Tangy and lactic
Bright, lemony acidity: goat cheeses, feta, cottage cheese and young cheddar.
Tangy cheeses have a bright, lemony acidity, the taste of lactic acid made by bacteria from milk sugar. The tang is clearest in fresh and young cheeses: goat's milk logs, feta, cottage cheese, quark, Caerphilly, Wensleydale and Lancashire, and young cheddar. It is the flavour that makes a goat cheese salad taste fresh and keeps a cheesecake from tasting flat.
Lactic acid
Every cheese begins with bacteria turning lactose into lactic acid. In lactic cheeses this acid does most of the work of setting the curd, and the finished cheese keeps much of it, giving a fresh, citrus-like sharpness. In rennet cheeses that are aged, other flavours slowly take over as the acid is used up or neutralised, especially near the surface of bloomy and washed rinds. So a clear tang is usually a mark of youth, and it softens as a cheese ripens.
Tangy cheeses of the world
France's young goat cheeses, Greek feta and Bulgarian sirene, and the crumbly British cheeses, Caerphilly, Wensleydale and Lancashire, all have a clear acidity. Quark and tvorog are tangy in the same way as yoghurt. Kalimpong cheese is mild and slightly tangy when young. Ethiopia's ayib, made from soured milk after the butter has been churned, is gently sour and is served beside stews spiced with berbere, where it cools the heat.
In cooking
Tangy cheeses balance richness and sweetness. Crumbled feta lifts lamb and roasted vegetables, goat cheese sets off sweet beetroot, and in Yorkshire, Wensleydale is eaten with fruit cake, especially at Christmas. Quark and tvorog give cheesecake and syrniki their gentle sourness. Indian cooks set paneer with lemon juice or vinegar and rinse it well, which leaves only a faint tang, but home-made paneer set with sour whey often keeps a little more.
Worth knowing
- Feta: Brined, salty and tangy
- Crottin de Chavignol: Lemony when young
- Caerphilly: Welsh crumbly cheese
- Wensleydale: Yorkshire cheese eaten with fruit cake
- Lancashire: Crumbly, buttery and tangy
- Quark: Spoonable lactic cheese
- Sirene: Bulgarian brined cheese
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Tangy and lactic on EveryCheese
The cheeses written up so far, best known first.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreMarble cheese
A processed cow's milk cheese with distinct colored marbling patterns.Cow · Hard · Savoury and brothy
🇮🇪 IrelandWicklow Farmhouse Cheese
A range of handmade cow's milk cheeses from Arklow, Ireland, spanning soft bries to hard cheddars.Cow · Bloomy rind · Nutty
🇫🇷 France and 2 moreBlue cheese
A family of cheeses defined by blue-green mold veins created through deliberate inoculation and piercing.Cow · Semi-soft · Sharp and tangy-aged
🇨🇭 SwitzerlandAppenzeller
A hard, washed-rind cow's-milk cheese from northeast Switzerland with a herbal brine rind.Cow · Hard · Nutty
🇬🇧 United KingdomCaerphilly
A hard, crumbly cow's-milk cheese from South Wales with a mild lemony taste.Cow · Hard · Tangy and lactic
🇳🇵 Nepal and 2 moreChhurpiछुर्पी
A smoked yak and cow milk cheese from the Himalayas, available in soft or hard forms.Yak · Smoked · Tangy and lactic
🇬🇧 United KingdomRed Leicester
A hard, crumbly cow's-milk cheese from England, aged for months and coloured with annatto.Cow · Hard · Sweet and caramel
🇪🇸 SpainMahónformatge de Maó / queso de Mahón
A cow's-milk cheese from Menorca that ranges from soft and mild to hard and sharp.Cow · Semi-soft · Buttery and creamy
🇧🇷 BrazilColony cheesequeijo de colônia
A semi-hard cow's-milk cheese from southern Brazil with a yellow crust and creamy interior.Cow · Semi-hard · Tangy and lactic
🇩🇪 GermanyNieheimer Käse
A sour milk cheese from North Rhine-Westphalia ripened in hops and flavored with caraway.Cow · Hard · Tangy and lactic
🇳🇱 Netherlands and 1 moreKanterkaas
A hard Dutch cow's milk cheese flavored with cumin and cloves, aged in Friesland.Cow · Hard · Sharp and tangy-aged
🇫🇷 FranceTome fraîcheToma fresca
A hard-pressed, unsalted cow's milk cheese from the Aubrac region of France.Cow · Hard · Milky and fresh
🇮🇹 Italy and 3 moreAlpkäse
A seasonal hard cow's-milk cheese made on high Alpine pastures in summer.Cow · Hard · Tangy and lactic
🇬🇧 United KingdomLancashire cheese
A cow's-milk cheese from England with three main styles: creamy, tasty, and crumbly.Cow · Semi-hard · Nutty
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Caerphilly: Jon Sullivan, Public domain, source
- Mahón: Slastic, Public domain, source
- Chhurpi: Arijit Dasgupta, CC BY 2.0, source
- Lancashire cheese: Jon Sullivan, Public domain, source
- Red Leicester: Jon Sullivan, Public domain, source
- Colby-Jack: Stephen Shep, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Kanterkaas: AlexanderVanLoon, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Danish Blue: No machine-readable author provided. Brookie assumed (based on copyrig, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Appenzeller: Ulled, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Tome fraîche: Flblbl, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Nieheimer Käse: Tsungam, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Alpkäse: Guy Waterval, CC BY-SA 4.0, source