We know of a local cheese named Cheddar as far back as the late 12th century, a much older provenance than any of the other renowned cheeses of England. Court account books show Henry II ordering over 10,000lb of Cheddar at a rather favourable one farthing (one-quarter of an old penny) per pound in 1170, as did his son Prince John in the following decade. In these days, cheese was a bespoke affair, being made to order by dairy farmers, rather than being a matter of routine production.

We should note that it is possible the cheese was first named after the town in which it was traditionally sold, as opposed to the region in which it was originally produced. That said, Cheddar has been associated with the West Country as far back as records go. Cows grazing on the Somerset pasturage provided the raw material for the cheese, which was a way of using up excess milk, and the Cheddar Caves - with their constant temperature and humidity - made a perfect place in which to store and mature it (alas, no longer).

Not only did Cheddar find favour at the English court, but it soon acquired an international reputation. The one great advantage of all hard cheeses over soft is that they keep better, which is why – no matter what the local speciality may be – hard cheeses are always a firm consumer favourite.

Cheddar-making and cooperatives

In his Tour Through The Whole Island Of Great Britain, published in the 1720s, Daniel Defoe describes the local system by which the milk from all the livestock owners in the region is carefully measured before it goes to the production of cheese. As soon as each individual’s yield has built up cumulatively into the equivalent of one whole cheese, then and only then does that man receive a cheese. Since the cheeses were typically very large (often weighing up to a hundredweight), a farmer with only one or two cows would wait a long time to be granted a cheese. Nonetheless, this cooperative system is demonstrably fair, and Defoe commends it, just as he does the cheese itself, which he calls “without all dispute, the best cheese that England affords, if not, that the whole world affords”.

Reflecting on the illustrious reputation of Cheddar, Defoe notes that the cheese sells for between sixpence and eightpence a pound, whereas Cheshire – another cheese with a venerable history – is priced in the relatively humble region of twopence to twopence-halfpenny.

At about the same time, Eliza Smith’s cookery book The Compleat Housewife gave a recipe entitled “To make a Cheddar Cheese”. Although there is no mention of draining the curd – the essential technique in classic Cheddar production (see below) – she does say that the cheese should be turned several times at the outset of the pressing. A century later, however, an agricultural writer, John Billingsley, describes a complex pressing and turning procedure for the cheese he saw being made in Somerset.

Whether these cheeses would have borne much resemblance to the Cheddar we know and love today is a debatable point. The recipe for making Cheddar was not standardised until around the middle of the 19th century, and certainly in Defoe’s day, there was no such thing as pasteurisation. The best unpasteurised Cheddars today have a depth and intensity of flavour absent from standard supermarket block Cheddar, so the 18th-century article would certainly have been richly flavoured, though it would undoubtedly have tasted not quite “clean” to the modern palate.

New developments

To those not involved in the making of it, Cheddar remained an occasional luxury product, not an everyday staple. What changed its economic fortunes was the introduction in the 19th century of a standardised production method. The cheese mill was invented by Joseph Harding, and established an easy way of draining the curds of as much of their moisture as possible. This resulted in a semi-hard, close-textured, non-crumbly cheese, the style universally associated with Cheddar. Harding, born into a cheesemaking family in 1805, was more than any other individual responsible for the international spread of Cheddar as a popular cheese, helping to introduce Cheddar-making into Scotland, and also training American cheesemakers on their visits to Somerset.

Mass production

In the modern era, Cheddar has – like many other foods – become subject to intensive farming and bulk production methods. The rindless blocks of Cheddar sold in supermarkets are made by an entirely mechanised process (so no hand-turning), and are almost exclusively made from pasteurised milk for relative microbiological stability. These Cheddars come from all over the English-speaking world.

Although Cheddar has never been subject to legal controls on where and how it should be made, there is what the European Union calls a PDO (protected designation of origin) for West Country Farmhouse Cheddar. These cheeses must be made from local milk in one of four counties – Somerset, Dorset, Devon or Cornwall – and be hand-cheddared. No artificial additives, such as orange colouring, are permitted. The cheeses must be matured where they are made, for a minimum of nine months.