Cheddar cheese

Cheddar is a relatively hard, pale yellow to off-white, and sometimes sharp-tasting cheese from the English village of Cheddar, in Somerset. Cheddar cheese is the most popular cheese in the United Kingdom, accounting for 51% of the country's £1.9 billion annual cheese market.
Cheddar has been copied widely, both in the United Kingdom and in other countries, including Ireland, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. In all of these 'Cheddar' in many forms, is readily available.

Cheddar has been made since at least 1170. A pipe roll of King Henry II from that year records the purchase of 10,420 lb at a farthing per pound (£3 per tonne).
Central to the modernisation and standardisation of Cheddar was Joseph Harding in the nineteenth century. For his development and propagation of modern cheese-making techniques he has been described as the father of Cheddar. Harding is credited by some websites as the inventor of the Cheese Mill: whether or not this is true, Joseph Harding was responsible for the introduction of modernising cheddar production along a scientific approach. He was responsible for the introduction of this very English cheese into Scotland and North America. Joseph Harding's son, Henry Harding, was responsible for introducing Cheddar cheese production to Australia.
Cheddaring refers to an additional step in the production of Cheddar-style cheese where, after heating, the curd is kneaded with salt, then is cut into cubes to drain the whey, then stacked and turned. Strong, extra-mature Cheddar, sometimes called vintage, needs to be matured for up to 15 months. The cheese is kept at a constant temperature often requiring special facilities. As with cheese production in other European countries, caves provide an ideal environment for maturing cheese; still, today, some Cheddar cheese produced in the UK is matured in the caves at Wookey Hole and the caves in Cheddar Gorge. The cheese was sometimes packaged in black wax, but more commonly in larded cloth, allowing it to breath.
The rennet used to coagulate the milk into separate curds and whey used in vegetarian Cheddar is not sourced from the stomachs of dead calves. Cheddar, such as the PDO West Country Farmhouse Cheddar, made in the classical way, tends to have a sharp, pungent flavour, often slightly earthy. Its texture is firm, with farmhouse traditional cheddar being slightly crumbly. Real Cheddar is never 'soapy', in texture or mouth-feel.

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