Third-generation cheesemonger Adam Jay Moskowitz joins Epicurious to try the same cheddar cheese at different ages. Ranging from one to fifteen years, Moskowitz tests for taste, texture, and smell to see how the same cheese changes as it ages.
Director: Jeff Kornberg
Director of Photography: Charlie Jordan
Editor: LJ D'Arpa
Talent: Adam Moskowitz
Director of Culinary Production: Kelly Janke
Creative Producer: Tyrice Hester
Culinary Producer: Jeannie Chen
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Amy Haskour
Production Manager: Janine Dispensa
Production Coordinator: Tania Jones
Casting Producer:
Camera Operator: Mar Alfonso
Audio Engineer: Z Jadwick
Production Assistant: Ashley Vidal
Set Designer: Jordan Unverzagt
Research Director: Ryan Harrington
Post Production Supervisor: Andrea Farr
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Special Thanks: Hook's Cheese Company
Director: Jeff Kornberg
Director of Photography: Charlie Jordan
Editor: LJ D'Arpa
Talent: Adam Moskowitz
Director of Culinary Production: Kelly Janke
Creative Producer: Tyrice Hester
Culinary Producer: Jeannie Chen
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Amy Haskour
Production Manager: Janine Dispensa
Production Coordinator: Tania Jones
Casting Producer:
Camera Operator: Mar Alfonso
Audio Engineer: Z Jadwick
Production Assistant: Ashley Vidal
Set Designer: Jordan Unverzagt
Research Director: Ryan Harrington
Post Production Supervisor: Andrea Farr
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Special Thanks: Hook's Cheese Company
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I am third generation cheese monger, Adam J. Moskowitz,
00:03and I'm about to try the same exact cheese
00:05at six different ages.
00:06From one year, all the way to 15 years.
00:09Cheese goes through massive changes
00:11in aroma, texture, and flavor.
00:14Today, we're gonna see exactly how that plays out.
00:19So here in front of me, I got one year, three year,
00:22five year, seven year, 10 year, and 15 year cheddar.
00:27Hook's 15 year cheddar is the oldest cheddar
00:29that I know that's out in the marketplace.
00:31Let's start by checking out their appearances and aromas.
00:34Year one, the dark is orange.
00:36It's orange because they added natto.
00:37They added natto because Wisconsin wanted
00:40to differentiate its cheddars from the OG cheddar maker
00:44in America, which was New York, which was white cheddar.
00:46This is year three, and this is year five.
00:48And they're not that much different from year one,
00:50except the color just seems to fade a little bit
00:53year by year.
00:54So here we are at year seven,
00:56and we start seeing calcium lactate forming,
01:00which are crystals found in cheddar.
01:02Calcium lactate is formed because cheese
01:04is a fermentation converting lactose to lactic acid.
01:08The lactic acid then binds with the calcium,
01:12making these crystals calcium lactate.
01:14Now there isn't any flavor associated
01:16with calcium lactate specifically,
01:18but it is an indicator that the cheese has aged.
01:21And we know that when a cheese ages,
01:23its flavor itself becomes more diverse and complex.
01:27So here we are at year 10,
01:28and things are starting to get funky.
01:30The calcium lactate crystals are starting to increase,
01:33and the discoloration is going beyond a lighter orange
01:36and starting to become, dare I say, a little pink.
01:41In the aging process, there's bacteria
01:43that can cause the pigments in the cheese to turn pink.
01:45And these bacteria thrive in warm environments,
01:48which is the precise environment
01:49that this cheese is aged in.
01:51This feels like the age of puberty for the cheddar,
01:54because when we pick up year 15,
01:55we're at a more homogenized color.
01:58The calcium lactate is at its largest,
02:00but the cheese seems to have achieved
02:02a level of homostasis.
02:04We've got some harmless mold growing on the rind.
02:08The calcium lactate is also growing on the rind,
02:11which also is white.
02:12We're talking right now about a very mature cheddar.
02:15When you're looking at a cheese
02:16that's aged from one year to 15 years,
02:18you would actually think it would change more dramatically
02:22than what we're seeing here.
02:23All we're really seeing is a graduation of lighter color,
02:27which I find to be really surprising,
02:29because think about it.
02:30If you take an apple and sit it out for 15 years,
02:34what's that apple gonna look like?
02:36Not like an apple.
02:37Here's a piece of cheddar from one year to 15 years,
02:41and there's not that much different from how it looks.
02:43Let's see how it smells.
02:44Year one.
02:47It's definitely a mild sour note,
02:50kind of like cooked milk.
02:51Buttered popcorn.
02:52There's starting to be some breakdown
02:53of the protein and the fat,
02:56and that breakdown is what's facilitating aroma.
02:59So right now, it's really like,
03:01mmm, yummy, buttery, let's go!
03:04Year three.
03:06Getting like broccoli, cauliflower,
03:09little bit of canned fruit,
03:10little bit of cultured butter,
03:11leaning on rancid butter.
03:12And I don't mean that in a bad way, by the way.
03:13It's just how it smells.
03:15I get a sour note, a bright note.
03:16It sounds so stupid.
03:17It smells kind of like cheddar.
03:19Here we are at year five.
03:20All right, I'm starting to get
03:21like that fermented yeasty note,
03:23kind of nutty, sweet,
03:24candied pecan, little bit of butyric acid.
03:27The umami's starting to come in now,
03:28like brown miso.
03:29This is starting to really ferment,
03:31starting to cook.
03:31Cheese is a fermentation,
03:32converting lactose to lactic acid.
03:34It's like what you might imagine with beer,
03:35with wine, with bread.
03:37Over time, it just becomes more umami,
03:39more earthy, more meaty, more brothy.
03:42And that's what's happening here.
03:43We've moved from like a sweet, buttery note,
03:46and we're starting to get into that like mushroom miso note.
03:50Year seven.
03:51All right, now it's tang forward.
03:53Sweet, canned fruit, tinned fruit,
03:55roasted chicken skin.
03:56It's starting to get that like aged meaty note,
03:58but in a deliciously umami sort of way.
04:00Cheese is controlled decay of milk
04:04in a deliciously satiable way.
04:07It's literally a dying food.
04:10So here, it's starting to get this like chicken skin note,
04:14and that's from the amino acids
04:15and the fatty acids just continue to break down.
04:18And as they break down,
04:20these more diverse aromas are gonna start to happen.
04:23Now we're at 10 year.
04:24This is where things are starting
04:25to really look different and heat up.
04:26Woo, okay.
04:27All right, the sulfur notes are starting to come out.
04:29You could also think bitter.
04:31It's pungent.
04:32There's like a pork rind note.
04:33The umami is still starting to happen.
04:35The miso is starting to get
04:35a little bit more advanced and complex.
04:37The funk's starting to happen.
04:38This is starting to get big and bold.
04:4015 year.
04:41Wow, okay.
04:42First of all, this smells delicious.
04:44That's one way to describe this.
04:46Umami, this is like so special.
04:48Boiled chicken, peanut shell, miso soup, bone broth.
04:51It's just really earthy.
04:53It smells like a bouquet of mushroom.
04:54Out of all the others,
04:55this smells the most nuanced, the most delicate.
04:58I'm the most excited to eat this one.
05:00There is a limit to how far you could age cheese.
05:03The fatty acids and the amino acids,
05:05they just keep getting broken down, broken down.
05:07And it gets to a point
05:08where there's nothing left to break down
05:09and all that's left are off bitter notes.
05:11And it literally tastes like farts in your mouth.
05:13Now we're gonna look at texture.
05:15Year one, still kind of squishy,
05:16which means there's still a lot of moisture in it.
05:18Basically cheese begins with moisture
05:20and over time you age out the moisture.
05:22Three year, all right, less squishy.
05:25I still could kind of squeeze it,
05:26but it doesn't want to bend, which makes sense.
05:29Starting to lose moisture.
05:30Year five.
05:31Now it's like getting harder for me to squeeze.
05:34I'm afraid if I try to bend it, it's gonna break.
05:36Starting to feel like a block of cheese.
05:39At this point, it's had five years of aging.
05:41Five years of sweating out its moisture.
05:43To me, it's pretty amazing
05:44that it's even still looking as delicious as it looks.
05:48Year seven, it's starting to look haggard.
05:49It's like starting to get these wrinkles.
05:51It just feels dry.
05:53It feels solid, crumbly.
05:56So the calcium lactate is starting to become really evident.
05:58Here we are at year 10.
06:00Yeah, year 10 looks like it's stayed out
06:02a little bit too late last night,
06:04if you know what I'm saying.
06:05It looks tired.
06:06So it's like starting to feel soft again,
06:10which is fascinating to me.
06:11The moisture in the younger cheeses is water moisture,
06:14but now we're at oil moisture.
06:16So as it's aging, like oil's starting to seep out.
06:18The fat is starting to get released.
06:20Even though year 10 has less moisture than year seven,
06:24it oddly feels wetter to me.
06:27And you can even see it.
06:2815.
06:29Yeah, and I think that it's fascinating.
06:30On year 10, there was like an additional metamorphosis,
06:34because now here we are at 15, five years later,
06:37and now it's like rock solid, dry,
06:41tons of calcium lactate.
06:42The rind is now starting to show.
06:44There's some mold growth and or calcium lactate on the rind.
06:48And this is like rock hard.
06:49For 15 years of age,
06:52this is actually insanely impressive
06:55how held together this cheese still is.
06:57Finally, let's see how this cheese tastes.
06:59Cutting into the one year,
07:01it's like cutting into butter.
07:02Squishy.
07:06Tangy, sour, vegetal,
07:08a little bit like celery or endive,
07:10cooked broccoli, nice.
07:11Texture of my mouth is creamy.
07:12I hate saying creamy because everything can't be creamy.
07:15So if I say creamy now,
07:17what am I gonna say for the next five cheeses?
07:19But it comes off like creamy, silky.
07:23In the spectrum of this cheddar,
07:25year one, it's still kind of young
07:27in that like there hasn't been
07:29an insane amount of acidification.
07:31There hasn't been a profound amount
07:33of amino acid and fatty acid breakdown.
07:36And so it's kind of sour.
07:38It's mildly tart.
07:40It is really approachable.
07:43Super mild.
07:43Let's go to year three.
07:44Already the texture is coming off differently.
07:47It's like fudgier to cut.
07:48More crumbly as I break it apart.
07:51So the tang is starting to hit.
07:53And when I say tang,
07:54I think a lot of us talk about it as it relates to sharp.
07:57So it's starting to get sharp.
07:58I personally try to avoid that word
07:59because I don't think it really means anything.
08:02When I say sharp, I mean tang.
08:03I mean sour.
08:04It's starting to become more pronounced.
08:05The acidification is happening here.
08:07And with acidification becomes more sour notes.
08:10It's good though.
08:11It's how I would expect cheddar to taste.
08:13It's mature.
08:13All right, year five.
08:15Now it's getting a little harder for me to cut into.
08:17It's firmer.
08:19Oh wow.
08:20The flavor is becoming way more complex now.
08:22There's still a baseline of sour,
08:24but now it's starting to get really vegetal.
08:26Like steamed cabbage, boiled cabbage, Brussels sprouty.
08:29Starting to be a little bit bitter on the finish.
08:31The three was sharp visually.
08:33Like this is what I mean by sharp.
08:35It was like, ding, tart.
08:37Five is sharp like this.
08:40Starting to become more round, fuller in flavor,
08:43wider in flavor.
08:44Seven, fascinating.
08:46It's continuing to get harder and harder to cut.
08:48I'm cutting it from the middle
08:49because I always want the heart of the cheese.
08:51I want to get actual paste.
08:52So I'm actually cutting it
08:53and then I'm taking the center of it.
08:54Now you're really starting to see on year seven
08:58a difference in the paste.
08:59The paste here is like fudgy.
09:02It's almost starting to look like parm.
09:03Like it's starting to become like crackable.
09:06Okay, now the sulfur note's starting to hit.
09:08Those amino acids and those fatty acids,
09:10as those continue to age and then break down,
09:13that's where the sulfur or bitter notes
09:14are starting to come up and come out.
09:16But it's good.
09:17This is starting to now look like this versus this.
09:19It's like really wide now.
09:21Super tangy, but not kick you in the teeth.
09:23Horseradishy, bright mineral stone.
09:26It's nice.
09:27All right, 10, I'm a little nervous.
09:28Looks like a lot is happening in 10.
09:31All right, so the crunch from the calcium lactate
09:33is really present.
09:34You're starting to get this like funk vibe.
09:36It's very salty.
09:37It's both sour and bitter.
09:40It's like a dance.
09:41Horseradishy, now it's like super wide.
09:43It's got the butyric note.
09:44So the sulfur compounds are starting to really show itself.
09:47I need to stress that I just ate a food
09:49that is 10 years old.
09:52That's a decade of a food.
09:53The point that I'm making is that at this age,
09:55you're starting to experience these notes of decay,
09:58these notes of rancidity, but it's not like in a bad way.
10:01It's like in a cured ham sort of way.
10:04It's intoxicating and mildly addictive.
10:07I'm kind of like freaking out
10:08because it was the 10 year
10:09that kind of visually scared me the most
10:11because it just looked like some weird shit was happening.
10:14But as I eat it, I'm like, oh wow,
10:16that's just complexity that's happening.
10:19So what's interesting is we started really seeing
10:21calcium lactate in seven,
10:23but I started feeling them on my teeth in 10.
10:25But as it ages, the lactic acid and the calcium
10:28are just going to bind and bind and bind
10:30and grow, grow, grow.
10:32It actually feels like there's like pop rocks.
10:33All of a sudden there's a slight crunch
10:35in the fudgy texture, which is like, for me, really exciting.
10:39Okay, so I've heard about 15 year hooks cheddar.
10:42I've never had the good fortune of trying it.
10:44This psychological concept of eating a food
10:47that's 15 years old is against almost everything
10:51I've been taught as a child.
10:53How long can milk stay in your fridge
10:54before you will throw it away?
10:57Because that's what this is, people.
10:58This is just milk converted into curds
11:02and then treated with love and kindness for 15 years.
11:05So for me, this is like super special.
11:06Here we go.
11:12Ooh.
11:18It's sweet.
11:19It's tangy.
11:20It's brothy.
11:20It's kind of miso soupy, fruity.
11:24I don't know what kind of fruit.
11:25Is it watermelon rind?
11:27Old grapes?
11:28I don't know.
11:29Ooh, it's crunchy.
11:29The crystals on this one are popping, popping, man.
11:32Holy cow.
11:33It's so dense.
11:35That's the cool thing about great cheese.
11:37You don't need a lot.
11:38I just need some of it
11:40because it is providing me a flavor experience unrivable.
11:43It almost makes me want to cry.
11:45It's that good.
11:45It is so very rare that we get to try to eat something
11:48that is unique as this.
11:49It's proof of what's possible with food.
11:51To have a one year cheese that tastes like buttered popcorn
11:54and then a 15 year cheese that tastes like miso soup
11:57and it's the same cheese, it's wild to me.
12:00It's just magical.
12:01It's why I love cheese so much.