The spreadable, snow-white goat cheese that Americans call chèvre is just one member of a remarkable family. Go to any farmers' market in France and you will find vendors selling chèvres in many styles: from as soft as cream cheese to firm enough to grate; from the size of a marshmallow to as broad as a beret. Some resemble a brick or a log, others a hockey puck or a bell. They may have a downy white rind, a fuzzy gray rind or no rind at all.

Yet all these cheeses have at least one thing in common: goat's milk. In France, chèvre is shorthand for fromage de chèvre — cheese made from goat's milk. The animals are chèvres and the cheeses made from their milk are chèvres. How easy is that?

Even when goats eat carotene — rich grass, they don't retain the carotene in their milk. That's why goat cheeses are always pale, often chalk white. And have you ever wondered why fresh goat cheese often has a lemony tang? That's because acid, not rennet, typically coagulates the milk. When making chèvre, most cheesemakers use a culture that works slowly over many hours, converting lactose (milk sugar) to lactic acid until the acidity is high enough to coagulate the milk. In contrast, milk for most other cheeses coagulates in minutes with help from rennet. Chèvre producers may also add rennet, but not much or the curd will be rubbery.

For the finest chèvre, the fragile curd is ladled into molds by hand. (Look for the phrase moulé à la louche — hand ladled — on labels.) These exquisite goat cheeses — such as Valençay, Sainte-Maure, Selles-sur-Cher, Chabichou and Crottin de Chavignol — deserve to be showcased on a cheese tray. But for cooking, a fresh, unrinded chèvre is a more sensible and economical choice. Because there is no rind to trim, you have no waste.

Fresh chèvre becomes even softer, creamier and more seductive when gently heated, which is why baked goat cheese salad is so popular. Clumps of warm chèvre on a pizza deliver that same sensation and yield a “pie” that's classy enough for company.

See It Made: Petite Chèvre Pizzas

Cook's Tip: Give Fettuccine Alfredo a French accent by substituting chèvre for Parmesan. Combine heavy cream and a knob of butter and simmer until thickened. Remove from the heat, add nuggets of chèvre and swirl until melted. Season with salt and lots of cracked black pepper.