Tag: cheddar

  • 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.

  • Lava Cheese

    Lava Cheese

    Back in 2016, two best friends spent the evening drinking beer and eating grilled sandwiches. You know the kind of sandwich where the melted cheese runs out a bit and turns crunchy. Probably they had more beer, but for sure they agreed that the best part of the sandwich was the crunchy melted cheese. Suddenly they had a clear vision of a business opportunity – and the idea of Lava Cheese was born.

    Lava cheese
    When you see lava stones on Iceland (and you do all the time), you see the resemblance between nature and crisp…

    Best part of the sandwich

    Lava Cheese is the name of small crunchy cheese crisps made of baked grated cheddar. They come today in three variants: Plain, with chili and smoked.

    Lava Cheese family
    Lava Cheese family

    From idea to action

    The two Icelandic friends, Guðmundur and Jósep, had already several startups in their records. However, when they got the idea of Lava Cheese in 2016, both were employees. Guðmundur worked as an air steward and conducted a simple market analyses: He shared Lava Cheese with the crew on board. When the colleagues began to ask for Lava Cheese, he knew they were on to something. The two entrepreneurs bought an oven online – and they started to bake cheese crisps in larger quantities.

    Soon they participated in a food festival in Harpa, and when they felt the enthusiasm – and sold out – they really began to believe in the project.

    Harpa
    Harpa is the concert hall and conference center in Reykjavik.

    Iceland becomes too small

    This summer I went to Iceland with my family and we met with Jóhann, who recently joined the management group.

    With a view to the fjord (which you often have in Iceland) he told us about the journey from idea to today where 8 persons daily bake crispy cheese snacks. The production is actually carbon offset through the Climate Neutral Now initiative by the UN where companies support sustainable projects worldwide and thus offset the carbon footprint from their own production.

    Lava Cheese is available in most supermarkets in Iceland. A small home market, limitations of Icelandic produced cheddar, custom tariffs together with a high interest from abroad made it necessary to take the next step. With a crowd funding in the back, Lava Cheese set up production on the Swedish island Gotland. From here they are ready to expand into the Nordic countries.

    Johann
    Johánn from Lava Cheese
    Lava cheese

    Not only with beer

    Lava Cheese are crunchy and a bit salty. Naturally they call for beer. But the keto-friendly crisps are also good in cooking. Break them into smaller pieces and toss in a good salad. Or top them with fresh goat cheese or cream cheese as delicate finger food.

    Now you know, maybe you will meet Lava Cheese later…

    Lava Cheese family
    Lava cheese
    Lava stone
  • 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