The story goes that Monterey Jack cheese originates from Monterey County, California, where Spanish missionaries set up dairy farms and produced queso blanco país in the 1700s (per Food & Wine). After the U.S. purchased California in 1848, a businessman named David Jacks was able to buy most of Monterey City and essentially steal the recipe that would become Monterey Jack cheese.

As a landlord, Jacks foreclosed properties and took possession of many dairy farms, including those that produced the cheese. He sold the cheese, renaming it “Jack’s Cheese” — which caught on as “Monterey Jack’s cheese” — and while it’s generally accepted that Jacks was the mastermind behind the cheese’s rise to fame, there are a few competing theories about where the recipe comes from.

It may have been developed in Carmel Valley, California, where Domingo Pedrazzi made “jack cheese” with a jack press, while another story claims a Monterey woman recreated the Spanish missionaries’ cheese, selling it door-to-door until Jacks took notice. Regardless, Jacks ensured that his name and Monterey’s would forever be remembered through “his” cheese.