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Monterey Jack
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Monterey Jack

cheese
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A round wheel of cheese with a wedge cut out sits on a blue wooden surface, overlaid with large text reading How It's Made and very light blue question marks in the background.
How Is Cheese Made?If Wisconsin was a country, it would rank fourth in the world in cheese production.
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Monterey Jack, mild, smooth cow’s-milk cheese produced mainly in California; it originated in Monterey county but is now made elsewhere in California, notably in Sonoma county (where it is known as Sonoma Jack), and in Wisconsin.

Generally aged about six weeks, occasionally three months, Jack cheese is pale ivory in colour, quite bland in flavour, and smooth and semisoft in texture with small irregular holes. It is sometimes flavoured with spices, pimientos, or jalapeño peppers. Dry Jack is a rarer aged version, a deep yellow-gold cheese similar in texture and flavour to well-aged cheddar.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Meg Matthias.