Faith and tradition
How cheese is bound up with faith and custom: monastery dairies, kosher and halal rules, vegetarian rennet, fasts and feasts, and the herders of the mountain and the steppe.
HinduPaneer and chhena in temple sweets and prasad, and the question of vegetarian rennet.3JainCheeses within the Jain diet: made without animal rennet, and eaten with care.0BuddhistYak cheese and butter offerings of Tibet and Bhutan, and the dairy of monastery kitchens.0SikhPaneer in the vegetarian langar kitchen of the gurdwara.0MuslimHalal rennet, and the cheese pastries and sweets of Ramadan and Eid tables.1JewishKosher cheese, the dairy meals of Shavuot and the cheese latkes of Hanukkah.3ChristianEaster paskha, the Lenten fast and Cheesefare week, and Christmas cheeses.10MonasticAbbey and monastery cheeses: Trappist, Benedictine and Cistercian dairies, and their washed rinds.2Herders and nomadsCheese of the herding peoples: transhumance, the steppe, the mountain and the desert.2Other traditionsFolk custom, luck and protection, and uses that fit no single faith.0