ABSTRACT
Hundreds of different cheeses are produced around the world. Of…cially, approximately 500 cheese types have been recognized (Burkhalter 1981). Several classi…cation schemes have been developed to group these cheeses, and a good description of these classi…cations can be found in Fundamentals of Cheese Science (Fox et al. 2000). One system classi…es cheeses based on hardness and spans the spectra from very hard, hard, semisoft, and soft. No category is developed for semisolid cheeses, and as such, cheeses should not be described in this segment of the handbook, which covers semisolid dairy products. However, the authors felt that several fresh high-moisture cheeses do belong in the semisolid dairy products group along with yogurt and sour cream. Thus, this chapter describes one of these semisolid or “spoonable” cheeses, that is, fromage frais from France.
