Sparkenhoe Mature Red Leicester

• Named for the town of Leicester in the county of Leicestershire, Red Leicester is a centuries-old British cheese.
• It was originally made using surplus milk from Stilton production, but as demand for Stilton grew, there was less leftover milk, so its production decreased.
• It’s thought that cheesemakers began adding dyes to the cheese as early as the 17th century, to create a color that distinguished Red Leicester from similar cheeses made nearby, like Cheshire and Cheddar.
• The color is now achieved with annatto, an orange-tinted food coloring derived from the seeds of the achiote tree.
• In the 19th century, Red Leicester became more mass-produced, with the raw-milk, clothbound version of the cheese extinct for half a century when David and Jo Clarke of Sparkenhoe Farm revived it.
• They had no cheesemaking experience but did have a quality herd of Holsteins and a desire to revive a forgotten cheese.
• Drawing on historic recipes and advice from local cheesemakers, they set about making classic, handcrafted Red Leicester using the cheddaring process and clothbinding the wheels with lard.
• Younger wheels—moist and mellow—are sold between five and six months. For this Mature Red Leicester, Neal’s Yard selects wheels and brings them to their own aging facilities to age for six more months.
• The older wheels are denser, drier, and more intensely savory.

When you receive your cheese, unpack the order and refrigerate the items. We recommend using the cheese paper we send most of our products in to store the cheese. The cheese paper helps cover the items and stop them from drying out, while also allowing the cheese to breathe. Since cheese is mold, it's a living thing! If you cut off air circulation to the cheese, you can actually cause it to suffocate and spoil at a faster rate.