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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from England, the historical counties of Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall

West Country Farmhouse Cheddar PDOWest Country Farmhouse Cheddar

West Country Farmhouse Cheddar is Cheddar made on farms in Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall from raw or pasteurised cow milk. The curd is scalded at about 39–41 °C, then cut into slabs that are turned and stacked by hand until the acid is right, milled, salted and pressed. Cylinders are bound in lard-dipped muslin, and every cheese matures for at least nine months. Made in 10 steps over 9 months. The longest step, mature at least nine months, takes at least 9 months (Defra 2012) and runs at 10 °C (INFLIBNET Centre). Lactococcus and Streptococcus starter bacteria, with Lactobacillus, the dominant groups in artisanal and industrial Cheddars does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 9 monthsSet[wcfc-spec]Mature at least nine months
Temperature10 °CReported[inflibnet]Mature at least nine months
AciditypH 5.3–5.4Reported[inflibnet]Cheddar the curd by hand

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedAll makers follow the same basic recipe, but the specification gives no amounts. Times and temperatures are left to the cheesemaker's skill, apart from the scald and the nine-month minimum.
Cow milk, raw or pasteurised · About half comes from the makers' own farms; may be standardised when the fat to casein ratio is far from 1:0.7[wcfc-spec]
Starter culture[wcfc-spec]
Animal or vegetable rennet[wcfc-spec]
Salt · Mixed into the milled curd[wcfc-spec]
Lard or another natural fat or oil, and muslin · For bandaging cylinders[wcfc-spec]
Starter: starter culture added before the rennet; strains not specified

Total time across the recorded steps: 9 months

Start
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What changes: Starting material: cow milk from West Country farms, raw or pasteurised

Step 1 of 10
Collect and test the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus
Streptococcus
Lactobacillus

Milk is collected from the makers' farms, usually daily, and tested before use. It may be pasteurised or used raw; the rest of the method is the same.

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

It must be made on a farm in the four West Country counties, with the curd cheddared by hand rather than by machine. It matures at least nine months, and only cheese that passes grading at 2–4 months may carry the name.

Milk
Cow milk, raw or pasteurised, mostly from Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall
Curd
Cheddared by hand
Cooking
Scalded at around 103–106 °F (39.4–41.1 °C)
Ripening
At least 9 months; graded at 2–4 months
Rind
Cylinders bandaged in muslin dipped in lard or another natural fat; blocks are rindless in film
Composition
Fat in dry matter at least 48 %; moisture at most 39 %

Related ferments

Variants

  • Cylinder (clothbound)Bandaged in lard-dipped muslin, forms a hard rind and loses moisture as it matures.
  • BlockWrapped in semi-permeable film in wooden boxes; no rind and no moisture loss, so the curd is made drier.

Safety

The cheese may be made from raw milk. In lab-made raw-milk Cheddar, E. coli O157:H7 stayed detectable by enrichment for more than 270 days, so ageing alone does not remove it, and Mycobacterium bovis fell only slowly during maturation. Clean milk and good acid development matter.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli O157:H7, which survived more than 270 days in lab-made raw-milk Cheddar; Mycobacterium bovis, which declined slowly during maturation of lab-made raw-milk Cheddar.

History and sources

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

The specification says Cheddar was made on farms near Cheddar in Somerset by the 15th century, and that cheese from near the Gorge was said to be matured in the caves under the Mendip Hills. A "Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese" certification mark was registered in 1955 for farm-made, hand-made cheese graded at 2–4 months and kept at least 9 months. Farmhouse Cheesemakers Ltd, formed in 1981, applied for the PDO, registered in 1996.

  1. [wcfc-spec] Defra, Product specification 'West Country Farmhouse Cheddar' PDO (summary under Art. 7(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012), applicant Farmhouse Cheesemakers Ltdspec
  2. [inflibnet] INFLIBNET Centre, Technology of Milk and Milk Products, Chapter 16, Technology of cheese manufacture II, soft and hard cheeses (generic Cheddar process)book
  3. [afshari2020] Afshari R. et al. 2020, New insights into cheddar cheese microbiota-metabolome relationships revealed by integrative analysis of multi-omics data, Scientific Reports 10:3164 (abstract)paper
  4. [damico2010] D'Amico D.J., Druart M.J., Donnelly C.W. 2010, Behavior of Escherichia coli O157:H7 during the manufacture and aging of Gouda and stirred-curd Cheddar cheeses manufactured from raw milk, Journal of Food Protection 73:2217–2224 (abstract)paper
  5. [forgrave2016] Forgrave R. et al. 2016, Survival kinetics of Mycobacterium bovis during manufacture and ripening of raw milk Cheddar and Caerphilly cheese produced on a laboratory-scale, Journal of Applied Microbiology 121:1457–1468 (abstract)paper