Methods and systems for preparing soft or firm/semi-hard cheese are provided, as well as soft or firm/semi-hard cheese prepared by the methods. The methods typically involve the formation of a slurry that contains blended or molten cheese curd. A variety of ingredients can be introduced into the curd used to prepare the slurry, the slurry that is formed, or at other stages along the manufacturing process to tailor the performance and nutritional characteristics of the final cheese product. The slurry in some methods is directly processed to form a final cheese product. In other methods, the slurry undergoes various types of processing to achieve certain desired composition or performance requirements.