FACTS: Cheddar basics

By Erica

I like to think that I know a lot about cheese. We've been writing this blog for many months now, so I must have learned something. The other day, though, I was eating a fist sized chunk of cheddar cheese-- as I do--and I realized that I did not know what cheddar cheese was. I knew what it tasted like, but I did not know what made it that way. How embarrassing.

The essence of cheddar cheese comes from a process called, unsurprisingly, cheddaring. But before we get to that, a little history:

The first record of the existence of cheddar dates back to 1170 in England, although legend has it that the recipe was brought over from France by the Romans. It wasn't until 700 years later, though, that cheddar became the cheese that we know today.

Joseph Harding, "the father of cheddar cheese", or as I like to call him, the Gutenberg of Cheddar, standardized and sanitized the making of cheddar in the 1800s. He invented lots of equipment, including a machine that cut curds, that provided the cheese making processes with a defined structure.

(Side note: Wikipedia writes that "the 'Joseph Harding method' was the first modern system for cheddar production based upon scientific principles." I originally read that last phrase as "scientific method" and spent a while trying to figure out why cheese making would require an a priori hypothesis.)

Now we come to what makes cheddar cheddar. Cheddaring is when after being heated, the curds are kneaded with salt before the whey is drained. After this, the cheese can be shaped and aged for any amount of time (longer = sharper). Harding said cheddar is supposed to be firm, mellow, and with a hint of hazelnut. It is also often orange, but this comes from added coloring, usually from paprika oil and/or annatto, a natural red dye that comes from a scary tree pod (see picture below).



And there you have it. That's all I learned about cheddar.

...except for this fact that I couldn't fit in anywhere: For the 1964 World's Fair in New York, Wisconsin created a 34,951 pound hunk of cheddar cheese from the milk of 16,000 cows.

Sources:
-Just wikipedia. Sorry.

LINKS: Cheese Dreams

By Kara

Yet another myth dispelled by rigorous modern science: contrary to popular (British) belief, cheese does not give you nightmares.

"For decades," according to the Daily Mail, "parents have warned their children not to have cheese before bedtime to prevent bad dreams."

Well, not my parents. But - thank goodness! - the newest generation of English would-be cheese-lovers will also be spared that old wives' tale, thanks to a 2005 study by the British Cheese Board. According to their research, consuming small amounts of cheese in the evening is correlated with experiencing a restful night's sleep, marked by an absence of nightmares. Cheese may even afford dreamers some control over their nocturnal experiences: in the study, different kinds of cheeses were reliably associated with different sorts of dreams, including celebrity cameos (Cheddar), bouts of nostalgia (Red Leicester), forward-thinking fantasies (Lancashire), and bizarre phantasmagoria (Stilton). (Source: Dairy Reporter.)

I stumbled upon these findings through a post on Yahoo Answers (UK & Ireland), which offers some other entertaining insights on the topic of cheese.

And lest we chalk this all up to those crazy Brits and their especially nutty old wives: NPR picked up the story, too.

TASTES: Aged Goatmilk Cheddar

By Erica and Kara


Background: This week, we returned to the Dane County Farmer's Market. Now that it's moved to the senior center, we weren't sure if we'd see any familiar faces but to our surprise and delight, Felix himself was manning the Capri Cheesery table. If you remember, dear reader, our first tasting was one of Felix's cheeses. We won't go over the details of Capri here, so click on the above link if you want to know more about Felix and his goats.

The Taste: The cheese is white and crumbly, hard to cut neatly. Sitting on the plate, it smells deliciously, quintessentially, cheesey. At first the goaty pungency overwhelms the tang we expect from a cheddar, but by the end of the bite its sour zing asserts itself. It's a strong flavor, mouth-filling and smooth. Whenever we think of cheddar, we think of Cracker Barrel. Capri's version of aged cheddar is C.B. to the power of ten, in both strength and complexity. In short: delish.

TASTES: South Africa part II

By Kara

South Africa continues to satisfy this turophile (see below). I tried another two cheeses this week and found them very palate-pleasing.

INDEZI RIVER CHEESE COMPANY: NANDI MATURE GOAT'S MILK CHEDDAR


Background:
The first was a goat's milk cheddar from the Indezi River Cheese Company, based in the Natal Midlands. Indezi appears to be an up and coming cheese company, "certified free range" (a cheesery after a Mad-townie's heart, though not quite as socially just and hippie qualified as Fairview). Again, they use imported Saanen goats, which makes me wonder if any South African cheese-makers use indigenous animals. Indezi has a very entertaining website, including a "Helpful Hints" section, including highlights such as "The blue in blue cheese is NOT melted copper wire, but a harmless penicillin mould," and "It is best to keep cheese in the bottom part of your fridge," and "Turophile is the official term for a cheese lover." All, for various reasons, very good to know!

They describe their "Nandi" as "a traditional farm style cheese," which I think means that it is pretty young (fresh) and quick to mature. They say it should be "slightly dry and a little salty with a piquant aftertaste" (note to self: add "piquant" to the vocab list). They also note that Nandi is "a regal cheese fit for a queen," which is somewhat harder to verify.

The Taste:
I found Nandi to be a very pleasant cheese, given that it wasn't especially exciting. It was extremely mild, more like a mozzarella flavor than a strong cheddar, although there was a hint of the sharp sourness that I would expect in a cheddar. The texture was very smooth and soft. I think this would be a good cheese for the sensitive-tongued. It was especially yummy on a bagel chip.

FAIRVIEW ROYDON CAMEMBERT

Background:
The second cheese came from Fairview, like the Crottin I loved last week. I'd give top marks to Fairview!! Given the abundance of Fairview cheeses and wines at the local grocery store, so would the rest of Cape Town (or at least the ritzy gay men who frequent the De Waterkant neighborhood).


The Taste:
Definitely Camembert! The cheese was very oozey and creamy, and melted almost to a liquid as it warmed up to room temperature. It was much more fluid than our last Camembert. It had that distinctive zing at the back of the mouth, but was otherwise fairly mild, with a markedly mild rind. Very tasty!