Monterey Jack

A soft white cheese in this family was already part of California ranch and mission dairying in the nineteenth century. The commercial name came from David Jack, a dairyman who sold the cheese in Monterey. Buyers asked for Jack's cheese. The name shortened to Jack, and Monterey stayed attached to it.

The cheese spread with California dairy farming. In the twentieth century it became a national melting cheese, especially in kitchens that also cooked with Mexican ingredients. Dry Jack, rubbed and aged, stayed closer to the old California cellars. The plain young block became the everyday Jack of the supermarket.

Young Jack is pressed, but it is made to keep its moisture. The curd is not cheddared into a dry slab. It is salted, pressed, and sold after a short ripening, usually with no real rind. The paste stays closed or slightly open, and a slice bends instead of cracking.

Dry Jack is held much longer. The wheel loses water, the flavor concentrates, and the outside is often rubbed with oil, cocoa, or pepper so the surface stays sound. That aged cheese is a different product from the wrapped block. Pepper Jack starts as young Jack. Chiles, and sometimes other peppers, are mixed into the curd before it is pressed. The heat is added at the start. It is not the result of age.

Young Jack tastes of sweet milk, salt, and butter. It is quiet on purpose. There is little tang, and there is almost no cellar smell. Dry Jack is nuttier, saltier, and firmer, with the faint sweetness that long aging brings to many cow's-milk cheeses.

A good young block is not sour, and it is not wet in a tired way. If it weeps a lot of liquid or smells like stale milk, it has been kept too long. Dry Jack should taste clean and savory. A soapy or bitter rind rub is a flaw, not a sign of age.

Young Jack is the cheese for a quesadilla, a burrito, a mild enchilada, and any melt that should stretch without a sharp taste. It also goes on burgers and into omelets. It browns gently. It will not give a sauce the edge of cheddar. Mix the two when a dish needs both melt and flavor.

Grate Dry Jack over pasta, salads, and roasted vegetables, or eat it in shards on a board. Do not expect the aged wheel to melt into a smooth blanket. For heat, move to Pepper Jack. The base still melts like young Jack. The peppers carry the spice.

Jack is an American cheese. California is the home, and the rest of the United States is where most of it is eaten. Mexican-American cooking took it up because it melted and because it was the mild local cheese on hand. In Mexico, Oaxaca, Chihuahua, and similar melting cheeses do more of that work.

The name is not protected. A package labeled Jack outside the United States is usually a mild white melting cheese made in this image. Dry Jack is the one to seek from a California maker when the goal is a table cheese rather than a melt. Young Jack is the one to buy when the goal is a week of quesadillas.