In our Taste Test series, Bon Appétit editors conduct blind comparisons to discover the best supermarket staples (like mayonnaise or frozen pizza). Today, which block of cheddar should you reach for first?
If cheddar is your favorite cheese, you’re in good company. Cheddar is the most popular cheese in the United Kingdom, and is a top dog (trailing mozzarella) in the US. Hailing from the UK, it is now made around the world in a slew of different styles. Like most cheeses, making cheddar starts out with milk—usually from a cow—which gets added to cultures and rennet to curdle. Those curds get cut up, stacked, and flipped repeatedly in a process called cheddaring, which removes the excess moisture until it reaches a semi-firm texture.
From there, it’s all about aging. Cheddar gets sharper—more tangy and pleasantly sour—the longer it’s aged. Over time, more water evaporates, and the flavor concentrates. As Andi Wandt, the creamery manager at Shelburne farms in Vermont, explains, cultures and enzymes break down fat during the aging process, which changes the taste. “Just like in cooking, fat is flavor,” she says. “That’s why a young cheese at three months is going to taste buttery, creamy.” As months pass, enzymes and cultures break down more fats, and more complex and umami flavors come through.
If you head to the cheese section at your local grocery store, you’ll see cheddars labeled as “mild,” “sharp,” “extra sharp,” and even “seriously sharp.” There aren’t official designations for those terms, but Wandt says generally mild cheddars are aged for less than a year, sharp cheddars are aged for about a year, extra sharp cheddars are usually aged for two years, and anything beyond that is often labeled as some kind of reserve.
Since this ingredient plays a central role in many of our recipes, we set up a blind taste test to find the best sharp cheddar at the supermarket. We wanted a nutty flavor, semi-firm texture, and admirable meltability. Could this Goldilocks cheddar exist?
How we set up our blind taste test
Before we dove into the tasting, we asked staffers: How do you use cheddar most often at home? Many said they eat cheddar as a quick snack—with crackers or simply on its own—and others said it was a staple in cooking, like for mac and cheese or a grilled cheese. To that end, we tested our cheddars in two formats: First, we tasted a slice on its own to get a straight-up sense of its flavor, texture, and aroma. Then we slathered a couple slices of white bread with mayonnaise (Duke’s, to be precise), layered on some shredded cheddar, and cooked each sandwich until golden brown in a skillet. For both, tasters were unaware of the brands at hand, though they couldn’t help themselves from guessing.
How we picked the products
There’s a lot of choice when it comes to cheddar cheeses—age, color, shape. For a fair comparison, we needed to narrow things down. We decided to exclude mild cheddars in favor of sharper varieties with more character. We chose to include white cheddars as well as the cartoony orange ones; the color simply comes from a food-safe coloring agent, like annatto, and does not affect the taste. And we tested cheddars that came in block form, avoiding pre-shredded options, since many use anti-caking agents, which can affect the taste, texture, and meltability of the cheese.
When it comes to brands, there’s a huge variety to sort through. While we love a small-batch, locally-sourced cheddar (who doesn’t!), we stuck to nationally available brands that anyone should be able to find at their local grocery store.
How our editors evaluated
The defining element of any good cheddar is its flavor. We were looking for a bright, tangy note of lactic sourness without going overboard—no notes of spoiled milk or funky yogurt. That well-balanced sharpness should be a foil to the natural creaminess in the cheese, and the two should come together to maximize their joint slay in the form of the indescribable umami. Yes, our standards are high!
Texture is key too. We wanted a cheddar that could cleanly slice without crumbling, but not be as bendy as, say, American cheese. Finally, we wanted our winning cheddar to be a reliable melter—for broccoli mac and cheeses, cheesy sweet potatoes, what have you. As we tasted our grilled cheeses, we watched out for any especially oily contenders, as well as for any spectacular cheese pulls.
Here are the three cheddars we’d seek out the next time we’re at the supermarket.
Irresistibly Irish: Kerrygold Reserve Cheddar
Kerrygold is known as an Irish cheddar—in the same way that Cabot cheddar might be called Vermont cheddar, or Boar’s Head might be called Wisconsin cheddar. Of course this denotes origin, but does it imply anything about the flavor? According to Wandt, there aren’t hard and fast rules for what a region’s cheddar will taste like. A Vermont cheddar might be “more pungent,” while a Wisconsin cheddar could be more “mild”—but not necessarily. Irish cheddars, Wandt says, are often similar to Vermont-style cheddars in that they can be slightly sharper and are usually white. In terms of ingredients, Kerrygold’s cheddar is just the same as the rest of our cheddars: pasteurized milk, salt, cheese cultures and enzymes.
Why we loved it: A slice of Kerrygold is not for the faint at heart. Our tasters identified an electric sharpness that made this cheese stand out from the other cheddars in our test. Its texture had the slightest crumble when raw, and it melted beautifully too. Senior test kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic compared it to string cheese (favorably), and several other tasters noted a distinct “milky” flavor woven into the cheddar’s intensity. In the grilled cheese, the cheddar’s gentle nuttiness came to the surface. Melting cheese is proven to release more flavors, and for Kerrygold, it was the secret to unlocking its full potential.
We’d love it in: This cheddar can stand up for itself, which means it’s a solid option for your snack board, as well as in a recipe with a lot of other flavors like this hash brown breakfast casserole.
Ravishingly Robust: Boar’s Head Sharp Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese
You might know Boar’s Head from the deli counter, but the company also sells individually packaged cheeses, in addition to large-format blocks. We tested the yellow Wisconsin cheese; Boar’s Head also offers white Vermont cheddar. These cheddars are aged in wax. Others are aged in cloth (they’ll likely be called “clothbound cheddars”) or plastic. “The big difference,” Wandt says between clothbound- and plastic-aging, is that “clothbound cheese is going to have more moisture loss.” The more moisture lost in the aging process, the crumblier the final cheese will be. Wax-aged cheddars like Boar’s Head lose moisture during aging too—less than a clothbound cheddar, but more than a plastic-aged cheese.
Why it won us over: Some cheddars come and go, but Boar’s Head’s cheddar had a luxurious finish. Tasters said its savory sharpness stayed on their palate long after they finished their bite. Commerce writer Wilder Davies noted that it had a “roasty, toasty Cheez-It” flavor that the tasting panel enjoyed. Shilpa was impressed that the robust cheddar flavor was able to stand up to the toasted bread in its grilled cheese, but test kitchen editor Kendra Vaculin spoke for everyone when she said, “I could eat a whole block of this.”
We’d love it in: A cheesy, silky queso, chile-cheese cookies, or a hearty cheddar broccoli soup.
The Absolute Favorite: Cracker Barrel Sharp White
Created by Kraft in the 1950s, Cracker Barrel—not to be confused with the restaurant of the same name—is now owned and operated by European dairy giant Lactalis. Cracker Barrel sells several different kinds of cheddars (yellow, sharp, extra sharp, etc.), but like most cheddars, they each contain essentially the same ingredients: pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, and enzymes.
Why it won us over: Editors agreed: This tastes like fancy cheese. (In reality, it’s the cheapest option among our top contenders.) They said its sharpness and nuttiness set it head and shoulders above the rest of the cheddars they tasted. Kendra loved that it was “really cheesy,” and senior test kitchen editor Jesse Szewczyk noted that its umami only became more pronounced when it was melted in a grilled cheese. Cracker Barrel scored high on texture too: not too pliable, not too crumbly. Is there a perfect cheddar? Who’s to say? But Cracker Barrel’s Sharp White comes pretty close.
We’d love it in: A fancy-tasting cheddar deserves a slightly fancified grilled cheese where it can shine. You can’t do better than a Grilled Cheese With Peak Tomatoes. Why not dip her in some tomato soup while you’re at it?
We also tried…
- 365 Sharp Cheddar Cheese: Tasters called the texture “dry” and “grainy,” though the flavor earned some positive comments.
- Cabot Vermont Sharp Cheddar Cheese: Too mild in flavor and a bit oily after melting. (Our staff does have several fans of Cabot’s shaper cheddar varieties, like Seriously Sharp.)
- Good & Gather Sharp Cheddar: An excellent cheese-puller, but its flavor was more buttery than sharp.
- Kraft Sharp Cheddar: Associate director of drinks Joseph Hernandez likened Kraft cheddar’s flavor to Velveeta—more mild than we hoped for.
- Organic Valley Raw Sharp Cheddar Cheese: Several tasters called out Organic Valley’s funky sourness, though as commerce producer Alaina Chou mentioned, that was softened when the cheese was melted.
- Tillamook Sharp Cheddar: Many tasters enjoyed a satisfying sharpness, but Tillamook’s waxy texture knocked it down a few pegs in our taste test.
Correction (September 10, 2024): This article has been updated to correct the name of Kerrygold’s cheddar.