How Cheese Can Enhance Your Soup

Adding cheese is the perfect way to add flavor and creaminess to any kind of soup. Your recipe doesn’t even have to call for it for this ingredient to make a difference. Canned soup, in particular, rises to a whole new level when you add cheese. Whether you choose plain cheddar or one of the many flavored cheeses available, following these few steps will deliver perfect cheese infused soup every time.

Grate Your Cheese

The first essential step to adding cheese to soup is to grate it yourself. Pre-grated cheese has added ingredients that can cause it to clump when it melts. After grating, if you're cooking in a particularly hot kitchen or climate, you can toss a little bit of flour in with your cheese to keep it from sticking together.

When To Add The Cheese

Now that you have the perfect grated cheese, the next trick is to put it in your soup at the right moment. If the flavor of your soup can handle it, you will actually want to add just a touch of lemon juice before adding your cheese. This helps the cheese melt without clumping. Remember that the more liquid your soup base has, the more likely your cheese is to clump. Because of this, you should take additional precautions when necessary.

Regardless of whether you’re making a cheese or water-based soup, taking it off the heat before adding your grated cheese is a must. Make sure your soup is no longer boiling (or even simmering to be safe) before adding small amounts of cheese to the pot at a time. Clumping cheese is bad enough, but adding it to boiling liquid will make the cheese curdle. While curdled cheese isn’t deadly, it takes on a grainy texture that isn’t pleasant to eat.

How To Add The Cheese

Add about a quarter cup of cheese at a time, using a whisk to make sure it’s all incorporated before adding more. Do this quickly, as you want your soup hot enough to melt the cheese. You can put the pot back on the burner, if you need to, but then you run the risk of heating it too much. Remember that soup containing cheese should never boil.

Final Tips

One last trick: If you’re worried about clumping or curdling cheese and you already know how to make a killer cheese sauce, then simply make your sauce first and add it to hot (but not boiling) soup. Ready to give it a try? Take these instructions to the kitchen and get cooking with your favorite cheese.

What Kind Of Mold Is Involved In Cheese Making?

Depending on the type of cheese that you eat, there will be some mold in it that you don’t need to worry about. While moldy cheese that has been sitting in your fridge for months should probably be tossed, certain types of cheese are actually designed to have mold. Mold will only be involved in cheese making particular cheese varieties and the kind used depends on the cheese in question.

Blue Molds

The most popular kind of cheese that is made with mold is blue cheese. There are two types of blue mold that you will find in blue cheese, regardless of the variety. These are P. glacucum and P. roqueforti. Each of these molds provides the unique texture and flavor you love of blue cheese. The molds can grow in environments with very low oxygen levels, which is why they are so great at ripening cheese; they can do so in the small cracks. To encourage this process, many cheesemakers who are aging blue cheese will actually pierce channels into the cheese and then place the mold inside so they grow. You can find mold in common blue cheeses like Cabrales, Gorgonzola, Roquefort, and Stilton. While blue cheese is the most likely to have blue molds, you can also find them on some goat cheeses.

White Molds

Although most people think of blue molds when they picture the mold used in cheese making, there are also white molds. These will be found along the outside of nearly every soft-ripened cheese. These white molds are P. camembertii, which is also known as P. candidum and its subspecies. White mold in cheese works by producing enzymes which break down milk proteins from curds. This in turn causes that ripened layer that is surrounded by a firm interior. Cheese with white mold will typically produce an earthy or garlicky flavor. The only thing to remember with cheese featuring white mold is that ammonia is a by-product of the enzymatic process. Because of this, you need to let the cheese breathe or sit uncovered so the ammonia can dissipate.

Is The Mold Dangerous?

Since mold is actually used in cheese making, it should be obvious that it does not pose a health threat. This is particularly true of the cheeses that have intentional mold growth. There are also some cheeses that will simply grow mold on their surface. While a very small number can be harmful, the vast majority of these unintentional molds are not. Instead, they actually enhance the flavor of the cheese.

What Is A Cheese Cave?

When you start learning more about cheese, you will quickly come across the concept of a cheese cave. Cheese caves are essentially the place that you store cheese while it undergoes its aging process, no matter how long it is. They are an alternative to a regular refrigerator and actually work better than those. In fact, cheese caves are the traditional location for aging cheese.

Not Always A Cave

The term cheese cave comes from the fact that historically, cheese was placed in a cave to age. Caves have the ideal conditions for this process thanks to their steady, high levels of humidity and cool temperature. You simply won’t get the same results for your cheese if the humidity or temperature is off. Cheese caves have been used for centuries in countries where cheese is regularly consumed. Today, many modern cheese caves are not caves at all. Instead, they are rooms that have been set up in a way that mimics the humidity, temperature, and other conditions of caves. Thanks to modern technology, this is a very real possibility that allows you to age cheese anywhere, regardless of whether or not a cave is actually present.

Making A Cheese Cave

Since you can create a cheese cave anywhere, you can actually make one right in your home provided that you have enough space. Companies that produce and age their own cheese will have at least one manmade cheese cave somewhere on their property and you can copy their techniques on a much smaller scale. There are a few key requirements when creating your cheese cave. Make sure that the temperature is as constant as you can make it, somewhere between 45 and 58 degrees Fahrenheit. You also need the moisture level to be at the proper level for the cheese you are aging, typically around 80 to 90 percent. Finally, the cheese cave needs to have fresh air so you don’t get any unwanted products from aging.

Using An Old Fridge

It is possible to age cheese in your current fridge, but you will have to make some adjustments and use a wet paper towel to get the proper humidity. Ideally, you will turn an old fridge into a cheese cave. You can invest in a simple controller to keep the temperature within the correct range and put a pan of water inside the fridge with a partial cover to keep the humidity at the proper level. You will need to keep an eye on the moisture level since it will vary with the seasons. Because of the effort involved in making a cheese cave, many people prefer to just buy their cheese already aged.

How Are Asiago And Parmesan Cheeses Different?

While some cheeses are clearly different from each other, others look very similar and can be nearly impossible to tell apart. Others will taste very similar with differences that only well-trained taste buds will notice. Asiago and Parmesan are two cheeses that look very similar, also resembling Romano. These are also all Italian cheeses, meaning that they have some elements of shared history.

Asiago

Asiago is a type of cheese made from cow’s milk and it comes from the northeastern area of Italy. Most cheese experts consider it an Alpine or mountain cheese. Depending on the aging process, Asiago can vary greatly in terms of flavor. When it is fresh, the cheese is known as Asiago Pressato and is mild flavored and semi-soft. When aged, it is called Asiago D’Allevo and as it is aged longer, it becomes sharper, dryer, and firmer. There tend to be three categories of aging for Asiago cheese where it is aged two months, three months, or a minimum of nine months. Regardless of aging, Asiago tends to be nutty and sweet. Younger Asiago is delicious by itself while aged Asiago has more intense flavors that make it great when grated on salad, pasta, or risotto.

Parmesan

The cheese you typically refer to as Parmesan is typically actually Parmigiano Reggiano. While not all Parmesan will be Parmigiano Reggiano, all Parmesan Reggiano is a type of Parmesan. This is also a cheese made from cow’s milk but instead of being from Northeastern Italy, it is from Northern Italy, specifically the Reggio Emilia or Parma regions. Parmigiano Reggiano has a nutty, rich flavor and a flaky texture that separates it from Asiago. It has always been aged between one to two years. It works well on a variety of dishes, including many of those that Asiago enhances, such as risotto and pasta.

Within the regions it is produced in, Parmesan has very strict regulations that ensure it is made following tradition, including the milk being heated in copper kettles and cheesemakers needing at least ten years of apprenticeships. Within the entire European Union, you can’t legally call cheese Parmesan if it isn’t Parmigiano Reggiano. You can use the term Parmesan for other cheeses in countries outside the European Union, so don’t expect the traditional cheese all the time in the United States.

Whether you are interested in Asiago or Parmesan, you should try your best to get an authentic version for the richest flavors. Although the United States doesn’t have as strict of requirements, you can still find imported cheeses or at least those that have been stamped to indicate they meet some standard.