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Cheese from England, Swaledale in North Yorkshire

Swaledale (Swaledale Ewes' Cheese PDO)Swaledale cheese

Full-fat milk is ripened two hours with lactic culture at 28 °C, set with rennet, cut and stirred, then cut into blocks that are stacked, broken by hand and lightly pressed in muslin. After a day in brine the young cheese matures three to four weeks under a blue-grey mould coat or a wax.

Fully documentedCheese23 days – 30 daysSwaledale Ewes' Cheese PDO (UK and EU registers); the cow-milk Swaledale Cheese PDO was cancelled in the UK in 2022Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification describes the method but gives no batch size or recipe amounts.
Full-fat ewes' or cows' milkCollected from farms in Swaledale and delivered daily[pfn-swaleewe][pfn-swale]
Lactic cultureA pre-set amount[pfn-swaleewe]
Rennet[pfn-swaleewe]
BrineAn 85% solution as read on a brinometer[pfn-swaleewe]
Natural mould coat or wax[pfn-swaleewe]
Starterlactic culture

Total time across the recorded steps: 23 days – 30 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countMoulds28 °C

What changes: Lactic culture goes into milk warmed to 28 °C and ripens it for two hours

Step 1 of 7
Warm the milk and ripen with culture
Time
2 h
Set
Temperature
28 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

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

Full-fat milk is ripened two hours with lactic culture at 28 °C, set with rennet, cut and stirred, then cut into blocks that are stacked, broken by hand and lightly pressed in muslin. After a day in brine the young cheese matures three to four weeks under a blue-grey mould coat or a wax. Made in 7 steps over 23 days – 30 days. The longest step, mature under mould or wax, takes 21–28 days (Defra) and runs at 5 °C (Defra). Greeny blue-grey surface mould on unwaxed cheeses does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step21–28 daysSet[pfn-swaleewe][sum-swale]Mature under mould or wax
Temperature5 °CSet[pfn-swaleewe]Mature under mould or wax

What makes this one different

The specification has the curd blocked and stacked, then broken by hand and only lightly pressed. The cheese is brined for 24 hours and matured for at least three to four weeks.

Milk
Full-fat ewes' milk (Swaledale Ewes' Cheese) or cow milk (Swaledale Cheese) from the dale
Ripening
At least 3 to 4 weeks
Cow cheese composition
At least 48% butterfat in dry matter, at most 48% moisture

Related ferments

Variants

  • Swaledale Cheese (cow milk)Creamy off-white and very moist; its PDO was cancelled in the UK in 2022 after the only producer moved production out of the dale.
  • Waxed SwaledaleHeld 24 h in a cold store, coated in wax (black wax for the ewes' cheese) and matured at 5 °C.

Safety

The specification calls Swaledale a hard cheese but also "quite firm but not hard", and it is young and moist. It does not say whether the milk is pasteurised. So do not rely on the NHS list of hard cheeses that are safe in pregnancy. For pregnancy, the NHS lists pasteurised semi-hard cheeses as safe and says foods made from unpasteurised milk, such as soft ripened goats' cheese, must be thoroughly cooked, so anyone pregnant should check the label for pasteurised milk.

History and sources

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

The specification says cheese-making was thought to have come to the Dales with monks from Normandy almost a thousand years ago. Swaledale cheese was first made from ewes' milk; dairy cows arrived in the 17th century. Creameries and two world wars nearly ended farm cheese-making; by 1980 only Mr and Mrs Longstaff of Harkerside still made it. Mr Longstaff died in the early 1980s and Mrs Longstaff retired, and in 1986 she gave the family recipe to Mr and Mrs Reed, who set up the Swaledale Cheese Company in 1987.

  1. [pfn-swaleewe] Defra, Product specification "Swaledale Ewes Cheese" PDO (UK protected food names)spec
  2. [pfn-swale] Defra, Product specification "Swaledale Cheese" PDO (UK protected food names)spec
  3. [sum-swale] Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, application for registration of Swaledale Cheese and Swaledale Ewes Cheese under Regulation (EEC) 2081/92 (summary, eAmbrosia)spec
  4. [defra-swale2022] Defra 2022, Decision to cancel Swaledale Cheese Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)gov
  5. [nhs-preg] NHS, Foods to avoid in pregnancy (cheese section)gov