The Absolute Best Fancy Cheddar Bargain You'll Find At The Grocery Store
In the U.S. Northeast, there's one name in cheddar that reigns above the rest: Cabot Creamery. You'll find a packed display of Cabot products on the shelves of any given grocery store in New England, from their ubiquitous Seriously Sharp Cheddar to more specialized collections like the Five Year, Alpine, and Clothbound cheddars, as well as butter, yogurt, sour cream, whipped cream, and even American yellow cheese slices. Though the selection starts to dwindle as you get into Ellsworth and Tillamook territories, it's still there — and it's still some of the best cheese you can buy in its price bracket. But one particular variety stands above the rest.
Aged a minimum of 16 months, the Cabot Private Stock Cheddar is sharp, tangy, and surprisingly creamy. In 2019, the cheese won first place in its age bracket for cheddars with the American Cheese Society, alongside their cave-aged and five-year cheddars. It shared first place that year with a cheddar from Wisconsin's Deer Creek, which retails for $33 per pound. A one-pound deli bar of Cabot Private Stock Cheddar, however, is usually just around $8.39.
Cooking with Cabot
Perhaps the best thing about having a truly great cheese at such a great price is that you don't have to feel bad about using it. With more expensive cheeses, it can feel necessary to reserve them for special occasions and charcuterie boards where they can really shine. Cabot's Private Stock is a perfect combination of lower cost and higher quality. It's worthy of a place on your fancy cheese board, but it can also be used for a heck of a cheese ball. It won't be too expensive to shred two cups of it into broccoli cheddar soup. And since it's still quite soft for an aged cheddar, it will melt nicely into a spicy sharp cheddar grilled cheese sandwich.
Cabot's Private Stock Cheddar is affordable enough to cook with, but without feeling like you're "wasting" expensive cheese. And with their solid business practices, you can be confident in making this cheese a staple in your kitchen.
Cheese you can feel good about
Not only is this Cabot Creamery cheddar cheese award-winningly good and affordable, but it's also responsibly made. While we've sadly become used to making a trade in ethics for lower prices, Cabot holds a high standard for their whole production chain. As a farmer-owned co-op, 100% of the proceeds from Cabot sales go back to the farms.
Many of these farms are powered with solar and cow energy by way of anaerobic digesters. One of the farms in the co-op uses bioenergy that powers not only the property, but over 400 houses in the community, and diverted 14,000 tons of waste out of landfills in 2022, according to the Cabot website. The energy generated by their farmers' cumulative 13 anaerobic bio-digesters kept the equivalent of 6,500 cars off the road in 2022. As a certified B-corporation, Cabot is dedicated to reducing the impact commercial farming makes on the environment and elevating its co-op owners and their employees. And, of course, making exceptional cheese.