{"id":4174,"date":"2024-12-26T03:02:52","date_gmt":"2024-12-26T03:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/what-is-sharp-cheese-really\/"},"modified":"2024-12-26T03:02:52","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T03:02:52","slug":"what-is-sharp-cheese-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/what-is-sharp-cheese-really\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Sharp Cheese, Really?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sharp Cheddar<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While many cheeses are tangy and robust enough to be considered \u201csharp,\u201d the adjective is rarely used to describe any variety but one. In the cheese vernacular, Cheddar stands alone. But sharp is a controversial term, almost universally derided by cheesemakers and mongers. Australian cheesemaker Marcia Burgmann expresses what many feel about it, \u201cThe term makes me cringe. It\u2019s overused by the general public and used to mislabel other flavor traits but that\u2019s probably because they aren\u2019t being educated on the many other descriptors they could be using instead.\u201d And therein lies the problem. What does \u201csharp\u201d actually mean?<\/p>\n

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Defining Sharp<\/h2>\n
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Dean Sommer, Center for Dairy Research in Madison, Wisconsin<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In USDA Standard for Grades of Cheddar Cheese<\/a> sharp is mentioned in a listing in the definition of acid, \u201cSharp and puckery to the taste, characteristic of lactic acid.\u201d If that seems vague, it is because it is. And yet, sharp is used on packages of Cheddar, typically ones with more age. \u201cWhen we talk about sharp cheese, the main thing we\u2019re talking about is the intensity of flavor,\u201d says Dean Sommer, cheese and food technologist on the senior management team at the Center for Dairy Research<\/a> in Madison, Wisconsin. A cheese labeled sharp has a more concentrated intensity that develops over time. The longer a Cheddar is aged, the more biochemical reactions it undergoes. The more biochemical reactions, the stronger punch its flavor will pack.<\/p>\n

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Sharp Means Aged<\/h2>\n
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Bleu Mont bandaged Cheddar photo courtesy Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In cheese lingo then, sharp is essentially synonymous with the word \u201caged,\u201d with one significant difference. In the U.S., only Cheddar that has been matured for a minimum of 60 days can be labeled aged, according to the FDA<\/a>. There is no minimum aging requirement to be labeled sharp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a certain subjectiveness to it and, quite honestly, some cheese companies have higher standards than others of what sharp means to them and their customers,\u201d Sommer says. \u201cWhat some people call sharp today would have, back in the day, been just a medium cheese.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When is Cheddar Considered Sharp?<\/h2>\n

Cost efficiency is the biggest driver of the declining sharpness of sharp Cheddar. Waiting a minimum of six months for a Cheddar to mature, the time historically considered the threshold between a medium and sharp cheese, doesn\u2019t make financial sense for some creameries. \u201cFrom an economic standpoint, there\u2019s always a temptation to get the cheese out the door faster,\u201d Sommer explains.<\/p>\n

Aging, itself, is also a gamble for Cheddar producers. \u201cCheesemaking is still a batch process and no two batches are totally identical,\u201d says Sommer, who spent 18 years working in a Cheddar factory. Not every Cheddar slated for aging can live up to the task and there\u2019s no way to predict for sure which vats will make it and which won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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Grading Cheese Sharp<\/h2>\n

Sommer explains that in Wisconsin cheese graders assess cheese every two to three months to decide if its flavor and texture will still be good another few months down the road. Those that don\u2019t make the grade are culled and put it into a \u201cmild program.\u201d Those that do will be reevaluated again in a few months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree months down the line, some more won\u2019t make it and they\u2019ll go into a medium program,\u201d says Sommer. After a year of aging, a company \u201cwould be darn lucky if 25% of the cheese that they made still makes a good sharp Cheddar.\u201d<\/p>\n

(This is also why you can\u2019t age a mild or medium Cheddar into a sharp Cheddar at home; there\u2019s at least a 75% chance it will go bad before it matures to the intensity you want).<\/p>\n

Since economic factors often play a bigger role than flavor in whether a cheese is described as sharp, choosing a sharp Cheddar that actually has the intense, nutty flavor it should is more difficult today than it was in the past. One way to bypass the problem is to look for an \u201caged\u201d Cheddar instead of a sharp Cheddar. In the United States at least, that wording guarantees that the cheese has been matured for at least six months. Read more <\/em>about cheese grading.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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In Search of a Great Sharp Cheddar<\/h2>\n
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Henning’s Sharp Cheddars <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sommer calls sharp Cheddar from the award-winning Wisconsin brand Henning\u2019s Cheese<\/a> the gold standard by which he measures all others. \u201cIt\u2019s aged at least 18 months, and they actually put an age on the package,\u201d he explains. \u201cA few months ago, I couldn\u2019t find it in the grocery store and [they said] that\u2019s because we ran out and the stuff we have is only 16 months old. That\u2019s unusual, most companies would have said, well, that\u2019s close enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

His best tip for finding a truly sharp sharp Cheddar, though, comes down to how it feels in your hands. \u201cWhat I tell everybody is to squeeze the package with your thumb on one side and fingers on the other. If it isn\u2019t very firm, if you can depress it at all, don\u2019t buy it. A really well-aged Cheddar should be almost as hard as a brick.\u201d<\/p>\n

That advice seems like a contradiction since many cheeses soften as they age. But because Cheddar undergoes a process called proteolysis\u2014the breakdown of casein proteins\u2014it becomes drier over time. \u201cAn aged sharp Cheddar connoisseur is looking for that crumbly texture,\u201d says Sommer. \u201cYou try to slice it and it\u2019s brittle and breaks easily. You try to bend it, it immediately cracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, whether a Cheddar is labeled sharp or not has become increasingly meaningless. As the late great Pat Polowsky put it on Cheese Science<\/a>, What does sharp mean? Nothing, stop using it!<\/a> It\u2019s now up to Cheddar fans to determine for themselves whether a cheese has been aged long enough to develop the sharp flavor they crave. \u201cSharpness, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder,\u201d says Sommer.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sharp Cheddar While many cheeses are tangy and robust enough to be considered \u201csharp,\u201d the adjective is rarely used to describe any variety but one. In the cheese vernacular, Cheddar stands alone. But sharp is a controversial term, almost universally derided by cheesemakers and mongers. Australian cheesemaker Marcia Burgmann expresses what many feel about it, … Okumaya devam et “What Is Sharp Cheese, Really?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}