A Delicious Four Cheese Soup Recipe
Do you like cheese? Is a delectable bowl of soup your idea of a great meal? Well, you’re in luck, and welcome to the best of both worlds! You are the perfect candidate for a delicious four-cheese soup recipe.
Both cheese and soup are creations that go back quite a way. Each is centuries old, but that also proves the staying power it has for people’s taste buds. It was only a matter of time before the combination of the two produced a gorgeous gourmet duo.
Almost every type of cuisine includes some type of cheese soup. With any cheese soup recipe, the cheese is the main player and creates the soup. So, choosing the right type of cheese is essential. So, exploring the different types of cheese choices is the first step.
Different Types of Cheese
For such a massively consumed food, cheese can be surprisingly complicated when delving into it. However, in the mainstream world of cheese, there are four basic types: hard, semi-hard, soft, and semi-soft.
Cheese hardness corresponds to the cheese’s water content and, within those types, you can find the most widely available cheeses. Here’s how the common cheeses land in the culinary field.
Soft
You’ll often see soft cheeses paired with breakfast dishes and other types of meals that include meat or fruit. Soft cheeses are also popular for making desserts. These types typically have a milder flavor and accentuate the taste of the main ingredients. Some of those cheeses you might recognize include:
- Cream Cheese
- Roquefort
- Brie
- Ricotta
- Gorgonzola
- Feta
- Cottage Cheese
- Mozzarella
Neat fact: According to the U.S. Dairy Export Council, mozzarella is the most popular and widely used cheese in the United States.
Semi-Soft
Semi-soft cheeses have stronger flavors but are still considered milder in taste. These types of cheeses are popular for making sandwiches. Semi-soft cheeses include:
- American
- Colby (including Colby-Jack, a blend of Colby and Monterey Jack cheeses)
- Brick
- Fontina
Semi-Hard
With semi-hard cheeses, the flavor starts going from mild to bold. This type of cheese has enough standalone flavor to serve as an appetizer, often accompanied by bread, fruit, and cold cuts. These types include cheeses, such as:
- Cheddar
- Jarlsberg
- Gouda
- Provolone
Hard
Hard cheeses have the boldest flavor. So, you can expect these types to be able to carry their own weight on a plate. Hard types of cheese include:
- Swiss
- Parmesan
- Romano
- Gruyere
- Asiago
Finding A Fancy Cheese
If you like “fancy” cheeses, pay attention to the marketplace when you’re on the hunt. Many stores will have special sections that are dedicated to these types of cheeses. However, it’s important that you understand the labels when you come across them.
According to the American Cheese Society, there are generally accepted terms to describe how cheese is produced and, therefore, how it is categorized. These include:
- Specialty Cheese: cheeses produced in limited runs (i.e. seasonal or promotional varieties). Producers tend to lean into the textures and natural flavors to the forefront for consumers.
- Artisan Cheese: cheeses made in traditional ways (i.e. by hand). Producers try to avoid using any type of machinery to produce the cheese, keeping it closer to the original cheesemaking methods.
- Farmstead Cheese: like artisan-made, farmstead cheese is made in a hand-based tradition. However, this production method encourages cheesemakers to use their own resources (i.e. farms and herds) to create the cheese. If you’ve ever heard of “farm to table”, this type of production fits that bill.
About That Cheese Life
When choosing a special-made cheese for your recipe, be mindful of the stability of the cheese. In other words, pay attention to its shelf life.
Like any other dairy product, cheese has to endure “treatment” for safe consumption and can either be pasteurized or unpasteurized. Here is the difference between the two treatment processes.
Pasteurized Cheeses
The process of using heat to eliminate any harmful elements (pathogens) in food products, particularly in milk-based foods. In the U.S., the Federal Department of Agriculture (FDA) has an ordinance that regulates safe cheese production, known as the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO) The PMO stipulates the legal procedures of cheese pasteurization, including:
- Vat Pasteurization (Low Temperature, Low Time): Heating milk to 145℉ for at least 30 minutes.
- Continuous Flow Pasteurization (High Temperature, Short Time): Heating milk to 161℉ for at least 15 seconds.
Anything treatment that falls short of these two pasteurization procedures is considered unpasteurized. On that note, unpasteurized cheese is made from untreated (or raw) milk. It is still legal to produce and sell if the product is aged for at least 2 months above the temperature of 35℉.
So, if you are dedicated to selecting a more intricate cheese, you now understand what to look for when making a four cheese soup recipe.
Pairing Cheeses
As this recipe blends four different kinds of cheese to turn into a main meal, it’s important to understand how cheeses can blend together to produce the best result. Cheese is extremely versatile. So, you can pull various types together for a scrumptious dish.
For example, you’ve probably come across Parmesan-Romano blends in the grocery store. Both are hard cheeses with similar flavor profiles that pair well together. However, you’ll also see that with both having such strong flavors, these cheeses are sometimes used as finishing touches as opposed to defining a dish.
Yet, Parmesan is one of the main components of Alfredo sauce. So, when cheese is the star of a meal, it’s okay to go hard (or semi-hard). Depending on your taste preferences, you can incorporate other cheeses, if you wish.
Four Cheese Soup Recipe
Chicken stock and cream (heavy or half and half) are going to help form your soup base. So, have a couple of cups of each on hand. Butter blends better than other oils with cheese, so at least two tablespoons should sit aside for the dish.
A good rule of thumb is to have at least one hard cheese to anchor the soup. So, consider one cup of each of these: Parmesan, provolone, cheddar, and mozzarella.
First, melt the butter. If you’re adding any vegetables (such as onions or carrots, which are both staples in a vegetable soup), saute in the butter until soft. Next, add the stock and boil for 15 minutes. Turn down the heat to a simmer and add the cream. Stir continuously because milk products burn easily. Add the cheeses and let them melt. Keep the heat low and keep stirring (cheese is a milk product, too). Let it meld together. Serve with crusty bread or croutons.
Now, dig in and enjoy!
