Tag: british cheese

  • Bright and shiny stars on the British cheese sky

    Bright and shiny stars on the British cheese sky

    One of the highlights of my trip to England with Cheese Journeys was an evening we shared with no less than England’s rockstar cheesemakers when it comes to artisan cheeses. Among them, so much cheese knowledge, experience and storytelling was accumulated. They each shared their own unique story, which together tell the story of English cheese traditions and renaissance.

    Here you will find some examples of the cheesemakers’ own stories. (All photos of the cheesemakers are taken by talented Winter Caplanson, while the cheese photos are my own).

    Ticklemore – a delicate goat cheese

    Greg Parsons owns Sharpham Dairy, which makes cheeses from cow, sheep and goat milk. The dairy is located in Devon.

    On the cheese night, Greg brought Ticklemore, a fine semi-solid goat cheese made from pasteurized milk from three local farms and with a thin and soft layer of white mold. With flavor notes of citrus and hay, it is a fine and mild goat cheese.

    Baron Bigod – UK’s answer to Brie de Meaux

    Jonny Crickmore is third generation on Fen Farm, a family farm he runs with his wife, Dulcie.

    Raw milk is close to their hearts, and when they went into cheese production in 2012, it was to make their own version of the French Brie de Meaux. In close collaboration with Neils Yard Dairy and a French cheese consultant, they replaced their Holstein-Frisian dairy cows with French Montbelliard cows, which Jonny hand-picked out of small herds in the Jura Mountains. Much is done by hand, for example are cheese curds hand ladled into forms.

    Baron Bigod is a wild and creamy experience with a taste of butter, mushrooms and hay, and with a touch of barn in the beautiful way.

    Tunworth – this is how camembert tastes in England

    Stacey Hedges is originally from Australia. At the age of 40, she found herself in a midlife crisis. With three children in the house and goats in the garden, she found happiness in making cheese.

    She kept making cheese, and with Neils Yard Dairy having her back, she replaced the kitchen table with a small dairy. This was the beginning of the Hampshire Cheese Company. Today, she and her partner buy cow’s milk from a local farmer, with whom they work closely. The cows are a mixture of montbeliarde, red Swedish dairy cow and holstein-friesian.

    Tunworth is an English handmade version of the French camembert. The milk is pasteurized, but not skimmed as it’s the case with a French camembert. The taste is rich and creamy, buttery with notes of hay and meat / umami.

    Each cloth bound Cheshire encapsulates a moment in time – the soil, the traditional grass pastures, the gentle cows, the weather, the season.

    Appleby’s Dairy

    Caerphilly – as Chris Duckett made it

    Originally, caerphilly is a Welsh cheese which the miners took with them in the lunch pack down in the dark. Somerset producers adopted the cheese in the late 1800s, when demand exceeded supply and it became a faster way to generate liquidity than long-aged cheddar cheeses.

    In 1950, there was only one farmhouse producer left: Chris Duckett. He made raw milk caerphilly with natural rind. When he became ill in the late 1990s, Westcombe Dairy took over his production including the 20-year-old brine with all its unique microbiological flora. Even the cheese notes of Chris Duckett’s mother came to Westcombe where they since have worked on taking the cheese even further back to what it originally was.

    Westcombe Dairy has been making cheese since 1879. It is an innovative dairy run by father and son. Primarily they produce traditional farmhouse cheddar.

    Duckett’s Caerphilly has a fresh, clean and acidic taste with citrus, umami and mushrooms. Notice the color difference between the cheese just beneath the rind and in the middle – it also varies in taste.

    Applesby’s Cheshire – last farmhouse producer of cheshire

    Since 1952, the Appleby family has been producing cheshire on their family farm, which today is run by third generation: Paul and his wife Sarah and their five children. Paul’s grandmother came from a family where women made cheese, and she brought that skill into her marriage. The couple established a small dairy in the stable. In this same place and with grandma’s equipment (and with the same passion and stubborness as she had), England’s last farmhouse cheshire is still very much alive. (Once cheshire was a cheese used to feed the whole nation.)

    Appleby’s chesire is clothbound and made from unpasteurized milk from their own cows. The nice, bright orange cheese is a bit acidic and has a slightly crumbly texture. It has a lot of minerality and a notes of grass and sweet cow breath.

    Sparkenhoe Red Leicester – the resurrection of an extinct cheese

    Jo and David Clark run their family farm Sparkenhoe Farm with dairy cows, which they once inherited from the family. In 2005, they went into cheese as there was not much economy in selling milk. The couple considered for a long time what type of cheese they should start with, and it was a friend at the pub who brought Red Leicester into their attention. Originally, it was a regional cheese which stilton producers would make from surplus milk. But after World War II, the cheese disappeared in its traditional raw milk version, and was only found in the industrial version with pasteurized milk. Jo and David brought the cheese back in collaboration with Neils Yard Dairy.

    The milk from the 150 dairy cows is pumped directly from the barn to the dairy. They produce almost all the feed for the cows at the farm or get it from a brother’s nearby farm. The cheese is clothbound and greased with lard for protection during maturation.

    Sparkenhoe Red Leicester is slightly flaky, tastes of butter, nuts, forest floor and has a touch of citrus. A nice, decorative cheese that gets its color from the natural dye annatto.

    Berkswell – a UFO-like sheep’s milk cheese

    At Ram Hall, the Fletcher family has been farming since 1881. Today, the farm is run by Stephen (5th generation) along with his father Peter and son George. In 1989, the first sheep’s milk cheeses were made from the milk of 40 newly acquired sheep. Stephen’s mother had been on a cheese course, and here she learned to drain the curd in a kitchen sieve. They still do this, and since the cheese is only pressed by its own weight, it takes its form from the sieve, and therefore has a shape of a UFO. The sheep milk’s cheese was very well received and in 1995, the family sold the last cows in order to focus on sheep.

    Today they milk 750 sheep, and all fodder is grown on the farm’s fields. The cheeses are hand made. For instance, the cheese curd is cut by hand, and is thereafter stirred for 40 minutes – still by hand!

    Berkswell has a sweet sheep’s milk taste that also tastes a bit of herbs. Although the young cheese is actually quite tender, it bites a bit. When the cheese is aged, it becomes firmer and has a more rebellious taste that can really kick off. Beautiful multicolored dots form over time on the surface. The cheese can also be grated over food.

    Montgomery Cheddar – genuine farmhouse cheddar

    In 1911, Jamie Montgomery’s grandfather bought the North Cadbury Court country house with its surrounding fields. He made cheddar, as one did in the flat and lush Somerset. When all the other producers made large blocks, he stubbornly stuck to the old traditions of clothbound rawmilk cheddar. Jamie moved with his family to North Cadbury Court in 1963, and is today third generation of Montgomery Cheddar. The dairy is now known as one of the top producers of farmhouse cheddar.

    We tasted cheddar that had been aged for one and two years. A deep taste of umami, soil and broth hides in these beautiful and elegant cheeses that are also creamy (one year) and have soft crystals (two years).

    Stichelton – this is how stilton was born

    Joe Schneider is actually from New York, but he has replaced the Big Apple with the country life in Nottinghamshire. Together with the founder of Neils Yard Dairy, Randolph Hodgson, he set out to revive a cheese that had been missing for 18 years, namely the raw milk version of stilton. And pretty much everything is as it was before: The area is the same, the unpasteurized milk comes from the farm’s own cows, the cultures are the same as the last stilton producer used before switching to pasteurized milk in 1989. And cheese curds are hand ladled into their molds.

    The result is an interesting blue cheese with a slightly orange rind covering the light yellow cheese with its blue veins. Right under the rind, the cheese is completely creamy. It has a complex slightly acidic taste which varies throughout the year.

    The cheese was not allowed to be called stilton, as it does not live up to the PDO requirements of stilton today – here the milk must be pasteurized. Instead, the cheese is called Stichelton, which is the old name for the village of Stilton.

    A cheese painting course was part of the Cheese Journeys programme. Do you recognize the cheese I painted? It’s Appleby’s Cheshire!

  • Montgomery Cheddar – the story about a Cheddar family

    Montgomery Cheddar – the story about a Cheddar family

    Cheddar has something in common with cheeses such as gouda and brie: On one hand, it can be traced back to its origins long ago. On the other hand, it was never origin protected (like for instance morbier or stilton are), and therefore the cheese is produced all over the world and in many different kinds of qualities.

    Take a look at these four and very different cheddars:

    All these cheddars are from the UK.

    To the left, we have a red cheddar, produced in blocks at a large dairy. It is matured three months, and is best used in the kitchen. Number two is a vintage cheddar, aged for about 18 months, also from a large dairy. The taste is caramel-sweet with crunchy crystals. Number three is a traditional cloth bound raw milk cheddar from Montgomery Cheese (aged for one year). The last one is from the same place but is aged for two years. The last two have deep umami notes and are closer to forest floor, mushrooms and cabbage.

    Cheddar roots in Somerset

    On the soft rolling hills grows lush green grass. We are in Somerset in the south-west of England. Perfect conditions for cows – and the home land of cheddar. Historical sources back to 1170 talk about a cheese made in the village of Cheddar. Originally, the cheese was made in the summer from the cows’ abundant milk, and in the winter, the cheese was eaten. In other words, cheddar was stored for a maximum of six months.

    The Montgomery family

    In 1911, Sir Archibald Langman purchased the North Cadbury Court mansion and the surrounding lands. The house has 100% ‘Downtown Abbey´ spirit, and you can see pictures from it in my diary from the cheddar odyssey with Cheese Journeys. Sir Archibald produced cheddar from unpasteurized milk from own cows.

    History wasn’t gentle to farm dairies in the UK. 3,500 farm dairies in 1914 became less than 100 in 1945. Fortunately, there has been a renaissance since then.

    Some cheesemakers stubbornly stuck to making cheese in the traditional way. Montgomery cheddar is one of them. Today, grandson Jamie Montgomery heads the family business, whose cheddar has been said to be one of the world’s best cheddars! In other words, the family stubborness came with a result!

    Jamie Montgomery

    Traditional farmhouse cheddar

    Montgomery cheddar is made from unpasteurized milk, which gives an interesting complexity with more than just one taste sensation. Also, it varies over time – because the cheese follows the milk. All cheeses are wrapped in cheese cloth and covered with lard to protect the cheeses during maturation.

    200 Holstein-Frisian dairy cows graze outside for as long as possible, approx. 8-9 months a year. The autumn of 2021 was very mild and the cows were not taken in for the winter until end of November.

    Let’s follow Jamie Montgomery into the dairy…

    The crucial starter culture

    When you make cheese, you add starter culture (also called lactic acid bacteria) to the milk, and these bacteria help to start the acidification and not least also adds to the cheese personality.

    Some dairies buy cultures, others use a little whey from yesterday’s production or yet others sour some milk with purchased bacteria and add this ‘yoghurt’ to the liquid milk. The latter is done at Montgomery’s Cheese.

    There is a special story attached to the cultures they use in the dairy today. In the past, it was local practice to exchange the best cultures with other farm dairies. This was done to protect the bacteria’s strength. If the same bacteria was used day after day, it would lose strength and gradually be taken over by a virus which is found naturally everywhere. But by constantly bringing new strong bacteria into the dairy, this was avoided.

    Milk is fermented overnight and kickstarts the cheese process the following day.

    The last tiger

    In the 1950s, a company collected these bacteria strains from various dairies to cultivate them for sale. After some company acquisitions, the project was closed down, but an employee wasn’t happy with this and simply ran away with the invaluable bacteria bank of generations’ work. Actually, it was a bit like holding the very last tiger in your hand. Fortunately, Barbers took on the task, securing this goldmine of cheese cultures and heritage.

    Today, Montgomery uses a different starter culture on each of the days of the week, and the cheeses are known among connoisseurs as ‘Monday’, etc.

    ’The cheddaring process’

    Once the cheese curds are cut and stirred, whey and curd is pumped onto a flat cooling table. Whey runs off, and quite quickly the cheese curds binds together in a cohesive mass. It is then cut into large blocks which are turned over and stacked on top of each other. This very special fermentation process, which differs from (most of) the rest of Europe’s cheese production, is called cheddaring.

    The process is repeated after 4-5 minutes, and each time the stack of cheese blocks gets higher, while each cheese block is pressed a little flatter by the weight, and a little more whey is squeezed out.

    When the acidfication is perfect (this happens after about 4½ hours), the cheese blocks must go through a small grinder that mills the blocks. Then it’s time to knead salt into the cheese grains. Salt stops the acidification.

    The curd is then put into molds and pressed. Afterwards, the cheeses are wrapped in cheese cloth and covered with lard. It is done to protect the cheeses against cracks and damages during the long maturation.

    Flavor evolves over time

    Montgomery’s cheddar ripens for 1 or 2 years. The cheeses have a delicious earthy flavor with notes of mushrooms and broth. They are acidic, like most other English cheeses, and especially the one year old cheddar becomes creamy when chewed. There is a difference in taste whether you eat the heart of the cheese or the layer just below the rind, where the taste is most intense.

  • Diary from a Cheese Journeys cheddar odyssey

    Diary from a Cheese Journeys cheddar odyssey

    Advertisement @Cheeese Journeys

    Being a ‘cheese communicator’ who loves to travel and meet up with cheese people all over the world, it was really a dream coming true to join the Cheese Journeys crew on a trip to the UK. It was a trip long anticipated as it had been postponed several times due to covid.

    If you wonder what a Cheese Journey really is all about, please keep reading my diary…

    Day 1: Food walking tour in London

    We are around 30 people on this tour which is quite a big group. Everyone has flown into London during the weekend, and Monday morning we meet up close to Tower Bridge (and the great food paradise Borough Market). Let the official program begin!

    An important mission

    First stop is at Neils Yard Dairy. They have cheese shops in several places in London as well as maturing facilities and a wholesale business. First, we get an introduction to the company. Since the late 1970s their mission has been: To improve British Cheese. They do this through close collaboration with cheese producers and are responsible for sales of the cheeses via their own shops, wholesale and export.

    Food writer and cook book author Celia Brooks tells us about Borough Market which with its 1000 years is one of London’s oldest food markets. The existing buildings date back to 1756, and today the stalls are occupied by small producers primarily with sustainable and social projects. We walk around and make severals pit stops to taste freshly made sugar cane juice, Iraqi-inspired street food, oysters & bubbles, Spanish black-foot ham and of course cheese, both English and Italian.

    With a classic Scotch Egg in a paper bag (boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, breaded and fried), we mount the bus to Somerset, which will be the base for the rest of the trip (this is where cheddar originally comes from).

    Somerset – here we come!

    After a few hours, the bus turns onto a narrow road – of course with hedges along the fields – and the sun is about to set. Suddenly we get the first glimpse of North Cadbury Court. which will be our home for the rest of the week. The place is owned by the third generation of the Montgomery cheddar family. The house is actually Jamie Montgomery’s childhood home. Together with his now deceased brother, he redecorated the house in the most beautiful way respecting its origins, and I totally understand that today’s couples come here to get married.

    With a glass of bubbles in one hand and a map of the three floors in the other, we go exploring. Jamie tells stories about the house and what it was like growing up here. Four-poster beds, old bathtubs on thick wall-to-wall carpets, small hidden stairs, fireplaces with a roaring fire – it’s all here.

    To fill the many hungry mouths, two chefs are joining us for the week. They have settled into the big Victorian kitchen and on the first evening they serve Indian food. Camilla from The Somerset Wine Company gives us a talk about local wines, which due to climate changes are getting better and better conditions.

    Day 2: The big cheese event

    Today is for many the highlight of the week as the top of English cheesemakers come to visit. We will be 60 for dinner, and after a cheese tasting, ‘rabbit pies’ will be served. The chefs have therefore invited us into the kitchen on a cookery school, where we help to make 60 small pies, while they generously share little tricks and cooking secrets with us.

    Kokkeskole

    The cheese influencer Madame Fromage, a.k.a. Tenaya Darlington, is giving a mini course in food photography this morning, and soon everyone is running around the big house with a mobile phone and a cheese or something else in their hands to find the best background and the perfect light.

    During the afternoon, our guests arrive. They represent a total of 12 dairies, some are farm dairies, others are slightly larger. In a separate blog post I will later tell about these shining stars in the British cheese sky.

    The ‘Ballroom’ is the perfect scene for our special evening, and a table plan tells cheesemakers and guests how to mix. The evening begins with a cheese tasting, where each dairy briefly presents their cheese on the plate, but also tells a little about their own story. How on earth did they come into the cheese business? Or they talk about their family’s cheese story across generations. A recurring concept is regenerative agriculture, which clearly is close to our cheesemakers’ hearts. You can read more about this in a subsequent blog post.

    Day 3: Cheese painting, relax and cocktails

    If you don’t take a cheese painting class on a cheese journey, when would you? The artist Mike Geno is also part of the team, and his painting career is focused on painting cheeses. Today he gives a class.

    First we choose the cheese we want to portray. I choose Applesby’s cheshire. It is an eyecathing orange cheese with a beautiful natural crust with all sorts of shades on it. Mike tells us how to attack it, and then a deep concentration spreads in the room. We mix our own color shades. First we draw the outline before we get to the details. Mike comments and helps along the way – and suddenly several hours have passed and we are all a little impressed by the painting we have ended up with.

    By now, North Cadbury Court feels at home, and today we also have some time off to play a game of snooker, relax in the spa or just walk down the sloping lawn where the cows graze.

    Cocktail time

    Later, Tenaya throws a small cocktail party before dinner. We taste a good combination between traditional farmhouse cheddar and a whiskey cocktail (Irish sweet whiskey, chartreuse and sweet vermuth as well as a splash of lemon juice). I remind myself that cocktails and cheese is an area I should explore a little more…

    This photo is taken by talented Winter Caplanson, CT Food and Farm Photograper

    Day 4: Montgomery Cheddar, cows and Camelot

    Montgomery Cheddar is today run by Jamie Montgomery, and the dairy is a five-minute walk away from North Cadbury Court. We walk through the village and at the dairy we are met with the very special cheddar production where blocks of cheese grains are stacked again and again while they are fermenting. You can read about this in a subsequent blog post. At the ripening warehouse, we taste cheddar with different degrees of ripening. It strikes me how different these cheddar cheeses are from the common ones we most often buy in my home country, Denmark.

    Camelot with a view


    In the afternoon, Jamie walks with us up to Cadbury Castle, which is an artificially elevated hill from the Bronze and Iron Ages. It may or may not have had something to do with the legend of King Arthur’s court Camelot. Jamie tells of when archaeologists found pottery fragments from the Middle Ages. About how the experts have concluded that here was probably an important military base where powerful people met.

    And it does make sense. Here on top of the hill we have the most spectacular view over green fields and round hills.

    Below the hill lies the barn where Montgomery’s jersey cows live. It has been a mild autumn this year and the cows have just been taken in from the fields the day before. You can not make cheddar from their milk, as the fat content is too high. It is instead used for the Ogleshield cheese, which is perfect for raclette. Which we ourselves will taste at tonight’s dinner.

    Farewell dinner and cheese history

    For the farewell dinner we have a new guest. The cheese writer Patrick McGuigan (who by the way was my cheese teacher when I took Levels 1 and 2 at the Academy of Cheese) gives us a brief introduction to the history of English cheese. Among other things he talks about the transformation from an industry in ruins after World War II to the current blooming renaissance.

    Tonight the dinner takes place in ‘the Yacht Club’, a small cabin by a lake a few hundred meters from the main house. After dinner we gather around a bonfire and share experiences, tell stories and laugh. It actually touches me to think that here is a group of people who five days ago largely didn’t know each other. But now, after four full cheese days, personal stories and dreams have been shared back and forth…

    Day 5: Westcombe Dairy, pub lunch and goodbye

    First, we visit Westcombe Dairy, which has gone from making cheddar in large blocks to traditional farmhouse cheddar. At the same time, it is a very innovative dairy with a strong focus on regenerative agriculture. The dairy is run by father and son, and it is the son, Tom Calver, who shows us around. We visit one of the three farms providing the milk as well as the dairy and their new maturation cave built into a hill. One of the employees is the robot ‘Tina the Turner’, whose foremost job is to turn the many cheeses.

    Beer and cheese

    The Wild Beer Company shares address with the dairy, and they make sour beer, wild-fermented and barrel-aged beer. Our visits ends with a beer and cheese tasting. Here I experience a match made in heaven between Westcombe’s raw milk cheddar and a wildly fermented beer with added apple juice (from local Somerset apples, of course).

    No UK trip without a real pub lunch! And this is exactly where we enjoy our last meal before the bus returns to Heathrow Airport and we spread in all directions.

    Photo by Winter Caplanson

    About Cheese Journeys

    The cool woman behind Cheese Journeys is Anna Juhl. Being a nurse, her career took a turn when she ‘happened’ to buy a cheese shop. After years as a cheese monger, she founded Cheese Journeys. Here she combines her two passions: Cheese and travel. In perfectly curated cheese programs, she gives people a cheese experience beyond expectations.

  • Cheddar’s cheating colour

    Cheddar’s cheating colour

    Have you ever wondered why some cheddar cheeses are white and others are red? Well, I have 🙂 and of course there is an interesting story behind which takes us 400 years back in time…

    The colour of cheddar

    Natural eye catcher 

    But first things first. What is the colour actually? It is the natural colouring agent annatto which is made out of seeds from a small tree originating from South and Central America. The name of the tree is bixa orellana and it has big beautiful red flowers. You extract the powerful colour from the seeds. Through out the years, man has used the colour to dive clothes, butter and cheese…

    The colour of cheddar

    Cheating the cheese better

    Around the 16th century in Britain, people agreed upon that a quality cheese was dark yellow or even light orange. Maybe it began from the fact that the best cheese makers used milk from cows grassing outside during summer, a milk which naturally was full of Beta Carotene. A colour which was intensified as the milk was turning into cheese. It could also be that the best cheese makers at that time used the full fat morning milk which was mixed with the cream from the evening milk the day before.

    Regardless of the reason, a cheese with a dark colour could be sold at a higher price…. 

    The colour of cheddar

    The habit of using a colouring agent in the cheese production spread, and today we see it in cheddar (some of them), double glouchester and red leicester (the two last cheeses are British traditional regional cheeses).

    This was a bit of cheese knowledge for you – had you already wondered about the colour or not…

    The colour of cheddar