Cheddar, Somerset, England
The county in southwest England where Cheddar was born. Its pastures have been cheese country for centuries, and the village of Cheddar still lends its name to the world's most popular cheese style.
Creameries
Every maker and origin in the catalog, with the entries that come from it.
Campania, Italy
The region of Naples in southern Italy, home of mozzarella. Buffalo have grazed its plains for centuries, and its stretched-curd cheeses remain the benchmark for pasta filata.
Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Northern Italy's food heartland, the home of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Its plains produce the milk, its aging rooms hold wheels for years, and its name is protected by law.
Île-de-France, France
The region around Paris, and the birthplace of Brie. Its soft, bloomy-rind cheeses have been made here for centuries and are named for the historic Brie district within it.
Netherlands
The Netherlands has made and traded cheese for over a thousand years. Gouda and Edam anchor its tradition, and Dutch cheese markets still weigh and grade wheels by hand.
Emme Valley, Switzerland
A river valley in the canton of Bern, home of Emmental. Its alpine milk and large copper vats produce some of the biggest cheese wheels in the world.
Southern Italy
Italy's south is pasta filata country: Campania, Puglia, and Basilicata stretch their curds into mozzarella and Provolone, a technique the region has practiced for centuries.
Greece
Greek dairying is built on sheep and goats suited to its rocky hills. Feta, matured in brine, is its signature cheese and a protected name under European law.
France
France brings the technique: cultured butter from fermented cream, and brown butter, the beurre noisette of its kitchens. French dairy craft favors fermentation and gentle cooking.
Northern Europe
The butter heartland of Europe, from France to Denmark and Ireland, where higher-butterfat butter is the standard and pastry is built on it.
India
India is the home of ghee, clarified butter cooked a step further, central to its cooking for thousands of years and valued for keeping without refrigeration.
Torquay, England
A seaside town in Devon, England, where a culinary student's 1973 competition entry, mint chocolate chip, became one of the world's favorite ice cream flavors.
United States
America built its dairy case on standards: graded butter, Philadelphia-style cream cheese, and the ice cream parlor flavors that spread worldwide in the twentieth century.
Fribourg, Switzerland
The canton of Fribourg in western Switzerland, home of Gruyère. Its alpine pastures and village dairies have produced the great firm wheels for centuries.
Valais, Switzerland
A canton in the Swiss Alps, the home of raclette. Its high pastures give the milk for a cheese made to be melted by the fire.
La Mancha, Spain
The dry central plateau of Spain, country of Don Quixote and of Manchega sheep. Its hard, oily sheep cheese has been made there since Roman times.
Sardinia, Italy
The Italian island whose shepherds make much of the world's Pecorino Romano. Its dry hills suit sheep, and its cheeses are built to keep and travel.
Normandy, France
The northwest French region of bocage pastures and apple orchards, the birthplace of Camembert. Its mild, damp climate grows the grass behind its soft cheeses.
Lombardy, Italy
The northern Italian region of Milan, home of Gorgonzola, Taleggio, and mascarpone. Its Po Valley farms produce the rich cow's milk behind all three.
Derbyshire, England
An English county in the East Midlands, one of only three where Stilton may be made. Its dairy tradition also gives Red Leicester and Melton Mowbray pies.
Roquefort, France
A village in southern France above the Combalou caves, where Roquefort ages in natural limestone drafts. The caves' air carries the mold that blues the cheese.
Veneto, Italy
The region of northeastern Italy that includes the Asiago plateau. Its mountain dairies produce Asiago in both young and aged forms.
Aosta Valley, Italy
Italy's smallest region, a high Alpine valley under Mont Blanc. Its Fontina is made from a single milking of the local Valdaostana cows.
Cyprus
The Mediterranean island whose brined, grillable halloumi is its signature cheese, traditionally folded with mint and stored in its own brine.
Mexico
Mexico's dairy traditions blend Spanish cheesemaking with local craft: fresh queso fresco, aged cotija, and the stringy Oaxaca melting cheese.
Denmark
Denmark's dairy country produces the smooth, mild Havarti, created on a Danish farm in the 1800s and now a protected national specialty.
Jura, France
The mountainous region of eastern France whose fruitières, village dairies, pool milk to make the huge graded wheels of Comté.
Belgium
The historic Limburg border country gave its name to Limburger, the famously aromatic washed-rind cheese now made mostly in Germany and Wisconsin.
Norway
Norway's dairy farms produce Jarlsberg, the mild, sweet, large-holed cheese developed in the 1950s from a guarded 19th-century recipe.
Jersey, Channel Islands
The island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, home of the Jersey cow, whose milk is among the richest of any dairy breed, with a natural golden tint.
Iceland
Iceland's farms have made skyr since the Viking settlement, passing the cultures from household to household for over a thousand years.
Turkey
Turkey's yogurt culture runs deep: ayran, its salted yogurt drink, is served with grilled food everywhere, and yogurt itself takes its name from Turkish.
Germany
Germany's fresh-cheese tradition centers on quark, the smooth strained curd behind its cheesecakes and herb spreads, eaten daily across the country.
Lebanon
Lebanon and the Levant are the home of labneh, yogurt strained to a cheese and served under olive oil as part of the mezze table.
Eastern Europe
Across Eastern Europe, cultured dairy is a daily staple: kefir, ryazhenka from baked milk, and smetana, the region's cultured cream.
Balkans
The Balkan Peninsula's yogurt tradition, from Bulgarian villages to Greek islands, favors thick, tart, set yogurts made with local cultures.