Pitchfork Cheddar

Todd Trethowan worked at Neal’s Yard Dairy to pay his way through University and then learned how to make cheese from Chris Duckett, the last farmhouse Caerphilly maker in the UK. He began making Gorwydd Caerphilly at the family farm in Ceredigion, Wales, in 1996 and was soon joined by his brother Maugan. After outgrowing the original site, the Trethowan Brothers moved to Puxton Court Farm in Somerset in 2014, five miles from the village of Cheddar, where they continued to make Gorwydd, but also developed a cloth bound cheddar, Pitchfork, which was was launched in 2019.

The cheese is made with raw milk from the farm’s own herd of Holstein-Friesian and Jersey cows, using bulk starter cultures and animal rennet. The curd is cut into pea-sized pieces, scalded at around 40ºC and is gently pumped to a draining table. Here it is drained, piled and cheddared, before the curd is milled and salted, using pitchforks to evenly distribute the salt (hence the name). The curds are packed into tin moulds for pressing and are finally bound in lard-soaked muslin. The truckles are aged for around 12 months.

The texture is dense and even, while the flavour takes in rich and nutty with a juicy, lactic bite, plus a long savoury finish.

A medium West Country cider or traditional ale are classic matches, but Pitchfork also stands up well to full-bodied red wines from Bordeaux or the Rhône valley.