Parenica
Hungary

Sheep.  Caciocavallo type.

Parmesan, Parmigiano
Italy

The grand mogul of all graters.  Called “The hardest cheese in the world.”  It enlivens every course from onion soup to cheese straws with the demitasse, and puts spirit into the sparse Lenten menu as Pasta al Pesto, powdered Parmesan, garlic, olive oil and basil, pounded in a mortar with a pestle.

Passauer Rahmkaese, Creme de Passau
German

Noted Bavarian cream cheese, known in France as Creme de Passau.

Pasta Cotta
Italy

The ball or grana of curd used in making Parmesan.

Pasta Filata
Italy

A “drawn” curd, the opposite of the little balls or grains into which
Grana is chopped.(See Formaggi di Pasta Filata.)

Pasteurized Process Cheese Food
U.S.A.

This is the ultimate desecration of natural fermented cheese.  Had Pasteur but known what eventual harm his discovery would do to a world of cheese, he might have stayed his hand.

Pastorella
Italy

Soft, rich table cheese.

Patagras
Cuba

Similar to Gouda.

Pecorino
Italy

Italian cheese made from ewe’s milk.  Salted in brine.  Granular.

Pelardon de Rioms
Languedoc, France

A goat cheese in season from May to November.

Peneteleu
Rumania

One of the international Caciocavallo family.

Penicillium Glaucum and Penicillium Album

Tiny mushroom spores of Penicillium Glaucum sprinkled in the curd destined to become Roquefort, sprout and grow into “blue” veins that impart the characteristic flavor.  In twelve to fifteen days a second spore develops on the surface, snow-white Penicillium Album.

Pennich
Turkey

Mellow sheep cheese packed in the skin of sheep or lamb.

Pennsylvania Hand Cheese
U.S.A.

This German original has been made by the Pennsylvania Dutch ever since they arrived from the old country.  Also Pennsylvania pot, or cooked.

Penroque
Pennsylvania, U.S.A

Cow milk imitation Roquefort, inoculated with Penicillium Roqueforti and ripened in “caverns where nature has duplicated the ideal condition of the cheese-curing caverns of France.”  So any failure of Penroque to rival real Roquefort is more likely to be the fault of mother cow than mother nature.

Pepato
Italy

Hard; stinging, with whole black peppers that make the lips burn.  Fine for fire-eaters.

An American imitation is made in Northern Michigan.

Persille de Savoie
Savoie, France

In season from May to January, flavored with parsley in a manner similar to that of sage in Vermont Cheddar.