Cheddar makers celebrate top award

Three cheese makers who came together to promote an alternative to mass-produced Cheddar are celebrating after winning a top prize.

Most Cheddar on sale in the UK is made in factories and, because there is no protection over its name, can come from anywhere in the world.

It prompted the three dairies from Somerset, the home county of Cheddar, to link-up to highlight to shoppers the centuries-old methods they use to make the traditional version.

Their efforts were recognised by a body of food-lovers who announced they had given them its highest accolade.

Jamie Montgomery, whose farm at North Cadbury near Yeovil is among the three, said: "There is so much large-scale Cheddar production that it is very difficult to get people to realise that it hasn't always been that way."

He got together with Westcombe Dairy, at Evercreech, near Shepton Mallet, and the Keen family dairy, in Wincanton, to create the umbrella term of Artisan Somerset Cheddar.

Each dairy still sell under their own name but use the new denomination to target consumers.

The three companies use only unpasterised milk from their own cows. The cheese is made by hand with traditional animal rennet, covering with muslin cloth and matured for a minimum of 11 months.

Factory Cheddar, on the other hand, is normally made in huge automated machines which can produce seven tonnes of cheese an hour.

Randolph Hodgson, owner of Neal's Yard Dairy in London, said all three Artisan Somerset Cheddars were in demand across the UK, with exports orders to countries such as the US and even France. The three Artisan Somerset Cheddars was last night given the Grand Prix of Gastronomy by the British Academy of Gastronomes at a ceremony in London.

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