Ledger / Semi-hard / 2026-09-06
Clothbound Cheddar: The Lard, the Bandage and the Six-Month Turn
A clothbound wheel is the only cheese in this ledger whose rind is a piece of fabric. The larded cloth is a controlled moisture barrier: too dry and the wheel cracks, too wet and the surface goes ammoniated under the bandage without you seeing it. The numbers below are for a 4 kg wheel from 40 litres.
Each segment is as wide as its share of the 140 minutes in the vat; the set segment carries the set temperature, the cut segment carries the cut size.
Salt and press drawer
Press ladder
- 10 kg0.5 h
- 20 kg11.5 h
- 25 kg12 h
Butter muslin or linen larded with lard, wrapped tight. Keeps moisture in and lets the surface breathe.
Mill at pH 5.3, salt at 1.8%
Raw milk, 0.4% mesophilic culture, 22 IMCU of animal rennet per litre at 31 C, set forty minutes, cut to 8 mm. Scald slowly to 39 C over forty-five minutes and drain for forty.
Stack and cheddar the slabs, turning every fifteen minutes, for about two hours until the milled pieces read pH 5.3. Mill, then salt at 1.8% by curd weight and let the salt absorb for twenty minutes before hooping. Salting hot and milling fine are what make the texture close rather than crumbly.
Twenty-four hours under an increasing press
Press at 10 kg for thirty minutes, 20 kg for eleven and a half hours, then 25 kg for twelve hours. Turn the wheel at every press change, and re-wrap the cloth if it has creased.
The press is deliberately gentle for the first half hour. Instant full pressure traps whey in pockets that later become the slit defects that make a wheel unsellable.
Lard the cloth and bandage it tight
Rub 60 g of lard into a piece of butter muslin large enough to cover both faces and the band, and wrap the wheel tight, folding the corners flat against the top. Then bandage with a second, unlarded layer and tie it with string around the circumference.
The lard layer is the moisture regulator. A wheel bandaged dry loses 12% of its weight in six months and cracks at the rim; one bandaged with too much lard stays wet and grows a grey surface mould between the cloth and the paste.
Eleven degrees, six months, and turn it weekly
Age at 11 C and 85% RH. Turn the wheel every week for the first eight weeks, then every second week. Brush the cloth with a dry brush if a white surface mould appears on it; that is normal and it does not mean the cheese is spoiled.
At three months the paste has lost its raw edge. At six months it has the crystalline crunch of tyrosine and a long, savoury finish. The cloth comes off only at the moment of cutting. Re-bandaging at four months with a fresh larded cloth is optional and gives a cleaner rind, but it costs you a week of drying time.
Aging parameters
| Milk | Raw cow milk 3.9% fat |
|---|---|
| Culture | Mesophilic 20–30 °C |
| Rennet | Calf rennet (animal) 22 IMCU/L |
| pH at drain | 6.2 target 6.1–6.5 |
| Target moisture | 36 % |
| Cave temperature | 11 °C |
| Cave humidity | 85 % |
| Aging days | 180 days |
| Rind treatment | Cloth bandage |
| Yield | 4.4 kg |
Raw cow milk Semi-hard 180 days
Defect diagnosis
Flagged on this make: Bitterness、Misread surface mould、Faulty eye formation
Bitterness seen this make
Signal — A harsh, lingering bitter note at the back of the palate, strongest in the first three weeks and often fading after six.
Cause — Too much rennet for the set time, or a microbial coagulant with high protease activity, or a scald that never got past 38 C.
Fix — Cut the dose by 20% next make and hold the scald 2 C higher for 10 minutes longer. Bitter peptides are water-soluble, so a 12% brine for 24 hours pulls some out.
Rancidity not seen
Signal — Soapy, paint-like smell that hits before the cheese reaches the mouth. Sharp and unpleasant rather than merely strong.
Cause — Free fatty acids released by lipase, usually from raw milk that sat warm too long, or from rennet paste, or from a knife or cloth that carried old milk residue.
Fix — Chill milk to 4 C within two hours of milking and pasteurise anything older than 24 hours. Retire the cloth: boil it, do not just rinse it.
Faulty eye formation seen this make
Signal — Either no eyes where the style demands them, or a scatter of irregular slits and cracks instead of round, evenly spaced holes.
Cause — Coliform or yeast contamination from unsanitary brine, or a press that was too cold (below 18 C) so the propionic culture never woke up, or too much salt killing it outright.
Fix — Boil and re-salt the brine to 18-20% between batches, press at 20-22 C for the first six hours, and keep the salt under 1.6% for eye-forming styles.
Misread surface mould seen this make
Signal — A grey-green or black fuzzy patch on a rind that was supposed to be white or orange, or blue speckling on a hard cheese.
Cause — Wild Penicillium and Cladosporium from a cave with moving air and standing humidity. Also from brushing a good rind with a damp, dirty brush.
Fix — Distinguish before you discard: white felt and orange smear are wanted, green fuzz on a hard rind is surface only and rubs off with 3% brine. Black patches that pit the paste mean the wheel is lost.
Four things to carry forward
- Mill at pH 5.3, salt at 1.8% while the curd is still warm
- 10 / 20 / 25 kg over 24 hours, turning at each change
- 60 g of lard worked into the bandage cloth
- 11 C / 85% RH, turned weekly, six months minimum