The 25 Most Important Cheeses in America, According to Cheese Experts Unique, quintessentially American cheeses you need to track down and try immediately.

The phrase American cheese used to mean only one thing: that floppy, pale orange plastic-wrapped slice of processed perfection. But when I use the phrase American cheese now, that’s not what I’m talking about (save for this great grilled cheese recipe and the occasional hamburger). Instead, I’m referring to the incredible range of cheeses handcrafted in America—from young, tangy goat cheeses in Indiana to aged, nutty cow’s-milk cheese in Wisconsin; dessert-like blue cheeses from Oregon and complex, caramel-y clothbound cheddars from Vermont.

We’re living in a dairy renaissance, people! The golden age of American cheese! What a time to be alive!

But the cheese counter can be an intimidating place; good cheese does not come cheap. So I asked seven of the country’s leading cheese experts (see their bios at the end) to share what they think are the most important (and most delicious) cheeses that define American dairy today. Beyond just how good these cheeses taste, many of them also serve as models for responsible dairy farming and helping local communities.

While this list is a great starting point, don’t make it an ending point. Chat with your cheesemonger, find out what your nearby dairies are producing, and—best of all—always ask for samples. But, you know, then go buy something; think of your cheese purchase as not only supporting your desire to sit on the couch and eat cheese for dinner, but also as a way to support small businesses. Now that’s a cause I can get behind.

There are actually 27 cheeses listed

THE RAW COW CHEESES
These cheeses are made with non-pasteurized milk, meaning they need to be aged a minimum of 60 days to be legally sold

Dancing Fern
Sequatchie Cove Creamery, Tennessee

Pleasant Ridge Reserve PLUS Rush Creek Reserve
Uplands Cheese Company, Wisconsin
Age: 61 days (Rush Creek), 12-18 months (Pleasant Ridge)

Grayson
Meadow Creek Dairy, Virginia

Bayley Hazen Blue
Jasper Hill Farm, Vermont

Tarentaise
Spring Brook Farm, Vermont

Bluebird
The Grey Barn and Farm, Massachusetts

Cornerstone
Parish Hill Creamery, Vermont

THE PASTEURIZED COW CHEESES
This is the largest category of cheese ... from young cheeses like mozzarella to cheeses that age for well over a year.

Harbison
Jasper Hill Farm, Vermont

Dunbarton Blue
Roelli Cheese Haus, Wisconsin

Rogue River Blue
Rogue Creamery, Oregon

Fresh Mozzarella
BelGioioso, Wisconsin

Cabot Clothbound Cheddar
Jasper Hill Farm, Vermont

Beecher’s Flagship PLUS Flagsheep
Beecher’s Cheese, Seattle

Trivium PLUS Stockinghall Cheddar
Creamery 333, Wisconsin and Crown Finish Caves, New York
Old Chatham Sheepherding Company, New York and Murray’s Cheese, New York

Bleu Mont Cheddar
Bleu Mont Dairy, Wisconsin

Sartori Reserve BellaVitano
Sartori, Wisconsin

Vella Dry Jack
Vella Cheese Company, California

Salvatore Bklyn Smoked Ricotta
Salvatore Bklyn, New York

THE RAW GOAT CHEESES
There are only 2 cheese representing the raw goat cheese category

Cayuga Blue
Lively Run Goat Dairy, New York

Twig Farm Tomme
Twig Farm, Vermont

THE PASTEURIZED GOAT CHEESES

Vermont Creamery Coupole
Vermont Creamery, Vermont

Capriole Sofia
Capriole, Indiana

Hoja Santa
Mozzarella Company, Texas

La Petite Tomme
Lazy Lady Farm, Vermont

I’m in rural MO and the farmer’s markets are downright lame with all of the sellers selling the same basic things. Common veggies, maters, jelly/jam, bread, might find some soaps and possibly some basic farm cheese, farm fresh eggs and that’s about it. The customer base is just regular country folk who are used to plain cuisine. Even the food at restaurants is bland. Fanciest restaurants are a Mexican joint, burger joint, bbq and a home cooking type place.

There are people in some places that can make a good living off of market gardening but not here. If I drive half way to St Louis, I can find a Farmer’s Market with plenty of diverse craft foods/products like artisan cheeses etc. Those are the ones who also have cutesy, fancy packaging and nice product displays. Pricey though. You can find CSAs around cities.

No matter which direction I drive in from here, I see beef cattle farms and and occasional goat meat farm and that’s it. There’s no one growing 20 different heritage varieties of veggies for restaurants and farmer’s markets. Maters at farmer’s markets here? Early girl, beefsteak and maybe Roma. No yellow maters, no purple maters, no cherry maters. No baby salad greens.

Something I have thought about is a weekend veggie stand because we get thousands of people from St Louis and Southeast Illinois that come down here for recreation and hunting. A lot of them own property here. In fact, the neighbor to the North is from St Louis and the neighbor to the South is from Illinois. I’d have to find a location in town to set up and catch people on their way in on Friday afternoon.

One of the grocery stores has a smoke house out in the parking lot but again, the most bland smoked meats I’ve ever tasted in my life. Tough too. I spent 25 years in FL and the best ribs ever were from the old black guys, usually from GA originally, that had a smoker on a trailer selling on the roadside. Best collard greens too. All those spices never made it to the Midwest back in the day so people here are just used to bland. I could probably sell the crap out of smoked meat that has flavor but I might have to introduce that flavor slowly. Growing up on the East Coast, I’m used to rich flavors. I smoked a brisket on Memorial day and omg it was good. Just a basic dry rub of kosher salt, black pepper, garlic and onion powders and some Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning. No sauce needed.

I’ll be putting up a high tunnel this year and will keep working on smoker recipes. I want to get some bbq baked beans down this year. Smoking meat takes hours and the beans can go in the vertical chamber which runs 180-190 degrees which is perfect for slow simmering a pot of beans. Need to work on a greens recipe too. Collard & Mustard.

Who knows. Maybe I’ll do something like a veggie stand and smoker. My daughter is very social and she could deal with the customers. I’d have to look into licensing for selling smoked foods roadside.

Here’s one of the artisan cheese outfits the article links to, https://www.igourmet.com/products/dancing-fern-cheese $34.95 for 500 grams (just over one pound) People out here would laugh at a product like that at a farmer’s market or even in the store.

Most of those artisan cheese outfits are in Vermont, Wisconsin up North, in New England, NY, Cali etc. They sell to “cultured” people with plenty of money.

Yup, I got spoiled living back East. I drive past 1,000 head of beef cattle on my way to a grocery store to buy tough flavorless beef. The stuff we used to get in FL was way better. Even a ribeye is tough and flavorless out here, yet they get $16/lb for them. I haven’t had good Chinese food in many years. I did find one place in FL that had good stuff and found one place out here that has good fried rice but I’m originally from MA and they had the best. Ming Dynasty was our local Chinese place up there but they were all good. Springfield, MO is the cashew chicken capitol of the nation. Probably 20 Chinese restaurants there. Bland as can be.

My dad was a lobsterman before I was born but he still had connections so we had lobster quite regularly and I could also get live lobster in FL because trucks ran up and down I-95 daily. I surprised everyone in FL at Christmas one year and brought $50 worth of live lobster. Ma was in heaven. All I can get here is frozen tail, the toughest part or snow crab legs for $16.99/lb which are always frozen, even in FL.

food rant off LOL

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