A Trio of Vermont Cheddars Forms the Ultimate in Comfort Food

There was no escaping those bitingly sharp cheddars during my Vermont childhood. Cubed and tossed into plastic baggies for an apres-ski snack, sliced thin onto crackers with venison sausage as an appetizer, and slabbed thick onto apple pie for dessert, the stuff was everywhere. As a kid I would watch my dad wrestle 40-pound wheels of cheddar off a dairy truck. In the back of his gas station I would steady each wheel of pale yellow heaven for him while he carved it into five-pound wedges to resell from a beat-up refrigerator. For my efforts I’d be rewarded with a cast-off piece of cheese so sharp that the glands behind my lower jaw would tingle.

My family’s cheese consumption spiked in the ‘80s when my mom and dad bought the then 130-year-old Wayside Country Store. Frugal people, they couldn’t bear to see perfectly good food go to waste and, because the store’s popular extra-sharp cheddars were hacked, sliced and chunked from iceberg-size blocks sitting under a plastic cake dome in the deli, there always seemed to be odd cheddar ends that needed to be used.

One day, a store employee gathered the cast-off cheese tailings and used them to whip up a batch of macaroni and cheese. The result was a tangy and complex version of a usually bland comfort food. Over the last decade, it has become a staple for the store’s lunch crowd and a perfect showcase for Vermont’s extra-sharp cheddars.

While you can’t get the full effect unless you swing by the Wayside for lunch (if you do, make sure to tell Doug and Nancy their kid’s staying out of trouble in L.A.), you can come pretty close right here in Southern California if you’re willing to hunt around for just the right cheese.

The store’s holy trinity of extra-sharps came from the Cabot Creamery, Crowley Cheese and the Seward Family (which has since gone out of business). You can find Cabot’s extra sharp at most Trader Joe’s locations. Whole Foods Markets carries the Crowley cheeses. An extra-sharp from the Grafton Village Cheese Company serves as a worthy replacement for the now extinct Seward cheese. It can also be found at Whole Foods.

Tony Princiotta, the cheese buyer at The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, also suggests a few non-Vermont extra-sharps that will do in a pinch. They include Tuxford & Tebbutt cheddar from England, Old Quebec cheddar from Canada, Vintage Irish cheddar from Ireland (all available at The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills) and a Bravo Farms Special Reserve from Visalia, Calif. (available at Bristol Farms).

It may take a little legwork to procure the right blend of extra-sharp cheddars for this recipe but it sure beats wrestling a 40-pound wheel off a dairy truck.

The Wayside Country Store’s Mac and Cheese

Serves 8 to 10

4 tablespoons butter

4 cups flour

2 cups whole milk

2 cups of shredded Vermont extra-sharp cheese (preferably 1/3 cup each of three different cheeses) with extra to sprinkle on top if baking

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups (16 ounces) of elbow macaroni

Cook the macaroni in 2 quarts boiling water. Melt the butter in a saucepan. After the butter is completely melted, turn off the heat and whisk in the flour. Heat the milk and whisk it into the butter/flour mixture. Turn the heat back on to medium and continue to stir until the mixture just begins to thicken. Add the cheese and continue stirring until all the cheese is melted. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the sauce to the cooked and strained macaroni. For a creamier version, serve immediately. For a more traditional version, bake in an oven-proof casserole with additional grated cheddar on top for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

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Food stylist: Christine Masterson

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Adam Tschorn last wrote for the magazine about a tailor from Hong Kong.