The Complete Book of Cheese Part 61

Soft, piquant rival of Liederkranz.

Oleron Isle, Fromage d'Ile _France_

A celebrated sheep cheese from this island of Oleron.

Olive Cream _U.S.A._

Ground olives mixed to taste with cream cheese. Olives rival pimientos for such mildly piquant blends that just suit the bland American taste. A more exciting olive cream may be made with Greek Calatma olives and Feta sheep cheese.

Olivet _Orleans, France_

Soft sheep cheese sold in three forms: I. Fresh; summer, white; cream cheese.

II. Olivet-Bleu--mold inoculated; half-ripened.

III. Olivet-Cendre, ripened in the ashes. Season, October to June.

Olmutzer Quargel, also Olmutzer Bierkase _Austria_

Soft; skim milk-soured; salty. The smallest of hand cheeses, only 1/2 of an inch thick by 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Packed in kegs to ripen into beer cheese and keep the liquid contents of other kegs company. A dozen of these little ones are packed together in a box ready to drop into wine or beer drinks at home or at the bar.

Oloron, or Fromage de la Vallee d'ossour _Bearn, France_

In season from October to May.

Onion with garlic links _U.S.A_

Processed and put up like frankfurters, in links.

Oporto _Portugal_

Hard; sharp; tangy. From the home town of port wine.

Orkney _Scotland_

A country cheese of the Orkney Islands where it is buried in the oat bin to ripen, and kept there between meals as well. Oatmeal and Scotch country cheese are natural affinities. Southey, Johnson and Boswell have all remarked the fine savor of such cheese with oatcakes.

Orleans _France_

Named after the Orleans district Soft; creamy; tangy.

Ossetin, Tuschninsk, or Kasach _Caucasus_

Comes in two forms: I. Soft and mild sheep or cow cheese ripened in brine for two months.

II. Hard, after ripening a year and more in brine. The type made of sheep milk is the better.

Ostiepek, Oschtjepek, Oschtjpeka _Czechoslovakia_

Sheep in the Carpathian Mountains supply the herb-rich milk for this type, similar to Italian Caciocavallo.

Oswego _U.S.A._

New York State Cheddar of distinction.

Oude Kaas _Belgium_

Popular in France as Boule de Lille.

Oust, Fromage de _Roussillon, France_

Of the Camembert family.

Ovar _Hungarian_

Semisoft to semihard, reddish-brown rind, reddish-yellow inside. Mild but pleasantly piquant It has been called Hungarian Tilsit.

Oveji Sir _Yugoslavian Alpine_

Hard, mountain-sheep cheese of quality Cellar-ripened three months.

Weight six to ten pounds.

Oxfords.h.i.+re _England_

An obsolescent type, now only of literary interest because of Jonathan Swift's little story around it, in the eighteenth century: "An odd land of fellow, who when the cheese came upon the table, pretended to faint; so somebody said, Pray take away the cheese.'

"'No,' said I, 'pray take away the fool. Said I well?'

"To this Colonel Arwit rejoins: 'Faith, my lord, you served the c.o.xcomb right enough; and therefore I wish we had a bit of your lords.h.i.+p's Oxfords.h.i.+re cheese.'"

P

Pabstett _U.S.A_

The Pabst beer people got this out during Prohibition, and although beer and cheese are brothers under their ferment, and Prohibition has long since been done away with, the relation of the processed paste to a natural cheese is still as distant as near beer from regular beer.

Packet cheese _England_

This corresponds to our process cheese and is named from the package or packet it comes in.

Paglia _Switzerland_

Italian-influenced Canton of Ticino. Soft. A copy of Gorgonzola. A Blue with a pleasant, aromatic flavor, and of further interest because in Switzerland, the motherland of cheese, it is an imitation of a foreign type.

Pago _Dalmatia, Yugoslavia_

A sheep-milk specialty made on the island of Pago in Dalmatia, in weights from 1/2 to eight pounds.

Paladru _Savoy, France_