This document discusses Cheddar cheese and Cheddar-type cheeses. It describes the key characteristics of these cheeses, including that they are made by mixing salt with the curd before pressing into loaves. This allows for large loaves to be made while preventing water loss during curing. The document also provides details on the traditional manufacturing process for Cheddar cheese and the properties of fully cured Cheddar, including appropriate pH, salt content, and flavor development during aging.

1. CHEDDAR CHEESES

2.  Cheddar-type cheeses are characterized by the mixing of salt with the
curd before it is pressed into a coherent loaf.
 Salt considerably retards the growth of lactic acid bacteria.
 Because of this, most of the lactose in the curd should have been
converted before the curd is salted, & curd making, therefore,
requires a long time.
 Moreover, salted curd tends to fuse poorly during pressing if its pH is
still too high (above, say, 5.6) because the curd flows insufficiently.
 Formerly, when cheese was made from skimmed milk, the milk was
usually left for creaming for such a long time that it turned sour.
 Naturally, the curd was also acidic & could thus be salted before
pressing; an example is Frisian cheese.
CHEDDAR-TYPE CHEESES

3.  However, currently most cheeses of this type are made of unsoured
milk, such as Cantal & almost all British types.
 The cheese becomes relatively dry due to the long curd-making
time & the low pH.
 Because the salt is relatively homogeneously dispersed through the
fresh cheese, it can be made in large loaves, which is desirable to
prevent water loss by vaporization & to minimize curing costs.
 On the other hand, it takes a long time for the interior of the loaf to
cool.
CHEDDAR-TYPE CHEESES

4.  These cheeses are typically hard with a long shelf life & without a
surface flora. The best known is Cheddar: about
 50% fat in the dry matter,
 not more than 38% water,
 Originally of cylindrical shape,
 weighing about 30 kg.
CHEDDAR-TYPE CHEESES
 Nowadays, mostly rectangular blocks of variable (often large) size are
made.
 Cheddar & derived varieties are now manufactured all over the world,
though primarily in English-speaking countries.

5.  Cheshire is slightly more acidic & has a somewhat higher water
content.
 This is also true of Caerphilly, but this cheese is eaten while young
& is mainly used in cooking.
 Stilton is quite different. Its salted curd is not heavily pressed & is
shaped into a cheese with an open texture; the cheese becomes
veined with blue mold.
CHEDDAR-TYPE CHEESES

6. MANUFACTURE
Outlines the manufacturing process :
 It represents a somewhat traditional method of manufacture,
though the time from adding starter to the milling was originally
often even longer.
 The end point of the curd treatment in the vat (including
‘cheddaring’) was assessed by determining the acidity of the whey.
 Nowadays, a fixed time schedule is usually maintained, & the
processing time is much shorter, e.g., 3 h from renneting to milling.
.

7. Milk
Pasteurize (15s 710 C)
Stirring (60 min)
Pre-acidify ( 40 min 320C) Starter 2%
Renneting (35min) Rennet
Cutting (10 min)
Stirring/Scalding (30min 400C)
Sedimenting (30 min)
Whey
250 N Whey
Cheddaring (100min)
Drying (4 d 120 C)
Milling
(Mixing)
Waxing/packing
Curing (80 C)
3.3kg salt/
100 kg cheese
Presing (16h 2 bar)
Filling
Resting (10min)
White whey
Traditional Method for Manufacture of Cheddar Cheese Simplified

8. Pictorial Presentation of
Cheddar Cheese Manufacture

9. Adding milk to vat Adding culture to milk after tempering
to 88-90 f
Cutting the curd lengthwise with
horizontal wire harps
Adding rennet after fermenting for
about 60 minutes

10. Cutting curds lengthwise with
vertical harps
Cross cutting the curd with
vertical harps
Healing the curd for 10-15 minutes
after cutting
View of curd after being cut in
shape of cubes

11. Curds after cooking for 1.5
hours from 88 to 101-102 f
Draining the whey

12. Drained curds are aloud to fuse
together into a solid mass
Solid mass of curds are cut into squares &
are stacked to begin the cheddaring process
Curds are stacked to continue
developing acidity

13. Final stacking at final acidity level for
milling the curd mass
Milled curd
Salting of the milled curd for flavor &
to stop further acid developement

14. Filling the cheese molds
Weighing the curds for proper wieght
Pressing the curds

15. Pressing the curds Whey dripping out of cheese molds
Putting cheese block in a
vacuum bag for storage
Removing cheese cloth from
formed cheese block

16. Inserting cheese block for vacuum
packaging
Packaged cheese in storage
for aging

17. Chilly powder jack White cheddar, pepper jack
Garlic, sundried tomato Monterey jack, pepper jack & dill Cheese curds
Variety of cheese produced

18. PROPERTIES
 Traditionally, Cheddar was a fairly acidic cheese — pH about 4.9 —
but presently a pH of 5.2 & even 5.3 is common (especially outside
England).
 Its consistency is rather firm & short, at least if the pH is not too
high & marked proteolysis has occurred.
 At the higher pH values, the consistency is more like that of Gouda
cheese.
 The salt content also has a considerable effect: The cheese is too
hard if the content is over 6% in the water, whereas at less
than 4% it is too soft (almost spreadable).

19.  Ripening Cheddar contains little active milk proteinase, but it has
active rennet & a large pool of proteolytic enzymes from lactic acid
bacteria;
 most of the fast acid-producing strains are also strongly proteolytic.
 At the low curing temperature (usually below 10°C), large peptides
are rapidly formed, but the degradation of these into smaller
molecules is relatively slow.
 For instance, in cheese that is several weeks old there is:
At pH 5.1: no αs1-casein left, 55% β-casein left
At pH 5.3: 30% αs1-casein left, 80% β-casein left
PROPERTIES

20.  Cheddar is a cheese that may be cured for varying lengths of time,
say, from 2 to 10 months.
 Naturally, curing time considerably affects the flavor.
 Presumably, short peptides and free amino acids play an important
role in flavor development, but so do volatile compounds.
 Amino acids may be converted to short-chain fatty acids & to
thiols (H2S & CH3–SH).
 Among the compounds formed via the pyruvate metabolism of the
lactic acid bacteria are diacetyl, acetic acid, & ethanol,
&probably also esters.
 CO2 also is essential as a flavor enhancer; it is partly formed by
decarboxylation of amino acids.
PROPERTIES

21.  The fat is essential, not only for the consistency but also for the
flavor.
 Low-fat cheese has been found to lack the typical Cheddar flavor.
Probably the most important role of the fat is as a solvent for
hydrophobic flavor compounds.
 In addition, lipolysis (if not too strong) & formation of ketones from
free fatty acids have a role to play.
 It should be noted that there is no agreement at all among various
investigators regarding the characteristic flavor of Cheddar.
PROPERTIES