By the mid-17th Century, London had become England's main cheese market and there was pressure on cheesemongers to increase the size of their wheels. As a result, Cheddar-area cheesemakers developed a process known as "cheddaring", in which they pressed milled curds to reduce the liquid whey. Decreasing the cheese's moisture levels after scalding rendered it even more solid, making it easier to shape the cheddar into larger, longer-lasting wheels that could be transported to London and beyond.