Restrictive diets don’t always mean you’ll be leaving behind all your favorite foods, but it will mean you need to understand the dos and don’ts of what a new diet entails. Lots of medical disorders and diseases are addressed by the adoption of diet restrictions before other kinds of treatment are called into play. With a diagnosis of Celiac’s Disease, a thyroid disease, plus some other autoimmune disorders, a gluten-free diet is often the first recommendation.

Like any diet, going gluten-free means you likely have to stay away from some of your favorite foods. Pining for your favorite bread or pasta dish might leave you feeling some level of despair, but if you visit your favorite grocer, you might be relieved to see all that you can enjoy.

Whether you’re new to a gluten-free diet or you have been following it for awhile, you’ll find it easier to stay on track if you understand the dos and don’ts. Let’s start with the basics, like what gluten actually is and how to spot a gluten-free cheese.

What is gluten?

Simply put, gluten is an ingredient in grains that some people can’t tolerate. More specifically, gluten is a sticky glue-like protein in grains that gives food texture and elasticity. In foods like bread and cereal, gluten makes the bread rise and the cereal’s texture more satisfying.

At first glance, you might assume cutting out gluten means avoiding all foods made with grains. However, you’ll find that gluten appears in the sneakiest places. Condiments, packaged foods like soups, and even beverages can hide gluten. It seems counterintuitive that a protein found in grains would appear in foods not containing grains — but it happens.

Because of its unique properties, gluten is sometimes added to foods during processing as a thickening or texturizing agent, which can make navigating the gluten-free diet a bit tricky.

Is the dairy aisle a gluten-free zone?

Many dairy items are simply produced and have very few ingredients. For example, eggs and milk are generally gluten-free, as little production happens during manufacturing.

But not everything in the dairy aisle is produced simply, which is why it’s important to understand the ingredients and read packaging. In general, dairy products that are produced with all-natural ingredients are typically gluten-free.

Is cheese gluten-free?

Cheese can mostly be considered gluten-free, if it’s a natural non-processed cheese. For example, cheese spreads or dips may have gluten as an ingredient to help provide the food’s smooth texture, and therefore would be on the “don’t” list. As with any diet that has improved health at its core, the general rule is that the more minimally processed a food is, the better fit it is for your diet.

Gluten-free Cheese DON’Ts

It’s always wise to read labels when following a gluten-free diet. These cheeses are often ones that do contain gluten, so that makes them a don’t for your diet.

• American cheese
• Cheese spreads
• Cottage Cheese
• Ricotta Cheese
• Flavored Cheeses (the flavoring process may allow for cross-contamination or ingredients used that contain gluten)

Gluten-free Cheese DOs

The good news is, some of the most delicious and versatile cheeses are on the gluten-free list! Below is a sampling of these cheeses and ways you can enjoy them in a gluten-free diet:

• Asiago: perfect grated on salads or grilled veggies
• Romano: a crumbly sharp cheese, perfect on a cheeseboard
• Fontal: a smooth and creamy cheese that makes a sauce perfect for any dish
• Pecorino Romano: pairs well with fruit and lends a flavorful finish when grated on baked or roasted meats

You will find some brands, like Cello cheese, are always gluten-free, so look for these cheeses and always read labels to be sure.

Gluten-free Cheese MAYBEs

There are a few gray areas when it comes to gluten-free cheeses.

• Shredded cheese: Grated or shredded cheeses are convenient for cooking, but some are made with dustings and additives that contain gluten. Either do the grating or shredding work yourself, or look for Cello grated cheeses like Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano, and Parmesan that are all produced gluten-free and will save you time in the kitchen.
• Snacking cheese: if you crave a cheese stick or love to dip veggies in creamy cheese dips, be sure to read the packaging. Gluten can often be found in both cheese sticks and dips, so be sure to double-check. Cello Snack Packs, delectable cheeses paired with dried fruits and nuts that are gluten-free and perfect for on-the-go, are a great option.

Whether snacking, cooking, or entertaining, navigating a gluten-free diet can be made easier when you see it’s not about pining for the don’ts, but embracing the dos!

Head to your nearest grocery store that carries Cello so you can stock up on your favorite gluten-free cheeses.

P.S. Planning a post-pandemic party? Use our eBook as a guide for putting together the perfect cheeseboard, and add lots of gluten-free options so everyone can enjoy.

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If you’re on keto, certain cheeses make for better choices – find out which ones.

Ketogenic or “keto” diets may seem like a recent trend, but they actually aren’t new at all. In the Harvard Health Blog, Dr. Marcelo Campos wrote that doctors have been using the keto diet for almost 100 years! At its core, the keto diet centers on cutting carbs and adding more protein and fat to your diet – which is actually all excellent news for cheese lovers.

Keto diets are based on limiting carbs and eating whole foods rich in protein and fat like meat, avocado, eggs, and “unprocessed” cheese (more about that below). You might be surprised by how less hungry you feel on the keto diet versus similar options, like low-fat diets, because of the flexibility keto affords you. Following a keto diet often leads to weight loss, but it also provides other health benefits like lowering your risk for Type 2 Diabetes.

Adding cheese to dishes makes them so much more tasty, especially when adhering to a diet that limits sugars and other indulgent foods. Shavings of Parmesan or Romano tossed onto a Caesar salad seems decadent, but when it’s replacing croutons, it’s practical. Mixing some shredded cheddar into your scrambled eggs makes them richer and creamier. Crumbling some Asiago cheese with pecans and walnuts can become a new favorite snack.

But, not all cheeses are keto-friendly. Keep in mind that cheeses with higher amounts of lactose, a type of sugar, tend to be higher in carbs — which is exactly what keto avoids.

Keto-friendly cheeses are the ones made without extra “processing,” meaning the cheese is actually cheese and not made with lots of extra preservatives, fillers, and sugars. For example, think about those American cheese slices you see in the store. Those are not particularly keto-friendly (and not high in quality either). Even though this is a generally good rule to follow, some cheeses that fit this bill are still better choices than others.

Choosing the Most Keto Friendly Cheeses

Along with protein and fat, many cheeses also contain carbs. When it comes to keto, it helps to know where a particular cheese falls on the carb vs. protein scale so your favorite snack never interferes with your health goals.

Here are a few basic rules of thumb for keto friendly cheeses:

• Aged, unheated cheeses are usually best because they contain less lactose, which is a type of sugar.
• The best varieties are high quality, grass-fed, full fat.
• Pre-shredded cheese sometimes has added starch, so it’s best to buy a block and shred it yourself.

Below are some of the top cheeses to choose when you need to add some flair and flavor to your keto diet.

Parmesan

Parmesan is the reason so many keto followers love a crouton-free Caesar salad. A tablespoon of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano typically contains less than a gram of carbs.

In the Middle Ages, Benedictine monks in Italy’s Parma-Reggio region had a surplus of milk. They used salt from the Salsomaggiore mines to create Parmesan in large wheels they could store for a long time. Today, Parmesan is a favorite of astronauts for the same reasons: longevity and deliciousness. In fact, as Parmesan grows older, it becomes even more savory and develops more nutritional value in the form of Vitamins A, D, and Potassium. Our own Copper Kettle Parmesan is actually aged for 16 months, which gives it a unique texture and flavor.

Try pairing your Parmesan with a glass of aged champagne for dry companion that matches this cheese’s buttery undertones.

Mascarpone

This creamy, soft, and spreadable cheese can lead you to think you may be cheating on your diet. But thankfully it’s a great addition to a keto diet and is flexible enough to be used in desserts, side dishes and in low-carb baked goods. Pair some Mascarpone with fresh berries and you’ll have a decadent breakfast without the guilt!

Gouda

With its semi-firm texture and it’s smokey undertones, Gouda is a keto-friendly cheese that is guaranteed to bring a unique and delicious flavor to any dish. Chop some up and melt for a decadent dip to pair with broccoli and cauliflower. Gouda paired with baked cauliflower is a great alternative to the comfort food standby of macaroni and cheese!

Cheddar

Cheddar cheese is not only widely available and incredibly popular, it’s also one of the most versatile cheeses. It can be melted to make a delicious cheese sauce for dipping, sliced to transform a beet patty into a cheeseburger, cubed for a cheese board, or grated on a salad. Cheddars can vary in flavorings and intensities, which means the right cheddar is out there no matter how you like your cheese. Combine cheddar with dried fruit for a balanced sweet and salty snack that’s perfectly keto friendly. And if you are a potato chip person, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how cheddar cheese crisps can satisfy your salty, crunchy cravings.

Swiss

Swiss cheese is known as Emmental cheese in Europe because it was first created in Switzerland’s Emmental Region. This recognizable cheese offers little to no carbs and high protein. There are more than 450 varieties of Swiss cheese, but the top-produced variety is Gruyère— another keto friendly cheese. Pair Swiss varieties with dry, oaked white wines like Chardonnay or Pinot Gris to enhance that signature Swiss flavor.

Adding cheese to a keto diet will make you feel less like you are depriving yourself and more like you are making a wise and tasteful health choice and that’s something to definitely make you smile. The texture and infinite flavor possibilities with cheese make it an ideal addition to any keto-friendly diet. If you’ve reached a plateau in your keto journey, adding one or more of the above cheeses into your recipe rotation can help you stay on track and enjoy the process instead of feeling deprived.

Find a store near you that carries Cello Parmesan, Mascarpone, and many other keto friendly cheeses so you can kickstart your meal planning today!

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You can also make a keto friendly cheese board by substituting crackers with cheese Whisps. Get some cheese board creation tips by downloading our eBook below.

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A “turophile” is someone who is a cheese expert — connoisseur of cheese to be exact. In practice, turophiles are able to taste a cheese, extract certain flavors, and determine what kind of cheese notes they are tasting through intuition (and years of practice). Sounds impressive and a bit intimidating, right?

Differentiating obviously distinct cheese types is one thing. For example, most novice cheese lovers can tell the difference between mozzarella and Parmesan. But getting to the heart of describing that mozzarella or Parmesan can be the hard part. How would you actually describe Parmesan cheese? We’ve all heard buzzwords to describe cheese flavor profiles like “nutty,” “sharp,” or “fruity.” But what does sharp even mean? What kind of cheese has a nutty flavor? Doesn’t cheese just taste like…cheese?

Luckily, picking out and identifying certain cheese tasting notes is a skill that can be taught, and all it takes is a little practice. If you are a cheese lover, but a novice in the tasting field, use this article as a guide to a beginner’s flavor profile. Follow these tasting steps below and you’ll be rubbing elbows with the turophiles in no time.

3 Steps to Recognizing Cheese Tasting Notes

Step One: Sight

There are actually three main ways to evaluate a cheese, and the first step is by sight. If you’re a beginner, it’s best to keep this simple. Take a look at the cheese and note what you see. Is it a white cheese, light yellow? Bright yellow? The appearance of the cheese will actually help you narrow down the flavor profile of your cheese. A lot of this process is memorization, and knowing the kind of cheese it is will help you to extract certain flavors. We’ll cover specific textures in a future article, but for now, it’s best to evaluate the overall look of the cheese.

Sure, you probably already know the basics of recognizing a cheese type based on certain visual qualities — like whether or not the cheese has holes or blue veins in it. The color of a cheese is actually usually indicative of a cow’s diet. However, orange cheeses are almost always that color because they have been dyed to match a certain aesthetic we expect from a cheese like cheddar.

Pale, buttery yellow cheeses are usually an indication of a cow’s diet and the level of beta-carotene — which can be found in fresh grass. This milk is often higher in fat content, which can impact taste. Contrastly, cheese that is stark white (like mozzarella) is always derived from a different animal’s milk, like goat or buffalo. This cheese is white because these animals do not store beta carotene in their fat, but rather transform it into vitamin A.

As for blue cheese, well, that one is pretty self-explanatory! The blue veins are actually mold. If you didn’t know that, don’t panic! You can learn more here.

In summary, there’s much more you can tell based on sight than the obvious signs you might usually look for — like blue veins.

Step Two: Smell

This step is the most integral for developing your flavor profile and properly identifying specific cheese tastes. When you smell the cheese, you will want to hold your cheese at a bit of a distance from your nose. This will help you determine the intensity of the cheese (a more intense and stinky cheese, like Limburger, will be easy to identify, while a cheese like Parmesan may be a bit more difficult). Close your eyes and see what smells initially come to mind when evaluating your cheese. Pay attention to what you are smelling other than the “cheese” itself. For example, the secondary notes you might be picking up could include grass or a floral aroma. Other common examples include:

• Nutty: This is a common note associated with Asiago cheese and Parmesan cheese. These cheeses will produce extremely nutty flavors, and the more you practice noticing these notes from the aroma so you recognize them in the flavor, the more prominent they will become.
• Fruity: Imagine you sliced open a peach and could smell that mild, sweet scent of fruit. Oftentimes, specific compounds in the milk form through a combination of acid and alcohol that create a natural fruity aroma. When it happens naturally in many aged Italian cheese, like Grana Padano, this is a good thing. But if a fruity aroma occurs in a cheese like cheddar, it’s an indication of a defect.
• Buttery: You probably hear this word often to describe certain cheeses. Think of the aroma of microwave popcorn when you imagine a buttery scent. An example of a cheese with a buttery aroma is Havarti.

Head to your local store and grab a wedge of Parmesan, Grana Padano, and Havarti so you can smell these differences for yourself and begin to recognize them!

Step Three: Taste

After spending some time with your cheese, it’s time for the best part: tasting it! With tasting, you’ll certainly pick up on some of the notes mentioned above, like nuts and fruit, but you should also pay attention to a few other qualities and flavor ranges. For example:

Sweetness to Sharpness

Sweetness will be recognized on the tongue immediately, especially when you compare them to sharp cheeses. Examples of sweet cheese could include aged gouda and fontal. The most well-known sharp cheese is one you probably already have in your fridge — cheddar. You’ve likely noticed that many labels on cheddar cheeses specify whether it’s a mild or sharp cheddar. As a general rule, the softer or creamier the cheese, the milder and sweeter the flavor. When pairing your cheese with a sweet dessert, like chocolate, consider a neutral cheese, like ricotta.

Low Acid to High Acid

Acid is a sensation that will be felt in your cheeks. Something that is high-acid is going to make your mouth pucker, almost like drinking lemon juice. Cheeses that are high in acid include goat cheese, blue cheese, and feta. Brie, and ricotta are low in acidity. For wine pairing, consider high acidic cheeses alongside a sweet wine like a Riesling to balance out that acidity. A crisper white wine like a Sauv Blanc will level up the acidity of the lower cheeses.

Low Lactic to High Lactic

The most common element you might be tasting in your cheese is milk. For cheeses that have a high lactose content, this one can be particularly dominant. This sensation can be discovered in a few different ways. Lactic cheeses are usually very fresh and milky tasting, with high levels of moisture and fat. The smoother cheeses, like cream cheese, brie, and goat, are going to be predominantly lactic in their taste profile. Cheese like provolone and gouda have a lower percentage of lactose, so will have less of a lactic taste.

We recommend buying cheeses from both ends of the spectra to practice tasting and identifying cheese flavor profiles. Since this is a beginner’s guide to cheese tasting, we’ll stop there. Stay tuned for a deeper dive into cheese flavor profiles and how to recognize them! In the meantime, you can use these tips to put together your own show stopping cheeseboard using Cello cheese. Or you can get some help from our experts by downloading our eBook!

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We’ve got great news for those of you who like to take our delicious, snackable cheeses on the go. Cello Cheese is proud to announce our latest product line —fruit, nut and cheese snack packs. These decadent treats don’t just feature Cello specialty cheeses. We’ve added high-end fruits and nuts you won’t find anywhere else. Whether that afternoon hunger hits, or just you need to hit pause and be transported during a busy day, Cello Snack Packs are a treat that will satisfy your craving and give you a few minutes of luxurious escape.

Each one includes a trio of nuts, fruit, and of course, our award-winning cheeses. We hand-picked every combination to create the ideal blend of flavor and texture. These fruit, nut, and cheese snack packs are easy to travel with and will help you feel like your taste buds are getting a mini, adult only snack-cation.

NEW Cello Fruit, Nut and Cheese Snack Packs

An indulgence meant for your snack break, not your kids’ lunch box.

Copper Kettle Cheese with Lemon Ginger Cherries and Praline Pecans

First up, we have our Copper Kettle cheese accompanied by lemon ginger cherries and praline pecans. This mix of flavors offers the perfect salty and sweet combination and texture blend. The cheese itself gives off that signature flavor, bursting with the notes of caramel you love from our Copper Kettle Parmesan. Alongside the salty pecans, the sweetness really sings. With a finish of lemon ginger cherries, your taste buds are sure to be treated to a merging of citrus, fresh ginger, and fruity tartness that will make you wonder how something so decadent can be in one small snack.

Pairing Suggestions

This snack pack is extremely versatile and pairs easily with a variety of beverages. For the wine drinkers, we suggest adding a California Pinot Noir to your cheese, nut, and fruit picnic. Pinot Noir is a thin skinned grape full of fruity, jammy flavors that are sure to elevate the tartness of the lemon and cherries.

For the beer connoisseur, we suggest trying a pint of a bourbon barrel stout. This rich, full beer is the perfect partner for this light and airy snack. Add some peanut butter to make this combo even more indulgent. Looking for a nonalcoholic alternative? Enhance that lemon flavor with something bubbly like a seltzer water or cola.

Fontal Cheese with Dried Blueberries and Lemon Praline Almonds

Our second addition is similar in flavor profile, but packs its own unique punch. Our Fontal cheese is a fan favorite, and is now getting the snacking recognition it deserves. We chose this combination of foods because the creamy texture of the cheese pairs excellently with the slightly sweet, dried blueberries. The lemon praline almonds add a touch of tart mixed with a hint of saltiness. With such a variety of flavor profiles to round out this nut and cheese snack, the trio is sure to please every single one of your taste buds.

Pairing Suggestions

If you are more of a white wine drinker, snag one of these snack packs (actually, make it a few because an indulgence like this will attract a crowd) and try it alongside a creamy, buttery Chardonnay. Not only will the full body of the wine complement the creaminess of the cheese, but the acidity of the wine is sure to bring out those tart lemon and blueberry flavors. Bonus points if you choose a Chardonnay that’s been aged in oak barrels.

For the beer lover, add some extra sweetness to the tart fruit flavors by pouring out a pint of porter or cream ale. Drizzle a bit of honey over your pack and enjoy it with an iced tea (sweetened!) if you want to skip the alcohol and make your sweet tooth even happier.

This food and drink pairing is best enjoyed on your patio on a nice day, on a hiking adventure with friends, or even just curled up on the couch with your favorite book — after the kids go to bed of course.

These new fruit, nut and cheese snacks are versatile and will satisfy your craving no matter where you are, from your morning commute, that afternoon slump you hit during the workday, or a late night impromptu night with friends.

A multitude of flavors were carefully selected by our Master Cheesemaker and packed into each small container to give you a satisfying snacking experience. Plus, with seven grams of protein per serving, they will give you the fuel you need to take on whatever you’re tackling today. Ditch the plain cheddar, peanut, raisin combo you just packed in your child’s lunch and reach for a truly satisfying treat made just for the grown-ups.

Find Cello Snack Packs at the location nearest you today.

P.S. – Want some more Cello Cheese recommendations? Let our experts help you create a show-stopping cheese board in just 9 steps.

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