Soft Cheese

Soft cheese is cheese whose water content in the fat-free cheese mass is more than 67 %. Soft cheese may be made from pasteurised milk, thermised milk and raw milk. Soft cheeses made from raw milk are subject to particularly strict hygiene requirements under EU law.

The ripening of the soft cheese proceeds from the outside to the inside. At a higher temperature, the ripening process is faster. The more mature the cheese, the more it acquires the typical creamy soft consistency. In most cases, they only show a soft consistency as they mature, often only gradually losing a firm core inside the dough.

The surface of soft cheese is often treated with a fungal culture. This usually leads to the formation of a typical white mould layer. The surface flora of soft cheese with smear is predominantly treated with Brevibacterium linens and is therefore more or less moist. With the introduction of Penicillium candidum, the mold culture now known as Camembert mold was bred. A distinction is made between soft cheeses: Soft cheeses with red smear and soft cheeses with mold, which is later overlaid by a white layer of noble mold. Cheeses with red smear flora, called red smear cheeses, have a yellowish to reddish-brown exterior. In some, white mold grows through the red smear surface after some time; a closed white mold layer forms, e.g. in Rougette. The penetration of slightly gray, small spots does not affect the quality of the cheese. If slight red spots appear on camembert-like cheese, this is a sign of ripening of the cheese dough. Soft cheeses with blue noble mould in the dough usually have a white mould coating and are milder in taste than semi-hard cheeses with blue or noble mould. They are often called white-blue cheeses.

Known varieties: Brie, Camembert, Coulommiers, Gorgonzola, Vacherin Mont-d'Or