When I started my new adventure into cheese making I stumbled, quite by accident, onto a Coastal cheddar cheese made on the south coast of England (where else?) by a company called Ford Farms. I am now so addicted to this cheese that if I could find a big enough wheel I would spend the rest of my life in the dark nibbling on it while my whiskers grew and my eyes grew little, black and beady.

the cheese is aged long enough that calcium crystals grow inside the cheese and give it a very subtle crunch.  It is a shrap cheddar, whith a medium hard texture and the flavors just explode in your mouth.  Cripes !!! I went and made myself hungry. 

I am looking for a recipe, or anyone who has tried it and might give me a direction to go in trying to duplicate it.

LOL, Can relate. I dont thingk u will be able to duplicate it, the farm itself says they dont know exactly why the crystallization occurs.

i only found crystallization in Swiss (Gruyere cheese), i think we should search more for this

Agree, I thingk it would be interesting. maybe higher conc of CaCl and slow drainage/drying.

According to a website I found, when you age cheddar, the cheese looses water and the calcium lactate gets concentrated, supersaturated then loses solubility. So calcium crystals form. It takes a long time for this to happen so you only get it in the longer aged cheddars.

thanks Heathers, this makes sense now, the Gruyere i buy is over 12 months old

Me again !!  Here is a link that may carry a hint to how the Coastal Cheddar is made.  It states that it is basically a Farmhouse Cheddar that is inoculated with “Swiss Cultures”.  A farmhouse I can do…I can even bandage the cheeze like it shows on their farm, but the Swiss is a little more problematic for me.

http://newlondonwine.blogspot.com/2006/07/zeni-ramato-wagram-cuvee-9-cantina.html

OK you guys that have more experience than I do…....How do I try and do this?

The article said they add sea salt crystals;

Coastal is a Farmhouse Cheddar with one notable exception; the cheese maker starts with swiss cultures giving the cheese a wonderful earthiness. As the name suggests, this cheese has sea salt crystals added during the maturing process to give it a unique sea flavor. It is billed as “rugged mature cheddar” and that seems a perfect description. Aged only 15 months, Coastal Cheddar has a perfect flavor. Great as a stand alone cheese, or with sliced apples and grapes. Coastal will go well with a fine beer or white wine.

Yes I saw that too and figured that they used sea salt as the salt for their Farmhouse cheddar to salt the curds.  The interviewer probably doesn’t know how to make cheese and didn’t know or got confused about where the crunch comes from.

Was in costco a few days ago and saw a pleasant surprise. Coastal cheese bought one and tried it right away, VERY nice cheese def recommend it if u like cheddar aged. I got the odd mild crunch from the cacl crystals that pop up here and their.

Neil,

Can you taste a little Swiss in that Coastal?

i bought parmasan cheese (not grated) and it is full of this crystal crunchy

Yes their is a slight after taste of it, hard to tell since it was a very pleasant complex taste, very nice, gonna have to get some more one thing I learned about making cheese, i appreciate the more expensive cheeses and dont have a problem paying for it. the Coastal was about 9$.

I am wondering where I might find this Stateside.  I did a google search on it and found out that the crystals are calcium and not salt.  Interesting.  I really want to try the cheddar.

u guys have costco their, their just about the same all over. (ahhmm, u need a members card though :(

I have not seen a Costco around me in Michigan, but we do have Sam’s Clubs.  Wonder if they will have it.  I have a membership there.