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Colwick Cheese



The village of Colwick in Nottinghamshire was one of the haunts of Robin Hood, so we are told. Among their claims to fame is the cheese that was made everywhere in the country by poor people.

Today we think that off milk is bad, but actually it is only acidic. If you let a pint of milk go off then the acidity will increase until the curds form. Pour this into a muslin bag and it will drain.

You will need:

Milk, as much as you want!

Instructions :

Keep the milk at room temperature for a week. Milk straight from the cow will take only a couple of days.

Pour the curds into a muslin bag and allow them to drain. By tying onto the washing line.

If you do not like the smell then wash the curds in gently running water.

If you like soft cheese then use as it comes out of the bag, otherwise give it a squeeze to make harder cheese.

You can salt the cheese to 1% by weight to make a savour cheese or you can add a tablespoon of sugar for a sweet cheese.

Traditionally Colwick cheese was served with a dished centre into which was placed all kinds of flavouring, strawberries and other soft fruit, apples, pears etc. Or it could contain onion, garlic (or Ransomes originally) pieces of bread. It was also combined with cream in the hollowed out dish and people would spoon the two together.

Shirley wrote:We've made it like that (though didn't know that name for it) - we warmed the milk to a certain temperature and then added the lemon juice. It was tasty.

We used goats milk but I imagine full fat milk would work too. I'll see if I can find my book with the instructions in it.

frozenthunderbolt wrote:Is this different to "cottage cheese" then? I have never heard it before - i suspect it is a quintessentially British thing, am i right?

Badger Bob wrote:
P.S. My random granny mentor, Mrs Badcrumble says that the milk has to be fresh (pasteurised, silvertop as used to be) not that UHT carton rubbish.

Badger Bob wrote:

frozenthunderbolt wrote:Is this different to "cottage cheese" then? I have never heard it before - i suspect it is a quintessentially British thing, am i right?

It is native to the Colwick area of Nottinghamshire (which is close to where I live) where the locals used to make their own soft cheese weekly but the practice died out long ago. My school was at the start of the local milk run so in summer the milk had been sitting in the sun for up to three hours before being taken into a hot classroom and sitting for a further two. This made almost all the milk sour so the teachers collected it all together and made a big pot of colwick cheese for a friday treat, sometimes salted and sometimes with a little sugar or honey.

The cheese is more like a rough cream cheese than cottage cheese although a lot depends on how you treat the curds (I found a random granny to help me at the weekend) and if you drain the cheese well, salt it and pack it hard you can get something approaching Caerphilly in texture, otherwise it is a little like a harder cottage cheese consistency. My jug of milk is separating well but I am having trouble keeping the cat away from it at the moment.

P.S. My random granny mentor, Mrs Badcrumble says that the milk has to be fresh (pasteurised, silvertop as used to be) not that UHT carton rubbish.

Badger Bob wrote:Sorry Al, been away from the PC for a bit. My cheese took about four days to separate and I put a squirt of fresh lemon juice in there to make absolutely sure. After being hung on the washing line in a clean white handkerchief for a couple of hours, pressed hard to remove the water, seasoned and packed into a dish it was absolutely delicious. I'm going to add fried nettles and garlic to the next one.