Weighing the shepherd’s folding mantle down;
    Whether from Parma or from Jura heights,
    Kneaded by august hands of Carmelites,
    Stamped with the mitre of a proud abbess. 
    Flowered with the perfumes of the grass of Bresse,
    From hollow Holland, from the Vosges, from Brie,
    From Roquefort, Gorgonzola, Italy! 
    Bless them, good Lord!  Bless Stilton’s royal fare,
    Red Cheshire, and the tearful cream Gruyere.

    FROM JETHRO BITHELL’S TRANSLATION
    OF A POEM BY M. Thomas Braun

     Symphonie des Fromages

A giant Cantal, seeming to have been chopped open with an ax, stood aside of a golden-hued Chester and a Swiss Gruyere resembling the wheel of a Roman chariot There were Dutch Edams, round and blood-red, and Port-Saluts lined up like soldiers on parade.  Three Bries, side by side, suggested phases of the moon; two of them, very dry, were amber-colored and “full,” and the third, in its second quarter, was runny and creamy, with a “milky way” which no human barrier seemed able to restrain.  And all the while majestic Roqueforts looked down with princely contempt upon the other, through the glass of their crystal covers.

     Emile Zola

In 1953 the United States Department of Agriculture published Handbook No. 54, entitled Cheese Varieties and Descriptions, with this comment:  “There probably are only about eighteen distinct types or kinds of natural cheese.”  All the rest (more than 400 names) are of local origin, usually named after towns or communities.  A list of the best-known names applied to each of these distinct varieties or groups is given: 

Brick        Gouda         Romano
Camembert    Hand          Roquefort
Cheddar      Limburger     Sapsago
Cottage      Neufchatel    Swiss
Cream        Parmesan      Trappist
Edam         Provolone     Whey cheeses (Mysost and Ricotta)

May we nominate another dozen to form our own Cheese Hall of Fame?  We begin our list with a partial roll call of the big Blues family and end it with members of the monastic order of Port-Salut Trappist that includes Canadian Oka and our own Kentucky thoroughbred.

The Blues that Are Green

Stilton, Roquefort and Gorgonzola form the triumvirate that rules a world of lesser Blues.  They are actually green, as green as the mythical cheese the moon is made of.

In almost every, land where cheese is made you can sample a handful of lesser Blues and imitations of the invincible three and try to classify them, until you’re blue in the face.  The best we can do in this slight summary is to mention a few of the most notable, aside from our own Blues of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Oregon and other states that major in cheese.

Danish Blues are popular and splendidly made, such as “Flower of Denmark.”  The Argentine competes with a pampas-grass Blue all its own.  But France and England are the leaders in this line, France first with a sort of triple triumvirate within a triumvirate—­Septmoncel, Gex, and Sassenage, all three made with three milks mixed together:  cow, goat and sheep.  Septmoncel is the leader of these, made in the Jura mountains and considered by many French caseophiles to outrank Roquefort.