Cheese Please

by Helen Gaffney

The renewed interest in our British regional cheeses means that more and more people are learning to distinguish between them. These cheeses are easily identifiable and so outstanding (as great as any in the world) that it is well worth getting to know the different types, their flavours, colours and textures. It makes a great deal of difference, whether you are shopping for cooking cheese or eating cheese, if you know what you are looking for. Roughly speaking, our cheeses can be divided into three types, hard cheeses such as Cheddar, blue cheeses such as Stilton and fresh cheeses - these include cottage cheese.

The hard cheeses include Cheddar, Leicester, Lancashire, Wensleydale, Derby, Sage Derby, Gloucester and Caerphilly. They range in colour from red-gold to white and in texture from firm to crumbly. The flavours vary widely too, not only because of the different traditional methods of making cheese but also because of the varying soils. Sandy soil produces very different grass to heavy clay and this naturally affects the texture and flavour and quality of the milk. In the past, the milk of different breeds of cow was used to make different cheeses. Fortunately there are still enthusiasts who keep the old breeds going, although modern farming has almost done away with many of the low-producing specialised breeds such as the Gloucester, once considered to be the only cow for making Double Gloucester cheese.

Blue cheese is made by the same methods as hard cheese, but certain desirable micro-organisms or moulds are encouraged to get to work on the cheese as it matures. The result is the well-known sharp-flavoured marbling of greeny or blue veins that thread their way through the cheese and give it its 'bite' and its appetising quality and character.

Blue Cheeses Lastly, there are the fresh cheeses: full-fat cream cheese, low-fat cottage cheese and curd cheese which is generally made from skimmed milk. They vary greatly in the amount of fat (or cream) they contain, but all are white or creamy-white and fresh-tasting.

It is marvellous to see the traditional farmhouse Cheddars, huge boulders of cheese, waiting in rows in their dark store rooms, labelled, dated and marked with their name. Each batch is individually known to the farmer who made it and he really knows his cheese, taking a pride in producing a fine-flavoured, mature product.

However, to the layman, knowing and choosing a good piece of cheese is more difficult. Obviously, if you want a cheese of great character you would choose a farmhouse cheese, with a visible rind and you would buy it at a specialist shop that takes the trouble to stock good cheeses and keep them in the correct conditions - these cheeses are superior to those found in supermarkets. There are still some expert grocers who cut cheeses off the whole round with a cheese wire. The cheese can then be cut into suitable pieces and fitted back together like a jigsaw puzzle so that it keeps its moist condition. It should be said though that, wrapped or unwrapped, cheese should never be oily or cracked nor show a wet glistening surface or traces of surface mould.

Types of Cheeses

Applewoodis the name for small bars of smoked Cheddar cheese.

Caboc

This is a mild double cream cheese from Scotland rolled in pinhead oatmeal. It has a very pleasant buttery taste and texture. Some say it is a descendant of the old crofters' home-made cheeses which were matured in barrels of oatmeal.

Caerphilly

This is one of the mildest, crumbliest and softest of our 'hard' cheeses and was once known as 'miner's cheese' since it was a favourite lunch at the coalface. It is a distant relation of Cheddar and Cheshire but ripens more quickly. Although now mostly made in the West Country, Wales and on the borders, it originated in the Welsh village of Caerphilly and is one of the cheeses for which the Welsh are famous today.

In the past, too, they were renowned for having a way with cheeses. One of Shakespeare's characters said he would rather trust a Welshman with his cheese than any other nationality. Here is a Welsh cheese joke: Andrew Boorde tells us that heaven was one day overwhelmed by the ringing chatter of Welshmen, so St.Peter stepped outside the pearly gates and cried, 'Toasted cheese', whereupon all the Welsh rushed out. St. Peter closed the gates on them and celestial peace was restored!

However, Caerphilly, which is less than two hundred years old, is not the best toasting cheese, but a sandwich or after-dinner cheese. It is mild, slightly acid and fresh, excellent with bread and butter and celery, or with salads.

Caithness and Islay

These Scottish cheeses are similar well-flavoured cheeses. Islay is rather flaky and crumbly and Caithness is semi-soft and rich in texture.

Cheddar

Cheddar, Prince - if not King - of British cheeses, is so popular that copies are made all over the world. It is a cheese of character. Ripened to full maturity it can take over a year to make, and ten times its own weight of milk is compressed into it, to give it its full, sweet, sharp flavour, mild when young, and nutty when mature.

The largest Cheddar ever made, weighing a grand eleven hundredweight (560 kg or over 1200 lb) was given to Queen Victoria in 1840 as a wedding present by the farmers of Pennard, one of the Cheshire villages where it was traditionally made.

Although classed as a hard cheese, Cheddar was originally only found on the tables of the rich, since it contained large quantities of cream. Peasants and labourers had to make do with harder, poorer cheeses, notably those from Suffolk, which contained no cream and really were like rock. 'Hard cheese' was a true and sad fact long before it became schoolboy slang and nobody liked it much. There was a song about it:"They made me harder than the devil ... knives won't cut me ... dogs bark at me but can't eat me". And a saying: 'Hunger will break through stone walls and anything but Suffolk cheese'.

It was a happy day when Cheddar began to be easily and cheaply made and more readily available, taking its place as the mainstay of our ploughman's lunch. It is now our very best all-purpose cheese, excellent for eating, grating, cooking, in sandwiches, salads and with port. One of its great advantages is that even the hardest old ends will still grate well and can be used for cooking.

The colour of Cheddar varies from golden yellow to pale primrose, and the texture when freshly cut is like fine suede. The outside or rind, unless the Cheddar has been made in blocks (as it mainly is now) is hard, having been compresses and tightly bandaged in its early stages. Australia, New Zealand and Canada all make their own quite good versions of Cheddar, but for the best Cheddar of all, look for mature English farmhouse Cheddar and eat one of the world's greatest cheeses.

Cheshire

The oldest of our golden cheeses, having been mentioned in the Domesday Book, Cheshire is also the most highly praised by cookery writers from Sir Kenelme Digby to Ambrose Heath, a great connoisseur and lover of British cheeses.

There are three Cheshires to choose from; the red or coloured, which varies from a deep marigold orange to a golden yellow; the white which is a pale creamy colour and the blue which is golden, veined with green.

There is also to be found a blue farmhouse Cheshire called Blue Fade. The red Cheshire is crumbly, nutty and salty; it makes excellent eating as well as first-class rarebits and soufflés. It has the reputation, in fact, of being one of the very best cooking cheeses in Europe. It was already renowned in King Charles I's day and was described by Sir Kenelme Digby as: "A quick, fat, rich, well-tasted cheese to serve melted on toast."

A good blue has a buttery texture and an added piquancy, richness and saltiness, which are definitely not liked by everybody but are prized by connoisseurs. While the white is sharp, it has a somewhat salty tang and an excellent after-dinner flavour for a winter's evening. Unfortunately the white, with age, can develop a bitter taste, which may discourage people from trying it again - a great pity.

Cotswold

Cotswold is a golden cheese, similar to Gloucester, but more moist and speckled with mild-flavoured fresh chives. Delicious in small quantities.

Cotherstone and Cottenham

Cotherstone from Yorkshire, a blue-veined cheese sometimes called Yorkshire Stilton, and Cottenham, said to be from Cambridgeshire, another Stilton type. As with Cottenham, Cotherstone Blue has not been available since the 1930's, but Original Cotherstone is still made in the village.

Cream Cheese

The true sort is not made very much today, either domestically or commercially, yet is both rich and delicious. There are, however, many 'creamy' cheeses, correctly described as medium and full-fat soft cheese.

Crowdie

This is a home-made Scottish cheese now becoming rare, made with skimmed milk, curdled with rennet and enriched occasionally with soured cream. It is drained, allowed to mellow a little and becomes smooth and creamy. Try this excellent fresh cream cheese with brown bread and butter and a glass of white wine.

Curd Cheese

This is a simple cheese that was at one time made in cottages all over England. At its most basic it is made from the curd of soured skimmed milk; the whey is dripped off through a fine muslin cloth. It is then eaten very fresh.

Other recipes, more complicated, stem from this one. In some parts of the country rennet is added to produce a curd in fresh milk; in others the cheese is salted and wrapped in leaves.

Nettle Cheeses

"After it has done wetting, set it on sharp-pointed dock leaves or nettle leaves to ripen" runs one old recipe. The leaves, with their network of veins, provide a perfect draining platform for any remaining moisture and so these little white cheeses were called nettle cheeses. In other areas the salted cheeses wrapped in leaves and cloth were buried deep in the ground for three to four days, while in Scotland they would be embedded in a box of oats.

There were many variations of this simple cheese - the country people made it more interesting with the addition of herbs and spices, while, at the other end of the scale, Queen Elizabeth I had egg yolks mixed into what was her favourite cheese.

Derby and Sage

Derby A good plain cheese resembling Cheddar, Derby is often sold young, but is much better if left to mature. At one time a variation of it, Sage Derby, was made by placing chopped fresh sage leaves between layers of curd as they went into the press. Sometimes the green colour was enhanced by the addition of spinach juice, particularly if 'figure Derby' was being made.

Figured cheeses were masterpieces of cheesemaking in which green arabesques were inserted into plain cheeses, like marquetry into a cabinet. Another good Christmas present was the 'chequerboard Derby' made of sage-green squares alternating with golden squares tinted with marigolds, as were so many of the older golden cheeses.

Today, unfortunately, although some originals are still to be found, most Sage Derby has become a very dull product indeed, layered with green streaks bearing little resemblance in colour or flavour to the original sage. So look for the marbled Derby, mottled with fine streaks of a natural sage green. Plain matured white Derby has an interesting and strange flavour - rather strong, ripe and pungent.

Dorset Blue Vinney, Dorset Blue, Blue Vinney

A certain amount of mystery surrounds the Dorset Blue, a white cheese with a bright blue mould. At one time the farms where it was made would not divulge their names. It was whispered that since the characteristic mould came from the proximity of the cheeses to old leather harness and working boots, the cheesemen were afraid they might be closed down if their whereabouts was known.

Nowadays Blue Vinney can be bought, hygienically made, in a few select places, mainly in the West Country, and is reliably good. It has a thick rind, which can become as hard as iron with age - legend has it that a train once ran on Blue Vinneys instead of wheels - and an open texture, crumbly when young, firm when mature.

Unlike its grander relative, Stilton, it is made from skimmed milk and therefore lacks the richness and creaminess associated with this type of cheese. When mature, however, it has a very pleasing astringency and a moist firm texture and is delicious with cider in a ploughman's lunch, together with pickled shallots and the little hard rolls called Dorset Knobs.

Gloucester, Double and Single

On May Day in the city of Gloucester a huge golden wheel of cheese, festively garlanded, used to be carried in a procession around the town. It was the great Double Gloucester of which the county was justly proud - a good eating cheese and equally good cooking cheese, notably for the making of Welsh Rarebit and cheese straws. It is a splendid golden colour, tending to dryness but with a full rich flavour, sometimes sharp and pungent.

Single Gloucester, now more or less obsolete, was a smaller cheese, which matured more quickly and had a milder flavour.

Though single Gloucester is not widely available, it is a product of certified provenance under the EU protection of names scheme, and is being produced in Dymock. (Thanks to Joanne Hoekstra)

Ilchesteris a soft Cheddar mixed with beer and herbs.

Lancashire

There are two main types of Lancashire cheese: an excellent sharp-flavoured, softish white cheese, crumbly when young, becoming more creamy and mellow as it gets older, and a yellow, fatty type.

Since they do not travel particularly well, they are mostly eaten by the residents of Lancashire, who enjoy them tremendously with a lunchtime glass of beer. They are also excellent cooking cheeses, making a superb Welsh Rarebit.

These cheeses vary in size but are sometimes made in 'truckles'. These are small cheeses about 25 cm (10 inches) deep and 18 cm (7 inches) across, which real cheese enthusiasts call 'monstrous midgets' as they sometimes do not reach the peak of flavour usually achieved by a full-sized cheese.

Leicester

'Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese, toasted mostly' said Benn Gunn, in R. L. Stevenson's Treasure Island. The chances are that he was a Leicestershire man. Leicester is a fine, mild, deep reddish-gold cheese, marvellously rich and mellow-looking on a cheese board and really excellent for toasting and cheese sauces.

It is the sort of cheese that Elizabethans liked prodigiously, eating it toasted or 'roasted' although their physicians decried it as "more meet to bait a trap than to be received into the human body".

However, cheese-toasting did not noticeably abate because of their warnings and Georgian wives still regretted their husbands' enthusiasm for "this strong-smelling, coarse kind of thing".In fact, today's Leicester is 'mild-smelling' and excellent with a sweet, nutty flavour and a moist, flaky texture.

Orkney

This is a small disc of Dunlop cheese, slightly rubbery in texture but with a delicious tangy Cheddar-like flavour.

Red Windsor

Red Windsor is a moist Cheddar impregnated with elderberry wine. It has a gaudy, red veining and is really not to be compared with our great traditional cheeses.

Stilton

This is the most aristocratic of our cheeses and, along with Cheddar, the most famous. When perfectly made and ripened it was"the delicatest, rainbow-hued, meltingest cheese"ever tasted by Charles Lamb. While delicate might seem a strange word to use, subtle being perhaps more apt, his description does conjure up the creamy, veiny surface of a cut, mature Stilton.

True blue Stilton is made in the Vale of Belvoir and the Dove Valley, according to traditional methods, and is protected by a Certification trade mark. In fact Stilton was never made at Stilton at all, but it was there, at the historic Bell Inn on the Old North Road, that it was first offered in quantity to stagecoach travellers, by a Mrs. Paulet. Its fame spread, although Daniel Defoe described it as: "Brought to the table with mites and maggots round it so thick, they bring a spoon with them to eat the mites with".

It's never like that today! The custom is still to scoop Stilton from the middle with a silver spoon without disturbing the crusty rind. However, this can only be advised if the cheese is to be eaten quickly, or it will dry out.

To preserve a Stilton (or half a Stilton), traditional centrepiece of the Christmas table, in as good condition as possible, cut it horizontally halfway across, then cut your slices from one side, with the rind still left on. Gradually work your way down the cheese. Store it wrapped in a cloth. If it should become too dry, revive it by wrapping in a damp cloth and leaving until it regains its proper consistency.

If you have a bottle of port, do not pour it into the cheese but drink it with it and serve perhaps a few fresh walnuts or inner sticks of celery to go with both.

Stilton can be used in cooking too. It is excellent crumbled into a green salad, or whipped into a mousse. It has even been frozen into ice cream but this is perhaps going too far with such a noble cheese.

Wensleydale

But I, when I undress me,
Each night upon my knees
Will ask the Lord to bless me
With apple pie and cheese.
EUGENE FIELD (1850-1895)

The White Wensleydale is the one and only cheese, according to Yorkshiremen, to eat with apple pie. It is also delicious with Cox's orange pippins if you like the North Country association of apples and cheese. It is mild, moist and delicate with a flaky texture and a subtle fruity flavour.

The Blue Wensleydale is claimed by locals to be better than Stilton and they even suggest that Stilton is no more than an upstart version of their original blue cheese. This blue-veined creamy version is hard to find, but worth seeking out. It has a sweet delicate, nutty flavour and a nice moist creamy texture.

White Stilton

This is a plain unripe Stilton, usually not more than two weeks old. It is chalky and sour-tasting, but pleasant and mild. It does not, however, have the outstanding character of ripe, blue Stilton.

Keeping Cheese at Home

The tradition of making cheese at home lasted well into the twentieth century. Alison Uttley, author of Recipes from an Old Farmhouse, remembers being sent to pick the prettiest hazel leaves she could find to make a green mat for the cheese. However, the custom dwindled with the arrival of refrigerators; perhaps because it meant there was less soured milk available.

Broadly speaking, any cheese can be kept in good condition for a reasonable time, if you wrap each piece individually in foil, cling film or greaseproof paper and put it into an airtight plastic box in the bottom of the least cold part of the refrigerator. Remember to remove the cheese an hour or so before eating to give it time to recover from the cold and release its flavour. However, try not to keep cheese for too long - and most particularly do not leave it exposed to the warm air of the kitchen or dining room for long periods as the warmth will cause it to sweat and release the fat from the curd. The cheese will never recover, although the cracked outside layer can be cut away and used for cooking, a purpose for which English cheeses are particularly well suited.