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Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Colin Lowva
and I'm Marina Santi. Spotlight uses a

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special English method of broadcasting. It
is easier for people to understand no matter

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where in the world they live.
Cheddar. For many people, the word

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is what they call all cheese products
made from milk. For others, cheddar

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describes a special kind of cheese.
Often it is found in yellow blocks at

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supermarkets, or it is old as
a product that has been cut into pieces.

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These pieces are sold in plastic bags. In the English speaking world,

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it is one of the most popular
cheeses. But Cheddar is also a town

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in southeast England. It is where
Cheddar cheese was first made. The town

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gave this cheese its name. But
for a long time people stopped making Cheddar

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cheese in Cheddar. The place that
had been famous for cheese was now empty

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of cheese. How did this happen? Today's Spotlight is on this question.

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It is about Cheddar. It is
a bag the town that lost and found

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its cheese. People have made cheese
in Cheddar for a very long time.

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The land around the town is good
for raising cows, and the cliffs around

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Cheddar are home to many caves.
It is cool inside these caves all year,

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so these are good for storing the
cheese. These are also great places

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to age the cheese. In this
process, cheesemakers keep cheese for a long

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time before selling it. This gives
the cheese a more complex taste. Aged

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cheese is often more interesting than fresh
cheese. In these early days, cheese

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from chest was not much different from
other cheese. Cheese makers would use a

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similar process everywhere in the UK.
They used milk from an animal. Then

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they added a substance called rennet.
Rennet separates milk into two parts. One

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part is a solid called curds,
another is a liquid called whey. Cheesemakers

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took the curds and pressed them together. They left the way behind. After

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some time, the curds would form
a piece of cheese. This is one

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of the basic ways of making cheese, but many cheeses made this way still

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have a lot of whey in them. This makes the cheese softer, but

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more whay means that cheese will go
bad more quickly. In the fourteenth century,

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cheesemakers in Cheddar found one way to
solve this problem. They created a

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process called scalding. When cheesemakers scald
cheese. They heat the curds to a

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very high temperature. This pushes extra
liquid out of the curds. The result

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is a harder cheese that will last
much longer. They furthered this development with

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a process called cheddaring. In cheddaring, cheesemaker's heap blocks of cheese on top

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of each other. This forces even
more way from the cheese. It also

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changes the cheese's taste. Cheddaring makes
the cheese taste sharper, and it makes

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aging the cheese easier. These special
processes made people take note of cheese from

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Cheddar. It tasted different from anything
else made in the country. Paul Kinstet

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is a teacher at the University of
Vermont. He teaches about the history of

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cheese. He spoke to the British
Broadcasting Corporation about Cheddar cheese's The great quality

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of the cheese caught the attention of
wealthy Londoners. They visited the famous caves

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of Cheddar Gorge and they ate local
cheeses. During their visits, they told

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others. The cheese from Cheddar became
famous from the fifteenth century on. Soon

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Cheddar cheese became one of the most
sought after cheeses in England, Cheddar became

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the cheese of the upper class.
King Charles the First was an English king.

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He ruled the country from sixteen twenty
five to sixteen forty nine. During

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this time, there was a great
demand for cheddar. People liked it so

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much that the king decided only he
and his court could order it. The

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popularity of Cheddar cheese continues to last
until this day, but the town that

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gave the cheese its name did not
benefit from this popularity for very long.

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Cheddar is a small town. It
could not produce enough cheese for everyone,

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so other towns began to make their
own cheddar. People from England also moved

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to other countries. They brought the
secret of making Cheddar cheese with them.

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Places in the United States like New
York and Vermont became famous for their cheddar

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factories appeared. These made Cheddar two. Mass production meant that people could sell

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Cheddar cheese all over the world.
Cheesemakers in Cheddar could not compete. The

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fame of its cheese grew, but
the town did not. But it was

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not competition that ended cheesemaking in Cheddar. Instead, it was a war.

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During World War two, Nazi Germany
attacked the United Kingdom. The UK is

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an ireland. It became difficult to
get supplies from outside, so the food

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they had was limited. During the
war, the government created a rationing system.

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This meant that everyone could only buy
a small amount of food. The

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government also took control over much of
the food production. The government bought all

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milk on the market and they made
it into their own kind of cheese.

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Many people called it government cheddar,
but it did not taste much like cheese

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from Cheddar, and it was not
made in that town. Rationing helped people

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survive the war, but it also
destroyed small cheesemakers. Before World War One,

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there were over thirty five hundred small
cheese businesses in the UK. By

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the end of World War II,
there were fewer than one hundred, but

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cheese making traditions did not die completely. In the nineteen nineties, small dairy

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farms began to make cheese again.
They returned to old methods. Many returned

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to the places where people made cheese. Historically, the cheeses they make cost

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more than industrial cheeses, but for
many the price is worth it. Cheddar

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is one place that saw a return
of farmhouse cheese. John and Catherine's are

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two English cheesemakers. In two thousand
and three they started the Cheddar Gorge Cheese

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Company. The company tried to make
Cheddar in the way it was made hundreds

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of years ago. They used milk
from local cows. They even aged it

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in the caves of the Cheddar Gorge. Soon the Spencer's cheese began winning awards.

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People began traveling to the place from
which the famous cheese style came.

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They began to enjoy this new cheese
that tasted so much like the original cheese.

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They found it interesting to see how
much the flavor had changed over hundreds

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of years. The changes were great. Industrialization made Cheddar cheese almost unrecognizable.

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It made the taste less complex,
but without changing many may never have tasted

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Cheddar cheese. Without traveling to places
like America and Australia, it may never

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have found a great name, and
without its name, it may not have

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come back to Cheddar at all.
In twenty twenty one, Catherine Spencer spoke

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to the British Broadcasting Corporation. Cheddar
might have remained a small West Country product,

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but it might well have disappeared,
like many local cheeses have. Its

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shift to a major global variety has
created international recognition. With that comes a

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desire for our product. It is
closer to the original cheddar that would have

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been made here hundreds of years ago, but our success mirrors the success of

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cheddar as a cheese in all its
forms. Have you ever eaten cheddar cheese?

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Are you willing to pay more money
for small batch products? Is there

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a type of food made in your
community which many people want to buy?

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We want to hear your thoughts.
You can leave a comment on our website

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or email us at Radio at Radio
English dot net. You can also comment

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on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash
Spotlight Radio. The writer of this program

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was Dan Christman. The producer was
Mitcheo Zaki. The voices you heard were

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from the United States and the United
Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this

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program and voiced by Spotslight. You
can listen to this program again and read

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it on our website at www dot
Spotlight English dot com. This program is

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called The Town That's Lost Its chie
We hope you can join us again for

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the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,