Westcombe Cheddar

Cheddar has been made at Westcombe Farm since the late 19th century, and the cheese produced there today is much the same as it would have been back then. After dabbling briefly in the manufacture of block Cheddar in the 1970s, Richard Calver decided in 1999 to return the dairy to its traditional roots, making raw milk cheese. Turning to the recipe that would have been followed in the 1890s, he dismantled the factory and built a dairy better suited to a more traditional make. When Richard's son Tom joined the business, he brought with him a chef's training and experience of working in Neal's Yard Dairy. Moving the make away from mechanisation as much as possible, Tom set about mastering every aspect of its process, from the quality of the milk, to understanding the interplay of rennets and cultures, to building a new maturing cave complete with Tina the cheese-turning robot. At the same time, Richard continued to work on improving his herd, and most recently took the bold decision to switch their herd of Holstein-Friesian to Shorthorns – a heritage breed that can subsist solely on grass and silage, and offers both versatility and slower, more sustainable growth. Once moulded, the Cheddars are cloth-bound with lard and matured for between 11 and 18 months. Today, Westcombe is one of three Cheddars left in Somerset that are still made by hand on the farm using raw milk, a natural cloth binding and traditional cheese cultures.