What's The Difference Between Mild, Medium and Sharp Cheddar?

The flavour of Cheddar cheese ranges from rich and mellow to a tangy umami.

All Cheddar cheese combines the same basic ingredients—milk, salt, enzymes, and bacterial culture. Ageing the cheese allows a more complex flavour to develop, creating different tastes.

Read on to learn more about the mild, medium, and sharp Cheddar flavour varieties and how they are created.

The Cheddar cheese-making process

Originally, Cheddar cheese was made in < a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset">Somerset, South West England, by farmers using milk from dairy cows.

Along with lush pasture, this part of the West Country near the Cheddar Gorge also had caves, which provided a constant temperature and moisture level ideal for storing cheese.

In a process called cheddaring, salt was added to the cheese curds, which were then stacked and restacked to encourage the liquid whey to drain.

The longer the cheese was stored, the drier and more flavoursome it became.

The change to large-scale production of Cheddar

Before industrialisation, this would have been a time-consuming and labour-intensive process. However, in the nineteenth century, Joseph Harding mechanised the Cheddar-making process, allowing consistent-quality Cheddar cheese to be made on a large scale.

Joseph Harding popularised Cheddar beyond the UK by taking his methods to the USA, specifically Vermont and New Zealand.

This more sophisticated production method enabled farmers and other cheesemakers to produce different categories of Cheddar.

Some cheese would be sold quite young, while others would be aged and then sold at a higher price as prized mature, extra mature, or vintage Cheddar.

The characteristics of mild Cheddar cheese

Mild Cheddar cheese is sold and eaten after being aged for a few months. This fast turnover makes mild Cheddar a budget-friendly choice.

Taste

It has a mild, creamy flavour without the sharp edge of more mature cheese and is often used to introduce children to the delicious world of cheese.

Texture

Mild Cheddar contains more moisture than aged varieties, giving it a buttery, slightly stretchy texture.

Serving mild Cheddar cheese

Mild Cheddar is ideal for sandwiches and for grilling.

Medium Cheddar cheese

Medium cheddar cheese is the cheese most frequently bought in supermarkets. It takes up to a year of ageing to develop the characteristics of this type of Cheddar.

Taste

As the name suggests, medium Cheddar cheese combines buttery flavours with a hint of sharp tanginess.

Texture

The texture of mild Cheddar is less dry than mature Cheddar but more robust and less elastic than mild.

Serving Medium Cheddar cheese

This combination of full flavour and smooth, gratable texture makes medium Cheddar ideal for cooking.

A medium Cheddar melts down more smoothly than a dry vintage Cheddar cheese without becoming stringy. It adds a fuller flavour to recipes than mild without overwhelming the taste of other ingredients.

Popular culinary uses for medium Cheddar include pastry and baked goods, pasta dishes and soups.

Medium Cheddar is an ideal companion for fruit and pickles.

Aged, vintage, sharp cheddar cheese

Mature, sharp Cheddar is aged for at least one year and up to a decade to allow its unique flavour and texture to develop.

Like a fine wine, Cheddar has to be aged in perfect conditions to achieve the ideal result, and the expertise required is often reflected in a premium price.

Taste

Eating well-aged, vintage Cheddar is an entirely different experience from eating a slice of mild Cheddar.

The taste of mature Cheddar is sharp, earthy, and full. It combines umami, salt, and complex nutty flavours to create one of the most satisfying flavours in the cheese world.

Texture

The texture of sharp, mature Cheddar ranges from hard to crumbly. Some vintage Cheddar cheese is dried so thoroughly that cracks appear.

Many cheese connoisseurs enjoy the almost crystalline crunch of vintage Cheddar, which is created by the salt crystals used during the cheese-making process.

Serving mature Cheddar cheese

Although a sharp cheddar could significantly boost the flavour of sauces and other recipes, this noble cheese is traditionally served as a centrepiece on the cheese board.

The spectacular taste and texture of aged Cheddar are best enjoyed on a plain cracker or oatcake, which allows the cheese's flavour to take centre stage.