Westcombe Smoked
Makers Westcombe Dairy say this:
"Westcombe Smoked is the smoked version of our multiple award-winning Cheddar. It is made by smoking pieces of Westcombe Cheddar over smouldering beechwood for 48 hours.
The result is a richly aromatic, russet-hued cheese with a deep smoky flavour. While some of the subtleties of the Cheddar are masked by the smoking, there is an intriguing interplay of tangy and woody flavours that creates a very satisfying effect.
Westcombe Smoked makes an interesting addition to the cheeseboard, but we always find it comes most alive in the kitchen, adding a smoky depth and caramel, coffee-like complexity to all sorts of dishes."
Unpasteurised, not vegetarian.
Westcombe Dairy
Westcombe Dairy draws on the milk of three farms run by Richard Calver. Richard started cheesemaking in the 1990s - although cheese has been made on the Westcombe site since the 1880s - and got together with fellow makers Keen's and Montgomery's in 2002 to form what the Slow Food movement calls a Presidium, devoted to protecting traditional artisan foods, in this case Somerset cheddar.
Traditional in this case means that unpasteurised milk is used, and must come from the maker's own farm; animal - not vegetarian - rennet is used; the cheddaring process is done by hand; cheeses are then clothbound and matured
for at least a year. In addition to Westcombe Cheddar, they also make Westcombe Red, and have taken over the Duckett's cheeses (Duckett's Caerphilly, Wedmore, Smoked Wedmore) since the death of Chris Duckett.
Today cheesemaking is in the capable hands of Richard's son Tom (pictured above). Tom spent a number of years working for Randolph Hodgson at Neal's Yard Dairy before coming back to look after the marketing of their cheeses: he's now taken over the making itself.
