Well - this is the fantasy title of the book I will one day write - alternatively, a rather short book that will never be written. I am still trying to get to the bottom of the US cheesemaking tradition - it seems pretty clear that there isn't one. I know that there is Monterey Jack, "yellow cheese" "white cheese", Kraft, Cheese Whizz - and a number of tiny locally made artisan cheeses.
The US was primarily peopled by Italians, Germans, the English, the French (initially), the Spanish, the Dutch (initially), the Irish, Scandinavians - these are all cheese-making peoples (I am not excluding Afro-Chinese etc. americans, but they aren't great cheesemakers). So what happened when they got to America? Presumably those who farmed carried on making cheese when possible (I don't remember any cheese making scenes in Little House on the Prarie though)? Presumably mass production killed it off, and now it is being revived on an artisan basis in small isolated spots...
Recently I have tried asking Americans and Canadians about this... they don't seem to recognise that there is any sort of deficiency in not having at least a dozen decent, enjoyable domestic cheeses which are as different from each other as Stilton from Cheddar, as Aged Red Leicester is from Cornish brie, Yarg from Ashmore or Fleur Marie or Blacksticks or.... well, you get the picture, and we are not really a Great Cheesemaking Nation.
The US was primarily peopled by Italians, Germans, the English, the French (initially), the Spanish, the Dutch (initially), the Irish, Scandinavians - these are all cheese-making peoples (I am not excluding Afro-Chinese etc. americans, but they aren't great cheesemakers). So what happened when they got to America? Presumably those who farmed carried on making cheese when possible (I don't remember any cheese making scenes in Little House on the Prarie though)? Presumably mass production killed it off, and now it is being revived on an artisan basis in small isolated spots...
Recently I have tried asking Americans and Canadians about this... they don't seem to recognise that there is any sort of deficiency in not having at least a dozen decent, enjoyable domestic cheeses which are as different from each other as Stilton from Cheddar, as Aged Red Leicester is from Cornish brie, Yarg from Ashmore or Fleur Marie or Blacksticks or.... well, you get the picture, and we are not really a Great Cheesemaking Nation.
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