese to test aroma, flavor and texture.
Cheptel - Herd
Chévre - La Chévre: Nanny goat. Le Chévre: goats' milk cheese.
Chevrier, chevriére - Goatkeeper.
Claquerette - Wooden spoon used to beat curd in cheesemaking.
Clayette - Straw, reed or wicker mat on which moulded cheeses are set to drain.
Coagulation - The clotting of milk, usually by rennet.
Cocchja - Wooden ladle used in cheesemaking.
Commune - Smallest unit of French local government.
Communes - ProvenÇal term for cross-bred goats.
Concours - Competition.
Couche - Layer of mold.
Coulant - Runny (cheese)
Crémerie - Cheese Shop.
Crémeux - Creamy stage in development of some cheeses.
Croûte-bleutée - Cheese with blue or blue-grey surface mold naturally acquired in the cave.
Croûte-brossée - Brushed crust.
Croûte-fleurie - Cheese with mold-ripened crust.
Croûte-lavée - Cheese salted by washing crust in brine. Wine, beer or eau-de-vie are sometimes used.
Cru - Raw, for example, lait cru (unpasteurised milk)
Cru de lait - Term sometimes used of exeptional quality milk, as with wine.
Curd - The coagulated fats and other solids produced from milk by natural ripening and renneting.
Curd Mill - Mill for grinding curd into pieces, the size of the pieces varying according to the type of cheese.
Cuve - Large-scale vat.
Cuyala - Béarnaise term for mountain chalet where cheese is made in summer. (Pyrenées)
Dégustation - Tasting.
Demi-écrémé - Half-skimmed. (milk)
Demi-étuvé - Medium ripe. (cheese)
Demi-sec - Halfway stage of ripening of a small goat cheese.
Demi-sel - French cream cheese made form pasteurised milk and salted, at least 40 percent matiéres grasses and 2 percent salt.
Démoulage - Turning goat cheeses from molds.
Département - Modern administrative division of France, often disregarding old provincial boundaries.
Desséchage - Drying.
Domestique - Domestic scale of cheese production, usually just for the cheese maker's own household. (French)
Double-créme - Double-cream cheese, having less than 60 percent matiéres grasses.
Draille - Broad sheep-drovers' path used for transhumance. (Provence)
Eau-de-vie - Spirit usually made from wine pressings also know as marc.
Écrémé - Skimmed.
Égouttage - Draining of cheeses.
Égouttoir - Draining table for newly made cheeses.
Élevage - Breeding.
Éleveur - Breeder (normally of cattle, sheep or goats)
Ensemencement - Introduction of mold into milk or curd.
Ensilage - Silage (hay stored in a silo which usually begins to ferment)
Épicéa - Spruce, the bark of which is used to encircle Vacherin.
Épicerie - Grocery and provision-merchant's store.
Équinon - Wooden cheese-mold.
Escamadou - Skimmer to assist drainage of curd. (Auvergne)
Étuvé - Mature.
Faisselle - Perforated draining mold used for soft chesses. Also, unsalted soft curd sometimes sold in the faisselle.
Faisselier - Large perforated draining tub in which cheese is placed to drain. (Normandy)
Fatoghie - Basket-like mold (now usually plastsic) used in Corsican cheesemaking.
Fenaison - Haymaking.
Ferme-auberge - Farm offering regional dishes from home raised produce.
Fermier - 1. Farmer. 2. Farm-made cheese.
Ferrandaises - Disappearing breed of dairy cattle found in the Auvergne.
Feuille - Leaf. Cheese á la feuille are leaf-wrapped.
Fines-Herbs - A mixture of parsley, chives, tarragon, and chervil.
Flamandes - Breed of dairy cattle. (Normandy)
Fleurines - Spore-laden draughts in storage caves which aid teh maturing of Roquefort.
Flush - Spring and autumn seasons of rich pasture giving extra milk yield.
Foin - Hay. Cheese au foin were traditionally bedded in hay during affinage.
Follower - Circular lid used within hoop or mold to press down curd.
Fourme - The old word for cheese dervied from the form or mold it was made in; still used in the Auvergne.
Frais, fraiche - Fresh.
Fréniale - Curd-breaking implement. (Auvergne)
Frisonnes, Frisonnes françaises - Originally Friesian breed of black-and-white dairy cattle, now predominantly of Holstein blood.
Fromage - Cheese. (from Latin forma, shape)
Fromage blanc - Fresh cream cheese either unsalted or with salt content so low that it can be eaten for dessert with sugar or salt.
Fromage cuit - Hard cheese of which the curd has been brought to 65˚ Celsius during making. (For example Emmentaler)
Fromage du terroir - Cheese getting its character from the local soil and pastures.
Fromage fort - Strong preparation usually made from cheese lefovers with liquor and herbs added; usually potted.
Fromage frais - Cheese which has been salted but sold unripened.
Fromagerie - Cheese-dairy; cheesemaking enterprise. Also used by some cheese shops, though crémerie is more common.
Frotté - Rubbed.
Fruité - Fruity flavored.
Fruitiére - Co-operative village cheese dairy using members' raw milk.
Gape - Buttermilk. (Auvergne)
Garde-manger - Wooden cage with fine-mesh sides hung as airy larder, excellent for keeping cheeses at home.
Gare fromagére - Railway station specially provided for loading of cheeses.
Garrigue - Wild, rocky Provençal land scape rich in the herbs used to garnish local cheeses.
Geotrichium candidum - White mold at early stages of Saint-Nectaire making.
Gerle, gerlou - Two-handled tub used to carry milk to the buron. (Auvergne)
Gispre - Pejorative patois term for a cheese tasting very "sheepy"(Rouergue)
Grises gasconnes - Breed of cattle now mostly used for beef.
Grossiete - Wholesaler, selling en gros as opposed to en detail (retail).
Gruerie - Carolingian word for forests, where Gruyére is derived from. (Franche-Comté)
Gruyer - Foreseter who sold fuel making Gruyére.
Halle - Covered market.
Halles: Les Halles - Formerly France's great central market; its successor is now Rungis. Is also Anthony Bourdain's Restaurant....what a Francofile.
Hâloir - Place where cheeses are laid out to dry and where some cheeses receive their croûte-fleurie from mold naturally fromed on the walls.
Harpe - Stringed implement for cutting curd during cheesemaking.
Hausse - High, moveable extension to cheese-mold used in early stages of cheese making.
Hollandaises - Breed of dairy cattle pie-noir and occasionally pie-rouge.
Holstein - Breed of black-and-white cattle now dominant as bulls in the breeding of French dairy cattle.
Humide - Moist, humid.
Impaghia - Low-lying pastures (Corsica)
Industriel - Indicates a large scale, factory style creamery with mechanised cheese making.
Jasserie, jasse, jas - Sheperd's hut in the mountains for summer cheese making (Auvergne and Rouergue).
Jonchée - A scattering of reeds or rushes from which cheese mates were made.
Kaiolar - Basque term for mountain cabane or chalet where cheese is made in summer (Pyrenees).
Lacaune - Breed of sheep milked for Roquefort, hearty blue veined cave aged sheep's milk cheeses.
Laîches - Strips of rattia bound round the circomference of a Livarot cheese.
Lainures - Cracks in a cheese.
Lait cru - Milk neither pasteurised or given other hear treatment such as thermisation.
Lait de mélange - Cheese made from a mixture of milks, with cow's milk usually predominant.
Lait entier - Whole milk as it comes from the dairy animal, completely unskimmed.
Laitierie - Dairy, from artisan to industrial in scale.
Laitier - 1. Dairyman. 2. Dairy-made cheese.
Lait thermisé - Milk whcih has been heat treated but to a lower temperature than pasteurised milk for a longer period of time so that harmful bacteria are killed but flavorful enzymes remain.
Laurier - Bay Leaf.
Lavage - Washing (as in croute-lavée).
Lavogne - Dew pond used by grazing animals.
Légumes - Class of pasture plants which collect nitrogen.
Limousins - Breed of cattle, today used mainly for beef.
Linens - Bacterium linens are a slime type bacterium attracted to croute-lavée/washed rind cheeses, imparting a red-orange color.
Lissage - Smoothing the crust of cheeses by hand.
Louche - Ladle used to put curd into molds.
Lutte - Mating season of the Lacaune sheep. General meaning in French: struggle.
Maître fromager - Master cheesemaker, or cheese expert. Very few are listed by the French Guilde des Fromagers.
Malaxage - Mixing of curd at early stage of cheese making.
Malessui - Cheese going runny between crust and interior. Also called slip-coat.
Manechs - Breed of sheep, either téte-noir (blackfaced with horns) or téte-rouge (red faced with horns) from the Pyrenées.
Marc - Alcoholic spirit made from already pressed wine grapes and vines, very strong and harsh.
Marcairerie - Stone farm building in high pastures of Alsace-Lorraine, used for summer cheese making.
Maitéres grasses - Degree of fatness of cheese, empressed as a percentage of fat in total dry matter. This percentage is constant through out the life of the cheese, where as the percentage of fat in the whole cheese increases as moisture evaporates with the ageing of the cheese and so cannot be precisely defined for the buyer.
Menadou - Wooden paddle for stirring curd (Auvergne).
Menole, Menove - Curd breaking implement.
Mergue - Whey. (Auvergne)
Mérinos - Breed of sheep mostly used for wool but which give milk for Gardian cheeses (Provence).
Meton, metton - Re-cooked whey ysed to make Cancoillotte (Franche-Comté).
Mezadou - Curd-breaking implement (Auvergne).
Mi-chévre - Cheese made with at least 50 per cent goat's milk, usually with cow's milk.
Mignaut - Sloping table for draining whey from curd (Nord).
Moelleux - Soft and velvety.
Moisissure - Mold in or on a cheese.
Moisson - Harvest.
Morge - Brine enriched with scrapings from old cheeses, used to rub surface of Gruyére and other cheeses.
Mou, molle - Soft.
Moulage - Molding.
Mold - 1. Wood, metal or plastic container used in cheese making which dictates the shape of the cheese. 2. Fungal species enriching crust of cheeses or blueing their interiors, preferably acquired from the surroundings in which the cheeses are matured, but often artificially introduced.
Moulé á la louche - Cheese whose curd has been hand ladled into the molds.
Moulé á la main - Cheese whose shape has been hand molded.
Mouliner - Curd mill.
Moussé - Cheese which has acquired its first white coat of mold.
Mucor aspergillus - Unwelcome black surface mold removed by Saint-Nectaire makers.
Muzadour - Wooden paddle for stirring curd (Auvergne).
Normandes - Breed of diary cattle (Normandy).
Oidium - Mold which forms a greasy suface on cheese.
Oidium auranticum - Sought after brillant red surface mold found on Saint-Nectaire cheese.
Paghuli - Copper cauldron used in Corsica for cheese making.
Palmarés - Prizewinner.
Pasteurization - Heat treatment to destroy harmful micro-organisms in milk, which also destroys most flavor enriching micro organisms. Typically milk is heated to 144 degrees F for 30 minutes or more, but never higher than boiling for more than 2 seconds.
Páte - Interior of finished cheese.
Pavé - Cheese shape, usually square and thick.
Pays - The native soil, village, district or province. Also used of one's fellow-native: pays or payse.
Pelle - Round cutting-edged shovel used to handle curd (Brie).
Penicillium - Mold family mycellium, of which the common types influencing cheese development.
Penicillium album - White mold, but developing into blue on surface, particularly goat cheese.
Penicillium candidum - White mold commonly used on the crust of soft cheeses.
Penicillium glaucum - Mold producing internal and exterior blueing in cheese.
Pencillium roqueforti - Mold derived from the Caves de Cambalou where Roquefort is blued, and in general use for blueing other types of cheese.
Persillé - Blue cheese.
Petit lait - Whey.
Picardes - Breed of dairy cattle (Normandy).
Pies-noires - The more common of the two types of Hollandaise dairy cattle, black and white, as opposed to the few red-pied.
Pignato - Small earthenware pot used in cheese making (Corsica).
Piquant - Sharp-tasting.
Plomber - To wrap cheese in foil coat.
Pouset - Mushroom shaped implement for pressing out whey (Auvergne).
Prat communal - Communally shared grazing land.
Pré - Grazing land.
Presse-tôme - Ladder like grid for pressing and draining curd.
Présure - Rennet.
Puiset á caillé - Flat, round trowel for lifting curd (Provence).
Pur chévre - Cheese made only with goats' milk.
Quinon - Wooden cheese mold.
Recuite - Literally 're-cooked'. Cheese made from the solids precipitated in reheated whey.
Rennet - Distilled extracts of the abomasum (fourth stomach of the ruminant) containing enzymes whcih break down the solids in milk into digestible form, helping coagulation. Some plants (for example thistle) can have the same effect as rennet.
Repassé - Very over ripe cheese, often used to make fromage fort.
Rocou - Ruddy vegetables coloring matter.
Romarin - Rosemary.
Rove - Breed of goat particularly know for their use in Provence.
Ruminant - a hooved animal that digests its food in two steps. 1. By eating the raw material and regurgitating a semi-digested form known as cud, 2. then eating the cud, a process called ruminating. These animalsinclude cattle, goats, sheep, llamas, giraffes, bison, buffalo, deer, wildebeest, and antelope.
Rungis - France's most important wholesale food market found in the southeast of Paris and is the replacement to the original and great market Les Halles.
Saanens - Breed of goat.
Salage - Dry salting, either of the curd or of the exterior of the cheese.
Salers - Breed of dairy cattle native to the Auvergne and northern Rouergue.
Saloir - Salting room.
Sangle - Spruce bark circlet put round Vacherin cheese.
Sarments - Vine roots or prunings traditionally used to make wood ash for cendrés cheeses.
Sarriette - Herb related to savory, often used to top goat cheeses in Provence.
Saumure - Brine.
Sec - Term used for fully ripened goat cheese when the surface is firm and usually mold coated.
Séchage - Drying.
Séchoir - Place where young cheese are put to dry.
Seigle - Rye, rye bread, used to harvest mold in the Caves de Cambalou.
Sérum - Whey.
Silage - Green fodder fermented and stored free of air for winter feed. May taint cheese flavor, so excluded by some AOC regulations.
Sonde - Cheese-iron.
Starter - Lactic bacterial culture used to start transformation of solids in milk into cheese.
Syndicat - French trade or professional association. Usually in order to gain an AOC a producer must join a syndicat.
Taches rouges - Desirable red patches of mold on surface of a cheese.
Tarentaises - Breed of dairy cattle from the region of that name, usually called Tarines. Also a goat's milk cheese from the Haute Savoie.
Tendre - Mild.
Thermization - the heating of raw milk for at least 15 seconds at a temperature between 135 degrees F and 154 degrees F.
Tintinajo - Belled leader of flock of sheep, or of herd of cows or goats.
Toile - Cheesecloth.
Tôme, tomme - 1. Small round goat cheeses when young. 2. Large pressed cheeses from all types of milk usually wider than they are tall.
Transhumance - The movement of flocks or herds from winter pasture or stabling to high mountain pastures in summer.
Trappiste - Term often appled to monastically made cheeses.
Trieur - Experienced affineur who irons a smaoke of cheese to teset its maturity.
Triple-créme - Cheese made form full cream milk with added cream, attaining 75% matiéres grasses.
Troupeau - Flock or herd of sheep, goats or cows.
Tuffeau - Porous cliff, in the caves of which mushrooms are grown and cheeses matured.
Ultrafiltration - Separtaion of milk solids by a filter of 99.9 percent fineness. Used in industrial cheese making.
Vache - 1. Cow. 2. Cows' milk cheese.
Vacherie - Stabling for cows, including the milking parlour.
Vell - Skin of the abomasum (fourth stomach of the ruminant) from which rennet is distilled.
Vendange - Wine harvest.
Vigneron - Wine grower.
Vignobles - Vineyards.
Vosgiennes - Traditional cattle of Alsace and Vosges regions.
Whey - Residue of milk after most of the fats and other solids have been coagulated into the curds. Usually drained and used to make 're-cooked' cheeses such as Ricotta, or fed to pigs.
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