Pushing the Boundaries of Cheddar: A Workshop
What does it mean to make Cheddar today? For most of us, Cheddar is so familiar that it feels almost fixed—reliable, universal, and unchanging. But step back 150 years, and the picture looks very different: Cheddar was not one thing, but many. Every farmstead had its own methods, tools, and rhythms, producing cheeses that varied subtly—or sometimes dramatically—from their neighbours.
This spring, we set out to reconnect with that spirit of diversity and experimentation. Our Technical Director, Bronwen Percival, working with former colleague and cheesemaker Jenn Kast, organised a workshop hosted by Tom Calver and the team at Westcombe Dairy, bringing together cheesemakers from eight raw-milk Cheddar dairies across the UK. The aim wasn’t to perfect a recipe or crown a “best” Cheddar, but to create space for curiosity: to see what happens when we step outside our usual routines and try something new (or something very old).
Cheesemakers from Montgomery’s, Isle of Mull, Quicke’s, Poacher, and Hafod stirring curds in a recreation of an 1890s Cheddar vat — complete with an antique curd breaker.
The core focus of the workshop was to look more closely at the defining step of Cheddar-making itself: cheddaring. After following Westcombe’s make up to the “pitch” (the point when whey is drained and the curds settle into a mat) head cheesemaker Rob Howard divided the curds into four sections. The visiting cheesemakers then split into teams, each working the curd in the way they would normally do in their own dairies: different approaches to stacking, turning, texturing, and milling.
Filling bags and pressing curds for the 1890s-style Cheddar vat. Unlike modern practice, this method used cotton cloths (“scrims”) and wooden racks to shape the curd’s texture.
The aim was simple but profound: to understand better what the cheddaring step actually contributes to the finished cheese. Measurements of pH and moisture were taken, but the real test will come when the cheeses mature. Tasting them side by side will allow us to see, in a way that’s never been done before, how variations in cheddaring practice express themselves in flavour, texture, and overall character. For the makers involved, it was also a chance to bring something of themselves— their own experience and approach to making Cheddar—into the collective experiment.
Draining whey from the main workshop vat: a channel is cut down the centre so the liquid can run off, leaving curds behind to knit into solid blocks.
As Jenn put it, “The workshop was aimed at understanding & celebrating the different Cheddar making methods, practices and outcomes alive in the UK right now, and placing modern practice within the context of some historic practice. The experimental nature of the workshop facilitated knowledge sharing among cheddar producers, fostering openness and appreciation for the varied approaches to artisan Cheddar making we have in the UK.”
Testing out different cheddaring methods: the curds all followed the same steps until the whey was drained, then were treated in contrasting ways to mirror the range of techniques cheesemakers use today.
Alongside the cheddaring trial, the group also tried out the so-called “Cannon make”, inspired by an 1890s Somerset recipe. This was more of a curiosity—a way of peering back into history. Bronwen reported that the biggest challenge was psychological: “I was struck by how my ‘modern’ mentality is absolutely geared toward keeping busy, moving forward, doing something all the time. It was excruciating to have to hold back when the acidity wasn’t moving. How exactly did those farmer-cheesemakers 150 years ago avoid the temptation to slam through the make?”
Edith Cannon, namesake of the "Cannon Make".
Both trials—one focused on modern variation, the other on historic reconstruction—shared a common thread: they highlighted the importance of community. Cheesemakers are usually tied to their own make rooms, rarely getting the chance to step away. Over the course of a few days at Westcombe, vats of milk became sites of learning, debate, and camaraderie.
The beauty of this experiment is that its results are still to come. The cheeses are now resting quietly in their stores, and we will return in a year’s time to taste them side by side. That tasting will be the real test: will we be able to detect differences between the four cheddaring approaches? If we can, how might that change the way we think about Cheddar? And if we can’t, what will that say about the process we take for granted as the hallmark of the style?
As Jenn summed up, “In a way, the Cheddar Mapping project as a whole has been a way to highlight a unique aspect of British cheesemaking culture: the near full-scale rejection of the strict codification of cheesemaking practice for historic cheeses. A big part of our heritage is an acceptance of varied interpretations within styles. Cheddar, because of its continuous popularity, is the best current example of this.”
The next step is to share what we learn—not just with the cheesemakers who participated, but with our wider community of colleagues, mongers, and hopefully customers. By tasting and discussing these trial cheeses together, we hope to open up fresh conversations about what Cheddar has been, what it is today, and what it could yet become.
A Cheddar Selection by Neal's Yard Dairy
If you’d like to be kept informed about our plans to host a tasting of these experimental cheeses when they’re ripe next year, just drop us a line via our contact form.