ALL CHEESE CONSIDERED: CHEDDAR

The name Cheddar conjures up different images to different people. To some, it means a bright orange block of mild but pleasant cheese, one that is melted over countless tuna casseroles and hamburgers every day across America. To others, it is one of the world's most distinguished cheeses, produced for centuries in the southwestern English county of Somerset, and named, ironically, for a town in which no cheese is made and hasn't been for quite some time. Unlike Stilton, whose eponymous cheese was never made there, the original Cheddars may have been made in creameries in the town of Cheddar, although more likely on farms throughout the Somerset countryside. Today, the town is better known for the famous Cheddar Gorge, an impressive canyon that inspires awe in much the same way as our own Grand Canyon (whence, I'm sure, no cheese hails). According to Steven Jenkins in his seminal Cheese Primer (Workman), it was visitors to the Gorge who, upon tasting the local cheese in the taverns and inns of the area, loved it and would take it home with them. They called it "cheese from Cheddar" and so the cheese came to be known. Now, the name refers to a method of production that has come to be called "cheddaring" for the process of repeatedly cutting and stacking the curds as a means of expelling the whey and breaking the curds into small particles, which results in a smooth paste cheese. In addition to its great flavor (that varies enormously, of course, depending on where and by whom the cheese is being made) and versatility, Cheddar's greatest distinction just may be that it is easily the world's most-copied cheese. Some version of Cheddar is produced in virtually every English-speaking country on the planet (and likely a few that don't speak English), including our own. The breadth of production means that it is made in varying degrees of quality and authenticity. Cheddar was one of the first cheeses to be produced in the United States when it was still a British colony, and it remains the most widely made cheese in the country, and although most of it is made by huge conglomerates that churn out massive blocks of it for foodservice applications, it bears no resemblance to traditionally made versions. Although authentic English farmhouse Cheddar is perhaps the pinnacle example of this cheese, there are many fine and some excellent versions made here today that rival the best from Somerset. Increasingly, cheesemakers across the United States are making exceptional Cheddar cheese — many are even making traditional, bandage-wrapped, raw-milk versions that are garnering awards both here and abroad. Most of the Cheddar made in the U.S. comes from Wisconsin, California (the number-one and -two cheesemaking states in the union, respectively), Oregon, Vermont, and New York. Ironically, even though Cheddar accounts for most of the mass-produced cheese in both the U.S. and the U.K., Cheddar is also among the cheeses leading the march away from industrially made, tasteless cheese in both countries. If you think you know Cheddar, but haven't tasted any of the specialty and farmhouse versions being produced here and in England today, be sure and treat yourself to a tasting at the Summer Fancy Food Show where many of them will be on display. If you're a cheese lover, it's a good time to be alive.