Cheesemonger Tries the Same Cheese at 6 Ages (1-15 years)

I am third generation cheese monger Adam Jay Moskowitz,

and I'm about to try the same exact cheese

at six different ages,

from one year all the way to 15 years.

Cheese goes through massive changes

in aroma, texture, and flavor.

Today, we're gonna see exactly how that plays out.

[upbeat music]

So here in front of me, I got one-year, three-year,

five-year, seven-year, 10-year, and 15-year cheddar.

Hook's 15-year cheddar is the oldest cheddar

that I know that's out in the marketplace.

Let's start by checking out their appearances and aromas.

Year one, the darkest orange.

It's orange because they add annatto.

They add annatto because Wisconsin wanted

to differentiate its cheddars from the OG cheddar maker

in America, which was New York, which was white cheddar.

This is year three and this is year five,

and they're not that much different from year one,

except the color just seems

to fade a little bit year by year.

So here we are at year seven,

and we start seeing calcium lactate forming,

which are crystals found in cheddar.

Calcium lactate is formed because cheese is a fermentation,

converting lactose to lactic acid.

The lactic acid then binds with the calcium,

making these crystals, calcium lactate.

Now, there isn't any flavor associated

with calcium lactate specifically,

but it is an indicator that the cheese is aged,

and we know that when a cheese ages,

its flavor itself becomes more diverse and complex.

So here we are at year 10,

and things are starting to get funky.

The calcium lactate crystals are starting to increase,

and the discoloration is going beyond a lighter orange

and starting to become, dare I say, a little pink.

In the aging process, there's bacteria

that can cause the pigments in the cheese to turn pink,

and these bacteria thrive in warm environments,

which is the precise environment

that this cheese is aged in.

This feels like the age of puberty for the cheddar,

because when we pick up year 15,

we're at a more homogenized color.

The calcium lactate is at its largest, but the cheese seems

to have achieved a level of homeostasis.

We've got some harmless mold growing on the rind.

The calcium lactate is also growing on the rind,

which also is white.

We're talking right now about a very mature cheddar.

When you're looking at a cheese that's aged

from one year to 15 years,

you would actually think it would change more dramatically

than what we're seeing here.

All we're really seeing is a graduation of lighter color,

which I find to be really surprising,

because, think about it.

If you take an apple and sit it out for 15 years,

what's that apple gonna look like?

Not like an apple.

Here's a piece of cheddar from one year to 15 years,

and there's not that much different from how it looks.

Let's see how it smells.

Year one.

It's definitely mild sour note, kinda like cooked milk.

Buttered popcorn.

There's starting to be some breakdown

of the protein and the fat,

and that breakdown is what's facilitating aroma.

So right now, it's like, really like,

mm, yummy, buttery, let's go.

Year three, huh.

Getting like a broccoli, cauliflower,

little bit of canned fruit, little bit of cultured butter,

leaning on rancid butter.

And I don't mean that in a bad way, by the way,

it's just how it smells.

I get a sour note, a bright note.

It sounds so stupid, it smells kind of like cheddar.

Here we are at year five.

All right, I'm starting to get,

like that fermented, yeasty note.

Kind of nutty, sweet.

Candied pecan, little bit of butyric acid.

The umami is starting to come in now, like brown miso.

This is starting to really ferment. It's starting to cook.

Cheese is a fermentation.

You're converting lactose to lactic acid.

It's like what you might imagine

with beer, with wine, with bread.

Over time, it just becomes more umami,

more earthy, more meaty, more brothy,

and that's what's happening here.

We've moved from like a sweet, buttery note,

and we're starting to get

into that like, mushroom, miso note.

Year seven.

All right, now it's tang forward.

Sweet, canned fruit, tinned fruit, roasted chicken skin.

It's starting to get that like, aged, meaty note,

but in a deliciously umami sort of way.

Cheese is controlled decay of milk

in a deliciously satiable way.

It's literally a dying food.

So here, it's starting to get this like chicken skin note,

and that's from the amino acids and the fatty acids

just continue to break down, and as they break down,

these more diverse aromas are gonna start to happen.

Now we're at ten year.

This is where things are starting

to really look different and heat up.

Woo. Okay.

All right, the sulfur notes are starting to come out.

You could also think bitter.

It's pungent.

There's like a pork rind note.

The umami is still starting to happen, the miso's starting

to get a little bit more advanced and complex.

The funk's starting to happen.

This is starting to get big and bold.

15 year.

Wow. Okay.

First of all, this smells delicious.

That's one way to describe this.

Umami.

It's so, this is like so special.

Boiled chicken, peanut shell, miso soup, bone broth.

It's just really earthy.

It smells like a bouquet of mushroom.

Out of all the others, this smells the most nuanced,

the most delicate.

I'm the most excited to eat this one.

There is a limit to how far you could age cheese.

The fatty acids and the amino acids,

they just keep getting broken down, broken down,

and it gets to a point

where there's nothing left to break down,

and all that's left are off, bitter notes,

and it literally tastes like farts in your mouth.

Now we're gonna look at texture.

Year one, still kind of squishy,

which means there's still a lot of moisture in it.

Basically, cheese begins with moisture,

and over time, you age out the moisture.

Three year.

All right, less squishy.

I still could kind of squeeze it,

but it doesn't want to bend, which makes sense.

Starting to lose moisture.

Year five.

Now it's like, getting harder for me to squeeze.

I'm afraid if I try to bend it, it's gonna break.

Starting to feel like a block of cheese.

At this point, it's had five years of aging,

five years of sweating out its moisture.

To me it's, pretty amazing that it's even still looking

as delicious as it looks.

Year seven, it's starting to look haggard.

It's like, starting to get these wrinkles.

It just feels dry.

It feels solid, crumbly.

So the calcium lactate is starting to become really evident.

Here we are at year 10.

Yeah, year 10 looks like it's

stayed out a little bit too late last night,

if you know what I'm saying.

It looks tired.

So it's like, starting to feel soft again,

which is fascinating to me.

The moisture in the younger cheeses is water moisture,

but now we're at oil moisture.

So as it's aging, like, oil's starting to seep out,

the fat is starting to get released.

Even though year 10 has less moisture than year seven,

it oddly feels wetter to me, and you can even see it.

15.

Yeah, and I think that it's fascinating.

On year 10, there was like an additional metamorphosis,

'cause now here we are at 15, five years later,

and now it's like, rock solid, dry, tons of calcium lactate,

the rind is now starting to show,

there's some mold growth and/or calcium lactate on the rind,

and this is like rock hard.

For 15 years of age, this is actually insanely impressive

how held together this cheese still is.

Finally, let's see how this cheese tastes.

Cutting into the one year,

it's like cutting into butter, squishy.

Tangy, sour, vegetal.

Little bit like celery or endive, cooked broccoli.

It's nice.

Texture in my mouth is creamy.

I hate saying creamy, because everything can't be creamy,

so if I say creamy now,

what am I gonna say for the next five cheeses?

But it comes off like creamy, silky.

In the spectrum of this cheddar,

year one, it's still kind of young in that, like,

there hasn't been an insane amount of acidification,

there hasn't been a profound amount

of amino acid and fatty acid breakdown,

and so, it's kind of sour, it's mildly tart,

it is really approachable, super mild.

Let's go to year three.

Already, the texture is coming off differently.

It's like fudgier to cut,

more crumbly as I break it apart.

So the tang is starting to hit,

and when I say tang, I think a lot of us talk about it

as it relates to sharp, so it's starting to get sharp.

I personally try to avoid that word,

because I don't think it really means anything.

When I say sharp, I mean tang, I mean sour.

It's starting to become more pronounced.

The acidification is happening here,

and with acidification becomes more sour notes.

It's good, though.

It's how I would expect cheddar to taste.

It's mature.

All right, year five.

Now it's getting a little harder for me to cut into.

It's firmer.

Oh, wow. The flavor's becoming way more complex now.

There's still a baseline of sour,

but now it's starting to get really vegetal,

like steamed cabbage, boiled cabbage, Brussels sprouty.

Starting to be a little bit bitter on the finish.

The three was sharp.

Visually, like, this is what I mean by sharp.

It was like, ding! Tart.

Five is sharp like this.

Starting to become more round.

Fuller in flavor, wider in flavor.

Seven, fascinating.

It's continuing to get harder and harder to cut.

I'm cutting it from the middle,

because I always want the heart of the cheese,

I want to get actual paste,

so I'm actually cutting it,

and then I'm taking the center of it.

Now you're really starting to see,

on year seven, a difference in the paste.

The paste here is like, fudgy.

It's almost starting to look like parm.

Like, it's starting to become like, crackable.

Okay, now the sulfur note's starting to hit.

Those amino acids and those fatty acids,

as those continue to age and then break down,

that's where these sulfur or bitter notes are starting

to come up and come out.

But it's good.

This is starting to now look like this versus this.

It's like, really wide now.

Super tangy, but not kick you in the teeth,

horse radishy, bright mineral stone.

It's nice.

All right, 10, I'm a little nervous.

Looks like a lot is happening in 10.

Right, so the crunch from the calcium lactate

is really present.

You're starting to get this like, funk vibe,

where it's very salty.

It's both sour and bitter.

It's like a dance.

Horse radishy.

Now it's like, super wide.

It's got the butyric note,

so the sulfur compounds are starting to really show itself.

I need to stress that I just ate a food

that is 10 years old.

That's a decade of a food.

The point that I'm making is that, at this age,

you're starting to experience these notes of decay,

these notes of rancidity, but it's not like, in a bad way,

it's like in a cured ham sort of way.

It's intoxicating, and mildly addictive.

I'm kind of like, freaking out, because it was the ten year

that kind of visually scared me the most,

'cause it just looked like some weird [beep] was happening,

but as I eat it, I'm like, oh, wow,

that's just complexity that's happening.

So what's interesting is

we started really seeing calcium lactate in seven,

but I started feeling them on my teeth in 10.

But as it ages, the lactic acid and the calcium

are just gonna bind and bind and bind

and grow and grow and grow.

Like, actually feels like there's like pop rocks.

All of a sudden, there's a slight crunch

in the fudgy texture,

which is like, for me, really exciting.

Okay, so I've heard about 15-year Hook's cheddar.

I've never had the good fortune of trying it.

This psychological concept of eating a food

that's 15 years old is against almost everything

I've been taught as a child.

How long can milk stay in your fridge

before you will throw it away?

'Cause that's what this is, people.

This is just milk, converted into curds,

and then treated with love and kindness for 15 years.

So for me, this is like super, special.

Here we go.

Ooh. Ooh-hoo-hoo!

It's sweet, it's tangy, it's brothy,

it's kind of miso soupy, fruity.

I don't know what kind of fruit.

Is it watermelon rind? Old grapes?

I don't know. Ooh, it's crunchy.

Yeah, so the crystals on this one are popping.

Popping, man. Holy cow.

It's so dense.

That's the cool thing about great cheese.

You don't need a lot.

I just need some of it,

because it is providing me a flavor experience

that's unrivalable.

It almost makes me want to cry. It's that good.

It is so very rare that we get to try

to eat something that is unique as this.

It's proof of what's possible with food.

To have a one-year cheese that tastes like buttered popcorn,

and then a 15 year cheese that tastes like miso soup,

and it's the same cheese, it's wild to me.

It's just magical. It's why I love cheese so much.