Cheddar cheese

Cheddar cheese is a fairly hard, pale yellow to orange, sharp tasting cheese originating from the English village of Cheddar, in Somerset. Although Cheddar cheese is originally English, it is also widely produced in other countries, including Ireland, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.

In England, Cheddar tends to have a sharp, pungent flavour, often slightly earthy. Its texture is firm, with farmhouse traditional cheddar being slightly crumbly. It is always a pale yellow colour, and food colourings are not used. In parts of the United States and Canada, annatto, extracted from the tropical achiote tree, is used to give Cheddar cheese a deep orange colour. The origins of this practice have been long since forgotten, but the three leading theories appear to be:

  • to allow the cheese to have a consistent colour from batch to batch
  • to assist the purchaser in identifying the type of cheese when it is unlabelled
  • to identify the cheese's region of origin (i.e., not from Cheddar).

Make your own Cheddar cheese

Have a go at making your own Cheddar cheese with our Cheddar cheese recipe here.

See also

Calories in different varieties and various types of cheeses

The number of calories in various types of cheese is very similar when you compare your cheese to a similar types of cheese.

For example, almost cheeses that are similar to Cheddar cheese have around 400 calories per 100g

If the Cheddar cheese is not listed below, select a similar type of cheese from the list below to get a rough idea for the number of calories in Cheddar cheese.

The calorie lists are sortable by clicking the up and down arrows in the heading columns

Cheese type Calories per 100g
American cheese 371
Blue cheese 353
Camembert cheese 299
Cheddar cheese 402
Cottage cheese 98
Edam cheese 357
Farmer's cheese 98
Feta cheese 264
Fontina cheese 389
Goat cheese 364
Gouda cheese 356
Gruyere cheese 413
Mozzarella cheese 280
Parmesan cheese 431
Pimento cheese 375
Provolone cheese 352
Queso blanco cheese 310
Ricotta cheese 174
Roquefort cheese 369
Swiss cheese 380

Browse Cookipedia's recipes with Pinterest

Almost all of Cookipedia's recipe pictures have now been uploaded to Pinterest which is a very convenient way to browse through them, all in one huge board, or by individual categories. If you're a Pinterest user you'll find this feature useful.

Errors and omissions

If you are a cheese producer and your cheese does not appear to be listed on Cookipedia or the information on your cheese is incorrect or out of date, please use the Contact the Editor page to send us a message and we will update the information on your cheese.

#cheddarcheese #annatto #dairyproducts #somersetcheeses #westcountryfarmhousecheddarcheese #britishcheeses #cowsmilkcheeses #cheeses