Vindaloo Cheddar

Suddenly we were getting all these emails enquiring about something called 'vindaloo cheddar'. Super-strong, apparently. Naff name, we thought. We also thought 'huh?' - because we don't have anything by that name and have never heard of it. I 'd like to say that cheesemakers have too much taste to use such a terrible name, but there are a few examples that prove me wrong (my lips are sealed) ...

We were also getting more orders than usual for Montgomery's cheddar. Eventually the phone rang. It turned out that those fabled tastemakers Richard and Judy had featured an item about some 'Montgomery's Vindaloo Cheddar' - matured for 24 months. But this proved impossible to track down - and Montgomerys denied all knowledge.

I suspect what we're looking at is Montgomery's cheddar matured on longer by someone like Neals Yard, and it seems likely that some journalist dubbed it 'the vindaloo of cheddars. And the whole thing just spread. I bet Montgomerys are fed up with fielding the phone calls ...

Actually, though, we do have a 24 month matured cheddar, and one with a perfectly sensible name: Quicke's Vintage.

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