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Cheese from England

Cheddared cheese family (Cheddar as template)Cheddar

Cow milk is set with rennet, cut and scalded to about 38–41 °C. The drained curd is stacked in slabs and turned until it is acid enough, then milled, dry-salted, pressed and matured for months.

Fully documentedCheese2 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceFamily template, so the ingredients are the ones cheddared cheeses share. The only amount is the rennet dose of a generic Cheddar method (INFLIBNET); farmhouse makers set their own.
Cow milkRaw or pasteurised; West Country Farmhouse Cheddar allows both[wcfc-spec]
Starter cultureMesophilic lactococci that sour the milk[wcfc-spec][mohamed2023]
Rennet150 ml per 1000 L milkAnimal or vegetable rennet; the dose is from a generic Cheddar method[inflibnet][wcfc-spec]
Dry saltMixed into the milled curd[wcfc-spec][inflibnet]
Muslin and lardFor clothbound cylinders; blocks are wrapped in film instead[wcfc-spec]
Startermesophilic lactococcal starter culture

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactococcus lactisLactococcus cremoris32 °CpH 6.6

What changes: Starter and rennet go into warm milk and it sets to a gel

Step 1 of 9
Warm the milk and set it with rennet
Time
30–40 min
Reported
Temperature
32 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 6.6
Reported
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis
Lactococcus cremoris
Lactobacilli

Output: curd.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
firm gel
Colour
white

Microbes at work in this step

the starter begins to sour the milk

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Cow milk is set with rennet, cut and scalded to about 38–41 °C. The drained curd is stacked in slabs and turned until it is acid enough, then milled, dry-salted, pressed and matured for months. Made in 9 steps over 2 months. The longest step, mature, takes at least 2 months (US Code of Federal Regulations) and runs at 10 °C (INFLIBNET Centre). Lactococcus lactis and Lactococcus cremoris does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2 monthsSet[cfr133-113][wcfc-spec]Mature
Temperature10 °CReported[inflibnet]Mature
AciditypH 5.3–5.4Reported[inflibnet]Mill the slabs

What makes this one different

The curd is drained, then stacked and turned as slabs until it is acid enough (cheddaring), and milled and salted dry before pressing. Washed-curd cheeses such as Gouda swap part of the whey for water and are brined instead.

Related ferments

Variants

  • West Country Farmhouse Cheddar PDOMilk from Somerset, Dorset, Devon or Cornwall; cheddared by hand; matured at least 9 months.
  • Cheshire and GloucesterINFLIBNET puts them in the same family of semi-hard or hard cheeses, whose curd is cut, gently heated, piled and stirred before it is pressed into forms.
  • Colby and Monterey JackSimilar but milder; the curd is rinsed before it is pressed, which washes away some acidity and minerals (INFLIBNET).

Made the cheddared cheese family way

Other cheddared cheese family kinds

Made the same way, each with what its own sources record.

Isle of Mull CheddarIsle of Mull

Cheese from Scotland, Isle of Mull

Unlike most cheddars it is made on an island farm from milk that goes into the vat still warm from the cows, which are fed partly on distillery grain. Its paste is paler than many cheddars and can carry blue veins.

Milk
Raw cow milk from the farm's own herd
Ripening
about nine monthsReported

Sources: Finney C. 2021; Wikipedia; NHS

Lincolnshire Poacher

Cheese from England, Lincolnshire

The producer calls the recipe a cross between a traditional West Country cheddar and a continental alpine cheese such as Comté. The curd is cheddared, milled and salted before pressing. It is made on one farm from that farm's raw milk, and the cheese is not sold for about 18 months.

Milk
Raw cow milk from the farm's own herd of about 230 cows
Ripening
About 18 monthsReported

Sources: Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese; Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese; CDC

Safety

Cheddar is a hard cheese, and the UK NHS lists hard cheeses as safe in pregnancy even when unpasteurised. Some cheeses in this family are only semi-hard, and the NHS lists semi-hard cheeses as safe only when pasteurised. In the US, Cheddar made from raw milk must be cured for at least 60 days at not less than 35 °F (21 CFR 133.113). That ageing does not clear E. coli O157:H7. In a study that added it to unpasteurised milk made into Cheddar, it fell by less than 1 log in 60 days at 7 °C, and the authors call 60-day ageing inadequate to eliminate it.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria in unpasteurised dairy foods; Escherichia coli O157:H7 added to unpasteurised milk in a challenge test, which grew during making and fell by less than 1 log in 60 days of ageing at 7 °C.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The West Country Farmhouse Cheddar specification says there is evidence that Cheddar was first made around Cheddar in Somerset as far back as the 15th century, on farms, and sold at local markets. As milk production grew, factories were built to make it on a larger scale in the UK, the Commonwealth countries and the USA.

  1. [wcfc-spec] Defra (UK), West Country Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese PDO product specificationspec
  2. [inflibnet] INFLIBNET Centre, 'Technology of Cheese Manufacture -II: Soft and Hard cheeses', chapter 16 of Technology of Milk and Milk Products (e-PG Pathshala; CC BY-NC 4.0)book
  3. [cfr133-113] US Code of Federal Regulations, 21 CFR 133.113, Cheddar cheesegov
  4. [mohamed2023] Mohamed H.M., Barzideh Z., Siddiqi M., LaPointe G. 2023, Taxonomy, sequence variance and functional profiling of the microbial community of long-ripened Cheddar cheese using shotgun metagenomics, Microorganisms 11:2052paper
  5. [barzideh2022] Barzideh Z., Siddiqi M., Mohamed H.M., LaPointe G. 2022, Dynamics of starter and non-starter lactic acid bacteria populations in long-ripened Cheddar cheese using propidium monoazide (PMA) treatment, Microorganisms 10:1669paper
  6. [nhs-preg] NHS (UK), Foods to avoid in pregnancy (cheese section)gov
  7. [schlesser2006] Schlesser J. et al. 2006, Survival of a five-strain cocktail of Escherichia coli O157:H7 during the 60-day aging period of Cheddar cheese made from unpasteurized milk, J. Food Prot. 69:990–998paper