Food For Thought: A Meta Feast by Grundy

Cheese - What It Says On The Tin

Lacking any other idea on what to do with ‘cheese’ in the legendarium, I searched out all mentions of cheese I could find in the books.  

"What's that? Tea! No thank you! A little red wine, I think, for me."

"And for me," said Thorin.

"And raspberry jam and apple-tart," said Bifur.

"And mince-pies and cheese," said Bofur.

"And pork-pie and salad," said Bombur.

"And more cakes-and ale-and coffee, if you don't mind," called the other dwarves through the door.

–The Hobbit, Chapter 1 An Unexpected Party  

‘Is the table laden? I see yellow cream and honeycomb, and white bread, and butter; milk, cheese, and green herbs and ripe berries gathered. Is that enough for us? Is the supper ready?' –Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Ch. 7. In the House of Tom Bombadil

In a twinkling the table was laid. There was hot soup, cold meats, a blackberry tart, new loaves, slabs of butter, and half a ripe cheese: good plain food, as good as the Shire could show, and homelike enough to dispel the last of Sam's misgivings (already much relieved by the excellence of the beer). –Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Ch. 9 At The Sign of the Prancing Pony

After so long journeying and camping, and days spent in the lonely wild, the evening meal seemed a feast to the hobbits: to drink pale yellow wine, cool and fragrant, and eat bread and butter, and salted meats, and dried fruits, and good red cheese, with clean hands and clean knives and plates. –The Two Towers, Book IV, Chapter 5. The Window on the West

They got there bread, and butter, and cheese and apples: the last of the winter store, wrinkled but sound and sweet; and a leather flagon of new-drawn ale, and wooden platters and cups.  –Return of the King, Book V, Chapter 1 Minas Tirith

From the quotes above, we can see that cheese is to be found on the tables of hobbits, Men (in both Bree and Gondor), and Tom Bombadil. While we cannot draw conclusions as to whether or not it would be counted among the usual dwarven fare, cheese is at least known to the dwarves – Bofur requests it when there is none set out already during the unexpected party at Bag End. Unfortunately, there is not enough detail given to draw any conclusions about the variety of cheeses that may be available in Middle-earth. 

It should be noted that while bread, butter, meat, and wine are all explicitly mentioned in connection with elves, there is no mention of cheese in an elven context in any of the books cited above, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, Lost Tales, or any of the History of Middle Earth books. However, Eldamo does include words for cheese in their Early Quenya Words listings, citing Parma Eldalamberon #16 and the Qenya Lexicon. Thus it cannot be concluded with any certainty if the lack of mention of cheese in connection with the elves is absence of evidence or evidence of absence.