Cheese Pudding: what is it?

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Cheese pudding is a dish in which the main ingredient, or one of the main ingredients, is cheese. The dish is cooked but not to the point where it becomes solid. It retains a soft, pudding-like quality. Many cuisines around the world offer both sweet and savory variations on cheese pudding.

There are a great many types of cheese puddings. Even the main ingredient, the cheese, is not the same from one dish to another. Among the types of cheese that can be used are goat cheese, sharp or mild cheddar cheese, and hard cheeses, such as Parmesan. Homemade or potted cheeses and cream cheese have been part of these recipes.

Some cheese puddings serve as savory first courses, which contain small pieces of bread, cheese, and milk or another liquid. The bread could be torn into large chunks, cut into smaller pieces, or made into crumbs. Often, these savory dishes include beaten eggs, which both contribute to the pudding-like quality of the dish and also help the different elements bind together in a saucepan. Usually onions, garlic, leeks and herbs are also added. In some countries, cooks add mushrooms, ham or chicken to cheese pudding.

Another way to make cheese pudding the centerpiece of a main meal is to substitute noodles, mashed potatoes, or another starch. A cheesy pudding that is popular in many European countries and the United States is the soufflé. Soufflés combine semi-hard cheese, egg, milk or another liquid, and sometimes a vegetable puree such as spinach, along with herbs, spices, and a thickening agent, and are cooked until puffy.

As with cheese pudding casseroles, sweet cheese puddings come in many different styles. In the United States, cheesecake, made with a combination of cream cheese, egg, sour cream, sugar, milk, and other flavorings, is baked or frozen before serving. Some cooks add fruit, chocolate, caramel or raisins to the cheesecake batter.

Anyone familiar with Indian cuisine has tasted paneeri kheer. This is a dessert cheese pudding made with Indian cheese, cream, sugar and flavorings such as cardamom, cinnamon or raisins and served cold. Like cottage cheese or cheese, paneer is made by curdling boiled milk with lemon and draining the whey.

In many countries of Central and South America, as well as Spain, a popular cheese pudding is called flan. While many types of flans are made with eggs, sugar, and sweetened condensed milk as the main ingredients, some variations also use cheese. The cheese most commonly used in sweet flan is white or chocolate cream cheese. Some cooks use ricotta cheese instead for a healthier result.

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