ball cheese n chiefly PaGer area Cf Dutch cheese n, stink cheese n
= hand cheese n.
1901 Lebanon Daily News (PA) 1 June 1/4, The smell which greeted the olfactory nerves as some of the stands were neared made one acquainted with the fact that the ball cheese season had opened in full blast, and lovers of this article had no cause for complaint. 1910 PA Dept. Ag. Bulletin 200.11, Dutch Cheese, Ball Cheese, (Deutscherkase.) [Ibid 13, The balls need be turned and separted [sic] once each week during the curing process, which requires 3 to 4 weeks to complete. The fermentation changes the white curd to a bright straw color. . . After the curd is all fermented a stong odor and flavor develops which is objectionable to most people. It resembles limburger.] 1970 DARE (Qu. H60, The lumpy white cheese that is made from sour milk) Inf PA242, Ball cheese. 1979 Jordan Yesterday in TX Hill Country 50, Another kind of cheese is called Handkäse, literally, “hand cheese,” but better known in English as ball cheese. . . [T]he cheese is shaped by hand into balls about the size of baseballs.