(Also known as American) A smooth white or orange cheese made from cow’s milk; matures in three months and ripens by bacteria.
When she married her cousin Prince Albert in 1840, Queen Victoria received as a wedding present a thousand-pound wheel of cheese, a bizarre gift that helps shed light on why she has, in later portraits, an expression both dour and impending: she was simply fed up. The cheese Victoria was given was Cheddar, a dairy product named after the village in Somerset where it originated. The village, in turn, derives its name from the Old English ceod, meaning pouch, so called because the Cheddar Gorge is the home of numerous caves, caves that might be described as “pouches” in the earth. Cheddar cheese was invented near the end of the sixteenth century, but its name did not appear in print until the mid seventeenth century.
A cheese with a solid texture, varying in hue from yellow to orange, and on rare occasions, white in color, with a flavor profile that ranges from mild to strong. Its origins can be traced back to the town of Cheddar in England. The cheese is now produced in the United States and referred to as American cheese, particularly when it is of a mild variety.
Cheddar is a type of cheese that was initially crafted in the late 15th century in the vicinity of Cheddar Gorge in Somerset, England. Although it is still produced in various regions of England, cheddar-style cheeses are also manufactured in other countries such as the United States, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.