cheddar cheese

Cheddar cheese is the firmer, sharper side of the cheese shelf, the one people use when they want flavour that still stands up in a sandwich or a sauce. By our assessment, its strength is how well it melts and how clearly it tastes, which makes it useful in toasties, gratins and grated toppings. The downside is just as concrete: aged cheddar can get crumbly and quite salty, and the sharpness that makes it interesting is not for every plate. In practice it sits somewhere between a table cheese and a cooking cheese, so it gets used both cold and heated. Compared with mild cheeses, cheddar is less gentle but more decisive. The catalogue calls it Cheeses, which is the right broad dairy family for it.