Red Leicester is a cheddar and one more famous and found in most shops around Europe, and as we struggle to find the actual Leicester kit outside Leicester, this cheddar is almost everywhere and also at my local grocer.
He doesn’t know much about football, but do have Red Leicester in his shop and no Leicester City shirt to sell, be shure he knows his cheese and he knows the flavours as they was his own family.
It’s crumbly in texture, and sold between six to twelve months of mature. It’s a cow milks cheese and coloured with annatto. Farmhouse producers do the mature in clothing, and more modern producers use vac pac ot do the process.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe original was made in Leicestershire farms, and the colouring was done with carrot or betroot juice to get it to shine in the colour of red. The fat content is about 34%. The cheese in widely known and you can find it all over Europe.
It’s said to be tasting nutty, but at the same time smooth and rich. It’s different and not a cheddar, and was made by Stilton dairies and made by leftovers as it could last a bit longer. The cheese is much older than the football club, as it dates back to 1745 as the first time it was recognized in history books.
The Red Leicester was in a time in heavy decline and almost vanished as the colouring no longer was legal and it became a bleak version of the original one. Some did hold the old tradition going but it was hard to find in shops and you had to visit those farms still making it from the old recipies.
A big change in this happened in 2005 when David and Jo Clarke decided to take up the old tradition and today seen this cheese being made from that old tradition with cows milk of the summertime and taking up beta-carotene, and that is the colour we see, especially made to give it this special colour.
For those loving the history and tradition of football in Leicestershire, you had a club named Enderby Town and later seen as Leicester United, being demolished and closed down in 1996, but thats a different story. They used to play in red and white, with many Leicester City players also turning out for this club either prior or after playing in blue. So maybe Leicester City should stick with their run of colour change and introduce a red / orange close to the colour of the cheese for next season.
To find more specials about Leicester not being about Leicester as we do believe it is all about, visit our sections The fox and The Edelweiss.
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