Tower of whole and smaller cut pieces of cloth-bound Montgomery's Cheddar cheese with a firm but friable paste

Montgomery's Cheddar

Rich, brothy, savoury flavours are the hallmarks of the Cheddars we select from Montgomery’s. Drier and more stratified than most of the Cheddars we sell, its almost crystalline nature makes it melt in the mouth.

Clothbound with lard.

PORTION

250g

MINIMUM 250 g

500g

MINIMUM 500 g

1kg

MINIMUM 1000 g

2kg

MINIMUM 2000 g

Regular price £8.30 Sale

Quantity

- +

Spend over £29.50 to receive free delivery (England, Wales & Central Scotland)

Delivery Information

Standard delivery is free to most postcodes in the UK for orders over £29.50. Click here for a list of postcodes where additional delivery charges apply.

For orders under £29.50, standard delivery is £6.00.

Collection from our London shops is free - choose Shop Collection at checkout.

Choose your preferred delivery date at checkout. As we use third party couriers (typically DPD) we cannot guarantee the arrival day of your order but we will do our best to ensure that it arrives as close as possible to your chosen date. To be sure it arrives in time, we recommend choosing a date a couple of days ahead of when you would like to eat your cheese.

Download Crib Sheet

milk type
Cow

ingredients
MILK, salt, rennet

coagulant
Animal Rennet

milk treatment
Raw

location
North Cadbury, Somerset

milk source
Own herd

breed
Holstein-Friesian

season
All year

average age
18 Months

cheesemakers
Jamie Montgomery; Steve Bridges; Tim Griffey

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Montgomery's Cheddar is made using the traditional, time-consuming method of 'cheddaring' – the cutting, stacking and turning of the curds by hand.

background

Montgomery's Cheddar has since 1911 been made at Manor Farm, where the milk from the 200-strong herd of Friesian cows that roam the 1,200-acre farm is used exclusively for making the cheese, considered by many to provide the benchmark for Somerset Cheddar. The careful, measured approach to modernisation pioneered by Jamie Montgomery means engaging only those advances that will improve the make without compromising on the processes that define the cheese. As well as the time-consuming method of 'cheddaring' – the cutting, stacking and turning of the curds by hand to drain the whey away – Montgomery's uses a traditional 'pint' starter (as opposed to the powders favoured by industrial cheesemakers) and an old, slow peg mill, lending the cheese its characteristically brittle texture. Each wheel is wrapped in muslin cloth and rubbed with lard before being stowed on the wooden shelves of the cellar for between 12 and 18 months, during which time they are carefully turned and tended. Once upon a time, all this was standard practice; today Montgomery's is one of only three farmhouse Somerset Cheddars left in the county to be made using these traditional techniques.

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our work with this cheese

Every month, two or three members of our buying team will visit Manor Farm in order to select those wheels we wish to sell at Neal's Yard Dairy. Alongside Jamie Montgomery, we'll carefully taste all the cheese made over the course of that month and select those wheels we wish to sell wholesale, those we think will work in our London shops, those we think our European buyers will enjoy, and those best suited to our American buyers, whose tastes are different again. We've been working with – and tasting – Montgomery's Cheddar for many years, providing feedback and understanding, and we draw upon that learning when we're selecting cheeses to best satisfy the broad palette of our various customers. Those we choose are set aside and continue to age at Montgomery's maturing rooms until such a time as they ready to be transported to our Bermondsey arches for sale in our shops, to restaurants, or to the United States.

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Accompaniments

Rosebud Old Yorkshire Chutney
£6.00

Rosebud Piccalilli Chutney
£6.00

Serving Suggestions

Top your shepherd's pie with a grating of Montgomery's and then bake for a beautiful cheesy mash topping.

FAQs

How much cheese to buy?

As a general rule of thumb, we would recommend roughly between 100 and 150 grams per person for after dinner, and a bit more if cheese is the focus of the meal. If you are buying cheese to serve over a couple of days or as part of a buffet, it is advisable to buy a few larger pieces. This will both look better and keep better than many small bits. To help visualise weights, a good tip is to consider that a regular supermarket pat of butter weighs between 200 and 250 grams. If you are at all unsure please give us a call for some advice.

How should I store my cheese?

The best option is to keep your cheese wrapped in its paper within a box in the fridge. This will prevent the cheese from drying out and absorbing other flavours. Your cheese will arrive wrapped in waxed cheese paper, which achieves the best possible balance between maintaining humidity around the cheese and allowing it to breathe. We are happy to provide some free extra cheese paper, just search for "cheese paper" and add it to your basket. We don't recommend cling film or foil as it can cause the cheese to sweat which will negatively affect the flavour.