One of Australia's most famous cheddars comes from a tiny town in Tassie, with a long cheese-making tradition.

Cheddar is probably the most famous hard cheese in the world. Mellow, deliciously golden and amazingly fragrant, it’s no wonder that this great English-style cheese is loved by young and old.

Jon Healey’s family was part of the old Pyengana Cheese Cooperative that produced high quality cheddar in the sleepy little town of Pyengana, in north eastern Tasmania. The Co-op operated from 1895 to 1958. A fourth generation dairy farmer and cheese maker, Jon was sent to Switzerland when he was 16 to learn the craft first hand. In 1992 he decided to carry on the family tradition and established the Pyengana Cheese Factory.

While several Tasmanian dairies make cheddar, Pyengana Dairy is the only one that utilises the stirred curd method. Stirring the curd allows the whey to drain out more easily and strengthens the curd. It also allows for the addition of salt at a later stage. To this day, Jon still uses his grandfather’s cheese vat, designed especially to make this kind of cheese and produces an old-style cloth-wrapped cheddar.

Wrapping the cheese in fine muslin adds extra flavour. By letting the cheese breathe and build its own character, a unique texture develops. A cloth-wrapped cheese is turned and wiped several times a week for the rest of its life to keep the mould away and help build its rind - a production method used for over a hundred years. The result is a “mild, sweeter, more nutty flavour,” says Jon.

All milk used in Jon’s cheeses comes from the Fresian cows on his 100 acre farm. He believes the minerals in their milk help the cheese to set. The cheeses are stored in wheels, ranging from 3 - 40 kilograms in weight, for up to two years at a constant 14 degrees and 80 percent humidity.

Why do people go crazy over cheddar? Jon thinks it’s because “the flavour changes as it ages, and stays on the palate until after you have consumed the cheese …and because of its crumbly texture”. As it ages it develops more of a “front palate”, becomes more crumbly and develops that characteristic cheddar “bite”.