What is Cheddar?

Not too many people from outside of the UK know that Cheddar is actually a village in the district of Sedgemoor in the English "West Country" county of Somerset.  The village is famous for having given its name to the most popular type of cheese in the United Kingdom (and probably the best known style of cheese in the world). Although the cheese is now made worldwide, only one producer remains in the village itself.

Although cheddar is one of the oldest cheeses in the world, the name itself is not protected so anyone can make a cheddar style cheese. Only in the West Country is there a PDO (the EU Protected Designation of Origin) for "West Country Farmhouse Cheddar" which is given to handmade cheddars from milk from cows reared in Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. The cheese must be made on the farm by the traditional cheddaring process, aged for at least nine months and contain no colouring preservatives or flavours.

The term "Somerset Artisan Cheddar" is a recognised Slow Food Presidium and is only given to producers that meet more exacting requirements still -  traditional cloth-bound cheeses made only on the farm in Somerset from unpasteurised milk, with traditional liquid starter cultures and animal rennet. Only three producers Keen, Montgomery and Westcombe meet these criteria. According to Randolph Hodgson of Neal’s Yard Dairy in London who was instrumental in setting up the Presidium “there’s a level of complexity in the hand made cheddars of the south west you simply don’t get anywhere else".

Great cheddar can of course be made elsewhere, my personal favourite is Lincolnshire Poacher Vintage. We also often stock Isle of Mull from Scotland and new styles of cheddar, wrapped in wax (which keeps the moisture in) such as Godminster and Snowdonia Black Bomber.

So what is "Cheddaring"?

Cheddaring refers to an additional step in the production of Cheddar-style cheese where, after heating, the curd is kneaded and cut into cubes to drain the whey, then stacked and turned. The curds - by this stage a mass of buttercup yellow granules - are pulled to the side of a large trough to drain off the watery whey. As they’re cut and stacked they begin to take on texture of foam cushions. They’re cut and re-cut, stacked and re-stacked as the texture changes, becoming firm and elastic. The weight of the layers pushes down the blocks of cheese extracting the rest of the whey. 

When the cheddaring process is over the curd is passed through a mill to cut it into smaller, even-sized pieces. The curds are then put into moulds and pressed to withdraw the last of the whey. Finally the cheeses are smeared with lard and wrapped in layers of muslin, a permeable coating that allows air to continue get to the cheese and moisture to evaporate. It is this "Cheddaring" process that makes cheddar cheese melt so well!

To see some fantastic photographs of this process, take a look at François-Xavier FX-cuisine site where he visits Montgomery's dairy.

Some Cheesy Cheddar facts.

Original English Cheddar tends to have a sharp, pungent flavour, often slightly earthy. Its texture is firm, with farmhouse traditional cheddar being slightly crumbly. It is always a pale cream or ivory colour, and food colourings are not used. In parts of the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, annatto, extracted from the tropical achiote tree, is used to give Cheddar cheese a deep orange colour (in the UK this was originally practised by the makers of Leicester cheese - but that is another story). 

In the United States, Cheddar cheese comes in several varieties - New York style Cheddar cheese is a particularly sharp Cheddar cheese, sometimes with a hint of smoke. It is usually slightly softer than milder Cheddar cheese. Colby/Longhorn Cheddar cheese has a mild to medium flavour. The curds are still distinct, often marbled in colour, varying from cream to yellow. Cheddar that has not been coloured is frequently labelled as "white Cheddar" or "Vermont Cheddar", regardless of whether it was produced in the state of Vermont. Vermont Cheddar is the nearest of any North American cheese to authentic English Cheddar.

Central to the modernisation and standardisation of Cheddar cheese was Joseph Harding in the nineteenth century. For his development and propagation of modern cheese-making techniques he has been described as the father of Cheddar cheese. 

King Henry II purchased 10240 lbs of Cheddar in 1170 at a farthing per lb (that's 4644 kg at a total cost of £10.67 - about SFr. 20.00 in today's money!)

When Charles I was on the throne, demand outweighed supply so much that you could only get Cheddar at the King's court, and even then you had to pay before the cheese was made

Scott of the Antarctic took with him 3500 lbs (nearly 1600 kg) of Cheddar made in Cheddar on his famous expedition in 1901

Originally cheese had to be made within 30 miles of Wells Cathedral to be able to be called Cheddar

White House historians assert that U.S. president Andrew Jackson held an open house party where a 1,400 lb (635 kg) block of Cheddar cheese was served as refreshment; this block of cheese would later serve as direct inspiration for two episodes of the Emmy-award winning television series The West Wing.

A cheese of 7,000 lb (3,175 kg) was produced in Ingersoll, Ontario, in 1866 and exhibited in New York and Britain; it was immortalised in the infamous poem "Ode on the Mammoth Cheese Weighing over 7,000 Pounds" by James McIntyre, a Canadian poet.

In 1893 farmers from the town of Perth, Ontario produced The Mammoth Cheese, at a weight of 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) for that year's World's Fair in Chicago. When placed on exhibit with the Canadian display, The Mammoth Cheese promptly crashed through the floor and had to be placed on reinforced concrete in the Agricultural Building. It was more written about than any other single exhibit at the fair, and received the bronze medal.

A still larger Wisconsin Cheddar cheese of 34,951 lb (15,853 kg) was produced for the 1964 New York World's Fair. It required the equivalent of the daily milk production of 16,000 cows.