Every cheesemonger has customers who can’t abide blue cheese or who recoil at chèvre, but rare is the shopper who turns thumbs down on Cheddar. Open a random fridge in any town and there is likely some Cheddar in it. Americans melt it on burgers, snack on it with crackers, and increasingly, seek out the finer Cheddars for cheese boards.
The days when Cheddar was largely a commodity cheese identified by its state of origin are over. Consumers may still grab that affordable Wisconsin Cheddar for their mac-and-cheese, but for entertaining, they recognize that a branded American Cheddar is worth the extra expense. To keep your domestic Cheddar selection current, consider some of the following exceptional offerings:
Avonlea from Cows Creamery (Prince Edward Island): Yes, it’s Canadian but from close enough to the U.S. border to get a waiver for this list. The handsome 22-pound clothbound Cheddar is produced with heated but not fully pasteurized milk from small farms on the island, so it is technically a raw-milk cheese. While visiting Scotland’s Orkney Island 15 years ago, Cows owner Scott Linkletter fell in love with the local Cheddar and persuaded the cheesemaker to share the recipe. Cows was solely an ice-cream manufacturer at the time, but Linkletter used the Scottish recipe to launch a brand extension. Made by the stirred-curd method—a faster process than the traditional milled-curd Cheddar technique—Avonlea is bandaged, coated with lard, and matured for at least 12 months. The result is creamy and mellow, with faint caramel notes. It is Canada’s only clothbound Cheddar and, in 2018, it placed Third Best in Show at the American Cheese Society’s annual competition.
Central Coast Creamery Goat Cheddar (California): Another ACS category winner, Central Coast’s Goat Cheddar is sweet, creamy, and nutty. Owner Reggie Jones is a master at blending cultures and adapting techniques to produce well-priced cheeses with approachable flavors. For this Cheddar, he uses a curd-washing method more common to Gouda to lower the acid profile and accelerate the ripening. His goal is a smooth, higher-moisture Cheddar that’s ready to sell at three months. At 10 pounds, the wheels are considerably smaller than traditional Cheddars, a plus for small retailers who don’t have enough volume for the larger formats.
Face Rock Creamery Clothbound Cheddar (Oregon): Brad Sinko, who created the popular Flagship Reserve for Beecher’s, is the cheesemaker at this relatively new creamery in Bandon, on the Southern Oregon coast. The area, known as Oregon’s “banana belt,” has long been prime dairy country, and Sinko believes the pasture and soil contribute a signature grassy flavor to the cheese. As he did for Beecher’s, he has developed a hybrid recipe that incorporates some non-Cheddar cultures, yielding an especially nutty, sweet Cheddar with subtle tang. All the milk comes from a single nearby farm, and Sinko hues to traditional production methods, coating the young wheels with butter made in house from the same milk. The wheels are matured for a minimum of 13 months before release.
Deer Creek Vat 17 and Imperial Buck (Wisconsin): Year after year, Deer Creek Cheddars dominate the winners’ circle at American Cheese Society competitions. Deer Creek is a brand developed by Chris Gentine, a former professional Wisconsin cheese grader and a genius marketer. Gentine works with top Wisconsin cheesemakers to produce Cheddars and other cheeses under the Deer Creek brand, some of which he exports to Europe and Asia.
Milton Creamery Flory’s Truckle (Missouri and Iowa): Rare among American Cheddars, this striking natural-rinded wheel is produced in a truckle format, a tall cylinder used in England for Cheddars and Stilton. It is also unusual in having a two-state pedigree. Produced in Jamesport, Missouri, with thermized milk from the Flory family farm, the cheese moves to Iowa when it’s two months old for another year or so of aging at Milton Creamery. Like classic English Cheddars, it is wrapped in cheesecloth and coated with lard when young, allowing for the air exchange that produces its crumbly-yet-creamy texture and complex aromas. Expect notes of melted butter, mown grass, and toasted walnut mingled with a fruity pineapple scent, plus a few of the crunchy protein crystals that consumers love. A sweet, mellow Cheddar with a moderately tangy finish, Flory’s Truckle has reliably broad appeal.
Murray’s Stockinghall (New York): This compelling clothbound Cheddar took Best of Show in the 2019 American Cheese Society competition, topping 1,750 other entries. New York’s Old Chatham Creamery supplies the cow’s milk, Cornell University’s dairy plant makes the cheese and Murray’s affinage experts mature it in their Long Island City state-of-the-art caves. Made as a 20-pound truckle, the young wheels are wrapped in cheesecloth and rubbed with lard, then babied for a year. They emerge with a handsome natural rind, classic Cheddar aromatics of roasted nuts, cut grass and candle wax and that crumbly/waxy/creamy texture that defines great Cheddar. Like so many contemporary Cheddars, Stockinghall is made in a hybrid style, with Swiss cultures added for nuttiness and sweetness. Still, there are sulfury notes and plenty of tang for the traditional Cheddar enthusiast.
5 Spoke Creamery Tumbleweed (New York): This raw-milk farmstead cheese is made on a solar-powered farm in Goshen, about an hour north of New York City. Owner Alan Glustoff describes it as a cross between Cheddar and Cantal, a French cheese with a strong resemblance to Cheddar. The 10-pound cheese is made in an unusual block format and matured for a year, developing a natural rind dusted with powdery white mold. The aroma suggests warm butter, eggs and grass; the textures is moist, yet friable; and the flavor is tangy and lively. Tumbleweed is a highly original cheese, both in format and flavor, and a good value.
Don’t under-estimate what a great opportunity these Cheddars provide to cross-sell with chutney, spicy conserves, pickles, specialty crackers, and craft beer. If your operation includes foodservice, consider making one of these excellent Cheddars the centerpiece of a ploughman’s lunch, with pickled red onions, olives, hard-cooked eggs, and whole-grain bread.
Janet Fletcher writes the email newsletter Planet Cheese and is the author of Cheese & Wine and Cheese & Beer.
Related: Cheese Focus: Spain, Off the Beaten Path; Cheese Focus: Cheeses of New England.