Cheesemongers! It’s National Moldy Cheese Day!

National Moldy Cheese Day?! Sure! Why not? I love cheese, moldy or otherwise. As long as its edible and has a silly name. Well, not really. I’ll still eat it if it doesnt have a silly name. But it seems a lot of cheeses have weird names. Want to know another weird name? Cheesemonger! It’s a person who specializes in cheeses, butter, and other dairy products. 

I don’t think enough people know about National Moldy Cheese Day, so that’s why I want to take the opportunity to give a few of my favorite cheese facts and memes to help celebrate today!

  1. The most popular cheese is Mozarella. It’s a southern Italian dairy product traditionally made from buffalo milk. 
  2. Cheese was created over 4,000 years ago by accident. Legend has it the first cheese was created accidentally, by storing milk in a container lined with an animal’s stomach. An enzyme from the stomach caused the milk to separate into liquid (whey) and solids (curd). The curd? That’s cheese.
  3. Some cheeses are illegal in the United States. Because of safety concerns related to bacteria, the FDA has banned certain cheeses from entering the United States. These include cheeses made with raw milk and aged under 60 days, including Brie de Meaux, Reblochon, Valencay, Epoisses, Roquefort and Camembert de Normandie. You’ll have to travel to France to indulge in these specialty cheeses. 
  4. If a cheese is named after a city (or country-hello, American!), it’s capitalized. Examples include Asiago, Brie, Camembert, Gouda, Gruyere and Parmesan. (I’d love to live in the city of Parmesan!) Cheeses that aren’t capitalized include cheddar, feta, fontina, mozarella and provolone.
  5. Cheddar Cheese is never naturally orange. 
  6. People started dying cheese orange back in the 17th century to fool people into thinking it was higher quality.
  7. Scientists have successfully created cheese using human bacteria collected from toes and belly buttons.
  8. American Cheese cannot be legally sold as “cheese” in the United States. It must instead be labeled as “cheese product,” “cheese food,” or “American Singles,” since its manufacturing process varies so significantly from that of other cheeses.
  9. The French have a different cheese for every day of the year. Cheese experts estimate the total number of different French cheeses is around 1000.
  10. Pule cheese is the world’s most expensive cheese and it comes from the milk of Balkan donkeys from Serbia. It’s valued at $600 per pound; it’s so expensive because there are only ~100 jennies (female donkeys) that are milked for pule-making. It takes 3 gallons of milk to create 1 pound of cheese.

Celebrate by telling us your favorite moldy cheese! Tag Nerd News Social and use the #MoldyCheeseDay if you post a picture. Or have a chat with a local Cheesemonger. 

 

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