Curds Away by Hilary Armstrong
There’s a roll call of fine foods known the world over by brand name alone. These iconic global brands work in traditional ways yet offer top quality must-haves for fashionable menus everywhere Valrhona springs to mind for its superb chocolate. In Lancashire, however, these names are as nothing compared to that of the currently ubiquitous Leagram’s One Day Curd. Hilary Armstrong travels to Lancashire to find out more.
If you haven’t ordered off a Lancashire restaurant menu
in the last two years you can be forgiven for not knowing
the name. At just four years old, Leagram’s Organic
Dairy in Chipping, the historical centre of Lancashire cheese,
is a young upstart in the cheesemaking world. Owner Bob Kitching
may have thirty-odd years of cheesemaking behind him, but
the brand he started in the old cowsheds at Leagram Hall is
not yet a national institution in the manner of a family firm
like Mrs. Kirkham’s.
Spend any time at the county’s finest restaurants, however,
and you’ll soon be acquainted with Leagram’s.
Judging by menus at establishments as diverse as Cassis in
Mellor, Thyme in Longridge, or The Three Fishes at Mitton,
Leagram’s One Day Curd is the name to drop.
This hot new product is not all down to Bob Kitching, however.
Local chef and regional food champion, Nigel Haworth, of Northcote
Manor and the Three Fishes fame, had his part to play when
he went to Bob’s dairy for a masterclass in cheesemaking
two years ago.
“I was just being nosey, really,” says Haworth
of that serendipitous day. “I decided to have a taste
of the curds that we were going to be taking on to small Lancashires,
and they were so good I started to think about what we could
do with them.”
What Haworth then came up with for The Three Fishes, namely
buttered crumpet, Leagram’s organic day-old Lancashire
curd, with Ascroft’s cress and beetroot salad, is already
a modern Lancashire classic. There’s an upscale version
too - a dinky soufflé with beetroot chutney as served
at Northcote Manor.
The popularity of the dishes has been a boon for Bob’s
business. But from a cheesemaking point of view, the one-day
curd is tricky.
“It’s quite unique,” sighs
Bob. “It’s not hard, it’s not soft, it melts,
it cubes, but doesn’t grate. It’s not runny, but
is melty. It has a live, active acidity, so is unlike a soft
cheese. The environmental health officer just doesn’t
know what box to put it in.”
Bob makes the cheese with organic milk from the Trough of
Bowland. For him, it’s at its best from September to
November when the milk is at the right consistency. The milk
is set with rennet, and once the curds and whey have separated
and Bob has cut the junket, at the early stages of the cheesemaking
process, he makes the curd. Historically, the curd or ‘cruddes’
were eaten as a poor man’s protein source, but Bob’s
are taken on slightly further. “The character of the
curds changes very quickly, so I have only a fifteen minute
window in which to make it,” he explains. “Because
I hand-make my cheeses the traditional way, I can’t
make a large production.”
He doesn’t add salt, just brines each cheese so it has
a little liquid with it, then packages them in wax. These
keep for six to eight weeks.
It’s no surprise that Lancashire’s chefs have
taken to it. It ticks the local and artisanal boxes beloved
of the new food orthodoxy, but is just shy of being labelled
‘traditional’ as such. It’s born of tradition,
certainly, but is new and intriguing, not old-fashioned. And
until Bob resolves packaging and naming issues with his E.H.O.
and Trading Standards, this cheese won’t be travelling
far outside the county. For now, it’s just our little
secret.
www.cheese-experience.com
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