What is cheddaring?

You know what cheddar cheese is, but do you ever wonder what it is that makes cheddar cheese, cheddar cheese?

Cheddaring is the process that cheese must go through to become cheddar. It is what gives the cheddar its density and texture. We start making a vat of cheese by pumping in milk, mixing in enzymes and rennet, and then letting the vat cook. This causes the curds to form in the vat. Then we drain all the whey out.

As the whey drains out we are left with a large vat of tiny matted together cheese curds. After most of the whey is gone we cut the big mat of cheese curds into smaller rectangles. Then we start flipping the squares of cheese and testing the acidity of the whey as it drains out of each slab. This tells us how often to flip or turn the cheese. Eventually we start stacking the slabs of cheese on top of each other, which pushes even more whey out. This is cheddaring and how we make both our cheese curds and cheddar cheese.

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