A Cheese Board in Order, from Fresh Cream to Blue Vein

Mascarpone is the start of the board because it is barely a cheese at all: it is made by acid-heat coagulation of cream, with no rennet and no true curd. The traditional method heats cream to about 77 to 87 degrees Celsius, cooks it for five minutes and strains it, and it is a key ingredient in tiramisu.

Burrata is fresh cheese in its purest form, a mozzarella shell filled with stracciatella, shreds of mozzarella curd mixed with cream. It comes from Apulia and is meant to be eaten within a day or two. The record on its page credits Lorenzo Bianchino of the Piana Padura farm with developing it in 1956.

Halloumi is unripened but brined, and it is the first cheese here that can be fried or grilled, thanks to a high melting point and a squeaky texture. It comes from Cyprus, where the earliest known description dates to about 1554, and its name carries EU protected designation of origin status.

Brie is the first of the mold-ripened cheeses, a soft cow's milk cheese under an edible white-mold rind. It contains 60 to 75 percent butterfat and matures over five to six weeks. Only Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun are certified, both granted appellation status in 1980.

Camembert is Brie's close relative, with slightly less butterfat and a bloomy rind formed by Penicillium camemberti, and it ripens from the surface inward over at least three weeks. It was reportedly first made in 1791 by Marie Harel in Normandy, and Camembert de Normandie gained protected designation of origin status in 1992.

Gruyère is where the board turns hard: a Swiss cheese from Fribourg, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Jura and Bern, matured for five to twelve months. It tastes creamy and nutty when young and more earthy as it ages, and unlike Emmental it has few if any holes. It became a protected designation in 2013.

Blue cheese names the whole family. Cultures of edible mold, here Penicillium roqueforti, are introduced and the curds are pierced to let air in, so veins form over an ageing period of 60 to 90 days. Gorgonzola, Stilton and Roquefort hold protected designation of origin status.

Gorgonzola is the Italian blue, made from unskimmed cow's milk and believed to have been created in the 9th century. It comes in two styles: dolce, aged briefly and creamy enough to spread, and piccante, aged longer for a firmer body and sharper flavor.

Roquefort ends the board as the sheep's milk blue from southern France. It must be aged in the natural limestone caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, whose cool humid air lets Penicillium roqueforti grow in blue-green veins, and it is sharp, tangy and distinctly salty.