Medium Cheddar 8 oz. bar

$9.79

Hand waxed and aged approximately six months. Creamy with notes of cheddar sharpness. Try our honey brook medium cheddar cheese

Approx. 8 oz.

In stock

Description

honey brook medium cheddar cheese

“Creamy with notes of cheddar sharpness.”

This cheese is aged for 6-12 months. A bit more mature than the mild as it begins to take on more notes of cheddar and a little tang. Mellow and buttery, slices nicely. I use this cheese  instead of mozzarella on top of Fram Fresh Meals such as on Broccoli and Chicken Alfredo.

honey brook medium cheddar cheese

Ingredients

Production Process

Milk from a local dairy is first pasteurized before it is ready for cheesemaking.  When the milk is at ninety degrees the first ingredient, cheese culture, is added to the milk.  Cheese culture, which activates the milk and turns the milk sugars into lactic acid, is also a key ingredient to identifying the cheese’s character after aging.  The next ingredient added is rennet.  This ingredient is an enzyme that causes the milk to coagulate, a very fascinating part of cheese making, as the cheese sets up like custard in approximately twenty minutes.

It is then time to cut the curd.  This is done by placing curd knives into the vat.  These curd knives are basically sets of wires that run horizontally and vertically and cut the entire vat from top to bottom into quarter inch cubes.  These cubes are very soft and fragile at first but as they cook, they firm up and continue to release more whey.  Cooking the curd is a very delicate process as we heat the vat with steam from ninety degrees to 102 degrees only allowing it to rise two degrees every five minutes.  When the curd is completely cooked we will have 600 pounds of curds from 6000 pounds of milk.  Approximately ten percent becomes cheese.

Once the curds are cooked and have reached the correct consistency, we push them to the back of the vat and drain off the whey.  The whey that has been drained is eventually spread on neighboring farm fields as fertilizer.  Whey is a byproduct of cheese making but when processed, can be found in other foods we eat as well as some animal feeds.

The curds will knit together in the bottom of the vat.  Using a large knife, we will cut them to form large slabs of cheese.  These slabs are rotated and stacked every fifteen minutes as they continue to release more whey, firming up and consolidating.  This is called the cheddaring process.  

At this point it is time to “cut the curd.”  We do this by feeding the slabs through a curd mill, which cuts the slabs into finger-sized pieces called cheddar cheese curds.  The curds are salted and sometimes find customers waiting for them, warm and fresh, straight from the vat.  The curds that are not packed up fresh, are packed into 40 pound hoops.  

The hoops are lined with cheesecloth, and once filled are all ready to go into the press.  When put under pressure, the curds knit together to form perfect blocks of cheese.  More whey will be expelled from the blocks while under pressure.  The next day the cheese will be removed from the press. It is then packed air tight and placed into aging.

Cheddar cheese is aged from three months to three years with longer aging time producing sharper cheeses.  All of our cheddar cheese is packed by hand, taking forty pound blocks out of aging and cutting them into eight ounce bars.  Much time and attention is given to the cheese at this time.  We enjoy making homemade cheese balls and spreads with our cheddar cheese that is trimmed.  These trimmed “ends” are also available in our retail store at a discounted price.  

It’s All In The Packaging: Hand Waxed Cheddar

covering cheese with wax at september farm

Cheddar cheese is aged from three months to three years with longer aging time producing sharper cheeses.  All of our cheddar cheese is packed by hand, taking forty pound blocks out of aging and cutting them into eight ounce bars.  Much time and attention is given to the cheese at this time.  We enjoy making homemade cheese balls and spreads with our cheddar cheese that is trimmed.  These trimmed “ends” are also available in our retail store at a discounted price.  Cheddar cheese then moves into the waxing area where every bar of cheese is coated in clear wax and then two coats of a colored wax.  Each colored wax identifies a different type of cheddar cheese.  The wax dries very quickly, the bars are labeled, and ready to go for sale. Our Honey Brook Medium Cheddar is waxed in an orange wax.

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cheddar cheese history

Cheddar is the name of the cheese, the name of the gorge in England where this cheese originated and the name of a step in the make procedure that differentiates this family of cheeses.

Color: Ivory

Texture: Dense and smooth, more elastic when young, becoming more crumbly with extended aging.

Flavor: Mild when young, becoming sharper with age. 

Typical Composition: 39% maximum moisture, 50% minimum milk-fat solids.

Uses/Serving Suggestions

  • Melts well, aged cheese ideal for cream soups and sauces. 
  • Slices and shreds well for use on sandwiches or as a topper for hot or cold appetizers and entrées.
  • Popular in pizza blends.

Guarantee

We guarantee all products to arrive in satisfactory condition to the address given if delivery can be made when first attempted. Delivery services will not forward our packages and many of our gifts can’t stand reshipping. We cannot assume responsibility for perishable products if we are given an incorrect address.

shipping

Orders are shipped Monday through Friday. Consideration is given when shipping to warmer climates to ensure fastest shipping methods. We ship our products UPS or USPS.

processing

Orders are processed and shipped Monday through Friday. When shipping to warmer climates, we avoid shipping over the weekend.

Delivery time

Time Most orders arrive between 3-6 business days, depending on processing time and destination. If you would like your order to arrive on a specific time frame, please make note of this in the comment section of your order.

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