3-Down in Monday's puzzle was [Cheese similar to Monterey Jack] yielding the answer COLBY.

Crosswords contain a lot of food, but not a whole lot of cheeses. They tend to have longish names (MOZZARELLA, CAMEMBERT, GORGONZOLA, PROVOLONE) which makes them less likely to appear in a grid.

The most common crossword cheeses are EDAM, BRIE, FETA, and GOUDA. It's easy to see why: they're all short words with lots of vowels, and, until the emergence of actresses Brie Larson and Alison Brie, there was no good non-cheesy way to clue any of them. SWISS also has good letters, but can easily be clued without reference to the food.

The most popular six-letter cheese in puzzles is ASIAGO, with its many vowels making it relatively easy to fit into a grid.

The late great crossword writer Merl Reagle once created a whole puzzle, "Truly Cheesy Puns," filled with dad-joke humor like [Cheesy actor?] cluing RICOTTA MONTALBAN and, circling back to what started us on this path today, [A doctor's cheesy advice?] was TAKE TWO OF THESE AND COLBY IN THE MORNING.

Can you top Merl's cheesy puns? Try it by tweeting them to #beastxword. Please only tweet the dairy best ones you can find.

Play today’s puzzle and sign up for our weekly crossword newsletter on the bottom of the puzzle page.

READ MORE ON CROSSWORDS