Clothbound (bandaged)
Pressed hard cheeses wrapped in cloth (muslin, calico) brushed with lard or butter, then aged. The traditional English cheddar method, revived by farmhouse makers and now spreading to American craft production.
Technical description
Pressed cheese wheels are wrapped in cloth — typically muslin or fine calico — that has been brushed with melted lard, butter, or sometimes vegetable shortening. The cloth binds tightly to the cheese as it dries, forming a permeable barrier that allows moisture loss while protecting the paste from external mold colonization. The result is a denser, more concentrated flavor than block cheddar plus a complex rind microbiome including molds, mites, and yeasts. The cheese loses 12-15% mass during aging. Block cheddar (the modern industrial form) wraps in plastic instead, producing a fundamentally different cheese despite the same name.
Aging parameters
Microbial environment
Mesophilic lactic starters. The cloth-and-fat wrap allows a complex rind ecosystem to develop including Penicillium and Cladosporium molds, plus cheese mites (Tyrolichus casei) which are part of the traditional process — their grazing on the rind affects flavor development. The rind is typically discarded before eating but contributes significantly to the paste's flavor profile.
History
Clothbound cheddar was the original English farmhouse cheddar form, dominant until industrial block production took over in the early-to-mid 20th century. By the 1980s, clothbound cheddar production had nearly disappeared even in Somerset. The revival is credited to a small number of families (Montgomerys, Keens, Westcombes, plus newer entrants like Quicke's) plus the West Country Farmhouse Cheddar PDO designation in 1996 which formally protects the traditional method. American clothbound cheddar revival started in the late 1990s; Jasper Hill's Cellars at Jasper Hill (opened 2008) industrialized the affinage of clothbound cheddar for American makers without their own caves.
Signature cheeses
- Montgomery's Cheddar (Somerset, raw cow, clothbound)
- Keen's Cheddar (Somerset)
- Westcombe Cheddar (Somerset)
- Lincolnshire Poacher
- Cabot Clothbound Cheddar (Vermont/Jasper Hill collaboration)
- Fiscalini Bandage Wrapped Cheddar (California)
- Flagship Reserve (Beecher's, Washington)
- Pleasant Ridge Reserve (Wisconsin, alpine-clothbound hybrid)
Key regions
AOP / DOP designations
- West Country Farmhouse Cheddar PDO (UK, 1996) — requires clothbound method, raw milk, traditional production in Somerset/Devon/Dorset/Cornwall
- Single Gloucester PDO (UK, 1996) — also traditionally clothbound