Sparkenhoe Red Leicester

About this item

Sparkenhoe Red Leicester is a cheese raised from the dead. Raw milk, clothbound Red Leicester has been made in Great Britain for over 300 years, but it went extinct during World War II. For the next 60 years, the only Leicester you could find in the United Kingdom was rubbery, pasteurized, and pre-packed in plastic. That is until 2005, when the Clarke family was struggling to make ends meet at their dairy and decided to try cheesemaking to save the farm. Armed with an old recipe, the Clarkes set about resurrecting Red Leicester using traditional methods and raw milk from their own herd. The wheels are clothbound with lard and cellar aged for 8-12 months.

Coloring cheese seems like a modern practice, but it has a historic past. As the seasons change, a cow’s diet switches from diverse pastureland to hay, and the buttery yellow summer milk fades to a pale winter white. Farm wives would dye the milk with carrot scraps to bring a bit of cheer back to their winter tables. The Colonial Age brought Annatto to England, the powdered seeds of the South American Achiote plant. It’s rich orange color became the preferred standard for cheese dying.

Sparkenhoe is robust and savory, with notes of freshly cut grass, toasted nuts, and buttered bread.

Sold By: Weight

Milk Type: Raw Cow

Origin: Warwickshire, United Kingdom

Pairings: Sourdough bread, red onion chutney, piccalilli, British ales.