Semi-soft cheeses
Havarti, young Gouda, Port Salut and Monterey Jack: supple, mild and good for slicing.
Semi-soft cheeses sit between the soft and the firm: supple, moist and easy to slice, usually with a thin natural or waxed rind and a mild, buttery flavour. They are ripened for a few weeks to a few months. Havarti, young Gouda, Port Salut, Saint-Paulin, Fontina, Butterkäse, Monterey Jack and Colby belong here, and so does Kalimpong cheese from the hills of West Bengal.
What makes a cheese semi-soft
Semi-soft cheeses are pressed lightly or not at all, and their curd is often washed: some of the whey is drawn off and replaced with water, which lowers the acidity and gives a sweet, mild paste. This washed curd is a different thing from a washed rind. The cheeses hold more moisture than cheddar but less than Brie, and most are eaten at one to three months, when they slice cleanly and melt smoothly. Some have small, irregular holes, called eyes, from gas made by the cultures.
Families of the style
Havarti from Denmark and Butterkäse, butter cheese, from Germany are the soft table cheeses of northern Europe. Port Salut and Saint-Paulin descend from the monastery cheese of Port-du-Salut in western France. Fontina from the Aosta Valley is the melting cheese of fonduta. In the United States, Monterey Jack and Colby, both nineteenth-century creations, are everyday slicing cheeses, and Wisconsin brick cheese is the traditional topping of Detroit-style pizza, melted right to the edge of the pan.
Kalimpong and the hills
Kalimpong cheese was started by Father André Butty, a Jesuit parish priest in the hill town of Kalimpong in West Bengal. It is a small wheel, white, slightly acidic and a little crumbly in the centre when young, with a smooth edible rind, and it grows stronger if left to ripen. It is made in small quantities and sold in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kolkata's New Market. In nearby Sikkim, Gouda-type cheese is made in the same hills, and Japan's Hokkaido dairies make many semi-soft cheeses for the table.
Worth knowing
- Havarti: Danish washed-curd cheese, mild and buttery
- Port Salut: Orange-rinded French cheese of monastic origin
- Fontina: Aosta Valley cheese for fonduta
- Monterey Jack: Californian slicing and melting cheese
- Colby: Wisconsin's mild, open-textured cheese
- Butterkäse: German butter cheese, soft and mild
- Brick cheese: Wisconsin cheese of Detroit-style pizza
- Kalimpong cheese: Small Himalayan wheel begun by a Jesuit priest
Good to know
- Semi-soft cheeses dry fast once cut, so wrap the cut face closely in paper.
- They slice best cold and taste best at room temperature.
- They are good melters for toasties, quesadillas and gratins.
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.
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