Everyone knows the difference between a chunk of feta and a slice of cheddar. But where do these iconic cheeses get their names from?
PLACE OF ORIGIN
Far and away, most cheeses get their name from the place they were first made. Brie was first produced in the French town Brie, and then it’s younger brother Camembert was made in the small Normandy town of Camembert. Cheddar gets its namesake from the Somerset town in the south west of England which is also famous for its strawberries, meaning its the perfect place to make cheese and jam sandwiches if you’re into that sort of thing.
Of cheeses who take their name from a geographical region, Gouda is the most interesting. Although the Dutch town Gouda has been making the cheese for centuries, it is almost certainly not the place where it originally came from. The cheese’s history is difficult to trace as it has been around so long, but the real reason it’s called Gouda is that the marketplace in the city was one of the few places in the Renaissance era where cheese-makers could sell their goods, and so the area became renowned for its cheese.
OLD WORDS
Not all cheeses are named after their hometown though. Feta comes from the Italian word “fetta”, meaning slice, which is derived from the Latin word offa, meaning a piece, a mouthful or a bite. Similarly, Mozzarella comes from the Italian word, “mozzare”, meaning to separate or to cut. The process of making mozzarella traditionally involves working or “cutting” the curds making the milk, hence the name.
USE YOUR EYES
There’s a healthy amount of cheese names you can figure out just by looking at. Blue cheese, smoke cheese – the list goes on.
