General Question

rpm_pseud0name's avatar

Which of these cheeses are apart of the same family, if at all?

Asked by rpm_pseud0name (8208points) April 24th, 2010

(to start off, I don’t know a lot about cheese) I bought a box of Cheeze-Its that was called, Italian 4 Cheese. I was reading the ingredients & discovered something unusual.. a much longer list of cheeses. So I was wondering, are some of these cheeses consider to be a part of the same family which means they can’t be counted as separate cheese?

Box claims 4 cheese, but here is what is listed on ingredients…

White Cheddar
Monterey Jack
Romano
Parmesan
Mozzarella
Asiago

Could someone explain why Cheeze-It is calling this box, 4 cheese, & not 6 cheese, as the ingredients list so depicts? Am I not understanding something?

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

8 Answers

shockvalue's avatar

Romano and Asiago can be used in lieu of Parmesan… They might have listed all three as a means of protecting their recipe???

MissAnthrope's avatar

So, you have your 4 Italian cheeses; Romano, parmesan, mozzarella, and asiago.

The other two are not Italian, but were added for flavor, I assume.

Cruiser's avatar

@MissAnthrope has it right IMO. Just read the ingredients in the juice containers we buy. Many say 100% Juice flavored Cranberry drink but contains a good slug of white grape juice and often corn syrup. Buyer beware.

rpm_pseud0name's avatar

That seems to make the most sense to me, @MissAnthrope.

anartist's avatar

The last four are your 4-cheese Italian cheese-its flavoring—but they cost more than white cheddar and monterey jack; cheddar and monterey jack are also generally milder so they are being used as “filler” cheese to cut costs. I’ll bet you listed those ingredients in order—if so there is more of the non-Italian cheese in there than Italian cheese.

kevbo's avatar

That’s weird. You should send your quip to consumerist.com. I bet it will get published.

I’m guessing it’s because 4-cheese is marketable and 6-cheese is too bewildering to make sense to the consumer. If there are pictures of the cheeses on the front of the box, I would bet that these are the four they mean to market. I wouldn’t put mozzarella and asiago in the same family, but that’s just me.

breedmitch's avatar

Interesting. Traditionally all the above but Romano are cow’s milk cheeses. Italian Romano is usually a sheep’s milk cheese, but I’m guessing the cheeze-it company uses domestic Romano, in which case it is a cow’s milk cheese.
I made an unwise decision and ate a handful of cheeze-it crackers recently. What struck me most was not their lack of cheese flavour, but instead the overwhelming shortening flavour. The grease coated my mouth making it impossible for me to taste anything for hours.

Coloma's avatar

And don’t forget Parmano…mmmmm!

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.

This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.

Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther