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Fascinating Facts from the World of SkyWest
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The
Unsolved Mystery of
MONTEREY JACK
Monterey Jack, among just a handful of cheeses unique
to the Americas, has long been the subject of controversy. It’s
agreed that the 18th century Spanish monks who established California’s
missions put a local spin on a traditional European cheese and called
it queso de pais, literally “country cheese.” However, there are two
main schools of thought regarding the origin of “Jack’s” name. Is it
derived from the floor jack an enterprising Carmel farmer, Domingo Pedrazzi
used to press his cheese in the early 1800s? Or was the cheese the creation
of an industrious immigrant adept at acquiring the property of others?
In 1849, Scotsman David Jack followed the gold rush
to the Golden State and developed a taste for territory. Through shrewd
business practices, he managed to amass more than 100,000 acres and at
one time owned the entire city of Monterey. The story goes that a possessive
“s” became a natural part of his surname. At one time or another,
most of the peninsula was Jack’s. His far-reaching enterprises included
California’s first large-scale commercial cheese factory. And there’s
no denying he sold Monterey Jack’s cheese. Other facts are murkier.
History’s convoluted view portrays Jacks as both a greedy land-grabber
and a philanthropic humanitarian.
One
thing is for sure. No one disputes that this cheese is a California
original. The proof is in the spelling. There are towns that sound
the same in Mexico, Columbia and Spain, where a castle of the same
name guards the border with Portugal. But only California’s Monterey
is spelled with one “r.” No one’s sure why. In 1602, explorer Sebastian
Vizcaino named the site for Don Gaspár de Zúñiga y Acevedo, Count of
Monterrey, who had dispatched his expedition. One theory supposes that
the name was altered to reflect ‘Monte Rey” or “king of the mountain”
in Spanish. The Gabilan range does provide a nice backdrop for Monterey
Bay.
