Cheddar cheese

Process

During the manufacture of cheddar, the curds and whey are separated using rennet, an enzyme complex normally produced from the stomachs of newborn calves, while in vegetarian or kosher cheeses, bacterial, yeast or mould-derived chymosin is used.

"Cheddaring" refers to an additional step in the production of cheddar cheese where, after heating, the curd is kneaded with salt, cut into cubes to drain the whey, and then stacked and turned. Strong, extra-mature cheddar, sometimes called vintage, needs to be matured for 15 months or more. The cheese is kept at a constant temperature, often requiring special facilities. As with other hard cheese varieties produced worldwide, caves provide an ideal environment for maturing cheese; still, today, some cheddar is matured in the caves at Wookey Hole and Cheddar Gorge. Additionally, some versions of cheddar are smoked.

Character

The ideal quality of the original Somerset cheddar was described by Joseph Harding in 1864 as "close and firm in texture, yet mellow in character or quality; it is rich with a tendency to melt in the mouth, the flavour full and fine, approaching to that of a hazelnut".

Cheddar made in the classical way tends to have a sharp, pungent flavour, often slightly earthy. The "sharpness" of cheddar is associated with the levels of bitter peptides in the cheese. This bitterness has been found to be significant to the overall perception of the aged cheddar flavour. The texture is firm, with farmhouse traditional cheddar being slightly crumbly; it should also, if mature, contain large cheese crystals consisting of calcium lactate – often precipitated when matured for times longer than six months.

Cheddar can be a deep to pale yellow (off-white) colour, or a yellow-orange colour when certain plant extracts are added, such as beet juice. One commonly used spice is annatto, extracted from seeds of the tropical achiote tree. Originally added to simulate the colour of high-quality milk from grass-fed Jersey and Guernsey cows, annatto may also impart a sweet, nutty flavour. The largest producer of cheddar cheese in the United States, Kraft, uses a combination of annatto and oleoresin paprika, an extract of the lipophilic (oily) portion of paprika.

Cheddar was sometimes (and still can be found) packaged in black wax, but was more commonly packaged in larded cloth, which was impermeable to contaminants, but still allowed the cheese to "breathe".

Original-cheddar designation

The Slow Food Movement has created a cheddar presidium, arguing that only three cheeses should be called "original cheddar". Their specifications, which go further than the "West Country Farmhouse Cheddar" PDO, require that cheddar be made in Somerset and with traditional methods, such as using raw milk, traditional animal rennet, and a cloth wrapping.

Nutrition

Cheddar cheese is 37% water, 34% fat, 23% protein, and 2% carbohydrates (table). In a reference amount of 100 g (3.5 oz), cheddar cheese supplies 409 calories of food energy, and is a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of vitamin B₁₂, vitamin A, riboflavin, calcium, selenium, and other dietary minerals (table).

International production

Australia

As of 2013, cheddar accounts for over 55% of the Australian cheese market, with average annual consumption around 17 lb (7.5 kg) per person. Cheddar is so commonly found that the name is rarely used: instead, cheddar is sold by strength alone as e.g. "mild", "tasty" or "sharp".

Canada

Following a wheat midge outbreak in Canada in the mid-19th century, farmers in Ontario began to convert to dairy farming in large numbers, and cheddar cheese became their main exportable product, even being exported to England. By the turn of the 20th century, 1,242 cheddar factories were in Ontario, and cheddar had become Canada's second-largest export after timber. Cheddar exports totalled 234,000,000 lb (106,000,000 kg) in 1904, but by 2012, Canada was a net importer of cheese. James L. Kraft grew up on a dairy farm in Ontario, before moving to Chicago. According to the writer Sarah Champman, "Although we cannot wholly lay the decline of cheese craft in Canada at the feet of James Lewis Kraft, it did correspond with the rise of Kraft’s processed cheese empire." Most Canadian cheddar is produced in the provinces of Québec (40.8%) and Ontario (36%), though other provinces produce some and some smaller artisanal producers exist. The annual production is 120,000 tons.

Canadian cheddar cheese soup is a featured dish at the Canada Pavilion at Epcot in Walt Disney World.

Percentage of butterfat or milk fat must be labelled by the words milk fat or abbreviations B.F. or M.F.

New Zealand

Most of the cheddar produced in New Zealand is factory-made, although some are handmade by artisan cheesemakers. Factory-made cheddar is generally sold relatively young within New Zealand, but the Anchor dairy company ships New Zealand cheddars to the UK, where the blocks mature for another year or so.

United Kingdom

Only one producer of the cheese is now based in the village of Cheddar, the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Co. The name "cheddar" is not protected under European Union or UK law, though the name "West Country Farmhouse Cheddar" has an EU and (following Brexit) a UK protected designation of origin (PDO) registration, and may only be produced in Somerset, Devon, Dorset and Cornwall, using milk sourced from those counties. Cheddar is usually sold as mild, medium, mature, extra mature or vintage. Cheddar produced in Orkney is registered as an EU protected geographical indication under the name "Orkney Scottish Island Cheddar". This protection highlights the use of traditional methods, passed down through generations since 1946 and its uniqueness in comparison to other cheddar cheeses. "West Country Farmhouse Cheddar" is protected outside the UK and the EU as a Geographical Indication also in China, Georgia, Iceland, Japan, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Furthermore, a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) was registered for Orkney Scottish Island Cheddar in 2013 in the EU, which also applies under UK law. It is protected as a geographical indication in Iceland, Montenegro, Norway and Serbia.

United States

The state of Wisconsin produces the most cheddar cheese in the United States; other centres of production include California, Idaho, New York, Vermont, Oregon, Texas, and Oklahoma. It is sold in several varieties, namely mild, medium, sharp, extra sharp, New York style, white, and Vermont. New York–style cheddar is particularly sharp/acidic, but tends to be somewhat softer than the milder-tasting varieties. Cheddar that does not contain annatto is frequently labelled "white cheddar" or "Vermont cheddar", regardless of whether it was actually produced there. Vermont's three creameries produce cheddar cheeses – Cabot Creamery, which produces the 16-month-old "Private Stock Cheddar"; the Grafton Village Cheese Company; and Shelburne Farms.

Some processed cheeses or "cheese foods" are called "cheddar flavored". Examples include Easy Cheese, a cheese-food packaged in a pressurised spray can; also, as packs of square, sliced, individually-wrapped "process cheese", which is sometimes also pasteurised.

Cheddar is one of several products used by the United States Department of Agriculture to track the status of America's overall dairy industry; reports are issued weekly detailing prices and production quantities.

Records

U.S. President Andrew Jackson once held an open house party at the White House at which he served a 1,400 lb (640 kg) block of cheddar. The White House is said to have smelled of cheese for weeks. The real-life event was mentioned several times in The West Wing, with the White House staff participating in "Big Block of Cheese Day", a fictional workday on which White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry encourages his staff to meet with fringe special interest groups that normally would not get attention from the White House.

A cheese of 7,000 lb (3,200 kg) was produced in Ingersoll, Ontario, in 1866 and exhibited in New York and Britain; it was described in the poem "Ode on the Mammoth Cheese Weighing over 7,000 Pounds" by Canadian poet James McIntyre.

In 1893, farmers from the town of Perth, Ontario, produced the "mammoth cheese", which weighed 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) for the Chicago World's Fair. It was to be exhibited at the Canadian display, but the mammoth cheese fell through the floor and was placed on a reinforced concrete floor in the Agricultural Building. It received the most journalistic attention at the fair and was awarded the bronze medal. A larger, Wisconsin cheese of 34,591 lb (15,690 kg) was made for the 1964 New York World's Fair. A cheese this size would use the equivalent of the daily milk production of 16,000 cows.

Oregon members of the Federation of American Cheese-makers created the largest cheddar in 1989. The cheese weighed 56,850 lb (25,790 kg).

In 2012, Wisconsin cheese shop owner Edward Zahn discovered and sold a batch of unintentionally aged cheddar up to 40 years old, possibly "the oldest collection of cheese ever assembled and sold to the public". The old cheese has extensive crystallization on the outside and is "creamier and overwhelmingly sharp" on the inside.