White cheddar
uncoloured aged cow's-milk cheese · Cheese
Top 10 pairings
White cheddar is cheddar made without annatto colouring — the same firm, aged cow's-milk cheese, simply left at its natural pale ivory to straw-yellow colour instead of being dyed orange. Everything else is identical: the same acidified, rennet-set curd, the same cheddaring and dry-salting, the same ageing from mild and buttery to sharp, crumbly and crystalline. The only difference from orange cheddar is the missing dye. It is the traditional look of much English farmhouse cheddar and the everyday default in New England, Vermont and Canada.
Picking a good onedrag
Firm, clean cut face, tangySweating, cracked, rancid
Wrapped wedgeEveryday bestPregnant, over 65 or low immunity? Pick pasteurised, or heat it steaming hot.
Cut faceEven colour, face a shade duller
Smell at the cutTrue to its age, a little quieter
These cues are Cheddar's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.