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Leicestershire Clawson, the colour of a true seducer

Imagine yourself in the middle of a cheese market in seventeenth-century England. Voices, smells, hustle and bustle ... Crop and cattle farmers exhibit their craft products. At the stalls, dozens of dairy varieties from different counties compete to attract your attention. All of a sudden, your eyes catch something special: a cheese stands out for its colour, a reddish orange between different shades of a rather pale yellow: Leicestershire or Leicester cheese.
Leicestershire's attractive hue fulfils its mission, i.e. to be seen. At first, this was achieved by adding carrot juice during cheese making; since the eighteenth century, however, this substance has been replaced by other carotenoids, those of annatto, a common ingredient in pre- Columbian Central American cuisine.

Go back to the ancient market. You get carried away by Leicestershire's striking colour and end up buying it. Great move! You have found a cheese with its own personality, with a more pungent flavour as it ages. Undoubtedly, you will enjoy your discovery!

As much as for its orange colour, Leicestershire was traditionally known for its large flat wheels, whose size was determined by the milk available in a day.

A great cheese among two giants
Leicestershire's long history has always been linked to that of two of the most popular English cheeses: Cheddar and Stilton.

Leicestershire shares an appreciable similarity in production methods with the former, but, although it is also a pressed cheese, it has a more moist texture and a milder taste. It ripens faster than Cheddar, so it can be marketed earlier; however, if you are looking for a more intense taste, this stage can reach nine months.

Leicestershire's ripening is the key to its origin and the link to its inseparable sibling, Stilton cheese. Indeed, many of the farms in and around Leicestershire County made both cheese specialties. Stilton requires longer ripening and has a shorter shelf life, so English farmers balanced out the available milk and the possibility of marketing their products by combining the production of both cheeses.
In its less ripe version, after about two months, Leicestershire may have a sweet, almost caramel flavour, which gradually changes into a more intense taste, if it is allowed to ripen more.
Clawson, true to tradition
This is still the case with LEICESTERSHIRE CLAWSON. The renowned Long Clawson cheese cooperative has been producing Stilton and Leicestershire for more than a century, following the founders' methods, which have received awards time and again, from its inception to the present day.

LEICESTERSHIRE CLAWSON is made from the creamy, rich local milk of more than 41 farms, whose cows graze on the green meadows of the Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire counties.

From its location in rural England, Long Clawson maintains its commitment to land and tradition, to animal welfare and respect for the environment. From these values a cheese emerges with the extraordinary attributes of LEICESTERSHIRE CLAWSON: a dense and firm texture, somewhat crunchy, with a full flavour, a rich aroma and a sweet touch, with slight nutty notes. A cheese that starts seducing the eye and ends up seducing the palate.

Long Clawson Dairy cheeses are exported worldwide. Each year, the cheese cooperative uses more than 58 million litres of milk.