Yup, here in the UK, it is possible to buy native ‘versions’ of various cheeses; some of them are better imitations than others, some of them are called odd things due (I think) to naming restrictions.
There are also a huge range of native cheeses, made from a variety of different milks or blends of milks; some of these are traditional, having been around for decades or centuries, others are fairly new.
There are also ‘cheese food products’, but I’d rather not talk about those.
The more popular cheese type - cheddar, mozzarella, emmenthal, brie and so forth - are produced pretty well all over the world. Ireland, for instance, has a huge dairy industry and is either Europe’s or the world’s largest producer of a number of common cheese types which are not regarded as distinctively Irish. In fact, the production of distinctively Irish cheeses is tiny.
And I would guess that Ireland is not untypical. Quite a number of countries have large diary industries but no particular cheeses associated with them. They largely produce cheeses which are associated with other countries.
Cheddar is indeed an English cheese, and is apparently the only one you’ve ever heard of, but there is a huge range of English cheese.
Lancashire, Cheshire, Stilton, Wendesleydale, Double Gloucester, Sage Derby, Red Leicester etc, and they are only the well known ones.
Any rural spot in England will have some class of a local cheese that you don’t even get in the next village.
More and more cheese had there names protected in the EU. So, you can’t make Roquefort in England (only in a tiny part of France, actually), Parmeggiano in Poland or Feta in Denmark (and this one, actually had been a big issue because it was largely produced in several EU countries, precisely including Denmark, and not even using ewe’s milk, but plain cow milk)
Is Caerphilly not Welsh?
See me - I was being pragmatic, the OP specifically stated England, so I didn’t want to muddy the waters with the whole “UK is not England mallarkey”, which we might have seen on here a time or ten squillion.
Caerphilly is very nice though. Can’t argue with that.
And I also meant to say that UDS has it pegged for Ireland, there is an enormous amount of “foreign” cheese made here.
As well a mind boggling array of food ingredients which are derived from milk.
I actually live in Cardiff for the time being. I haven’t tried all of these, but some taste like Cheddar too. Red Leicester for example is simply coloured Cheddar
Only Cheddar tastes like Cheddar, unless you’re buying some really bad cheese. The wide variety of cheeses all taste different, some may be a little similar, but none are the same.
Stilton is great, but very difficult to find, over here. Besides, they’re quite different. The Stilton is made with cow’s milk, the Roquefort with ewe’s milk. They taste is significantly different, and the Stilton’s is less “strong”. Not even mentioning the part about the Porto.
This is terribly wrong and fails even as hyperbole; setting aside the independent delicatessens, even the mainstream supermarkets have a range of British cheeses that must number somewhere around a hundred varieties, including hard cheeses, some of which are not entirely dissimilar to Cheddar, but there is huge diversity besides. I can understand that you could be oblivious to the incredible diversity of local and small-production cheeses, many of which are not seen outside a few shops in their own locality, but how could you possibly be under such a gross misconception that all the British cheese generally on offer is Cheddar, or is indistinguishable from it?