What's the difference between reg. cheese and high moisture cheese?!
Answers: I bought some cheese that says high moisture on the package, what makes it different from regular cheese?
The higher the moisture of the cheese, the easier it is to spread and cook.
Example from foodprocessing.com:
Processing characteristics
The cooking quality of cheese is generally improved by high moisture and fat content, the addition of emulsifiers and extended aging.
Aged or ripened, hard cheeses such as Parmesan, Romano and Asiago have pronounced flavor, contain about 33 percent moisture (low moisture) and are suitable for shredding and grating. Soft cheeses such as ricotta and mascarpone have high moisture content and blend readily with ingredients such as eggs and milk and are ideal for fluid preparations such as sauces and soups.
Low-fat cheeses do not usually melt or blend as well as their higher-fat counterparts and often require the addition of emulsifiers for desirable processing characteristics.
The consistency of cheese and its moisture content govern its texture and mouthfeel characteristics. The higher the moisture content, the more spreadable the cheese tends to be. Higher fat levels help achieve smoother and creamier textures, enable smooth melting in the mouth and contribute to lubricity and the perception of richness.
Cheese is an interesting ingredient in that the solid form, when melted or stressed, can give rise to a wide range of viscosities and rheological properties - from creamy to runny, thick to thin, and crumbly to stringy. Heating cheese causes its fat component, generally solid at ambient temperatures, and its entrapped or emulsified moisture to liquefy and interact to create the range of properties we have come to expect from it.
The high moisture cheese has more moisture.