Staffordshire Cheese

Appearance & taste

Staffordshire Cheese is cylindrical, weighs 8 to 10 kg and is sold in a cloth wrapping. It is creamy white, smooth and somewhat crumbly and, depending on its age, hard or firm enough to slice. It tastes creamy, fresh and milky. The cheese contains 30 to 35 % fat, 48 to 51 % in dry matter.

The specification attributes its distinctive taste and consistency to the cows’ feed, the blend of starter cultures and the size of the cheese with its cloth wrapping.

Production

Milk and cream come from farms in Staffordshire. The cows graze on the pastures of the county; in winter they mainly eat grass and maize silage from Staffordshire and some concentrated feed, which raises the protein content.

The fresh raw milk is stored overnight at 0 to 5 °C. On the second day, cream from Staffordshire is stirred in and the mixture is pasteurised for 15 to 20 seconds at 72 to 75.5 °C. In the cheese vat a starter culture of Lactococcus lactis strains is added, and after 60 to 75 minutes of pre-ripening the rennet. After 45 to 50 minutes the curd is checked by hand and then cut lengthwise and crosswise with vertical and horizontal knives. The curd is stirred for 40 minutes at 30 to 32 °C and the whey is drawn off. The curd is then cut every 15 minutes for 45 minutes while the acidity rises.

Next the curd is broken up and mixed with 2.5 % salt, being turned only four times so that it does not dry out. It is put by hand into muslin-lined stainless steel moulds and pressed overnight; afterwards the cloth lies tight against the surface. The cheese is stored on shelves at 7 to 10 °C and turned daily for a week and weekly after that. It is mild after 2 to 4 weeks; it can ripen for up to 12 months.

Origin & history

Staffordshire has a warm, humid Atlantic climate. Lush pastures grow on the carboniferous limestone soil, which according to the specification are responsible for the creamy milk. The neighbouring counties differ from it: in Cheshire the soil is stony and salty, and Cheshire Cheese is very acidic and very crumbly; Derbyshire produces Stilton and Derby.

According to the specification, the cheese goes back to Cistercian monks who settled in Leek in Staffordshire in the 13th century. They wanted to be self-sufficient, worked among other things as farmers, bakers, brewers and cheesemakers and brought the knowledge of cheesemaking to the region. The cheese was made until the beginning of the Second World War, when the central collection of milk by the Milk Marketing Board put an end to many of England’s regional cheeses. Artisan cheesemakers have revived it together with farmers from the area.