I am a former chef and most commonly in the US and canada, Old/Sharp cheese is aged 8-12 months, I have had 3 and 5 years quite alot, and evena 7 year old white Cheddar some years back, in the UK it has to be aged a minimum of 1 year to be labelled as old, they do not colour it there.
Unlike the milder cheese, cheddar is not as moist when aged it gets crumbly like parmesan and feta. Also to keep the mold from forming they wash the cheese with a slat water solution, some cheese when this is done created a hard outer coating or rind like with some European cheeses.
June 12th, 2009 at 6:30 am
I am a former chef and most commonly in the US and canada, Old/Sharp cheese is aged 8-12 months, I have had 3 and 5 years quite alot, and evena 7 year old white Cheddar some years back, in the UK it has to be aged a minimum of 1 year to be labelled as old, they do not colour it there.
Unlike the milder cheese, cheddar is not as moist when aged it gets crumbly like parmesan and feta. Also to keep the mold from forming they wash the cheese with a slat water solution, some cheese when this is done created a hard outer coating or rind like with some European cheeses.
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