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This is a list of cheeses by place of origin. Types of cheese are included; brand names are only included if they apply to a distinct variety of cheese. Cheese is a milk-based food that is produced in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms. Hundreds of types of cheese from various countries are produced. Their styles, textures and flavors depend on the origin of the milk (including the animal's diet), whether they have been pasteurized, the butterfat content, the bacteria and mold, the processing, and aging.
Contents
Herbs, spices, or wood smoke may be used as flavoring agents. The yellow to red color of many cheeses, such as Red Leicester, is normally formed from adding annatto. While most current varieties of cheese may be traced to a particular locale, or culture, within a single country, some have a more diffuse origin, and cannot be considered to have originated in a particular place, but are associated with a whole region, such as queso blanco in Latin America.
Cheese is an ancient food whose origins predate recorded history. There is no conclusive evidence indicating where cheesemaking originated, either in Europe, Central Asia or the Middle East, but the practice had spread within Europe prior to Roman times and, according to Pliny the Elder, had become a sophisticated enterprise by the time the Roman Empire came into existence.
China
Mainstream Chinese culture is not dairy-centric. However, outlying regions of the country, such as Tibet and Yunnan, have strong cheese traditions.
Mongolia
There are two types of Mongolian cheese (бяслаг). They are similar in taste and are like a cross between mozzarella and an unsalted feta cheese.
түүхий сүүний - this is a creamy version of Mongolian cheese made by boiling the milk and keeping the cream top. болсон сүүний - this is similar but is made without the cream.
Lithuania
Netherlands
The Netherlands is one of the major cheese producing countries of Europe, with a tradition of cheesemaking as shown by the Dutch cheese markets.
Slovenia
Switzerland
Switzerland is home to about 450 varieties of cheese. Cows milk is used in about 99 percent of the cheeses produced. The remaining share is made up of sheep milk and goat milk.
United Kingdom
The British Cheese Board states that there are over 700 named British cheeses produced in the UK.
Levant
The Levant is a geographical region east of the Mediterranean Sea which includes the countries of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Palestine and sometimes it includes Cyprus and the Turkish province of Hatay
Other
Some types of cheeses were either developed in various locales independently (usually as un-aged products from the beginning stages of dairy processing and cheesemaking), or are not actually cheese products. Examples include: