Five of the Best English Cheddars You Should Know

As America’s 2nd most popular cheese (the first being mozzarella), Cheddar is so ubiquitous both in artisanal shops and in grocery stores, that it’s sometimes hard to remember that its origin is location-specific, and its pedigree is anything but basic. Named for a village in England’s Somerset County, bandaged-wrapped or clothbound Cheddars have a long history, which is reflected in their especially complex attributes. “English Cheddars are definitely warmer in flavor,” says Meredith Fitzgerald, ACS CCP and USA East Coast Sales Manager for Fine Cheese Company, a UK-based cheese importer and affineur. “They’re definitely brothier and have more savory, horseradishy notes,” she says.

 

This comes from a real sense of place. While Cheddar isn’t a protected term on its own (there is a West County Farmhouse Cheddar PDO that remains in effect post Brexit and the Slow Food Presidium does recognize Artisanal Somerset Cheddar), “a lot of it has to do with the hundreds and hundreds of years of cheesemaking,” says Fitzgerald. “Most of the cheeses are grass-fed, and because of their unique climate, there’s very, very little silage that’s used,” she says. “For the most part, it’s farmstead,” she adds, with many of England’s stalwart Cheddar cheese makers still employing natural caves for aging. All of this contributes to what many believe are the most exceptional Cheddar cheeses on the market. (With all due respect to our American cheese artisans making excellent Cheddars.) 

To truly understand Cheddar, then, is to examine some of the top examples from its place of origin. (Nearby the village of Cheddar is Cheddar Gorge, by the way, and if that’s not where the afterlife takes place, I’m not interested.) “It’s kind of important to be able to put that piece of history on your plate and really taste it,” says Fitzgerald. To that end, here are five of the best English Cheddar cheeses you should know. Read more about the Cheddar made in the town of Cheddar Gorge.

 

Quicke’s Mature Clothbound Cheddar

The Quicke family has been raising cattle on their family farm since the 1500s. That sense of longevity is also important when it comes to Cheddar cheeses. “Even though some of the equipment is modern, all of the theory, recipes, and processes go back hundreds of years,” says Fitzgerald. “You can really taste that experience.” Female-led for four generations, the current proprietor, Mary Quicke, has been working on the farm since 1984, and her company is now being led by her daughter, Jane.

Quicke’s Mature Clothbound Cheddar is a pasteurized Cheddar cheese, made from the grass-fed herd which is composed of seven different breeds to establish a distinctive milk blend for the dairy. (Holstein and Scandinavian Red cows comprise about two-thirds of the herd.) The cheese is clothbound and cave-aged for 12 to 15 months, resulting in a crumbly, savory Cheddar with Quicke’s signature notes of butter and fresh horseradish.

 

Neal’s Yard Dairy Montgomery’s Cheddar

Named for the alley in London’s Seven Dials area where the original, pocket-sized shop is located, Neal’s Yard Dairy has been London’s premier cheese retailer since 1979. While not a cheesemaker itself, Neal’s Yard also acts as an affineur at its maturation facility created in converted railway arches in Bermondsey, London.

Neal’s Yard Montgomery’s Cheddar is a partnership between Neal’s Yard and cheesemaker Jamie Montgomery, with milk from Manor Farm, which is overseen by his nephew, Rory. Made in both raw or pasteurized forms from milk collected from Friesian cows, according to Neal’s Yard’s website, “Montgomery’s uses a traditional ‘pint’ starter (as opposed to the powders favoured by industrial cheesemakers) and an old, slow peg mill. Each wheel is wrapped in a muslin cloth and rubbed with lard before being stowed on the wooden shelves of the cellar for between 12 and 18 months.” Affineurs from Neal’s Yard visit Manor Farm periodically to taste and select the specific wheels that will carry the Neal’s Yard label. Montgomery’s advanced age makes it a crumbly, crystalline Cheddar with especially brothy, nearly meaty notes.

 

Keen’s Farmhouse Cheddar

Keen’s, located in Cheddar’s ancestral homeland of Somerset County, has a partnership with Whole Foods Market to retail their Keen’s Farmhouse Cheddar in the U.S., (or occasionally in other retailers that are a sufficient distance from the nearest Whole Foods.)

Exclusively made from unpasteurized milk, as Cheddar was historically, the milk from the herd, which is fed exclusively on “lush” Somerset grasses, is transported daily only 50 yards from the milking facility to the dairy, with each decision in the cheesemaking process made by human, not machine, analysis. (Prompting use of the term “hand made” for the cheese.)

Aged for up to 12 months for its “mature” expression, (and up to 18 months for its “extra mature” expression) it is one of the younger English Cheddars available here, which allows for some of Cheddar’s sweeter notes to shine. Keen’s describe the flavor of the cheese as “sweet and strong, nutty and moreish.” (Moreish, we have learned, is a British term for “something so tasty you want to eat or drink more of it.”)

 

Wookey Hole Cave-Aged Cheddar

First things first, take a moment to get over the name, which refers to a series of natural caves that exist in Somerset County. Fitzgerald notes that Wookey Hole is one of the more industrial producers on the list, whose wheels are initially crafted by Ford Farm, but this is nonetheless a special Cheddar that sees its aging process happen in the natural, underground limestone caves that originally defined the area. (There’s also a delightful, live cheese cam which can show you what’s going on with the truckles in progress.) 

Wookey Hole Cave-Aged Cheddar is a West Country Farmhouse PDO Cheddar crafted in Dorset using pasteurized milk from local, grass-fed herds. The truckles are aged for six to eight months in the natural, Wookey Hole caves, which gives the cheese a distinctly “earthy” characteristic compared to other Cheddars. Wookey Hole also produces miniature, 600-gram truckles, which are “so stinking cute,” according to Fitzgerald.

Also, lest it goes unrecognized, while traditional English Cheddars are typically aged in open air environments wrapped with cheesecloth, cheeses that are aged in an anaerobic environment are still part of the English Cheddar market, often intended for export. Ford Farm, which crafts the wheels for Wookey Hole, also makes a good, vacuum-sealed Coastal Cheddar.

 

Westcombe Smoked Cheddar

There is also English pedigree in smoked Cheddar cheeses, and for a fun example of such, Fitzgerald points to Westcombe Smoked Cheddar. The base cheese, Westcombe Cheddar, is made in Somerset County from unpasteurized milk, and aged from 12 to 18 months. It is one of only three 3 classified by Slow Food UK as “Artisan Somerset Cheddar.” Read about all 3 Somerset Cheddars.

Of their smoked Cheddar expression, “they used to smoke it in a little phone booth,” says Fitzgerald, “but it has become so popular that they actually had to build a shed for smoking it.” Such is the beauty of English Cheddars and its cheesemakers; according to Fitzgerald, whether it’s a matter of railway arch maturation rooms, cave cams, or smoking phone booths: “Every little maker has something unique about them that you can call out.”