Tower of whole and smaller cut pieces of Kirkham's Lancashire cheeses showing the lard bound outer-casing and crumbly textured paste

Kirkham's Lancashire

Best known for its inimitable crumbly-yet-creamy texture – a texture the Kirkham family call ‘buttery crumble’ – this raw milk farmhouse Lancashire boasts a bright, full flavour finished off by a light, yoghurty tang.

PORTION

Smallest Piece

MINIMUM 285 g

Sixteenth

MINIMUM 570 g

Eighth

MINIMUM 1145 g

Quarter

MINIMUM 2290 g

Half

MINIMUM 4580 g

Whole

MINIMUM 9160 g

Regular price £8.40 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
Raw

location
Near Goosnargh, Lancashire

milk source
Own herd

breed
Holstein

season
All year

average age
3-4 Months

cheesemakers
Graham Kirkham

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Traditional Lancashire is made using the curds created from several different milkings – a highly unusual approach.

background

In 1939 there were 202 farmhouse producers of Lancashire. Today, only the Kirkhams remain, with Graham Kirkham the third generation to follow in his family's footsteps by making raw milk Lancashire according to the traditional method. This involves combining curds from several days' milkings – an approach as unique as it is time consuming, having originated in the days when Lancashire farms were much smaller, and didn't have enough cows to make cheese on a daily basis. But it's well worth the effort for the resulting complexity of taste and texture. We have worked closely with the Kirkhams for over 30 years, beginning when Graham's father John managed the cows and his mother Ruth was responsible for the cheesemaking, and we look forward to many more years of this treasured territorial cheese.

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our work with this cheese

Every month we visit Beesley Farm, taste our way through the batches of Kirkham's Lancashire that are one to two months old, and select those we think are best for us. The majority of these will be sold the following month, when the cheese is just three or four months old and the flavours are fresh and gentle, but a few cheeses will lend themselves to a longer maturation period of approximately 10 months. These we will take back to Bermondsey and tend to in our own maturing arches, during which time they will develop a texture that is closer to the crumbly side of 'buttery crumble' and some flavours that are more upfront and punchy.

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Graham Kirkham turning blocks of curd in the vat

The Kirkham's Lancashire dairy

Filling the Kirkham's Lancashire cheese moulds with curds

Kirham's Lancashire maturing on the shelves at the Neal's Yard Dairy Borough shop.

Accompaniments

Damson Paste - 200g Slice
£8.20

Rosebud Piccalilli Chutney
£5.15

Serving Suggestions

Serve chunks of Lancashire with warm Eccles cakes.

Makes excellent cheese on toast.

Recipes

Granny's Apple Pie Recipe

We couldn't neglect to include a recipe for Apple Pie. For as Graham Kirkham himself says: ‘Apple pie without cheese, is like a kiss without a squeeze’.

Lancashire Tart

The Lancashire Tart is an iconic menu item from 40 Maltby Street, and here we are privileged to present you with the recipe.

Lancashire Pesto

For Lancashire Month, we ran a (not very scientific) blind tasting for Neal's Yard Dairy staff of three 'pesto' recipes. Here is the winning recipe, featuring Kirkham's Lancashire!

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.