CheeseForum.org » Forum

So, inspired by Yoav's reblechon thread, as well as by my recent internship with Montgomery's Cheddar, I thought I would put up a thread about making West Country Farmhouse Cheddar.  I'm afraid I don't have quite as much knowledge as Yoav, but I'm learning and hope some of you will find this interesting.  BTW, this is a pretty long post.  More like a blog article but since I don't have a blog, I thought I would just post this here!

WEST COUNTRY FARMHOUSE CHEDDAR PDO

West Country Farmhouse Cheddar, has been awarded a 'Protected Designation of Origin' by the European Union.  While cheddar is made all over the world, it originated in the south-western counties of England.  The PDO assures buyers that what they are getting, in a market flooded with a huge variety of cheddar, is the original quintessential farmhouse cheddar. 

To receive this designation, the cheese must fulfil certain criteria:

•   The cheese must be made from the milk from cows milked in the counties of Somerset, Cornwall, Dorset and Devon.
•   The cheese must be made in these four counties using traditional methods and cheddared by hand.
•   The cheese must be aged for a minimum of 9 months and not leave the farm during this period.
•   The cheese mustn't contain colouring.

That's pretty much it for the PDO.  The secret to West Country Farmhouse Cheddar (WCFC) seems to be the West Country milk that comes from their Friesian Holsteins, grazed on sweet West Country grass! (Must be all that rain.)  I'm going to have to confirm this later, but I don't think the milk needs to be raw to receive the PDO.  That being said, the very best cheddars come from raw cow's milk and all the main WCFC worthy of mention (Montgomery's, Keen's, Westcombe being the main ones) make their cheddar using unpasteurized milk.  This is what enables all the nuances and flavours in the milk to come through.  It's the taste of terroir.

MONTGOMERY'S CHEDDAR

Montgomery's is one of the farms that still make traditional, bandaged wrapped, hand-made cheddar.  The farm is owned by Jamie and Archie Montgomery, third generation farmers and cheese makers.  It's Jamie that supervises the cheese making.  They have two herds, one is Friesian Holsteins and the other is Jersey cows.  They make Ogleshield (raclette style), Camelots (Comte) out of the Jersey and are currently trying to develop a Vacherin Mont d'Or style that they're calling Cadbur's.  One particularity about Montgomery's is that they own and graze their herds on the site of the ancient hill fort called Cadbury Castle in South Cadbury (Somerset).  This site is said to be the legendary site of Camelot.  Also, it's only about 20 miles from Glastonbury Tor, or the Isle of Avalon.

Montgomery's has always entered into many competitions and one first places numerous times in Local Somerset, British and World cheese competitions.  In fact Jamie was even rewarded the title of Champion Cheese maker of the World!  I didn't even know that existed!  When first seeing the dairy farm, it doesn't look like much.  You definitely wouldn't suspect it to be the birth-place of one of the world's finest cheddars.  It's fairly small and the opposite of high-tech.  They send their milk samples out to be tested.  They have a 1000gal vat and make 14-17 55lb truckles/day depending on the milk supply.  They use an old style peg mill which produces more ragged curds after milling and use calf rennet.

So what makes their cheddar so good?  For me it's a combination of a few things.  They age their cheddar for a minimum of 12 months and usually sell it by 18 months.  They can't keep it any longer than that and actually have to ration their cheeses, despite having no marketing strategy at all.  In fact their website is only a year old!  Despite this, Jamie has no intention of up-scaling.  As discussed previously, the quality of the milk in Somerset is really what sets all the WCFCs apart.  Additionally, the parlour where the cows are milked is adjacent to the cheese room so the milk is simply pumped straight into the vat and handled gently.

And finally, and this is quite unique to Montgomery's and a small handful of other cheese makers in the region: they still use a bulk starter bought in pint bottles and delivered frozen right to the farm.  The starter bacteria contained in this culture are the original strains that were native to the milk and have been used for centuries for cheddar making in the West Country.  Some time ago, Maryland Farm (part of the Barber group) collaborated with Ray Osbourne to create a database and preserve these cultures for the future.  I won't go into more detail, but I attached a ppt on the subject.

Flavour-wise, I think the first think to observe is the cheese isn't overly sharp.  Most people equate extra-aged cheddar with extra sharp, but even though you want some sharpness, you don't want it to be over-powering.  This, combined with the unpasteurized milk, really allows all the flavours of the Somerset milk to come through.  It's quite a different cheddar experience and is on par with the best French cheeses.

Here are some links for further reading:

http://www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/cheeses/Montgomerys%20Cheddar.pdf (http://www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/cheeses/Montgomerys%20Cheddar.pdf)
http://www.farmhousecheesemakers.com/cheesemakers/montgomery_s_cheddar/ (http://www.farmhousecheesemakers.com/cheesemakers/montgomery_s_cheddar/)
http://www.montgomerycheese.co.uk/ (http://www.montgomerycheese.co.uk/)

SO, NOW FOR THE ACTUAL MAKING PROCESS.

Particularities of this recipe: One thing that I didn't understand at all about the make is the flocc time that they use.  A few years ago, they were still using a fixed time for setting the curd (50min). Then they hired a consultant (a frenchie named Ivan Larcher) who introduced them to flocculation and told them that they should use a 1.7 multiplier.  Their flocculation time is 20 min so that makes for a little over 30 min.  It seems to be working very well for them even though the lowest multiplier I've ever seen is 2 for alpines and parma.  Any ideas?

Rather than specify exact quantities, I'll be using relative quantities and percentages.  This works fairly well anyway, since I'll be speaking in terms of bulk starter.  Maybe, someone can help standardize the amounts and convert to DVI.   I'll try to use the same format as Yoav, since I thought it was pretty clear.

RECIPE

• Heat raw cow's milk to 87.8°F/31°C
• Culture the milk with 1.5% mesophilic bulk starter.  Even though the exact strains aren't known, Barber's starter contains a mix of
         - Lactococcus  lactis subsp lactis
         - Lactococcus lactis subsp cremoris
         - Lactococcus lactis biovariety diacetylactis
         - Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp cremoris
• Ripen for 30 min.
• Add rennet.  As mentioned before, this is where this recipe differs from others.  Depending on the rennet you're using, add enough to get an 18-20 min flocc time.  Multiply this by 1.7 to get a 30-34 min total set time.
• Cut curd into pea/small hazelnut size pieces and stir gently, breaking up the larger pieces for about 10 min.  See first pic
• Heat the curd/whey mixture, while stirring, to 105.8°F/41°C over the course of 45 min.
• Cook the curds at this temperature for another 45-60min. Keep stirring to promote syneresis.  It's at this stage that experience comes in.  You want to achieve the right acidity as well as the right moisture content before draining.  You're aiming to drain at a pH of 6.1-6.2 (+-0.2 TA).  The curds should have firmed and shrunken quite a bit and will feel springy in your hand.  You should just be able to form a ball of curds in your hands by squeezing very firmly but the curds will easily separate again. See second pic for curd size at this point.
                If the curds are firm enough but not acidic enough, let them settle under whey and sit until the right acidity is achieved.
     If the acidity is right but the curds aren't quite firm enough, you can dry-stir after draining.  How this works is you toss the dry curds by        hand.  With each pass you release whey.
• Drain at 6.1-6.2 pH into a perforated vat/container (to drain whey during cheddaring or dry-stirring)
• Cheddar.  At Montgomery's, they used a fairly frequent flipping schedule. Let curds settle and fuse for 5-10 min.  Long enough to be able to flip them.  Cut curds into 6-inch slabs and flip.  After 10min (or as little as 5min) flip again, stacking two high.  Continue flipping and stacking, one slab higher each time, until the stacks are 5-7 slabs high.  The more slabs per stack, the less surface area for whey expulsion.  So if the curds seem a bit wet, stack lower and vice-versa.
• Milling target is a pH of about 5.4 (0.53-0.55 TA).  Mill into 2.5x1in pieces.
• Salt in three additions, stirring the salt in well between each addition.  At Montgomery's, they use a basic rule of 2.5 lbs/100gallons milk, which, assuming a 10% yield, works out to 2.9-3% of the curd weight.
• Press.  Using hydraulic presses, the cheese is pressed at 80 psi (on the piston, so that would have to be recalculated for the mold size).  At home, hit it with all you've got!  I'm not sure how much is needed for knit.  The cheeses are pressed overnight.  In the morning, they're un-molded, dipped for 30 seconds in a hot water bath (185°F/85°C) to melt the surface of the cheese.  They're then redressed and molded, then pressed until the new, smoother rind has set.
• Lard.  Once the rind has set (few hours, but at Montgomery's they leave them over night again), they're ready to be bandaged in lard.  There are two ways of doing this: Using two layers of muslin, dip the cloths in melted lard (don't burn yourself!) and wrap the cheese.  The cheese is then pressed a third time overnight (or until the lard has set and the bandage has bonded with the rind).  The second way is to use water to fuse the cloth to the rind, and then rub solid lard into the cloth.  Montgomery's uses the first method.
  The purpose of larding is to retain moisture and provide food for molds.  I can go into more detail about technique if needed.
• Age at 50-52°F/10-11°C at 90% humidity.  Let the molds grow, flipping regularly and brushing down the rind by hand.

The culture used (as stated) is the same as Probat 222 LYO and I think same as Flora Danica, no?  I notice there is no thermophilic present.

Cheddar is up soon on my list of cheeses to make...I believe I will be trying this recipe with local raw milk : )

Thanks for the post!  Very informative and english cheddars are my favorites.

More pictures, just because!  I included a pic of the molds and if you look at the link to the Neal's Yard pdf, you can see a finished cheese.  that gives you an idea for the form factor.  For dressing the molds, they use a heavy cloth, doubled with a nylon-type material that doesn't stick and flattens out nicely.

Yeah, same species/ sbsp as FD.  The strains will be different though.  Cheddar only uses meso culture.

Thanks for sharing the pics and the detailed dialogue. How much do the cheeses weigh when finished and what are their dimensions? What is the pressure used in pressing with that cool horizontal press?

-Boofer-

Each cheese weighs 25 kg, or around 55 lbs.  Needless to say, throwing those things around all day can get pretty tiresome!  The cheeses are pressed at 80psi.  However, I think that's on the piston, so the pressure would need to be recalculated for the follower's surface area.