[Sca-cooks] A Question about farmer's cheese

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Dec 23, 2009, at 10:08 AM, Jennifer Carlson wrote:

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> There are two different styles of cheese labelled "Farmer's Cheese" that show up at my supermarket.  One is a firm cheese, with a consistency like Monterey Jack, but with a milder flavor, and is available year-round.  The other, which only shows up a couple of times a year, is packaged like Philadelphia style cheese, and has a consistency between that of cream cheese and drained ricotta.
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> My question is: when a recipe calls for farmer's cheese, which type should I use?  

The hard-type cheese you're referring to is, in my experience, more often referred to as "farmhouse", rather than "farmer's". It's similar to white Cheddar in some ways.

Farmer's Cheese (again, in my experience, and YMMV) is more often referring to the compressed curd block in a small brick like Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

The confusion may reflect regional differences in practice, a labeling error on the part of the manufacturer, distributor or store, or any of several other possibilities. Usually the recipe will give you an instruction that should enable you to tell which one is meant. If it is grated, sliced, or melted, it's probably the hard white cheese. If mashed or pureed, probably the little package of white curd cheese.

Adamantius






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