Rutland Red- Red Leicester

Product Details

Made using a traditional recipe, Rutland Red is buttered, cloth-bound and matured for six months to produce a flaky, open texture cheese with a slightly sweet, caramelised flavour and rich golden orange colour. It is the only pasteurised Red Leicester produced in the county of Leicestershire and is a firm favourite at Long Clawson Dairy. Pasteurised and suitable for vegetarians.

(this cheese was formally named Thomas Hoe Aged Red Leicester)

Red Leicester, formerly known as Leicester or Leicestershire cheese is a traditional hard English cheese made from unpasteurised cow’s milk. The history of the cheese dates back to the 17^th century when farmers recognized the need to make and look their cheeses apart from cheese made in other parts of the country. They decided that the colour of the cheese should denote its richness and creaminess. To set it apart from cheddar and highlight the quality of cheese, Leicester is coloured with a vegetable dye called annatto. The rind is reddish-orange with a powdery mould on it. The colour indicates that the milk used has a high cream content. Today, only a a couple of farms in Leicestershire makes the cheese using traditional methods and raw milk.

Red Leicester is a hard cheese, similar to Cheddar but much more moist, crumblier with a milder flavour. It matures faster than cheddar and can be sold as young as two months. A good Leicester cheese can be identified by a firm body and a close, flaky texture. Though the cheese can be consumed young, to reach it’s optimum flavour, it should be allowed to mature for six to nine months. A good cheese tastes slightly sweet with an almost caramel flavour and builds up a more robust taste as it ages. The cheese suits a full-bodied white wine such as Muscadet, SancerreChenin Blanc and Vouvray.

200 grams each.