Costco carries a Five Year Vintage limited edition Extra Sharp White Cheddar. 18oz for IIRC $8.99. I’ve probably had some other vintage cheddars in cheese plates, but this is the first 5 year aged that I know of for sure. Dang, is it tasty. You start getting crystallization in the cheese that is a crunchy flavor bomb.
I read with jealous saliva as Qagdop the Mercotan talked about 20 year old cheddar. Now I’m not ready to go on a aged cheddar binge but I have to say the 5 year Tillamook is really tasty. Really curious how it ranks against other 5 year old cheddars? What about the price performance? Any recommendations for a rookie? Something I should splurge on?
I have not tried Tillamook and cannot comment on it, but one of the best, (if not the best) cheddar I have ever tasted was a Hook’s 10-year-old. Crunchy crystals, nutty flavours, buttery smoothness… it was a mouthful of umami. Unfortunately, I cannot buy this cheese in Japan:(
Don’t know how well it would rank, but thanks for the tip that Costco carries aged cheddar-- will have to see if it’s at our local Costco too. I’ve had my eye on some 12 year old cheddar I found for sale online but haven’t got around to ordering it yet.
I don’t have access to a Costco so I can’t answer your question, but maybe you should try some others and decide for yourself. Look around your local stores, at least some should carry higher end cheese. Pittsburgh is pretty far from Wisconsin, but there’s a local Giant Eagle that has New York and Vermont aged cheddars that’re fairly cheap and pretty tasty, with a slightly nutty and fruity flavor.
Or maybe you can look for some of the better cheese online.
We stopped at a “cheese castle” in Wisconsin a few years ago that had 11 and 16 year aged cheddar, which was awesome (and expensive, but it was a rare indulgence). And pretty much any other cheese or cheese related product that you can think of. They also did mail order and would ship all over the place. Unfortunately I don’t remember exactly what the name of it was, and the “Mars Cheese Castle” that keeps showing up on my google searches doesn’t sell the aged cheddar, at least not online. But I’ll ask my wife if she remembers the name and post back here if I can find their site.
Toasted’s Onion crackers are highly recommended as an accompaniment! I like to let my cheese out of the fridge for an hour or so to warm up before eating, it seems to taste better at room temp. Does anyone else do this?
Tillamook is good, but for my $$ a Wisconsin cheddar of the same age is better. There’s a certain sharpness and rusticity to the Wisconsin stuff that I don’t think exists in the Tillamook.
But of course! Good cheese is best served at room temperature to reveal its full flavour, just like complex wine. Just make sure that it doesn’t “sweat” or melt on hot summer days and more importantly, don’t let it dry out and keep it in its original wrapper, or cover it loosely with a damp tea towel.
You find crystals in hard, aged cheeses and are pretty much crystallized lumps of umami. They’re an indication of a well-aged cheese with robust flavour. People used to think these were mould, but now hard cheese lovers actively seek them out. The crystals you find in cheddar are slightly different from the ones you would find in Gouda or a typical Grana-type cheese in that they are denser and less crunchy, but just as delicious!
Wow, I love a good cheddar, but have never had crystals!
China Guy, I see you’re up here in the NW. If you have a QFC near you, they have a nice variety of cheeses and will give samples. At least mine does. I need to ask them for a cheddar with crystals! Oh, Metropolitan Market does, too. Good luck.
Like the crunchy crystals? You can buy them in bulk
When that amino acid in cheddar crystalizes, it normally crystalizes as the salt.
Personally, I’m not fond of that flavour, and I’m particularly not fond of “cheese” flavoured junk food where they’ve used only that part of the flavour.
Do you remember where it was? The Mars Cheese Castle is on I-94 by Kenosha - it’s the only “Cheese Castle” in Wisconsin I can think of. It’s about an hour north of Chicago. And no, they don’t sell everything from their stock online - there’s a much wider variety in the store.
A)I hate crystals in my cheese, it’s like eating sand.
B)Being from Wisconsin, every time I pass this thread I think it’s directed at me (Cheddar Heads). For those that don’t know, Cheesehead is a pretty common nickname for people in Wisconsin. I keep expecting it to be someone asking for advice about a trip through Wisconsin or some other similar question.
Then they aren’t “lumps of umami”, which is glutamic acid. I wouldn’t know either way: I’m more a Red Leicester man than a 10yr cheese man, and I like my Parmesan only to add to a basic Garlic and Oregano flavour.
I could say that it adds to my contempt for “cheese flavoured” snacks which use “yeast extract” for flavouring, but that wouldn’t be true: I dislike them anyway.
I think that was it. We were staying in the Alsip neighborhood in the south end of Chicago, and it was roughly about a 45 minute drive from there. I remember driving past an exit for an amusement park on the west side of Chicago, I think it was Six Flags.
The Cheese Castle had ridiculous amounts of cheese as well as all kinds of different snack products, jams, spreads, nuts, etc. But I didn’t really see any aged cheddar on their web site so I wasn’t sure.
