You don’t get that many opportunities to get 15 year old cheddar. It’s from Hook’s Cheese in Mineral Point. $50 a pound and going fast.
A pound of cheese: $50
A present to pacify my wife after purchase:$100 (minimum)
A chance to REALLY earn my user name:Priceless
Time to start my first letter to Santa in 30+years.
I think I’ll go check the back of the fridge to see if there’s any cheese I’ve forgotten about for 15 years.
I love, love love super duper sharp cheese. It can not get too sharp.
Interesting. The oldest I’d tried was 12 year old.
I did have a cheddar cheesemeister from Beechwood Cheese tell me that after 7 or 8 years, the sharpness did not really increase. I’m dubious, as the 11 & 12 year old cheddars I’ve sampled were definitely sharper than their 8 year old cousins.
I would try this 15 year old stuff just to satisfy my curiousity, but I’d buy maybe half a pound if they let me. If not, anyone want to go in on it together?
BTW, during WWII when the US was shipping lots of surplus food to England, a number of small Wisconsin cheese factories cleared out the backs of their storage sheds of cheeses they couldn’t move, including 20 to 25 year old cheddars.
Apparantly it is available in smaller sizes.
I’ve already arranged for someone in Madison to send me some. If he gets a pound, I’d be happy to share with you.
How would one know it’s been aged 15 years? I mean you can put anything on a label, how would you prove it from being aged only 10 years for instance?
That’s a very noted and reputable cheese producer around these parts. For them to be faking it would go against many, many years of observed customer-oriented behavior.
And this being the Dairy State, I’m sure one can get into a heap of trouble if they mis-represent cheese. While Wisconsin does not have capital punishment, imagine having to service the state’s prison dairy farm for 10 to 20! I’ve patients who work there. (Motto: Convicted cows)
A blessing on your head! Feel free to email or PM me.
mmmmm… yummmmm…
Cheese is truly one of the very few reasons I would want to live in Wisconsin. Mmmmm…I can only imagine the crystals in this stuff…
Well, it makes sense that at some point, a plateau is reached. Cheddar gets sharper by enzymes/bacteria digesting the lactose and turning it into lactic acid, right? So at some point, all of the lactose will have been used up, and the cheese won’t get any sharper. I’m sure this depends on several factors, such as the exact type of milk used, the enzymes/bacteria used, how it’s aged, etc…but at some point it physically can’t get any sharper.
Sharpness is not solely a function of lactic acid; many other complex molecules are generated over time, each contributing to the ‘sharpness’ factor, each with their own time scale to develop. Some continue to develop for decades. But just what each individual component contributes to the ‘sharpness’ is open for debate.
Gah! I’m going up to Madison tomorrow… Do I have money to buy this wonderful thing? No! sighs
I love that first bite, when it feels like I’m being stabbed in the sides of my tongue! Loves me some XXXXsharp cheddar!
Joe
Just one more reason to visit the Mineral Point area. I love that town for it’s wonderful shops and historic buildings.
This saddens me, because I live 10 minutes away but am far too poor to indulge. Unless I decide sharp cheddar is more important than feeding my child…decisions, decisions.
You could trade the kid for the cheese. I’ll leave it to you to figure out the equity of value there.
The article did say in 3 months one more will be available.
Stopped by Kowalski’s today (boutique grocery in Minneapolis area) hoping against hope that they had procured some. Alas, they had not. I had to make due with raiding their cheese scrap basket* for some Comte and some Vincent.
- when they cut up the cheese in the store, they end up with small pieces that they wrap up and put in this basket at the bottom of the cheese cooler. Really cool to pick up small pieces for a buck or two in order to try new cheeses.