No Matter How Delicious

A handcrafted premium Cheddar may be, you’re probably not convinced you should spend $15 a pound for it. Yes, real artisan cheese—cloth-bound drums of handmade cow’s-milk cheese that you find in specialty cheese shops and upscale supermarkets—is expensive, costing at least twice as much as factory-made Cheddar. But when you consider the flavor and the complexity of the Cheddar-making process, the price may seem worth it.

The differences between artisan Cheddar and its commercial counterparts begin with the milk, which in artisan Cheddar usually comes from Jersey or Ayrshire cows—breeds whose milk has the highest amount of butterfat. (Commercial Cheddars use the lower-fat milk from massive herds of pasture-fed Holsteins.) The milk is “started” with cultures that sour it, then the enzyme rennet is added to separate the curds (solids) from the whey (liquid). The curds are hand cut to help expel the whey. At this point, the unique “Cheddaring” process begins: The curds are pressed by hand and then cut into heavy slabs that are stacked on top of one another. The weight of the curds presses out excess moisture. Next, the slabs are cut into tiny pieces resembling penne pasta, hand salted, shoveled into large cheese molds, and finally set to age for months or years, depending on the type of Cheddar. Each step of the artisanal process is done by hand. At large commercial Cheddar plants, machines usher the milk through the various stages.

The longer a Cheddar ages, the sharper it tends to be. But unlike commercial Cheddars, artisan Cheddars are usually not labeled sharp, medium, or mild. “They are described by their character and by the number of years they have aged,” says Daphne Zepos, director of cheese maturing at the Artisanal Cheese Center, a consumer and educational organization in New York City devoted to cheese.