Get that Cheddar

When I heard we were making cheddar in my final weeks on the farm, I think I squealed with delight like I did the first time I ate a bowl of Fruity Pebbles cereal. Cheddar: the cheese I doused on top of everything when I was a kid, and the cheese that likely started my obsession. It's one of the world's most popular cheeses and the only universally liked cheeses by people who claim to "not like cheese that much."  Cheddar is a people-pleaser and a comfort food. The creamy orange glow of grocery store cheddars conjure familiar memories in most people's taste buds of milky, salty delights like cheeseburgers. Cheddar is usually your first cheese and cracker experience.

It's the goodwill ambassador of cheeses.

The most exciting thing about it for me was learning a completely new process. Cheddar, or at least famously good cheddar, is generally the province of a select few experts cheesemakers who focus exclusively on on just that cheese because it is a very intricate process requiring a substantial devotion of time and skill. The basic steps of culturing, renetting, heating, stirring, pressing still occur. But extra effort is needed in cheddaring and milling the curd.

Cheddar is a longer make process, so we didn't finish and clean up for the day until close to 7pm. Because it's a pain to make, and because almost everyone else had made it before, I was alone in my unparalleled excitement. Or at least alone enough that I was the only person in the days leading up to Cheddar day who would fill moments of silence by fist pumping the air and exclaiming "Cheddar on Wednesday." It was like I had come down with cheesy Turrets.

I thoroughly enjoyed the extra steps that were responsible for a more drawn-out cheesemaking day; it was painstaking but also new and exciting to me. First, after the curd had cooked and we drained the vat, we created a layer of curd mat at the bottom of the vat (similar to what we do for blue cheese or the Gouda-style cheese). Then we cut the mat into blocks and started stacking the blocks. First in stacks of two, then three, then four. Modified Cheddar Jenga. (This is the cheddaring part). Then we took each slab of curd mat and started cutting them into cubes. (This is the milling). Many cheddar makers have automatic machines that slice up the slabs for them. But we did it the old fashioned way with a knife and cutting board. After, we had filled the vat with a bunch of cheddar curd cubes, we added salt and started mixing. Last, the cubes are filled into the same standard large metal molds and pressed. We press the hell out of cheddar. Whereas most cheeses we make simply get pressed for 15 to 30 minutes per side, the Cheddar is pressed for a full 24 hours.

For the glowy orange look, some cheesemakers add annatto to color the cheese. Some cheddars are dipped and sealed in wax, but ours is simply placed on the aging room shelves to mature with the rest of its' cheesy friends.

The best part of the day: the extra cubes of cheese curd that didn't fit in the molds were bagged up and divided amongst us. I snacked out of my sack o' cheese for days.