Cheese & Dairy

Cheddaring

Also: cheddaring process, slab knitting, curd matting

A post-cut curd-management technique in which slabs of cooked, drained curd are stacked, turned, and pressed under their own weight to expel whey and develop the characteristic fibrous, dense texture of cheddar-family cheeses.

Named after Cheddar, Somerset, England, where the technique developed in the 17th century; earliest documentary references from the late 1600s in English agricultural records

Definition

Cheddaring is the defining procedural step that distinguishes the cheddar make from virtually every other cooked-curd cheese tradition. After the curd is cut, cooked to approximately 38–39 °C, and the bulk of free whey is drained, the loose curd granules are allowed to mat together on the floor or on tilted drainage tables. They consolidate into a single slab roughly 20–30 cm thick, which the cheesemaker then cuts lengthwise into two or more blocks. These blocks are stacked two or three high, flipped every 15–20 minutes, and re-stacked — a choreography that typically runs for 90 minutes to two hours. The mechanical pressure of the stacked slabs, combined with the continuing acid development in the curd, squeezes out whey, collapses curd channels, and aligns the casein protein network into a dense, knitted matrix. The acidification trajectory is crucial: pH must fall continuously during cheddaring (from approximately 6.1 at the start of draining to 5.3–5.4 by the end of milling) to maintain plasticity in the curd; if acidification lags, the curd becomes brittle and crumbles rather than knitting. At the end of cheddaring the blocks are 'milled' — torn or chopped into small chips — salted in a dry-salt or brine process, then hooped and pressed overnight. The result is a dense, close-textured body with very low moisture (36–39%), which is prerequisite for the long, slow proteolysis that develops the sharp, nutty, crystalline character of aged cheddar.

In use

“After draining, the cheesemaker began cheddaring — flipping and re-stacking the slabs every 20 minutes until pH dropped to 5.4 and the blocks had the springy, cooked-chicken texture that signals they're ready to mill.”

Related terms

MillingSaltingSyneresisCooked CurdpH AcidificationPressingCheddar

References

1.Cheddar Cheese — H.A. Davis (1965, USDA Agriculture Handbook No. 54)
2.Technology of Cheesemaking — Barry Law & Adnan Tamime (2nd ed., 2010, Wiley-Blackwell)
3.American Farmstead Cheese — Paul Kindstedt (2005, Chelsea Green)
4.The Oxford Companion to Cheese — Catherine Donnelly, ed. (2016, Oxford University Press)
5.Cheese and Fermented Milk Foods — Frank Kosikowski & Vikram Mistry (3rd ed., 1997)

Confidence: high

Notes

Cooked-Chicken Texture

Experienced cheesemakers describe properly cheddared blocks as having the texture of cooked white chicken meat — firm but with a slight spring and a visible layered fibrous grain when torn. This is the direct result of aligned casein protein sheets formed under the combined influence of heat, acid, and mechanical pressure. Under-cheddared curd feels spongy and open; over-cheddared curd is dry, harsh, and crumbles rather than knitting into a smooth loaf.

Stirred-Curd Cheddar

Much industrial cheddar (including most block cheddar produced in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand) skips traditional slab cheddaring in favor of a 'stirred curd' process where granules are kept agitated in the whey and then conveyed to a continuous drainage belt or tower system. The resulting cheese has lower labor costs but lacks some of the textural layering and complexity of traditionally cheddared product. In Britain, Protected Designation of Origin 'West Country Farmhouse Cheddar' requires traditional handmade methods including proper cheddaring.

Relationship to Lactate and Calcium

The plasticity of the curd during cheddaring is governed not just by pH but by the balance between residual calcium phosphate still bound to the casein matrix and the lactate accumulating from ongoing fermentation. As pH falls, calcium phosphate dissolves into the whey, softening and lubricating the protein network — essential for the slabs to deform and knit under pressure rather than shattering. This is why pre-acidification of milk, milk mineral content, and starter culture performance all materially affect cheddaring behavior.