Cheddar cheese is a little bit like a student going through school, developing a personality, finding areas in which it excels and earning grades based on its performance. At Cabot Creamery, a New England- and New York-based dairy cooperative, trained cheese graders see to it that Cabot Cheddars are aged to perfection and graduate “Best in Class.”
The process of grading cheddar is an in-depth one. Cabot Cheese Grader and New Products Manager, Craig Gile, says all cheddars are not the same. It’s the job of a cheese grader to “predict what the cheese will do” and nurture it to its full potential. He and Cabot’s other trained graders check on the cheese, beginning two months after it was produced and again every three months until its personality profile is aged perfection.
What do cheese graders look for?
Cabot cheese graders check in on cheese as it ages by pulling a sample from a 40-pound block with a “cheese trier”, a tool that has a t-shaped handle and looks like an apple corer cut in half lengthwise. They first sniff the cheese determine what scents and flavors have developed – buttery or whey-like, for example.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Vermont Department of Tourism
