Various sized cut pieces sat on a whole Duckett’s Caerphilly raw cow’s milk cheese, showing the crumbly curd paste and edible natural rind

Duckett's Caerphilly

A thin, earthy rind with notes of fresh grass and raw mushroom gives way to a creamy then crumbly curd, with a clean, fresh flavour and a pleasantly mineral tang.

PORTION

Sixteenth

MINIMUM 225 g

Eighth

MINIMUM 455 g

Quarter

MINIMUM 910 g

Half

MINIMUM 1825 g

Whole

MINIMUM 3655 g

Regular price £7.70 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

coagulant
Animal Rennet

milk treatment
Pasteurised

location
Evercreech, Somerset

milk source
Own herd; Bought-in

breed
Holstein; Dairy Shorthorn

season
All year

average age
2-3 Months

cheesemakers
Rob Howard; The Calver Family

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Though widely regarded as a classic Welsh cheese, Cheddar makers in Somerset have been making Caerphilly since the late 19th century as a means of generating some short-term cash while their slow-ageing traditional Cheddars matured.

background

Duckett's Caerphilly is produced at Westcombe Dairy in Somerset using the same fresh, unpasteurised milk used to make the acclaimed Westcombe Cheddar. It is named after Chris Duckett, who moved his cheesemaking operations to Westcombe in the late 1990s when his deteriorating health forced him to give up farming. The Ducketts' original farm was based in nearby Wedmore, where the family had been making their Caerphilly since the 1920s. When a few years later Chris retired from cheesemaking, the team at Westcombe resolved to keep the tradition alive by adopting both his recipe and his original tank. They continue to use the brine from this tank to salt the cheese – it's around 20 years old and carries a microbial community that is unique to the rind of Duckett's Caerphilly – and even went so far as to divert a spring through one of their cellars to create the perfect temperature and humidity for a dedicated Caerphilly ageing room.

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our work with this cheese

We visit Westcombe Dairy six times a year to taste and select Duckett's Caerphilly.

Accompaniments

Biscuit Selection
£7.50

Dijon Mustard
£2.75

Rosebud Old Yorkshire Chutney
£4.95

Rosebud Piccalilli Chutney
£5.15

Serving Suggestions

Melt down with a hit of strong mustard for a delicious Welsh rarebit topping. Spoon over smoked haddock fillets and bake until bubbling and golden.

Recipes

Kentish Apple Pie

This traditional pie was apparently a favourite of Charles Dickens. The tang of the cheese lifts the sweet and lightly spiced apples into new realms of pudding heaven.

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.