Review: USA Widmer Brand, 4 & 8 Year Old Cheddar

[wharris]

While perusing my local grocery cheese isle,  i found some cheddar that was aged 4 years, and next to it was a cheese aged an incredible 8 years.   Eight!
Holy Mackerel.





The 4 year is on the left,  8 year on the right.

The 4 year was sharp, yet surprisingly creamy.
The 8 year was sharp to a fault,  almost sour. There were crystals in the 8 year.

This is one of those situations where i wish i could upload the original size photo so you can see the grain of the cheese.

[chilipepper]

Those are some crusty looking cheddars - so did you prefer the 4 year one?

BTW, if you right click your images and save to your computer and then open them in your desktop application they come up full size... and yes the texture is pretty cool looking.  Very dry from the looks of things.

[Cartierusm]

The 4 year looks real good, I'm just so sick of orange...yuk...why die something so beautiful?

[Tea]

Well they certainly look impressive.  I'm interested too, which one did you prefer, and how did you find the crystal flavour?

[wharris]

The 4 year was really realyl good.
Good moisture content still, Sharp, tangy, a bit more creamy than expected. 

Now, imagine if that flavor had a volume knob and you turned it up to max.
That is the flavor of the 8 year. 

Max is not always good.  The flavors were too loud. 

Tangy to a point that borders on sour.

[chilipepper]

So the 8 year one... not to quote Spinal Tap... goes to 11!! :)

[Cartierusm]

HAAA, that was funny, you can always quote spinal tap.

[wharris]

Classic.


My Cheddar goes to 11.

[chilipepper]

Here is the clip referrence earlier from the movie Spinal Tap.  I wonder if this was somewhere near one of the first 'poking fun' films out there?

[DeejayDebi]

Not all cheeses are good for aging for long periods. If you have an exceptional cheese that is still mellow and not over acidic after a year this would be an incredible aged cheese but if it'salready tatsing loud and acidic eat it now.Aging can accentuate the negatives as well as the positives in cheese.