Graham Kirkham makes his cheese at Goosnargh in Lancashire, and the milk for the cheese comes from the family’s own herd of Friesian cows.The cheese is made over two days, using a third of the curd from each day of cheesemaking. Kirkham's Lancashire is then cloth-bound and rubbed with the traditional butter, which allows the cheese to breathe and develop over a maturation period of two to six months.
The Kirkhams have been making cheese for three generations; and Graham learned to make cheese from his mother, who now helps her husband to milk the cows.
The family is the last maker of traditional Lancashire; and the two-day curd method comes from the days when farmers only had a few cows, and it would take two days to get enough curd to fill one cheese mould.
The flavour of the unpasteurised milk and the buttered muslin rind produces a rich and complex white Lancashire, which melts in the mouth. It also creates the desired ‘buttery crumble’, with a clean and lactic flavour.
Kirkham's Lancashire cheese can be used to create a connoisseurs' cheese on toast, because of how the cheese bubbles rather than melts.
* This is a hand-made, artisan cheese, which may contain naturally occurring blue veins. These are normal and intrinsic to the nature of this type of cheese and add to its character. We think they taste good too!
*A whole Kirkham's Lancashire weighs approximately 9kg. Smaller weights are a cut of a whole cheese.
