Dietribes: Everything is Better When You Add Cheddar!

Cheddar is one of the two most popular varieties of cheese in the United States (the other being Mozzarella). Let Sesame Street show you how it's made, then scroll down here to learn more about this dairy delight (and note, of course, the name of the most excellent variety featured above).

"¢ Forget sweet dreams - try cheese dreams! The British Cheese Board conducted a study of dreams and cheese, and found (among other things) that not only does eating cheese before bed not give you nightmares, a significant number of people eating Cheddar dreamt about celebrities.

"¢ Let them eat cheese! In 1982, Reagan gave away 30 million lbs of surplus processed cheddar cheese to the needy. The history of Presidents and cheese goes back even further (no pun intended): Andrew Jackson once served a wheel of cheese at a party weighing 1,400 lbs that was consumed in a mere two hours, but still managed to make the White House smell of cheese for weeks.

"¢ Sometimes it's ok to play with your food, as long as you can make something like Troy Landwehr did. Watch this time lapse video to see more cutting of the cheese (sorry, I had to. I had to!)

"¢ It's no secret that cheese can be preserved for quite a long time, and apparently proximity to cheese doesn't hurt either. Just look to the 9,000 year old "Cheddar Man" found by a schoolteacher in the Cheddar Caves. The Cheddar Man now resides in Natural History Museum in London.

"¢ I thought I really loved cheese, but here are two things that make me question that devotion. The first, from artist Cosimo Cavallaro, who uses cheese frequently in his installations. Check out this Cheese Room in the Cheese House, where one might hang their Cheese Jacket.

"¢ If even this has left you with a craving for "more cheese, please!" then may I direct your attention to Cheddar Vision TV, where 1.7 million people watched cheddar cheese age for 12 months in real time last year, but you can still get in on this year's action! Read more about the phenomenon here.

What are some of your favorite ways to eat cheddar, or cheese in general? And what are your favorite cheeses? Personally, goat cheese is probably at the top of my list.

Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.

"˜Dietribes' appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach. You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.