What Causes Cheese to be Sharp?

Cheese is made differently depending on what the producer wants to achieve. Whether he wants to prepare soft cheese or hard cheese, there will be need to ensure that what comes out is exactly the expected result. There are either sharp or mild varieties of cheese that you will expect to get in the market. Most companies that make cheese will give you either of the two results. All cheeses are grouped as mild and sharp, but this category is mostly used with Cheddar cheese. This means that the sharpness of cheese is a manufacturer's design which may not be associated with anything external.
There are important properties that sharp cheese may have with it. These properties are the same ones which determine the degree of sharpness. The following properties will matter a lot when we are interested in knowing the sharpness of cheese.

You will realize that sometimes, the sharpness of cheese and its mild properties have a very wide difference. There are some cheeses which have labels indicating that they are extra sharp. Extra sharp cheese can be more difficult to cope with if you are the kind that dreads bitterness. Such may not be good for your pet too. However, extra sharp and plain sharp don't have a specific rule for manufacturing. This means that you might get one with plain sharp label, but still find that it is not really plain as you may have thought, depending on your taste anyway. Sharp cheeses in other words are usually bitter. This therefore means that, the stronger the sharpness, the bitter it might actually be. Most packages for sharper cheese are usually small and almost appearing restricted, unlike mild cheese which can be packaged in bigger packaging.

Textural nature of cheese
It is normal that sharper cheeses are made harder than the mild ones. A block of sharper cheese may crumble if the sharpness is too high. Sharp cheeses are mostly served in foods such as crackers which are smaller. You can also find them used in hamburgers and sandwiches. However, they will be more common in special menu options which are either served in restaurants or for special orders made by elite members.

Preparation method
One thing that most manufacturers do to increase the cheese's sharpness is by aging. It is said that as the cheese ages, you will get a denser taste. Aging will make the taste of your cheese sharper. What you do as you prepare cheese will determine how sharp it is all through. If you want to bring the sharp flavor more, you may want to age your cheese for six or even eight months.

Nutrition value
Sharp and even mild cheeses have in them a high content of calcium, Vitamin D and protein. What makes the difference in sharper cheeses is the presence of more purine which comes from uric acid. The uric acid concentration in cheese increases with increase in aging process. In this case, you will discover that cheese will become sharper.