Cheese Makers Keeping Monterey Jack’s Local Legend Alive | Hacker News Reader

Cheese Makers Keeping Monterey Jack’s Local Legend Alive

atlasobscura.com

42 pointsbrudgers20 comments

Blessed are the cheese makers!

Not a native english speaker here: what does "jack" mean in this context?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Jacks_(businessman)

>There are competing claims to the origin of the name "Monterey Jack" cheese, including one by Domingo Pedrazzi of Carmel Valley who argued that his use of a pressure jack gave the cheese its name.There are also claims that "Monterey Jack" cheese originated from the Victorine Ranch, south of Malpaso Creek

There are 3 contexts: the name of a cheese similar to cheddar (but made with a washed curd), the name of a device that you use to lift your car, the surname of someone associated with it. In the second case, you can imagine pressing the cheese using the "jack".

“Jack” is also used to refer to the female end of a wire connector, e.g. audio jack.

If you include slang usages there's also jack off (jerk off), car got jacked (hijacked), he got jacked (muscular), doesn't know jack (jack shit), jack in (term from megaman battle network)

also a wooden assistant for removing one’s boots (aka boot jack)

also a playing card, or a small metallic object with tetrahedrally oriented spikes used in the game Jacks https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jack#English

Jacks and jennies, male and female asses, jack leg, a bad tradesman, jacks a pointless kids game, jimmy jack, fiddle fart, ball the jack, go flat out

I'm under the impression 'Jacking in' was introduced by William Gibson in Neuromancer, 1984

I had to look it up, it refers to “A semisoft cheese with a buttery-ivory color and a mild flavor similar to American muenster. Named after its creator, David Jacks”

“David Jacks was a powerful Californian landowner, developer, and businessman. Born in Scotland, he emigrated to California during the 1849 Gold Rush, and soon acquired several thousand acres in and around Monterey, shaping the history of Monterey County in the first decades of American possession.“

Does anyone know what the hell happened to Monterey Jack a couple years ago?

It went from very available to much less available, and I've never figured out why.

Well there’s only 1 farm still making it so maybe demand dropped? I think there’s a glut of cheese at the moment too, not Monterey Jack per se but other cheeses.

There's one farm making an artisanal version in Monterrey County, California. There's lots of other cheese producers that make it.

Funny, I noticed the same thing a couple years ago. (I'm in NYC.)

Except it hasn't exactly disappeared -- it's simply been replaced by Pepper Jack on all my local grocery shelves, which is of course Monterey Jack with added jalapeños, and is always in stock and lots of it. (Only very rarely do I see pure Monterey anymore.)

I'm guessing since really the only thing people use Monterey Jack for is melting in/on Mexican food, or on crackers, which always goes with the flavor profile of jalapeños, that it's replaced it because it just looks prettier while doing the same job?

"Pepper Jack" is also a pretty damn catchy name for cheese, I gotta admit.

A store here carries cheeses from some regional sized producers in Wisconsin and always has it.

I eat it on burgers and with apples and so on and don't always want the pepper flakes.

It's nice to hear that someone else noticed it fade away.

Costco always has it

“It’s better greens than you’re getting in New York City,” Schoch tells me.

Who does this guy think he is? We have a bunch of local producers growing on rooftops and crazy stuff like that. Get your act together, man!

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