The Cheesemonger's Tales

by Arthur Cunynghame

  What I find so interesting about cheesemaking is its mix of art and science; science is the base, no good cheese can be made if the science is wrong, the temperature too high, the time taken too long or the milk impure. But equally, no great cheese can be made by science alone; the greatness comes with the art. Factory cheeses can sometimes be good but I have never found them to be great. Their only positives are, perhaps, a uniformity of flavour and a cheaper price. I have found that all the best cheeses are produced by small artisan producers, often using the milk from a single herd, and almost always using unpasteurised milk. Artisan making alone is not a guarantee of quality, but it is an essential place to start if you are looking for great cheese. For me, the charm of a hand-made cheese, preserving the flavours provided by nature, always trumps anything mass-produced. Perhaps the nature of specialist cheeses is best summed up by a cheesemaker who said “We feel blessed that we make a living doing what we love, not maximising profit for shareholders”

  I really recommend that you find a specialist cheese shop from which to buy your cheese. If you cannot find one near you, look for a good delicatessen or independent food shop, farm shop or farmers’ market. If, and only if, you can’t discover one of those (and I’ll find that hard to believe) should you consider buying cheese from a supermarket.

  So what should you look for when you visit the shop? For me, the signs of a good cheese shop are:

  Fantastic quality cheeses (obviously!)

  The cheeses are well cared for

  They stock interesting and unusual cheeses

  A good range of artisan-produced cheeses

  Cheeses are cut to order, not pre-cut

  They offer the opportunity to taste in the shop

  Staff who know their cheeses and can advise on the style and ripeness of each one

  Good, clean and hygienic conditions

  A pleasant atmosphere in which to shop

  A limited range of great cheeses is much better than a huge range of poor cheeses

  You should be able to rely on such a shop to sell you first class cheeses in good condition, but it is worth checking. Other customers may have different views, and the perfect cheese is a very subjective matter. A good start is to ask a few questions:

  Is it produced by traditional methods

  Is it small, artisan human scale production

  Is it made by a cheesemaker of proven ability

  Is it naturally produced, or organic

  Is it unpasteurised

  Is it made from the fresh milk of a single herd

  Is it appellation contrôlée / PDO / DO or other quality mark

  Can the shop tell you about the maker / have they been there

  The answer to all these questions should be a resounding YES

  Then ask the shop for a taste; good shops will be only too pleased to offer a taste of any cheese they are cutting, but probably not small whole cheeses. If you meet with resistance, go elsewhere.

  If you’re not in the mood for tasting, examine the cheeses. Unfortunately there is no sure way of judging the quality of a cheese simply by looking at it, or its packaging, but there are a few signs which indicate to me that a cheese is likely to be of poor quality:

  Wrapped in thick plastic or vacuum packed

  Cracked or dried-out rinds

  Physical deformities, bulging or collapsing

  Wet or damp rinds on cheeses which should be dry, giving a soggy texture

  Brown or black mould - most other moulds are nothing to worry about

  Wrappers stuck to the cheese

  Soft cheeses which are heavy-textured or hardened

  Blotchy or discoloured interiors

  Putrid or ammonia smell which persists more than about 10 minutes

  Sour or excessively bitter taste

  Excessively strong or aggressive taste

  Overly vegetal taste

  Off or unclean flavours

  When buying cheese, most people choose a variety of different tastes and textures (e.g. one hard, one soft, one blue and one goat); that always proves popular because there is generally something for everyone. An interesting alternative is to choose several cheeses which are similar to each other (e.g. three different sheep’s cheeses), or for something really special choose just one stunning cheese (e.g. a large hunk of 3-year-old Parmigiano Reggiano or a whole Mont d’Or).

  If you’re going for variety, the two most important considerations are: texture (hard or soft) and strength of flavour (strong or mild). Armed with a decision on these two critical factors, you will find your choice of cheese much easier.

  In choosing your cheeses, you could also take account of the type of milk, region of production, the rind, or whether it is a blue cheese.

  Whichever route you choose, try not to have lots of small pieces of cheese. I find it much more attractive to have larger pieces of fewer varieties. In any case, small pieces of cheese dry up much quicker than larger pieces; which means that you may end up with more to throw away.

  Your choice of cheese should also be influenced by what other foods you will be serving. For instance, if you are serving a very full-flavoured main course it will be hard to taste very mild cheeses afterwards.

  The quantity you will need is often hard to judge. It will depend on the type of occasion, how much other food you are serving and how many of your guests enjoy cheese. As a rough guide I generally allow:

  Canapé Main course Cheeseboard

  1 cheese 75g 175g 75g

  3 or 4 cheeses 25g 60g 25g

  More than 5 cheeses 15g 35g 15g

  All weights are per person per cheese. They are only a rough guide. Only you will know, through experience, how much your friends are likely to eat.

  Cheese starts deteriorating as soon as it is cut into, so bear in mind that it is better to buy little-and-often than to stock up.

  Serving Cheese

  It is essential to bring cheeses to room temperature (about 20˚c) an hour or two before serving.

  Arrange the cheeses on a cheeseboard: marble, wood with an attractive grain; terracotta or glass are all good materials for a cheeseboard. I prefer a plain cheeseboard, but decorate it if you like. Bay leaves & tangerines, soft summer fruits & fresh herbs, dried fruits and walnuts, dandelion & nasturtium leaves, or flowers all make attractive displays.

  Personally I enjoy eating cheese simply by itself with a knife and fork, but many people enjoy bread, biscuits or other accompaniments. Bread and cheese has been a classic throughout history – a hearty chunk of bread and cheese being the classic ploughman’s. You can serve French bread, Wholemeal, Rye, Nut or Olive breads – whichever you prefer. Biscuits provide a contrast of textures, which some people like, although I am not too keen on them.

  To me butter is unnecessary with all but the driest cheeses but, if you do serve butter, try to make it unsalted as most cheeses already contain some salt. Celery, raw carrots, water cress, apples and other crudités provide a good means of cleansing the palate if a number of different cheeses are to be eaten, or if cheese is the main course of a meal.

  Pickles, chutneys and other vinegar based accompaniments are a pet hate of mine but, I know, give pleasure to others. Walnuts are a delight with many blue cheeses, as is quince paste with sheep’s cheeses and honey or fresh pears with Parmigiano Reggiano.

  One of the most surprising combinations I found to work was Mandarin Marmalade and Celtic Promise (a firm washed rind cheese). You can experiment with other combinations specific to various cheeses, but ideally do not choose an accompaniment with too much flavour, as it will mask the flavours of the cheeses. The choice is yours but don’t feel obliged to overdo it; good cheese by itself, eaten with a knife and fork is more than enough.

  As well as a cheeseboard you need some good knives; a sturdy knife for hard cheeses and one with holes in the blade for soft cheeses. Ideally you will use a different knife for different types of cheese, in order to avoid transferring the flavour of one type to another. For thi
s purpose you can consider there to be five types of cheese: Fresh, Bloomy rind, Washed rind, Hard and Blue. A cheese wire is useful for cutting larger pieces of hard cheese as it gives a good clean cut.

  I find that my guests often ask what the cheeses are. If there are more than 4 or 5, a verbal explanation is soon forgotten so it is helpful to put a little label on or beside the cheese. The label can show as much or as little information as you like, but I find it useful to show at least the name of the cheese and the suggested order in which they should be eaten. Number them starting at 1, mildest first, strongest last.

  As with any food, if you really want to enjoy everything a cheese has to offer, you must take it slowly. Do not rush a cheese tasting. You must concentrate on it as well; it is all too easy to be swept away by conversation and miss many of the finer points of a cheese.

  For both cheese and wine, I find there are four aspects to consider: appearance, aroma, texture (even wine has a texture or mouth feel) and taste. All four need to be appealing for a cheese or wine to be great. All four are subjective. Your opinion may differ from mine. It doesn’t matter. In fact that is part of the interest.

  When to serve your cheese never fails to divide opinions; before or after dessert? I find the ideal flow of flavours is Main Course – Salad – Cheese – Dessert. The purpose of the salad is to refresh the palate ready for the cheese, and probably means you will eat less cheese. Also, the wine you serve with the main course can usually do service to the cheese as well. The major reason for not serving cheese after dessert is that I find cheese doesn’t taste very good after something sweet. I accept that it is a personal opinion and in our house we serve cheese and dessert at the same time, allowing guests to choose which to have first.

  A FARMHOUSE IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND

  Mrs Appleby’s Cheshire

  “Where’s the cheese room?” I asked as I sat in the 18th century farmhouse kitchen with Edward and Christine Appleby and Edward’s parents Lance and Lucy. “Just across the hall. The dining room’s on the left, the cheese room’s on the right” said Lucy. Her reply has stayed with me, because it shows just how integral cheese is to both this family and this farm.

  Hawkestone Abbey Farm sits at the edge of the Cheshire Plain, formed by the River Dee. The area provides lush fertile grazing and has long been noted for its dairy farming. Indeed, Cheshire is the oldest recorded English cheese. Certainly it was mentioned in The Domesday Book; it is also said to have been one of the Celtic cheeses already being made in Britain when the Romans came, and there is some evidence that it was even taken to Rome by the legions. The Romans mined salt in the area and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the salt deposits under the pastures on which the cows graze are responsible, at least in part, for the character of the cheese. Not that Cheshire cheese tastes more salty than others – it has less than half the salt of Feta – but its fresh character somehow brings to mind fresh sea breezes and the tang of salt on the face.

  Over the years, Cheshire cheese’s popularity increased until it became far and away Britain’s most widely eaten cheese in the 19th century, easily outselling Cheddar. So much so that whole ‘cheese trains’ took the cheese from Cheshire to London. The 1920’s saw over 1,000 farms making Cheshire cheese. The Second World War, which affected all British cheesemaking, had a particularly dire effect in Cheshire. Post war, Cheshire cheese fell out of popularity partly because, being crumbly, it was difficult to pre-pack; partly because a cheese grader called Groves liked thin acidic cheeses, a taste not shared by the public; partly because farmers were slow to start making cheese again as it was far easier to sell their milk as liquid to the Milk Marketing Board; and partly because factory production, which took over, produced bland anonymous cheese, giving all Cheshire cheese an undeserved poor reputation. Today there is but a handful of farms producing Cheshire cheese, with Appleby’s being the only one using traditional methods and raw milk from the farm.

  It was in this depressing post war state that Lucy found herself when she married Lance Appleby. Lucy was from a farming family and had made cheese all her life, so it was natural she should take responsibility for cheesemaking at Hawkestone when they started in 1952. She had a flair for it. Even when not making cheese, simply walking through the cheese room, she could tell if something was wrong. She would have a ‘feeling’ that, say, the temperature was too high and nine times out of ten she would be right. And this is why the proximity of the cheese room to the house was so important. Even when doing something else, she could keep an eye on the cheese.

  When they started, Lance and Lucy were operating in a highly regulated environment with the Milk Marketing Board having exclusive rights to sell their cheese. It was not an environment that encouraged individuality or, one might say, excellence. Once they had made the cheese, the Appleby’s lost sight of it, not knowing where it was sold, to whom, in what quantities or even if the customer liked it or not. The result was that Cheshire cheese became more and more bland, often indistinguishable from Wensleydale, Lancashire or Caerphilly. Indeed some unscrupulous dairies made just one cheese and put on whichever label the customer had ordered!

  In contrast, the Appleby’s worked away at producing the best cheeses they could; although with little reward for their labours. It was not until the early 1980’s that Lance and Lucy were allowed to sell their cheese directly to customers. They jumped at it, and soon the excellence of Lucy’s cheesemaking ensured a demand specifically for her cheese. Almost without knowing it, she was creating a brand. Time has moved on and Lucy no longer makes the cheese. That important job falls to Gary Gray who has been at it a number of years now. Production has grown to 80 tonnes a year, all made from the unpasteurised milk of their own herd of nearly 300 Friesians, which are milked twice a day, at 5am and 3pm, in a state-of-the art rotary milking parlour.

  The process Gary follows, making cheese, is more or less unchanged from that used by Lucy Appleby. He heats the milk in the large open-topped vat to 30˚c and adds a live starter culture. One change, however, is in the rennet. He now uses a vegetarian rennet substitute, which he feels makes little difference to the cheese but widens the market to include vegetarians. The curds form and are then cut so as to release the whey. The vat is heated to expel even more whey. Gary adds a little salt and the curds are then milled and put into calico lined cylindrical moulds. The newly-made cheeses are then pressed for 24 to 48 hours, then removed from their moulds and wrapped in a fresh calico cloth. Ageing begins on the farm, where they are rubbed and turned every day for a minimum of 6 weeks, and often longer.

  The right age at which to eat Appleby’s Cheshire is a hotly disputed topic. I like it at about 4 months of age but others prefer it at 6 months or more, when it has developed more flavour. But to me, although the flavour has intensified, it looses its lively, fresh flavours with their hints of citrus and sea spray. Appleby’s Cheshire never shouts its flavours from the rooftops. It is simply and quietly a lovely cheese. It has great depth of flavour, which is not to be confused with strength of flavour. Its flavours are delicate, almost elusive but they last in the mouth – a long, lingering, delightful reminder of a summer’s day. Savoury, herby, lactic, citrusy are all words you could use to describe this special cheese. And that’s before you consider the texture of the cheese; moist, light, flaky, crumbly, it almost falls apart in your hands.

  Finally, its colour. It can be red, white or blue. Naturally it is white, but the more usual version nowadays is red (or more precisely a delicate shade of salmon), which is achieved by adding annatto to the milk in the vat. Originally it was carrot juice, which was added purely for visual effect, with no discernible change in the taste.

  Blue Cheshire is a relative rarity, but all Cheshires have a tendency to blue naturally due to their open, crumbly texture which allows the blue mould to take hold. I have heard customers reject it as ‘mouldy cheese’ but others consider it a delicacy. With cheese everyone has his or her own opinion.

  I like Appleby�
��s Cheshire by itself, or perhaps with an apple, but it also makes a superb Welsh Rarebit, grilled gently. I don’t go for any fancy recipe; for me a slice of buttered toast, topped with plenty of cheese and grilled until bubbling is a wonderful snack, especially on cold days.

  Other delightful crumbly cheeses

  Another member of the ‘crumbly’ family of cheeses is Lancashire. Its supreme maker is Ruth Kirkham. I have known and loved her cheese for many years. She, her husband John, and son Graham, have a small farm at Goosnargh just outside Preston. John milks the cows; Ruth and Graham make the cheese every day of the year - including Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Easter Day, birthdays and every other kind of day. Apparently the first time Ruth went on a train was in 1989 when she went to London – ostensibly to receive a prize for her cheese but she spent most of the time shopping in Oxford Street. Anyway the cheese is great. Each day she keeps back some of the curd and mixes the curd from 4 different days milkings into each cheese. So a cheese she makes today will have ¼ today’s curd, ¼ yesterday’s, ¼ the day before and ¼ the day before that. It’s pretty unique. The cheese is crumbly yet really creamy with a lactic tang. By producing such good cheese and sticking to raw milk when others were pasteurising, they built up such a good trade that they were able to buy the farm they had previously held as tenants; a lovely success story.

  Wensleydale is the third of the great crumbly cheeses from the north of England and probably the original. Monks accompanying William the Conqueror in 1066 brought with them the recipe from France, and it is thought that this was for a cheese akin to Roquefort. Thus Wensleydale started life as a blue cheese made from sheep’s milk. Over the years, most likely after the dissolution of the monasteries, it became a cows’ milk cheese and lost its blue. Nowadays good Wensleydale is hard to come by. The best maker is Suzanne Stirke but Hawes Dairy cheeses can be good too.