🧈 Soft cheeses without mould

Soft cheeses without mould are ripened cheeses with a soft, often creamy or spoonable paste, whose rind carries no white Penicillium camemberti mould and is not washed with brine. Unlike Fresh cheeses, they ripen, from a few days to two months or longer.

The Codex Alimentarius general standard for cheese, CXS 283-1978, classifies cheese by firmness using the moisture on a fat-free basis: in soft cheeses it is above 67 %. The same standard distinguishes ripened, mould-ripened and unripened cheese. Most cheeses in this group hold PDO status in the EU, and their specifications are listed in the eAmbrosia register.

The raw material is sheep milk or cow milk, less often goat milk. On the Iberian Peninsula raw sheep milk is often curdled not with rennet but with an infusion of cardoon thistle flowers: this is how Torta del Casar, Queijo Serra da Estrela, Queijo de Azeitão and Queijo Serpa are made. The plant coagulant gives a light bitterness and a creamy, almost runny heart under a thin natural rind.

Other examples are the pear-shaped Galician Queso Tetilla, Queijo do Pico from the Azores, Quartirolo Lombardo from Lombardy and the sharp Greek Kopanisti, which is kneaded into a spreadable paste.

How to choose and store: the rind should be whole, without cracks or foreign coloured mould, and the cheese supple or soft with a clean milky smell. Keep it in the fridge in baking paper, cover the cut face and eat it within a few days. Take it out an hour before serving. Cardoon-curdled cheeses are served whole: cut off the top and scoop the paste with a spoon or bread; for drinks see Wine and cheese.

Why it matters to you: in most of these cheeses the softness comes from a moist paste and the coagulant, not from a white mould rind, so the taste is milky and creamy without mushroom notes. Many are made from raw milk, and the NHS advises pregnant women to avoid soft cheeses made from unpasteurised milk unless they are cooked until steaming hot.