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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Lancashire, England

Lancashire (Beacon Fell PDO)Beacon Fell Traditional Lancashire Cheese

Cow milk is set with starter and rennet, and the curd is broken and drained on tables until it is acid enough. Some curd is held for one or two days, then mixed with fresh curd, milled, salted at about 2.5 % and lightly pressed. The cheese is matured at least 3–4 weeks and sold mild (creamy) or mature (tasty). Made in 7 steps over 22 days – 23 days. The longest step, mature, takes at least 21 days (Defra 2023) and runs at 16 °C (Sanders G.P. 1953). Salt is 2.5 % (Defra 2023). Lactic starter culture does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 21 daysSet[lancashire-spec-2023]Mature
Temperature16 °CReported[usda-hb54]Mature
Salt2.5 %Set[lancashire-spec-2023]Blend, mill and salt
Fully documentedCheese22 days – 23 daysPDO (UK; Beacon Fell Traditional Lancashire Cheese)Family: Cheddared cheese family (Cheddar as template)More cheddared cheesesMore from United Kingdom

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification gives the salt rate but no batch size. Cheese is made in traditional cylinders or blocks of any size, bandaged, waxed, buttered or vacuum packed.
Full-fat cow milk · Collected daily from farms in the designated area[lancashire-spec-2023]
Starter culture and rennet[lancashire-spec-2023]
About 2.5 % of curd weightSalt · Mixed into the milled curd[lancashire-spec-2023]
Starterstarter culture

Total time across the recorded steps: 22 days – 23 days

Start
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28–31 °C

What changes: Starter and rennet go into warm milk and it sets in about an hour

Step 1 of 7
Add starter and rennet
Time
1 h
Reported
Temperature
28–31 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: set curd.

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

What makes this one different

Lancashire mixes curds of different ages. Curd held one or two days is blended with the day's curd at milling, which gives the loose, buttery body that a single-day cheddared curd does not have.

Milk
Full-fat cow milk from Lancashire
Ripening
At least 3–4 weeks; sold from 1 month; fully mature at about 6 months
Composition
At least 48 % fat in dry matter; at most 48 % moisture

Related ferments

Variants

  • Creamy LancashireSold young, from about one month; mild, clean and soft.
  • Tasty LancashireMatured longer; fully mature at about six months; sharp and tangy.

History and sources

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

Preston received its first royal charter for fairs in 1179, where north Lancashire farm cheese was sold. In the late 1800s Joseph Gornall of Garstang toured farms for the county council to teach one method; it was followed in the 1956 Ministry handbook. Before the Second World War over 200 farms made it; by 1948 only 22 did.

  1. [lancashire-spec-2023] Defra 2023, Beacon Fell Traditional Lancashire Cheese PDO, revised product specification (non-minor amendment)spec
  2. [usda-hb54] Sanders G.P. 1953, Cheese varieties and descriptions, USDA Agriculture Handbook 54 (Lancashire)archive