Club Cheddars - has anyone made these?

[tinysar]

Ok, so before anyone chews me out for discussing disgusting processed cheeses, just hear me out. One of the most popular "cheddars" around in Australian supermarkets is "Mersey Valley Club Cheddar" (sorry I haven't just inserted the photo here - my browser freezes whenever I try). I had no idea what a "club cheddar" was until I tried to find out how this cheese was made differently to other cheddars. It has a moist but very flaky texture - it's almost impossible to cut a neat slice of it - nothing like the rubbery cheap supermarket cheddars or the dry crumbly vintage cheddars. From what I've read, I understand that the name "club cheese" (especially in other countries) might refer to heavily-processed "cheese spread" type products (MV have recently started making one of these as well, but I am talking about their block cheeses). No doubt there is some nasty "club cheese" out there with all sorts of artificial additives, but the traditional recipes seem quite simple:

*Mill aged cheddar (perfect for old dry cheese) using a meat grinder
*Mix the pieces with 12-15% (by weight) of butter, mill once again
*Blend the paste by hand until smooth
*Pack into jars, or mold into blocks and wrap

It sounds like a good way to make dry old cheeses edible again - apparently there's another company in Australia making these that uses a mix of cheddar & swiss pieces for theirs, but I have never tried this one. Unfortunately I've been unable to find an ingredients list for the MV one (will have to check next time I'm at the shops).

I was just wondering, has anyone ever tried making these? Does anyone know anything more about the process, or the blend of ingredients?
I've just been thinking that some cheddars are coated in lard (or some forum folks were using ghee) anyway to stop them drying out, right? So if you had a cheese which had dried out a bit, and milled it up with some butter/ghee/lard... It's not going to put the moisture back in (although maybe you could add some water to the milled cheese before mixing), but it might make it edible again?

(p.s. sorry if this is the wrong sub-forum for this, I wasn't sure where to file it - there was no "processed abominations" section  )

[smilingcalico]

You can find this book which is out of copyright on Google Books: Fancy cheese in America: from the milk of cows, sheep and goats By Charles Albert Publow.  I was going to cut and paste in it's manufacturing advice, but as it is a scanned image, I can't, but you'll maybe find what you'd like to know in there.

[Cloversmilker]

This sounds a lot like the fromage fort recipes I've seen.  Fromage fort is made by milling older cheese with butter and adding herbs to taste.  The cheese is milled more finely for fromage fort than club cheddar I think.  I've made fromage fort and rather like it. 

[tinysar]

Thanks smilingcalico, I had read Publow's description in another book: The Science and Practice of Cheese Making, co-written by him.

Cloversmilker - strangely, I had always thought of FF as being something to make from old mouldy-type cheeses. I had never thought of applying that to cheddary types. I haven't made any yet, but it sounds delicious - I just haven't had any leftover cheese! My recipe says that aside from the butter/oil & herbs/garlic you also include some liquid: wine, milk or even some vege stock. I believe you are right about the different textures though - I think FF would be more of a puree/dip/spread. I'm not sure how they get the flaky texture of the MV club - it looks kinda like certain types of pastry, which are made by rolling cold butter between the layers.