Pacifica Jack Cheese!

Ask anyone where Jack cheese comes from and they'll say Monterey. Pacifica tells it differently.

The cheese goes back a long way. According to folklore, it started as a semi-soft Italian farmer's cheese that fed Roman soldiers. From there it went to Mallorca, and Franciscan monks brought it to Mexico in the 1700s.

Pacifica's part starts in 1888. That year Stefano Mori came over from Italy and bought a farmhouse near what's now Rockaway Beach, next to the headland that still carries his family's name: Mori Point. He made that same style of cheese there. His storeroom looked like an Italian grocery, with wheels of cheese on the shelves and salami hanging from the ceiling.

Mori wasn't the only one working with milk on this part of the coast. Just north of Pacifica, the foggy hills where Daly City sits now were dairy country. In 1868, John Daly bought about 250 acres at the top of the hill and started the San Mateo Dairy. It sold milk and dairy products to San Francisco, from his own cows and from a group of neighboring dairies. When the town incorporated in 1911, it took his name.

This is where the story gets messy. A family friend named Baldocchi learned the Moris' recipe, had a falling out with them, and headed south to Monterey. He ended up making the cheese at scale on David Jacks' ranch. Jacks was a Scottish immigrant who came west during the Gold Rush, bought up huge amounts of land, and controlled much of the local dairy trade. He put his name on the cheese. That's how it became Monterey Jack, and Pacifica got left out.

Is every detail true? Hard to say. Most of the story comes from one 1938 cookbook. Monterey has its own versions, and some people think "Jack" comes from a cheese press, not a man. But it's our story.

Years later, Kathleen Manning, president emerita of the Pacifica Historical Society, found Mori's original recipe and brought it back as Pacifica Jack Cheese. The proceeds go to the society's restoration projects. Here's where you can find it: Gift Shop (Pacifica Historical Society Gift Shop)

So walk out to Mori Point, look down at Rockaway Beach, and picture a farmhouse kitchen full of cheese. Now you know where the name comes from.