Price range: £4.05 through £24.30
Traditional raw-milk Kirkham’s Lancashire smoked over oak chips for 24 hours, adding warm, woody depth to its buttery, yoghurty flavour. A smoked cheese where you can still taste the cheese.
I can be a little fussy about smoked cheese.
Sometimes you taste the smoke and not much else, which seems rather a shame when you’ve started with a really good cheese.
It starts with the Kirkham family’s wonderful raw-milk Lancashire, with all those buttery, yoghurty flavours and that distinctive light, crumbly texture. The cheese is then smoked over oak chips for 24 hours, adding another layer of flavour without hiding the cheese underneath.
And that’s exactly why I like it.
If you’d like to know more about the Kirkham family, their traditional two-day curd method and why their Lancashire is so special, you can read all about it on our Kirkham’s Lancashire page.
Smoking a cheese as delicate as Lancashire is a bit of a balancing act.
Too little and you wonder why you bothered. Too much and all you can taste is bonfire.
Kirkham’s gets it just right.
The oak smoke works its way into the outside of the cheese, giving the paste a slightly deeper colour towards the edge and adding a warm, savoury smokiness to the buttery Lancashire underneath.
Importantly, you can still taste the cheese.
And for me, that’s the difference between a good smoked cheese and one that’s simply been smoked.
The first thing you notice is obviously the smoke, but it isn’t overwhelming. It’s warm, woody and gently savoury rather than acrid.
Then the Lancashire comes through.
There’s still that lovely buttery, yoghurty flavour, gentle lactic tang and slightly sweet creaminess that you get from the original Kirkham’s. The smoke sits around those flavours rather than covering them up.
The texture is slightly firmer towards the outside, but you still get that wonderful moist, crumbly quality in the middle.
As you eat it, the smokiness builds and lingers, bringing a little earthiness and plenty of savoury depth.
It’s unmistakably a smoked cheese.
But more importantly, it’s still unmistakably Kirkham’s Lancashire.
Jen’s note: I’m not always convinced that smoking makes a good cheese better, but this is one of the exceptions. The Kirkham’s Lancashire underneath is far too good to hide, and thankfully the oak smoke doesn’t. It adds something rather than taking anything away — which is exactly what a flavoured cheese should do.
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Ingredients (Allergens are listed in capitals)
MILK, salt, starter cultures, rennet, natural smoke
Normal opening Monday – Saturday 9am – 4pm until:
Sunday 22nd 9am – 4pm
Monday 23rd 9am – 4pm
Christmas Eve 9am – 12pm
Christmas Day Closed
Boxing Day Closed
Friday 27th Closed
Saturday 28th 9am – 4pm
Sunday 29th Closed
Monday 30th 9am – 2pm
Tuesday 31st 9am – 2pm
New Year’s Day Closed
Thursday 2nd January Closed
Friday 3rd 9am – 4pm then open as normal
After Christmas our courier delivery slots start from 8th January.
