Last September, on a wet and rainy morning, I found myself in a green Swiss valley. I – and my fellow travelers on the Cheese Journeys’ alpine tour – had woken up early because it was a very special day. It was the day when the cows were coming down from the mountains after a long summer – and that’s a serious party in this part of the world!
But first, let’s take a look at the background.
Cow trekking
‘Transhumance’ is an ancient tradition found in European regions with mountains. When the snow starts to melt in the Alps in early spring, cows are taken up hill where they graze in lush meadows throughout the summer, producing abundant milk which is used to make delicious cheeses. As fall approaches, the cows are brought down to the stables in the valley for the winter.
Shepherd tradition
Whereas cows move up and down in the Alps, in the Pyrenees, it’s all about sheep. Typically, the grass around the farm in the valley is turned into hay, which the animals are fed with in winter. Whereas the summer menu says lush grass, wild herbs, flowers and whatever grows in the heights. This practice is often described in the protection of origin behind the cheese (the AOP designation if it’s a French cheese).
Intangible cultural heritage
In 2019, transhumance was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage. As well as being about animals and feed, transhumance is also about knowledge and skills passed down through generations and relationships between people, animals and ecosystems. And it’s actually a sustainable way of maintaining livestock.
A day of celebration
When the season comes to an end, it’s time for celebration. We took part in a cow parade in Switzerland near the French border.
Early in the morning, cows were dressed up with small hats and lots of flowers (and no, not all cows liked that idea). The air was full of the sound of small and large cowbells. Men, women and children also dressed up.
Wait for your turn
At ‘our’ farm, we waited until 10 am, which was our slot in the parade. Off walked cows, a couple of goats, a horse and the whole family. There was the occasional cow who wanted to eat some grass on the way, but otherwise they walked down to the village, where it almost looked like the Tour de France with metal grids on the side of the road and lots of people in a festive mood.
The Tour de France of the cows
Throughout the day, cows kept arriving in small groups and people cheered and clapped every time. But it was still impossible to drown out the sound of the many cowbells.
Meanwhile, you could visit the stalls selling everything from socks with cows to cowbells, and if you got hungry, you could choose between raclette, fondue, lots of gruyère and so much more.
This is probably the biggest celebration of cows and cheese that I have experienced to this date.
I worked as ‘cheese educator’ on an Alpine Cheese Journey – and this beaufort experience was without doubt one of the highlights.
But before we get to the cheese, the two moments below helped set the scene:
Scene 1: IN THE LIGHT OF THE MOONLIGHT
The moon shines down from the dark morning sky onto the courtyard in front of our château. I realize that here is a group of people who have defied their body’s need for sleep and set an alarm clock. Why? Because we’re about to experience beaufort coming into the world in an alpine hut in the heights.
Scene 2: THE JOB OF THE ‘CO(W)-PILOT’
Every time the minivan enters a curve, Anna from Cheese Journeys honks the horn to warn downhill drivers. Meanwhile I keep a close eye on the pictures sent by our scout Teresa Kaufmann in WhatsApp, trying to find them outside the minivan: a wooden sign, a small group of houses, etc.
Asphalt turns into a dirt road and the darkness is suddenly replaced by the sun. We pass the tree line – and finally we arrive at Chalet Bellachat.
Three times Beaufort AOP
Since 1968, beaufort has carried the AOP label, which guarantees its protection of origin. All beaufort cheeses are classified into three qualities depending on the milk and place of production:
If the cheese is simply called ‘beaufort’, it is made between November and May, when the cows are in the barn down in the valley. At this time of year, they mainly eat hay, which makes this type of beaufort the mildest of the three.
Beaufort Été means ‘summer beaufort’ and is made with milk from cows grazing outside (typically between June 1 and October 31). This type of beaufort is more yellow and fruity in flavor due to the 130 or so plant species per square meter that the cows munch through in the mountain pastures.
Beaufort Chalet d’Alpage – or ‘alpine chalet beaufort’ – represents the smallest part of the beaufort cheese wheels. The milk for this comes from cows grazing in the high altitudes, above 1,500 meters (around 5,000 ft). In addition, cheeses must be made twice a day with milk from the farm’s own herd using traditional methods.
It was this last type of cheese, the Alpage variety, which was made at Alpage Bellachat.
Alpage Bellachat
Nathalie and Jean François greet us on this September day, just before the end of the season. Their day also starts early, as the first milking is at 4:15 am (the last at 5:15 pm). The cows recognize voices and come to the mobile milking machine themselves to be milked.
Jean François and his brother took over this alpage (alpine hut) 18 years ago. Their parents had a small farm further down at an altitude of 1300 meters (4,260 ft), below the border of the ‘alpage’ area.
Today, the couple has 90 cows of the breeds Tarine and Abondance, the two breeds of cows that may be used for beaufort cheese.
Two tough mountain ladies
The two permitted breeds are perfect for alpine areas.
One is the tarine (or tarentaise, as it’s also known). It is a hardy caramel-colored cow. The other is the Abondance, known for its mahogany red coat with white markings. Often they have ‘lunettes’ or spectacles, as the color around the eyes is called.
Both cows are also not allowed to produce more than 5,000 liters (1,320 gallons) of milk per year per cow. This is less than most other milking cows.
The drought that Southern Europe has experienced in recent years is also felt at Alpage Bellachat. The lack of precipitation leads to a shortage of grass. Last year they got a dispensation to start feeding hay earlier than usual.
The cows graze in shifts between two areas around the dairy farm. This ensures that the grass comes back. Jean François tells us that you have to maintain the ‘alpage’ by grazing, otherwise the pastures will be taken over by blueberries and other plants.
Inside the dairy
In the small dairy, a large open copper vat greets us. It holds 400 liters (105 gallons) of milk, which makes a 40 kg (88 lb) cheese.
The curdled milk is cut into cheese grains and then stirred to separate more whey. The cheese grains must be quite small in order to become a hard cheese. The vat is heated with gas and the copper conducts the heat around in a balanced way that slowly brings the milk up to 55°C/131°F while stirring. This also helps to get the whey out of the cheese grains.
The cheese maker showed us how to know when the cheese is sufficiently acidified: You can form a small ball of the curd and easily dissolve it back into cheese grains.
When it’s time to get the curd out of the vat, the cheese maker leans over the vat with a net in his hands. Hanging there, he stems his feet against the back wall and in one swift motion, he catches all the cheese curd in his net.
Using a hook, a string and a rail in the ceiling, the curd filled net is transported to a wooden mold, where it is pressed for 24 hours.
The whey is used to make fresh cheese (fromage frais).
Magic in the cheese cellar
A bit down the sloping gravel road is the cheese cellar. Here, the new cheeses are first left with salt on the surface for 24 hours to form a rind. They they spend another 24 hours in a concentrated brine. The cheeses then ripen for about 10 days and are regularly rubbed on the surface. You always start with the oldest cheeses, as this way the good bacteria are spread to the youngest cheeses.
The beauforts are then transported down the valley to an affineur, who further ripens the cheeses under more controlled conditions. To be a genuine beaufort cheese, it must be aged for a minimum of five months in the Beaufort area.
The connection between skiing and cheese
Many cheesemakers in the area double job as ski instructors in the winter while the cows are stabled down in the valley. So does Jean François, who is a cross-country ski instructor in the winter time.
Lunch with a view of Mont Blanc
After the visit to the dairy and cheese cellar, we quickly set up a long table with tablecloths and served our lunch. Jean François brought some beaufort cheeses with different ages to the table.
Beaufort. A view of snow covered Mont Blanc. The soft sound of cowbells in the distance.
Did you know that comté cheese is the French’s favourite PDO cheese (PDO = protected designation of origin)? And that it was the first French cheese to be protected by origin in 1958?
This classic cheese was of course also on our agenda when I visited the French Alps and the Jura Mountains with Cheese Journeys. We visited both a dairy and an affineur who ripens the cheese. In this blog post I will take you with me back to the Jura.
A historical structure
Around 1.7 million wheels of comté cheese are produced every year, each weighing around 40 kg / 88 lbs. Each cheese requires 450 litres / 119 US gallons of milk. Since one cow gives about 20 litres / 5.3 gallons of milk a day, 23 cows are needed to make one cheese. In addition, the PDO requires each cow to have one hectare of pasture. This requires large areas of land, which was also the case 1,000 years ago up in the mountains. But with relatively few cows per farmer, it was more practical to join forces when it came to cheese making, hence the birth of cheese cooperatives (‘les frutières’). Today, cooperatives are still responsible for making the cheese, while the maturing process is taken care of by the specialists, ‘les affineurs’.
Let’s start at the beginning, with the cows.
The cows
150,000 cows give milk for comté. 95% are Montbeliarde cows, the remaining 5% are French Simmental. The cows eat only grass and hay. In winter (December to April) the menu is locally produced hay, while the cows graze through fresh grass outdoors the rest of the year.
Comté is a raw milk cheese, which also means that the subtle notes in the milk from grass and hay are more apparent. Cheeses made from winter milk have a lighter yellow color than summer cheeses, where the natural coloring of the grass gives a darker yellow hue.
Drought affects the seasons
As elsewhere in southern Europe, 2022 has been marked by drought. This meant, among other things, that hay feeding began earlier in the fall than usual. And that cows began to eat fresh grass earlier, which meant that summer milk was already available halfway through April.
At the dairy
Today, there are about 140 cheese cooperatives left. In French it’s called a ‘fruitière’. The term comes from the French word ‘fructerie’ and refers to the fertility of pooling milk to produce large quantities of cheese. As well as being a practical and necessary gathering place for milk in the old days, ‘le fruitière’ was also a social gathering place for farmers.
This is why it is still an AOP requirement today that milk comes from several farms. The milk cannot be transported more than 25 km / 15 miles to preserve its quality, and the cheese must be made within 24 hours of milking.
Each dairy produces between 7 and 120 cheeses a day. After 10 days, cheeses are taken to an affineur, who ripens the cheese further. The dairy can easily work with several different affineurs, and in this way the same dairy’s cheeses can end up having many different personalities.
L’affineur
Today there are 16 affineurs or maturing cellars, where the potential behind each comté wheel is revealed. A comté must mature for a minimum of four months, the average is 18, and some can mature for as long as 36 months.
The role of the affineur is to bridge the gap between the producer and the customer. With knowledge of the cows, the area and the dairy, each wheel of cheese is brought to perfection for the customer who buys it. After all, there is a difference between the cheese being sold at a local French cheese shop and the cheese ending up on the counter in California.
In the Jura mountains, the affineurs like to use maturing cellars which naturally create good conditions for the cheeses, such as an old railway tunnel or an abandoned military fort.
I visited Marcel Petite at Fort Saint Antoine.
Inside the military fort
In the heart of the Jura Mountains (1,100 m / 3.600 feet above sea level) and close to the dairies, we find Fort Saint Antoine, built in 1879-1882. It was only in use for five years before the 420 soldiers left.
Marcel Petite started as a cheese maker in 1932, and in 1966 he came across the military fort. He saw that the thick stone walls and an insulating layer of earth on top would provide the perfect conditions for a slower ripening of the cheeses than was used at the time.
Under the fort is a water reservoir filled with rainwater and melted snow, providing the soldiers with their own water supply. This keeps the humidity in the fort high. A tunnel to the nearby forest provides natural ventilation. All of this gives optimal conditions for the unique and natural bacteria that are right here and that characterize the cheeses which mature in the fort today.
At the centre of the fort is an octagonal ‘cathedral’. Here lie as many as 100,000 wheels of cheese in the age between 2 and 36 months. An impressive sight!
Slowed down
Back in the days, comté cheeses were aged at 16-18°C / 60-64°F, which allowed them to ripen quickly and reach the market faster. However, this method of ageing also meant that the delicate nuances and subtle hints of sweetness of the milk were not expressed at all. And maybe most remarkably, the cheese had holes (almost like an Emmental). Just look at the old advertisement below.
The microclimate of Fort Saint Antoine ripened the cheeses more slowly with the lower temperature (8-9°C / 46-48°F) and higher humidity (95%). This gave the cheese a completely different flavor profile. This slow maturing changed comté cheese forever, as the other affineurs soon began to do the same.
Knocks on every cheese
In the maturing process, an important step for the cheese master is to ‘ring the wheel’ or hit it several times with a small hammer to make an overall scan of the cheese inside and to detect a possible large crack or hole.
Age matters the least
Then a sample is taken out with a so-called ‘cheese iron’. The interior of the cheese is assessed for appearance, taste, texture and smell. Age is also important but not decisive and always comes after the organoleptic assessment. Only when the cheese has developed the desired personality, it will be sent to the market.
In a Marcel Petite Comté catalogue, the age of the cheeses were not mentioned at all. Instead, they were described only on the basis of their other characteristics.
Ageing develops the flavor
As with other aged cheeses, each wheel of cheese tells us a story about the past: About the pastures where the cows grazed, about the season, about the cheese-maker’s skills and about the cheese cellar where the cheese has been aged.
In fact, 83 flavor markers have been identified for comté and they can be divided into six groups: Lactic, fruity, toasted, vegetable, animal and spicy. Some cheeses may have all the flavours, but most have a few which dominate.
The flavor wheel helps to find the right words to describe the flavor. Use it the next time you have a comté in front of you.
At the dairy, they sold their own cheeses matured by three different affineurs. You can then choose the comté you like best for the situation!
Recently, I read a quote which made so much sense to me:
Choose to work with what you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.
Especially it made sense when I traveled as ‘cheese educator’ with Cheese Journeys to the French and Swiss Alps. Of course, the days were long and the nights a bit short at times, but what really mattered were all the stunning cheese experiences we had throughout our journey.
What is Cheese Journeys?
Behind the name you find American Anna Juhl. She worked many years as a nurse. One day, her life took a turn when she ‘coincidentally’ bought a cheese shop. It became the starting point for the whole family’s passion for cheese and the people making it.
Today, she organizes cheese tours for Americans and others who want to have unique and ‘behind-the-scenes’ experiences close to the producers of some of Europe’s best, artisanal cheeses.
It is rather difficult to condense 12 days of tightly packed program in a few words. That’s why you will get my Top 10 experiences. The order is not prioritized, but still my personal favourites come at the end ☺
Top 10: Savoie wine and terroir
Nursery for vines
Savoie is not particularly known for its wines, and vineyards isn’t the most common sight in this mountainous region. Typically, the rows of vines climb up the foothills of a mountain. The old glacial soil is an important part of the terroir of the wines in this area.
We visited Maison Philippe Grissard, which has been making wine for three generations and, not least, helped to give new life to rare or almost extinct vines, not just in Savoie but also throughout France and the rest of the world.
At the lake
We also visited the winery Xavier Jacqueline, where a father and two daughters grow organic and biodynamic grapes on six hectares of land spread over several areas, one in the middle of the city of Aix les Bains. In the microclimate around Lac du Bourget, the temperature never drops below the freezing point.
The family business started from scratch 35 years ago by planting vines. Today, they produce their wine in a wine cellar from 1895.
Top 9: Wine and cheese tasting in the cellar of our château
On the welcome evening, we transformed the dark cellar into a cozy French bistro, where we held the first cheese tasting of the trip. It was a welcome to the Savoie region, where we greeted the local cheeses. We got to know several of them better later in the week visiting cows and dairies. I introduced the cheeses together with Anne Laure from Savoie Touch Wine, who was responsible for the evening’s wines.
On the plate (starting ‘at 12′): Sainte Maure de Tourraine (the only non-local cheese), Persillé de Tigne, Reblochon in two ages, Tommette de Chèvre, Tome des Bauges, Beaufort and Bleu du Val d’ Aillon.
Top 8: Cow bell producer
Cowbells are closely linked with the Alps, the Jura Mountains and the other mountain regions. Because if you can’t hear the bells, how will you find your cows? We visited the Fonderie Charles Obertin – a forge that has cast bronze bells since 1834. In the shop next door they sell bells. Small bells, big bells. Old bells, new bells. For cows, for the door, for the dog, for decorations, for the key ring. Here is everything the heart desires – when it comes to bells.
Top 7: Absinthe distillery
Absinthe and other liqueurs are produced in old copper kettles and fine wooden barrels at a small distillery in Pontarlier. The green drink, which is still shrouded in mystery today, is among other ingredients made of the absinthe plant growing nearby. The aromatic plant has been used as medicine throughout the ages. In the 19th century, absinthe was a popular drink with high percentages, but ‘The Green Fairy’ also gained a reputation for leading to madness and what was worse. In 1914, the drink was banned.
In 2001, absinthe was recreated, and with a lower alcohol percentage and now legalized, you can once again buy and enjoy the green drink, which also contains green anise seeds.
Top 6: Melted cheese
It is impossible not to come across melted cheese when you are in the Alps and the Jura mountains. And it comes in many forms, generous portions and always made with local cheeses. Fondue, raclette, tartiflette, reblochonnade (raclette made from reblochon), mont d’or, manigodine (cheese with spruce belt) – there are many variations, and we tasted them all.
Top 5: Visting an affineur
Making cheese is one thing. Maturing the cheese is something else. In the Alps and the Jura mountains, cheese production takes place for a large part of the year up in the heights, and the small dairies typically produce only a few cheeses per day. In return, they entrust the further fate of the cheeses to the hands of the knowledgeable affineurs.
The affineur’s work is also a craft. Each cheese is cared for and given the optimal conditions to bring out the best taste, texture and personality.
At Paccard in the Jura Mountains, we experienced the ripening cellar, where they refine local cheeses such as reblochon, abondance, tommes and raclette.
Top 4: Coziness at our château
The setting of a cheese journey is always unique. The Alps are no exception. The first part of the trip was based at our own château.
Le Château St. Philippe was originally built as a monastery in 1032. It was literally located in the middle of a Roman road and therefore tolls could be collected from people passing by. A spring runs on/under the property and at one point powered a small mill. As in other places, the monks of the Middle Ages helped to develop local agriculture and foods, and who knows?! Perhaps cheeses were once produced at the château.
The breath of history
In recent decades, the current owners have carefully restored the château. As I walked down the long corridor, up the narrow staircase or around the chilly cellar, I wished the walls could tell what they have seen. For example, when the castle was accommodation for German troops during the Second World War.
We enjoyed the château as the beautiful setting for our workshops. Our two chefs taught chocolate tempering. My workshops were about food photography and the art of building a cheese board.
Top 3: Visit to dairy and affineur
The Jura mountains are home to the comté cheese, which is the most consumed AOP cheese in France. 1.7 million cheese wheels are produced each year in small dairies in the designated area. The dairies (small and larger) send their cheeses to an affineur, who refines the products to perfection.
We visited both a dairy and an affineur who matured comté wheels in the cellar of an old military fort. It was such a special experience which you can read about in details right here.
Top 2: Beaufort – at the top of the world
The alpine cheese Beaufort comes in various ‘qualities’ depending on which milk is used. When the cheese is produced way up in the Alps during high summer, the cheese is called ‘beaufort châlet d’alpage’.
We visited the married couple Nathalie and Jean François at the end of a dirt road high up in the mountains. Here we experienced cheese making in open copper vats, had lunch at a long table with a view of snow-capped Mont Blanc, while the cowbells tinkled softly in the distance.
The highlight of the trip was perhaps the long-awaited cow parade. Because when the cows are taken down from the heights in early autumn, it turns into a festive event. Dressed in handsome hats and beautiful flowers, the cows are accompanied by nicely dressed people from the farm to the town. We crossed the border into Switzerland and were with them all the way. We decorated the cows, we followed them on the road, and we watched them arrive in the small town, which this day had been transformed into a giant cheese party.
Gorgonzola has always been one of my sweethearts. On a recent Cheese Journeys to Italy I visited Caseificio Arioli, a 6th generation gorgonzola maker. But let’s start from the beginning…
With roots in the Middle Ages
Gorgonzola was for the first time mentioned (in writing) in 879. Some believe that the cheese was made in the town of Gorgonzola, close to Milan. Others believe the cheese was made a little further north in the mountainous area of Valsassina. This was the center of milk production at the time, and the mountains were home to lots of natural caves, perfect for cheese storage.
In the fall, cows came down from the mountains to spend the winter in the valley. Their milk at this time was used to make a cheese called ‘stracchino di Gorgonzola’. The word ‘stracchino’ comes from ‘stracco’ or ‘stanco’, meaning tired in Italian. The tired cows gave a particularly tasty milk, and close to the town of Gorgonzola, large quantities of milk were converted into gorgonzola cheese. At that time, the blue mold would naturally have found its way into the cheese.
The legend of the little mistake
Well, this is not the first time we hear about a mistake which leads to a successful innovation. And so is the story of gorgonzola’s creation. A cheese maker in training and very much in love left his place prematurely to be with his chosen one. To his great horror, he discovered the day after that his half-finished cheese had turned bluish. He tried to hide it by pouring freshly made curd on top. But alas! The final cheese also turned bluish. But when the cheese master tasted the wrong-colored cheese, he became happy and blessed because its taste was divine.
Two types: Piccante and dolce
There are two types of gorgonzola: Piccante and dolce. And they are easy to tell apart.
The cheese on the left is a gorgonzola piccante. Its texture is firm, the blue mold stands out clearly, and the taste is piquant and can be quite powerful.
Gorgonzola dolce on the right is far more creamy (sometimes it can be eaten with a spoon), has a paler blue marbling, and the taste is milder and a little sweeter.
Both cheeses have a slight taste of yeast, which, however, usually disappears with a longer aging
What’s the difference?
The difference between the two types of cheese lies in the production itself, including:
the blue mold culture (both are penincillium roqueforti – but two different sub-varieties)
the rennet can also be different (affects the fermentation differently)
the temperature during ripening is different, dolce matures at a higher temperature than piccante
the length of maturation is different: Dolce is matured for a minimum of 50 days (and max 170 days), while piccante is at least 80 days matured (if the cheese weighs over 9 kg) and max 270 days
DOP
Gorgonzola obtained protection as early as 1951 (by the Stresa Convention). The sign of Protected Designation of Origin means for example, that the cheese can only be produced in Lombardy and Piedmont. The milk has to be pasteurized whole milk and the rennet is always animal rennet (extracted from veal stomachs).
There are today approximately 30 gorgonzola dairies, and they are represented in a consortium that continuously controls the quality and DOP labeling.
Gorgonzola in the kitchen
On a visit to northern Italy a long time ago, I visited a restaurant where the chef had specialized in cooking with gorgonzola. Gorgonzola is often perceived in Italy as a cooking cheese.
He explained that he most often went for a subtle underlying taste of blue mold, and therefore almost always used the mild gorgonzola dolce. In situations where he wanted to spice up the taste a bit, he added some gorgonzola piccante. This is really a great way to look at the role of cheese in cooking – and it has since inspired me to think of cheese as a spice. How strong a cheese flavor are you aiming for? It then tells you which cheese and in what quantity to use.
A peak into the gorgonzola dairy
If you’re curious about how gorgonzola is made, stay tuned for a later blog post from my visit to Arioli, who has produced traditional gorgonzola since 1811.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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…
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…
Photo by Winter Caplanson
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).
Photo by Winter Caplanson
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.
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.
Around the world, we are witnessing big changes these days. The COVID-19 is the reason that we here in Denmark have closed kindergartens, schools – and most people work from home. I have been looking so much forward to joining Cheese Journeys on a cheddar odyssey to the UK at the end of March. Of course, we cannot go there right now – and the trip will most certainly be postponed.
A new cheese chapter
Being ‘grounded’ is not the only change taking place here. By April 1, I will become freelance cheese communicator which is a new adventure for me.
My trip with Cheese Journeys should have been my first job being part of the team and not a guest. Cheese Journeys is an American business which makes unique cheese trips for professionals and enthusiasts.
Five fully packed days were waiting for us. Dairy visits, cheese tastings, a special evening with artisan cheese makers – just to mention some of the activities:
Just think about all the amazing and great stories you can tell about cheese. From the origin and the story behind to how you get the best out of your cheese moment. Knowledge and inspiration has always been the focus behind my blog in Danish and this one, and will still be my focus onwards…
Everyone who produces cheese, sells cheese or lets cheese be part of events/travels need to tell the good stories. I can help them doing this. Written (in print or uploaded), spoken (for instance in cheese tastings) and in images.
Why Cheese Journeys?
This is a question, I have been asked many times here in Denmark. How did this happen? Actually, it’s a fun story. A couple of years ago, I was snugged up in the couch at my friend’s place. Feet up and with a glass of wine. We talked about dreams and projects. I told her about this instagram profile I had come across with images of grazing cows on lush Alpine meadows, hands full of cheese curds, beautiful cheese plates and people in small traditional dairies. The profile belonged to Cheese Journeys and the photoes were from the amazing trips open for all cheese fans.
Back to the couch. I thought: ‘I would just love to be part of that!’. And I decided to write to Anna who is Mrs. Cheese Journeys herself. And so I did.
That mail became the first of several, and in 2019 I joined Cheese Journeys in Holland. And hopefully, I will go on the cheddar odysseu later this year. Rest assured, dear readers, you will hear a lot more about cheddar later!
The boat trip from the mainland to the island is fast. Just a few minutes. You can easily see across the water. And yet it feels like another world coming to the island.
A sign on the house welcomes us: De Eenzaamheid means Loneliness. We have arrived at the house and farm dairy of Jan and Roos van Schie. The island is in a lake in the Zwanburger Polder, south west of Amsterdam. It covers 1 square km / 247 acres and their neighbors are a farmer and a windmill. We are 60 cm / nearly 2 ft below sea level. The old sea bed contains sea clay which makes the milk special.
Organic and raw milk
Jan and Roos took over the farm in 1984 and are the fifth generation of farmers. Today, they have 42 cows and make 7 cheeses a day in the small dairy. The cheeses are organic raw milk cheeses under the brand Wilde Weide (which means Wild Meadow). They share the brand with another local farmstead dairy.
You can buy Wilde Weide in Holland but also in the US and at Borough Market in London.
‘Boerenkass’ versus ‘kaas van Boeren’
Wilde Weide is a ‘boerenkaas’ which translates to ‘farmhouse cheese’. This refers to a raw milk cheese produced on the farm and which is heated to no more than 35°C / 95°F. When you talk about ‘kaas van Boeren’ or ‘kaas van de boerderij’ (cheese from the farm), you talk about a cheese made with pasteurized or thermized milk.
Let’s take a look at the dairy!
Making cheese is know how. How the curd feels and looks… it takes experience.Jan captures the curd with the metal band and presses it slightly togetherAfter a few moments, the curds have become cheeses and can be flipped.Each cheese (around 13,5 kg) are being transfered to the press.Jan adjusts the press and more whey leaves the cheeses.Kaas is cheese, and in the cellar the cheeses go into a brine first. Thereafter they mature for around two weeks before they are being aged further by a third party, for instace Fromagerie L’Amuse.A break with coffee, farm milk and the Dutch stroopwafel…Enjoyed cheese for lunch – as well as the view towards the mainland which seems far away from the island life.
This was my last story (for the moment) from an unforgettable cheese journey to the Netherlands.
More cheese journey?
You can read the other parts of my story here: Beemster (a cheese area and cheese brand) A morning at Alkmaar cheese market Remeker – a farmstead dairy with a different mindset than most others Additional top 10 moments from the trip
And you can read more about Cheese Journeys who planned this trip.
Would you like to receive more cheese stories in your mailbox? Sign up for inspirational mails right here (and get a link to download a guide to the best cheese board)
